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Robin McKinley - Rose Daughter Genre: Basics: Twenty years after Beauty, Robin McKinley writes another retelling of Beauty and the Beast. And it’s great, too. This one has more magic in it, and is a little more … involved in general, so it’s a bit harder to follow, but it’s great. There are bad guys in this one, too (well, kind of), which I really love because it calls attention to, rather than glossing over as Beauty did, just how beastly the townspeople were to Beauty’s family after the loss of their father’s fortune. In fact, even after they move to Longchance, the story continues to make the point (at least I think it does) that people - un-enchanted, non-monstrous, normal people - can be really awful to one another, and that much more often than not, it is people who are to blame for most of the world’s suffering. Why I like it: For the ending, and also for the suggestion, especially in the poetry reading scene, that the stories people tell, both about themselves and others, are almost never just stories, but instead are invested with the motives and ideas of the storyteller, and so reading or hearing them is never (or perhaps should never be) a purely passive activity. Favorite Part: Lionheart hitting one of the caravan members over the head with a horse collar. I know, it all comes down to fight scenes with me. Oh, well. Weakest Part: All the overtly meaning-laden names. It’s probably a brilliant authorial decision, but it bugs me. Also, Beauty’s room, with its every surface carved, painted, woven, or sewn with roses, sounds positively atrocious. I mean, repeated themes in a space’s décor are great, but enough is enough! Patricia Wrede - Mairelon the Magician Genre: Basics: I hate rags-to-riches stories. I know; I’m unpatriotic. So sue me. This is more of a rags-to-magical-and-intellectual-apprenticeship-and-the-possibility-of-not-so-crappy-of-a-life story, though, so I guess it’s okay. Kim is a street rat who dresses like a boy and tries to avoid housebreaking so that she won’t be dragged either into prostitution or to the gallows by the various interested parties who float around the nineteenth-century London underground like so many chunks in a septic tank. And then Kim gets mixed up with a magician and his kind-of nefarious but kind-of not dealings, and gets to go around burgling country houses, mimicking posh accents, skulking in shrubberies, and all sorts of zany fun. Why I like it: Because it’s really just one ridiculously convoluted thing after another, and everybody in it is absurd enough to carry it off. Favorite Part: Renee D’auber in the final scene. Okay, in any scene. But especially the last one. Weakest Part: Well, I said convoluted, and I meant it. Unless you take notes (and who does that?) or read it more than once, you’ll probably still be confused by the end. But it’s fun anyway. Religious Objectors Might Object To: Magic & a bit of sexual content. Not like, you know, people having sex, but people dealing with the consequences of adultery and the expectations of propriety in a society at once obsessed with and scared of sexuality. (Like, you know, ours.) Patricia Wrede - Sorcery & Cecelia, or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot Genre: Basics: Books like this are like cotton candy. No, you don’t get to look down your nose at anybody after reading it, and no, it doesn’t really offer much in the way of intellectual nourishment, but gosh it’s fun. The book is structured as a series of letters between two cousins, written in character by Patricia Wrede (whom I adore) and Catherine Stevermer (whom I’ve never heard of, but she’s apparently a big fantasy writer too - who knew?). This was actually a game that these two authors played, and it turned out almost bookish, so they whipped it into shape and sent it to a publisher, and - voila - it now has two sequels, and is actually pretty delightful. Light, but delightful. Why I like it: Partly because it’s something new from one of my most beloved authors, but mostly because it’s fun. Also, Aunt Elizabeth rocks my world with her straight-laced bitchiness. Favorite Part: When Lady Sylvia (my favorite character in the two that I’ve read so far, even surpassing Cecy, which is pretty incredible) out-snarks Miranda at whatever party that was. Weakest Part: The menfolk, especially Thomas. The more I re-read this (and the next one, where he’s even worse), the more I think he’s just an asshole. Not, you know, exasperating and infuriating and attractive, like, say, Mr. Knightley in Jane Austen’s Emma - just basically a selfishly witty prick. The female characters in this book positively sparkle, but the men … they’re just kind of there. Well, turnabout’s fair play, I suppose. Patricia Wrede - Talking to Dragons Genre: Basics: This is the final book in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. It’s also the one written first. Um, Daystar, Cimorene’s son, has to go into the Enchanted Forest and, um, I can’t really tell you. Anyway, go off and seek his fortune type stuff, make friends, make enemies, blow up fire-witches, etc. Why I like it: Several reasons. First, Shiara is the most teenage-girl-like teenage girl character I’ve run across in a long time. (Which is to say, annoying and whiny, but still, you know, interesting.) Second, the story actually comes together really well, and it’s still fun to reread even now that I can practically quote the whole thing. And finally, I love the continued refrain of just how important it is to be polite to everyone. Favorite Part: Cimorene’s parenting style. Especially her advice that, “if you’re going to be rude, do it for a reason and get something from it.” That advice has stood me in good stead. That, and also the single line towards the end that some of the wizards were on the King’s side. This fascinates me. Weakest Part: There isn’t one. Read it. Read it now. Diana Wynne-Jones - Castle in the Air Genre: Basics: What if your daydreams of hidden royalty and falling in love with a beautiful princess came true? What if people who begin stupid, wasteful wars had to live like the soldiers they have defeated? What if … um … someone kidnapped thirty-odd princesses for their loud-mouthed harem and hijacked a moving castle to keep them kidnapped … and … what are Sophie and Howl up to these days, anyway? Why I like it: Because it’s fun. Not as fun as the first one, but still fun. Favorite Part: Abdullah ranking his father’s first wife’s relatives in order of how much he hates them. Weakest Part: Abdullah & Flower in the Night are nowhere near as interesting as the -many - other characters, basically just whining, planning, pouting, and whatever else, whereas everybody else is executing masterful thieving schemes, turning bandits into toads, terrorizing people in the form of giant panthers, and what-not. |
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