Book/Movie Recs as of 8/17/12

[retsuko]

In Books:

Embassytown, by China Mieville: Mieville has so many ideas in his books that I sometimes worry that the story is going to explode in a metaphorical spring-snake-out-of-a-can-of-"party-nuts" surprise ending. The plot in this book wasn't like that, exactly, but I began to feel like all the fabulous ideas came at the expense of something

Comments

[orichalcum]

I agree about the suspense - Mckinley does beginnings much better than endings - but I love it, in part, as a tale about raising the child you have, not some imaginary dream of a child. :) Not everyone is well suited to be a Princess.

[retsuko]

I was really invested up until that point! And then... well, I was curious to see how everything ended, but I didn't rush to read it, exactly. And I agree with your idea about child-raising. I did like the plot mention of Katriona et al. babysitting kids at the dangerous toddler stage, on the grounds that baby-magic was just too much trouble for normal parents. I wish I had someone like them sometimes, since R.'s magic appears to be chaos-related. ;)

[orichalcum]

Yes. And I just adore the beginning, with the world-setting of the ridiculously-high-magic land which nevertheless has problems. :) Though I do get a bit squicky with how many of her tales involve May-November romances...

[retsuko]

That was a bit problematic, although I guess I fixed it in my head by saying, well, he's NOT that much older than her, and magical, but... Yeah.