(no subject)
Apr. 28th, 2009 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsSo last year I reread Laurence Yep's Dragon of the Lost Sea books, which were a Formative Part of my Childhood. I know Laurence Yep is probably quite a bit more famous for his historical fiction than for his fantasy, but as a small thing I had approximately zero interest in most things non-fantasy-shaped, so I never read anything of his but that. So it goes. However, when I was in the library a few weeks ago, I was poking through the children's section and discovered, dude, Laurence Yep has a NEW quest fantasy! Published in my post-childhood years, which is why I had never heard of it. Naturally I dived upon it like a hawk.
. . . then I almost gave up after the first book, The Tiger's Apprentice, because it read basically like Dragon of the Lost Sea Lite without the fun of the first-person voice. The huffy dragon exile is Shimmer 2.0, the solitary orphan who might be sort of a bad guy but really has just never had anyone to be KIND to her felt like an Indigo rehash, and even the Monkey King, who pops up here again and is presumably the same character, is . . . kind of Monkey Lite, compared to the awesome Monkey of the first books. And Tom, the protagonist, is not nearly as much fun as Thorn. And they all run around protecting a Magical MacGuffin, and though it was a decent enough quest-fantasy with a parade of interesting mythological monsters I was kind of thinking I might as well just reread Dragon of the Lost Sea.
And then Laurence Yep pulled out a plot-point about a character having personality-and-species-altering magic done on him to save his life at the end of the first book, with a lot of ominous warnings about how they might not end up being grateful for it, and I was like "dammit, Laurence Yep, now I need to know what happens next!"
So I did end up reading the next two books, Tiger's Blood and Tiger Magic, and . . . they continued to be decent and readable, with fun moments, and occasional frustrating touches on interesting themes (aging elderly heroes! forgotten gods!) that I wanted them to go into further, but they didn't. (Also there is a baby spoiler who speaks in really frustrating baby talk.) So if you are looking for Chinese-mythology-influenced quest fantasy, I would say go for the Dragon of the Lost Sea books instead, which have fun first-person voices for the main characters, and also the significant advantage of having True Lesbian Dragon Love!
(Although the Tiger books did have one glorious moment of "And now I will work the magic to save the world, and all you main characters must sacrifice your lives to make it work! Ready? . . . hahaha, just kidding! But the look on your faces!")
. . . then I almost gave up after the first book, The Tiger's Apprentice, because it read basically like Dragon of the Lost Sea Lite without the fun of the first-person voice. The huffy dragon exile is Shimmer 2.0, the solitary orphan who might be sort of a bad guy but really has just never had anyone to be KIND to her felt like an Indigo rehash, and even the Monkey King, who pops up here again and is presumably the same character, is . . . kind of Monkey Lite, compared to the awesome Monkey of the first books. And Tom, the protagonist, is not nearly as much fun as Thorn. And they all run around protecting a Magical MacGuffin, and though it was a decent enough quest-fantasy with a parade of interesting mythological monsters I was kind of thinking I might as well just reread Dragon of the Lost Sea.
And then Laurence Yep pulled out a plot-point about a character having personality-and-species-altering magic done on him to save his life at the end of the first book, with a lot of ominous warnings about how they might not end up being grateful for it, and I was like "dammit, Laurence Yep, now I need to know what happens next!"
So I did end up reading the next two books, Tiger's Blood and Tiger Magic, and . . . they continued to be decent and readable, with fun moments, and occasional frustrating touches on interesting themes (aging elderly heroes! forgotten gods!) that I wanted them to go into further, but they didn't. (Also there is a baby spoiler who speaks in really frustrating baby talk.) So if you are looking for Chinese-mythology-influenced quest fantasy, I would say go for the Dragon of the Lost Sea books instead, which have fun first-person voices for the main characters, and also the significant advantage of having True Lesbian Dragon Love!
(Although the Tiger books did have one glorious moment of "And now I will work the magic to save the world, and all you main characters must sacrifice your lives to make it work! Ready? . . . hahaha, just kidding! But the look on your faces!")
