(no subject)

Once again, after lots of time spent on public transportation, I have a fair amount of booklogging to catch up on! However I only have time to do one right now, I think, which is Elizabeth Wein's The Winter Prince. shati ordered me to read Elizabeth Wein's books, and I always do what Shati tells me to! . . . this may be a dangerous thing to admit.

The book is technically an Arthurian retelling, but it is not really like any other Arthurian retelling I have read, in large part because it focuses in very closely on the relationship between two characters and one of them does not actually exist in The Legend As We Know It. The main character, who is telling the story, is Medraut, illegitimate son of Artos - you all can guess the analogues here - but the other focus of the story is Artos' other son Lleu, who is much younger, less experienced, and sickly, and of course going to inherit. Lleu also has a twin sister, Goewin, who is awesome. Medraut, of course, has a very complicated love-hate relationship with Lleu, and while this often leads them both to do very dumb things, I really enjoyed seeing it carefully explored and pushed and tested (you know I love the sibling stuff). My main complaint: the back cover copy spoiled me for developments halfway through the book. Don't read it!

This is the basic gist of the story, and probably the main sell for anyone who would want to read it; however, there are a few other smaller things I really liked that I am putting down just for me. First: Orkneys! I would have liked more Orkneys, because I love them, but I found it hilarious how their main role in the story was to sit around staring during Important Confrontations visibly thinking the medieval equivalent of ". . . AWKWARD." I also loved Ginevra, Artos' wife; there isn't much of her, but what we see easily makes her my favorite Guinevere ever. She is sensible and skilled at making maps! She has a practical skill! I adore this.

My library system has every book in the series except the second one, which makes me sad. But I will definitely be reading the sequel if I can manage to get my hands on it.

(no subject)

So, I am torn about Elizabeth Knox's Dreamhunter. I found the world and the atmosphere fascinating - basically, a very small percentage of the population has the ability to go into a weird barren landscape known as the Place, where they 'catch' dreams by falling asleep. When they come out, they can then project the dream to other sleepers for about a week, until it fades, and the people who make careers out of this are called dreamhunters. The plot of the story centers around the question of what the Place is and where the dreams come from, and what they're trying to say and how they can be abused, and the whole thing turns very creepy and dark and gave me the chills, of which I very much approve. The main character, Laura, is the daughter of the first and greatest dreamhunter in the world, and is a shy and quiet girl who lives in her bolder cousin's shadow and generally does as she's told - and here is where I run into problems with the book, because I find myself incredibly frustrated with her whenever we're following her in the story. I keep wanting to shake her and tell her to use her head, and also her voicebox. I don't know - has anyone else read the book? Is this just me?

Dreamhunter is basically the first half of a two-part story, and I will definitely be reading the second half, because I really want to find out what's up with the world and I like many of the other characters. But gah, Laura!


On a very different note, I went to see The Incredible Hulk this afternoon, and I just have one (non-spoilery) question: was I the only one who saw Betty's boyfriend and was irresistibly reminded of Simon Tam?