Book Talk
All right, so I've decided I'd like to talk a little bit about the books I've been reading since I got back, in an effort to actually do something with this journal from time to time. |D Cut for spoilers/anyone who isn't interested. :) There are definitely lots of spoilers, so if you haven't read/want to read these and care about being spoiled, maybe skip these.
Firstly, Twilight's Dawn. This appears to (at least chronologically) be the last of her Black Jewels universe, and I felt like it wrapped things up nicely. She dealt well with the fact that some of her characters were from short-lived races and some from long-lived races. It was a question in my mind too, how Daemon would handle losing Jaenelle after waiting so long to be with her. She was his soulmate in a fairly literal sense of the term, but I thought Bishop handled the aftermath of her death well. He is deeply, deeply unhappy for a long time, but does eventually heal enough to move on with his life and (even more eventually) with love. I can imagine that there were a number of fans unhappy that he and Surreal get together, but they have been good friends for a very long time, and again, I think she realistically portrayed the fact that things are hardly perfect between them at the start. It's a relationship and feelings that take a long time to fully develop, and it felt right to me. That said, I'm kind of 'meh' about the pairing on a personal level, but I think it was well done and I certainly don't mind it.
I am very glad that after the last bit of trauma with Sylvia and her boys in the second-to-last novella, Bishop seems to have given her characters stable, normal lives for several decades; they all deserved it after the trauma of the main trilogy and following books.
Jumping back to the earlier novellas, the first one was very nice and light-hearted (as much as this series ever gets, at any rate), and the second was enjoyable because Rainier is a fun character and it was good to have him around more. I was a little bit surprised at how much of an asshole she ended up making Falonar, but given that he was actually that much of an asshole, I feel his end was fitting. That one also made for some interesting and (I thought) good commentary on the idea of culture - namely, that just because X group has always done things in Z way, doesn't mean that's actually the best way to live. Just because "usual" Eyrien society degrades women and insists that all (lower-class) men be uneducated fighters doesn't mean that's actually a good way to live.
Secondly, A Wizard of Earthsea. This one was pretty short, and I enjoyed it. The writing style was a little bit different than what I'm used to in most fantasy books, though I'm not quite sure if I could put my finger on why. It's a bit more...old-fashioned, maybe? Which I assume was done deliberately, since her purpose was to tell a legend in the older epic traditions, and I think it definitely worked well that way. It was an interesting story, but not one that I am likely to pick up a second time, I think. (I will probably read the rest of the series eventually.)
This is mainly because Ged, the main character, is not someone with whom I could really sympathize much. His greatest trouble (at least in his early years) is an evil that exists only because Ged himself acted in arrogance and ignorance, trying to show up another wizard, and I guess I find it more difficult to sympathize with that than (the obvious comparison) Harry Potter, whose main enemy is not of his own creation, just something that he unfortunately has to deal with. Ged does learn his lesson immediately from his mistake, and then eventually goes on to conquer that evil, so I certainly liked the story. He is a believable character, definitely, just not one with whom I can sympathize well. I think that I might have had a difficult time getting through the book if I had read it when I was younger, but it only took me about a day now.
Lastly, Foundation. This is the first of Lackey's newest Valdemar trilogy called the Collegium Chronicles. The main character is a young boy named Mags, and it is set about a hundred and fifty years after Vanyel lived. This is the time when the Heralds are making a transition from a mentoring system, where one Herald personally teaches 1-3 Trainees, to the Collegium system, where Trainees do most of their learning as a group in the Collegium attending classes, and then go out into the field with a more experienced Herald only after they are finished with that part of their education.
Thus far, I am very much liking this trilogy and intend to see if I can snag book 2 from the library before I leave for Madison. Mags was raised by the cruel owner of a gemstone mine, put to work since he was big enough to crawl, first in the house and then in the mine with other children. He is almost completely uneducated and has zero experience with life outside the abnormally harsh and cruel conditions of the mining complex, and so even though he is from Valdemar, he is very much an outsider once he is Chosen and reaches Haven. It occurred to me, having finished this book, that in several ways Mags is very similar to Alberich of Exile's Honor and Exile's Valor, which are without a doubt my two favorite books of the entire Valdemar series. Alberich, being from Valdemar's traditional enemy Karse, is also very much an outsider to all the things that people in Valdemar take for granted, and that offered an interesting perspective from which to create a hero and tell a story. I think that kind of perspective must appeal to me, because finding it here again in Mags, I am really enjoying his story thus far.
It's actually a little bit hard to spoil this book, because it seems to be pretty much all set up for larger conflicts looming in books 2 and 3. There is an outside enemy that Valdemar will have to contend with, but also there is more internal strife than usual amongst the Heralds themselves, since many of them are strongly opposed to the switch to a Herald's Collegium, rather than the old mentoring system. In terms of Valdemaran history, this is actually an interesting time period for Lackey to write about, because thinking back now I realize that I hadn't really noticed that there was a switch in the teaching method for Heralds. But thinking now, Vanyel and the Heralds of his time are definitely trained with a mentoring system, while by the main story line of King Sendar and Queen Selenay's reigns, the Collegium is long-established and taken for granted. Since there weren't many stories set in the interim, I never noticed the switch, so this trilogy should be especially interesting. :)
Okay, that will be enough rambling for now. Maybe some movie talk in a day or so, when I get sick of packing. >.>;
Firstly, Twilight's Dawn. This appears to (at least chronologically) be the last of her Black Jewels universe, and I felt like it wrapped things up nicely. She dealt well with the fact that some of her characters were from short-lived races and some from long-lived races. It was a question in my mind too, how Daemon would handle losing Jaenelle after waiting so long to be with her. She was his soulmate in a fairly literal sense of the term, but I thought Bishop handled the aftermath of her death well. He is deeply, deeply unhappy for a long time, but does eventually heal enough to move on with his life and (even more eventually) with love. I can imagine that there were a number of fans unhappy that he and Surreal get together, but they have been good friends for a very long time, and again, I think she realistically portrayed the fact that things are hardly perfect between them at the start. It's a relationship and feelings that take a long time to fully develop, and it felt right to me. That said, I'm kind of 'meh' about the pairing on a personal level, but I think it was well done and I certainly don't mind it.
I am very glad that after the last bit of trauma with Sylvia and her boys in the second-to-last novella, Bishop seems to have given her characters stable, normal lives for several decades; they all deserved it after the trauma of the main trilogy and following books.
Jumping back to the earlier novellas, the first one was very nice and light-hearted (as much as this series ever gets, at any rate), and the second was enjoyable because Rainier is a fun character and it was good to have him around more. I was a little bit surprised at how much of an asshole she ended up making Falonar, but given that he was actually that much of an asshole, I feel his end was fitting. That one also made for some interesting and (I thought) good commentary on the idea of culture - namely, that just because X group has always done things in Z way, doesn't mean that's actually the best way to live. Just because "usual" Eyrien society degrades women and insists that all (lower-class) men be uneducated fighters doesn't mean that's actually a good way to live.
Secondly, A Wizard of Earthsea. This one was pretty short, and I enjoyed it. The writing style was a little bit different than what I'm used to in most fantasy books, though I'm not quite sure if I could put my finger on why. It's a bit more...old-fashioned, maybe? Which I assume was done deliberately, since her purpose was to tell a legend in the older epic traditions, and I think it definitely worked well that way. It was an interesting story, but not one that I am likely to pick up a second time, I think. (I will probably read the rest of the series eventually.)
This is mainly because Ged, the main character, is not someone with whom I could really sympathize much. His greatest trouble (at least in his early years) is an evil that exists only because Ged himself acted in arrogance and ignorance, trying to show up another wizard, and I guess I find it more difficult to sympathize with that than (the obvious comparison) Harry Potter, whose main enemy is not of his own creation, just something that he unfortunately has to deal with. Ged does learn his lesson immediately from his mistake, and then eventually goes on to conquer that evil, so I certainly liked the story. He is a believable character, definitely, just not one with whom I can sympathize well. I think that I might have had a difficult time getting through the book if I had read it when I was younger, but it only took me about a day now.
Lastly, Foundation. This is the first of Lackey's newest Valdemar trilogy called the Collegium Chronicles. The main character is a young boy named Mags, and it is set about a hundred and fifty years after Vanyel lived. This is the time when the Heralds are making a transition from a mentoring system, where one Herald personally teaches 1-3 Trainees, to the Collegium system, where Trainees do most of their learning as a group in the Collegium attending classes, and then go out into the field with a more experienced Herald only after they are finished with that part of their education.
Thus far, I am very much liking this trilogy and intend to see if I can snag book 2 from the library before I leave for Madison. Mags was raised by the cruel owner of a gemstone mine, put to work since he was big enough to crawl, first in the house and then in the mine with other children. He is almost completely uneducated and has zero experience with life outside the abnormally harsh and cruel conditions of the mining complex, and so even though he is from Valdemar, he is very much an outsider once he is Chosen and reaches Haven. It occurred to me, having finished this book, that in several ways Mags is very similar to Alberich of Exile's Honor and Exile's Valor, which are without a doubt my two favorite books of the entire Valdemar series. Alberich, being from Valdemar's traditional enemy Karse, is also very much an outsider to all the things that people in Valdemar take for granted, and that offered an interesting perspective from which to create a hero and tell a story. I think that kind of perspective must appeal to me, because finding it here again in Mags, I am really enjoying his story thus far.
It's actually a little bit hard to spoil this book, because it seems to be pretty much all set up for larger conflicts looming in books 2 and 3. There is an outside enemy that Valdemar will have to contend with, but also there is more internal strife than usual amongst the Heralds themselves, since many of them are strongly opposed to the switch to a Herald's Collegium, rather than the old mentoring system. In terms of Valdemaran history, this is actually an interesting time period for Lackey to write about, because thinking back now I realize that I hadn't really noticed that there was a switch in the teaching method for Heralds. But thinking now, Vanyel and the Heralds of his time are definitely trained with a mentoring system, while by the main story line of King Sendar and Queen Selenay's reigns, the Collegium is long-established and taken for granted. Since there weren't many stories set in the interim, I never noticed the switch, so this trilogy should be especially interesting. :)
Okay, that will be enough rambling for now. Maybe some movie talk in a day or so, when I get sick of packing. >.>;