Recent reading

[luzula]

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (2020)
For my fannish book club. This is a "magical school" story which I found to be fun and page-turney; we all enjoyed it. I thought the dynamic between the main character and her love interest was very much like that in In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan, which we read for book club last year: a male love interest who is popular and a champion fighter, and a snarky main character who is not popular and treats the love interest rudely, and is also oblivious to his crush on the main character. I enjoyed this one more, though.

Having read Novik's Transformers fan fiction, I do wonder why the male love interest is called Orion?? I mean, I know nothing of Transformers outside of her fics, but Orion Lake and Optimus Prime/Orion Pax do have a lot in common in her characterization: privileged, idealistic, somewhat clueless, champion fighters.

A Pocket History of Scotland by David Ross (2002)
I thought I should get an overview of the bits that are not the 18th century, and this was good for that. Anyway, it turns out that Macbeth was an actual historical person and not just someone Shakespeare made up! This is like the moment when I realized that Elsinore is the same as the far more prosaic Helsingör...

Comments

[regshoe]

I've not read Novik's books or fic, but naming an OC after a favourite fandom character sounds like a good thing to do :D

Heh, it is fun finding out that something you thought was fictional actually has a real historical basis—it reminds me of the Old English Eärendil. I didn't know about Elsinore, although I wouldn't have recognised the name Helsingör—I suppose it makes sense as the setting!

[seascribble]

Re: last paragraph, mind blown

[luzula]

I didn't know about Eärendil! *looks up on Wikipedia* I guess Tolkien's head was full of knowledge about various mythologies and etymologies, some of which made it into Middle-Earth...

[luzula]

Hee, glad it wasn't just me!

[jesse_the_k]

Elsinore is the same as Helsingör

mind whacked sideways but good.

[luzula]

Ha ha, yes, that's how I felt.

[hyarrowen]

According to my family tree of the royal families of Great Britain, Macbeth was also the younger brother of Duncan. Which gives a whole new twist to the story.

[luzula]

Huh. I've never actually read or seen Macbeth, though I've read/seen some other Shakespeare plays. Seems like he took some liberties with actual history, but it was fiction, after all, so why not!

[starshipfox]

I've read almost all Novik's novels, but I tend not to enjoy her fic, so I didn't know she wrote for Transformers -- it's very funny that she named a love interest Orion, in that case. I didn't think I'd be interested in the magical school trope any longer, but I was surprised by how fun I found A Deadly Education. Really successful novel!

[hyarrowen]

He took endless liberties with actual history. But you can do that if you're Shakespeare. (Or a fanfic writer.) He wrote Macbeth to flatter James VI and I who was in a panic against witches, and adding fratricide to the mix in Macbeth would probably have detracted from that. It's a great stage play, for sure. Blood everywhere.

[luzula]

I'm a bit out of patience with YA fantasy in general, but this is just a very page-turney and fun book. Great for when one needs a little distraction from...well, life.