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kilroyPrint date: 1998 (20s: 1, 50s: 2, 60s: 4, 70s: 9, 80s: 8, 90s: 9, 00s: 22, 10s: 2)
Verdict: Keep. (38/95)
This book really works; it's a thoroughly enjoyable read. And it sort of bothers me that it works as well as it does. Let me explain the good stuff, then I'll talk about why it bothers me.
First, the feminist acknowledgment: there are many female characters who talk to each other about things other than boys, including most of the leads and the main character. Pretty much everyone who's really awesome in this book is a woman, and the traditional restrictive gender roles aren't even a consideration most of the time. The book does deal with two near-rapes, but both are dealt with carefully and are resolved by the woman kicking the guy's ass. So, not necessarily for younger readers but definitely worthwhile from a gender perspective.
The characterization is lovely. People are courageous without being invulnerable; the heroes are able to be heroes without agreeing with each other all the time; the villains have more than one thing going on; there's a lot of emotional subtext to dialogue without the author describing the feelings directly. The setting is sufficiently complex to feel real with a lot of implied history to give it weight. The plot skips right along with a good mix of action and character development, with both halves being equally interesting for different reasons.
But I still have that prickly feeling in the back of my critical mind. I mean, this is a fantasy novel that features (admittedly briefly) a lightsaber and a bad guy who shoots Force lightning. It suffers a bad case of the unnecessary fantasy apostrophe. There's an anti-monarchy union who pickets the castle. The main character survives by being both The Chosen One with Special Powers and Lots of Help from Kindly Strangers. It even features a scene where the character is Trapped Briefly in a World Between Life and Death which reminded me a little too much of seeing Deathly Hallows a few weeks ago (although credit where it's due-- this predates DH by a good few years). It's chock full of the really aggravating sort of cliches.
So I'm conflicted. I'd say it's a guilty pleasure, but that probably does the book a disservice. It's solid, it's just sort of solid in spite of itself. Really the answer is probably that this is a first novel and suffers from a lot of first-novel problems. Which gives me some hope that the other books in the series will be a little less hackneyed. Which is good, because I'm totally going to read them anyway.
Page count: 480 (19818 total)
Completed: 57 (26 female authors, 27 male authors, 4 anthology)
Rejected: 38 (23 male authors, 15 female authors)
Next book due Sunday, August 14th.
Verdict: Keep. (38/95)
This book really works; it's a thoroughly enjoyable read. And it sort of bothers me that it works as well as it does. Let me explain the good stuff, then I'll talk about why it bothers me.
First, the feminist acknowledgment: there are many female characters who talk to each other about things other than boys, including most of the leads and the main character. Pretty much everyone who's really awesome in this book is a woman, and the traditional restrictive gender roles aren't even a consideration most of the time. The book does deal with two near-rapes, but both are dealt with carefully and are resolved by the woman kicking the guy's ass. So, not necessarily for younger readers but definitely worthwhile from a gender perspective.
The characterization is lovely. People are courageous without being invulnerable; the heroes are able to be heroes without agreeing with each other all the time; the villains have more than one thing going on; there's a lot of emotional subtext to dialogue without the author describing the feelings directly. The setting is sufficiently complex to feel real with a lot of implied history to give it weight. The plot skips right along with a good mix of action and character development, with both halves being equally interesting for different reasons.
But I still have that prickly feeling in the back of my critical mind. I mean, this is a fantasy novel that features (admittedly briefly) a lightsaber and a bad guy who shoots Force lightning. It suffers a bad case of the unnecessary fantasy apostrophe. There's an anti-monarchy union who pickets the castle. The main character survives by being both The Chosen One with Special Powers and Lots of Help from Kindly Strangers. It even features a scene where the character is Trapped Briefly in a World Between Life and Death which reminded me a little too much of seeing Deathly Hallows a few weeks ago (although credit where it's due-- this predates DH by a good few years). It's chock full of the really aggravating sort of cliches.
So I'm conflicted. I'd say it's a guilty pleasure, but that probably does the book a disservice. It's solid, it's just sort of solid in spite of itself. Really the answer is probably that this is a first novel and suffers from a lot of first-novel problems. Which gives me some hope that the other books in the series will be a little less hackneyed. Which is good, because I'm totally going to read them anyway.
Page count: 480 (19818 total)
Completed: 57 (26 female authors, 27 male authors, 4 anthology)
Rejected: 38 (23 male authors, 15 female authors)
Next book due Sunday, August 14th.