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Jun. 10th, 2012 10:22 amSo I have now managed to read the third book in the Tielmaran Chronicles, which you may remember me writing up a few weeks ago as those books with the puppy-dog assassin and soulbonded animals and mpreg.
BECCA: Well, we're ninety pages into this book so far, and I've been very much enjoying it, but there haven't been any reveals that really rival the crack of the last book . . .
OUR HEROINE GAULTRY: Oh, here is an elderly gentleman who knows my grandma! And seems to have a strange dislike for her. Perhaps he knows something about my mysterious grandpa?
ELDERLY GENTLEMAN: I do in fact know something about your grandpa! What I know is that YOUR GRANDMA IS A NECROPHILIAC, YOUR GRANDDAD WAS DEAD AT THE TIME, AND YOUR MOM WAS A ZOMBIE BABY.
OUR HEROINE GAULTRY: @__________@
BECCA: There's the Katya Reimann I know and love!
(For those concerned, ( spoiler ))
THAT ASIDE, though, I am totally serious when I say that I really liked these books. For one thing, I have decided that I love Gaultry; she's a really complainy heroine, but the kind that I find hilarious and endearing rather than annoying. She hates horses and can't ride and is super pissy about being in a fantasy adventure that requires that she ride everywhere! She's so bothered to come home and find out her twin sister has acquired a hot ex-traitor boyfriend, not really because he's an ex-traitor and it's awkward, because WHAT EW MY SISTER HAS A BOYFRIEND THAT'S WEIRD! I think my personal favorite moment though is when Gaultry's own love interest takes her out to the beach for some kind of magical poignant funeral ceremony of love-pledging, and Gaultry's inner monologue is like ". . . yes well that's nice, but is the water gonna be cold :| am I gonna get wet :|" PRIORITIES GIRL.
Also at one point she saves the day by shouting "I AM A SHEEP! I AM A SHEEP! I AM A SHEEP!" until she actually does turn into a sheep, and I died laughing because it was the best.
BUT ALSO I just -- man, you know, guys, sometimes when I find myself super excited by a story that has tons of different women with different personalities and ages and backgrounds interacting, I ask myself, "but Becca, is this not something you should expect and demand, rather than something you should be pleasantly shocked by?"
But apparently it's going to be a while before I get over being pleasantly shocked any time I see so many women interacting and moving the plot. Old women! Young women! Middle-aged women! Noblewomen! Fisherwomen! Warriors! Politicians! Chieftains who just want to build some aqueducts! Artists who are really annoyed by having to be involved in world-saving affairs! Mothers, sisters, daughters, granddaughters! And it's not a big deal, it's not a Special Feminist Country or anything, it's just that these women are all important and are players in this story.
My personal favorite is Argat Climens, ~fabulous noblewoman~, who has been accused of treason and has four kids by four different fathers and is the constant recipient of judgy looks from everyone else at court, and just sashays through the whole book all, "Haters gonna hate! ^_____^"
She is also the best mom in the series, and her equally awesome teenaged daughter thinks she's amazing. IT'S PRETTY GREAT.
(I do have to talk about one other point, though -- there's a plot point about semi-villainous lady who kept all her memoirs stacked up in a room, and the heroine is all "but why would you save all of these memoirs? Why would you keep it in one place? WHAT MADNESS IS THIS?" It's archival principles, Gaultry! DON'T YOU JUDGE.)
BECCA: Well, we're ninety pages into this book so far, and I've been very much enjoying it, but there haven't been any reveals that really rival the crack of the last book . . .
OUR HEROINE GAULTRY: Oh, here is an elderly gentleman who knows my grandma! And seems to have a strange dislike for her. Perhaps he knows something about my mysterious grandpa?
ELDERLY GENTLEMAN: I do in fact know something about your grandpa! What I know is that YOUR GRANDMA IS A NECROPHILIAC, YOUR GRANDDAD WAS DEAD AT THE TIME, AND YOUR MOM WAS A ZOMBIE BABY.
OUR HEROINE GAULTRY: @__________@
BECCA: There's the Katya Reimann I know and love!
(For those concerned, ( spoiler ))
THAT ASIDE, though, I am totally serious when I say that I really liked these books. For one thing, I have decided that I love Gaultry; she's a really complainy heroine, but the kind that I find hilarious and endearing rather than annoying. She hates horses and can't ride and is super pissy about being in a fantasy adventure that requires that she ride everywhere! She's so bothered to come home and find out her twin sister has acquired a hot ex-traitor boyfriend, not really because he's an ex-traitor and it's awkward, because WHAT EW MY SISTER HAS A BOYFRIEND THAT'S WEIRD! I think my personal favorite moment though is when Gaultry's own love interest takes her out to the beach for some kind of magical poignant funeral ceremony of love-pledging, and Gaultry's inner monologue is like ". . . yes well that's nice, but is the water gonna be cold :| am I gonna get wet :|" PRIORITIES GIRL.
Also at one point she saves the day by shouting "I AM A SHEEP! I AM A SHEEP! I AM A SHEEP!" until she actually does turn into a sheep, and I died laughing because it was the best.
BUT ALSO I just -- man, you know, guys, sometimes when I find myself super excited by a story that has tons of different women with different personalities and ages and backgrounds interacting, I ask myself, "but Becca, is this not something you should expect and demand, rather than something you should be pleasantly shocked by?"
But apparently it's going to be a while before I get over being pleasantly shocked any time I see so many women interacting and moving the plot. Old women! Young women! Middle-aged women! Noblewomen! Fisherwomen! Warriors! Politicians! Chieftains who just want to build some aqueducts! Artists who are really annoyed by having to be involved in world-saving affairs! Mothers, sisters, daughters, granddaughters! And it's not a big deal, it's not a Special Feminist Country or anything, it's just that these women are all important and are players in this story.
My personal favorite is Argat Climens, ~fabulous noblewoman~, who has been accused of treason and has four kids by four different fathers and is the constant recipient of judgy looks from everyone else at court, and just sashays through the whole book all, "Haters gonna hate! ^_____^"
She is also the best mom in the series, and her equally awesome teenaged daughter thinks she's amazing. IT'S PRETTY GREAT.
(I do have to talk about one other point, though -- there's a plot point about semi-villainous lady who kept all her memoirs stacked up in a room, and the heroine is all "but why would you save all of these memoirs? Why would you keep it in one place? WHAT MADNESS IS THIS?" It's archival principles, Gaultry! DON'T YOU JUDGE.)
