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May. 12th, 2010 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsIt feels like I have been waiting forever and a day to get the new Diana Wynne Jones into my grubby hands! Enchanted Glass came in for me on Friday and I read it all on the bus back to Philly on Saturday; the high school friend I was meeting with was 45 minutes late and I did not even care, because it meant I could finish it.
That being said, Enchanted Glass is not going into the ranks of my favorite DWJs. Which is not to say it's not a solidly enjoyable book, because it totally is - I mean, it's Diana Wynne Jones, that goes without saying - but - well, I think the easiest one to compare it to thematically is Eight Days of Luke, but the central dynamic is not anywhere near as interesting as the David-Luke friendship, and it doesn't have as much of the underlying darkness that makes that book interesting. It relies a lot more on very gentle domestic comedy, and I kind of wish that she'd either gone more complex with it, or let her sense of the ridiculous go even wilder - in the climactic scene she finally releases her full powers of wacky madcap, and it's GLORIOUS. (Then again, my favorites tend to be the really weird ones like Hexwood, so what do I know?)
Also, two major factors that mean I did not imprint on this book:
1. This is the first DWJ book I can remember where I - actually did not buy or care about the romance. We hardly see Stashe and Andrew interacting, and we never see or hear Stashe's perspective on things, which I think may be a large part of the problem; the only other DWJ primary romances I can think of where we don't get both perspectives are Howl/Sophie and Abdullah/Flower-in-the-Night, and in both those cases we do get a ton of really telling interactions between the two to show the growth of their relationship, and DWJ is also very careful to give Howl and Flower-in-the-Night agency and motivations of their own. And Millie/Christopher, I guess, but we get all of Millie/Christopher through Conrad's eyes anyway, and third-party-view romance is something that DWJ does very well. But all we really see of Stashe is Andrew thinking she is hot and bossy; she really doesn't get her own agenda at all, and so the whole thing feels sort of perfunctory. She's there to Help Andrew, that's all. And that fills me with great sorrow, because I am not used to feeling that way about DWJ love interests.
2. I am just not as entertained by the fairies as I want to be. I think part of this is just that I have read enough Midsummer Night's Dream riffs (and seen enough Midsummer Night's Dreams!) that I have a pretty clear idea in my head, and it does not overlap at all with the traits that are emphasized in this book. Which is fine, and not DWJ's fault! But did make it harder to connect with, when the reveal started coming.
Except for Oberon being a douchebag. I fully agree with her on that one!
On the other hand, you can't really dislike a book that includes a giant, an adorable weredog, boxes of truly terrifying vegetables, bitchfights with the fairies over property disputes ("I WILL CALL MY LAWYER AND SUE! JUST WATCH ME!") and a fight scene involving a giant zucchini, so it is not like I am at all anti-recommending here. It's not the best DWJ, but it's still DWJ.
That being said, Enchanted Glass is not going into the ranks of my favorite DWJs. Which is not to say it's not a solidly enjoyable book, because it totally is - I mean, it's Diana Wynne Jones, that goes without saying - but - well, I think the easiest one to compare it to thematically is Eight Days of Luke, but the central dynamic is not anywhere near as interesting as the David-Luke friendship, and it doesn't have as much of the underlying darkness that makes that book interesting. It relies a lot more on very gentle domestic comedy, and I kind of wish that she'd either gone more complex with it, or let her sense of the ridiculous go even wilder - in the climactic scene she finally releases her full powers of wacky madcap, and it's GLORIOUS. (Then again, my favorites tend to be the really weird ones like Hexwood, so what do I know?)
Also, two major factors that mean I did not imprint on this book:
1. This is the first DWJ book I can remember where I - actually did not buy or care about the romance. We hardly see Stashe and Andrew interacting, and we never see or hear Stashe's perspective on things, which I think may be a large part of the problem; the only other DWJ primary romances I can think of where we don't get both perspectives are Howl/Sophie and Abdullah/Flower-in-the-Night, and in both those cases we do get a ton of really telling interactions between the two to show the growth of their relationship, and DWJ is also very careful to give Howl and Flower-in-the-Night agency and motivations of their own. And Millie/Christopher, I guess, but we get all of Millie/Christopher through Conrad's eyes anyway, and third-party-view romance is something that DWJ does very well. But all we really see of Stashe is Andrew thinking she is hot and bossy; she really doesn't get her own agenda at all, and so the whole thing feels sort of perfunctory. She's there to Help Andrew, that's all. And that fills me with great sorrow, because I am not used to feeling that way about DWJ love interests.
2. I am just not as entertained by the fairies as I want to be. I think part of this is just that I have read enough Midsummer Night's Dream riffs (and seen enough Midsummer Night's Dreams!) that I have a pretty clear idea in my head, and it does not overlap at all with the traits that are emphasized in this book. Which is fine, and not DWJ's fault! But did make it harder to connect with, when the reveal started coming.
Except for Oberon being a douchebag. I fully agree with her on that one!
On the other hand, you can't really dislike a book that includes a giant, an adorable weredog, boxes of truly terrifying vegetables, bitchfights with the fairies over property disputes ("I WILL CALL MY LAWYER AND SUE! JUST WATCH ME!") and a fight scene involving a giant zucchini, so it is not like I am at all anti-recommending here. It's not the best DWJ, but it's still DWJ.
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Date: 2010-05-12 04:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 04:45 pm (UTC)And DWJ kind of briefly dangles that possibility, and then is like LOL NO, he is just a tool.
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Date: 2010-05-12 05:20 pm (UTC)Also Hexwood is one of my utter favorites too, I love watching the characters mature.
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Date: 2010-05-12 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 06:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 06:06 pm (UTC)and the rest of the cast are essentially there for comedy purposes.
That, and most of them felt like I'd seen them in previous novels...
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Date: 2010-05-12 06:18 pm (UTC)Hah, that too - though sometimes I don't mind that! Like, I get a bit of the same feeling in Tale of Time City with the secondaries, but I love Tale of Time City enormously all the same.
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Date: 2010-05-12 06:23 pm (UTC)Though the doubles get to meet in this one, that's cool. :-) I feel a bit cheated when they have to avoid each other.
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Date: 2010-05-12 06:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-12 06:42 pm (UTC)