octavia_cade's Reviews (2.64k)

This was really enjoyable. It's historical fiction - I wouldn't quite call it historical romance, at least not yet - about a young woman called Amir who goes to live with a new family after an arranged marriage to her husband Karluk. Except it's not so much a marriage at this point, because Karluk is only twelve years old and Amir is twenty. The age difference is side-eyed by a few of the characters, and really at this point Amir mostly acts more like a big sister than a wife, but it's all very good-natured and nearly everyone is at pains to be kind and generous to each other. Except for Amir's brother, who wants to get this clearly unconsummated marriage dissolved for his own reasons...

It's a very gentle story, more concerned with showing how life was in central Asian societies like this back in the day - there's a section where Karluk's little nephew, fascinated by building things, is shown how a typical house is constructed, for instance. Amir and Karluk also pay a visit to a nomadic uncle and his family, and help with herding sheep. And honestly, this is where I'm mainly interested - I know nothing about central Asian history and culture, and this is a charming way of learning some of the basics. It's all just really pleasant to read... and apparently the first in a series, so I'm excited to read the rest.

A collection of very short rhyming poems, all themed about love. Particularly, the progression of a relationship from infatuation to dissolution. It's very, very easy to read and about halfway through I figured out why. Or rather, I figured out what these poems remind me of so very much: A.A. Milne. You know his poetry books, Now We Are Six and so forth? If Milne grew up and started writing love poetry instead of children's poetry it would look exactly like this. The same sort of bouncy construction, the same very short phrasing. Like Winnie the Pooh has updated their definition of honey and gone gorging on regardless.

Which might sound slightly disparaging, but it's not meant to be! I like Milne's poetry, and I like this, and really there are far worse writers to be compared to.

The story continues, and it's just as enjoyable as it was in the first volume. Amir's family is still wanting to annul the marriage to her much younger husband, in order to marry her off to someone else, but her brother's beginning to question this decision... and rightly so, given what we hear of the new prospect's character. Other than this, the story mainly is what I think of as episodic information, in that it explores different aspects of the culture in question. The thing I found particularly interesting was the long chapter on cloth, and how embroidery patterns were passed down in families, giving a sort of history of women's art. It was really fascinating, and honestly I'm almost more interested in stuff like this than I am the ongoing marriage story in general.

Austen's writing is always delightful, but this is perhaps my least favourite Austen novel, and that is almost wholly due to the heroine. I just do not like Emma. She's far less wet than Fanny Price, which is something of a relief, but just as silly in an entirely different way, what with her compulsion to interfere in the lives of those around her. However, it must in fairness be said that the narrative doesn't skimp on acknowledging Emma's flaws. She's meant to be seen as silly and interfering, albeit genuinely good-hearted as all Austen's heroines are, and the whole point of Emma's story is her discovery of her lack of character and her determination to improve it. I can appreciate characters I don't like when there's no authorial blindness there, trying to convince me that they're excellent people anyway.

This is still an enjoyable book, but I leave it - as I've always left it - far more interested in Jane Fairfax than in Emma Woodhouse.

This had a great start, but it lost me after about the first third. I mean, I finished the book and it was well-written but that early appeal sort of petered out. That initial third, set in a school in the American southwest, was almost more literary than horror. I suppose for some readers it's the long and boring introduction before they get to the creepy magician in Vermont, but I had no interest whatsoever in the creepy magician in Vermont, and everything he did had the flavour of histrionics. I do not find histrionics at all attractive, and although young Tom Flanagan did his best to balance out all the melodrama by being a solidly sensible kid, it was all just a bit too over-the-top for my taste. Had it not been for that wonderful long opening, this would probably have been a two star read for me - not because there's anything wrong with it, it just isn't my thing - but that opening third drags up the entire rating as far as I'm concerned.

I continue to really enjoy this series! In volume three, however, the focus has changed. Amir and Karluk become bit players, as the focus shifts to Mr. Smith and his journey along the Silk Road. He meets a young woman called Talas and becomes (sort of?) engaged to her, but - as with the first two Bride stories - I still can't quite call it a romance. In the earlier volumes, it's because the groom is so young the marriage is really in name only. Here, the two characters are both of an age, but it ends badly. No happy ending, which is what romance usually requires as I understand it. (I rather suspect that future volumes will see the return of Talas. I hope so. I liked her.)

As with the first two books, though, what I really like best here is the cultural and historical information. The chapter where everyone buys food at a market is fascinating, as it gives a sort of potted look at available food and cooking techniques of the time. I can't say that I'd ever think of putting melon in a fried rice dish, but from the looks of it that's what some people did and I suppose it must have tasted good else they wouldn't have done it!

This one didn't work so much for me I'm afraid. It's still really early in the series, but already I am completely over the constant squabbling between the young leads. I mean, I seriously do not give a damn, it makes me really dislike them, and if I were Tohru I think I'd give some good hard thought to going back to living in a tent just to get away from them.

The bright spot here - because there is one - continues to be Tohru's friend Hanajima. She's barely in this volume, sadly, but every moment she appears is gold. Love her and her skipping out on school marathon day to read and play cards, the sensible girl.

I'm at volume four now, and finally I can call one of these stories an actual romance (using the term as romance writers use it, or so I understand). Twin sisters Laila and Leily think their dad's taking too long to find them husbands, so they scheme to track down their own. They end up getting engaged to the twin sons of a family friend, and the whole thing is hilarious. I'm in the local library at the moment, having just finished reading, and I had to keep stifling my giggles as I did so. The girls are... very determined, shall we say, and that's amusing, but hands down the funniest part is their father, and the grooms' father, negotiating bride price. A close second is Laila and Leily's mum putting them through what is essentially bridal boot camp, as she makes sure that they really do have the skills to run a household. Mr. Smith's there as well, basically in the background as a means to introduce the twins, but the book doesn't really need him to do anything else.

Apparently the next volume is the wedding of these two well-meaning little monsters, and I can't wait to read it.

Finally an issue with less tedious squabbling, but it's still pretty hard for me to really get into this. I think part of it is that there are so many characters, piled on top of each other, that there's never really a lot of space for characterisation. It's all a bit frenetic, and I wish it would slow down some and focus more. That said, there's one excellent part here, which dragged the rating up one star by main force, and that's the backstory with Momiji's mum. The inability of an outsider parent (by which I mean not one within the Sohma family) to bond with a shape-changing child is both sad and horrifying, and it was the one moment of real emotional connection to the story that I felt here.

There also seems, in this volume, to be a lot of people calling Tohru stupid. I'd take very mild offence on her behalf, but... it's the truth. Girl's dumb as a rock. Perhaps that's why I can't seem to warm to her... that and her absolutely demented optimism. With that delighted look on her face when talking about the anniversary of her mum's death, she looked positively deranged.

A good solid read, although it skims over a few places I think. A four year old who's seen her home and family slaughtered, and who's been kidnapped by the aliens who did the slaughtering, is having so much fun after several days with them that she wants to go back after being rescued? Not buying it, sorry. I'm also not buying that someone as clever as Deelor didn't see Ruthe's final strategy coming a mile off, because I certainly did.

Nitpicks like these aside, however, this was a thoughtful and considered story about alienation, I suppose - about what happens when you're ripped from your culture and raised in another one, and whether or not it's in your interest, after a lifetime of assimilation, to be ripped away once again. And, from the other side, how ethical it is to build diplomatic relationships with those who slaughter and kidnap others. It's a book all about price and compromise is what I'm saying, and some of the prices are very heavy, and some of the compromises are fairly repellent. It's more sad than anything, even more sad than hopeful, and that's an unusual approach for Star Trek, though one I think that has paid off here.