Recent reading

[luzula]

Fire Logic by Laurie J. Marks
Ooooh, I loved this book! Check out this hilarious and badly written negative review of it--woe, it passes the Bechdel test too much! woe, the immoral lesbianism! woe, it has no action! (which is a lie, it has tons of action). No, but seriously, this is engaging feminist fantasy--I really cared about the characters and their relationships and have now ordered the sequels. Recommended.

We Have Been Warned by Naomi Mitchison
A review of this book claims that "This is Naomi Mitchison's least successful novel, and new readers should not start here!" Oh yeah? I found this book compulsively readable and finished the last 200 pages in one day. The thing to be warned about in the title is fascism--the book was published in 1935. I suppose it's issue-fic, a bit, but really what kept me reading was the vivid characters and writing. It's funny how some of this feels like it could have been written today, and some of it like it really couldn't. The book is semi-autobiographical; the main character is a Scottish middle- or upper-class woman engaged in the Labour party, which Mitchison also was. Although apparently her own love-life was so complicated she had to divide it between two sisters! There's an open marriage, frank talk of birth control, and an on-screen abortion (it was apparently a controversial book at the time). Also a family ghost who was a witch burned at the stake, who comes back with warning visions of the witch-hunt/fascism.

Comments

[oneiriad]

I'm halfway through The Corn King and the Spring Queen. So far we've had infanticide, pagan ritual orgies and a very nice Greek poly relationship. I like it (at least once the female protagonist grew up a bit), but it's a slow read - and sometimes I find it hard to tell when something feels foreign because it's set 2200 years ago or because it was published in 1931.

[luzula]

It's still in my to-read pile, and perhaps not something I'll pick up right away, having recently read two 500-page bricks. But it's good to hear what you think about it! Have you read We Have Been Warned?

[oneiriad]

No, not that one. I've mostly focused on her more fantastic literature, though recently I've been considering investigating some of her more autobiographical work.

TCKATSQ is definitely a brick, especially compared to everything else I've so far read of hers. Also, the parts set in Sparta are giving me Mary Renault associations. Anyway, apparently someone nominated it for yuletide - I'm only halfway through and I'm really not convinced I could write this fandom, but it's nice to spot other Mitchison fans in the wild.

[jesse_the_k]

I'm so glad you've received the magic Marks pill. I adore the Elemental Magic series because of all the things you like, and the calm "of course this fantasy world has eight different nations and different traditions" world-building.

It's also one of the few books examining peaceful alternatives to political conflicts, fiction or not.

I encountered Mitchison via a Wiscon member, who has a hell of a lot of posts on topic:

http://oursin.dreamwidth.org/tag/mitchison

[luzula]

Marks has been on my to-read list for a long time, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading her. Looking forward to the next books in the series, although being me, I will probably squirrel them away and save them up for a while because I know they'll be good.

And thanks for the link; I'm always glad to find more people talking about interesting books.