Book review: Codex Born
A while back I reviewed Libriomancer, a book I really enjoyed. Perry loved it too.
I just finished the second book of the series (Need! Book! 3!!! Only I don't think it's written yet!), Codex Born.
More madcap magical fun, more Isaac, whom I adore, more Smudge the flammable spider, whom I adore even more than I adore Isaac. All in a all a great read.
With, blam, right there, one of my pet Harry Potter issues (hi />) addressed: the use of forgetfullness spells, Obliviate in the HP world. Those spells are tossed around in HP non-stop with no apparent thought to what it actually means to take away someone's memories. Memory is an essential part of what shapes us, our emotions, of who and what we <i>are</i>. Our reactions to an event are almost always (always?) tied to our memories of similar events, to things in that. What happens when you take away the memory, and you're left with the emotional pathways? And then this is addressed in the book, Isaac, (did I mention I adore him? Oh yes, I did. At least once.) understands this and has objections to the inevitable fact of memory modification when some people have magic that must be hidden from the rest of us.
And Isaac. Who muses about consent and obliviates. He's a guy. But he's just that, a guy. Not a Guy. He doesn't feel like he's a male protagonist because of course all heroes must be male, that anyone that awesome must be a man etc. I don't know if I can quite pin this down, but Isaac is a human being who happens to be male. I'm not sure I can convey exactly what I'm trying to say, but that in distinction between of-course-a-guy and happens-to-be-a-guy lies the whole possibility of a feminist hero, a man who just happens to be male, but whose interactions with women are clearly interactions between equals.
Jim C. Hines wrote that guy, and I'm thrilled he did. Because I adore Isaac.
Half way through writing this review, I went over the the author's website to see if there was a perhaps publication book on the next installment of the series and found instead... <a href=this: a whole series of papers written by Hines on rape and consent, and victim blaming, and domestic violence.
Colour me impressed and thrilled but not surprised.
I've handed Codex Born over to Perry. It's a bit more adult in places than Libriomancer was, with a bit more sex which he'll hate, but it's a good book and he'll love it. Even if dh doesn't quite understand why I feel 100% ok with handing the boy a book with a polyamourous relationship between a nymph, a shrink, and a librarian! Heh.
I just hope Nidhi's cat is ok.
I just finished the second book of the series (Need! Book! 3!!! Only I don't think it's written yet!), Codex Born.
More madcap magical fun, more Isaac, whom I adore, more Smudge the flammable spider, whom I adore even more than I adore Isaac. All in a all a great read.
With, blam, right there, one of my pet Harry Potter issues (hi />) addressed: the use of forgetfullness spells, Obliviate in the HP world. Those spells are tossed around in HP non-stop with no apparent thought to what it actually means to take away someone's memories. Memory is an essential part of what shapes us, our emotions, of who and what we <i>are</i>. Our reactions to an event are almost always (always?) tied to our memories of similar events, to things in that. What happens when you take away the memory, and you're left with the emotional pathways? And then this is addressed in the book, Isaac, (did I mention I adore him? Oh yes, I did. At least once.) understands this and has objections to the inevitable fact of memory modification when some people have magic that must be hidden from the rest of us.
And Isaac. Who muses about consent and obliviates. He's a guy. But he's just that, a guy. Not a Guy. He doesn't feel like he's a male protagonist because of course all heroes must be male, that anyone that awesome must be a man etc. I don't know if I can quite pin this down, but Isaac is a human being who happens to be male. I'm not sure I can convey exactly what I'm trying to say, but that in distinction between of-course-a-guy and happens-to-be-a-guy lies the whole possibility of a feminist hero, a man who just happens to be male, but whose interactions with women are clearly interactions between equals.
Jim C. Hines wrote that guy, and I'm thrilled he did. Because I adore Isaac.
Half way through writing this review, I went over the the author's website to see if there was a perhaps publication book on the next installment of the series and found instead... <a href=this: a whole series of papers written by Hines on rape and consent, and victim blaming, and domestic violence.
Colour me impressed and thrilled but not surprised.
I've handed Codex Born over to Perry. It's a bit more adult in places than Libriomancer was, with a bit more sex which he'll hate, but it's a good book and he'll love it. Even if dh doesn't quite understand why I feel 100% ok with handing the boy a book with a polyamourous relationship between a nymph, a shrink, and a librarian! Heh.
I just hope Nidhi's cat is ok.