skygiants: Mosca Mye, from the cover of Fly Trap (the fly in the butter)
[personal profile] skygiants
It's always really hard to review Frances Hardinge books because there are always twenty things going on in them at once and all of them are REALLY GOOD. But here I am, attempting to give A Face Like Glass a go anyway.

This particular exercise of Frances Hardinge's bizarrely delightful brain takes place in an underground cavern of a city that runs on craftsmanship - impossibly gourmet wines and cheese and perfumes that can make you lose memories or experience visions or alter your emotions.

Our heroine is an apprentice cheesemaker named Neverfell, a friendly, trusting little girl with severe ADD, no memories of her life before the age of five, and a face that shows everything she's thinking (which is generally a lot of things in a very short span, because did I mention the severe ADD?)

This is unfortunate for Neverfell, because in Caverna, babies don't learn how to make facial expressions from their parents - so everyone's facial expressions are carefully crafted by artisans and equally carefully chosen to suit any given occasion. Except the drudges, of course; they only learn about three expressions, mostly indicating polite subservience, because why would they need any more? Either way, nobody's face just shows what they're actually thinking! THAT WOULD BE RIDICULOUS. (And, of course, unsafe.)

Neverfell just wants to make friends and see something of the city! Finding out some secrets of her own past would be nice, too. But to the rest of the courtiers of Caverna, she's either an intriguing novelty or a terrifying freak of nature or -- most dangerous of all -- an invaluable tool in their long-range plans.

What the people manipulating her have in mind is a transfer of power. Add in a ruler who has literally split his brain in two, a master thief with a plan so complex that he's even keeping secrets from himself, a court-trained girl who might turn out to be Neverfell's best friend, an underclass who are ready to finally learn how to make the expression that signifies "anger," and Neverfell's discovery of her own agency and abilities, and what they might get is something like a revolution.

Or, for a shorter summary: it's Frances Hardinge, so you already know it's really good, and it's basically fantasy of manners on LSD, and it's funny and creepy and biting and heartbreaking, and there is literally a scene in which Neverfell is repeatedly forced to choose between cake and death. And it works. SO THERE YOU GO.

Date: 2013-01-24 11:45 pm (UTC)
petra: Barbara Gordon smiling knowingly (Default)
From: [personal profile] petra
Wow, Cake Or Death in real time (as much as is possible in a novel) sells me on this author, whatever else they manage to accomplish.

This isn't going to be like Jim Butcher and the T-rex, right?

Date: 2013-01-25 02:12 am (UTC)
petra: Barbara Gordon smiling knowingly (Default)
From: [personal profile] petra
He's very good at building up to an awesome scene, in the real sense of the word.

Not so good at Not Failing along the way.

Date: 2013-01-24 11:55 pm (UTC)
hebethen: (Default)
From: [personal profile] hebethen
This book sounds fascinating! Thank you, as always, for doing legwork so your own readers don't have to

hr hrr hrrr

Date: 2013-01-25 02:05 am (UTC)
hebethen: (Default)
From: [personal profile] hebethen
Haha, "twenty things going on at once" does sound kind of DWJy, also :P High praise from you!

Date: 2013-01-25 02:21 am (UTC)
rymenhild: Manuscript page from British Library MS Harley 913 (Default)
From: [personal profile] rymenhild
Adding to the to-read list. Where should I start with Frances Hardinge?

Date: 2013-01-25 05:06 am (UTC)
vass: Jon Stewart reading a dictionary (books)
From: [personal profile] vass
You had me at "fantasy of manners on LSD".

Date: 2013-01-25 07:18 pm (UTC)
opusculasedfera: Avatar Korra throws her head back and laughs (korra)
From: [personal profile] opusculasedfera
This book was so fantastic. But you're right that Hardinge is just incredibly hard to talk about because I want to do things like squeal over how it's a YA book where the message isn't "trust people" or "don't trust people", it's "people are fucking complicated, but you will have to work with them ANYWAY", but also laugh forever at the intense importance of hallucinogenic cheese.

I don't know if it quite counts as fantasy of manners though? I feel like the comedy/fantasy of manners genre is all about people who do everything within that social range, whereas the point of Neverfell is that she has no idea how any of this works and she eventually actually seriously overturns the social order, rather than merely setting a fashion for a charmingly different type of hat. She's kind of existing on the edge of a fantasy of manners, maybe? Zouelle, right up until the end, might well be living one, but I think Neverfell takes us too much out of it?

...Writing that made me want the Yuletide fic about pre-Neverfell Caverna that plays the fantasy of manners straight and never gives us that outsider to say this is mad, just shows all the whirling cogs, hallucinogenic meals and amnesiac wines of Caverna society like they're the Regency cliches we're familiar with.

tl;dr too much REVOLUTION! for fantasy of manners, but a good amount of REVOLUTION! nevertheless, and a brilliant book.

Date: 2013-01-26 03:46 am (UTC)
opusculasedfera: stack of books, with a mug of tea on top (Default)
From: [personal profile] opusculasedfera
Hmm, I can see your point, I suppose I think of it more as a direct fantasy equivalent of the comedy of manners, which is often willing to point out that the system is mad, but rarely offers a true alternative. So, say, Swordspoint is fantasy of manners because it's pretty willing to admit that this is kind of a nutty system, but no one gets to really leave, just to avoid certain bits of it. The Keladry quartet on the other hand, actually feature quite a lot of learning how to work within the system and negotiate, but because their explicit ultimate goal is to change the system quite a lot, they don't feel the same to me.

Date: 2013-03-18 10:40 pm (UTC)
hebethen: (Default)
From: [personal profile] hebethen
it was just possible that blinding the Grand Steward and his privileged nobles with poison cheese steam would not greatly improve Master Grandible’s position
SCREAM

Date: 2013-03-18 11:02 pm (UTC)
hebethen: (Default)
From: [personal profile] hebethen
YOUR FACE

IS LIKE A GREAT BIG BUN


I CAN'T

Date: 2014-12-27 02:25 pm (UTC)
happydork: A graph-theoretic tree in the shape of a dog, with the caption "Tree (with bark)" (Default)
From: [personal profile] happydork
I have just read this! Aefjkgrf!!! The Cartographers! Neverfell! The bit at the end when the cheesemaker dude tells Neverfell she's maturing into a good cheese! Zouelle! Every single time Neverfell hugs Zouelle and Zouelle FEELS THINGS AND DOESN'T LIKE IT. Plans within plots within oh my god Neverfell's secret backstory nooooooooooo not okay.

Profile

skygiants: Princess Tutu, facing darkness with a green light in the distance (Default)
skygiants

July 2025

S M T W T F S
  12345
678 9 1011 12
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 13th, 2025 07:24 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios