Recent reading
Jul. 31st, 2014 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaA Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
I wasn't sure about going on after the first book, but everyone told me I should, so I did. But gah, I just don't think this is the series for me? Unpopular fannish opinion, sorry! When the big reveal came, I just blinked and didn't really buy it. I mean, this is written in an omniscient POV that wanders around quite a bit, but when you're writing from someone's POV it feels weird to me that you'd keep back such a major part of their emotional state for so long? I mean, you can, of course, but it feels to me like you're not being true to their POV if you do. Ordinary unreliable narrator stuff, to me, is more like having the character fool themselves about how they're feeling. But YMMV, of course--I know a lot of people love this book.
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
Not a reread, which most of my DWJ reads are. I was curious to see what she'd do with the Tam Lin story, and I am slightly mystified as to why you'd take that story and turn it into a story about a friendship between a young girl and an adult man (when they first meet she is 10 and he is maybe 22). I mean, the sexual elements of that story are central, to me, and I kept being sliiightly uncomfortable with the set-up, even though their relationship was completely non-sexual/romantic for much of the book. I was liking it, too, though--DWJ's writing is always really charming, and there's a lot of stuff about writing and family and friends and reading that I loved. But then when she is 19 she saves him as per the ballad and apparently they are meant for each other romantically? Eww. There is a fair amount of ret-conning of her previous childish memories (she realizes that he's not as old as she thought! also he's handsome! and when she was 14 he looked at her like she hung the moon! etc). Ack. Am curious as to other people's opinion of this book?
Wild Hope: On the Front Lines of Conservation Success by Andrew Balmford
A present from my dad. This book gives positive examples of places where conservation is working, and talks about why. I appreciated the hopefulness, and learned some really interesting stuff, but I also had some ideological differences with the author.
I wasn't sure about going on after the first book, but everyone told me I should, so I did. But gah, I just don't think this is the series for me? Unpopular fannish opinion, sorry! When the big reveal came, I just blinked and didn't really buy it. I mean, this is written in an omniscient POV that wanders around quite a bit, but when you're writing from someone's POV it feels weird to me that you'd keep back such a major part of their emotional state for so long? I mean, you can, of course, but it feels to me like you're not being true to their POV if you do. Ordinary unreliable narrator stuff, to me, is more like having the character fool themselves about how they're feeling. But YMMV, of course--I know a lot of people love this book.
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
Not a reread, which most of my DWJ reads are. I was curious to see what she'd do with the Tam Lin story, and I am slightly mystified as to why you'd take that story and turn it into a story about a friendship between a young girl and an adult man (when they first meet she is 10 and he is maybe 22). I mean, the sexual elements of that story are central, to me, and I kept being sliiightly uncomfortable with the set-up, even though their relationship was completely non-sexual/romantic for much of the book. I was liking it, too, though--DWJ's writing is always really charming, and there's a lot of stuff about writing and family and friends and reading that I loved. But then when she is 19 she saves him as per the ballad and apparently they are meant for each other romantically? Eww. There is a fair amount of ret-conning of her previous childish memories (she realizes that he's not as old as she thought! also he's handsome! and when she was 14 he looked at her like she hung the moon! etc). Ack. Am curious as to other people's opinion of this book?
Wild Hope: On the Front Lines of Conservation Success by Andrew Balmford
A present from my dad. This book gives positive examples of places where conservation is working, and talks about why. I appreciated the hopefulness, and learned some really interesting stuff, but I also had some ideological differences with the author.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2014-07-31 09:12 pm (UTC)I don't see her as being forced by pregnancy to save Tam Lin, even if that is what he intended: the way she responds when her father sees that she is pregnant says that she will have her baby and rule Carter Hall by herself, if she so chooses.
You're right that it is very creepy how Tom grooms Polly in Fire and Hemlock; even creepier than the way Thomas sabotages Janet's contraception in Pamela Dean's Tam Lin; but the creepiness is there in the ballad too.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-02 09:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-07-31 11:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-02 09:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-01 01:07 am (UTC)And you've made me want to reread Fire and Hemlock! I know I LOVED it when I was fourteen, but I don't know if I've read it since, so I'd be curious to see what I think of it now.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-02 09:37 am (UTC)Yeah, I can imagine that Fire and Hemlock s a book that reads very differently at different ages.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-01 12:13 am (UTC)Maybe what I mean is: I agree with your point (and felt that way before this conversation, not simply because you pointed it out), but that has never stopped me from liking the book.
Date: 2014-08-02 09:31 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2014-08-02 02:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-01 04:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-02 09:32 am (UTC)