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Mar. 24th, 2015 06:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsI already enjoyed Stranger, the first book in Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith's Change series, but I think Hostage, the next book, is even better -- and this even despite the fact that my favorite character Terrible Mean Girl Felicite does not have a POV in this one. I'm sorry, Terrible Mean Girl Felicite! I still love you and am rooting for your self-knowledge and redemption arc in a future book!
Hostage is admittedly starting with an advantage out of the gate. Stranger has to take its time introducing both Ross and the reader to the post-apocalyptic world of Las Anclas, so the action doesn't kick in until about halfway through the book; Hostage ratchets up the tension pretty much from the second or third chapter, when Ross gets kidnapped and carried off to the town of Gold Point, ruled by megalomaniac dictator Voske. So almost immediately you have Ross' attempts to escape, and Voske's attempts to coerce or manipulate him, the attempts by the townsfolk to rescue him, and then the counteracting viewpoint of Voske's daughter Kerry who has a vested interest in exactly the opposite of everything that our other protagonists want, and everything is extremely compelling!
Aside from the pacing, though, I really appreciate the way that Hostage works to further some of the stuff I liked best in Stranger; the series is really committed to showing the complexity that underlies antagonism, and avoiding portrayals of absolute evil. Voske comes closest, but even he's not cartoonish -- and while the way he runs his dictatorship is clearly wrong, and should not be supported, it's a wrong that still allows for most people to have things about their life and community and home that they value. As many dictatorships do. I mean, let's be real; I'm pretty sure everyone reading this post knows what it's like to live under a government that sometimes does terrible things. The point of the hostage exchange in Hostage is that it forces the kids in question to interact with their enemies as human beings, and really shows what that means. But it also forces them to take responsibility for the actions of their community, and shows what that means, too. Which is both a responsible way to write and makes for a really good story.
(Meanwhile, though I missed Felicite's POV, I also continue to love the portrayal of the Wolfe-Preston family in the background -- still antagonists, still kind of terrible, and still just as complicated and committed to their community as always. SO INTERESTING! And I hope someone writes fanfic about the gloriously angsty and super background Bounty Hunter Dude/Sheriff Crow romance. SO FULL OF TROPES I'M INTO, SO HILARIOUSLY 90% OFFSCREEN BECAUSE THE KIDS ARE JUST LIKE 'EW, WE DON'T WANT TO KNOW.')
Hostage is admittedly starting with an advantage out of the gate. Stranger has to take its time introducing both Ross and the reader to the post-apocalyptic world of Las Anclas, so the action doesn't kick in until about halfway through the book; Hostage ratchets up the tension pretty much from the second or third chapter, when Ross gets kidnapped and carried off to the town of Gold Point, ruled by megalomaniac dictator Voske. So almost immediately you have Ross' attempts to escape, and Voske's attempts to coerce or manipulate him, the attempts by the townsfolk to rescue him, and then the counteracting viewpoint of Voske's daughter Kerry who has a vested interest in exactly the opposite of everything that our other protagonists want, and everything is extremely compelling!
Aside from the pacing, though, I really appreciate the way that Hostage works to further some of the stuff I liked best in Stranger; the series is really committed to showing the complexity that underlies antagonism, and avoiding portrayals of absolute evil. Voske comes closest, but even he's not cartoonish -- and while the way he runs his dictatorship is clearly wrong, and should not be supported, it's a wrong that still allows for most people to have things about their life and community and home that they value. As many dictatorships do. I mean, let's be real; I'm pretty sure everyone reading this post knows what it's like to live under a government that sometimes does terrible things. The point of the hostage exchange in Hostage is that it forces the kids in question to interact with their enemies as human beings, and really shows what that means. But it also forces them to take responsibility for the actions of their community, and shows what that means, too. Which is both a responsible way to write and makes for a really good story.
(Meanwhile, though I missed Felicite's POV, I also continue to love the portrayal of the Wolfe-Preston family in the background -- still antagonists, still kind of terrible, and still just as complicated and committed to their community as always. SO INTERESTING! And I hope someone writes fanfic about the gloriously angsty and super background Bounty Hunter Dude/Sheriff Crow romance. SO FULL OF TROPES I'M INTO, SO HILARIOUSLY 90% OFFSCREEN BECAUSE THE KIDS ARE JUST LIKE 'EW, WE DON'T WANT TO KNOW.')
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Date: 2015-03-25 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-26 02:52 am (UTC)