Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire

A slight deviation for me, the October Daye novels by Seanan McGuire are considered 'modern fantasy,' which is like here and now except with magic and fairies and other illogical things. The world of the Fae exists alongside of mortal Muggles- I mean, humans- and interacts with humans quite often, even while spells keep mortals oblivious to its existence. Humans aren't dumb, just blind, which can be just as bad, October reasons.

Rosemary and Rue and A Local Habitation are so much like some of my current favorite books, the Vlad Taltos novels, that I feel the similarities remarkable (thus, I will now remark on them). Both written in first person with a sardonic twist, you end up getting to know the main protagonist quite well.

October and Vlad are both fish out of water. October is what is known as a changeling- half Fae, half human, without a place in the world she can easily belong. In the world of the Fae, she is scorned as a half-breed, as are all changelings, while in the human world she must use her weak magic to maintain her human disguise all the time. Vlad is a human, or Easterner, in a city of elves, or Dragaerans, as they're called. Both October and Vlad run their own business- after a fashion- and end up having to solve very strange and sometimes complex cases or murder or intrigue. Both October and Vlad end up getting injured so often it's an absolute miracle they're alive at all, but I guess that's what makes them worth reading about. 

Here's some differences- too many guys keep throwing themselves, with serious intentions, at October. I'm sick of it. She can't be that special. Another thing- when reading about the political structure of Fae society and geneology and everything, I have yet to come across a moment where I did not understand the circumstances. The Taltos books are written such that you have to work to put the pieces together, and read each book several times in order to understand what is going on. Both worlds, Fae and Dragaera, and very complex, and yet in McGuire's books I have not felt confused yet. I don't necessarily think of this as a plus, either- I love a challenge, I love it when the author gives me a bit more than I can actually handle, so that I can choose to rise to the occasion. I was not so challenged reading about October Daye.

In fact, I was able to guess most of the endings and twists in the two books I read upsettingly early on. It's frustrating when you are sure you know the answer and it's right in front of the protagonist's face and yet they can't see it- it makes me lose faith in them. I am utterly convinced that Vlad Taltos is much smarter than me. October Daye, I'm still not sure about.

Apparently I have to get all the negative out of me first when I'm talking or writing about a book. I very much enjoyed A Local Habitation. It was sufficiently creepy and disturbing, with a very well thought-out overall plot, and characters whose motives made sense. I was more iffy on Rosemary and Rue (which is why I picked up the second book- to give the series another shot) where the plot twists were just a little too convenient and some things were annoyingly left unexplained (things that shouldn't have been, I mean; things that seemed pertinent to this particular story). And even though I didn't think much of Rosemary and Rue, you cannot skip it- too much backstory.

But what a fascinating, rich world McGuire has created. I'm looking forward to An Artificial Night.

The Sword by Bryan Liftin

Reading The Sword by Bryan Liftin is a similar experience to reading the Bible in a couple ways. They are both full of one-dimensional characters that don't seem real, whose actions feel preordained. Not that I've read a lot of the Bible.

Seriously though, as Liftin guided me through the kingdom of Chiveis, I didn't encounter a soul who had another layer of personality underneath the one they presented. Oh, things simply aren't what they seem, you say. Well then, read the book and decide for yourself.

Here is an example of 'perfect' protagonists. The heroine, Anastasia, is almost too good to be true. Honestly I don't believe she had a single flaw in her, especially compared to the other female roles. She's beautiful, smart, strong, agile, knowledgeable, curious, cautious, and faithful. She's the foil to every single other woman I met while reading this book. Lina was bubbly and giggly and a little airheaded. Habiloho was selfish, reckless, and blinded by desire for revenge. The High Priestess was a bitch for absolutely no good reason except it was her job. Succula was a lonely adulteress. Ana's mother may not have been necessarily flawed, but she was just kind of there, not one to take great progressive strides and break molds the way Ana did.

The hero, Teofil, is skilled in just about everything ever. He struggles with faith, and that's supposed to be a character flaw in this book. Therefore, I guess he's not perfect. Or something.

It's obvious that Ana and Teofil are meant for each other. I liked that they had fights and struggles (I hate it when everything just works out perfectly), and yet when it seemed natural for them to finally jump each other's bones, they didn't. I give a point to the author for doing the unexpected in this regard. But why? I have NO IDEA. It didn't seem to make sense. Maybe it had something to do with dedicating themselves to their newfound religion of Christianity.

Yes, it's a religion book. A few hundred years in the future we've all but destroyed ourselves as a race and are now building ourselves back up again. Christianity is lost, until it is found again by our heroes. They current dominant religion is something ridiculous that involves orgies in forests, blowing up innocent people, and making offerings of excrement. Obviously Christianity is the right way to go, when compared to that, right? So why is everyone in the book so damn stupid about it?

Ana is stupid (this is from my perspective) because she dives headfirst into Christianity and suddenly believes it and thinks it's okay to preach in very hostile streets about it. Teo is stupid because he has second thoughts about Christianity and then dives headfirst into it. He didn't actually reason out his second thoughts, it was just more of a feeling he had. Valent (I think that's his name, I don't really remember) is stupid because he cares more about being the leader of the group than the actual message. The High Priestess is stupid because she's blinded by evil. Habiloho is stupid because she's blinded by desire for revenge.

Maybe I just think religion is stupid.

Religion is definitely dangerous. I find it fascinating to study, which is why I picked up The Sword in the first place. Habiloho says it herself; you can scare people with religion, and she wants that power for herself.

There wasn't really any of the discussion that I was looking forward to though, aside from that. I wanted explanations about why people have religion, not why people need Christianity. I should probably be reading a different book for that. I'm not looking for a preachy message here. 

This is all personal preference. Obviously I think you'd like The Sword if you're a devout Christian already; I'm just not the target audience. 

Here's another thing I disliked- the pages in the beginning that accounted for why we have regressed. I don't need to know that there was a virus and then nuclear winter. Why in the hell does that matter, even a little, to have me know that before I start reading this book? Do I even need to know about it being in the future? Wouldn't it have been more excitingly dramatic to reveal these things through the course of the story instead of handing them out like Halloween candy at the beginning? Maybe that's not what is important. The author's message may be more preachy than excitingly dramatic.

I feel bad writing bad things. Liftin is a PhD and a professor of theology; he's most definitely smarter than I am, and probably put a ton of thought and planning into his story. I have no credentials, but I do have a brain, and I do have preferences; take that as you will.

I did read the whole novel in one day. What does that mean? Either the story was gripping, or easy to read, or I have too much time on my hands. But most importantly: did I come away caring what happens next?... No, not really.

Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind

The book I picked up before this may have been in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section, but it belonged on the Romance shelves. The Sharing Knife sounds reasonably like a title for a story of action and violence, right? That was my thought, but it turned out I was wrong. So, I got to read about how Fawn and Dag met and fell in love even though they were 30 or 40 years apart in age (and we’re not talking like, vampires or elves where they live forever and therefore 30 or 40 years is nbd, I mean they were humans, and he was 55 and she was 18) and came from completely different societies and their families and friends were simply shocked and appalled that this had ever come about but they loved each other anyway and wanted to get married after knowing each other for a week and live happily ever after together despite it being a terrible awful idea.

 

It was a learning experience, though. My original idea was to not read the back covers of the books in advance, at least not too thoroughly, because sometimes that spoils some surprises. However it was pointed out to me that the romance novels all have the same exact story synopses right there on the back:

The Girl, who comes from blah blah blah, is beautiful or special or maybe not but is our Heroine anyway.
The Guy, who is a dark and mysterious or maybe a nice and thoughtful guy, is from some other place and blah blah blah.
Together, they will blah blah blah. And maybe fall in love? Who knows…

So, I now know to stay away from those books. No, I didn’t know that before, I’d never picked up a romance novel in my life and I hope to never do so again.

The story was a little interesting, at least at first, but then it became apparent that the story and drama I wanted didn’t really matter. The important, driving part was how The Relationship flew in the face of tradition in every way. Which was not nearly as interesting to me. The author, it said in her bio, was one of the best writers in the genre, which blew my mind. But then they always say stuff like that in bios and whatnot, right? The point is, ‘romance’ is not for me. If this is one of the best writers in that genre, yet I had to convince myself to finish the book purely out of principle, then it’s just not for me. It may not be bad, exactly, just not what I enjoy reading personally. At all.

So when I picked up Wizard’s First Rule, I was slightly apprehensive. The synopsis wasn’t quite like the formula I wrote out above, but it still made sure to mention Richard and Kahlan in a way that left no doubt their destinies were intertwined, most likely as lovers. Still, it was a nice thick book which would certainly take me a while to read, and therefore keep me busy during rush hour for a good few days.

The romance was certainly a driving factor, but it was still not a ‘romance’ novel, thankfully. The first few chapters latched onto me and sucked me right in, and I didn’t look back. Everything was introduced slowly, as opposed to when an author drops a ton of bricks on you all at once and you’re supposed to remember not only the size and color of each brick, but where it hit you and how hard and how much time was in between each blow. This latter method also is indicative of my biggest pet peeve when reading: that the author feels the need to spell everything out for you.

I supposed there’s two reasons why an author may feel the need to lay everything out there for you instead of letting you figure it out. One is that they think you are stupid and need it all spoon-fed to you. The other is that they have an IMAGE in their head of what their world is like that they want you to see, with absolutely no room for interpretation. They don’t want you to make discoveries on your own, they want to lead you around and point out everything you need to know directly. This bothers me very much, because not only do I enjoy reading about 'your' world and making it my own, it tamps down on people’s imaginative abilities, forcing them back into a passive mode of reading.

Terry Goodkind introduced me to his world without making me feel stupid. He let me follow Richard around the woods and make discoveries with him. I liked Richard from the outset as well; he was a strong, capable character with good moral sense. How can you not like that? Richard’s flaws were also introduced, which made me happy, because seriously who can stand it when the hero is the absolute embodiment of perfection?

The wizard, Zed, was also a likeable guy, reminding me of Belgarath from David Eddings’ universe (except that Belgarath is a much more complex and fleshed-out character in all; in fact, the characters are all well fleshed-out and multi-dimensional in the Eddings novels, which is the best part about those books). Kahlan also proved to be agreeable for more reasons than she was just ‘supposed’ to be (which happens more often than not when dealing with heroines, I think), showing steely resolve and intellect.

The story took a sudden dark and sinister turn at some point, though, that completely threw me. It just felt kind of... wrong. The plot started going strange places, with some very convenient circumventing of the rules of magic, or at least it felt that way, and yet the ending was still predictable.

I picked up the third book in this series, Blood of the Fold, and read that too (yeah, I had to skip the second one, that’s what I get for not actually making reservations at the library and just taking my chances that they’ll have what I want). It also traveled down a dark vein, but had some very uplifting moments. Maybe it had to do with missing out on book two, but I didn’t feel as connected to the characters anymore.

Nevertheless, I LIKED these books, very much, and sometime I will get around to finishing up the series (or what has been published so far). I’d recommend them to people who like that nice dark overtone in their fantasy.

Begin: Why this blog exists

I live in The Suburbs and work in The City. If you do too, then you, like me, have time to kill every day. A few months ago I started working full-time in the city, and began slugging- excuse me, carpooling. So what do you do while you sit in someone else's car for 45 minutes (on a good day, I mean, it can take twice that time if there's any amount of traffic, and don't even get me started on when it rains or snows)? Listen to music, sure, that's definitely an option. Talk to the other passengers? Absolutely not. Watch I-395 go by? That gets old quick.

As a kid I read constantly. I loved fantastical stories. My dad would come into my room at the end of his workday and attempt to engage me in conversation, and if I was reading, he learned to leave in a hurry.

Through college, I hadn't read fiction hardly at all, what with one thing or another (working, getting my degree, you know, the little things). A year or so ago my friend gave me a book called Jhereg by Steven Brust, who is now my current favorite author. Getting into a new series caused me to reflect on my past reading habits. I liked to style myself as an 'avid reader' and lover of the fantasy genre, but really I had found maybe four series and stuck with them for years. In elementary school, it was Redwall by Brian Jacques and the Animorphs books by K.A. Applegate. In high school it was the Belgariad books by David Eddings and the Lord of the Rings books. Harry Potter was a constant. I read a few other books here and there, of course, but these were my main loves, and I kept coming back to them time and time again.

I have since decided to branch out. My project is to take a random book or three at a time from the library shelves, probably from the Fantasy/Sci-fi section for the most part, and read them. I am on a quest for good stories, for good fantasy. I've read a handful of these random books already and so far have been mostly disappointed, but I am liking the newness of every novel I pick up. It's refreshing.

I want to chronicle and review these books, mostly for my own reference. I hope to become a better reader and maybe a better writer, and more knowledgeable about fiction in general. I'd love recommendations, too, but part of the fun is just going to the shelves, finding a cover I like, making sure it's Book One if it's part of a series, and just going with it. I have about two free hours built in to my day now, why not use them for something I've been meaning to do for a long time?