the wisdom of the fool won't set you free

[musesfool]

What I'm reading Wednesday:

What I've just finished

Still rereading Amelia Peabody, and this week it was The Ape Who Guards the Balance, which I enjoyed, Guardian of the Horizon, which I had to skim a lot of because ugh, Merasen. So irritating. I had forgotten about Daria though. I wonder if that was a retcon or what, given this was one of the

Comments

[flaming_muse]

You know, I had the exact same issue with Nefret in Falcon, and I remember sitting in my chair in stunned shock with tears on my face when she showed up married, because what?! I always liked Nefret for being so independent, and this just... and after what had happened with Ramses and how lovely that scene between them was when they finally got together... *flails her hands around* I mean, she knows him. She should have known better, and even if she had that flouncing, angry part, which I get, the marriage... IDK. It felt like drama for the sake of drama in many ways, and apparently this many years later I'm still stunned and kind of angry about it.

[musesfool]

Yeah, and when I first read it, I had to wait a year until "He Shall Thunder in the Sky" - I was SO ANGRY. Clearly, I still am. It's one of those books I've reread up until this point and then just gone, NOPE and not finished.

I mean, she knows him. She should have known better, and even if she had that flouncing, angry part, which I get, the marriage... IDK. It felt like drama for the sake of drama

EXACTLY. Flouncing out angrily and then coming back a day later after she'd had time to cool down and figure it out? Totally understandable and believable. RUNNING OFF TO GET MARRIED? NOPE.

[flaming_muse]

YES. I remember ACHING for a YEAR (this was before I was in fandom, but I had fannish levels of passion for Peters' writings and actually met her twice!), getting the next book the day it came out, and not so much reading it as skimming it to find out if Peters was going to FIX IT. I just had SO MUCH ANGUISH AND ANGER. I didn't even read the next one until it was in paperback, because I couldn't bear it. I know she wanted a Ramses-Nefret quartet of books, but it was nearly unbearable for me as a reader in real time, since she'd made me grow madly in love with these characters and then made me hurt for them for four years when the earlier books had always tied up most of the hard stuff more neatly. It was unexpected, and I didn't trust her as an author quite the same way anymore because plot points felt like an author's choice and not the character's

[musesfool]

I started reading them before fandom, I think, but I did lurk on the MPM mailing list for a while. That was an odd bunch, iirc.

And yes, it's not that I minded a cliffhanger or angst, but it was just SO STUPID. Nefret should have KNOWN BETTER and it just makes me shake my head and curse a lot.

[redfiona99]

I have similar issues with Nefret. Part of the problem is exactly as you say, that she's a lot of the things the earlier books mocked done straight.

[musesfool]

Yeah, I mean, if you can block it out, their marriage is very cute (though Ramses' continued jealousy is ...not attractive), but it's just a huge WTF stain on her character and on the books.