Dean, Pamela - The Secret Country Trilogy
Tue, Aug. 10th, 2004 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterI really liked these, and felt they were a very good addition to the kids-from-our-world-discover-a-fantasy-world genre. I can't actually remember when The Secret Country breaks off and The Hidden Land begins, but the author notes in the back say that they were originally one book, so I guess that makes sense. It probably also makes the pacing of the two books more understandable as well.
I dearly loved the beginning of The Secret Country, probably because those kids were me. Granted, I could not quote Shakespeare at the drop of a hat -- in fact, I hadn't read much of anything remotely classic or educated, but my sister and my cousin and I used to get together every summer up till middle school, and those summers would be spent in our various game worlds. We had a whole variety of games, as opposed to the one linear story of the Carrolls, but oh, those brought back memories.
I got a bit more stuck in the middle, when the Carrolls managed to find their way into the Hidden Land and felt the action sort of stopped dead as they all worked out the ramifications of being in the Hidden Land, how time would work in their world and the Hidden Land, what they could bring over, etc. etc. And while it was incredibly nice to have people actually thing about this sort of thing for a while, it did drag a little. Also, like Yoon said, I had a very hard time keeping the cousins straight at first, with the exception of Patrick, who was very much unlike the others. It helped much when later on more and more points of view were added into the mix. The story really kicks off when Fence the magician returns to court, and Ted most of all is trying to avoid the turn in the plot that their original played out story of the Secret Country takes.
And everything just made so much sense -- all those stock fantasy elements which would have made me sort of sniff made sense because the Carrolls had imagined the Secret Country, or tapped into it somehow.
Spoilers start here:
Of course, it turns out that the Carrolls didn't make up the Hidden Land, and that it is instead influenced by the artists and poets and writers of our world (which is an even cooler concept, and oh, I drool and long to visit). And knowing that makes everything make even more sense, why everyone quotes Shakespeare and other writers. I'm not sure if it's ever explained, but now I wonder if the existence of dragons and unicorns, the ultimate fantasy cliches, along with the medieval-esque setting are a sort of bombardment of influence of other people continually imagining that kind of fantasy.
Have I mentioned just how cool I thought the final concept was?
It just makes so much sense!
And while I started out sympathizing with Laura and her clumsiness, I ended up adoring Ruth, mostly because of the completely practical way she managed to fall in love. Keep in mind that I was the teenager who thought the entire concept of Romeo and Juliet was stupid. So I was greatly pleased with remarks like, "I can't get married! I have to go to college! I haven't even finished high school yet" (paraphrased) and the turnips for brains thing. I also kept attempting to calculate the age difference between Ruth and Randolph, but I forgot Randolph's age and was too lazy to flip back through.
My qualms most involve the ending, but then, I'm not sure if I've ever read an ending of the normal-people-find-fantasy-world story that has completely satisfied me. The worst possible ending for me is that the normal people return to their own world and forget the fantasy world, or think it was just a dream, or something like that. ARGH. Then there is the exile from the fantasy world, which is so painful to read, given my own longing for my own fantasy world. Then there is the possiblity that everyone simply continues to live in the fantasy world, which also doesn't quite work for me, given that I am attached to such things as indoor plumbing and ethnic food and off-the-rack clothing. And TV. And books. And, of course, the internet. Then there is the scenario in which some people stay and some people leave, which has so far been the one that I am most comfortable with, although I still have qualms.
Secret Country fell into the last category, and while I was happy that Ted and Laura got to bring their parents along, I was just torn by the fact that Ruth was away from her family and (the big one) that they would never see each other again, in essence. Ouch. I don't know if I could do that, just up and leave my family and know that I would never see my parents again.
As a sort of digression, the book that worked best for me in this regard was the Fionavar Tapestry, and I think a large part of that was that Kay never emphasized the five's normal lives, outside of Paul's angst and some of Dave's. But he managed to write it in a way that I never quite felt that the five of them really belonged in our world, and in the end, there was a good reason for one to return, and the other remained connected to Fionavar. Also, there wasn't that traumatizing closing of the gates between our world and Fionavar.
End of spoilers...
I also loved how the books were so concerned with the idea of being an author, of the problems of creating a story and having it come to life. There's this one point in the book when Laura, I think, sees a minor character and knows that if she had had her way back while playing the Secret Country game, he would have been killed in battle, and the realization of the power they all had as storytellers was sobering. The trilogy is very much a set of books about story and imagination, and I loved them because of that. Well, and because by the end, I had fallen for the characters and the world as well, as in all good books.
I dearly loved the beginning of The Secret Country, probably because those kids were me. Granted, I could not quote Shakespeare at the drop of a hat -- in fact, I hadn't read much of anything remotely classic or educated, but my sister and my cousin and I used to get together every summer up till middle school, and those summers would be spent in our various game worlds. We had a whole variety of games, as opposed to the one linear story of the Carrolls, but oh, those brought back memories.
I got a bit more stuck in the middle, when the Carrolls managed to find their way into the Hidden Land and felt the action sort of stopped dead as they all worked out the ramifications of being in the Hidden Land, how time would work in their world and the Hidden Land, what they could bring over, etc. etc. And while it was incredibly nice to have people actually thing about this sort of thing for a while, it did drag a little. Also, like Yoon said, I had a very hard time keeping the cousins straight at first, with the exception of Patrick, who was very much unlike the others. It helped much when later on more and more points of view were added into the mix. The story really kicks off when Fence the magician returns to court, and Ted most of all is trying to avoid the turn in the plot that their original played out story of the Secret Country takes.
And everything just made so much sense -- all those stock fantasy elements which would have made me sort of sniff made sense because the Carrolls had imagined the Secret Country, or tapped into it somehow.
Spoilers start here:
Of course, it turns out that the Carrolls didn't make up the Hidden Land, and that it is instead influenced by the artists and poets and writers of our world (which is an even cooler concept, and oh, I drool and long to visit). And knowing that makes everything make even more sense, why everyone quotes Shakespeare and other writers. I'm not sure if it's ever explained, but now I wonder if the existence of dragons and unicorns, the ultimate fantasy cliches, along with the medieval-esque setting are a sort of bombardment of influence of other people continually imagining that kind of fantasy.
Have I mentioned just how cool I thought the final concept was?
It just makes so much sense!
And while I started out sympathizing with Laura and her clumsiness, I ended up adoring Ruth, mostly because of the completely practical way she managed to fall in love. Keep in mind that I was the teenager who thought the entire concept of Romeo and Juliet was stupid. So I was greatly pleased with remarks like, "I can't get married! I have to go to college! I haven't even finished high school yet" (paraphrased) and the turnips for brains thing. I also kept attempting to calculate the age difference between Ruth and Randolph, but I forgot Randolph's age and was too lazy to flip back through.
My qualms most involve the ending, but then, I'm not sure if I've ever read an ending of the normal-people-find-fantasy-world story that has completely satisfied me. The worst possible ending for me is that the normal people return to their own world and forget the fantasy world, or think it was just a dream, or something like that. ARGH. Then there is the exile from the fantasy world, which is so painful to read, given my own longing for my own fantasy world. Then there is the possiblity that everyone simply continues to live in the fantasy world, which also doesn't quite work for me, given that I am attached to such things as indoor plumbing and ethnic food and off-the-rack clothing. And TV. And books. And, of course, the internet. Then there is the scenario in which some people stay and some people leave, which has so far been the one that I am most comfortable with, although I still have qualms.
Secret Country fell into the last category, and while I was happy that Ted and Laura got to bring their parents along, I was just torn by the fact that Ruth was away from her family and (the big one) that they would never see each other again, in essence. Ouch. I don't know if I could do that, just up and leave my family and know that I would never see my parents again.
As a sort of digression, the book that worked best for me in this regard was the Fionavar Tapestry, and I think a large part of that was that Kay never emphasized the five's normal lives, outside of Paul's angst and some of Dave's. But he managed to write it in a way that I never quite felt that the five of them really belonged in our world, and in the end, there was a good reason for one to return, and the other remained connected to Fionavar. Also, there wasn't that traumatizing closing of the gates between our world and Fionavar.
End of spoilers...
I also loved how the books were so concerned with the idea of being an author, of the problems of creating a story and having it come to life. There's this one point in the book when Laura, I think, sees a minor character and knows that if she had had her way back while playing the Secret Country game, he would have been killed in battle, and the realization of the power they all had as storytellers was sobering. The trilogy is very much a set of books about story and imagination, and I loved them because of that. Well, and because by the end, I had fallen for the characters and the world as well, as in all good books.
(no subject)
Wed, Aug. 11th, 2004 05:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Aug. 11th, 2004 11:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Aug. 11th, 2004 11:49 am (UTC)Thanks for the report!
(no subject)
Wed, Aug. 11th, 2004 11:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Aug. 11th, 2004 03:41 pm (UTC)However, I think most of the audience for fantasy novels is used to the idea that people don't really do that-- that there's telephone calls and letters and email and maybe even trips back and forth. So when a modern character moves to a fantasy world, we tend to feel like either the author is being escapist or else that the character will never be really happy, unless it's been previously set up that he or she had no strong ties in the modern world.
This may also depend on whether the fantasy land is in any way better than the modern one, or if it's merely different; and how difficult travel is between them.
Hmm. I sense the beginnings of an essay here, which would unfortunately have to spoil the endings of everything from Fionavar to The Dark Is Rising to The Secret Country to the Crossroads trilogy to the Darwath t/r/i/q/u/a/quintology.
(no subject)
Wed, Aug. 11th, 2004 07:21 pm (UTC)Of course, it was also the end of the book and no one probably wants to sit through listening to the characters think about what they're giving up ;).
Oooo, hey, if you ever write that essay, I'd love to see it!