[Brief Book Reviews] Turning the tale on its head: Two fantasies told from unusual points of view

[terriko]

I have a huge number of book reviews written for the past month or so of books, but I doubt anyone wants a giant book-review-spam, so I'm parcelling them out in related bits. This is two fantasy novels taken from unusual points of view.


Except the Queen By Jane Yolen

Two faerie sisters wind up banished to the modern world after seeing something they shouldn't have seen. Excellent urban fantasy that'll appeal to people who enjoy Charles de Lint. Unlike much urban fantasy, which is often told from the point of view of a younger (and hotter, love-interest-cup-overfloweth) woman, the characters through whose eyes we see in Except the Queen are older women. Although I'd commented on the age thing before, I'd not much thought about how much of a difference that would make, but it really does add a different perspective and depth to the story.


Goblinquest By Jim C. Hines

Basically this novel is dungeons and dragons told from the point of view of one of the cannon-fodder goblins, but Jim Hines' excellent sense of humour and the absurd make this an amazingly fun tale, and one I'd be happy to recommend to many of my roleplaying friends. Or, you know, any fantasy fans, but the d&d set will find it especially apt. (Unlike the cover of the book... having looked up it up for this post, now, I have to say that I don't think it fits the feel of the book very well!) If you haven't read Jim Hines' retellings of princess stories, you should read those too. They do a similar turn-the-tale-on-its-head thing from a much more feminist perspective.

Comments

[unregisteredpseudonymspls]

I generally recommend Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series. It's the Twilight vampires-and-werewolves romance trope turned on its head, made into a series of mystery/suspense novels, set in late Victorian times with steampunk fantasy influences, and written with Oscar-Wilde-style epigrammatic humour. Somehow, it works.

The basic conceit is that vampires and werewolves and sundry other undead are fully integrated into Victorian London at all levels of society, and predation on normal humans is kept in check---limited, usually nonfatal---by the same complex etiquettes of the Victorian upper classes. The main character, Alexia, is one of the rare "preternaturals" or "Soulless" who have evolved to keep the undead in check---her mere touch temporarily re-mortalizes vampires and werewolves, exorcises ghosts, etc. The series has problems at points, but other than that it's a pretty good page turner, and the copious steampunk gadget descriptions, such as a kind of steam powered fax machine, are well-thought-out and entertaining.

[terriko]

They are indeed excellent! I bought Marlene copies for her bday last year and we're awaiting the latest installment. :)

[unregisteredpseudonymspls]

Ah! I should have guessed you'd have beaten me to it :)

So, I've made it to the third book, am waiting for a good opportunity to buy the fourth (on my new eBook reader...). Carriger hits almost every note right...except! Except! The transition between the second and third book, where I think she hit a very jarring note indeed and overplayed her hand. The character in question, well, I no longer like him or find him amusing. You get what I am saying? I am being obtuse to avoid public spoilage.

If in the third book Carriger had delivered a seriously equivalent comeuppance, then I might have been able to forgive him the way the book has forgiven him, but she didn't deliver on that one teeny weeny point. The third book is otherwise excellent but that one detail kind of pervades the air with a slight miasma of abusive asshattery rather than self-involved bumptiousness that had been originally quite entertaining. Actually, as I got to the end of the second book, I was suddenly immersed in what felt like literary cold water, and I haven't yet forgiven Carriger for it, let alone the character in question. I think it was a rather hamfisted way to get the plot twist in she needed to get, and there were probably other more delicate ways.

But who am I to criticize? Have I written a popular steampunk thriller? No, I have not.

[terriko]

I agree that I don't particularly like it, I think I'm more relaxed about the jarring note because it's so darned common in books I've read for The Project and in crud I've watched on TV. I think it's a subromantic plot trope of sorts that certain folk always wind up forgiven. :P

[unregisteredpseudonymspls]

Yeah, I get that the romance genre requires that the romantic hero do something alienating, and then spend some time making up for it. I thought Carriger got the proportions wrong *and* slid into the scene far too abruptly with far too rapid a change of tone, and that's just bad writing marring what was up to that point excellent and never missing a note. She had him try to make up for it in the next book but it was too weak. I think she should have just stuck to the steampunk but I know that steampunk romance is basically blatant fanfic pandering by definition :) so...whatever.

[terriko]

Well, there's that trope, but the one I meant is "no matter what he does, she's going to forgive him" and this includes a lot of stuff that I think probably should... well, at least take a lot longer to forgive, but of course it never does 'cause no one wants to read a story where everyone is miserable for a decade. It can have the genders swapped, and it can be "they" who forgive (e.g. all their mutual friends suddenly think it's a-ok he ditched her at the altar 'cause they have true love and he was just confused... If that happened to anyone I know, all the friends wouldn't miraculously think it was ok a week later. :P )