Mmm, books.
I've been reading a lot of books recently-- well, that is, I've been re-reading most of the books I brought with me/bought here.
I re-read most of The Dark is Rising series, although not that particular book; I bought Greenwitch in France and read it there, which made me want to read the rest of the series. So I did-- and there were Will and Bran, running around Wales, and so I went and read fanfic. (For those of you interested in The Dark is Rising, I highly recommend darkisrising100, a drabble community, or The Dark is Rising Slash Archive, especially the stuff written by gunbunny and gramarye.) And re-reading The Dark is Rising made me want to read The Winter Prince (which is by Elizabeth E. Wein, and available here). It's like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, only with books instead of food. I didn't re-read TWP, though, because instead I lent it to Miriam, this awesome girl I met at scifi. Instead I read A Coalition of Lions and The Sunbird.
So instead of doing anything productive tonight, I'm going to write about those books. (The summary for TWP is the least spoiler-y of the lot-- although, assuming you've read/heard the Arthurian myths, you know a lot of what happens already, and there's nothing spoiler-ish beyond that; the other have spoiler for the previous books.)
I've loved TWP ever since the first time I read it, waaaay back in ninth grade. I have to admit that I picked it up because of the cover-- it had two guys on the front with crossed swords! How cool was that! It was waaay at the end of the alphabet when I was shelfreading at the public library, so I put it on the stack of books that I was going to check out, and then went home to read.
I'm going to say this once: EVERYONE needs to read this book. For one thing, it's *almost* out of print, for the second time, and I've already got two copies. I love this book (this series!) so much that it can get kind of scary at times.
TWP is a re-telling of the Arthurian legend from the point of view of Medraut (Mordred.) It's set in Roman Wales (rather, barely-post-Roman Wales; Arthur himself is Roman, but the rest of his family is not), and for once, the history is correct (the author has a degree in Folklore! Yay! Someone who's actually studied the legends in context!) The story is narrated to his "Godmother"-- Morgause, Queen of the Orcades, and begins with Medraut returning to his father's lands after living with her and traveling for many years.
One thing that you could never really call Medraut, as a character, is "lovable." He is proud, stubborn, and really, truly, INCREDIBLY fucked up (for good reason!) He realises that his existence is due to the fact that his mother wanted a weapon to use against his father; he wants nothing as much as he wants his father's recognition that his existence is not Medraut's fault. I'd almost compare Medraut's level of angst to Vanyel's (in Mercedes Lackey's The Last Herald-Mage series), except TWP is much better than the Vanyel books. I mean, hell, they even have some background characteristics in common: abusive childhoods, semi-crippled hands, interesting younger siblings...
...which brings me to the next interesting part of TWP: Medraut is not Atros' only child. He also has twins: a boy, Lleu, and a girl, Goewin. Lleu is his father's heir-- the only problem being that either Goewin or Medraut would make a better ruler than him. Lleu is weak, frail, beautiful, and arrogant, with no real head for strategy or ruling a country. Medraut loves him for himself but hates him for who he is: his father's acknowledged son. Goewin is an exceptionally strong female character; however, most of her family seems to forget her, concentrating on Lleu, as he is the Important One.
The plot of TWP is really difficult to describe-- I'd say that it was about Medraut's Inner Journey or something, but that would make it sound really hokey and awful. It's mostly just amazing.
The second book in the series takes place almost a year after the first-- and, interestingly enough, does not take place in Britain or Wales. Instead, the characters (those that are still alive, anyway (not a spoiler: the series still follows the Arthurian legends, people! We all know that Arthur dies!) are transported to Ethiopia: Goewin has come to Aksum to tell Constantine, her father's heir, and her fiance-by-arrangement, that her family has died, and he must go back to Britain and take the crown. She expects little trouble, as she knows that her father would not have chosen an heir lightly.
What she does not expect is to be caught up in Aksumite politics: her father's heir has become the regent of Aksum in the Emperor's absence, and is quite reluctant to leave. The Aksumite ambassador, Priamos, who accompanied Goewin on her journey, is accused of treason for leaving his post in Britain. There are echoes of her elder brother everywhere, as he was the previous ambassador to Aksum, and Goewin discovers that he has left something behind, without knowing it: a six-year old son, Telemakos.
The book is largely political, although of the three, it is the most romantic in nature. It is quite necessary to read TWP first, as CoL doesn't make much sense without it. I do have to say that it's my least favourite of the series, but that's only because the other two are so good.
I have to say that besides Medraut, Telemakos is my favourite character in the books: he is young, silent, a deadly tracker, and knows how to Not Be Seen.
That said, The Sunbird is a very different book from TWP or CoL. For one thing, the main character knows very firmly who, exactly, he is, especially in relation to other people. He is not overly jealous, nor powerhungry-- in fact, his main flaw is that he sees too much.
Telemakos is between 10 and 12 when the book begins, and his precise age is never given. What is clear from the beginning of the book is what Telemakos is made for: spying. He is really the most amazing 10-12-year-old I've ever come across-- I almost want to read him more as an adult than a child, as he seems to be almost overly mature for his age. On the other hand, he can act incredibly childish, and he loves coffee. The book is mostly about Telemakos truly learning to be a spy, and his first real mission.
A warning for this book, however: if you cannot abide the thought of violence towards children, especially when described from the child's point of view, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK (or, at least, skip chapter 10.) It is wonderful, it is lovely, but it will probably disturb you.
The overall arc of the series is quite interesting: it begins with Medraut's struggle to claim his identity, moves on to the conflict between Goewin and Constantine, and finally, to Telemakos' quest to save Aksum, and with it, most of northern Africa. In a way, each book in the series is a step further out into the world-- Medraut is mostly focused on himself, Goewin on Britain and Aksum, and Telemakos is trying to save everyone, although he may not quite recognise it as such. In my mind, the books are triangular, and each one relates rather well to a season: TWP, obviously, to winter (mostly, though, to the days around the solstice), CoL, oddly, to fall, and Sunbird to high summer (when it's almost too hot out-- it's quite an intense book.)
I want Arthurian fanfic, and more DiR fanfic. Mostly, though, I want to find fic for this series of books-- I've searched ff.net and google, and only found two (one Medraut/Lleu-- eurgh, and one genfic. I want more! Any pairing! ANYTHING! Aagh!) If anyone comes across any fic-- good, bad, or so awful you can't believe that the author can navigate the 'net-- please, please, please point me to it. There will be cookies! With real chocolate and everything!
At any rate, I'm leaving tomorrow for somewhere in the midlands, and I'll be back on Saturday. Bye!
-S
ETA:l_c_h_a_n: I think you might enjoy this. Juuuuust maybe.
Also: beady176: we need to talk about times and stuff! Aah! I'll be gone until tomorrow night-- what's your phone #/etc? Thanks!
I re-read most of The Dark is Rising series, although not that particular book; I bought Greenwitch in France and read it there, which made me want to read the rest of the series. So I did-- and there were Will and Bran, running around Wales, and so I went and read fanfic. (For those of you interested in The Dark is Rising, I highly recommend darkisrising100, a drabble community, or The Dark is Rising Slash Archive, especially the stuff written by gunbunny and gramarye.) And re-reading The Dark is Rising made me want to read The Winter Prince (which is by Elizabeth E. Wein, and available here). It's like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, only with books instead of food. I didn't re-read TWP, though, because instead I lent it to Miriam, this awesome girl I met at scifi. Instead I read A Coalition of Lions and The Sunbird.
So instead of doing anything productive tonight, I'm going to write about those books. (The summary for TWP is the least spoiler-y of the lot-- although, assuming you've read/heard the Arthurian myths, you know a lot of what happens already, and there's nothing spoiler-ish beyond that; the other have spoiler for the previous books.)
I've loved TWP ever since the first time I read it, waaaay back in ninth grade. I have to admit that I picked it up because of the cover-- it had two guys on the front with crossed swords! How cool was that! It was waaay at the end of the alphabet when I was shelfreading at the public library, so I put it on the stack of books that I was going to check out, and then went home to read.
I'm going to say this once: EVERYONE needs to read this book. For one thing, it's *almost* out of print, for the second time, and I've already got two copies. I love this book (this series!) so much that it can get kind of scary at times.
TWP is a re-telling of the Arthurian legend from the point of view of Medraut (Mordred.) It's set in Roman Wales (rather, barely-post-Roman Wales; Arthur himself is Roman, but the rest of his family is not), and for once, the history is correct (the author has a degree in Folklore! Yay! Someone who's actually studied the legends in context!) The story is narrated to his "Godmother"-- Morgause, Queen of the Orcades, and begins with Medraut returning to his father's lands after living with her and traveling for many years.
One thing that you could never really call Medraut, as a character, is "lovable." He is proud, stubborn, and really, truly, INCREDIBLY fucked up (for good reason!) He realises that his existence is due to the fact that his mother wanted a weapon to use against his father; he wants nothing as much as he wants his father's recognition that his existence is not Medraut's fault. I'd almost compare Medraut's level of angst to Vanyel's (in Mercedes Lackey's The Last Herald-Mage series), except TWP is much better than the Vanyel books. I mean, hell, they even have some background characteristics in common: abusive childhoods, semi-crippled hands, interesting younger siblings...
...which brings me to the next interesting part of TWP: Medraut is not Atros' only child. He also has twins: a boy, Lleu, and a girl, Goewin. Lleu is his father's heir-- the only problem being that either Goewin or Medraut would make a better ruler than him. Lleu is weak, frail, beautiful, and arrogant, with no real head for strategy or ruling a country. Medraut loves him for himself but hates him for who he is: his father's acknowledged son. Goewin is an exceptionally strong female character; however, most of her family seems to forget her, concentrating on Lleu, as he is the Important One.
The plot of TWP is really difficult to describe-- I'd say that it was about Medraut's Inner Journey or something, but that would make it sound really hokey and awful. It's mostly just amazing.
The second book in the series takes place almost a year after the first-- and, interestingly enough, does not take place in Britain or Wales. Instead, the characters (those that are still alive, anyway (not a spoiler: the series still follows the Arthurian legends, people! We all know that Arthur dies!) are transported to Ethiopia: Goewin has come to Aksum to tell Constantine, her father's heir, and her fiance-by-arrangement, that her family has died, and he must go back to Britain and take the crown. She expects little trouble, as she knows that her father would not have chosen an heir lightly.
What she does not expect is to be caught up in Aksumite politics: her father's heir has become the regent of Aksum in the Emperor's absence, and is quite reluctant to leave. The Aksumite ambassador, Priamos, who accompanied Goewin on her journey, is accused of treason for leaving his post in Britain. There are echoes of her elder brother everywhere, as he was the previous ambassador to Aksum, and Goewin discovers that he has left something behind, without knowing it: a six-year old son, Telemakos.
The book is largely political, although of the three, it is the most romantic in nature. It is quite necessary to read TWP first, as CoL doesn't make much sense without it. I do have to say that it's my least favourite of the series, but that's only because the other two are so good.
I have to say that besides Medraut, Telemakos is my favourite character in the books: he is young, silent, a deadly tracker, and knows how to Not Be Seen.
That said, The Sunbird is a very different book from TWP or CoL. For one thing, the main character knows very firmly who, exactly, he is, especially in relation to other people. He is not overly jealous, nor powerhungry-- in fact, his main flaw is that he sees too much.
Telemakos is between 10 and 12 when the book begins, and his precise age is never given. What is clear from the beginning of the book is what Telemakos is made for: spying. He is really the most amazing 10-12-year-old I've ever come across-- I almost want to read him more as an adult than a child, as he seems to be almost overly mature for his age. On the other hand, he can act incredibly childish, and he loves coffee. The book is mostly about Telemakos truly learning to be a spy, and his first real mission.
A warning for this book, however: if you cannot abide the thought of violence towards children, especially when described from the child's point of view, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK (or, at least, skip chapter 10.) It is wonderful, it is lovely, but it will probably disturb you.
The overall arc of the series is quite interesting: it begins with Medraut's struggle to claim his identity, moves on to the conflict between Goewin and Constantine, and finally, to Telemakos' quest to save Aksum, and with it, most of northern Africa. In a way, each book in the series is a step further out into the world-- Medraut is mostly focused on himself, Goewin on Britain and Aksum, and Telemakos is trying to save everyone, although he may not quite recognise it as such. In my mind, the books are triangular, and each one relates rather well to a season: TWP, obviously, to winter (mostly, though, to the days around the solstice), CoL, oddly, to fall, and Sunbird to high summer (when it's almost too hot out-- it's quite an intense book.)
I want Arthurian fanfic, and more DiR fanfic. Mostly, though, I want to find fic for this series of books-- I've searched ff.net and google, and only found two (one Medraut/Lleu-- eurgh, and one genfic. I want more! Any pairing! ANYTHING! Aagh!) If anyone comes across any fic-- good, bad, or so awful you can't believe that the author can navigate the 'net-- please, please, please point me to it. There will be cookies! With real chocolate and everything!
At any rate, I'm leaving tomorrow for somewhere in the midlands, and I'll be back on Saturday. Bye!
-S
ETA:l_c_h_a_n: I think you might enjoy this. Juuuuust maybe.
Also: beady176: we need to talk about times and stuff! Aah! I'll be gone until tomorrow night-- what's your phone #/etc? Thanks!