Reviews - Juliet Marillier, Douglas Adams, Kirby Crow
A batch of reviews today and a batch tomorrow, to catch up -- I've been reading a lot!
Wildwood Dancing (Juliet Marillier)
Wildwood Dancing is a very interesting blend of several different fairytales and folklore: the seven dancing princesses, the princess and the frog, stories of vampires and fairies. I love fairytale retellings, and it was interesting to see the way these were all put together in a reasonably historical framework, in Romania -- with strong touches of realism, when the girls were going about their ordinary lives.
Unfortunately, for me, there was something all too predictable about it. I'd answered all the questions long before the narrator, Jena, even thought to ask them. I knew the identity of Gogu, and what Cezar had done, and what would happen to Costi... At some point, I've read a book very like this, or enough books that were like this to tie them all together and make an Ur-Wildwood Dancing in my head! That made it rather less fun for me, since I knew how it would all go and I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop, constantly.
With that in mind, I'm not sure how much I actually enjoyed reading it. Everything just seemed so familiar -- and I'm absolutely positive I haven't read it before. If you enjoy fairytale retellings, I think it's worth a try, and I haven't been put off Juliet Marillier entirely: I'm going to read Cybele's Secret, at least, which is the sequel to this. I'm told the narrator is one of the sisters from this story, but not Jena. I wanted more depth in Paula, Iulia and Stela, so perhaps Cybele's Secret will provide. If not, I'll give one of her other books from a different series a try, and then perhaps give it up if that doesn't work out... I really want to like what Marillier does -- and in some ways, her work reminds me of Robin McKinley's: that was a part of the familiarity I had with the writing, I think -- but this was just too, too predictable for me.
Cybele's Secret (Juliet Marillier)
To my surprise, I actually enjoyed Cybele's Secret more than Wildwood Dancing. The main problem I had with Wildwood Dancing was the predictability, and maybe the tortuous way everything went wrong, and so the pacing... For the most part, Cybele's Secret was better, in that respect. I didn't figure out the whole plot in the first fifty pages as I did with Wildwood Dancing, so it didn't drag so much for me -- and when it got to the last part, I was hooked, toes curling with excitement, grinning like an idiot: the lot.
My main criticism of Cybele's Secret is how very, very similar Paula's tone was to Jena's. The two sisters are alike, but... Not so alike, I'd thought. I might have been reading the same narrator, though, or so it seemed to me... And the separation of Paula and her father, the way she got on the ship... Once she was on the ship, she acted in character, but there was nothing level-headed about going to confront a man she believed to be violent, unscrupulous and cruel. I didn't believe that as something she would do. Which is unfortunate, because part of the plot hinged on that.
I predicted who would be following them, too, and even how she would end, so it still didn't keep me on my toes -- but the feeling of utter familiarity wasn't there.
It's hard to say, after that, what I did like so much. Duarte and Stoyan, mainly. I believed in both their characters, and in their different loves for Paula. And I believed in her affection for them. The end made me smile a lot.
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Douglas Adams)
One of the most annoying things about reading the Kindle edition of this book was the fact that popular highlights show up and you can't turn them off, at least not easily. It drove me mad. It was inevitably the parts that you'd pick out as funny for yourself, not anything surprisingly good...
Anyway, I grew up with Douglas Adams' work in the background, on the radio while we ate or while me and my sister played after dinner and my dad tried to relax. He's a big Douglas Adams fan, though he sticks mostly to the radio stuff, thinking that has more life.
I do enjoy Douglas Adams' writing, but I didn't find Dirk Gently as compulsive to read as Hitchhiker's Guide. There were a lot of good bits -- things I might pull out as memorable quotes -- but it didn't come out that memorably as a whole. The quotes are memorable without the story surrounding them. They're sort of bon mots that felt sort of pasted in, for the most part.
It's fun, don't get me wrong, and it was excellent train reading: entertaining without needing my full focus.
The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul (Douglas Adams)
I'm not sure whether this is the effect of not being jammed into half a train seat by someone twice the size of me, but The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul seemed less funny but more absorbing than the first book. It helped that it included Norse gods, I think. I had no idea that Douglas Adams had tangled with them.
On the other hand, I don't really think that as much seemed to happen, somehow. Less plates seemed to be spinning. I think that was a good thing for the narrative, but it seemed to make the second book different in tone from the first... (And then I wonder if that was just because at no point did I have to stuff my Kindle back into a bag and run to get off a train because I was about to miss getting off at the correct station. I suspect I'm more influenced by the circumstances in which I read books than I realise.)
So... on some levels, I enjoyed this more than the first book, and on some levels, less. Quite an odd feeling.
I do like the nine tenths of the subconscious being given over to penguins.
Scarlet and the White Wolf (Kirby Crow)
Scarlet and the White Wolf caught my attention when a review popped up on my feed because it's an LGBT retelling of a fairytale -- something I'm always interested in. That aspect is actually the least part of it: the references to the fairytale are there, in both obvious ways -- especially one particular scene -- and more subtly, with the themes/purpose of the fairytale playing out in the background. But there's also a lot of world-building.
In some ways, there's almost too much world-building. We're told so much about this and that custom, and not all of that information is used in a way relevant to the plot. Still, Kirby Crow creates a rich world, and the details are not so superfluous as to be easily forgotten. This is the first book of the trilogy, so this level of detail may well be justified by the later plot. One thing I find especially interesting which isn't expanded on is Deva's gift, the magic that Scarlet can use. I do hope that becomes important and more details emerge about that.
I also enjoyed the main characters: both strong men, both capable, both with their own faults. I enjoyed their relationship: the slow way they come to understand each other, and see themselves each through the other's eyes, and the way they come closer to each other. I love Scarlet's slow awakening to himself, and I love what he does at the end.
I also loved the background characters, particularly Scaja and Linhona. Annaya appealed less, in some ways, but I did care for what happens to her. I'm hoping that there'll be more about her and Shansi, too, since so much was made of their survival.
In general, it was much better than I'd expected. There were one or two parts that gave me pause, early on -- profiling a whole race, clearly based on one of our own races, as this or that -- but to some extent that was worked out.
Mariner's Luck (Kirby Crow)
I think Mariner's Luck suffered somewhat from middle book syndrome. Not much seemed to happen in the first... seventy-five percent of the book, or thereabouts, and then a lot of things came out in the end. Most of the book is taken up with a journey which consists mostly of Scarlet being endangered repeatedly, and Liall and Scarlet repeatedly hurting and misunderstanding each other. There is one big hint at Scarlet's power, but little comes of it. Then, in the last quarter of the book, they reach Liall's home, meet his family, consummate their relationship, secrets threaten to come out, political set-up begins...
It feels like a bridge between two books. The last quarter of the book is definitely worth it, particularly for the sex scene between Scarlet and Liall! It's tastefully done and emotionally satisfying without being some great big cheesefest about how they're going to live happily ever after. The tension was getting near unbearable -- in the sense that it was becoming ridiculous -- and I hope Kirby Crow successfully walks the line, in the next book, between taking away a large part of Scarlet's personality and not acknowledging the emotional development going on.
I'm looking forward to what the next book holds, anyway.
The Land of Night (Kirby Crow)
The Land of Night is a bit longer than the first two books, and there's a lot going on -- it's much more political than the first book, and more evenly paced than the second. There were a lot more likeable characters than in the second book, too -- Nadiushka, Cestimir, Jochi... It isn't at all gentle with those characters, so of course I got my heart bruised a little, but still -- it was better with them than if they hadn't been present or if they'd been unlikeable.
The world-building does come to a head fairly satisfactorily, here. I wish there had been more of a lead-up to the reveal, in some ways, because it touches on a more science fiction-like theme, where it was all fantasy before... I think there's more a problem in the minds of readers than anything else, though, because the clues are there and there's nothing to stop a fantastical world having technology or space exploration or whatever. We're creating a world other than our own, but it usually obeys most of the same rules of the world that we know.
The conflicts and misunderstandings between Liall and Scarlet are well handled, I think. Nothing too ridiculous -- a real threat to their relationship -- but not things I would stop respecting real people for forgiving and forgetting.
I've read that there will be another book, and I'm glad. I do think this is a satisfactory end, but... I do want more, too. I hope Liall and Scarlet continue to grow and accept each other and their situation -- and I want to see how it plays out.
Stuff here is posted first to Dreamwidth. I won't disable comments here, but I prefer to receive comments on DW. Go here to do so. If you need a DW invite, ask. There is a tutorial on how to set up your OpenID here. If you comment anonymously, please sign your comments!
Wildwood Dancing (Juliet Marillier)
Wildwood Dancing is a very interesting blend of several different fairytales and folklore: the seven dancing princesses, the princess and the frog, stories of vampires and fairies. I love fairytale retellings, and it was interesting to see the way these were all put together in a reasonably historical framework, in Romania -- with strong touches of realism, when the girls were going about their ordinary lives.
Unfortunately, for me, there was something all too predictable about it. I'd answered all the questions long before the narrator, Jena, even thought to ask them. I knew the identity of Gogu, and what Cezar had done, and what would happen to Costi... At some point, I've read a book very like this, or enough books that were like this to tie them all together and make an Ur-Wildwood Dancing in my head! That made it rather less fun for me, since I knew how it would all go and I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop, constantly.
With that in mind, I'm not sure how much I actually enjoyed reading it. Everything just seemed so familiar -- and I'm absolutely positive I haven't read it before. If you enjoy fairytale retellings, I think it's worth a try, and I haven't been put off Juliet Marillier entirely: I'm going to read Cybele's Secret, at least, which is the sequel to this. I'm told the narrator is one of the sisters from this story, but not Jena. I wanted more depth in Paula, Iulia and Stela, so perhaps Cybele's Secret will provide. If not, I'll give one of her other books from a different series a try, and then perhaps give it up if that doesn't work out... I really want to like what Marillier does -- and in some ways, her work reminds me of Robin McKinley's: that was a part of the familiarity I had with the writing, I think -- but this was just too, too predictable for me.
Cybele's Secret (Juliet Marillier)
To my surprise, I actually enjoyed Cybele's Secret more than Wildwood Dancing. The main problem I had with Wildwood Dancing was the predictability, and maybe the tortuous way everything went wrong, and so the pacing... For the most part, Cybele's Secret was better, in that respect. I didn't figure out the whole plot in the first fifty pages as I did with Wildwood Dancing, so it didn't drag so much for me -- and when it got to the last part, I was hooked, toes curling with excitement, grinning like an idiot: the lot.
My main criticism of Cybele's Secret is how very, very similar Paula's tone was to Jena's. The two sisters are alike, but... Not so alike, I'd thought. I might have been reading the same narrator, though, or so it seemed to me... And the separation of Paula and her father, the way she got on the ship... Once she was on the ship, she acted in character, but there was nothing level-headed about going to confront a man she believed to be violent, unscrupulous and cruel. I didn't believe that as something she would do. Which is unfortunate, because part of the plot hinged on that.
I predicted who would be following them, too, and even how she would end, so it still didn't keep me on my toes -- but the feeling of utter familiarity wasn't there.
It's hard to say, after that, what I did like so much. Duarte and Stoyan, mainly. I believed in both their characters, and in their different loves for Paula. And I believed in her affection for them. The end made me smile a lot.
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Douglas Adams)
One of the most annoying things about reading the Kindle edition of this book was the fact that popular highlights show up and you can't turn them off, at least not easily. It drove me mad. It was inevitably the parts that you'd pick out as funny for yourself, not anything surprisingly good...
Anyway, I grew up with Douglas Adams' work in the background, on the radio while we ate or while me and my sister played after dinner and my dad tried to relax. He's a big Douglas Adams fan, though he sticks mostly to the radio stuff, thinking that has more life.
I do enjoy Douglas Adams' writing, but I didn't find Dirk Gently as compulsive to read as Hitchhiker's Guide. There were a lot of good bits -- things I might pull out as memorable quotes -- but it didn't come out that memorably as a whole. The quotes are memorable without the story surrounding them. They're sort of bon mots that felt sort of pasted in, for the most part.
It's fun, don't get me wrong, and it was excellent train reading: entertaining without needing my full focus.
The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul (Douglas Adams)
I'm not sure whether this is the effect of not being jammed into half a train seat by someone twice the size of me, but The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul seemed less funny but more absorbing than the first book. It helped that it included Norse gods, I think. I had no idea that Douglas Adams had tangled with them.
On the other hand, I don't really think that as much seemed to happen, somehow. Less plates seemed to be spinning. I think that was a good thing for the narrative, but it seemed to make the second book different in tone from the first... (And then I wonder if that was just because at no point did I have to stuff my Kindle back into a bag and run to get off a train because I was about to miss getting off at the correct station. I suspect I'm more influenced by the circumstances in which I read books than I realise.)
So... on some levels, I enjoyed this more than the first book, and on some levels, less. Quite an odd feeling.
I do like the nine tenths of the subconscious being given over to penguins.
Scarlet and the White Wolf (Kirby Crow)
Scarlet and the White Wolf caught my attention when a review popped up on my feed because it's an LGBT retelling of a fairytale -- something I'm always interested in. That aspect is actually the least part of it: the references to the fairytale are there, in both obvious ways -- especially one particular scene -- and more subtly, with the themes/purpose of the fairytale playing out in the background. But there's also a lot of world-building.
In some ways, there's almost too much world-building. We're told so much about this and that custom, and not all of that information is used in a way relevant to the plot. Still, Kirby Crow creates a rich world, and the details are not so superfluous as to be easily forgotten. This is the first book of the trilogy, so this level of detail may well be justified by the later plot. One thing I find especially interesting which isn't expanded on is Deva's gift, the magic that Scarlet can use. I do hope that becomes important and more details emerge about that.
I also enjoyed the main characters: both strong men, both capable, both with their own faults. I enjoyed their relationship: the slow way they come to understand each other, and see themselves each through the other's eyes, and the way they come closer to each other. I love Scarlet's slow awakening to himself, and I love what he does at the end.
I also loved the background characters, particularly Scaja and Linhona. Annaya appealed less, in some ways, but I did care for what happens to her. I'm hoping that there'll be more about her and Shansi, too, since so much was made of their survival.
In general, it was much better than I'd expected. There were one or two parts that gave me pause, early on -- profiling a whole race, clearly based on one of our own races, as this or that -- but to some extent that was worked out.
Mariner's Luck (Kirby Crow)
I think Mariner's Luck suffered somewhat from middle book syndrome. Not much seemed to happen in the first... seventy-five percent of the book, or thereabouts, and then a lot of things came out in the end. Most of the book is taken up with a journey which consists mostly of Scarlet being endangered repeatedly, and Liall and Scarlet repeatedly hurting and misunderstanding each other. There is one big hint at Scarlet's power, but little comes of it. Then, in the last quarter of the book, they reach Liall's home, meet his family, consummate their relationship, secrets threaten to come out, political set-up begins...
It feels like a bridge between two books. The last quarter of the book is definitely worth it, particularly for the sex scene between Scarlet and Liall! It's tastefully done and emotionally satisfying without being some great big cheesefest about how they're going to live happily ever after. The tension was getting near unbearable -- in the sense that it was becoming ridiculous -- and I hope Kirby Crow successfully walks the line, in the next book, between taking away a large part of Scarlet's personality and not acknowledging the emotional development going on.
I'm looking forward to what the next book holds, anyway.
The Land of Night (Kirby Crow)
The Land of Night is a bit longer than the first two books, and there's a lot going on -- it's much more political than the first book, and more evenly paced than the second. There were a lot more likeable characters than in the second book, too -- Nadiushka, Cestimir, Jochi... It isn't at all gentle with those characters, so of course I got my heart bruised a little, but still -- it was better with them than if they hadn't been present or if they'd been unlikeable.
The world-building does come to a head fairly satisfactorily, here. I wish there had been more of a lead-up to the reveal, in some ways, because it touches on a more science fiction-like theme, where it was all fantasy before... I think there's more a problem in the minds of readers than anything else, though, because the clues are there and there's nothing to stop a fantastical world having technology or space exploration or whatever. We're creating a world other than our own, but it usually obeys most of the same rules of the world that we know.
The conflicts and misunderstandings between Liall and Scarlet are well handled, I think. Nothing too ridiculous -- a real threat to their relationship -- but not things I would stop respecting real people for forgiving and forgetting.
I've read that there will be another book, and I'm glad. I do think this is a satisfactory end, but... I do want more, too. I hope Liall and Scarlet continue to grow and accept each other and their situation -- and I want to see how it plays out.
Stuff here is posted first to Dreamwidth. I won't disable comments here, but I prefer to receive comments on DW. Go here to do so. If you need a DW invite, ask. There is a tutorial on how to set up your OpenID here. If you comment anonymously, please sign your comments!