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[skygiants]

Tansy 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.

Comments

[davidgillon]

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!

Sounds remarkably like the vampires in Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson books, with the role of the Power and Majesty variously taken by either Marsilia, or, once she's on side, her former sire/lover The Lord of Night.

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

Ditto this, except Stefan is the Soldier, drives a Scooby Doo van, and is the only vampire routinely to keep his menagerie alive for more than a few months.

[qian]

Also he turns into a hundred rats.

What an extraordinary description of a character. *_*

[lemon_badgeress]

I kickstarted the plan to remedy. You're welcome. XD

[sheliak]

Either it's a trilogy or the trilogy is all I was able to acquire! Sadly I have forgotten what happened in which book. (I liked Poet and Velody's arts commune and was bored by most of the sexy power struggles. Especially Garnet and everything to do with him, which was a problem considering how many characters were motivated by an obsession with Garnet.)

I did like that several important characters turned into swarms of rodents or small birds, though. It made for a nice change from the usual wolves and lions and so on (not that there weren't some of those too, of course).

[grrlpup]

as many iterations of their secret animal form as make up approximately their body mass

I so appreciate any attempt to deal with conservation of mass in these matters. :D

[rachelmanija]

Also he turns into a hundred rats.

I mean that is basically what we all want in a romantic hero, right?

[sovay]

(so, like, the were-cat turns into like forty cats, and the were-mouse turns into like two hundred mice)

I think I find this way funnier than I'm supposed to.

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!

I was feeling it through "sad clown vaudeville performer" and then unfortunately "tragic child abuse backstory and a cage in his attic" put me in Barbara Hambly territory and I checked out.

Also he turns into a hundred rats.

Still funny.

[rmc28]

So did I! (on the strength of the sample chapter which was, I think, all about Velody).

I've just read the extra novella that I got via the kickstarter and I am VERY READY to read the trilogy once it too makes its way to me.

[littlerhymes]

...I dropped some dollars into the Kickstarter on the basis of some other stuff of hers I'd read and her general rep, but wow I did not uhhh really know what I was getting into. This is SO MUCH ID.

[schneefink]

Flying were swarm creatures? :D

I backed the Kickstarter because I really enjoyed Tansy Rayner Roberts' "Musketeer Space" and someone who really wants Yuletide fic for this series told me about it, and now I look forward to it even more.

[allchildren]

I Love Poet

[larryhammer]

I think I find this way funnier than I'm supposed to.

Ditto.

[skygiants]

I have never read a Patricia Briggs book! I do think almost every work can be improved by a Scooby Doo van. (But not every work. Some, indeed, may already have Scooby Doo vans and do not live up to them.)

[skygiants]

Far superior than merely turning into one!

[skygiants]

APPRECIATED. :D I had no idea it was happening, or indeed that the books were out of print! I have no memory of acquiring the first one and only a very vague memory of coffeeandink recommending them in a DW post.

[skygiants]

I also am deeply bored by Garnet; I spent the entire first half of the book skimming Garnet POV chapters so I could get back to Velody and her arts commune. It's a good commune!

Explaining that the swarm of mice can also fly is the part where I lose it and just start cracking up every time I attempt to describe the plot to someone else.

[skygiants]

It definitely makes for a fun change!

[skygiants]

Certainly, for those of us who are too vanilla to dream of dating a hundred bees.

[skygiants]

I feel like, having encountered Tansy Rayner Roberts' sense of humor in the Musketeers pastiche, she must have known it was funny. She MUST. In her place I would be cackling as I put it on the page! NOW SHE'S JUST SO MANY MICE.

Poet does seem like the kind of character that was written as Sonya-bait and then overshot!

[skygiants]

ID TO THE ABSOLUTE EXTREME. Also with crafting! (Which other stuff of hers have you read?)

[skygiants]

Yessss Musketeer Space was so good it reminded me that I owned this book, which I had otherwise completely forgotten! And I do not love this as much, but it was absolutely a heck of an entertaining time.

[skygiants]

So do all the town's rats! (Additional rats, beyond the original 100 rats that are indeed just Poet.)

[rachelmanija]

I had to check to make sure I hadn't written that.

[sheliak]

I had managed to suppress the memory of Garnet actually having POV chapters! I just remembered that he was around too much and even when he wasn't, too many people were brooding over him.

The part that made me crack up was when the narration was describing mice!Velody moving in waves. Waves of mice! Some going down as others go up...

[sheliak]

I knew her from her Matrons of Awesome blog post series, and SAME.

(Meaning I was surprised by everything but Livilla's name, because of course there's a character named for Livia Drusilla! ... in retrospect, I'm surprised that she didn't give that name to Velody.)

[littlerhymes]

Love and Romanpunk! Which is, like, ancient Rome but with vampires - OK HOLD ON A SECOND, maybe this Creature Court series is more on theme than I recognised.

And I have Musketeer Space, which I fully intend to read, For Sure.

[littlerhymes]

I did not know the Matrons of Awesome blog posts but I've now looked it up and everything is starting to fit together... I liked her Love & Romanpunk stories, which are about Rome, but with vampires! IT'S ALL STARTING TO MAKE SENSE.