Heh, it's interesting that you also feel the Lewis similarities. If I remember correctly, both Susan Cooper and Diana Wynne Jones took classes with CS Lewis and JRR Tolkein, so you can see the influence in their works.
In Over Sea, Under Stone, Cooper is specifically emulating Edith Nesbit, as I believe the story started as an entry for an E. Nesbit themed writing contest. I recently reread some Nesbit lately and was like ...what is this moralizing? I do like that Cooper avoids that.
Merriman is one of those characters you feel Susan Cooper really enjoys writing about, like I get the sense Tamora Pierce likes writing a lot about Numair. I mean not quite in the same way, because I'm pretty sure Tamora Pierce has a giant crush on Numair and Susan Cooper is just fascinated with Merriman, but yeah, every once in a while the description will linger on him a bit.
The kids will get more to do soon! Though, fair warning, since this is a prequel and only Cooper's second novel, they don't fully develop in this one? They really hit their stride in Greenwitch, IMO. (They don't appear in TDiR.) I can feel kind of ambivalent about Jane at points, but there's also some good Jane!fic out there.
(I apologize that I keep pulling out the "sorry guys it's a prequel!" line, but... aaaaahhhhh this one is so different from the others. Anyway, we're definitely going to go two chapters at a time now. So stay tuned! I have plenty of jokes planned about Simon being a colonizing asshole.)
Heh, I actually know which House I'd put Merriman in, for Reasons. I have one for Simon, but it makes more sense once you've read him in the other books, and Barney and Jane I'm still on the fence about because I haven't read about them in a while. Will and Bran, who we'll meet in later volumes, I have most definitely sorted.
E. Nesbit wrote both fantasy and non-fantasy, and apparently back in the day there were two heavily divided camps over whether her fantasy or her non-fantasy was best. Perhaps her most famous non-fantasy work is The Railway Children while Five Children and It and its sequels are her best-known fantasy works. She had a big influence on Lewis, too, for what it's worth.
Anyway, OSUS is Cooper trying to reconcile the fantasy and non-fantasy threads of Nesbit, in a way, and doing it with kids who were (at the time she was writing the books) modern.
In Over Sea, Under Stone, Cooper is specifically emulating Edith Nesbit, as I believe the story started as an entry for an E. Nesbit themed writing contest. I recently reread some Nesbit lately and was like ...what is this moralizing? I do like that Cooper avoids that.
Merriman is one of those characters you feel Susan Cooper really enjoys writing about, like I get the sense Tamora Pierce likes writing a lot about Numair. I mean not quite in the same way, because I'm pretty sure Tamora Pierce has a giant crush on Numair and Susan Cooper is just fascinated with Merriman, but yeah, every once in a while the description will linger on him a bit.
The kids will get more to do soon! Though, fair warning, since this is a prequel and only Cooper's second novel, they don't fully develop in this one? They really hit their stride in Greenwitch, IMO. (They don't appear in TDiR.) I can feel kind of ambivalent about Jane at points, but there's also some good Jane!fic out there.
(I apologize that I keep pulling out the "sorry guys it's a prequel!" line, but... aaaaahhhhh this one is so different from the others. Anyway, we're definitely going to go two chapters at a time now. So stay tuned! I have plenty of jokes planned about Simon being a colonizing asshole.)
Heh, I actually know which House I'd put Merriman in, for Reasons. I have one for Simon, but it makes more sense once you've read him in the other books, and Barney and Jane I'm still on the fence about because I haven't read about them in a while. Will and Bran, who we'll meet in later volumes, I have most definitely sorted.
PUPPY!
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Never read any Nesbit. Any suggestions on where I should start?
Haha, excellent. I'm looking forward to more of him.
Don't apologize about the prequel; it happens. XD I think it's good we're reading it though to get the "full experience."
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Anyway, OSUS is Cooper trying to reconcile the fantasy and non-fantasy threads of Nesbit, in a way, and doing it with kids who were (at the time she was writing the books) modern.
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