On Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters
I thought I'd make some posts on stuff I've read and seen lately, and to make sure I get some actual posting done, I'm making one post per subject.
I've read Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters, which in Sweden is published in two parts: Fel grav and Askungeleken. I absolutely loved it. She has a wonderfully surrealistic style, where anything can happens and stories are folded into layers of metastories. Her most interesting quirk is that the stories tend to end just as they leap into action - she's much more interested in the buildup, in the way people react to the possibility of things happening (or fail to see their own impending doom), than she is in the actual showdown. It can get a bit frustrating at times, but as someone who loves genre fiction but gets bored by action sequences, I mostly welcome this form of storytelling. Well, as long as it's in Link's skillful hands, anyway.
Also, I was highly tickled to see a Diana Wynne Jones namedrop in one of the stories! It's not entirely surprising, because like DWJ, Link doesn't explain an inch more than she has to, making her worlds all the richer for it.
I read the books having been recced them on a book blog, which waxed lyrically about the library in Magic for Beginners, and how they wished that TV show really existed, and I have to say, I do to. I'm not sure which one of the stories is my favourite, though the one that made me long for fanfiction was The Constable of Abal, with its casual genderbending and interesting spirit world. (The protagonist's name, Ozma, is a clear reference to the equally genderbending Queen of Oz, but I wonder if the name Zilla is a reference to A Sudden Wild Magic or there's something else going on there. Wikipedia informs me that there's no lack of Zillas/Zillahs to choose from.)
In short, it's a lovely set of tales, and if you haven't read it already you definitely should!
This entry was originally posted at http://katta.dreamwidth.org/608705.html and has
comments there.
I've read Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters, which in Sweden is published in two parts: Fel grav and Askungeleken. I absolutely loved it. She has a wonderfully surrealistic style, where anything can happens and stories are folded into layers of metastories. Her most interesting quirk is that the stories tend to end just as they leap into action - she's much more interested in the buildup, in the way people react to the possibility of things happening (or fail to see their own impending doom), than she is in the actual showdown. It can get a bit frustrating at times, but as someone who loves genre fiction but gets bored by action sequences, I mostly welcome this form of storytelling. Well, as long as it's in Link's skillful hands, anyway.
Also, I was highly tickled to see a Diana Wynne Jones namedrop in one of the stories! It's not entirely surprising, because like DWJ, Link doesn't explain an inch more than she has to, making her worlds all the richer for it.
I read the books having been recced them on a book blog, which waxed lyrically about the library in Magic for Beginners, and how they wished that TV show really existed, and I have to say, I do to. I'm not sure which one of the stories is my favourite, though the one that made me long for fanfiction was The Constable of Abal, with its casual genderbending and interesting spirit world. (The protagonist's name, Ozma, is a clear reference to the equally genderbending Queen of Oz, but I wonder if the name Zilla is a reference to A Sudden Wild Magic or there's something else going on there. Wikipedia informs me that there's no lack of Zillas/Zillahs to choose from.)
In short, it's a lovely set of tales, and if you haven't read it already you definitely should!
This entry was originally posted at http://katta.dreamwidth.org/608705.html and has
comments there.