A bit of fiction
Daniel O’Malley, The Rook: Engaging setup-a woman comes to consciousness standing in a circle of dead people. She has no idea who she is, or who they are, but there’s a letter in her pocket from her former self telling her that she’s a member of the Chequy, a secret organization of people with unusual powers such as her own ability to disrupt bodily functions by touch. Powerful female characters drive the narrative, which involves a threatened invasion by the Belgians and betrayal from within the organization. Charlie Stross fans may like the “supernatural British secret service” aspects of the plot, though there’s a lot less bureaucracy in this book even though our POV character-Myfanwy, pronounced to rhyme with Tiffany-is ostensibly a top administrator. Myfanwy has a lot of character and sass straight out of the box, which makes her different from the shy person she replaced; this isn’t a book about characters changing. The book often attempted fast swerves from horror/adventure into humor, Joss Whedon-style, especially in the dialogue; I mostly felt it was trying too hard, but there’s no doubt it’s clever. The lack of detail about red tape probably won’t bother anyone, but there was a similar vagueness to other things, such as Myfanwy’s wardrobe where a red dress is an important plot/character point but described only in broad adjectives. Engaging enough with its conspiracies and superpowered agents, but not exactly what I was after.
J.R. Ward, Lover Awakened: I read this vampire romance/adventure because of rachelmanija’s review, which suggested that it might be in my wheelhouse. Sadly, it wasn’t. Hero: suffered decades of slavery, including sexual abuse, and now abuses his own body and thinks he’s irreparably dirty. Heroine: rescued from bad guys by hero, teaches him to love. (1) As it turns out, I can’t take a book seriously where the vampires have names like Zsadist and Phury and Rhevenge, and they add extra ‘h’s to other words that mean what the regular English words mean (sehclusion, ahvenge, I can’t go on). (2) Also, there are no men and women, only “males” and “females,” and not just in the sex scenes (though it got to grating there too). (3) The bad guys call themselves Lessers, and not ironically. (4) Way too much gender essentialism for me, plus a lot of bad gay rapists and weird “no homo” male appreciation of other males’ bodies-the author didn’t seem to endorse homophobia, but I wasn’t enjoying the rest enough to make fine distinctions. (5) Relatedly, vampire society accepts total male control over female members of “good” families; various people in the story resist this as applied to the heroine in particular, but everyone seems to agree with the general aristocratic hierarchy. (6) Also relatedly, the hero in particular (but not alone) thinks about how the whores he fucked didn’t matter, but he can’t inflict himself on the pure heroine, and as a bonus this is tangled up with his belief that rough sex = not love and tender Sarah McLachlan sex = love; again the author didn’t seem wholly on board but again I was not in a forgiving mood.
I can understand why this might work for someone else, especially with scenes in which a woman is crying, the man apologizes for “hurt[ing] your feelings or something,” and she tells him “I’m not hurt, I’m pissed off and sexually frustrated.” In between the stuff I found preposterous, there were real human moments. I think it might be a bit like Twilight, in that there’s gender essentialism I find horrific, interspersed with real concern for female pleasure.
Rachel Hartman, Seraphina: highly recommended! Seraphina is a young musician in her first real position of responsibility at court. Unfortunately, she also has a terrible secret: she’s a half-breed between human and dragon (dragons can take human form), and as such would be considered a monstrosity if she were discovered. And she seems to have monsters living in her head-monsters that might hurt her if she doesn’t tend carefully to them. She gets sucked into palace intrigue, including threats to the fragile dragon-human peace. There’s some romantic misunderstanding and longing, but it fit well into the plot and I loved that duty was more important to the characters than their own feelings.
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.
J.R. Ward, Lover Awakened: I read this vampire romance/adventure because of rachelmanija’s review, which suggested that it might be in my wheelhouse. Sadly, it wasn’t. Hero: suffered decades of slavery, including sexual abuse, and now abuses his own body and thinks he’s irreparably dirty. Heroine: rescued from bad guys by hero, teaches him to love. (1) As it turns out, I can’t take a book seriously where the vampires have names like Zsadist and Phury and Rhevenge, and they add extra ‘h’s to other words that mean what the regular English words mean (sehclusion, ahvenge, I can’t go on). (2) Also, there are no men and women, only “males” and “females,” and not just in the sex scenes (though it got to grating there too). (3) The bad guys call themselves Lessers, and not ironically. (4) Way too much gender essentialism for me, plus a lot of bad gay rapists and weird “no homo” male appreciation of other males’ bodies-the author didn’t seem to endorse homophobia, but I wasn’t enjoying the rest enough to make fine distinctions. (5) Relatedly, vampire society accepts total male control over female members of “good” families; various people in the story resist this as applied to the heroine in particular, but everyone seems to agree with the general aristocratic hierarchy. (6) Also relatedly, the hero in particular (but not alone) thinks about how the whores he fucked didn’t matter, but he can’t inflict himself on the pure heroine, and as a bonus this is tangled up with his belief that rough sex = not love and tender Sarah McLachlan sex = love; again the author didn’t seem wholly on board but again I was not in a forgiving mood.
I can understand why this might work for someone else, especially with scenes in which a woman is crying, the man apologizes for “hurt[ing] your feelings or something,” and she tells him “I’m not hurt, I’m pissed off and sexually frustrated.” In between the stuff I found preposterous, there were real human moments. I think it might be a bit like Twilight, in that there’s gender essentialism I find horrific, interspersed with real concern for female pleasure.
Rachel Hartman, Seraphina: highly recommended! Seraphina is a young musician in her first real position of responsibility at court. Unfortunately, she also has a terrible secret: she’s a half-breed between human and dragon (dragons can take human form), and as such would be considered a monstrosity if she were discovered. And she seems to have monsters living in her head-monsters that might hurt her if she doesn’t tend carefully to them. She gets sucked into palace intrigue, including threats to the fragile dragon-human peace. There’s some romantic misunderstanding and longing, but it fit well into the plot and I loved that duty was more important to the characters than their own feelings.
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.