Reading roundup

[hamsterwoman]

48. N.K.Jemisin, The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth #1) -- So I read Jemisin's debut Hundred Thousand Kingdoms books, the first two, and was underwhelmed. People were praising them to the skies, but to me, the first book was a perfectly ordinary, middle-of-the-road high fantasy story, with the (important, I agree) distinction of a world that did

Comments

[gelsey]

I loved the book. I should reread ir. It was intense and I know I missed things. But I guessed it was the moon early on! I felt like it was a far far far future of earth and somehow we'd destroyed the moon and all these things had happened.

*puts ordinary magic on her list*

[hamsterwoman]

I also thought it was a far future our-earth, but Jemisin has said it's not (spoilers for Shannara, if you care, in that blog post). But it seems like a lot of readers, in addition to you and me, thought so. I was assuming the sessapinae and the weird hair and whatnot evolved in response to the cataclysmic event that set things off -- but if orogenes were at the root of it, then it probably makes sense for it not to be earth.

The moon thing was really well done! (Curse my tendency to skim descriptions, heh :P)

Ordinary Magic was rather cute! I hope you enjoy it, if you read it.

[ikel89]

I :')ed my way through your Carry On review, honestly XD I'm torn between saying "i was right!!" about the reading order at least, but I also seem to be the only person I know who's not been overexposed to drarry and therefore has no drarry issues with Simon/Baz. And while I do nod vehemently to Penny and Agatha appreciation, some of the Mage stuff didn't work for me: I gleefully enjoyed how downright shady he was from the beginning, and that well-intentioned extremism angle, but he was kinda joyless. And the soggy Simon's mom chapters were soggy, so this whole plot thread sagged for me. Ebb and Nico's and Natasha's and the rest of their plotlines were more fun.

[hamsterwoman]

re: reading order -- I'm actually not sure which I would say is best to read first (for me) in retrospect. Reading Carry On first would've kept me unspoiled for Simon's origins (for a bit longer anyway), but I don't know if it would've helped divorce it from Hogwarts for me. (Besides, I knew how Carry On and Fangirl were related to each other, so I knew Carry On was the sorta-fic. I probably wouldn't have known it was so HP, but HP is the first fandom I think of when it comes to fic anyway, because it was the first fandom where I actively read fic, so... *shrug*). And I think reading Fangirl first was probably better for my enjoyment of Rowell overall -- I really liked Fangirl, and it left me with some positive cache towards the author, which I'm not sure Carry On would have done

[ikel89]

Okay, I shall be resigned to sitting alone in my Carry On appreciation corner :P (Fangirl would have been appreciated by me so much better if I wasn't so annoyed with Cath... And for that reason I am not willing to check out her other works.)

I think that might be an intentional point, in terms of Dumbledore deconstruction
*nods* possible. also right, i guess, if the purpose was to de-romanticise stuff. It's just - I'd rather the book spent time building up other relationships.

[hamsterwoman]

*pats* It's OK. <3 (An I did like it, and I'm glad I read it (I would be just for Penny and Agatha, but there were lots of other things I liked, too).

For what it's worth, having also read Eleanor and Park and now also Landline, none of the other protagonists are as... helpless and neprisposoblennye as Cath. I think that Rowell is interested in writing protagonists who, as the therapist tells Simon, are trauma victims/survivors, and exploring the different ways they deal with that. Simon, Baz, Cath, Wren, Eleanor are all survivors, but their trauma is different, and their way of coping is different, and that's interesting for me to see.

I'd rather the book spent time building up other relationshipsI agree with you there. The Mage didn't feel like a character, just a deconstruction, and I both think that Rowell is better at actual characters and I personally enjoy reading about characters more. I think that was some of the unevenness, lopsidedness I was feeling, where part of the narrative was doing something different than just

[a_phoenixdragon]

I've been slowly slogging my way through the Night Masque series. Alas, I have nothing to say on them, as they are that...meh?? I dunno. I have been spoiled by fanfic, methinks.

*HUGS*

[hamsterwoman]

Sorry to hear those books aren't better / aren't keeping your interest more. Hopefully something else good will come along!

[_profiterole_]

and doesn't think too much about the "does this mean I'm gay" thing

It's a pity that it's part of the long list of stories where bisexuality isn't even mentioned as a possibility. *sighs*

But apart from that, the in-text obsession before Baz even appeared in the book was priceless. <3

[hamsterwoman]

Yeah, I was surprised that the fact that bisexuality is a thing never came up. I can believe Simon not thinking/saying it -- he does say he thinks he's "at least partly gay" or something like that -- because he's not had a normal, healthy upbringing and I wouldn't expect him to be any more insightful/mature about this than about anything else having to do with emotions or relationships. But, like, Penny using the word would've made sense (or Baz, though I imagine Baz is less concerned with the exact classification, being understandably focused on Simon's feelings for and interest in HIM).

the in-text obsession before Baz even appeared in the book was priceless. <3It was very cute, especially knowing that they got together in the end. But in a very H/D way, so a lot of it was like "awww, I remember fics like this" for me. (I think maybe part of my problem is that I've read a LOT of H/D without ever actually properly shipping it -- I'd read the fic because a lot of stellar authors were writing it, and I'm multishippy by nature, so I

[davesmusictank]

I will have to look out for some of these.

[hamsterwoman]

I hope you enjoy them if you have a chance to read them!