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[skygiants]

It's always really hard to review Frances Hardinge books because there are always twenty things going on in them at once and all of them are REALLY GOOD. But here I am, attempting to give A Face Like Glass a go anyway.

This particular exercise of Frances Hardinge's bizarrely delightful brain takes place in an underground cavern of a city that runs on craftsmanship - impossibly gourmet wines and cheese and perfumes that can make you lose memories or experience visions or alter your emotions.

Our heroine is an apprentice cheesemaker named Neverfell, a friendly, trusting little girl with severe ADD, no memories of her life before the age of five, and a face that shows everything she's thinking (which is generally a lot of things in a very short span, because did I mention the severe ADD?)

This is unfortunate for Neverfell, because in Caverna, babies don't learn how to make facial expressions from their parents - so everyone's facial expressions are carefully crafted by artisans and equally carefully chosen to suit any given occasion. Except the drudges, of course; they only learn about three expressions, mostly indicating polite subservience, because why would they need any more? Either way, nobody's face just shows what they're actually thinking! THAT WOULD BE RIDICULOUS. (And, of course, unsafe.)

Neverfell just wants to make friends and see something of the city! Finding out some secrets of her own past would be nice, too. But to the rest of the courtiers of Caverna, she's either an intriguing novelty or a terrifying freak of nature or -- most dangerous of all -- an invaluable tool in their long-range plans.

What the people manipulating her have in mind is a transfer of power. Add in a ruler who has literally split his brain in two, a master thief with a plan so complex that he's even keeping secrets from himself, a court-trained girl who might turn out to be Neverfell's best friend, an underclass who are ready to finally learn how to make the expression that signifies "anger," and Neverfell's discovery of her own agency and abilities, and what they might get is something like a revolution.

Or, for a shorter summary: it's Frances Hardinge, so you already know it's really good, and it's basically fantasy of manners on LSD, and it's funny and creepy and biting and heartbreaking, and there is literally a scene in which Neverfell is repeatedly forced to choose between cake and death. And it works. SO THERE YOU GO.

Comments

[opusculasedfera]

This book was so fantastic. But you're right that Hardinge is just incredibly hard to talk about because I want to do things like squeal over how it's a YA book where the message isn't "trust people" or "don't trust people", it's "people are fucking complicated, but you will have to work with them ANYWAY", but also laugh forever at the intense importance of hallucinogenic cheese.

I don't know if it quite counts as fantasy of manners though? I feel like the comedy/fantasy of manners genre is all about people who do everything within that social range, whereas the point of Neverfell is that she has no idea how any of this works and she eventually actually seriously overturns the social order, rather than merely setting a fashion for a charmingly different type of hat. She's kind of existing on the edge of a fantasy of manners, maybe? Zouelle, right up until the end, might well be living one, but I think Neverfell takes us too much out of it?

...Writing that made me want the Yuletide fic about pre-Neverfell Caverna that plays the fantasy of manners straight and never gives us that outsider to say this is mad, just shows all the whirling cogs, hallucinogenic meals and amnesiac wines of Caverna society like they're the Regency cliches we're familiar with.

tl;dr too much REVOLUTION! for fantasy of manners, but a good amount of REVOLUTION! nevertheless, and a brilliant book.

[skygiants]

Hmmm, this a good argument! I tend to class anything as fantasy of manners that includes complex court negotiations, even or especially if the protagonist has no idea how to navigate them -- actually, "protagonist who has no idea how to deal with court manners and storms in to start a revolution and turn everything upside down" is a fantasy of manners staple (like in Sherwood Smith's Crown Duel/Court Duel). But it's true that usually a large part of the arc is them learning how to deal with the court and play the game, and Neverfell decides to learn how to deal with CRAZY MASTER THIEVES instead. The only way to win is not to play!

I ALSO WOULD DESPERATELY WANT THIS YULETIDE FIC.

[opusculasedfera]

Hmm, I can see your point, I suppose I think of it more as a direct fantasy equivalent of the comedy of manners, which is often willing to point out that the system is mad, but rarely offers a true alternative. So, say, Swordspoint is fantasy of manners because it's pretty willing to admit that this is kind of a nutty system, but no one gets to really leave, just to avoid certain bits of it. The Keladry quartet on the other hand, actually feature quite a lot of learning how to work within the system and negotiate, but because their explicit ultimate goal is to change the system quite a lot, they don't feel the same to me.