wSep 1, 2009


The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

I'm generally bad at book synopses to begin with (which is why I don't often blog what I'm reading), but I'll do an especially poor job in this post because it's really difficult to write about this book without giving things away.

This is the book that nojojojo referred to in a post you might remember from RaceFail, We Worry About It, Too.

After the death of her mother, Yeine Darr heads south from her homeland to the city Sky, where she is sucked into a world filled with paranoia and political scheming. She wants to find out how her mother died, but she soon has enough problems trying to stay alive. Yeine is a competent and bad-ass heroine, and I never tired of her throughout the book.

I tend to prefer science fiction to fantasy; I get really tired of keeping track of the names of people and gods and races and lands and etc. And I struggled a little bit with this book at first due to this tendency of mine, but the fantastic prose hooked me and kept me going, and so did the suspense. It seemed that with every page, Yeine learned more about her own past, that of the people surrounding her, and that about the history of her world and the gods who made it. I highly recommend this book.

The premise of the sequel (book two in a trilogy) sounds interesting to me, but it will be written in the first person from the perspective of another character. I'm a little nervous that it will be difficult for Jemisin to pull off a separate character's voice while maintaining the first-person perspective. However, her writing was so masterful in this first book that I will happily give her the benefit of the doubt.

Also, the cover is gorgeous.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms will be released on February 25, 2010. Look forward to it!

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scribbled mystickeeper at 10:32 PM
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wFeb 26, 2009


Protector of the Small

I read Song of the Lioness in fragments spread out over a few months, and I'd have to read it again for style, but I think that Protector of the Small was better written. I definitely liked Kel better as a protagonist.

I like how hard Pierce makes Kel work. I feel like I'm there for every blow, every muscle strain, of her training to become a knight. I remember this being true in the Song of the Lioness Quartet, too. I like that Kel had to deal with bullying/hazing. She didn't tattle, but got stronger and made sure it didn't happen to others. I have so much respect for her strength and personal code of honor. I think these will be comfort books for me in the future!

I like how Kel ages throughout the four books, both physically and emotionally. Everyone around her changes, too, even the way characters view each other and the world. Pierce is really good with her viewpoint characters - while some characters appear in many of her books, they are viewed differently by the people telling the story. I like her consistency, and the obvious thought she gives to viewpoint and the backgrounds people are coming from.

I like that it seems Pierce realized how "easy" Alanna had it in Song of the Lioness - and so Kel has no magic. I found this quartet less annoying than SotL. Kel doesn't have magical powers, a magical pendant, a magic Goddess-voiced cat, a magic horse, or whatever else. The Prince of Tortall is not her best friend. I like that Kel has to do without the Gift, that some things don't come naturally to her. As much as Alanna's life sucked sometimes, I feel like Knighthood/etc. came a bit too easily/naturally for the protagonist, like it was ordained. I found it a lot easier to relate to Keladry.


I found the death of Joren of Stone Mountain in the Chamber of Ordeal to be a little WTF. I mean, it was angsty and sort of neat, but it seemed almost too simple of a way for her nemesis to be taken care of. While Alanna's Uber Destiny with Duke Roger made me roll my eyes a little bit, this interaction was a little bit too far at the other end of the spectrum for me.

The ending of the series was a bit of a let-down for me. Kel killed both of the Evil Dudes, just as expected, and none of her friends died. I know they're chidrens' books, but come on...a main character died in Animorphs, and I think those books are a little less involved than Pierce's Tortall books, although they're probably equally violent. It was a bit too cut-and-dry for me.

I liked the middle of Lady Knight much better. I really did not expect Haven to get razed like that. Although, finding out that not everybody was killed was sort of sucky. I really liked the emotional impact of Kel realizing they had been hit hard, and I think it almost would have been cooler if everyone in Haven had died, and Kel had to live with it.


Like that Kel ends up with nobody. While I appreciate Pierce's discussion of bodies and birth control, I also think it's nice that Kel doesn't have sex, and even moreso that it's Cleon, the dude, who wants to wait until marriage. Kel is miffed, but respects the decision. It seems like whenever feminist YA authors present women with a choice about sex, the girls always end up having it, so it was refreshing to see Kel having frank conversations with her mother (in which her mother said, be on birth control, and then decide) that are mature, and then having to wait anyway.

I also really like that she didn't end up engaged at the end, like Alanna did. Hello, being 18 years old!




So, I say all of these good things with a grain of salt. What makes Kel somewhat special in comparison to her peers is that her father was the Tortallan diplomat to the Yamani Islands for 6 years of her childhood. Thus, Kel is not only adept at interacting with people hailing from the Yamani culture, but is also trained in Yamani fighting styles and weapons. After making it through Tortall's training for knighthood, she uses her weapon of choice: a glaive.

It's extremely clear that the Yamani Islands are meant to be Japan. Women wear kimonos secured by obis. Kel refers to her weapon with the "Yamani" (see: actually Japanese) word naginata. In the text, Yamani people bow by placing their palms flat on their thighs and bending forward. Honor is taken very seriously by warriors, and death is viewed as preferaable to surrender or capture.

But in the first two books especially, Pierce makes a narrative choice that I find pretty weird. Whenever Kel hides her emotions, she is described as acting in a Yamani manner. Not just once, but almost ad nauseum. When she smiles but is actually upset, it is a "Yamani smile." When she struggles to keep her countenance free of emotion, she is keeping it "Yamani-blank." When she defers to cultural manners as a way to interact with others, her face becomes "a Yamani mask of politeness."

It might be true that Japanese culture looks less favorably on a selfish outpouring of emotions than, say, U.S. American culture, but it just smacked of painting too broadly with one brush for my tastes.

Also, some of the names were a little improbable, such as "Chisakami" and "Shinkokami," and sort of sounded like an anime fangirl writing some AU fanfiction, making up names.

Of course, some aspects of it were nicely written, and helped bring the Quartet as a whole into focus.. Women in the Yamani Islands are given much more weapons training than women in Tortall (equivalent of France/England) because men are often away when towns/etc. get attacked by pirates. As a child, Kel is 5 years old and with her mother in a temple when pirates attack. And her mother is bad-ass with a glaive, cutting people down and saving some Yamani relics. Thus, it's fairly natural to both Kel and her family that she would want to train to become a knight.



I really want to read Terrier.....I want to see things from a lower-class character. But I've already got Trickster's Choice checked out, and I own the first two of the Immortals Quartet (yeah, I skipped it and went right for Keladry's quartet instead). I'm thinking that I will love Terrier a lot.

What are Melting Stones and Will of the Empress about?

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scribbled mystickeeper at 8:38 AM
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wJan 29, 2009


A Companion to Wolves

It feels weird to be reviewing this book now, with both authors swept up into RaceFail 2009, but really it just means that I'm super slow with writing things up. In fact, I've forgotten nearly all of the interesting things I had to say about it, except that I thoroughly enjoyed it and would like to read more by both Bear and Monette.

A Companion to Wolves centers on Isolfr, a young man living in a Norse-inspired winterland. His father is the Lord of a town protected from trolls by wolfcarls, men who live the traditional life of the village to partner with wolves and live on the edge of society. Isolfr's father is appreciative of the partnership until his own son is called to be bonded with a wolf. His son disobeys him, and leaves with the wolves anyway.

Because Isolfr's society is so Norse-like, nearly all of the human characters are men. This is not true of the wolves with whom they construct strong emotional bonds. And guess what happens when the wolves go into heat? Indeed! Their male partners have sex with each other.

This sparked intense debate in our book club: Do some scenes amount to rape? It is made clear throughout the novel that Isolfr can leave his wolf and return to the village at any point. Yet, he stays, for the love of his wolf. Does this element of choice take away the label of rape? Not quite, but I think that the structure of the book does.

What Monette and Bear are doing is subversive fantasy, which is what I like. As a general rule, I tend to vastly prefer science fiction novels to fantasy ones. I actually can't think of any fantasy novels I like that aren't decidedly feminist except for Redwall, and even there sometimes gender roles are blurred.

Anyway, as always, someone else has already said what I'd like to say much better than I would have said it anyway here in this post.
That choice is what makes A Companion to Wolves not only queer, but decidedly feminist. Ignore the half-assed overt feminism tagged onto the end of the novel via Isolfr's realization that girls should have the same opportunities as boys. Pay bloody attention to what Isolfr is doing throughout the novel.

He's choosing to be the caretaker. He's choosing to submit to his wolf-bond, to whatever men his wolf prefers. He's choosing a woman's role. It's overt in the sexuality: he knows he's the "girl" - he's the one being taken, being topped (and Isolfr doesn't even get veto power. His wolf is making the choice of who.) But it's more subtle in his every day life. There some slight acknowledgement that his role as the queen wolf's man is the "wife" role. But still that's most strongly tied in his mind to the sexuality. It goes beyond that - he takes care of the pack. And as he grows into that role, he finds his strength there. Women make this choice every day. But it goes unnoticed, cuz that's what women are supposed to do.

Sure, Isolf goes to war, but more often, he remains behind. Waiting. Taking care of the home, the injured - because his queen wolf and her reproductive capacity cannot be risked. That's IT. Right there.


Many have said that this novel is "in conversation" with other animal companion novels, such as Anne McAffrey's Pern books. I must confess that I don't believe I've ever read any books that qualify as animal companion novels. The book was still thoroughly enjoyable, though.


Recently, both Monette and Bear revealed in their blogs that they have received the go-ahead to write two more stories in this universe.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 9:28 PM
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wJun 20, 2008


Can you tell it's a slow day at work?

OMG, there are so many crazy people in the public library!

I am trying to get better at dropping books that are difficult to get through, rather than forcing myself to read things. Thus, even though I only had 100 pages left in Holly Black's Tithe, I dropped it. I can't get into Shelley Jackson's Half-Life, so I'm not going to force myself to read that, either (I'll still go to Wiscon Book Club, don't worry!).


I think that part of why I grow tired with fantasy novels is that world-building makes me impatient. Sure, it's dealt with in science fiction too, but supposedly the SF genre is grounded in possibility - something that could happen - and therefore the world, however futuristic, is inextricably linked to our own.

With fantasy, it seems like more time is spent explaining societal structures like governments and schooling than I care to read at once (interpersed information is much better than infodumps, in my opinion).

Anyway.

This is partly why I find it difficult to stay wholly interested in the manga series Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. The main characters are literally world-hopping, and each new world means another set of explanations to get through. Of course, they travel to a new world every time I get comfortable with the one I'm in. New worlds can be neat, but it's hard to care about every character, even though most of them are incarnations from previous CLAMP manga.

Of course, as soon as I am able to make sense of my mild dislike of the narrative structure of the series, I read volume 13.

Spoilers through the end of volume 13!

OMG, Kurogane's past! So angsty! So good! It was so shounen!

Like the "everyone always loses an eye" trope, it seems like someone should also keep a list of violent maternal deaths. Perhaps, when I post my list of "Recommended Reading Order for CLAMP Manga," I will make a key, with symbols next to each series, for things like "Someone loses an eye" or "Doubles/Clones are important in this series."

ALSO, WTF, someone told me that the word "fey" means "fated to die," and the Del Rey editor made sure to say that that's how you pronounce Fei's name. WTF, FAI CANNOT DIE!

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scribbled mystickeeper at 3:25 PM
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