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One always wonders whether T. Kingfisher's books are actually YA or just set with that demographic as the protagonist.
This is no exception.
She's always fascinating and hilarious and what is this even and this book was no exception. I've really been loving her romances recently so this, while good, was not quite the thing I really wanted. (Whose fault is that, the reader's or the book's?)
But it was delightful nonetheless.
This is no exception.
She's always fascinating and hilarious and what is this even and this book was no exception. I've really been loving her romances recently so this, while good, was not quite the thing I really wanted. (Whose fault is that, the reader's or the book's?)
But it was delightful nonetheless.
I'm really enjoying the Emelan series, specifically the way that Pierce makes these books about communities and their accomplishments (and failures) rather than about the extraordinary individuals who populate the Tortall books. Both great, just different.
This book was particularly...grueling is the wrong word, as is gruesome. But both get at the difficulty of the story she is trying to tell and I think, overall, she succeeds. Although this book felt like it was the least about the mages in training.
This book was particularly...grueling is the wrong word, as is gruesome. But both get at the difficulty of the story she is trying to tell and I think, overall, she succeeds. Although this book felt like it was the least about the mages in training.
After Cold Fire, the class politics and murders in this book were, honestly, refreshing.
It's always interesting to see what Pierce takes in and takes on in her books. They're not polemics, although there are always elements of real-world injustices that obviously inspire her. And the Emelan books don't feel like they overly simplify things - yet this books comes the closest to doing that.
I think the dual narratives of "baby mages get apprentices" and "gotta solve the murder" help balance the two because you can have resolutions to those plots without necessarily resolving the cultural stuff. And yet the more Pierce writes, the more you see both her grasp on the complexity of said cultural elements and her desire to write the stories that take them on.
It's always interesting to see what Pierce takes in and takes on in her books. They're not polemics, although there are always elements of real-world injustices that obviously inspire her. And the Emelan books don't feel like they overly simplify things - yet this books comes the closest to doing that.
I think the dual narratives of "baby mages get apprentices" and "gotta solve the murder" help balance the two because you can have resolutions to those plots without necessarily resolving the cultural stuff. And yet the more Pierce writes, the more you see both her grasp on the complexity of said cultural elements and her desire to write the stories that take them on.
Postpartum reading is awful. Everything slides out of my brain and focus is...not so much a thing.
Thank goodness for romance novels and writers like Charles who are reliable but not predictable.
Thank goodness for romance novels and writers like Charles who are reliable but not predictable.
What does one say about a book that has stuck with one for over 15 years now? It remains the right book at the right time and I wish it was better known because it feels genre-defining in ways I still can't put my finger on.
McKillip's approach to both magic and character is part of the fabric of 20th century fantasy that led to some of the amazing work that was done in the 21st century.
Someone should talk trilogies and look at Tolkien as inspiration for both Guy Gavriel Kay and Patricia McKillip and how both of them, while inspired by LOTR, evolved those ideas in radically different directions. Both are obviously indebted to Tolkien, but neither is derivative. And both strike me as important cornerstones in a history of fantasy, even if Riddle Master feels like it's not as well-known. (Influence and name-recognition and the relationship between the two is ALSO an interesting conversation to have about fantasy...)
McKillip's approach to both magic and character is part of the fabric of 20th century fantasy that led to some of the amazing work that was done in the 21st century.
Someone should talk trilogies and look at Tolkien as inspiration for both Guy Gavriel Kay and Patricia McKillip and how both of them, while inspired by LOTR, evolved those ideas in radically different directions. Both are obviously indebted to Tolkien, but neither is derivative. And both strike me as important cornerstones in a history of fantasy, even if Riddle Master feels like it's not as well-known. (Influence and name-recognition and the relationship between the two is ALSO an interesting conversation to have about fantasy...)
Yes, I devoured the second one about thirty seconds after finishing the first, why do you ask?
Now, of course, I get to wait for the third. Grr...
Now, of course, I get to wait for the third. Grr...
It’s interesting, while I liked this book, it felt less compelling than the previous four.
Either I just like Pierce’s more recent stuff less or every time she writes longer books and leaves the quartet model, I just want to complain to her editors.
Either I just like Pierce’s more recent stuff less or every time she writes longer books and leaves the quartet model, I just want to complain to her editors.
There's a lot about this book to love and bits of it that just leave me frustrated. I stand by my comments on Battle Magic that later Pierce needs editing.
And also she's an author I've been reading for so long that it's also hard to separate that from the "I discovered Alanna at 14 and that was one of the defining books of my teenagehood".
And also having the four mages negotiate being adult friends was really well done and interesting. And, in retrospect, I feel like this book covered enough of the contents of Battle Magic. I see why it was filled in afterwards AND I see why she originally didn't bother writing it.
And also she's an author I've been reading for so long that it's also hard to separate that from the "I discovered Alanna at 14 and that was one of the defining books of my teenagehood".
And also having the four mages negotiate being adult friends was really well done and interesting. And, in retrospect, I feel like this book covered enough of the contents of Battle Magic. I see why it was filled in afterwards AND I see why she originally didn't bother writing it.
The problem with post-partum reviews is I honestly have no idea whether this book was a slow build or if I'm sleep-deprived and have a focus problem. (Both. The word you are looking for is both.)
I tore through Mexican Gothic in a day, but this was a different read and it took me until about 2/3s of the way through before I had to finish it right then and there.
Some of that may have been the episodic nature of the narrative, that it takes a while before the individual moments build to the ending and come together. But what Moreno-Garcia achieves is really gorgeous and she does it with this narrative voice that is both somehow distant and also deeply present for the characters. The way she talks and makes observations reminds me of a pared down and dry Victorian narrator. But also not quite.
I'm glad I read this one and I'm really enjoying the history she evokes alongside the fantasy.
I tore through Mexican Gothic in a day, but this was a different read and it took me until about 2/3s of the way through before I had to finish it right then and there.
Some of that may have been the episodic nature of the narrative, that it takes a while before the individual moments build to the ending and come together. But what Moreno-Garcia achieves is really gorgeous and she does it with this narrative voice that is both somehow distant and also deeply present for the characters. The way she talks and makes observations reminds me of a pared down and dry Victorian narrator. But also not quite.
I'm glad I read this one and I'm really enjoying the history she evokes alongside the fantasy.
I liked this one even better than her P&P retelling. I appreciated the way she incorporated the arc of Persuasion and also did very different things with it.
So...S&S next?
So...S&S next?