Eden

A bit of a backlog of reviews.

St Peter's Fair (Ellis Peters)

Another lovely historical mystery, blending the two nicely, and bringing in political and religious concerns, with a light touch. I can't understand the handful of reviews I've read that think the Brother Cadfael books are too heavy, the prose too dense. It's nice light reading, as far as I'm concerned. But then, I read actual medieval texts for fun, so a modern historical novel is unlikely to faze me...

The thing that bothers me, slightly, four books in, is that every book pairs up the female characters. Granted, most women would've married, and it's not a though the characters become less awesome for being paired up, but it's starting to become very predictable.

Still, I quite liked the characters, this time round, and was glad to see more of Hugh and Aline.

Santa Olivia (Jacqueline Carey)

I didn't even know about Santa Olivia until I saw someone else mention it a month or so ago. Maybe that's a good thing, because I was in just the right mood to read Santa Olivia right now. It's not high fantasy, like the Kushiel books: it's speculative fiction, with a bit of flu pandemic apocalypse and an oppressive government. And Loup isn't like Phèdre.

Loup is the daughter of a genetically modified man. She's something like a female Wolverine, if you know your superheroes. She's stronger and faster, and she doesn't know how to feel fear. Her brother gets killed in a boxing accident, after somebody cheats, and she's determined to fight back, and she trains to be a boxer herself. I thought I'd find that aspect boring, but the other characters surrounding her, their motivations and how they begin to change, make even that interesting.

She's also in a relationship with another woman. The attitude toward love isn't like in Kushiel -- "love as thou wilt" -- but thankfully the point isn't belaboured either. It feels closer to realistic than the Kushiel books without hammering home that hey, people aren't comfortable with lesbian relationships. I was worried that this would be brushed off at the end of the book, that the love story aspect would just peter out, but it stays present right to the end, so yay.

Looking forward to seeing more of it, I think. It isn't as amazing as Kushiel, as far as I'm concerned, but I want to see more of the characters.

Jamaica Inn (Daphne du Maurier)

I saw a lot of this book coming. The romance between Jem and Mary, such as it was; the evil albino stereotype; Jem's actions... The atmosphere itself is quite good: the damp chill of it came across well, and the oppressive feeling, and the horror of it... in fact, it rarely shed that atmosphere, even in the brighter moments. And the character of the landlord and his wife are, though still stereotypical, still reasonably well done. I could believe in Patience's cringing servility, and in the landlord's rages.

Still, beyond that, I didn't get very deeply involved in it. I wouldn't pick it up again, riveted by the story. The love story between Jem and Mary isn't very believable, partially because of the oppressive atmosphere and because of Jem and Mary's personalities. Mary doesn't seem like the kind of girl to fall in love with a rough and untender man like Jem, or to go running after him if she did. And she doesn't fight it, either.

Despite the atmosphere, which worked, I didn't really believe in Mary's feelings at all, actually. I didn't really feel her fear or loathing or desperation or love.

Wild Orchid (Cameron Dokey)

This series of fairytale retellings caught my eye as something that might be fun and quick to read. It was both. This story is a sweet little romance, with a strong female character at the centre, and it's not one of the typical Western fairytales either, though most of the rest of the series is.

While I enjoyed it, and read it very quickly, I wouldn't give it three stars because it is in no way historically accurate or culturally plausible. There's tiny hints at research into Chinese customs, but it doesn't come alive for me -- not in the way that, say, Cindy Pon's [book:Silver Phoenix|5577995] does. And while there's more depth to it than in a fairytale, it doesn't really manage to give it depth, or strength, or the great sweetness that could be in it. There are some lovely passages, actually, but most of the time it's prosaic, the first person narration isn't very distinctive, and the story could be set anywhere, with any characters.

Which is not to say that it's not fun to sit with it on a quiet evening, and it's reasonably absorbing -- I did read it all in one go, after all -- but it doesn't have the depth and life that I hoped for.

Kushiel's Justice is the weakest of Jacqueline Carey's books that I've read so far, I think. I was enjoying it quite a lot, up to a point, and then somehow I just lost the urge to read it. Part of it is the unrelenting angst, and the fact that I don't love Imriel quite as much as I do Phèdre. I think the fact that it narrows down a lot from being events of massive importance to many people, to just being largely Imriel's personal journey, also makes it feel somewhat less urgent.

There's also a sense in which I felt that boxes were being ticked, because they had to be. Happiness, check, soured a little by some ominous event, check. A moment of calm before the storm, check, and then the storm, check. The beginnings of an epic adventure, check, setback, check, shipwreck, check. We've seen a lot of it before with Phèdre, so I'm not sure what's different about this, except that perhaps Imriel's reactions are usually more conventional than hers. He doesn't end up sleeping with people for insane reasons, mostly.

I did like a lot of the characters in this book. I expected to find Dorelei annoying, and then fell in love with and wanted to thwap Imriel for being self-absorbed. Some of the scenes when she's pregnant are incredibly sweet. I also enjoyed Berlik's character-arc, with his regret and his way to repent. Sidonie isn't so compelling a character -- she's rather like Ysandre, so she doesn't feel like a terribly new character. I was glad about what happened with Maslin -- that he and Imriel became close. It was an interesting end, for them.

Overall, though, I didn't enjoy this book as much and got bogged down with it for a long time. I still think it was enjoyable, and a worthwhile part of the series, but it felt a little weak. I hope the third book picks up again.

You know what's coming, and yet it's still a punch to the gut. Some things actually caught me by surprise, in some ways, while making absolute sense in the end. The similarities to Tolkien are still very strong, but it brings something new to it as well: the noble enemy, the moral ambiguity. Deaths of characters who would be seen as completely evil from the other side of the argument turn out to be noble sacrifices. A lady gets a chance to kill her side's greatest enemy, and hesitates. Love grows where it shouldn't.

Carey does not go gently on her characters, or on the reader. She trampled all over my heart in pointy high heels and dug them in, hard.

There is no happy end. In fact, the implication is that it's a cycle, and it's all going to begin again. Despite the fantasy, the characters and choices and the ongoing nature of the story are all so very realistic.

I suppose it goes without saying that I loved the final book of this trilogy. The trilogy has its flaws, I'll admit. For one thing, pages on pages could have been cut in the interests of getting to the point faster and dazzling prose. Still, for me, I quite enjoyed the leisurely pace in some parts of it, and the careful and detailed world building that ensued. Yes, it's kind of ridiculous the way what is essentially France is idolised, and the idea of a land where everyone is beautiful seems like a bit of blatant wish-fulfilment, and the heroine is unlikely and, yes, maybe a little too perfect and prepared for whatever comes. And there's the sex -- plenty of it in each and every book, and some of it rather more kinky than your average person is interested in reading about. Oh, and there's what other people would probably consider to be blasphemy, too. But accept all of that -- and it isn't as hard as it may sound, I think, as long as you have the mental power to skip parts you know you're not going to like -- and there's a brilliant story shining out at you. Or so it seems to me! I do understand why some people don't like it. Now that I've articulated that, I'm going to get back to adoring it, though.

This final book was not quite so much about politics, I think. I mean, that was there -- couldn't really not be, considering. But this book was more about love, what with the various subplots finally playing out: Hyacinthe, Melisande's son, what Kushiel wants of Phèdre, etc, etc. A lot of the things in this book were connected to love, which is appropriate to the world it's set in, really, given that the central precept of the religion is "love as thou wilt".

The thing that most excited me about this book was the quest for the secret name. I loved the character of Hyacinthe from the start, and was sad when he barely appeared in the second book, so I was very glad at how much of the book was dedicated to this quest. At first it seemed a bit backward, since the overthrow of Drujan would seem to be more dramatic and yet came long before the climax of the book, but the way it played out was very good. I was pleased at the way the breaking of the geis was handled, and Hyacinthe's return to life. It would have seemed too good to be true if he'd just got back what he had before he became Master of the Straits.

Imriel's subplot was interesting, too. It was good to see a more tender side of Melisande, the love for her son, and was interesting to get to know Imriel -- how different he turns out. I didn't care for that plot very much at first, but it grew on me a lot, until I cheered at the relationship between him, Phèdre and Joscelin.

Joscelin is, by far, my favourite character of these books. It has to do with his absolute loyalty, which is one of those things I find very appealing in a character. It was very very hard to read how he was tested in Drujan, but it was well-written. I love the peace he and Phèdre make with it all: it's appropriate, and good to see them finding a balance.

All in all, I really wish I had the Imriel trilogy right now. Unfortunately, unless someone loves me very much and buys me the hardbacks, I'm going to have to wait until all three books are out in paperback in the UK. I'm sure it'll be worth the wait.

I don't normally do a very long or thorough review for books that are part of a trilogy: I tend to wait for the end of the trilogy. But Kushiel's Dart is an exception, mainly because there's enough action and intrigue for a whole trilogy in the first book alone. A lot of people start their reviews by saying that this book is not for everyone. Well, bah to that. No book is for everyone. Kushiel's Dart does deal with a lot of sex. Kinky sex. I thought, on the whole, that part was well done -- and a lot of Phèdre's assignations were also plot points. I think that even a person with no interest in BDSM in itself could enjoy the books, and just skim or skip the sex scenes if they're that troubling. Now, some of the torture scenes: they made me wince.

I wasn't fond of the narrative voice, at first, but once I got into it, I quite enjoyed it. The voice is quite distinctive, being decidedly not modern English, although it does remind me a little of Fitz and Nevare in Robin Hobb's work -- I think it's mostly that they and Phèdre tell their stories from the same distance.

This book is incredibly rich in terms of world building. There is so much depth to it, woven into the story. Perhaps a little more than is exactly necessary, but if you appreciate a lot of world building, it's brilliant. You probably have to lay aside any scepticism about a land where everyone is beautiful, having the blood of the son of Jesus, but if you suspend your disbelief and let the details build up, I think it's a very compelling world. The politics that drive the plot are also amazing, and this is one of few books that kept me guessing a lot. Melisande really does play a deep and subtle game.

The characters themselves, again, you have to be willing to buy into, I think. I know that some people think she's a "Mary Sue" because she's beautiful and she's special and she's marked by a god and all of it. Yes: okay. I can see that criticism. But once you're drawn into the story, once the setup is over, the characters become incredibly compelling. The complex relationships between them are very, very interesting, and I can't wait to see how things will play out. My favourite characters were Joscelin and Hyacinthe, fairly predictably. There's something I find incredibly compelling about the depth of loyalty Joscelin and Hyacinthe have for Phèdre in their different ways. Melisande is also incredibly interesting, of course.

I loved the subplot of Ysandre and Drustan, too, including the part with the Master of the Straits. Hyacinthe's subplot in that breaks my heart, and yet I love it.

Jacqueline Carey keeps a lot of threads on the loom, in this book, and I think she manages them all admirably. I'm eager to read Kushiel's Chosen -- though I might have to take a day or two to recover first!