So, I finished reading “The Summer Tree”…

Nov 24, 2009 07:02

…and here are a few random thoughts I had:

Warning: extrememly caustic attempts at wit within. )

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Comments 7

tsubaki_ny November 24 2009, 15:31:27 UTC
TIGANA! TIGANA!

(Okay, in his defense 1. It's his first book! and 2. he's not the first person I've ever read doing the liosalfar and the svartalfar thing. Elves were stolen from Norse myth and that's what the Norse called them.)

The tacked-on mythologies -- he tacked on every single mythology he could think of by the end, I believe -- were a bit distracting, even though he obviously did it on purpose. But it's nice he got some Jews in there, I thought. ^___^

-Okay, I know it would probably be a terrible idea, but I kind of wish one of them would say, "No, no I am not interested in your court politics. They're completely beneath my notice. Why? Because just a small fraction of my homeland's military might could conquer your entire world easily. We have cities with a larger population that your whole planet. If we actually had a vested interest in who ran this country, we'd just change it ourselves." It's just... how bloody egotistical are these people to think that people from another universe that's about a thousand years ( ... )

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the_narration November 24 2009, 16:24:26 UTC
TIGANA! TIGANA!
Seattle Public Library didn't have a copy. I checked out "Ysabel"... but it was in the "had to return before having read" pile. I'll get it again, most likely.

he's not the first person I've ever read doing the liosalfar and the svartalfar thing. Elves were stolen from Norse myth and that's what the Norse called them.
I would be fine with this if he hadn't still called dwarves dwarves. If it was that they had their own names for our mythological concepts, that would make sense. If the names of these creatures were all being translated into our common names for them, that's also fine. It's the mix of the two that's irritating me. (Speaking of which... I forgot a couple gripes about language. I'll have to edit.)

You should write THIS novel!You'd think somebody would have by now. "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" is kind of that novel. (It might be the influence of the "1632" series making me think those sorts of thoughts.) Still, how long can seeing medieval cavalry getting wiped out by napalm airstrikes in ( ... )

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tsubaki_ny November 24 2009, 16:34:59 UTC
("Fables" being good just made me more annoyed at how shitty Willingham's work for DC was, since it proved that he could write well but just didn't feel he should bother when he was writing other people's characters. Besides, delivering a misogynistic character derailment and fridge-stuffing is one thing, but then being a complete asshole to the readers and questioning one's manhood for claiming to have cried at the death of said character was the last straw for me.)This just makes me appreciate all the more why ignorance is bliss. I'm still sad I can't read Card anymore without feeling upset. (What other stuff has Willingham done? Should I care? Why does this sort of person keep showing up in the comics industry? Eh, I guess every industry has it's maladjusteds ( ... )

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the_narration November 25 2009, 02:59:21 UTC
Eh, Willingham's crimes against comic fandom aren't particularly noteworthy. He did a shitty job writing a book and drove its sales into the ground. He headed up a shitty crossover event that killed a beloved character. (He claims that killing her was an order he got from the editor-in-chief, but that the one thing people like about his time on the book--having her be Robin for a time before she died--was his idea. The editor-in-chief claims the opposite. I'm actually more inclined to believe Willingham... the EiC is a much bigger jackass.) The usual shit. Being such an ass to fans who criticized him is the thing that really sticks in my craw.

When I first got into comics back in '01, I swore I'd stay away from the Big Two superhero universes. Too convoluted, I figured, too cheesy. It didn't stick. I got sucked into the one by BKV's Runaways and the other by Batgirl (who I now realize pushes a bunch of my same character buttons as Kirika). Both universes have some really interesting characters in them... but the current editor-in- ( ... )

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