skygiants | (no subject)

A.K. Larkwood's The Unspoken Name definitely starts from a point of "what if Tenar in Tombs of Atuan, but that's just chapter one and everything keeps on happening from there," with the fun extra twist of "and what if also the wizard who talks her into leaving is not Ged but, unfortunately, the smoother and more terrible version of Eponymous Clent" and also "and what if she was a lesbian." As you might guess, I enjoyed it extremely!

OK, now to describe the plot in a way that is not actually completely dependent on a knowledge of other books: Csorwe is destined to be sacrificed at fourteen to a creepy death god. She's perfectly braced for this until the wizard Belthandros Sethannai turns up and, for reasons of his own, convinces her to walk away from the sacrificial precipice and instead become his personal-assistant-slash-bodyguard.

The rest of the book functions as Csorwe's coming-of-age story over the course of the next decade, as her personal fealty to Belthandros gets increasingly tested by morally complicated situations, the lost history of various dying worlds, and Belthandros' deeply mediocre parenting. The cast of characters also includes:

- Orenna, the former librarian at Csorwe's cult; Belthandros' possibly-ex and definitely-rival in various magical quests
- Talasseres Charassos, Csorwe's very own personal rival; a consistently inconvenient youth with bad decision-making skills, a terrible personality, and truly awful taste in men
- Shuthmili, a (hot) young magical adept destined for a highly limited future in her country's civil service so that she does not become rapidly corrupted and burned out by the power of her goddess, a situation about which Csorwe might have some Feelings
- the Unspoken Name, Csorwe's god, who has, unfortunately, not forgotten her
- at least one super-intelligent hungry giant snake AND MY BIGGEST COMPLAINT ABOUT THE BOOK IS WE NEVER LEARN WHAT HAPPENED TO HER

I honestly really enjoyed how personal the book felt -- various dramatic magical and divine events are occurring throughout the book and sometimes Csorwe is involved in them, but the point of the story is not whether or not the world-shaking things do or don't happen, but what choices Csorwe is going to make around them. It's a very character-driven fantasy, I guess is what I'm trying to say which is a thing I think one sees more in smaller books than this, but I was very happy to follow Csorwe through 450-odd pages of her personal growth!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

sovay

- at least one super-intelligent hungry giant snake AND MY BIGGEST COMPLAINT ABOUT THE BOOK IS WE NEVER LEARN WHAT HAPPENED TO HER

How can you misplace a super-intelligent giant snake?

From:

skygiants

I TOO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT IT DIFFICULT, AND YET

From:

aurumcalendula

This sound really neat!

From:

skygiants

I really enjoyed it! One of my favorite entries to date in this brave new world of Thoughtful Lesbian Fantasy.

From:

kore

This sounds amazing!

From:

skygiants

I really liked it and am very excited for any hypothetical sequels!

From:

sheliak

I now want fixit fic explaining what happened to the super-intelligent giant hungry snake.

From:

skygiants

I WOULD ALSO LIKE THIS. She was in a distressing situation! I just want to know that she got out okay!

From:

aamcnamara

AND MY BIGGEST COMPLAINT ABOUT THE BOOK IS WE NEVER LEARN WHAT HAPPENED TO HER
I was 100% waiting to learn that she was the last living piece of the goddess of a thousand eyes, which was not TECHNICALLY precluded by the revelation about Belthandros, but the book never resolved.

Also, do we think Oranna is gay? Or, like, ace, or otherwise Not Into Belthandros That Way? Because I was not at all sure we should believe Belthandros's version of what Oranna feels about him, but we never got her narrative of that.

From:

skygiants

It's just such a gaping hole! I thought she was going to reappear, or at least be discussed, when the second-in-command popped back up again in the narrative, but NOPE. Eternally frustrated.

On the one hand, I feel like I saw a tweet from the author at some point expressing her fondness for the terrible ship that is Oranna/Belthandros. On the other hand a.) my memory is foggy b.) this could mean a variety of things and c.) death of the author, we can think whatever we want about Oranna in the absence of text that is her actual feelings about Belthandros! (I do think whether or not they banged in the past, Belthandros persists in thinking that she's motivated by her feelings about him when in fact she is definitely now motivated by her feelings about immortality and a creepy death god.)

From:

nextian

can confirm that your memory is correct and that word of God is that Oranna is down to clown with Belthandros but not as much as she is down to clown with her own ego and the multifaceted yawning maws of death

From:

caprices

"super intelligent snake..." this is how I felt about the snake at the zoo in the first Harry Potter book. I am grieved that the mistake has been repeated.

(And the summary by way of Atuan is great, I will be seeking this book out now)

From:

skygiants

I was about to say "this snake gets a better deal than the Harry Potter snake!" but honestly ... that's not true at all. The snake gets much more narrative respect than the Harry Potter snake but the deal that the snake gets is tragically raw.

(I hope you enjoy it! :D)

From:

dolorosa_12

I saw AR Larkwood at an event at one of the bookstores here — she was in conversation with Ben Aaronovitch — and she was fantastic in person as well! And she confirmed that Tombs of Atuan is one of her favourite books, and her starting premise for The Unspoken Name was 'Tombs of Atuan, but if Ged were an awful person'.

I'm about five chapters in to the book so far myself.

From:

skygiants

That sounds like a great event! The particular ways in which Belthandros is terrible are so good, too -- just vastly more interesting and subtle than the more direct routes in which it would be easy to go.

From:

merit

Reading your description and comments made me very excited for it :D It seems like something directly angled at my interests.

From:

skygiants

It definitely was directly angled at mine! :D I hope you enjoy it, if you read it!

From:

lirazel

You had me at Tenar!

From:

musesfool

I was just going to say that!

I guess my question is, is there a Penthe analog? ;)

From:

skygiants

Not this time - Csorwe's girlfriend gets imported from a different narrative. :P

From:

skygiants

Csorwe is definitely less cranky than (my memory of) Tenar, but there are other characters to make up in crankiness!

From:

vass

Oh dear. I'd heard wonderful things about this book, but no one mentioned "smoother and more terrible version of Eponymous Clent". He was a big part of why I didn't really like Fly By Night. The way he was using and manipulating Mosca upset me to a degree that made it difficult to enjoy the hijinks.

The rest of this sounds fantastic, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to cope with like Clent but worse.

From:

hebethen

I don't know if it helps at all, but the rest of the book is not at all hijinksy, so at least it would not be a tonal clash?

From:

skygiants

Apologies, I thought I'd responded to this! To back up what

hebethen said, it's pretty clear that the narrative expects the reader to understand that Belthandros and his manipulations of Csorwe are bad and necessary to throw off -- as opposed to Clent, who is clearly narratively intended to be a lovable rogue at heart. Which may make things better or worse?