skygiants | (no subject)

Last week, the weather here was cold, windy and glum. Then, all of a sudden, Friday came - and we were suddenly in perfect late spring, with ridiculous amounts of sunshine and every open space sprouting its usual crop of sunbathers clutching premed textbooks. As for me - the next on my to-read-not-for-school list, already checked out of the library, is Mary Doria Russel's The Sparrow, which I have heard many good things about. However, I have also heard that it is full of angst. I don't mean to say that this is a point against the book, because it isn't . . . but I walked outside on Friday, and could not help feeling that it would be a waste of the most beautiful day of the year so far to sit outside in the sun and stock up on angst. So, The Sparrow has been postponed, and instead I went to the library resolved to check out the most cheerful thing I could find, which happened to be an all-in-one volume of Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

For those who have not read them, the Enchanted Forest books are prominent members of that subgenre of fantasy whose main goal is to poke gentle fun at all the other, rather ridiculous fantasy and fairy-tale tropes. Diana Wynne Jones' Ingary and Derkholm books also fall into this category, as does Shrek, and many more things I am not thinking of right now (does the subgenre have a name, by the way? If not, it should.) The main recurring characters include a runaway princess, a dragon, a no-nonsense witch, a king, and a research magician, who are mostly distinguished by the fact that they value good sense over the conventions usually associated with their roles. (Except for the research magician, who is not so much defined by his sense but has other qualities.) Most of the books involve some kind of dastardly wizard plot, but in fact the plot is really more of an excuse for the characters to bump into a number of other silly characters and situations and use their good sense to fix various dilemmas. As you might guess, they are no end of fun, and were among my favorite books growing up.

Now, for those of you who have read them - which I have a feeling is at least a semi-significant chunk of my flist - I am curious. I have a vague memory of talking to a few people recently who were disappointed with the last book or two of the series (Rym, was this at the conference?) Me, I am actually rather fond of the last book - it's completely deux ex machina-y, but hey, so are all the rest, and polite little Daystar has won a place in my heart. So, to satisfy my curiosity: a poll!

[Poll #1172737]

Please feel free to elaborate in comments, too! :D

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

cupenny.livejournal.com

I've only read the first book, so that's the one I'm voting for. I should pick up the others when I have the chance.

From:

skygiants

*giggles* That's fair! They're definitely worth reading (and not exactly strenuous or time-consuming - lovely bits of brain candy, all of them.)

From:

agentclaudia.livejournal.com

Now I want to go reread the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, instead of doing research on Thomas Hardy (who is pretty awesome, but seriously... it's too nice for angst over here, too). And Princess Cimorene is my childhood hero.

I always classed the Chronicles as "girls' adventure fiction," putting in a subgenre with Tamora Pierce and Gail Carson Levine, but that's more focusing on the feminist aspect... I don't know what you call ridiculousified fairy tale fantasy in general... a friend of mine used to use the phrase "fractured fairy tales", but that might have just been her.

From:

skygiants

*beams* She was totally one of mine, too.

The first book is definitely in that 'girl's adventure fiction' - I think the fractured fairy tale aspect is probably stronger in the second and third than in the first, which is more focused on Cimorene's unconventional princesstasticness. (And I read Searching for Dragons first, because I didn't know any better, so that one tends to stick out in my head most, too.)

From:

shati.livejournal.com

You didn't include my OTP, h0r! MORWEN'S CATS/MORWEN'S OTHER CATS.

From:

skygiants

:O WHAT ABOUT MORWEN'S CATS/OTHER PEOPLE'S CATS?

From:

shati.livejournal.com

That's icky!

From:

skygiants

Dude, it's canon. Morwen's cat hooks up with a fire-witch's! And has a whole bunch of kittens!

From:

rhymester.livejournal.com

I love the first one. So much. But then again, I seem to be a little biased :)

I miss playing Cimorene a lot. I wish I had more time to get back into RP so I could pretend to be a princess on a more regular basis. Also, because playing Cimorene with baby Daystar (who, in my head, has been born) would be maybe the best thing *ever*

From:

skygiants

*giggles* Looking up at my poll, it seems you are not alone! (And I have to admit, secretly, Dealing is probably as much my favorite or more as any of the others, but I feel a need to root for the underdogs here.)

I miss your Cimorene tooooo. She was ridiculously fabulous. And mom Cimorene is so badass!

From:

rhymester.livejournal.com

Mom Cimorene is totally badass. And in the milliverse she won't have spent 16 years raising Daystar alone, either. Because that simply cannot be allowed.

The real question is, have you read The Frying Pan of Doom?

From:

skygiants

I have to admit, the other reason I love Talking to Dragons - Daystar's totally matter-of-fact acceptance of the fact that his mom can melt witches. It just seems the sort of thing she should be able to do!

I have, but it was so long ago that I don't actually remember it, except for the title and that it was appropriately awesome.

From:

futuresoon.livejournal.com

Man, the Enchanted Forest Chronicles rock so damn hard. I think I do like the first book best, but I love the second one too--and, well, I can't dislike the other two; at the very least, Cimorene continues to do her badass thing, and Daystar and Shiara are adorable. But the last two never quite matched up to the first two, in my mind. Although I can't fault anything that gets Morwen and Telemain married. THE CATS, OMG.

...I want to re-read those books now. *glares at you* And I love Dark Lord of Derkholm, too--I went spectacularly crazy over it in the fifth grade, to the point where I told my teacher I wanted to be a geneticist when I grew up so I could make unicorns and griffins. The sequel's got a bit of let's-pair-everyone-off-yay, but it's still quite good, of course. D'you know if she wrote any after that? I can't recall. I do remember 'The Frying Pan of Doom', though, which was also awesome.

From:

skygiants

Oh man, I almost put 'it's the one with Morwen/Telemain and grumpy cats!' as the reason for choosing Talking to Dragons as a favorite up above. (Now I have a terrible urge to go look through the Yuletide archives and see if anyone has written Morwen/Telemain fic.) I think Dealing with Dragons is probably the best-written, though, just in that it has the most cohesive plot and so on.

I love Dark Lord of Derkholm SO MUCH, too. Uh, but I may be a little bit Diana Wynne Jones-obsessive in general. >.> I don't think DWJ's written any more Derkholm books that I know of - but of course as soon as I say that she'll announce she'll come up with another one, like she just did for the Ingary books, so who knows! (And that is so the best reason to want to be a geneticist.)

Edited Date: 2008-04-18 01:19 am (UTC)

From:

futuresoon.livejournal.com

What're the Ingary books, pray tell? I am always intrigued by the prospect of more good DWJ. And is it her or Diane Duane who's all internet-savvy? Man, between them and Patricia C. Wrede, it's so hard to keep track.

From:

skygiants

Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Air are the ones I am talking about, and if you have not read them, oh man, you so should, because they are FABULOUS. Howl's Moving Castle is about a girl in a fairy-tale sort of land who gets turned into a ninety-year-old woman by a curse, and uses this to become utterly kickass, and then Castle in the Air is the sequel. There was a Miyazaki movie made based on it (from which my icon comes), but while it is very pretty it is not nearly as good as the book. And there is a new one coming out in June!

It's Diane Duane who I think you're thinking of as internet-savvy, though - she's got an LJ and everything (and, terrifyingly, left a comment on a post that one of my friends made about her books.)

From:

futuresoon.livejournal.com

Ooh, yeah, those! I...did not like the movie terribly much, though, like you say, it was pretty, and I heard the book was much better, so I had vague plans of checking it out one of these days. Man, everything is 'one of these days'. Maybe it will actually be one of these days sometime soon? Hrmph.

It's a bit freaky to think that authors and so on might be actually listening--heaven knows I'd be like a deer in headlights if I knew certain TV writers were reading my journal--but from what I hear, Diane Duane is very cool about it all. If I were a published writer, actually, I think I'd follow her example--it's more of a direct connection to your readers, after all, and it can't hurt to be able to actually talk to them once in a while.

From:

skygiants

The book is so very much better. The movie - it kind of took out the thing I love most about the book, which is how flawed Sophie and Howl are. It's one of my favorite things about Diana Wynne Jones books in general, really, that everyone screws up awesomely and realistically.

Also the plot kind of made no sense. But anyways!

Yeah, I actually had that experience a few days ago - I posted a few reviews of Jo Walton's books, and then realized afterwards that she not only looks at everyone who reviews her books on LJ, but links to all the reviews from her own LJ. So I went 'aaah! Aaaaah!' for a bit, but it is definitely a good reminder that Authors Are Real People Too!

From:

ristrettoette.livejournal.com

Telemain rules! He was always my favorite.

I love those books, if for nothing else than for the melting wizards, who make me LOL every time.

From:

skygiants

Oh, me too. And how it's crucial they don't forget the lemon juice!

Telemain totally rules, and I always wanted more (and more Telemain/Morwen) in the books than we actually got. He's so awesomely dorky, except when he is BADASS.

From:

sovay

EIGHT YEARS LATE WHY NOT.

I have a vague memory of talking to a few people recently who were disappointed with the last book or two of the series

I couldn't be disappointed with the last book in the series because I read it first—Talking to Dragons was first published in 1985 as part of the MagicQuest series that also gave me Patricia McKillip's The Throme of the Erril of Sherill (1984), Jane Yolen's The Magic Three of Solatia (1974), Diana Wynne Jones' Power of Three (1977), and Elizabeth Marie Pope's The Perilous Gard (1974) and The Sherwood Ring (1958). When Dealing with Dragons came out in 1990, I think it must have been one of my first experiences of a prequel. I agree that I am not crazy about Calling on Dragons (1993) because it's mostly filling in time between Searching for Dragons (1991) and the finale, and as a result is the only one of the books that really feels like it's being written to an itinerary rather than sprawling weirdly off in its own directions, but I don't hate it. I have good memories of reading it while camping in Nova Scotia with the rest of my sixth grade class.

Honestly, I think all of the canonical romantic pairings in the series work as far as I am concerned—a rarity, or I was young enough to accept them without scrutiny—but Morwen/Telemain, always. I didn't learn Latin because of Dealing with Dragons, but it definitely got me into cherries jubilee.

From:

skygiants

Oh man, I'd completely forgotten this post and this poll. Cimorene/Antorell? I must have put that in as a joke but SOMEONE APPARENTLY VOTED FOR IT. Good lord.

I think I read Searching for Dragons first and then I don't remember the order of all the rest, but I do remember exactly where the books could be found in Ludington Library near Bryn Mawr.

Morwen/Telemain will always remain a delight and a joy.

From:

sovay

Cimorene/Antorell? I must have put that in as a joke but SOMEONE APPARENTLY VOTED FOR IT. Good lord.

RULE 34 WHERE ARE YOU.

I think I read Searching for Dragons first and then I don't remember the order of all the rest, but I do remember exactly where the books could be found in Ludington Library near Bryn Mawr.

I remember reading Searching for Dragons in my elementary school library right after it came out. That's another location of my childhood that's been reduced to a memory palace—I know where they kept everything I cared about, but the school moved at least a decade ago. I have no idea what their new library looks like and probably never will.

Morwen/Telemain will always remain a delight and a joy.

+1.