Of blogs. And I read a book!
You know, it seems like I rarely use this blog for anything lately except talking about when I'm going to write and how. Once upon a time I used to post a lot more vids and fics...
My suitcase is packed and baking in the back seat of my car. I'm leaving work at precisely 4:00 p.m. and heading to Columbus to visit first my friend Sabrina from high school and her family, whom I haven't seen in a sad number of years (given how easy a distance she lives from me) and then to spend the rest of the weekend with laura_josephsen. I packed my copy of Shiver and all my notebooks. I may write, I may not. This weekend is for ultimate vegging (while still being a respectful and non-slob guest, of course, Laura, LOL).
Oooh! Speaking of packing books, I just finished a book trilogy, which I also packed in my suitcase to let Laura read, if she feels like it. I guess I could talk about that in my blog...
The three books in this series are called 100 Cupboards, Dandelion Fire, and The Chestnut King. The central premise is very Narnia-esque. Our hero, Henry York, comes to live with his aunt and uncle in a rinky dink Kansas town and discovers little doors to a slew of worlds and times behind the plaster on the wall of his attic bedroom. Naturally, exploring the possibilities of these 100 cupboards lands him in trouble and has him facing off with a Major Evil Character.
In book one, Henry discovers the cupboards, releases the Evil, and discovers Truth About Himself (namely, that his origins are Not Of This World).
In book two, Henry's quest is to resolve the questions of where he came from and who his family are, which he does. He also discovers that he is a hugely major badass mage. A minion of the Major Evil Character is defeated.
Book three is centered specifically on the destruction of Major Evil Character and Henry achieving his happiness.
What's interesting about this book series, to me, is that I kind of loved it even though at times the author didn't seem to know what he wanted it to be. The broadest trope that I could assign to it is a coming-of-age story, since Henry's journey from beginning to end is about discovering who he is and what he wants to do with that information when he discovers it. But the tone and structure of Book 1 and Book 3 are so far removed it's almost funny to pull back and realize they're part of the same story. Book 1 has a very Nanowrimo novel quality in that it seems to just be the "100 Magic Doors premise and... Go! See what happens!" where as books 2 and 3 have a much more clearly outlined Plan. Book 1 feels like random adventure (even though ultimately it's not), Book 2 is vague and Book 3 is a quest. The narrative is more whimsical in the first book as well, less focused on the plot.
Henry, as a protagonist, is both steady, and vulnerable. His reaction to his Huge Important Destiny is more bewilderment than the typical 'OMG why did this happen to me!?!?' resentment or elation. But he just kinds of shrugs and goes with it, trying his best at each obstacle, and for that I did learn to love him.
There's an interesting family dynamic to this series. Henry begins the series as seemingly an orphan, but unlike Harry Potter (or countless other heroes), his family isn't dead. They just sort of... misplaced him. I was actually really surprised by the fact that the mystery of Henry's origin was resolved as early as book 2, kind of expecting it to be a full trilogy journey. Both of Henry's parents are still very much alive, and he has a whole slew of brothers and sisters to boot. They are all happily reunited in Book 2, and all set up to face the Big Baddie in book 3 together. Which brings me to another point on which this series is both like and different than typical fantasy archetypes: while Henry's birthright makes him a key player in the ultimate showdown, he is never painted as being the ONLY vehicle possible for winning the day. After he finds his family, Henry has a very positive support system and a LOT more effective help than most fumbling heroes ever seem to get. Which is interesting, because it makes Henry's overall conflict less Epically External and more of a nice balance between external conflict and internal character growth.
There are a WHOLE LOT of supporting characters in this series, primarily because Henry's family is so huge (including parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins), but he also picks up two or four completely unrelated sidekicks. On one hand, I loved it because minor characters (and ships between minor characters) are the most stimulating fodder for engaging my love of a series. I love a huge cast. At times, however, it's hard to keep track of them all in this series, and really the story wouldn't have suffered if Henry had had a few fewer siblings, cousins, and random sidekicks who got very little screen time but still had to be kept track of. Admittedly, he did a much better job of this than Robert Jordan (don't get me started), but at times it still felt like he had way too many balls in the air. It has reinforced what I already knew about my theater novel, which NEEDS to have a lot of characters just because you need a certain number of cast and crew to perform Macbeth, after all, but I have to choose which ones to cultivate and let the rest of them be placeholders, plain and simple.
My final area of reflection: Female characters. This is an interesting and debatable topic for this series. I'm don't think the series is supposed to be any sort of proactive Christian fantasy (like Narnia, or like my series with Laura), but I'm pretty sure the author is some sort of practicing Judeo-Christian or at least comes from that background. There are a handful of Biblical references and references to "God" (whether this is intended to be the Christian God or not is never specified). But there are definitely lines drawn between male and female roles in the world Henry stumbles into. It is very patriarchal and very traditional, with the men doing all the fighting and the women doing the healing/nurturing and cooking. The only female character who gets any sort of central focus is Henry's cousin, Henrietta (yes, it's funny-- there are also two characters named Frank, which gets confusing). Henrietta very brave, but in a defiant and reckless way, and Henry is obliged grudgingly to save her life more than once. Her characterization is a bit muddy in that sense. Henry's mother, grandmother, aunt, and sisters all seem to be cut from the same cloth: wise, gentle, and powerful in their own rights.
Oh yeah, and there's the witch. She's... the exact opposite, except she's obviously powerful.
This is the kind of gender distinction that I think would make this series distasteful to some of my circle of friends. (In other words, Kate, I'm not sure you'd like it-- though it did get a positive review from T.Pierce). Coming from a traditional background myself, I'm not offended because I believe that God did design men and women in general to be better suited for distinct but coequal roles, and the women in this family are very highly honored and respected by their male counterparts. They're certainly not portrayed as lesser or demeaned in any way. I'll probably read this series again some time, but I will admit it would have been nice for some female character, at some point, to get to kick some kind of butt, with weapons, magic, or words. Not just Henrietta careening into trouble all the time.
All in all, though, I loved it. It has a very warm, positive vibe, which is just the ticket sometimes for reading material when one is stressed out and needs to escape. It has the added benefit of nobody dying in the end (in other words, Laura, you'll probably love it). Oh, except grandma, who was old and ready to go anyway. :-)
And with that, I'm off to lunch. Productive work day so far. Yay!!
My suitcase is packed and baking in the back seat of my car. I'm leaving work at precisely 4:00 p.m. and heading to Columbus to visit first my friend Sabrina from high school and her family, whom I haven't seen in a sad number of years (given how easy a distance she lives from me) and then to spend the rest of the weekend with laura_josephsen. I packed my copy of Shiver and all my notebooks. I may write, I may not. This weekend is for ultimate vegging (while still being a respectful and non-slob guest, of course, Laura, LOL).
Oooh! Speaking of packing books, I just finished a book trilogy, which I also packed in my suitcase to let Laura read, if she feels like it. I guess I could talk about that in my blog...
The three books in this series are called 100 Cupboards, Dandelion Fire, and The Chestnut King. The central premise is very Narnia-esque. Our hero, Henry York, comes to live with his aunt and uncle in a rinky dink Kansas town and discovers little doors to a slew of worlds and times behind the plaster on the wall of his attic bedroom. Naturally, exploring the possibilities of these 100 cupboards lands him in trouble and has him facing off with a Major Evil Character.
In book one, Henry discovers the cupboards, releases the Evil, and discovers Truth About Himself (namely, that his origins are Not Of This World).
In book two, Henry's quest is to resolve the questions of where he came from and who his family are, which he does. He also discovers that he is a hugely major badass mage. A minion of the Major Evil Character is defeated.
Book three is centered specifically on the destruction of Major Evil Character and Henry achieving his happiness.
What's interesting about this book series, to me, is that I kind of loved it even though at times the author didn't seem to know what he wanted it to be. The broadest trope that I could assign to it is a coming-of-age story, since Henry's journey from beginning to end is about discovering who he is and what he wants to do with that information when he discovers it. But the tone and structure of Book 1 and Book 3 are so far removed it's almost funny to pull back and realize they're part of the same story. Book 1 has a very Nanowrimo novel quality in that it seems to just be the "100 Magic Doors premise and... Go! See what happens!" where as books 2 and 3 have a much more clearly outlined Plan. Book 1 feels like random adventure (even though ultimately it's not), Book 2 is vague and Book 3 is a quest. The narrative is more whimsical in the first book as well, less focused on the plot.
Henry, as a protagonist, is both steady, and vulnerable. His reaction to his Huge Important Destiny is more bewilderment than the typical 'OMG why did this happen to me!?!?' resentment or elation. But he just kinds of shrugs and goes with it, trying his best at each obstacle, and for that I did learn to love him.
There's an interesting family dynamic to this series. Henry begins the series as seemingly an orphan, but unlike Harry Potter (or countless other heroes), his family isn't dead. They just sort of... misplaced him. I was actually really surprised by the fact that the mystery of Henry's origin was resolved as early as book 2, kind of expecting it to be a full trilogy journey. Both of Henry's parents are still very much alive, and he has a whole slew of brothers and sisters to boot. They are all happily reunited in Book 2, and all set up to face the Big Baddie in book 3 together. Which brings me to another point on which this series is both like and different than typical fantasy archetypes: while Henry's birthright makes him a key player in the ultimate showdown, he is never painted as being the ONLY vehicle possible for winning the day. After he finds his family, Henry has a very positive support system and a LOT more effective help than most fumbling heroes ever seem to get. Which is interesting, because it makes Henry's overall conflict less Epically External and more of a nice balance between external conflict and internal character growth.
There are a WHOLE LOT of supporting characters in this series, primarily because Henry's family is so huge (including parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins), but he also picks up two or four completely unrelated sidekicks. On one hand, I loved it because minor characters (and ships between minor characters) are the most stimulating fodder for engaging my love of a series. I love a huge cast. At times, however, it's hard to keep track of them all in this series, and really the story wouldn't have suffered if Henry had had a few fewer siblings, cousins, and random sidekicks who got very little screen time but still had to be kept track of. Admittedly, he did a much better job of this than Robert Jordan (don't get me started), but at times it still felt like he had way too many balls in the air. It has reinforced what I already knew about my theater novel, which NEEDS to have a lot of characters just because you need a certain number of cast and crew to perform Macbeth, after all, but I have to choose which ones to cultivate and let the rest of them be placeholders, plain and simple.
My final area of reflection: Female characters. This is an interesting and debatable topic for this series. I'm don't think the series is supposed to be any sort of proactive Christian fantasy (like Narnia, or like my series with Laura), but I'm pretty sure the author is some sort of practicing Judeo-Christian or at least comes from that background. There are a handful of Biblical references and references to "God" (whether this is intended to be the Christian God or not is never specified). But there are definitely lines drawn between male and female roles in the world Henry stumbles into. It is very patriarchal and very traditional, with the men doing all the fighting and the women doing the healing/nurturing and cooking. The only female character who gets any sort of central focus is Henry's cousin, Henrietta (yes, it's funny-- there are also two characters named Frank, which gets confusing). Henrietta very brave, but in a defiant and reckless way, and Henry is obliged grudgingly to save her life more than once. Her characterization is a bit muddy in that sense. Henry's mother, grandmother, aunt, and sisters all seem to be cut from the same cloth: wise, gentle, and powerful in their own rights.
Oh yeah, and there's the witch. She's... the exact opposite, except she's obviously powerful.
This is the kind of gender distinction that I think would make this series distasteful to some of my circle of friends. (In other words, Kate, I'm not sure you'd like it-- though it did get a positive review from T.Pierce). Coming from a traditional background myself, I'm not offended because I believe that God did design men and women in general to be better suited for distinct but coequal roles, and the women in this family are very highly honored and respected by their male counterparts. They're certainly not portrayed as lesser or demeaned in any way. I'll probably read this series again some time, but I will admit it would have been nice for some female character, at some point, to get to kick some kind of butt, with weapons, magic, or words. Not just Henrietta careening into trouble all the time.
All in all, though, I loved it. It has a very warm, positive vibe, which is just the ticket sometimes for reading material when one is stressed out and needs to escape. It has the added benefit of nobody dying in the end (in other words, Laura, you'll probably love it). Oh, except grandma, who was old and ready to go anyway. :-)
And with that, I'm off to lunch. Productive work day so far. Yay!!