Havemercy by Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett
I have jinxed myself by writing my previous entry because I've managed to write myself into a writer's block. FFFfffffffffffffffffffffffff...I'm at an important scene and I can't get it to work.
As with all problems I face, I run away by reading. My copy of Havemercy arrived last week, and I'm now more than halfway through. So, the book had me at mechanical dragons. Seriously, I am that easy to please. But there are niggling things in this book which bothers me a little, so very little, but so persistently that it's enough to mess with my enjoyment. I'm going to write them out here and hope that I can get over them enough to enjoy the rest of the book.
If you haven't read the book (you know who you are) please don't read the rest of this entry because I don't want this to influence your opinion if you have already planned to read it.
The good
- MECHANICAL DRAGONS (I want more of them!)
- Strong characterisations concerning the main characters
- Clever use of multiple point of views (Where from one POV, the character thinks he's hotshot awesome, while another POV lets you see how not awesome they are)
- Magic is different (still waiting for them to elaborate)
The not-so-good:
1. Little things that are out of place and pulls me out of the story. For example: In the first 6 pages, Royston holds an entire conversation with the Provost, with no attempt to keep their voice low, over a sleeping man. They talk, Royston smokes, he gets out of the shared bed and dresses, and the slumbering bedfellow doesn't so much as stir. It's such a small tiny thing, but it kept throwing me out of the scene because I kept expecting the guy to at least stir or snore loudly or some reference to him being comatosed. The problem is this happens right at the start which is a bad first impression, and the problem is that there are other small little things that don't make sense too (in different ways, some of it in the lack of explanation making a scene borderline illogical) and I keep getting thrown out of the story.
2. Pacing. I'm losing interest past the midway point, when I should be at the stage where I'm excited to read more. Part of it is because the main plot is only beginning to emerge now, when it should have been at least built upon earlier on. And the dangers with multiple POVs is the pacing too, where some POVs are more interesting than others depending on what they're going through or their characterisation. The starting was fine, but very quickly, I found myself speedreading through parts/POVs that bore me (I got to past-midway point of this book through 3 hours of noncontinuous reading, which is fast for me).
3. Argh. The female characters. Maybe the remainder of the book will be better, but the way it's going is irritating right now.
I grew up reading fantasy and sci-fi books and have read books that I enjoyed without a single female presence in the book. But this one is difficult for me because it just walks the line of uncomfortable. The only real female characters through half of the book are whores (no characters, just whores), a cheating diplomat's wife who faked being raped, and a Chatelain's wife who is homophobic, condescending and prone to fainting uselessly (like really, she faints a lot, and the only thing useful she did was cook one nice meal, which she only cooked because the cook had the day off or something).
Rook has a contemptuous view of women and is only interested in them for sex, which is actually fine with me because Thom's view of Rook is that he's a sexist asshole. But then you have Royston, the city-loving, experienced, clever mage, who in a fit of anger, declares that he left the countryside because of people like his fainting sister-in-law (Mme), and makes a reference to all the close-minded aunts in the country blahblahblah. When he references his brother's and sister-in-law's close-mindedness, he say something about his brother only willing to open his mind as much as his wife will, putting the blame right back on the wife, without consideration that you know, his brother should defend him.
The idea that all country women are as tedious as Mme (based on Royston's opinion) doesn't make sense either, and I hate when things are illogical. I would think women in the country would have more work to handle, but instead, it's implied that he sees them as useless, gossipy fainting wives. Royston could have a biased opinion, but it's not contradicted or explained anywhere.
The thing is that all these occasions I mentioned happen very rarely in the book. If the book was outright going 'women are evil/useless' I would know how to react better. But because you have Thom going 'oh we must treat women better, this is ghastly behaviour' about Rook but at the same time, all the women in the book are either hopeless bigots or characterised by how much they're dying to be laid by Rook, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FEEL. It's not enough to stop my reading, but it's enough to irritate me.
So yes. Three main things. The little illogical moments, pacing, and the women.
I am determined to finish this book, because I want to see if my predictions on the plot come true. Now that I've written this half-rant, maybe I can better enoy the mechanical dragons, and Rook and Thom's history.
But only after I get over this writer's block damnit.
As with all problems I face, I run away by reading. My copy of Havemercy arrived last week, and I'm now more than halfway through. So, the book had me at mechanical dragons. Seriously, I am that easy to please. But there are niggling things in this book which bothers me a little, so very little, but so persistently that it's enough to mess with my enjoyment. I'm going to write them out here and hope that I can get over them enough to enjoy the rest of the book.
If you haven't read the book (you know who you are) please don't read the rest of this entry because I don't want this to influence your opinion if you have already planned to read it.
The good
- MECHANICAL DRAGONS (I want more of them!)
- Strong characterisations concerning the main characters
- Clever use of multiple point of views (Where from one POV, the character thinks he's hotshot awesome, while another POV lets you see how not awesome they are)
- Magic is different (still waiting for them to elaborate)
The not-so-good:
1. Little things that are out of place and pulls me out of the story. For example: In the first 6 pages, Royston holds an entire conversation with the Provost, with no attempt to keep their voice low, over a sleeping man. They talk, Royston smokes, he gets out of the shared bed and dresses, and the slumbering bedfellow doesn't so much as stir. It's such a small tiny thing, but it kept throwing me out of the scene because I kept expecting the guy to at least stir or snore loudly or some reference to him being comatosed. The problem is this happens right at the start which is a bad first impression, and the problem is that there are other small little things that don't make sense too (in different ways, some of it in the lack of explanation making a scene borderline illogical) and I keep getting thrown out of the story.
2. Pacing. I'm losing interest past the midway point, when I should be at the stage where I'm excited to read more. Part of it is because the main plot is only beginning to emerge now, when it should have been at least built upon earlier on. And the dangers with multiple POVs is the pacing too, where some POVs are more interesting than others depending on what they're going through or their characterisation. The starting was fine, but very quickly, I found myself speedreading through parts/POVs that bore me (I got to past-midway point of this book through 3 hours of noncontinuous reading, which is fast for me).
3. Argh. The female characters. Maybe the remainder of the book will be better, but the way it's going is irritating right now.
I grew up reading fantasy and sci-fi books and have read books that I enjoyed without a single female presence in the book. But this one is difficult for me because it just walks the line of uncomfortable. The only real female characters through half of the book are whores (no characters, just whores), a cheating diplomat's wife who faked being raped, and a Chatelain's wife who is homophobic, condescending and prone to fainting uselessly (like really, she faints a lot, and the only thing useful she did was cook one nice meal, which she only cooked because the cook had the day off or something).
Rook has a contemptuous view of women and is only interested in them for sex, which is actually fine with me because Thom's view of Rook is that he's a sexist asshole. But then you have Royston, the city-loving, experienced, clever mage, who in a fit of anger, declares that he left the countryside because of people like his fainting sister-in-law (Mme), and makes a reference to all the close-minded aunts in the country blahblahblah. When he references his brother's and sister-in-law's close-mindedness, he say something about his brother only willing to open his mind as much as his wife will, putting the blame right back on the wife, without consideration that you know, his brother should defend him.
The idea that all country women are as tedious as Mme (based on Royston's opinion) doesn't make sense either, and I hate when things are illogical. I would think women in the country would have more work to handle, but instead, it's implied that he sees them as useless, gossipy fainting wives. Royston could have a biased opinion, but it's not contradicted or explained anywhere.
The thing is that all these occasions I mentioned happen very rarely in the book. If the book was outright going 'women are evil/useless' I would know how to react better. But because you have Thom going 'oh we must treat women better, this is ghastly behaviour' about Rook but at the same time, all the women in the book are either hopeless bigots or characterised by how much they're dying to be laid by Rook, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FEEL. It's not enough to stop my reading, but it's enough to irritate me.
So yes. Three main things. The little illogical moments, pacing, and the women.
I am determined to finish this book, because I want to see if my predictions on the plot come true. Now that I've written this half-rant, maybe I can better enoy the mechanical dragons, and Rook and Thom's history.
But only after I get over this writer's block damnit.