Recent reading

[luzula]

Uprooted by Naomi Novik
For my fannish book club; it was the first book that all four members of the book club loved. I found it immensely readable, and the descriptions of magic were very enjoyable, both of which I expected, since I was halfway spoiled for the book beforehand. On the issues which divide people: I thought the romance was okay, though I'm generally not a fan of teacher/student romances or M/F romances where the man is older/more powerful. Like, I could've done with or without it, but in any case it's not the heart of the book, only a small subplot. And I did like how they're definitely not joined at the hip at the end. Agnieszka coming into her power is very compelling reading, and that's what I was in it for at the beginning. Then the plot accelerates, and I felt like the book just kept throwing high-body-count plot at me, possibly too much, though it was very page-turney. I liked Agnieszka and Kasia's friendship, but the heart of the book for me was the end, which made me go YESSSSS, entirely predictably, given how I love stories about the relationship between humans and nature.

The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan (#2 in the Memoirs of Lady Trent)
Oh, how delightful! I enjoyed the first book in this series, and the second one even more so. I loved Isabella's adventures and her commitment to the study of dragons and natural history, and the connections she makes to people along the way. I wonder why the alternate world, though? Like, why is it a lightly-disguised 19th century world, instead of the actual 19th century world (with added dragons)?

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

I've read the first chapter or two of Uprooted and find it oddly hard to commit to. The odd thing is, I think that it reminds me too much of the female-protagonist fantasy novels of the 1970s-90s that I read growing up -- which I suspect is what makes it extra appealing to a lot of readers of my demographic, but seems to make me feel distanced.

I don't know how much you would have been reading those novels at a formative age, or how much you're coming from a completely different context. :)

[luzula]

Yes, the people in my book club made that comparison as well: that they loved it because it was part of that tradition (of 1990's books, in their case). I did not read, for example, Robin McKinley at that age. What other authors are you thinking of? Tamora Pierce, maybe? I did come across at least one Tamora Pierce book in my teens, but I don't remember it making a huge impression.

[desireearmfeldt]

I read a little Robin McKinley but never quite got into her; I think I missed Tamora Pierce entirely. I guess I'm mostly thinking of Mercedes Lackey, Anne McCaffrey, Marion Zimmer Bradley (though I only read a couple of her things)...I must have read others, it feels like more of An Era than that, but I can't think of who else. I guess Patricia Wrede but I really only read one thing of hers.

The thing is, the nostalgia factor seems to be working against rather than for Uprooted, in my case. I'm reading it from the perspective of someone who read those books in that era and then moved on as the times moved on and I got older -- they're part of my history more than part of my present existence. I can't read Uprooted as though I were a teenager, but it's weird to feel as if I were going back and re-reading the books of my childhood when it's a new-to-me book.

[luzula]

I never read Lackey, but I did read McCaffrey and Bradley, especially the Darkover books, which I loved. But Uprooted doesn't feel very similar to those authors, for me. I think McKinley is the closest in feel (though with more action).

[desireearmfeldt]

For McCaffrey I'm thinking of the books about Menolly -- the girl-coming-of-age-in-a-man's-world genre. For Bradley, some of her sword-and-sorcery stuff (I didn't actually read Darkover). But yeah, this combo doesn't make enough of a set for the strength of my impression that this was a sub-genre, so I must be forgetting other books. :)

It's the particular brand of coming-of-age, and the particular brand of girl-who-doesn't-fit-in-with-cultural-expectations (doesn't like housework/is clumsy/not conventionally pretty/tomboy/impatient with fussy clothing/plainspoken and not always polite/sensible/has temper/or is insecure about not fitting in... Not all heroines have *all* those traits, but pick some from the bucket.).

Hm, I'm now remembering a random post I saw recently somewhere, about looking back on the books of a certain era and find them Mary Sue-ish, and realizing "at the time I really needed that kind of empowerment story, and now I need something different." I'm probably horribly mangling what the poster actually said. :) But I do feel like there was a big theme in the fantasy novels of that era of feisty-misfit-heroine-who-turns-out-to-be-super-competant/woman-in-a-man's-world.

[luzula]

Ah, okay. Yeah, I guess I see what you mean, although the woman-in-a-man's-world turns out to be less of a thing later on--there are other women wizards, and Agnieszka's magic being different is more of a class thing than a gender thing, IMO. Also the book does have important themes other than a girl (with some of your listed attributes) coming of age and growing into her powerful magic. But yeah, those themes are definitely there, and if that's not what you're into right now, then it is maybe not for you.

[desireearmfeldt]

That's what's odd: I wouldn't have thought I was particularly *not* into those themes at the moment... Well, perhaps I'll get around to actually reading the book one of these days, and I'll see. :)