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Jun. 25th, 2012 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantssilveraspen is a kind person who enjoys furthering my education, which you know from the fact that she is responsible for sending me a copy of The Fire Rose to reread and review. Along with this masterpiece, she also sent along a few Barbara Hamblys, one of which I have not yet read and the other of which was Stranger at the Wedding.Stranger at the Wedding is basically an adorable high-fantasy-of-manners romp that ends up revolving around a super dark and creepy backstory secret trauma, so I'm just going to come out in advance and give a warning for pedophilia and child abuse before I go back to talking about the romp.
That said: probably about 70% of the book is hijinks! The plot basically goes like this:
KYRA: I have had a dark premonition that if my baby sister gets married SHE WILL BE DOOMED! So I will ride home to my estranged parents and STOP THE WEDDING. BABY SISTER I AM COMING!
ALIX: But . . . I mean it's really nice to see you but . . . I'm basically fine? Have some cake?
KYRA: Then why do you look SO DEPRESSED? And who is this jerkface who you clearly don't care about that you have been SOLD IN MARRIAGE TO?
THAT JERKFACE: Hi, I'm a sensible, practical, surprisingly reliable merchant who has awesome swashbuckling sea adventures for a living. Nice to meet you!
KYRA: . . . WHAT A JERKFACE. (<3____<3)
So then Kyra runs around deploying all her wily magical hijinks to delay the wedding until she can figure out WHY HER BABY SISTER IS DOOMED, wearing ever-more ridiculous outfits in the process -- I'm not sure if Kyra's fashion sense is explicitly supposed to be terrible, or just DRAMATIC AND INTERESTING in the Claudia Kishi tradition, but it is by far the funniest part of the book. See this front cover?
That purple-and-yellow Batgirl ballgown: TOTALLY CANON. And that in itself would be enough to make me love Kyra.
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Date: 2012-06-25 03:26 pm (UTC)Oh and I read the almost latest Elemental Masters book, Unnatural Issue and I"m so proud of Lackey for improving. The plot was thoughtful, there was build up to everything and no clear and easy happy ending. The villain was still pretty awful but not quite as hamfisted as some of her others, and she did lots of poking at WWI and class stuff, which she does a decent job on.
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Date: 2012-06-25 03:32 pm (UTC)Haha, but I am afraid to read new Mercedes Lackeys! My cutoff is officially 1996, I have not successfully managed to enjoy anything published in 1997 or later (with the single exception of The Black Swan.) I am glad you enjoyed it, though. :D
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Date: 2012-06-25 03:36 pm (UTC)Ah, good to know, I don't normally go and read grimdark as it tends to be not fun and sort of tiring. That's why I gave up on Song of Ice and Fire, the grimdark was more than character or world building and I ran away.
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Date: 2012-06-25 03:40 pm (UTC)I mean, don't get me wrong, it's good grimdark, and there is a lot of awesome RESEARCH SAVES THE DAY stuff which I really like, but . . . I mean, the actual title of the first book is in fact The Time of the Dark which sort of says it all.
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Date: 2012-06-25 03:42 pm (UTC)Yeah, that does say a lot and she's a good writer but grimdark is tough going.
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Date: 2012-06-25 04:04 pm (UTC)BECAUSE IT ENRAGED ME. I'm glad other people read it, though, so I am not alone in my rage.
ETA: ...oh wait, you said you liked it? But... what about rapist Siegfried who never learned his lesson? All he learned was "gosh if I rape people gypsies will haunt me and I hate being haunted!"
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Date: 2012-06-25 04:10 pm (UTC)(Also it was great reading it right after seeing the ballet, because -- well, I'm gonna c&p from my review at the time --
Lackey spends a lot of time describing set pieces that are taken straight from the traditional ballet's stage settings. The lake itself is the big one ("and there is this GIANT DRAMATIC CLIFF right next to the lake! Funny how that is!") but the party scene with all of the visiting princesses doing their national dances is also pretty notable.
-- which was HILARIOUS. Those are pure ballet tropes, you CANNOT make them make sense in a novel, but La Lackey is certainly going to try!)
That being said, I am all over ragewritten fix-it lesbian YA Swan Lake like you have NO IDEA. *___* *___* *___*
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Date: 2012-06-25 04:16 pm (UTC)And returning Siegfried to the romantic nincompoop that he is in the ballet. "OH MY LOVE, ALL THESE PRETTY GIRLS ARE NOT MY LOVE, WOE IS MY LIFE /dramatic sob" I want that guy, not the guy who rapes gypsies and is generally absolutely unlikeable.
In fact I may have to reread it and also ignore Siegfried. Because that part was so good. I never noticed that it was based on the ballet. I was just intrigued by Odile wanting to marry Siegfried too in the original Tchaikovsky plot.
I... could actually use some people to bounce that off of, if you're willing. Since I took it to wiscon for shopping and now I'm all "weep I will never be any good WEEP"
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Date: 2012-06-25 04:26 pm (UTC)I would totally be willing to be a bouncer! (Hah, I know that feeling well.) I am all about getting more Swan Lake in my eyes. :D
(Also, if you haven't seen Princess Tutu, you totally should. It's a short anime -- available on Hulu! -- based on ballet and fairy tales, with Swan Lake being the most prominent reference. The two female protagonists are symbolically equated with Odette and Odile, and the heroine just keeps being like "I don't care about the stupid narrative tropes that say we're supposed to be antagonists, LET'S BE FRIENDS I THINK YOU'RE PRETTY. :D")
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Date: 2012-06-25 04:32 pm (UTC)AND YAY. I gotta, y'know, take the bar before I get back into reworking it-- it's currently inside out and eviscerated so it's absolutely not readable in its current form, but I'll remember that. Though I may have to message you just to talk over generalities before I try again, since I may as well before getting into the story's guts.
Also: Are you kidding I own Princess Tutu (though fansubs are better, seeing her called "Duck" even in subs is jarring. I know that's what Ahiru means, but it's weird!)
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Date: 2012-06-25 04:37 pm (UTC)Please feel free to message me to talk it over at any time! :D
AND GOOD, I just wanted to make sure. :P I mean I also will never lose any opportunity to shove Princess Tutu at people because it is the SHOW OF MY HEART. (I listened to the English dub first, so I flip back between calling her Duck and Ahiru in my head. I have to admit a fondness for the English voice actress though just because of seeing the extra where she can't make it through dubbing the last episode because she's crying too hard. I FEEL YOU, LUCY CHRISTIAN.)
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Date: 2012-06-25 05:58 pm (UTC)I saw Princess Tutu a day or two after the finale because it was sold to me as "it's about a duck that turns into a girl that turns into a magical ballerina and the ending has a dancing duck and it made us all cry." I was like, that is so cracked out I have to see it. And oh God. I never thought it was possible for a cartoon duck doing ballet to rip tears straight out of my soul.
And I'll be messaging you! Though I wonder why I don't have your IM/gchat or whatever, because I feel like we should talk for real.
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Date: 2012-06-25 06:30 pm (UTC)I would be down! I'm bookelfe on IM, if I'm around I'm up for chatting. :)
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Date: 2012-06-25 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-06-25 04:23 pm (UTC)I think my friends are sick and tired of it by this point. Especially since I had to teach most of them the plot of Swan Lake to begin with. XD
but eee thank you! It's always nice to hear that it's a concept people are interested in.
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Date: 2012-06-25 04:09 pm (UTC)It's another standalone. I having a working theory, based on hard-won experience, that the amount of grimdark in a Barbara Hambly fantasy novel increases as a function of how long the series has been running.
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Date: 2012-06-25 04:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 04:41 pm (UTC)That's a good working theory. I can't argue it. Although I haven't read all the books in the dog wizard setting - does that one slide into grimdark, too?
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Date: 2012-06-25 11:07 pm (UTC)It spoilered me for the book, but that's okay because I would never have known about the book otherwise.
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Date: 2012-06-25 06:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 06:28 pm (UTC)Kyra falling in mad passionate love with Blore over the course of a week is totally ridiculous, but they're both very likeable people and their relationship seems like a healthy one in a screwball-comedy sort of fashion, so I am totally willing to roll with it! And yeah, I like the way it's generally handled, and the way their respective goals are respected, and how even though they have been struck with sudden MAD PASSION that doesn't change their primary goals.
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Date: 2012-06-25 11:08 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-06-26 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-27 03:39 am (UTC)(Also, I feel it is your destiny to acquire and wear a Batgirl ballgown.)
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Date: 2012-06-27 05:49 am (UTC)