february books
Forest Mage is book two of the Soldier Son Trilogy. I was largely underwhelmed. In classic book-two style, it is a Book of Pain and Waiting. Basically, Nevare gets fat, loses all his friends, and nothing really interesting happens until the very very end. Well, interesting things were happening, but it felt like it could have been compressed into a rather smaller tale. Nevare wasn't active in any way, and while I understand that he wasn't supposed to be for the story, it made me want to kick him in the head, and that is not so good for the protagonist. I can't stand when people don't stand up for themselves when they are treated unjustly, and that happened so many times here. Now that I think back, it may have been the magic causing some of it, especially the horrid, horrid, behavior of his father (which was infuriating), but that doesn't make any of it less annoying. Basically I hated everyone except Spink and Epiny, who was totally awesome. But. There are some really excellent issues brought up, especially with regards to the colonial themes I mentioned in my review of the first book. On the one hand, I want Nevare to get rid of the magic, find a nice girl and live happily ever after next door to Epiny & Spink. On the other hand, that means disaster for a lot of people. It's a great tension, despite the annoyingness of this being the middle part of a trilogy.
North and South, to oversimplify, is a bit like Pride and Prejudice + Jane Eyre + Dickensian social awareness. It had its own charms, though, and I wish I'd read the book before I'd seen the movie. I already had certain expectations, interpretations of certain scenes that kept coming to mind when I wanted to enjoy the narrative unspoilt. And the movie makes some odd choices--definitely dramatizes things a great deal--and, for me, leaves a lot of what's going on with the characters in obscurity. Gaskell portrays the psychology of her characters wonderfully, and so much is elegantly understated. I couldn't really see where Margaret's feelings came from in the film, but in the book the progression is quite clear. I think that the portrayal of characters is probably my favorite part of the book. They're so real--Mr. Bell is pleased at his own wit (and is generally awesome), we see a glimpse of Margaret being silly and playing around when she tries on one of her fancy dresses. It feels like a much more realistic portrayal of life than in some novels, which have a particular theme to push through or have some sweeping story arc that must be dealt with. So, a little bit more aware of the wider world than Austen, but more personal and sweeter than Dickens. I liked it a lot, and will definitely seek out more Gaskell.