Alexander, Lloyd - Westmark Trilogy

[oyceter]

(consists of Westmark, The Kestrel, and The Beggar Queen)

I think I may have read The Kestrel a very long time ago in middle school, but I don't really remember a thing about it.

I'm just going to start out by saying the obvious: this is very good. Go read.

I started out being completely not impressed -- while Westmark is in no way a bad book, Alexander's simple style and the fairly typical young adult plot (boy loses old life, finds new life with revolutionaries, meets girl who has a Higher Destiny, etc.) didn't particularly make me see why everyone was reccing the trilogy left and right. The second book is when things really started to pick up, when Alexander begins to go more in depth into the various political issues he briefly glosses over in the first book. And the second and third books are very much political books, books about war and peace and peacemaking, which doesn't seem to be a very common topic in fantasy or young adult books.

The books themselves are written in a very dry tone of voice -- I never got overly emotionally involved with the characters, which was probably good, given the subject matter. But the author still manages to make certain scenes touching and others very funny, all while keeping a bit of narrative distance.

What I liked the most was how Alexander never tried to offer me any easy answers. An idealistic revolutionary could also be the country's worst enemy, even if the ideology he spouted was of the good. And even those starting with the best intentions in running the country would be sidetracked by grey areas. Alexander ends the trilogy on the right note too (imho), and the path he decides to take isn't one that I think many authors would. But I'm glad he did, and I'm very glad I ended up reading these.

Also, it doesn't hurt that Mickle was cool ;).

Links:
- rilina's reviews of Westmark, The Kestrel, and The Beggar Queen

Comments

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Westmark is also complicated by the different narrative strands. If it was just Theo's story, it would be so much less memorable. But you also have Dr. Torrens, the water rats, and Keller. And best of all, you have good people who disagree with each other.

I also love how the consequences of violence linger. You see, especially in opening chapters of The Beggar Queen, how Theo and company are still paying the piper for the choices they made for good and ill at Nierkeeping.