Do not read this book
May. 7th, 2017 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaI usually wait until I have two books to review, but this one gets a post of its own...
Illusion by Paula Volsky
This book is terrible. I nominated it for fannish book club and the others voted for it, because we all thought "the French revolution with magic" sounded like a potentially interesting book! But no. It is not a badly written book on the sentence level--the badness is in the characters, setting, plot, and theme. But it is a brick of a book, so it was a slog.
Anyway. The setting is a fantasy version of France. The main character is a teenage girl who is a spoiled aristocrat from the countryside who travels to fantasy Paris to become a maid-in-waiting for the queen. Also important is a smart serf guy who she grew up with and who is the designated love interest. The aristocrats have inborn magic, which is how they originally came to power. Their magic seems to be 1) making illusions, 2) making sentient magic machines. But since they are now decadent, most of them don't actually know how to do magic anymore.
The French revolution happens. There are only two men with actual agency among the revolutionaries; one is the Bad Tyrant Revolutionary and one is the Good Rule-of-Law Revolutionary. The rest of the people are part of the Brainwashed Mob. The Bad Revolutionary gains power because his dad can do magic and manipulates the crowds while he is holding speeches. Then the Terror happens and the guillotine is a magic sentient machine that thirsts for blood. Arrrgh! I'm sure there are really interesting and complicated reasons why the Terror happened. But "everyone was brainwashed with magic by a cardboard villain" is NOT an interesting reason why.
Oh, and the spoiled aristocrat girl has to survive on the streets until she's found by her love interest, who is on the side of the Good Revolutionary. They defeat the Bad Revolutionary and get together, the end. I'm sure she's supposed to grow as a person or whatever, but she's still annoying at the end. The other book club members were more irritated than me at the pasted-on romance--not that I liked it, but I was more irritated at the political stuff.
I chose this book because I was interested in the interaction between magic and politics. Like, if some people have powerful magic, would democracy really be possible? I thought Sorcerer to the Crown kind of dropped the ball on that one, which is what started me thinking about it. But this book was NOT the book I wanted. One series which I do think does a good job with thinking about magic and politics is Daniel Abraham's The Long Price Quartet. Chris Moriarty's The Inquisitor's Apprentice is also interesting, though the YA adventure kind of gets in the way of the politics.
Do tell me if you have recs for fantasy books that have interesting things to say about politics?
Right, I hope you have enjoyed this rage-review...
Illusion by Paula Volsky
This book is terrible. I nominated it for fannish book club and the others voted for it, because we all thought "the French revolution with magic" sounded like a potentially interesting book! But no. It is not a badly written book on the sentence level--the badness is in the characters, setting, plot, and theme. But it is a brick of a book, so it was a slog.
Anyway. The setting is a fantasy version of France. The main character is a teenage girl who is a spoiled aristocrat from the countryside who travels to fantasy Paris to become a maid-in-waiting for the queen. Also important is a smart serf guy who she grew up with and who is the designated love interest. The aristocrats have inborn magic, which is how they originally came to power. Their magic seems to be 1) making illusions, 2) making sentient magic machines. But since they are now decadent, most of them don't actually know how to do magic anymore.
The French revolution happens. There are only two men with actual agency among the revolutionaries; one is the Bad Tyrant Revolutionary and one is the Good Rule-of-Law Revolutionary. The rest of the people are part of the Brainwashed Mob. The Bad Revolutionary gains power because his dad can do magic and manipulates the crowds while he is holding speeches. Then the Terror happens and the guillotine is a magic sentient machine that thirsts for blood. Arrrgh! I'm sure there are really interesting and complicated reasons why the Terror happened. But "everyone was brainwashed with magic by a cardboard villain" is NOT an interesting reason why.
Oh, and the spoiled aristocrat girl has to survive on the streets until she's found by her love interest, who is on the side of the Good Revolutionary. They defeat the Bad Revolutionary and get together, the end. I'm sure she's supposed to grow as a person or whatever, but she's still annoying at the end. The other book club members were more irritated than me at the pasted-on romance--not that I liked it, but I was more irritated at the political stuff.
I chose this book because I was interested in the interaction between magic and politics. Like, if some people have powerful magic, would democracy really be possible? I thought Sorcerer to the Crown kind of dropped the ball on that one, which is what started me thinking about it. But this book was NOT the book I wanted. One series which I do think does a good job with thinking about magic and politics is Daniel Abraham's The Long Price Quartet. Chris Moriarty's The Inquisitor's Apprentice is also interesting, though the YA adventure kind of gets in the way of the politics.
Do tell me if you have recs for fantasy books that have interesting things to say about politics?
Right, I hope you have enjoyed this rage-review...
(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-07 07:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-09 08:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-07 07:38 pm (UTC)Sherwood's Inda books have an interesting, unusual (not democratic) system, with separated gender roles that are not exactly how they work in our world.
Lloyd Alexander's Westmark trilogy is still my favorite for depicting a revolution.
Steven Brust and Emma Bull's Freedom and Necessity is a good depiction of real-world historical politics, with subtle fantasy touches.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-09 08:46 am (UTC)And I love the Inda books!
(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-07 08:01 pm (UTC)The first of the Divine Cities books, City of Stairs has interesting things to say about politics (and colonialism). It doesn't have magic in the same way as these books, though.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-09 08:48 am (UTC)I know you like the Divine Cities books, but I tried the first one and sadly it didn't stick...
(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-07 08:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-09 08:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-07 10:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-09 08:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-08 01:35 pm (UTC)No recs, just a hug.
*hug*
(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-09 08:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-09 12:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-09 08:56 am (UTC)