primus ab oris
Jan. 22nd, 2010 06:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadydaveI finished reading The Farthest Shore! I think this one was my favorite the first time 'round, and I still like it a lot.
However, we are back to failing at female characters, as there are a grand total of two of them (shiny headdress lady and deranged dyer lady). On the one hand, they were once pretty awesome at magic, and aren't particularly stereotypical; on the other, they've both lost their power due to the plot, and are now either tremendously bitchy or crazy.
One of the reasons I think I didn't like the later books as much is that in this one, Arren and Ged are pretty awesome, whereas I seem to recall them subsequently being coated in lamesauce. (Also, I kinda wonder how Arren's epic mancrush would be written today, as it could come off as kind of NAMBLAtastic to anyone with a vaguely dirty mind.) It amuses me that Ged ended up adventuring with occasionally pissy teenagers both times. Karma!
Structurally, having Cob as the big bad doesn't quite work, because we only know him second-hand from Ged, and only then, like, a third of the way through the book. I think it would have flowed better had he been a more prominent Chekhov's gun (or even better, been mentioned in an earlier book). Likewise, the whole "We need a king! Oh, there he is" thing would have been waaaaaaaaay less pastede on yaye if it had been included in A Wizard of Earthsea or The Tombs of Atuan. As it is, I find it curious that we don't actually get to see Arren being particularly kingly. The book definitely shows him having/developing the fortitude and compassion for the job, and we're TOLD he's been trained to be a leader, but we never actually get to see him do anything that would indicate "Yep, that guy should totally be running Earthsea." (At least in LotR we know that Aragorn has mad inspirational AND organizational skills -- putting together an army and leading them to a potential last stand takes talent.)
Finally, it's occurred to me while reading the books that I wasn't zomg IMPRESSED with them the first time because they seem really familiar, just another bunch of standard fantasy plots with magic and wizards and dragons and stuff. However, I think the series suffers from Star Trek: TOS syndrome, in that the reason it seems like it's been done a million times already is because it HAS, but it did it first. Or among the first in modern fantasy, anyway. Which is pretty cool.
In keeping with the "What's dead should stay dead" (AND "still not king") theme of the book, your rec today is Sabriel, by Garth Nix! (The sequels, Lirael and Abhorsen, are also quite good.) Our titular heroine, armed with kickass necromantic handbells,* shakes down zombies like they owe her dough as she tries to save both the deteriorating magical Old Kingdom and early 20th century British Empire-ish Ancelstierre from the evil Dead.
* Which definitely HAVE to be magic, as you could only carry down to about a C5 comfortably (that's middle C to all you non-handbell-playing plebes) on a bandolier, and yet there are several bells that presumably sound much deeper shut up my esoteric skills are awesome
In conclusion: "The Firelord, who sough to undo the darkness and stop the sun at noon, was a great mage; even Erreth-Akbe could scarcely defeat him" (47).
Yeah, that was totally next on Ozai's to-do list.
Y'all come back now, hear?
However, we are back to failing at female characters, as there are a grand total of two of them (shiny headdress lady and deranged dyer lady). On the one hand, they were once pretty awesome at magic, and aren't particularly stereotypical; on the other, they've both lost their power due to the plot, and are now either tremendously bitchy or crazy.
One of the reasons I think I didn't like the later books as much is that in this one, Arren and Ged are pretty awesome, whereas I seem to recall them subsequently being coated in lamesauce. (Also, I kinda wonder how Arren's epic mancrush would be written today, as it could come off as kind of NAMBLAtastic to anyone with a vaguely dirty mind.) It amuses me that Ged ended up adventuring with occasionally pissy teenagers both times. Karma!
Structurally, having Cob as the big bad doesn't quite work, because we only know him second-hand from Ged, and only then, like, a third of the way through the book. I think it would have flowed better had he been a more prominent Chekhov's gun (or even better, been mentioned in an earlier book). Likewise, the whole "We need a king! Oh, there he is" thing would have been waaaaaaaaay less pastede on yaye if it had been included in A Wizard of Earthsea or The Tombs of Atuan. As it is, I find it curious that we don't actually get to see Arren being particularly kingly. The book definitely shows him having/developing the fortitude and compassion for the job, and we're TOLD he's been trained to be a leader, but we never actually get to see him do anything that would indicate "Yep, that guy should totally be running Earthsea." (At least in LotR we know that Aragorn has mad inspirational AND organizational skills -- putting together an army and leading them to a potential last stand takes talent.)
Finally, it's occurred to me while reading the books that I wasn't zomg IMPRESSED with them the first time because they seem really familiar, just another bunch of standard fantasy plots with magic and wizards and dragons and stuff. However, I think the series suffers from Star Trek: TOS syndrome, in that the reason it seems like it's been done a million times already is because it HAS, but it did it first. Or among the first in modern fantasy, anyway. Which is pretty cool.
In keeping with the "What's dead should stay dead" (AND "still not king") theme of the book, your rec today is Sabriel, by Garth Nix! (The sequels, Lirael and Abhorsen, are also quite good.) Our titular heroine, armed with kickass necromantic handbells,* shakes down zombies like they owe her dough as she tries to save both the deteriorating magical Old Kingdom and early 20th century British Empire-ish Ancelstierre from the evil Dead.
* Which definitely HAVE to be magic, as you could only carry down to about a C5 comfortably (that's middle C to all you non-handbell-playing plebes) on a bandolier, and yet there are several bells that presumably sound much deeper shut up my esoteric skills are awesome
In conclusion: "The Firelord, who sough to undo the darkness and stop the sun at noon, was a great mage; even Erreth-Akbe could scarcely defeat him" (47).
Yeah, that was totally next on Ozai's to-do list.
Y'all come back now, hear?