Take a look around--you may have noticed a couple additions to the blogpage. I've added a blogroll section so you can see what I've been reading on other blogs; a subscription gadget so you can subscribe to this blog and receive notification when the blog is updated; and last but not least, I've added a Fans section so you can see who follows this blog (more or less) regularly.
Cheers!
Steve
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Disappointment in the World of Mithgar
City of Jade by Dennis L. McKiernan. Reviewed by Steve on January 25, 2009.
Dennis McKiernan is one of the most talented fantasy authors I have read, and he is widely known for his Mithgar series, which seemed to be coming to a close with the publication of Silver Wolf, Black Falcon in 2001. The author stated in the foreward to the aforementioned novel that, "This is perhaps--perhaps--my last Mithgar novel." As a fan, I was incredibly saddened by the news that one of my most beloved fantasy series was coming to a close.
Then, in the beginning of December, I stumbled across some news--Dennis McKiernan had published another book! And guess what? It was a Mithgar novel! The way I had come across this news should have alerted me that something was amiss, but my excitement ruled the day, and I eagerly went to the bookstore to purchase a copy.
Let's just say that I was supremely disappointed.
The novel is about the adventures of one rather famous hero of Mithgar, an Elf named Aravan, as he embarks on another quest to explore lands unknown. A tale of a mysterious City of Jade has circulated the lands of Mithgar, captivating the attention of all who hear it. After fighting a long series of battles against Gyphon (the god of evil) and his followers, Aravan seeks refuge with his love, Aylis, at Arbalin Isle, where his ship, the Eroean, and his crew await. Although tired from the war with Gyphon, Aravan is restless with his desire to once again sail in the Eroean, and the rumors of the City of Jade only provokes him further.
After repairing and outfitting the Eroean and its crew, Aravan sets out to discover the City of Jade and untangle myth and legend from truth, if possible. They only find a small, carved jade statue with a short, prophetic poem upon it and a fragmentary reference to the City of Jade in the annals of the royal library. As they follow the source of the legend, they encounter pirates, Rucks, Hloks, Trolls, and other dark powers that seek to destroy Aravan and his crew.
While I had looked forward to reading this new Mithgar novel and reacquaint myself with its heroes, what I found was that this story critically lacked the drive and force of previous stories of Mithgar. At its essence, the tale meanders aimlessly, spending a great deal of time on mundane affairs (like spending a third of the novel on repairs, idle conversation between characters, and other "normal," boring, everyday occurrences) without truly hooking the readers interest. As a case in point, you have to read about halfway through the novel before getting to the plot hook (i.e. the rumors of the City of Jade and Aravan's desire to explore said city).
Additionally, the force that propels us to this point is extraordinarily weak, and you find yourself progressing through the narrative only because the sentences flow from left to right and you wonder when it will "get good." There are little bits of humor and some tiny gems for the diehard Mithgar fan, but these become trite and redundant rather quickly. The farcical humor of Binkton and Pip (two warrows, which are basically halflings or hobbits) is quite amusing at first, but this comedic device is greatly overdone and the humor rapidly degenerates into simply being annoying. Think Jar-Jar Binks from Star Wars: Episode 1--it was funny for the first two minutes, but after that, you'd had quite enough out of Jar-Jar.
What was most atrocious to me was the fact that so many of the characters in this novel were flat, type-casted characters. The two warrows mentioned above are one such pair, but the novel is abound with others. The main antagonist, for example, is the typical evil-wizard-with-dark-machinations-of-world-domination. There seems to be no effort to complicate or break the monotony of this stereotype, which is a real tragedy for such a talented writer as Dennis McKiernan.
Perhaps this is what disappointed me the most--the fact that one of my favorite authors, who had inspired me with his creative genius and his epic storytelling, had written a novel that failed to be, well, novel. Unfortunately, a bulk of fantasy literature tends to suffer from this. There is a huge realm of fantasy literature that simply uses an unoriginal, basic story formula and hits "repeat." I call this plug-and-play fiction: you could basically just insert new characters into the equation and it always comes out the same; it's very cookie-cutter and unremarkable.
Before I read this novel, I had unshakable confidence in the power of McKiernan's stories and his ability to entertain, inspire, and move the reader. But I fear that his fame is becoming an obstacle to the success of his stories. I do not mean to say that McKiernan is arrogant, self-loving, or overconfident. Everything about McKiernan suggests that this is most certainly NOT the case. Even a cursory glance over his website and his media attention would confirm this; the website is rather modest and simple, and McKiernan does not go on world-wide or nation-wide tours. What I am saying is that I think the editors at Roc are relying too much on McKiernan's name to sell the novel. Any editor worth his salt should have encouraged McKiernan to steer away from the blatantly stereotypical character traits, as evinced by the aforementioned wizard and warrows, and to further develop the characters and plot in City of Jade. I would rate this novel at one star, and would strongly recommend that you NOT read this novel, particularly if you are interested in experiencing Mithgar, which is an otherwise very well-crafted and literary series.
Dennis McKiernan is one of the most talented fantasy authors I have read, and he is widely known for his Mithgar series, which seemed to be coming to a close with the publication of Silver Wolf, Black Falcon in 2001. The author stated in the foreward to the aforementioned novel that, "This is perhaps--perhaps--my last Mithgar novel." As a fan, I was incredibly saddened by the news that one of my most beloved fantasy series was coming to a close.
Then, in the beginning of December, I stumbled across some news--Dennis McKiernan had published another book! And guess what? It was a Mithgar novel! The way I had come across this news should have alerted me that something was amiss, but my excitement ruled the day, and I eagerly went to the bookstore to purchase a copy.
Let's just say that I was supremely disappointed.
The novel is about the adventures of one rather famous hero of Mithgar, an Elf named Aravan, as he embarks on another quest to explore lands unknown. A tale of a mysterious City of Jade has circulated the lands of Mithgar, captivating the attention of all who hear it. After fighting a long series of battles against Gyphon (the god of evil) and his followers, Aravan seeks refuge with his love, Aylis, at Arbalin Isle, where his ship, the Eroean, and his crew await. Although tired from the war with Gyphon, Aravan is restless with his desire to once again sail in the Eroean, and the rumors of the City of Jade only provokes him further.
After repairing and outfitting the Eroean and its crew, Aravan sets out to discover the City of Jade and untangle myth and legend from truth, if possible. They only find a small, carved jade statue with a short, prophetic poem upon it and a fragmentary reference to the City of Jade in the annals of the royal library. As they follow the source of the legend, they encounter pirates, Rucks, Hloks, Trolls, and other dark powers that seek to destroy Aravan and his crew.
While I had looked forward to reading this new Mithgar novel and reacquaint myself with its heroes, what I found was that this story critically lacked the drive and force of previous stories of Mithgar. At its essence, the tale meanders aimlessly, spending a great deal of time on mundane affairs (like spending a third of the novel on repairs, idle conversation between characters, and other "normal," boring, everyday occurrences) without truly hooking the readers interest. As a case in point, you have to read about halfway through the novel before getting to the plot hook (i.e. the rumors of the City of Jade and Aravan's desire to explore said city).
Additionally, the force that propels us to this point is extraordinarily weak, and you find yourself progressing through the narrative only because the sentences flow from left to right and you wonder when it will "get good." There are little bits of humor and some tiny gems for the diehard Mithgar fan, but these become trite and redundant rather quickly. The farcical humor of Binkton and Pip (two warrows, which are basically halflings or hobbits) is quite amusing at first, but this comedic device is greatly overdone and the humor rapidly degenerates into simply being annoying. Think Jar-Jar Binks from Star Wars: Episode 1--it was funny for the first two minutes, but after that, you'd had quite enough out of Jar-Jar.
What was most atrocious to me was the fact that so many of the characters in this novel were flat, type-casted characters. The two warrows mentioned above are one such pair, but the novel is abound with others. The main antagonist, for example, is the typical evil-wizard-with-dark-machinations-of-world-domination. There seems to be no effort to complicate or break the monotony of this stereotype, which is a real tragedy for such a talented writer as Dennis McKiernan.
Perhaps this is what disappointed me the most--the fact that one of my favorite authors, who had inspired me with his creative genius and his epic storytelling, had written a novel that failed to be, well, novel. Unfortunately, a bulk of fantasy literature tends to suffer from this. There is a huge realm of fantasy literature that simply uses an unoriginal, basic story formula and hits "repeat." I call this plug-and-play fiction: you could basically just insert new characters into the equation and it always comes out the same; it's very cookie-cutter and unremarkable.
Before I read this novel, I had unshakable confidence in the power of McKiernan's stories and his ability to entertain, inspire, and move the reader. But I fear that his fame is becoming an obstacle to the success of his stories. I do not mean to say that McKiernan is arrogant, self-loving, or overconfident. Everything about McKiernan suggests that this is most certainly NOT the case. Even a cursory glance over his website and his media attention would confirm this; the website is rather modest and simple, and McKiernan does not go on world-wide or nation-wide tours. What I am saying is that I think the editors at Roc are relying too much on McKiernan's name to sell the novel. Any editor worth his salt should have encouraged McKiernan to steer away from the blatantly stereotypical character traits, as evinced by the aforementioned wizard and warrows, and to further develop the characters and plot in City of Jade. I would rate this novel at one star, and would strongly recommend that you NOT read this novel, particularly if you are interested in experiencing Mithgar, which is an otherwise very well-crafted and literary series.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Once upon a very twisted time,
Grimm, Fantasy Flight Games, reviewed by N. Vivian on January 23, 2009.
The story of how I found this game is pretty cute, so I'll relate it briefly. Around Christmas, I was poking around on a friend's Amazon wishlist, when I noticed that many of his books looked very familiar. The little sneak had trolled my wishlist and added a bunch of my books to his own list. I know--the nerve! So, in retaliation, I trolled his wishlist, saw Grimm and decided that I wanted it bad enough to buy it right there. For me, of course, cause I am greedy like that.
Well, I find it cute.
Anyway, moving on, Grimm is a gaming system wherein the players play children (usually 8-12) who are stuck in the land of Grimm's fairy tales. Only these tales are twisted. Well, okay, most of the Grimm's fairy tales are twisted, but these are extra twisted, with a side of crazy. The lands are ruled over by the Rotten King--Humpty Dumpty, who, after his tragic fall, went bad. Reeeeeeeeeeeally bad--as in, the sulfuric miasma that seeps through the cracks in his shell are bad enough, they melted the former king into a puddle of yellow goo. He is married to Cinderella, who killed her previous prince for getting too grabby (she has issues about being touched by men. Dumpty prudently keeps his hands to himself), and anywhere Cinderella goes, she is preceded by her stepmother and stepsisters, who scrub the floor before she walks on it. Also, she's a crazy dominatrix-wannabe, and she carries a cat-o-nine and forces her stepmom and sisters to wear red-hot iron shoes.
Character creation is easy: the first thing you do is pick your archetype (bully, dreamer, jock, nerd, ordinary kid, outcast, and popular kid) which comes with it's own advantages and disadvantages. Each archetype starts out with its own stats, and you have 8 additional points to spend increasing those stats. Stats are divided into three groups: Core, Playground, and Study. Core attributes are just that--attributes you can't really learn, part of your core persona. These are Cool, Imagination, Luck, Muscle, and Pluck, and cost three points to increase by one level, or, in game parlance, one grade. Playground traits are the easy stuff you pick up, probably by the time you start school: Hide, Scamper, Scrap, Seek, and Throw, which all cost two points to upgrade. Lastly, the Study traits are specialized knowledge skills that are picked up through school and activities; all children are at least 1st grade in each Core and Playground traits, but since Study traits represent skills that kids can choose to learn or not, not every child will have a grade in every study trait. The study traits are 4-H, Book Learning, Boy/Girl Scouts, Country Club, Gaming, Home Ec, Industrial Arts, and Juvie. Study traits cost one point to increase. After all the points are apportioned, players chose a few talents (special abilities), then flesh out the character and work with the narrator to figure out how each kid got into the Grimm Lands. In all, it's very quick and easy; no dice, no advanced math, no list of abilities that spans pages. Once a player knows what archetype she wants to play, character creation can probably be done in a less than ten minutes.
Grimm isn't really held up on rules. Unlike some other RPGs I could mention, there aren't pages of rules for movement or distance or attacks of opportunity. My copy of the game is NOT the d20 version (yay!), so for conflict resolution, the player rolls a d6, measuring the grade of the appropriate stat against a level determined by the GM or another character in the case of contested rolls. 2-5 means the character performed at their stat's grade level. A roll of 1 means the character performs one grade below his level, and rolls again: another 1 is another grade lower and another roll, a 2-6 means the player stops rolling. A roll of 6 means the character performs one grade above his level and rolls again; as with a 1, a roll of 6 means a higher grade level and yet another roll, 1-5 means the player stops rolling. there are ways to adjust the numbers, of course, but that's the basic system in a nutshell. Quick, simple, and easy. I like it--it seems like a good system to introduce newbies to, as it focuses less on mechanics and more on the role-playing aspect. I'm fond of it, since it fits in well with my style of gaming; I'm mostly cinematic, which means I could care less about the system in favor of descriptions and how cool an action is.
Another benefit of having basic mechanics is that it leaves more room in the text to explore the Grimm Lands. Of the 200+ pages of the book, less than half are devoted to rules. For example, the way magic works is explained on pages 73-78. Pages 79-88, however, explain the different magical styles of artificers, enchanters, witches, etc. Fighting is covered on pages 52-54. It's great! The, from page 108 on, it's all descriptions of the people, places, and things you'll run into while exploring the Grimm Lands. Of course, you can make up your own stuff, but they include so much richly detailed and intricately textured material, you don't have to if you don't want to.
My favorite tidbit is about Rapunzel. Rapunzel left long ago, living with her husband and children. The tower she lived in missed her very much and was very lonely, so when a colony of spiders moved in, it was happy to see them. Their webs remind the tower of her hair, and they're company at least. One day, however, Rapunzel came back to thank the tower for taking care of her for all those years. The tower was napping when she went in, and so there was no protection for her against the thousands of spiders who attacked her, killed her, and ate her tasty insides. Soon after their meal, the Mama Spider realized just who they'd eaten, and to keep the tower from finding out, she has hundreds of her children climb into Rapunzel's skin, and walk around, pretending to be her. That's right, in Grimm, you can run into a spider-filled Rapunzel skin-puppet. I did say this game was twisted, yes?
Of course, Rapunzel is barely scratching the surface. Grimm contains a bunch of locales and people for the players to be traumatized by. It's not very kid-friendly, either. The game isn't necessarily lethal for the players (though I have no doubt it could be), but it's just one mind-bending, heart-shattering experience after another. In fact, there's a mechanic for Despair in the game, because that can be a real problem for characters in long-term campaigns.
Now, I must be honest and admit I have not played the game, so there may be flaws inherent to the system that I have not yet found. But the book itself is beautiful (lots of lovely and eerie illustrations), the text is funny even as it explains stuff like rules as stats and whatnot (it references the famous card game Sorcery: The Assemblage, for example), and the book itself is packed with details. A lot of thought and creativity went into the creation of this world and it shows. The text is very evocative; it really captures the spirit and feeling of the old fairy tales; this isn't a good place for children and it shows.
4 stars. (I may come back and edit this for playability once I've had a chance to play in (or run) a game.)
As for other books I've read thus far this year, as requested by Steve:
Mistress of Mellyn, Victoria Holt (reviewed)
Grimm, Fantasy Flight Games (reviewed)
Wizards: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy, a collection of short stories edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois
How to Ditch Your Fairy, Justine Larbalestier
Zofloya, or The Moor, Charlotte Dacre
Austenland, Shannon Hale
Nobilis: The Game of Sovereign Powers, R. Sean Borgstrom
The story of how I found this game is pretty cute, so I'll relate it briefly. Around Christmas, I was poking around on a friend's Amazon wishlist, when I noticed that many of his books looked very familiar. The little sneak had trolled my wishlist and added a bunch of my books to his own list. I know--the nerve! So, in retaliation, I trolled his wishlist, saw Grimm and decided that I wanted it bad enough to buy it right there. For me, of course, cause I am greedy like that.
Well, I find it cute.
Anyway, moving on, Grimm is a gaming system wherein the players play children (usually 8-12) who are stuck in the land of Grimm's fairy tales. Only these tales are twisted. Well, okay, most of the Grimm's fairy tales are twisted, but these are extra twisted, with a side of crazy. The lands are ruled over by the Rotten King--Humpty Dumpty, who, after his tragic fall, went bad. Reeeeeeeeeeeally bad--as in, the sulfuric miasma that seeps through the cracks in his shell are bad enough, they melted the former king into a puddle of yellow goo. He is married to Cinderella, who killed her previous prince for getting too grabby (she has issues about being touched by men. Dumpty prudently keeps his hands to himself), and anywhere Cinderella goes, she is preceded by her stepmother and stepsisters, who scrub the floor before she walks on it. Also, she's a crazy dominatrix-wannabe, and she carries a cat-o-nine and forces her stepmom and sisters to wear red-hot iron shoes.
Character creation is easy: the first thing you do is pick your archetype (bully, dreamer, jock, nerd, ordinary kid, outcast, and popular kid) which comes with it's own advantages and disadvantages. Each archetype starts out with its own stats, and you have 8 additional points to spend increasing those stats. Stats are divided into three groups: Core, Playground, and Study. Core attributes are just that--attributes you can't really learn, part of your core persona. These are Cool, Imagination, Luck, Muscle, and Pluck, and cost three points to increase by one level, or, in game parlance, one grade. Playground traits are the easy stuff you pick up, probably by the time you start school: Hide, Scamper, Scrap, Seek, and Throw, which all cost two points to upgrade. Lastly, the Study traits are specialized knowledge skills that are picked up through school and activities; all children are at least 1st grade in each Core and Playground traits, but since Study traits represent skills that kids can choose to learn or not, not every child will have a grade in every study trait. The study traits are 4-H, Book Learning, Boy/Girl Scouts, Country Club, Gaming, Home Ec, Industrial Arts, and Juvie. Study traits cost one point to increase. After all the points are apportioned, players chose a few talents (special abilities), then flesh out the character and work with the narrator to figure out how each kid got into the Grimm Lands. In all, it's very quick and easy; no dice, no advanced math, no list of abilities that spans pages. Once a player knows what archetype she wants to play, character creation can probably be done in a less than ten minutes.
Grimm isn't really held up on rules. Unlike some other RPGs I could mention, there aren't pages of rules for movement or distance or attacks of opportunity. My copy of the game is NOT the d20 version (yay!), so for conflict resolution, the player rolls a d6, measuring the grade of the appropriate stat against a level determined by the GM or another character in the case of contested rolls. 2-5 means the character performed at their stat's grade level. A roll of 1 means the character performs one grade below his level, and rolls again: another 1 is another grade lower and another roll, a 2-6 means the player stops rolling. A roll of 6 means the character performs one grade above his level and rolls again; as with a 1, a roll of 6 means a higher grade level and yet another roll, 1-5 means the player stops rolling. there are ways to adjust the numbers, of course, but that's the basic system in a nutshell. Quick, simple, and easy. I like it--it seems like a good system to introduce newbies to, as it focuses less on mechanics and more on the role-playing aspect. I'm fond of it, since it fits in well with my style of gaming; I'm mostly cinematic, which means I could care less about the system in favor of descriptions and how cool an action is.
Another benefit of having basic mechanics is that it leaves more room in the text to explore the Grimm Lands. Of the 200+ pages of the book, less than half are devoted to rules. For example, the way magic works is explained on pages 73-78. Pages 79-88, however, explain the different magical styles of artificers, enchanters, witches, etc. Fighting is covered on pages 52-54. It's great! The, from page 108 on, it's all descriptions of the people, places, and things you'll run into while exploring the Grimm Lands. Of course, you can make up your own stuff, but they include so much richly detailed and intricately textured material, you don't have to if you don't want to.
My favorite tidbit is about Rapunzel. Rapunzel left long ago, living with her husband and children. The tower she lived in missed her very much and was very lonely, so when a colony of spiders moved in, it was happy to see them. Their webs remind the tower of her hair, and they're company at least. One day, however, Rapunzel came back to thank the tower for taking care of her for all those years. The tower was napping when she went in, and so there was no protection for her against the thousands of spiders who attacked her, killed her, and ate her tasty insides. Soon after their meal, the Mama Spider realized just who they'd eaten, and to keep the tower from finding out, she has hundreds of her children climb into Rapunzel's skin, and walk around, pretending to be her. That's right, in Grimm, you can run into a spider-filled Rapunzel skin-puppet. I did say this game was twisted, yes?
Of course, Rapunzel is barely scratching the surface. Grimm contains a bunch of locales and people for the players to be traumatized by. It's not very kid-friendly, either. The game isn't necessarily lethal for the players (though I have no doubt it could be), but it's just one mind-bending, heart-shattering experience after another. In fact, there's a mechanic for Despair in the game, because that can be a real problem for characters in long-term campaigns.
Now, I must be honest and admit I have not played the game, so there may be flaws inherent to the system that I have not yet found. But the book itself is beautiful (lots of lovely and eerie illustrations), the text is funny even as it explains stuff like rules as stats and whatnot (it references the famous card game Sorcery: The Assemblage, for example), and the book itself is packed with details. A lot of thought and creativity went into the creation of this world and it shows. The text is very evocative; it really captures the spirit and feeling of the old fairy tales; this isn't a good place for children and it shows.
4 stars. (I may come back and edit this for playability once I've had a chance to play in (or run) a game.)
As for other books I've read thus far this year, as requested by Steve:
Mistress of Mellyn, Victoria Holt (reviewed)
Grimm, Fantasy Flight Games (reviewed)
Wizards: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy, a collection of short stories edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois
How to Ditch Your Fairy, Justine Larbalestier
Zofloya, or The Moor, Charlotte Dacre
Austenland, Shannon Hale
Nobilis: The Game of Sovereign Powers, R. Sean Borgstrom
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
The New Year Commences!
Hello Everyone!
I know, it's been a reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally long time since I've updated this, but I appreciate your patience and understanding. My thanks to N.Vivian for keeping the blog going in the interregnum.
So, how was everyone's holiday(s)?
I had a wonderful Christmas and was able to celebrate it with almost the whole family. It was a little chaotic, and we had several "Christmases" to attend, but I think it was worth it. Let me give you an idea of what I mean. On December 14th, my girlfriend and I went to my mom's house for my birthday (I was born on Christmas eve, but we always did my birthday with immediate family sometime earlier). December 24th, we went to my cousin's house (formerly my aunt's house, before she and my uncle passed away) and had Christmas there with the extended family on my mom's side. We slept over at my mom's house so that we could open our stockings Christmas morning, and then we travelled to see my girlfriend's family for Christmas. On December 26th, we had my brother and his fiance and my dad and his fiance over for breakfast at our house. Since neither my brother or I had seen my dad for Christmas, we held Christmas after breakfast on the 26th. On the 27th, my girlfriend and I went to see my dad for my birthday, where he made a wonderful, hearty, English dinner.
For New Years, we got together with a few friends from college, whom we have not seen in quite some time. It was a very merry occasion and it was great to see all our friends again. It's awful how busy we all get; so much so, that we are often unable to see the people we treasure the most.
After New Years, we went out to Western Ma to see my girlfriend's extended family and have "Festivus" with them (note the Seinfeld reference: my girlfriend's aunts are both Jewish, so they decided to call the family gathering "Festivus").
As you can see, December was a rather busy month, especially around the holidays. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the time I got to spend with everyone, and I enjoyed giving out gifts to everybody.
Like many people, I have made a couple New Years resolutions. One of them is to keep up this blog at least as often as I have been (excluding, of course, that chaotic month of December, where I was grading papers, entering in grades for 35 students, applying to Ph.D. programs, and seeing family for the holidays) and to try out some new gadgets, widgets, and the like to spice things up. Bear with me during the experimental phase. It could get interesting...
So, what has everyone been reading? I have a rather long list of books, all of which will be reviewed, but here's the list:
-City of Jade by Dennis L McKiernan
-The Watchmen by Alan Moore
-The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
-Falls the Shadow by Sharon Kay Penman
-All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
I know, it's been a reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally long time since I've updated this, but I appreciate your patience and understanding. My thanks to N.Vivian for keeping the blog going in the interregnum.
So, how was everyone's holiday(s)?
I had a wonderful Christmas and was able to celebrate it with almost the whole family. It was a little chaotic, and we had several "Christmases" to attend, but I think it was worth it. Let me give you an idea of what I mean. On December 14th, my girlfriend and I went to my mom's house for my birthday (I was born on Christmas eve, but we always did my birthday with immediate family sometime earlier). December 24th, we went to my cousin's house (formerly my aunt's house, before she and my uncle passed away) and had Christmas there with the extended family on my mom's side. We slept over at my mom's house so that we could open our stockings Christmas morning, and then we travelled to see my girlfriend's family for Christmas. On December 26th, we had my brother and his fiance and my dad and his fiance over for breakfast at our house. Since neither my brother or I had seen my dad for Christmas, we held Christmas after breakfast on the 26th. On the 27th, my girlfriend and I went to see my dad for my birthday, where he made a wonderful, hearty, English dinner.
For New Years, we got together with a few friends from college, whom we have not seen in quite some time. It was a very merry occasion and it was great to see all our friends again. It's awful how busy we all get; so much so, that we are often unable to see the people we treasure the most.
After New Years, we went out to Western Ma to see my girlfriend's extended family and have "Festivus" with them (note the Seinfeld reference: my girlfriend's aunts are both Jewish, so they decided to call the family gathering "Festivus").
As you can see, December was a rather busy month, especially around the holidays. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the time I got to spend with everyone, and I enjoyed giving out gifts to everybody.
Like many people, I have made a couple New Years resolutions. One of them is to keep up this blog at least as often as I have been (excluding, of course, that chaotic month of December, where I was grading papers, entering in grades for 35 students, applying to Ph.D. programs, and seeing family for the holidays) and to try out some new gadgets, widgets, and the like to spice things up. Bear with me during the experimental phase. It could get interesting...
So, what has everyone been reading? I have a rather long list of books, all of which will be reviewed, but here's the list:
-City of Jade by Dennis L McKiernan
-The Watchmen by Alan Moore
-The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
-Falls the Shadow by Sharon Kay Penman
-All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Monday, January 5, 2009
Happy New Year!
Welcome to 2009 people. Change is already on the way, like Galadriel, I feel it in the earth. It does help knowing that we only have 15 more days until the inauguration. I am inexpressably happy about this.
Anyway, on to the first review of the year, yes?
Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt, reviewed by N. Vivian on January 5th.
Mistress of Mellyn is a modern Gothic romance, which means it had a ton of the traditional Gothic tropes, but focused more on the romance aspect, and lost most of the horror/terror aspect. For example, there's nothing particularly scary in the book; no black veils shrouding worm-covered "corpses," no keening voices, no blood-stained clothing, not even a lustful monk. There's a manor on top of a hill overlooking the sea, but the house itself is in perfectly good condition, kept neat and spotless, with nary a cobweb or scuttling rat in sight. The heroine hears odd voices that almost sound like people calling for the previous mistress's name, but she's informed (without any prompting) that it's just the sound of the sea. The master is brooding, but not menacing, the servants aren't stand-offish--they're only too willing to gossip; no dark and dangerous secrets in this house. Hell, the protagonist doesn't even end up lost in the woods, or the moors, or in the sea caves! To be fair, she never visited the sea caves, sea caves weren't even mentioned in the movel, but she COULD HAVE. And the protagonist, the gentlewoman in poverty who chooses to become a governess? Does she swoon even once? No!
The problem is, I don't know enough about Victoria Holt as an author to see if she's serious, or just messing around. If it's parody, then it's more subtle than Northanger Abbey, (which, to be fair, was as subtle as a brick to the face. Austen was having a lot of fun making fun of the genre). The book is well-written enough for me to assume that Holt knew the tropes and was deliberately subverting them, but there is always the possibility that she knew the bare bones of the genre, and added just enough window-dressing to get the novel called 'Gothic.'
Regardless, I really enjoyed this book. It was predictable in the way that most formulaic genres are, but I don't mind that. In fact, I really enjoy those; if the plot is a formula, then the author has to spend more time making the characters real. Well, the good authors do, anyway. Martha Leigh, is a genteelly impoverished woman. She has two options: marry or become a governess. The marriage option didn't really pan out, so it was off to Mellyn to teach. She doesn't really like this option; not because she'd prefer to be married, but because she's prickly and prideful. I can get behind that.
The Master of Mellyn is a widower, of course, his wife had run away with their philandering neighbor, but they had died in a horrible train wreck. The neighbor's body was identified, but the wife was burned too badly for recognition, the neighbor's sister was only able to identify her by the brooch she was wearing. It seems a bitter end to a troubled, stormy, loveless marriage, leaving the not-so-grieving widower free to look elsewhere for love--and all the village gossips about his (probable) mistress, the wealthy, beautiful, and ambitious Lady Treslyn. Could there possibly be something more to his wife's death than meets the eye?
There were some aspects of the book that I really liked. First of all, while Martha does become a little creepily obsessed with finding out what happened to Alice, the first wife, she never lets herself get stupid about it. Sure, there's a time when she thinks she hears Alice speaking (in a dream, conveniently telling her that she should do what exactly the thing that she wants to do), but other than that, Martha stays pretty sensible. She doesn't believe that Alice is trying to contact her from beyond the grave, she doesn't think Alice is haunting the manor house, and she never lets her imagination run away from her (I'm looking at you, Catherine Morland, and you too, Emily St. Aubert). I like to see a practical, no-nonsense woman, especially after the dingbats of the eighteenth century. This may have been more impressive had there been more suggestions of supernatural spookiness, but I still liked it. I also liked how that practicality carried over to her interactions with her employer and their flirtatious neighbor (younger brother of philandering neighbor)--she pretty much remembers her dignity through the entire thing. There are times when she uses her station as a weapon, which disconcerted them highly.
I liked that the villain was a female. Often, at least in the older Gothics, if there was a woman involved, she was two-dimensional. At best, she's a side-kick/helping hand, assisting the villain because she's desperately in love with him and is either willing to give him the heroine so he'll be happy, or working to remove the rival. Either way, she's of secondary importance: acting as a jailer, or delivering a tray of poisoned food. In this book, it's all her, beginning to end. I knew who it was immediately, but I will admit, I misread her motive entirely. That impressed me a lot. The murderess wasn't particularly bright (once she tried to kill the heroine by shoving a boulder down a hill) or amazingly creative, but she was a pretty convincing actress; the protagonists have no idea that she's a killer, and it's not because they are stupid or suffering from the "blind-to-the-obvious-because-the-plot-demands-it" syndrome.
What impressed me the most was the few moments of indecision I had towards the end of the book. There's all sorts of drama and impending doom which may implicate the employer in something shady, and, out of no where, he proposes to Martha, offering her his undying love. I honestly debated for a few minutes whether he was being genuine, or if he was using their to engagement to deflect attention away from him and his activities. Part of my uncertainty came from a lack of visible signs of growing attachment on his behalf. Well, they were there, but, again, it was very blatant: "LOOK HERE IS THE HERO FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE GOVERNESS! HE TOUCHED HER HAND, IT'S SIGNIFICANT!" There was nothing unique about his falling in love, might be the best way to describe it, and their 'courtship' was very bare-bones. Still, to give credit where credit is due, the rest of the uncertainty comes from Holt's setting up that expectation; she deliberately handed out two common tropes and said: "C'mon, guess which one I picked."
As for flaws, I have only two real ones. The first is the ending--the heroine is rescued from the obligatory horrible experience, and then the story stops. Not ends, just sorta...stops. The last real chapter ends with her rescue as she's delirious from shock and fear. What comes next is an afterword, where she relates the details (sparingly) from the future, when she is a great-grandmother. We don't even get to see the lovers' reunion, she's just like, "Yup, I was rescued, villain was punished, I married guy, we lived happily ever after. Wanna hear how many children I had?" I don't see the reason for that. I wanted to see it, not have it related almost second-hand. If I wanted that, I'd've asked a friend how the book ended. Bad form, Victoria, bad form.
My other critique is more pervasive in the novel, but didn't bother me as much. I felt as if the narration was a bit, well, bare-boned, like the courtship. Characters were somewhere between two-dimensional and decently developed, there were descriptions of her surroundings, but I still don't have a real idea of what things looked like, and since it was a first person novel, there was a conflict between showing versus telling sometimes. Holt occupies a very odd space: her books are Gothic (but not), her characters are developed (but not), her narration is descriptive (but not). It almost reads like a very detailed outline--but not. This would possibly be less irritating if I didn't have higher expectations of her--but I've READ Jean Plaidy (both nom de plumes for Eleanor Hibbert) and so I expect lush detail and rich narration.
Of course, this was originally published in 1960, so this might just be an example of her very early work, before she hit her stride. Or, she might just have spent more time and attention on her histories, as they are in a more respected genre.
So, the bottom line? I had a lot of fun with this book. It was interesting and engaging, I like the characters, I never had a moment when I was tempted to fling the book into a wall, and only rarely had to yell at the characters because they were being stupid. True the suspense-to-romance ratio was very low, but I think that's just a characteristic of the 'new' Gothic novel. I know I spent a lot of time pointing out flaws of the novel, but only because it was a good read, and so there were things that jumped out at me that would make it better. If I didn't really like it, I'd have less to say other than, "Well, this was crap. Nothing specific to critique because it was all one uniform lump of suck." Fun book, would read again--I'll probably add another few books of hers to my shelf; books I actually have to spend money on.
Anyway, on to the first review of the year, yes?
Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt, reviewed by N. Vivian on January 5th.
Mistress of Mellyn is a modern Gothic romance, which means it had a ton of the traditional Gothic tropes, but focused more on the romance aspect, and lost most of the horror/terror aspect. For example, there's nothing particularly scary in the book; no black veils shrouding worm-covered "corpses," no keening voices, no blood-stained clothing, not even a lustful monk. There's a manor on top of a hill overlooking the sea, but the house itself is in perfectly good condition, kept neat and spotless, with nary a cobweb or scuttling rat in sight. The heroine hears odd voices that almost sound like people calling for the previous mistress's name, but she's informed (without any prompting) that it's just the sound of the sea. The master is brooding, but not menacing, the servants aren't stand-offish--they're only too willing to gossip; no dark and dangerous secrets in this house. Hell, the protagonist doesn't even end up lost in the woods, or the moors, or in the sea caves! To be fair, she never visited the sea caves, sea caves weren't even mentioned in the movel, but she COULD HAVE. And the protagonist, the gentlewoman in poverty who chooses to become a governess? Does she swoon even once? No!
The problem is, I don't know enough about Victoria Holt as an author to see if she's serious, or just messing around. If it's parody, then it's more subtle than Northanger Abbey, (which, to be fair, was as subtle as a brick to the face. Austen was having a lot of fun making fun of the genre). The book is well-written enough for me to assume that Holt knew the tropes and was deliberately subverting them, but there is always the possibility that she knew the bare bones of the genre, and added just enough window-dressing to get the novel called 'Gothic.'
Regardless, I really enjoyed this book. It was predictable in the way that most formulaic genres are, but I don't mind that. In fact, I really enjoy those; if the plot is a formula, then the author has to spend more time making the characters real. Well, the good authors do, anyway. Martha Leigh, is a genteelly impoverished woman. She has two options: marry or become a governess. The marriage option didn't really pan out, so it was off to Mellyn to teach. She doesn't really like this option; not because she'd prefer to be married, but because she's prickly and prideful. I can get behind that.
The Master of Mellyn is a widower, of course, his wife had run away with their philandering neighbor, but they had died in a horrible train wreck. The neighbor's body was identified, but the wife was burned too badly for recognition, the neighbor's sister was only able to identify her by the brooch she was wearing. It seems a bitter end to a troubled, stormy, loveless marriage, leaving the not-so-grieving widower free to look elsewhere for love--and all the village gossips about his (probable) mistress, the wealthy, beautiful, and ambitious Lady Treslyn. Could there possibly be something more to his wife's death than meets the eye?
There were some aspects of the book that I really liked. First of all, while Martha does become a little creepily obsessed with finding out what happened to Alice, the first wife, she never lets herself get stupid about it. Sure, there's a time when she thinks she hears Alice speaking (in a dream, conveniently telling her that she should do what exactly the thing that she wants to do), but other than that, Martha stays pretty sensible. She doesn't believe that Alice is trying to contact her from beyond the grave, she doesn't think Alice is haunting the manor house, and she never lets her imagination run away from her (I'm looking at you, Catherine Morland, and you too, Emily St. Aubert). I like to see a practical, no-nonsense woman, especially after the dingbats of the eighteenth century. This may have been more impressive had there been more suggestions of supernatural spookiness, but I still liked it. I also liked how that practicality carried over to her interactions with her employer and their flirtatious neighbor (younger brother of philandering neighbor)--she pretty much remembers her dignity through the entire thing. There are times when she uses her station as a weapon, which disconcerted them highly.
I liked that the villain was a female. Often, at least in the older Gothics, if there was a woman involved, she was two-dimensional. At best, she's a side-kick/helping hand, assisting the villain because she's desperately in love with him and is either willing to give him the heroine so he'll be happy, or working to remove the rival. Either way, she's of secondary importance: acting as a jailer, or delivering a tray of poisoned food. In this book, it's all her, beginning to end. I knew who it was immediately, but I will admit, I misread her motive entirely. That impressed me a lot. The murderess wasn't particularly bright (once she tried to kill the heroine by shoving a boulder down a hill) or amazingly creative, but she was a pretty convincing actress; the protagonists have no idea that she's a killer, and it's not because they are stupid or suffering from the "blind-to-the-obvious-because-the-plot-demands-it" syndrome.
What impressed me the most was the few moments of indecision I had towards the end of the book. There's all sorts of drama and impending doom which may implicate the employer in something shady, and, out of no where, he proposes to Martha, offering her his undying love. I honestly debated for a few minutes whether he was being genuine, or if he was using their to engagement to deflect attention away from him and his activities. Part of my uncertainty came from a lack of visible signs of growing attachment on his behalf. Well, they were there, but, again, it was very blatant: "LOOK HERE IS THE HERO FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE GOVERNESS! HE TOUCHED HER HAND, IT'S SIGNIFICANT!" There was nothing unique about his falling in love, might be the best way to describe it, and their 'courtship' was very bare-bones. Still, to give credit where credit is due, the rest of the uncertainty comes from Holt's setting up that expectation; she deliberately handed out two common tropes and said: "C'mon, guess which one I picked."
As for flaws, I have only two real ones. The first is the ending--the heroine is rescued from the obligatory horrible experience, and then the story stops. Not ends, just sorta...stops. The last real chapter ends with her rescue as she's delirious from shock and fear. What comes next is an afterword, where she relates the details (sparingly) from the future, when she is a great-grandmother. We don't even get to see the lovers' reunion, she's just like, "Yup, I was rescued, villain was punished, I married guy, we lived happily ever after. Wanna hear how many children I had?" I don't see the reason for that. I wanted to see it, not have it related almost second-hand. If I wanted that, I'd've asked a friend how the book ended. Bad form, Victoria, bad form.
My other critique is more pervasive in the novel, but didn't bother me as much. I felt as if the narration was a bit, well, bare-boned, like the courtship. Characters were somewhere between two-dimensional and decently developed, there were descriptions of her surroundings, but I still don't have a real idea of what things looked like, and since it was a first person novel, there was a conflict between showing versus telling sometimes. Holt occupies a very odd space: her books are Gothic (but not), her characters are developed (but not), her narration is descriptive (but not). It almost reads like a very detailed outline--but not. This would possibly be less irritating if I didn't have higher expectations of her--but I've READ Jean Plaidy (both nom de plumes for Eleanor Hibbert) and so I expect lush detail and rich narration.
Of course, this was originally published in 1960, so this might just be an example of her very early work, before she hit her stride. Or, she might just have spent more time and attention on her histories, as they are in a more respected genre.
So, the bottom line? I had a lot of fun with this book. It was interesting and engaging, I like the characters, I never had a moment when I was tempted to fling the book into a wall, and only rarely had to yell at the characters because they were being stupid. True the suspense-to-romance ratio was very low, but I think that's just a characteristic of the 'new' Gothic novel. I know I spent a lot of time pointing out flaws of the novel, but only because it was a good read, and so there were things that jumped out at me that would make it better. If I didn't really like it, I'd have less to say other than, "Well, this was crap. Nothing specific to critique because it was all one uniform lump of suck." Fun book, would read again--I'll probably add another few books of hers to my shelf; books I actually have to spend money on.
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