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When I started reading the Seven Kingdoms Trilogy with Graceling, I was pretty much expecting that Bitterblue was going to be my favorite.
Now I've read Fire and Bitterblue, and my preferences did not totally shake out as I expected. I liked both of them! But I think if I had to pick one of the books in a cage match, it would be Fire.
Fire is about a woman named Fire who is a monster, which means she has the magic powers of being almost irresistible and a certain level of mind control over others. This is deconstructed as much as it ought to be. The plot isn't really a plot, per se, in that dramatic things happen; there's a war inching closer in the background, but most of the book is about Fire balancing her abilities with her responsibilities as a moral and ethical person, which she is. It's the quietness of Fire I like, as much as anything. I like seeing the dynamics shake out between the characters, who feel like real people with real concerns. I like seeing Fire figure out a place for herself on her own terms. It all feels very solid to me.
Bitterblue, meanwhile, is about learning how to rule and recovering from trauma -- on a personal and a nation-wide scale -- and both of these are things I really like, so theoretically it should be the book I like the most. And I do definitely admire a lot of what it's doing, but somehow the internal logic of it never felt one hundred percent solid to me. There's something almost dreamlike about the experience of reading it -- I mean, part of this is because everyone is super traumatized and so they keep spitting out trauma-related non sequiturs, and partly this is because all the architecture in the book was designed by a psychopath, including lots of weird sculptures and secret passageways, and partly this is because the government policies are designed by a lot of traumatized people and explicitly make no sense. But it means you get a lot of conversations like this:
BITTERBLUE: I would like to discuss our problematic governing policies with you.
ADVISOR: Just please don't bring up bones in the course of this conversation.
BITTERBLUE: What?
ADVISOR: Also, I don't know what you're talking about, Your Majesty, everything in the city is perfectly fine.
BITTERBLUE: What?
ADVISOR: Have you ever wondered what would happen if you jumped out a window? I wonder that. ALL THE TIME.
BITTERBLUE: What?
ADVISOR: May I be excused?
And then Bitterblue will wander off down a secret passageway and stare at some surrealistic architecture and think about how none of her advisors make any sense, which they don't. So, I mean, I liked it, and I'm very glad she wrote it, but I had a little bit of a harder time investing in it . . .
(Also, and unrelatedly, I was incredibly bored and annoyed by the love interest, although I liked the way it was evently resolved.)
(Also also, even more unrelatedly, but can we have a moratorium on characters-named-Death-pronounced-differently? I actually liked this particular character, but I kept getting distracted!)
This is just me, though! I know a bunch of people who say Bitterblue is their favorite of the trilogy, and there are definitely good reasons for that. So because I'm curious, a poll:
Now I've read Fire and Bitterblue, and my preferences did not totally shake out as I expected. I liked both of them! But I think if I had to pick one of the books in a cage match, it would be Fire.
Fire is about a woman named Fire who is a monster, which means she has the magic powers of being almost irresistible and a certain level of mind control over others. This is deconstructed as much as it ought to be. The plot isn't really a plot, per se, in that dramatic things happen; there's a war inching closer in the background, but most of the book is about Fire balancing her abilities with her responsibilities as a moral and ethical person, which she is. It's the quietness of Fire I like, as much as anything. I like seeing the dynamics shake out between the characters, who feel like real people with real concerns. I like seeing Fire figure out a place for herself on her own terms. It all feels very solid to me.
Bitterblue, meanwhile, is about learning how to rule and recovering from trauma -- on a personal and a nation-wide scale -- and both of these are things I really like, so theoretically it should be the book I like the most. And I do definitely admire a lot of what it's doing, but somehow the internal logic of it never felt one hundred percent solid to me. There's something almost dreamlike about the experience of reading it -- I mean, part of this is because everyone is super traumatized and so they keep spitting out trauma-related non sequiturs, and partly this is because all the architecture in the book was designed by a psychopath, including lots of weird sculptures and secret passageways, and partly this is because the government policies are designed by a lot of traumatized people and explicitly make no sense. But it means you get a lot of conversations like this:
BITTERBLUE: I would like to discuss our problematic governing policies with you.
ADVISOR: Just please don't bring up bones in the course of this conversation.
BITTERBLUE: What?
ADVISOR: Also, I don't know what you're talking about, Your Majesty, everything in the city is perfectly fine.
BITTERBLUE: What?
ADVISOR: Have you ever wondered what would happen if you jumped out a window? I wonder that. ALL THE TIME.
BITTERBLUE: What?
ADVISOR: May I be excused?
And then Bitterblue will wander off down a secret passageway and stare at some surrealistic architecture and think about how none of her advisors make any sense, which they don't. So, I mean, I liked it, and I'm very glad she wrote it, but I had a little bit of a harder time investing in it . . .
(Also, and unrelatedly, I was incredibly bored and annoyed by the love interest, although I liked the way it was evently resolved.)
(Also also, even more unrelatedly, but can we have a moratorium on characters-named-Death-pronounced-differently? I actually liked this particular character, but I kept getting distracted!)
This is just me, though! I know a bunch of people who say Bitterblue is their favorite of the trilogy, and there are definitely good reasons for that. So because I'm curious, a poll:
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 20
My favorite book in the Seven Kingdoms Trilogy is . . .
View Answers
Graceling!
6 (30.0%)
Fire!
8 (40.0%)
Bitterblue!
3 (15.0%)
I can't pick, I loved all of them!
3 (15.0%)
I can't pick, I hated all of them!
0 (0.0%)
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Fire was actually my least favorite, just because it felt like such a departure. As you pointed out, it wasn't so much plot-driven, which I found to be a weakness. Also I got very confused about how this kingdom is RIGHT THERE and yet you can only get to it by... falling through the mountains? So nobody knows about it?
On the other hand, I did like how balanced Fire herself was, and how she knew explicitly from the beginning that she never intended to have children. Yet she still found someone, and that person accepted her and didn't try to convince her or change her mind in another direction. Good message!
Graceling is still my favorite, though, because of how plot-driven it is while still character-focused, and it doesn't have nearly so many "Wait, what?" moments.
Meanwhile, I recommend you don't ever go read the commentary on GoodReads, because there are so many people who whine and carry on about how anti-feminist this series is. It flabbergasts me. Are they reading what I'm reading?! Or even, how it's such a loud attempt at feminism that it's pushing a feminist agenda while being full of things that make it BAD FEMINISM. I can't stand it. Augh.
no subject
Graceling I think definitely has the best balance of action and character! It's less ensemble-y, which is the other reason I like Fire more -- I like seeing sets of characters interact -- but it's definitely the clearest in terms of things ACTUALLY HAPPENING.
I keep hearing this about reviews on Goodreads and it BOGGLES me. I don't understand!