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Jan. 16th, 2016 10:36 amSo I reread Daughter of the Forest, and in doing so was irresistibly reminded of Jennifer Roberson's Cheysuli books, which, like Daughter of the Forest, are vaguely Celtic fantasy creepily centered around a prophesied fantasy breeding program; but no! I said to myself, no, they are not good. I am aware they are not good, I am not going to reread them! There is no reason to reread any Cheysuli books!
And then I flew to Philadephia for a 24-hour trip, and read The Girl With All The Gifts on the plane, and got stressed out by travel and zombies, and decided to look through my adolescent bookshelves for something ridiculous and unstressful to read on the plane ride back, and yes, we all know how this story ends, which is I MADE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE. I remembered they were bad! I did not remember HOW VERY. I wronged you, Juliet Marillier; compared to Shapechangers, Daughter of the Forest is a class act.
The Cheysuli books are set in a land called 'Homana' -- "derived from 'home!'" says Jennifer Roberson in her cheery author's note, which, NO, REALLY, I WOULD NEVER HAVE GUESSED, although I guess it's slightly better than Mercedes Lackey's 'Alanda' -- and are VERY SERIOUS BOOKS about FANTASY RACISM. Homana is mostly inhabited by non-magical, presumably white Homanans, but also by the dark-skinned, black-haired, yellow-eyed, beautiful, noble, valiant, super-special, incredibly exoticized Cheysuli who live in tents and have mystical soul-animals and also can shapeshift and also have some other magic powers that pop up whenever is convenient.
Once upon a time, the Cheysuli were in charge of the country, but then they stepped down voluntarily when they realized the white people were uncomfortable with them and their MYSTIC POWERS and their ALIEN AFFECT and BEASTLIKE EYES. However, they still have a prophecy about how one day a half-Cheysuli king will unite Homana with all the surrounding countries and it is BASICALLY the only thing that any Cheysuli ever talks about, even though for the past 25 years pre-story they have been the target of a MASSIVE ATTEMPTED GENOCIDE so you would think they would have more pressing concerns.
( This is only where it STARTS to get gross )
And then I flew to Philadephia for a 24-hour trip, and read The Girl With All The Gifts on the plane, and got stressed out by travel and zombies, and decided to look through my adolescent bookshelves for something ridiculous and unstressful to read on the plane ride back, and yes, we all know how this story ends, which is I MADE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE. I remembered they were bad! I did not remember HOW VERY. I wronged you, Juliet Marillier; compared to Shapechangers, Daughter of the Forest is a class act.
The Cheysuli books are set in a land called 'Homana' -- "derived from 'home!'" says Jennifer Roberson in her cheery author's note, which, NO, REALLY, I WOULD NEVER HAVE GUESSED, although I guess it's slightly better than Mercedes Lackey's 'Alanda' -- and are VERY SERIOUS BOOKS about FANTASY RACISM. Homana is mostly inhabited by non-magical, presumably white Homanans, but also by the dark-skinned, black-haired, yellow-eyed, beautiful, noble, valiant, super-special, incredibly exoticized Cheysuli who live in tents and have mystical soul-animals and also can shapeshift and also have some other magic powers that pop up whenever is convenient.
Once upon a time, the Cheysuli were in charge of the country, but then they stepped down voluntarily when they realized the white people were uncomfortable with them and their MYSTIC POWERS and their ALIEN AFFECT and BEASTLIKE EYES. However, they still have a prophecy about how one day a half-Cheysuli king will unite Homana with all the surrounding countries and it is BASICALLY the only thing that any Cheysuli ever talks about, even though for the past 25 years pre-story they have been the target of a MASSIVE ATTEMPTED GENOCIDE so you would think they would have more pressing concerns.
( This is only where it STARTS to get gross )
