Read this week: dragons and spirits
Jul. 24th, 2019 04:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkI'm in an original fiction phase, which has upsides (more surprises etc.) and downsides (generally scarier etc.) but for right now I'm enjoying it.
In the Vanishers' Palace - Aliette de Bodard
Beauty and the Beast adaption with dragons in a post-apocalyptic fantasy Vietnamese setting. I liked this – not as much as I'd hoped and I'm not entirely sure why, but I did enjoy it. The worldbuilding was interesting but it felt like the plot developed slowly (even though the book is short), while the romance was fast for my taste (though more objectively not too badly so.) My favorite characters were Thông and Liên, Vu Côn's children, and I liked their relationship with their mother.
The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower - Katherine Arden
Book 1 and 2 of the Winternight trilogy, and my library doesn't have the third one yet, boo. I enjoyed these a lot! A fantasy fairy tale story set in medieval Russia. I really liked the characters, especially Vasya and her family, and the plot worked well for me too and was interesting and exciting, with good villains. What I found harder to deal with, because it was so very well shown, was the extremely sexist society. Auuugh. And also Christianity destroying the existing culture.
I hate Konstantin Nikonovich a lot, and he's scarier than Medved or Kaschei because he's so realistic. He reminded me of Frollo from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” and if the bannik's prophecy is to be believed then he might gain as much authority, ugh. Kasyan/Kaschei was a good villain too though, for a while I thought the second book would end with him winning.
I love Vasya's family, especially her father and siblings. (I hope in book three we see Alyosha and Irina again!) I also loved how when she met Sasha and Olga again, they immediately came into conflict because Vasya doesn't fit into their world. Vasya doesn't want to fit in, and she tries to explain it to them but she doesn't see the risk it poses for her siblings at first, of course that makes it harder for them to accept. And it does go wrong, and they do pay a price. (I was very relieved when Sasha and the Grand Prince reconciled (for the moment...)) I really empathize with Vasya because there's nothing wrong with what she wants, but the world she's living in doesn't allow her to have it and it's not fair at all. What makes it worse for her is that she got a glimpse of magic and wonder so she knows it's out there, and she has Solovey so she has hope.
I'm intrigued by Morozko, though he's keeping so many secrets from the reader too that I don't feel like I've got a good handle on him yet. I like his white mare, and it's interesting that even though most other impressive horses have names (those like Solovey and Zolotaya, of course, but also Ogon and Tuman and Zima etc.), she either doesn't or we don't know it yet.
The end of book 2 has some very ominous foreshadowing, I'm really looking forward to book 3 (and already hoping for AUs because those lines practically demanded them.)
In the Vanishers' Palace - Aliette de Bodard
Beauty and the Beast adaption with dragons in a post-apocalyptic fantasy Vietnamese setting. I liked this – not as much as I'd hoped and I'm not entirely sure why, but I did enjoy it. The worldbuilding was interesting but it felt like the plot developed slowly (even though the book is short), while the romance was fast for my taste (though more objectively not too badly so.) My favorite characters were Thông and Liên, Vu Côn's children, and I liked their relationship with their mother.
The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower - Katherine Arden
Book 1 and 2 of the Winternight trilogy, and my library doesn't have the third one yet, boo. I enjoyed these a lot! A fantasy fairy tale story set in medieval Russia. I really liked the characters, especially Vasya and her family, and the plot worked well for me too and was interesting and exciting, with good villains. What I found harder to deal with, because it was so very well shown, was the extremely sexist society. Auuugh. And also Christianity destroying the existing culture.
I hate Konstantin Nikonovich a lot, and he's scarier than Medved or Kaschei because he's so realistic. He reminded me of Frollo from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” and if the bannik's prophecy is to be believed then he might gain as much authority, ugh. Kasyan/Kaschei was a good villain too though, for a while I thought the second book would end with him winning.
I love Vasya's family, especially her father and siblings. (I hope in book three we see Alyosha and Irina again!) I also loved how when she met Sasha and Olga again, they immediately came into conflict because Vasya doesn't fit into their world. Vasya doesn't want to fit in, and she tries to explain it to them but she doesn't see the risk it poses for her siblings at first, of course that makes it harder for them to accept. And it does go wrong, and they do pay a price. (I was very relieved when Sasha and the Grand Prince reconciled (for the moment...)) I really empathize with Vasya because there's nothing wrong with what she wants, but the world she's living in doesn't allow her to have it and it's not fair at all. What makes it worse for her is that she got a glimpse of magic and wonder so she knows it's out there, and she has Solovey so she has hope.
I'm intrigued by Morozko, though he's keeping so many secrets from the reader too that I don't feel like I've got a good handle on him yet. I like his white mare, and it's interesting that even though most other impressive horses have names (those like Solovey and Zolotaya, of course, but also Ogon and Tuman and Zima etc.), she either doesn't or we don't know it yet.
The end of book 2 has some very ominous foreshadowing, I'm really looking forward to book 3 (and already hoping for AUs because those lines practically demanded them.)
