Book Meme, Day 17
17. Future classic.
The Raphsody of Blood series by Roz Kaveney. To steal the description I gave in one of my previous reviews of it: this is a brilliant series of fantasy novels with a cast almost exclusively consisting of LGTB characters, which somehow manages to walk the tightrope between mythic/epic and intimate/modern. There are two distinct narrative threads through the entire story: one set in present day, told in third person, with Emma Jones and her girlfriend and partner Caroline as the main characters, as they become embroiled in supernatural shenanigans ranging from having to play bodyguard at an annoying elf/vampire wedding to full scale battles between deities and master the challenge with an ongoing refusal to be impressed and a tendency to quip, not to mention compassion for the victims of all these events. (Of whom Caroline is one; she dies at the start and is a ghost from then onwards. This makes her love life with Emma somewhat tricky, but not impossible.)
The other narrative thread is told in first person by Mara, aka the Huntress, and moves through the millennia, not in chronological but in thematic order. Mara, as opposed to Emma and Caroline, doesn't have much of a sense of humor, but what she has is dedication to one specific goal: hunting down and making short work of any being who made themselves into a deity by using "the rituals", blood sacrifices, and protecting the people suffering from the fallout, but note she's called "Huntress" not "Protector". Quite how the two narrative threads are intertwined (beyond the fact that at the start of the saga, Mara shows up in the present a bit too late to save Caroline, dispatches the entity who killed her, kisses a distinctly unimpressed Emma and disappears again) becomes more and more clear as the story goes on, and here we get into the trickiness of spoiler territory and not wanting to ruin the careful build up. I'll try my best.
Mara is such a force of nature that one of the most impressive feats is that our author manages to keep her sections suspenseful because she's more or less undefeatable in combat. But she can be tricked and incapacitated (something Robespierre manages in volume 2, for example), she can make errors of judgment (happens several times, with the most long term consequences happening in vol.1. and vol.3.), and above all, the people she cares for through the millennia are vulnerable. Moreover, some of the opponents the story gives her are truly impressive (every hero needs some good villains), and the friends she makes very endearing, so one desperately fears for them and is incredibly relieved about those who end up well (not all do).
In conclusion: read it now, be able to say you were a reader of the first hour later!
1. Favorite book from childhood
2. Best Bargain
3. One with a blue cover.
4. Least favorite book by favorite author
5. Doesn't belong to me.
6. The one I always give as a gift.
7. Forgot I owned it.
8. Have more than one copy.
9. Film or tv tie-in.
10. Reminds me of someone I love.
11. Second hand bookshop gem.
12. I pretend to have read it.
13. Makes me laugh.
14. An old favorite.
15. Favorite Fictional Father
16. Can’t believe more people haven’t read it.
18. Bought on a recommendation.
19. Still can't stop talking about it.
20. Favorite cover.
21. Summer read.
22. Out of print.
23. Made to read at school.
24. Hooked me into reading.
25. Never finished it.
26. Should have sold more copies.
27. Want to be one of the characters.
28. Bought at my fave independent bookshop.
29. The one I have reread most often.
30. Would save if my house burned down.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1292121.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
The Raphsody of Blood series by Roz Kaveney. To steal the description I gave in one of my previous reviews of it: this is a brilliant series of fantasy novels with a cast almost exclusively consisting of LGTB characters, which somehow manages to walk the tightrope between mythic/epic and intimate/modern. There are two distinct narrative threads through the entire story: one set in present day, told in third person, with Emma Jones and her girlfriend and partner Caroline as the main characters, as they become embroiled in supernatural shenanigans ranging from having to play bodyguard at an annoying elf/vampire wedding to full scale battles between deities and master the challenge with an ongoing refusal to be impressed and a tendency to quip, not to mention compassion for the victims of all these events. (Of whom Caroline is one; she dies at the start and is a ghost from then onwards. This makes her love life with Emma somewhat tricky, but not impossible.)
The other narrative thread is told in first person by Mara, aka the Huntress, and moves through the millennia, not in chronological but in thematic order. Mara, as opposed to Emma and Caroline, doesn't have much of a sense of humor, but what she has is dedication to one specific goal: hunting down and making short work of any being who made themselves into a deity by using "the rituals", blood sacrifices, and protecting the people suffering from the fallout, but note she's called "Huntress" not "Protector". Quite how the two narrative threads are intertwined (beyond the fact that at the start of the saga, Mara shows up in the present a bit too late to save Caroline, dispatches the entity who killed her, kisses a distinctly unimpressed Emma and disappears again) becomes more and more clear as the story goes on, and here we get into the trickiness of spoiler territory and not wanting to ruin the careful build up. I'll try my best.
Mara is such a force of nature that one of the most impressive feats is that our author manages to keep her sections suspenseful because she's more or less undefeatable in combat. But she can be tricked and incapacitated (something Robespierre manages in volume 2, for example), she can make errors of judgment (happens several times, with the most long term consequences happening in vol.1. and vol.3.), and above all, the people she cares for through the millennia are vulnerable. Moreover, some of the opponents the story gives her are truly impressive (every hero needs some good villains), and the friends she makes very endearing, so one desperately fears for them and is incredibly relieved about those who end up well (not all do).
In conclusion: read it now, be able to say you were a reader of the first hour later!
1. Favorite book from childhood
2. Best Bargain
3. One with a blue cover.
4. Least favorite book by favorite author
5. Doesn't belong to me.
6. The one I always give as a gift.
7. Forgot I owned it.
8. Have more than one copy.
9. Film or tv tie-in.
10. Reminds me of someone I love.
11. Second hand bookshop gem.
12. I pretend to have read it.
13. Makes me laugh.
14. An old favorite.
15. Favorite Fictional Father
16. Can’t believe more people haven’t read it.
18. Bought on a recommendation.
19. Still can't stop talking about it.
20. Favorite cover.
21. Summer read.
22. Out of print.
23. Made to read at school.
24. Hooked me into reading.
25. Never finished it.
26. Should have sold more copies.
27. Want to be one of the characters.
28. Bought at my fave independent bookshop.
29. The one I have reread most often.
30. Would save if my house burned down.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1292121.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.