feather_qwill (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
feather_qwill) wrote2008-10-16 11:06 pm
feather_qwill) wrote2008-10-16 11:06 pm
Entry tags:
Crazy red-heads (no, not me!)
Read Melusine.
Have to admit, I wasn't terribly interested until about two-thirds of the way in - if I'd grabbed it from the library on a whim, I probably wouldn't have finished it. But it was recommended, so I did, and I'm glad of it.
Will hopefully be able to pick up The Virtu tomorrow, which I'm getting new & hardcover for $5 because Chapters is awesome, and plan to devour it.
Bad first:
The only thing that actually irritated me was the overuse of made-up vocabulary for timekeeping. Did it add anything to the story or the characters or our understanding of either to know that the fancy folk used one reckoning of time and the Melusine common people used another? Er, no, not so much. It read like a pet project the author just couldn't bring herself to leave out, and the constant comparisons between the the confusing system and our system were like a cry for understanding. "Look! It is relevant to the plot!"
On the whole, however, I didn't find anything really objectionable or sloppy or bad - just not very interesting. I was interested in Felix at first, but it's hard to maintain much enthusiasm for a character who is completely insane (and not even entertainingly so), especially when he's surrounded by characters who are all out to get him.
Mildmay was more interesting, but his girlfriend (Gertrude? Genevieve? G-something.) and their whole sorry affair was not.
The main problem, I think, was that it just seemed to drag on. I mean, the first 200-odd pages are practically all set-up for the real beginning of the story, which was when they left the city.
It started to pick up pace at this point, but I was still fairly apathetic until . . .
Good:
. . . they all snuck out of Hermione in the middle of the night - and more particularly when Felix & Mildmay split off from the others. The writing became much more lively, and Felix became less dull when the characters he was with didn't all hate him.
Also, his attraction to his long-lost little brother hit my kink bone hard. XD
Ultimately, I did like the book, and I am buying the next one ASAP, so it was worthwhile in the end. But if I re-read it, I'll probably start somewhere around page 250.
To self: I *will* save Shadows Return for Sunday. I will. I will. I am keeping Friday for Virtu, and assuming that goes well, Saturday for Mirador. I will keep my series nicely separated and not all hoggely-poggely in my head. I will.
Have to admit, I wasn't terribly interested until about two-thirds of the way in - if I'd grabbed it from the library on a whim, I probably wouldn't have finished it. But it was recommended, so I did, and I'm glad of it.
Will hopefully be able to pick up The Virtu tomorrow, which I'm getting new & hardcover for $5 because Chapters is awesome, and plan to devour it.
Bad first:
The only thing that actually irritated me was the overuse of made-up vocabulary for timekeeping. Did it add anything to the story or the characters or our understanding of either to know that the fancy folk used one reckoning of time and the Melusine common people used another? Er, no, not so much. It read like a pet project the author just couldn't bring herself to leave out, and the constant comparisons between the the confusing system and our system were like a cry for understanding. "Look! It is relevant to the plot!"
On the whole, however, I didn't find anything really objectionable or sloppy or bad - just not very interesting. I was interested in Felix at first, but it's hard to maintain much enthusiasm for a character who is completely insane (and not even entertainingly so), especially when he's surrounded by characters who are all out to get him.
Mildmay was more interesting, but his girlfriend (Gertrude? Genevieve? G-something.) and their whole sorry affair was not.
The main problem, I think, was that it just seemed to drag on. I mean, the first 200-odd pages are practically all set-up for the real beginning of the story, which was when they left the city.
It started to pick up pace at this point, but I was still fairly apathetic until . . .
Good:
. . . they all snuck out of Hermione in the middle of the night - and more particularly when Felix & Mildmay split off from the others. The writing became much more lively, and Felix became less dull when the characters he was with didn't all hate him.
Also, his attraction to his long-lost little brother hit my kink bone hard. XD
Ultimately, I did like the book, and I am buying the next one ASAP, so it was worthwhile in the end. But if I re-read it, I'll probably start somewhere around page 250.
To self: I *will* save Shadows Return for Sunday. I will. I will. I am keeping Friday for Virtu, and assuming that goes well, Saturday for Mirador. I will keep my series nicely separated and not all hoggely-poggely in my head. I will.
no subject
I think the measurement of time grows on you, but I admit that I loved it from the get-go. I hate the generic assumption that all cultures operate in base ten - even when, you know, the species involved don't have ten fingers or ten toes to start base ten with, and historically people have not always operated in base ten. I really enjoy how complete the world is.
That said, I do not entirely appreciate that I have started quoting time periods in decads/septads to my customers, but that is my own particular brand of crazy.Mildmay/Felix = YES, and yet, wait, no. But I'll get to that once you've read the rest of them.
And the girlfriend's name was Ginevra. I hate her, and I sort of want to slap Mildmay for being as attached to her as he is, but I appreciated her for being a realistic woman for her culture. Say whatever you like about Sarah Monette, but I think she knows her people.
(Cannot wait until you read Virtu and Mirador. THEN YOU CAN SUFFER WITH ME WHILE I WHINE ABOUT CORAMBIS.)
no subject
Me too, but that doesn't make it any less confusing when I can't figure if it been a very short period of time or a very long period of time. Any anyways, all cultures that I know of measured time in years, so :P
I'll have Virtu in about 4 hours, so give me eight-ish & I'll get back to you.
no subject
And so does Marathat! They just call them indictions, and they 'start' in our July/October respectively, depending on whether you're in the upper or lower city. Ninety-two days apart. 8D
(I am sorry. I am enough of a geek that this is ridiculously exciting.)