![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Apr. 17th, 2008 11:01 amLast week, the weather here was cold, windy and glum. Then, all of a sudden, Friday came - and we were suddenly in perfect late spring, with ridiculous amounts of sunshine and every open space sprouting its usual crop of sunbathers clutching premed textbooks. As for me - the next on my to-read-not-for-school list, already checked out of the library, is Mary Doria Russel's The Sparrow, which I have heard many good things about. However, I have also heard that it is full of angst. I don't mean to say that this is a point against the book, because it isn't . . . but I walked outside on Friday, and could not help feeling that it would be a waste of the most beautiful day of the year so far to sit outside in the sun and stock up on angst. So, The Sparrow has been postponed, and instead I went to the library resolved to check out the most cheerful thing I could find, which happened to be an all-in-one volume of Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles.
For those who have not read them, the Enchanted Forest books are prominent members of that subgenre of fantasy whose main goal is to poke gentle fun at all the other, rather ridiculous fantasy and fairy-tale tropes. Diana Wynne Jones' Ingary and Derkholm books also fall into this category, as does Shrek, and many more things I am not thinking of right now (does the subgenre have a name, by the way? If not, it should.) The main recurring characters include a runaway princess, a dragon, a no-nonsense witch, a king, and a research magician, who are mostly distinguished by the fact that they value good sense over the conventions usually associated with their roles. (Except for the research magician, who is not so much defined by his sense but has other qualities.) Most of the books involve some kind of dastardly wizard plot, but in fact the plot is really more of an excuse for the characters to bump into a number of other silly characters and situations and use their good sense to fix various dilemmas. As you might guess, they are no end of fun, and were among my favorite books growing up.
Now, for those of you who have read them - which I have a feeling is at least a semi-significant chunk of my flist - I am curious. I have a vague memory of talking to a few people recently who were disappointed with the last book or two of the series (Rym, was this at the conference?) Me, I am actually rather fond of the last book - it's completely deux ex machina-y, but hey, so are all the rest, and polite little Daystar has won a place in my heart. So, to satisfy my curiosity: a poll!
[Poll #1172737]
Please feel free to elaborate in comments, too! :D
For those who have not read them, the Enchanted Forest books are prominent members of that subgenre of fantasy whose main goal is to poke gentle fun at all the other, rather ridiculous fantasy and fairy-tale tropes. Diana Wynne Jones' Ingary and Derkholm books also fall into this category, as does Shrek, and many more things I am not thinking of right now (does the subgenre have a name, by the way? If not, it should.) The main recurring characters include a runaway princess, a dragon, a no-nonsense witch, a king, and a research magician, who are mostly distinguished by the fact that they value good sense over the conventions usually associated with their roles. (Except for the research magician, who is not so much defined by his sense but has other qualities.) Most of the books involve some kind of dastardly wizard plot, but in fact the plot is really more of an excuse for the characters to bump into a number of other silly characters and situations and use their good sense to fix various dilemmas. As you might guess, they are no end of fun, and were among my favorite books growing up.
Now, for those of you who have read them - which I have a feeling is at least a semi-significant chunk of my flist - I am curious. I have a vague memory of talking to a few people recently who were disappointed with the last book or two of the series (Rym, was this at the conference?) Me, I am actually rather fond of the last book - it's completely deux ex machina-y, but hey, so are all the rest, and polite little Daystar has won a place in my heart. So, to satisfy my curiosity: a poll!
[Poll #1172737]
Please feel free to elaborate in comments, too! :D
