Delia Marshall Turner, Nameless Magery
I hate writing summaries and I don't want to give away too much of the plot and premise, since much of my delight came in discovering the details of the heroine's past and of the world she finds herself in. So I'll just pick the blurb off the back cover:
Thrust into a strange land, [the] Lisane possessed extraordinary magic. But could she carve out a place for herself in the beautiful barbaric realm that was her new home -- a place where dark secrets held the promise of life -- and death ... ?
Hmm. Yes. I should say the book is much better than that makes it sound. It is far too good to deserve such a distressingly ugly cover. I am surprised it isn't better known; as subdivided said in her rec, this book should be better known among LJers. It strikes me as exactly the sort of thing loads of people on LJ would like: funny, fast-paced, vivid writing; strong, smart heroine; interesting worldbuilding; hot guys out the wazoo. It was a very quick, enjoyable read, and I will be picking up the sequel.
The worldbuilding
I loved the differences between Lisane's world and the world the book takes place in. I really liked the way her culture was presented: the Year-King, cannibalism, ritual murder and all are described with an easy acceptance that feels right. And I was really taken with the way Lisane saw magic as ller. The differences between the way magic was treated on her world and the way it's treated by the mages reminded me strongly of Terry Pratchett's witches and wizards. And I could see the herb-wives coming from a mile away, but that didn't make it less delightful.
Still, there was a certain lack of depth to the worldbuilding -- the weirdness of having a world with spaceships but no cars or something. I can't remember if they have cars. Maybe they do. And of course the mages' world doesn't have spaceships, but you know, I felt there was some dissonance caused by the contrast between Lisane's very modern voice and the medieval feel of the world. Not that it isn't a relief to be free of thee-ing and thou-ing and the tiring faux archaism so much high fantasy is laden down by, but there must be a middle way.
(Incidentally, this book suffers from the old sff trope of mono-cultural planets. Considering the diversity of cultures we have on this one planet, it seems unlikely that the Year-King and Mother goddess ruled over the entire planet. Of course Lisane could just be mistaken and not have realised that the rest of the planet contained different communities, or she could just have forgotten to mention it, but still.)
The characters
- I really liked Lisane. Glaring Mary Sue, of course, but interesting and likeable enough that it didn't matter. (I can only think of one other literary character of whom I would say this: Lucy Snow from Villette. Mary Russell from Laurie R. King's Sherlock Holmes pastiches is an example of how not to do a Mary Sue unless you want your readers to grind their teeth out of their mouths.) I liked that she had a sex drive and wasn't ashamed of it, and that she was pragmatic and fearless.
I liked less her relationship with Simon and his subsequent fading out -- I mean, I didn't mind the relationship, but his disappearance from the narrative just seemed too convenient. Time for the next lover!
Something else I didn't like: Lisane's pragmatic insistence on not dwelling on the past is refreshing change from "oh my angst oh oh my angst"-type protagonists, but also meant she felt a lot less well-rounded than she could have been, as if she'd simply sprung into existence at the beginning of the book. I like her resilience, but feel she should have been a wee bit more devastated about the destruction of her entire world than that.
- Detter is like a combination of Psmith and fanon!Draco Malfoy, only more evil. If he were an anime character, he would be loved by millions. Simon is actually a lot like Harry Potter would be if grown up, I guess. Okay, I've just alarmed myself by this comparison.
(Kaihan is fanon!Snape)
Other things
There were definitely parts of the book where Turner was telling rather than showing, which is part of the reason why it's such a quick read (good thing!), but it gave the book a cardboard-ness, a lack of depth.
That said, I thought the pacing was great. Ooh, I loved the climax; it was appropriately world-spanning. And I liked that Lisane's past didn't come out in one big gloop in the beginning, but came out in bits and pieces, so that you were kept wanting more.
I wish there'd been more on the herb-wives; I was really interested in them. Perhaps there will be more in the next book.
Oh, and 2 more issues:
- I get the whole wish-fulfillment fantasy of wanting to be secretly beautiful you just don't know it, but couldn't we have for once a fantasy heroine who isn't drop-dead gorgeous? Couldn't she have looked in the mirror and gone "eh" and been okay with that? I get that the very common trope of heroines finding out that they're beautiful satisfies something deep within the id, but I'm just not sure we need to keep feeding the id that particular trash.
- Lisane's homophobia is perhaps understandable considering her culture, but it is one reason why I'm hesitating to send this to a friend who I think would otherwise enjoy the book.
ETA: I just realised I didn't say anything about the school aspect! I think it doesn't really stand out in my recollection of the book because it wasn't really a big part of it. I loved the moment of realisation when you get what Lisane means by describing it as a prison and a temple, but if you want schoolboys being horrible to each other this is probably not the right book. (Kipling's Stalky & Co does horrible schoolboys excellently.)
Thrust into a strange land, [the] Lisane possessed extraordinary magic. But could she carve out a place for herself in the beautiful barbaric realm that was her new home -- a place where dark secrets held the promise of life -- and death ... ?
Hmm. Yes. I should say the book is much better than that makes it sound. It is far too good to deserve such a distressingly ugly cover. I am surprised it isn't better known; as subdivided said in her rec, this book should be better known among LJers. It strikes me as exactly the sort of thing loads of people on LJ would like: funny, fast-paced, vivid writing; strong, smart heroine; interesting worldbuilding; hot guys out the wazoo. It was a very quick, enjoyable read, and I will be picking up the sequel.
The worldbuilding
I loved the differences between Lisane's world and the world the book takes place in. I really liked the way her culture was presented: the Year-King, cannibalism, ritual murder and all are described with an easy acceptance that feels right. And I was really taken with the way Lisane saw magic as ller. The differences between the way magic was treated on her world and the way it's treated by the mages reminded me strongly of Terry Pratchett's witches and wizards. And I could see the herb-wives coming from a mile away, but that didn't make it less delightful.
Still, there was a certain lack of depth to the worldbuilding -- the weirdness of having a world with spaceships but no cars or something. I can't remember if they have cars. Maybe they do. And of course the mages' world doesn't have spaceships, but you know, I felt there was some dissonance caused by the contrast between Lisane's very modern voice and the medieval feel of the world. Not that it isn't a relief to be free of thee-ing and thou-ing and the tiring faux archaism so much high fantasy is laden down by, but there must be a middle way.
(Incidentally, this book suffers from the old sff trope of mono-cultural planets. Considering the diversity of cultures we have on this one planet, it seems unlikely that the Year-King and Mother goddess ruled over the entire planet. Of course Lisane could just be mistaken and not have realised that the rest of the planet contained different communities, or she could just have forgotten to mention it, but still.)
The characters
- I really liked Lisane. Glaring Mary Sue, of course, but interesting and likeable enough that it didn't matter. (I can only think of one other literary character of whom I would say this: Lucy Snow from Villette. Mary Russell from Laurie R. King's Sherlock Holmes pastiches is an example of how not to do a Mary Sue unless you want your readers to grind their teeth out of their mouths.) I liked that she had a sex drive and wasn't ashamed of it, and that she was pragmatic and fearless.
I liked less her relationship with Simon and his subsequent fading out -- I mean, I didn't mind the relationship, but his disappearance from the narrative just seemed too convenient. Time for the next lover!
Something else I didn't like: Lisane's pragmatic insistence on not dwelling on the past is refreshing change from "oh my angst oh oh my angst"-type protagonists, but also meant she felt a lot less well-rounded than she could have been, as if she'd simply sprung into existence at the beginning of the book. I like her resilience, but feel she should have been a wee bit more devastated about the destruction of her entire world than that.
- Detter is like a combination of Psmith and fanon!Draco Malfoy, only more evil. If he were an anime character, he would be loved by millions. Simon is actually a lot like Harry Potter would be if grown up, I guess. Okay, I've just alarmed myself by this comparison.
(Kaihan is fanon!Snape)
Other things
There were definitely parts of the book where Turner was telling rather than showing, which is part of the reason why it's such a quick read (good thing!), but it gave the book a cardboard-ness, a lack of depth.
That said, I thought the pacing was great. Ooh, I loved the climax; it was appropriately world-spanning. And I liked that Lisane's past didn't come out in one big gloop in the beginning, but came out in bits and pieces, so that you were kept wanting more.
I wish there'd been more on the herb-wives; I was really interested in them. Perhaps there will be more in the next book.
Oh, and 2 more issues:
- I get the whole wish-fulfillment fantasy of wanting to be secretly beautiful you just don't know it, but couldn't we have for once a fantasy heroine who isn't drop-dead gorgeous? Couldn't she have looked in the mirror and gone "eh" and been okay with that? I get that the very common trope of heroines finding out that they're beautiful satisfies something deep within the id, but I'm just not sure we need to keep feeding the id that particular trash.
- Lisane's homophobia is perhaps understandable considering her culture, but it is one reason why I'm hesitating to send this to a friend who I think would otherwise enjoy the book.
ETA: I just realised I didn't say anything about the school aspect! I think it doesn't really stand out in my recollection of the book because it wasn't really a big part of it. I loved the moment of realisation when you get what Lisane means by describing it as a prison and a temple, but if you want schoolboys being horrible to each other this is probably not the right book. (Kipling's Stalky & Co does horrible schoolboys excellently.)