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Sep. 29th, 2018 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsTansy Rayner Roberts' Power and Majesty is one of the most amazingly id-tastic books I have read in recent memory.
The A-plot, which is actually, for the solid first half of the book, the B-plot: in the vaguely Italian vaguely Jazz Age fantasy world of Aufleur, there is a night court of secret warriors with secret magical powers including:
- the ability to turn into as many iterations of their secret animal form as make up approximately their body mass (so, like, the were-cat turns into like forty cats, and the were-mouse turns into like two hundred mice)
- also, once they level up, the ability to turn into a super-human super-hot flying version of their normal human selves
- also also, once they super level up, the ability to turn into GIANT DEMONIC MONSTERS
- ALSO ALSO all the animals in their animal form (i.e., the forty cats, or the hundred mice) can fly
- because the whole point of this is to fight some kind of secret destructive substance that comes from the sky and erases things, like Thread in Pern, except more metaphysical nonsense
Anyway the head of the whole secret warrior system is called the Power and Majesty, and the rest of them are Creature Lords who take names like Poet* and Priest and they all have various minions called courtesi, and they spend all their time having sexy power struggles and sexily torturing each other and occasionally just straight-up having sex. The current Power and Majesty is very beautiful and charismatic but also going slowly off the deep end! His tragic and loyal boyfriend was initially tortured by watching him turn to the dark side but is now just being literally tortured, by him! Everything's sliding into decadence and decay!
And then the B-plot, which is actually, for the solid first half of the book, the A-plot: Velody, a talented teen dressmaker, befriends two other young artisans at craft school and forms a small commune of women in the fabric and decorative arts Trying to Make It Professionally In The Big City!
And, like, you guys know what you're getting here, it won't come as a surprise, I did find myself getting a little bored with the sexy decadent tragedy from time to time but I'm EXTREMELY HERE for Velody's arts commune. Thank you for your efforts to appeal to a variety of ids, Tansy Rayner Roberts, I truly do appreciate it.
Anyway, about halfway through the book Velody finally comes into her super powerful Creature Court skills and the B-plot becomes the A-plot, while Velody's craft commune roommates make extremely dubious faces about the entire thing, AS WELL THEY MIGHT.
(It's worth noting that Velody is a plucky teenager when the book starts but approximately thirty by the time magical adventures kick off, a fact which I very much appreciate. Her enthusiastic young Creature Court bodyguard is super into her and she's like 'ummmm you're hot but also: A BABY? YIKES.')
This book is the start of the Creature Court ... trilogy? Trilogy-plus? Unfortunately, I acquired the e-book many years ago and the sequels do not currently appear to be available anymore; fortunately, it seems there is a plan in place to remedy that soon! I WAIT UNTIL THEN.
*I feel like I need to make a special mention of Poet, a character who stands out as perhaps the most id-designed in a book full of id-bait. He has a long droll face and a second job as a sad clown vaudeville performer and a tragic child abuse backstory and a cage in his attic which is maybe for HIMSELF or maybe for OTHER PEOPLE and he USED to be too idealistic to have courtesi but NOT ANYMORE and he is constantly getting people to trust him and then betraying them to manipulate broader events for reasons that might be for the greater good, or possibly might not! Nobody knows! Also he turns into a hundred rats.
The A-plot, which is actually, for the solid first half of the book, the B-plot: in the vaguely Italian vaguely Jazz Age fantasy world of Aufleur, there is a night court of secret warriors with secret magical powers including:
- the ability to turn into as many iterations of their secret animal form as make up approximately their body mass (so, like, the were-cat turns into like forty cats, and the were-mouse turns into like two hundred mice)
- also, once they level up, the ability to turn into a super-human super-hot flying version of their normal human selves
- also also, once they super level up, the ability to turn into GIANT DEMONIC MONSTERS
- ALSO ALSO all the animals in their animal form (i.e., the forty cats, or the hundred mice) can fly
- because the whole point of this is to fight some kind of secret destructive substance that comes from the sky and erases things, like Thread in Pern, except more metaphysical nonsense
Anyway the head of the whole secret warrior system is called the Power and Majesty, and the rest of them are Creature Lords who take names like Poet* and Priest and they all have various minions called courtesi, and they spend all their time having sexy power struggles and sexily torturing each other and occasionally just straight-up having sex. The current Power and Majesty is very beautiful and charismatic but also going slowly off the deep end! His tragic and loyal boyfriend was initially tortured by watching him turn to the dark side but is now just being literally tortured, by him! Everything's sliding into decadence and decay!
And then the B-plot, which is actually, for the solid first half of the book, the A-plot: Velody, a talented teen dressmaker, befriends two other young artisans at craft school and forms a small commune of women in the fabric and decorative arts Trying to Make It Professionally In The Big City!
And, like, you guys know what you're getting here, it won't come as a surprise, I did find myself getting a little bored with the sexy decadent tragedy from time to time but I'm EXTREMELY HERE for Velody's arts commune. Thank you for your efforts to appeal to a variety of ids, Tansy Rayner Roberts, I truly do appreciate it.
Anyway, about halfway through the book Velody finally comes into her super powerful Creature Court skills and the B-plot becomes the A-plot, while Velody's craft commune roommates make extremely dubious faces about the entire thing, AS WELL THEY MIGHT.
(It's worth noting that Velody is a plucky teenager when the book starts but approximately thirty by the time magical adventures kick off, a fact which I very much appreciate. Her enthusiastic young Creature Court bodyguard is super into her and she's like 'ummmm you're hot but also: A BABY? YIKES.')
This book is the start of the Creature Court ... trilogy? Trilogy-plus? Unfortunately, I acquired the e-book many years ago and the sequels do not currently appear to be available anymore; fortunately, it seems there is a plan in place to remedy that soon! I WAIT UNTIL THEN.
*I feel like I need to make a special mention of Poet, a character who stands out as perhaps the most id-designed in a book full of id-bait. He has a long droll face and a second job as a sad clown vaudeville performer and a tragic child abuse backstory and a cage in his attic which is maybe for HIMSELF or maybe for OTHER PEOPLE and he USED to be too idealistic to have courtesi but NOT ANYMORE and he is constantly getting people to trust him and then betraying them to manipulate broader events for reasons that might be for the greater good, or possibly might not! Nobody knows! Also he turns into a hundred rats.
