Chrestomanci
Apparently over the next two months there is a new Culture novel (Surface Detail), a new Discworld novel (I Shall Wear Midnight - new Tiffany Aching, yay!), a new Vorkosigan installment (Cryoburn), and a new Oxford-time-travel book (All Clear, the second half of Blackout). I keep telling myself, self, you need money for food and remember books in the US are extortionate, ALSO SALES TAX. But..... booooks.
Actually, over the last couple of weeks I've been reading the Chronicles of Chrestomanci, which somehow completely passed me by when I was a small person. Well, I say passed me by - I read, and disliked, both Witch Week and Charmed Life, and reading them now, I both understand why I disliked them and why they are, actually, rather good.
(Briefly: the Chrestomanci books are a series by Diana Wynne Jones, also known for the rather excellent Tough Guide to Fantasyland; they're set in a magical world, that is itself one of many - there are many worlds, splitting off at important points in history, the traditional Trousers of Time idea - and mostly about Christopher Chant, who grows up to be Chrestomanci, who has nine lives and makes sure magic isn't misused, and has magnificent dressing-gowns for every day of the week. Also, it's a government position. I was charmed. They sound derivative but really aren't; they're deft and clever and lots of fun. )
The thing is, the tone is surprisingly adult for children's books. Witch Week is set in a boarding school for the orphaned children of burned witches, and if that wasn't macabre enough, the novel mostly revolves around how cruel children are, especially in extremis. And it's realistic and occasionally very funny, but rather unpleasant to read. And in Charmed Life, the villain is the protagonist's sister, and because a whole bunch of people make stupid mistakes, Chrestomanci included, she gets to play the wicked witch for most of the book, with predictable consequences. And... I liked happy endings, when I was small. I was particularly struck, with CL, how different the arc is from what you'd expect - the wicked witch is the wicked witch. It doesn't matter that she's young, and orphaned; she doesn't have a heart of gold or any other fantasy-world redeeming feature - she's power-hungry and avaricious, and there's no redemption for her. I don't know if I'd like that in all of my kidlit, but it works surprisingly well.
I've two more of the books to read, and am considering offering/nominating for yuletide, because there's a lot less fic than I expected on the internet. After reading The Lives of Christopher Chant, I really wanted someone to have written a Chalet School/Malory Towers/that-sort-of-thing parody about the Living Ashteth's adventures at boarding school. How to buck up and play the game when you used to be the living embodiment of a goddess, that sort of thing. With midnight feasts and letters from Christopher that she hides under her pillow.
....yeah, yuletide. Unrelatedly, I like that people are already getting excited for it. It's only about a month until nominations begin, that is entirely justification for excitement, right? ....right?
Okay, I should go to bed, I should get up tomorrow. (Remember how all lectures at Exam Schools that are timetabled on the hour actually start at five past? Yeah, I really shouldn't.)
raven is also at Dreamwidth: there is or are
comment(s). Comment there or here.
Actually, over the last couple of weeks I've been reading the Chronicles of Chrestomanci, which somehow completely passed me by when I was a small person. Well, I say passed me by - I read, and disliked, both Witch Week and Charmed Life, and reading them now, I both understand why I disliked them and why they are, actually, rather good.
(Briefly: the Chrestomanci books are a series by Diana Wynne Jones, also known for the rather excellent Tough Guide to Fantasyland; they're set in a magical world, that is itself one of many - there are many worlds, splitting off at important points in history, the traditional Trousers of Time idea - and mostly about Christopher Chant, who grows up to be Chrestomanci, who has nine lives and makes sure magic isn't misused, and has magnificent dressing-gowns for every day of the week. Also, it's a government position. I was charmed. They sound derivative but really aren't; they're deft and clever and lots of fun. )
The thing is, the tone is surprisingly adult for children's books. Witch Week is set in a boarding school for the orphaned children of burned witches, and if that wasn't macabre enough, the novel mostly revolves around how cruel children are, especially in extremis. And it's realistic and occasionally very funny, but rather unpleasant to read. And in Charmed Life, the villain is the protagonist's sister, and because a whole bunch of people make stupid mistakes, Chrestomanci included, she gets to play the wicked witch for most of the book, with predictable consequences. And... I liked happy endings, when I was small. I was particularly struck, with CL, how different the arc is from what you'd expect - the wicked witch is the wicked witch. It doesn't matter that she's young, and orphaned; she doesn't have a heart of gold or any other fantasy-world redeeming feature - she's power-hungry and avaricious, and there's no redemption for her. I don't know if I'd like that in all of my kidlit, but it works surprisingly well.
I've two more of the books to read, and am considering offering/nominating for yuletide, because there's a lot less fic than I expected on the internet. After reading The Lives of Christopher Chant, I really wanted someone to have written a Chalet School/Malory Towers/that-sort-of-thing parody about the Living Ashteth's adventures at boarding school. How to buck up and play the game when you used to be the living embodiment of a goddess, that sort of thing. With midnight feasts and letters from Christopher that she hides under her pillow.
....yeah, yuletide. Unrelatedly, I like that people are already getting excited for it. It's only about a month until nominations begin, that is entirely justification for excitement, right? ....right?
Okay, I should go to bed, I should get up tomorrow. (Remember how all lectures at Exam Schools that are timetabled on the hour actually start at five past? Yeah, I really shouldn't.)
raven is also at Dreamwidth: there is or are
comment(s). Comment there or here.