More Books
Well, I seem to be keeping a decent pace with novels this year so far. There are probably cheaper hobbies, but I still like books. And the library has been uninspiring every time I've been there. The most recent two have left me feeling odd.
Green had some mixed reviews on Amazon. I can sort of understand why some people perceive it as "sexploitation" or the like, I found different focus and foibles in the story. A peasant girl is bought, trained as a possible mate for an immortal duke, gets involved with his downfall, and becomes something of a pawn among deities back and forth across a fantasy realm flavored with some vague foreign cultures... That could be epic fantasy. While I like a few parts, particularly the Dancing Mistress, mostly the story just doesn't ascend to what it could be in my perception. I found myself thinking often "this story sort of wants to be a Kushiel's trilogy, but can't pull it off." Not abysmal, but disappointing overall. I probably won't bother with sequels on this one.
Cry Wolf weirded me out a bit more, really - which may say something. It's a Patricia Briggs werewolf story, so there's romance elements and pack politics and a threat to hunt down. Some of the early parts made me wonder if I'd read it before just because it tangents off a story from one of Briggs' Mercy Thompson books. And the very beginning left me wondering if I'd missed something. Apparently I did, as this grouping of characters apparently started off in a novella.
But what really got to me was, the (arguably) main character, Anna's... background of abuse. I want to say it's handled decently, and the details of how she uses the strength of her wolf to deal with it are interesting, but even without the story going back into brutal detail, some sections were hard to read. A lot of things don't bother me in fiction, but apparently a few (or at least certain depictions thereof) still do. While it's less likely to be a subject as the series goes forward, it's something I'll have to keep in mind while considering future reading.
Addendum: It's not something I realized until after having read the latter book, but I think I sympathize a lot with the whole "omega werewolf" thing. In that cosmology, dominant werewolves have violent tendencies, clashing some and establishing a hierarchy while submissive werewolves evoke the protective instincts of the dominants - even if they're not as powerful of personality, they give a pack a common purpose. Omegas are rare personalities that have the protective insincts without the violent ones, are largely immune to dominant werewolf commands, and can project calmness on other wolf souls to some degree.
And while one of the characters even comments on how that sounds a bit sexual fetishy in English when it's really not, I find myself feeling a good deal omega-y in that schema...
Green had some mixed reviews on Amazon. I can sort of understand why some people perceive it as "sexploitation" or the like, I found different focus and foibles in the story. A peasant girl is bought, trained as a possible mate for an immortal duke, gets involved with his downfall, and becomes something of a pawn among deities back and forth across a fantasy realm flavored with some vague foreign cultures... That could be epic fantasy. While I like a few parts, particularly the Dancing Mistress, mostly the story just doesn't ascend to what it could be in my perception. I found myself thinking often "this story sort of wants to be a Kushiel's trilogy, but can't pull it off." Not abysmal, but disappointing overall. I probably won't bother with sequels on this one.
Cry Wolf weirded me out a bit more, really - which may say something. It's a Patricia Briggs werewolf story, so there's romance elements and pack politics and a threat to hunt down. Some of the early parts made me wonder if I'd read it before just because it tangents off a story from one of Briggs' Mercy Thompson books. And the very beginning left me wondering if I'd missed something. Apparently I did, as this grouping of characters apparently started off in a novella.
But what really got to me was, the (arguably) main character, Anna's... background of abuse. I want to say it's handled decently, and the details of how she uses the strength of her wolf to deal with it are interesting, but even without the story going back into brutal detail, some sections were hard to read. A lot of things don't bother me in fiction, but apparently a few (or at least certain depictions thereof) still do. While it's less likely to be a subject as the series goes forward, it's something I'll have to keep in mind while considering future reading.
Addendum: It's not something I realized until after having read the latter book, but I think I sympathize a lot with the whole "omega werewolf" thing. In that cosmology, dominant werewolves have violent tendencies, clashing some and establishing a hierarchy while submissive werewolves evoke the protective instincts of the dominants - even if they're not as powerful of personality, they give a pack a common purpose. Omegas are rare personalities that have the protective insincts without the violent ones, are largely immune to dominant werewolf commands, and can project calmness on other wolf souls to some degree.
And while one of the characters even comments on how that sounds a bit sexual fetishy in English when it's really not, I find myself feeling a good deal omega-y in that schema...
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