(no subject)

[skygiants]

I quite enjoyed the Flora Segunda books when I read them over a decade ago, but I don't really want to reread the whole trilogy at this time. I have trilogies that I haven't actually yet finished reading that I ought to be reading instead!

Unfortunately I did just pick up [from the library sale] and read Ysabeau Wilce's short story collection set in the same universe, Prophecies, Libels and Dreams. genarti, who happened to read this short story book before me despite having no context for Califa whatsoever, assures me that it's an enjoyable experience regardless of whether you've read the Flora Segunda books. For me, a person who did read the Flora Segunda books and has a vague memory of the fact that most of what I cared about was the Dramatic Parental Backstory of which the short stories fill in some brief and tantalizing snippets, it was simultaneously an enjoyable experience and an exercise in frustration. I don't think the novels ever fill in more than tantalizing snippets either, but they're different tantalizing snippets and I want to know what they were!

...this post therefore is mostly to say that if you have read the Flora Segunda books and you recall anything about the Dramatic Parental Backstory, please save me from myself by infodumping anything that you remember into the comments before I turn back to the trilogy that I don't have time to read.

If you haven't read the Flora Segunda books: genarti says these short stories may be an enjoyable experience for you! The world is a highly fun and highly arch magical California; the prose walks the narrow and tottering tightrope of 'funny and charming' above the vast abyss of 'unbearably twee' (and occasionally falls in and has to pull itself out again); the snotty academic footnotes at the end of each short story explaining how the thing described in them almost certainly didn't happen are for me a real highlight of the ride. I especially liked the one about the thirst zombie (although I felt so, so sad for his pet armadillo) and the one about Tiny Doom going on a wig-stealing rampage. I have some very mixed feelings about the one about the chupacabra.

Comments

[osprey_archer]

Ask and you shall receive! I was apparently so overwhelmed by the Dramatic Parental Backstory in the Flora Segunda books that I devoted an entire post to recounting it! I reread that today and WOW, what a wild ride, I had forgotten all of that, and indeed everything about these books except that I enjoyed them, and also that Flora was always calling sandwiches "sandwies."

Apparently (looking at my Ysabeau Wilce tag) I confidently expected a fourth book to come along any day, and I guess in a sense this book is it? But it sounds like the short stories don't pick up the Flora Segunda story where it left off.

[jadelennox]

oh this is great because every time i reread these I need to rebuild the family tree in my head.

[skygiants]

to be honest I think I remember your Yuletide fic for these books better than I remember the books themselves

[skygiants]

YES thank you this is exactly what I was looking for and what I foolishly did not do for myself! All I learned from looking at my old posts is that I apparently also confidently expected a fourth book to come along any day now back in 2012, so I went trotting off to Ysabeau Wilce's social medias to see if any such thing was forthcoming, and instead learned that she instead seems to be working on a.) a MASSIVE prequel tome about Hardhands (Flora's mother's poisoned husband) (which does make sense as several of the shorts focus on him and also she clearly had SO MANY backstory thoughts vying for freedom) and b.) a lot of Our Flag Means Death meta.

[osprey_archer]

a lot of Our Flag Means Death meta

That absolutely checks out. And so does the prequel book, as I do think that at some point her feelings about the parent generation overtook her interest in her original protags...but also I would like some wrap-up for Flora's story! Alas, it sounds like we'll never get it.

[aella_irene]

I seem to remember a short story which revealed that a) Hardhands was Tiny Doom's maternal uncle b) he had an affair with Tiny Doom's father c) Tiny Doom's father killed her mother, and the marriage was part of the custody battle which fizzled out when Hardhands killed TD's father with poisoned lip gloss.

[sovay]

I confidently expected a fourth book to come along any day

Ditto! It did not end like a trilogy.