Sharing Knife wuv stowy
I picked up The Sharing Knife: Beguilment, by Lois McMaster Bujold, at Orca yesterday. The plot is definitely secondary to the love story, and it's not up there with, say, Shards of Honor, but it's a very enjoyable read. The characters aren't quite as quirky as her best, and the girl main character is a little naive for my taste, but she does familial relationships well.
The male main character worked just fine for me - tall, dark, dark past, wry wit, ferocious evil-baddy killer, etc. - until they got to the patroller dance and it is revealed that he plays the tamborine. Not just once, but all night. And has for years. We're talking a serious amateur tamborine player. My respect for his uber-fantasy-manliness just plumetted through the floor. I mean, come on, I've seen a guy who could take up an accordion (and set it down again) without loosing his alure, but that was a very special case, and I really don't think it's possible with a tamborine. I can suspend my disbelief for telempathy, magical knives, people made of mud and rabbits, and evil menaces that suck the life force out of the surrounding area, but the tambourine really wrenched me out of the story for awhile. On the upside, the guy has one hand, and attaches his instrument to the other, which gives us the line "He unscrewed his tambourine," which is at least a little amusing.
Marik & Vaer's story is more plot focused than Sharing Knife, which makes me feel a bit better about it. I think might have to work Elyvaer's PoV back in, and I still have to figure out what the heck they're doing, but it progresses. 4300 words now, including, in Marik's mental monologue: so, I drank and wenched my youth away. What do you do for fun?
The male main character worked just fine for me - tall, dark, dark past, wry wit, ferocious evil-baddy killer, etc. - until they got to the patroller dance and it is revealed that he plays the tamborine. Not just once, but all night. And has for years. We're talking a serious amateur tamborine player. My respect for his uber-fantasy-manliness just plumetted through the floor. I mean, come on, I've seen a guy who could take up an accordion (and set it down again) without loosing his alure, but that was a very special case, and I really don't think it's possible with a tamborine. I can suspend my disbelief for telempathy, magical knives, people made of mud and rabbits, and evil menaces that suck the life force out of the surrounding area, but the tambourine really wrenched me out of the story for awhile. On the upside, the guy has one hand, and attaches his instrument to the other, which gives us the line "He unscrewed his tambourine," which is at least a little amusing.
Marik & Vaer's story is more plot focused than Sharing Knife, which makes me feel a bit better about it. I think might have to work Elyvaer's PoV back in, and I still have to figure out what the heck they're doing, but it progresses. 4300 words now, including, in Marik's mental monologue: so, I drank and wenched my youth away. What do you do for fun?