Bishop, Anne - Dreams Made Flesh

[oyceter]

This is a compilation of four short stories (actually, three short stories and a novella) that take place in the world of Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy. I suspect it won't be interesting to anyone who isn't already familiar with the world.

I wouldn't recommend this series to anyone who didn't like the trilogy, and it's not even essential for those who did, but as I have a strange liking for the world, I actually enjoyed it despite multiple spork-worthy points. For anyone interested, these are the same spork-worthy points that are there in the entire trilogy, if you want to use that as some sort of litmus test.

Spoilers for the Black Jewels trilogy

The stories consist of a short introductory story about the Weaver of Dreams, a novella on Lucivar and Marian's romance, a story on Saetan's past, and a sort of epilogue to the series on Jaenelle's recovery and Twilight's Dawn.

I have to admit, I was happy to get an explanation of Twilight's Dawn and a continuation of the Jaenelle/Daemon romance, but I still think that the trilogy ended at the correct place. The Saetan story was all right, and I had fun with the Lucivar and Marian romance, despite the many stupid yenta and anti-yenta moments.

And now, I feel I must explain why I still like this trilogy, despite its many (MANY) flaws, as I have just confessed to not liking Bujold prior to this and everyone probably thinks I am insane.

Probably for a very good reason...

None of Bishop's other books have worked for me, and by "didn't work for me," I mean that I guffawed at inappropriate moments, nearly chucked the books against a wall, and/or rolled my eyes at every other sentence.

The latest one I attempted, Sebastian, had me rolling around on the floor laughing because a piece of territory many of the incubi and succubi lived in was called the "Den of Iniquity."

Unironically.

Also, one restaurant in the Den of Iniquity served Penile Delights (penis-shaped breadsticks, probably with a side of creamy white sauce, no I swear I am not making this up!). The hero, an incubus who longs for love, manages to find a woman who only wants to be loved. As she is innocent and frightened and an orphan whom even the gypsies abandon to a cruel family who treats her like Cinderella, he calls her "rabbit" as a nickname, which I happen to find distinctly unsexy.

And then he takes her to aforementioned restaurant and has the owner cut the penis-shaped breadsticks into pieces so as to not frighten his poor, delicate rabbit's sensibilities. And then, while aforementioned innocent and frightened woman is eating the dismembered penis-shaped breadsticks, Sebastian (aforementioned incubus hero) grows increasingly aroused by the shape of her mouth around breadsticks (dismembered), and this may just be where I nearly fell off the bed because I was laughing so much.

Sadly, I suspect this was not because Sebastian had some sort of odd, masochistic dismemberment kink.

The final touch was aforementioned innocent and frightened woman dressing up in a catsuit and realizing her own sexual power (as signalled by a strut and actually meeting people's eyes, as all moments of taking control over your sexual power are). Sebastian, now confused by his animal metaphors, decides that she is like a tiger. Except when she is like a rabbit. Or maybe she is.... a rabbit-tiger!

I SWEAR I am not making this up!

The thing is, the Black Jewels trilogy is just as cracktastic as this, if not more so, but the crack for Black Jewels actually works for me. I suspect this is because in the Black Jewels trilogy, Bishop has written directly from her id, and everything is so over the top and insane and cracktastic that it works its own strange magic on me. I mean... there are gender issues like no other and characters who are either Good or Bad as exemplified by sexual perversions or the lack thereof and unicorns and magical cock rings and Capital Letters and Colored Jewels and the Mary Sue to end all Mary Sues and not just one, but THREE, devilish sexy alpha bastards and the most abused people ever (who also happen to be the most powerful people ever). And yet.

It works for me.

I don't think it is good. I don't even think it is Yuki-Kaori-cracktastically good. But I cannot help loving the insanity. I mean: her Mary Sue character (Jaenelle) is literally a Mary Sue! As in, she is dreamed into being by generations of dreamers who want her to be the bestest and strongest and most powerful. So she is. And not only is she the strongest bestest most powerful person ever, she is so strong and best and powerful that she has an entire new category of powerfulness created just for her! (the Ebon jewel, for anyone wondering) And she isn't just a poor widdle thing, like all Mary Sues are. No, no! She is so misunderstood that she is shuttled off for mental treatment in a place where pedophiles abuse and rape children!

And the society is the codification of all romance novel tropes if said tropes were biological imperatives -- the men are biologically compelled to serve and protect the women, and the Warlord Princes are biologically compelled to be alpha bastards with periods of rut and uncontrollable killing rages only to be harnassed by the women they love.

The women are biologically compelled to be the leaders of society and Virgin Night is not just psychologically frightening and fraught, as it is in romance novels. No, no. In this trilogy, a bad sexual experience on Virgin Night can actually break a woman's witchy power!

And you know how romance novels have that tradition of comparing romance novel heroes to Satan or the devil? In this one, the three main male characters are named Saetan, Lucivar and Daemon. Yes! And there is a race of people with wings (Lucivar has wings)! Like... wingfic! This is wingfic, except, not fic! And Saetan and Daemon and Lucivar are all so evil and so wicked and so uncontrollable that they don't just go off with sarcastic remarks, they get pissed off and leave bloodbaths in their wake.

It's just.. I can't get over how the entire trilogy is romance novels rules made into worldbuilding and how insane it is. I suspect Bishop's other series don't work because she only unleashes parts of her id; really, if you're going to have Penile Delights as a snack in your world, you may as well go all the way and go waaaaay over the top.

Links:
- tigerbalmv's review of Sebastian (spoilery)

Comments

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

>I suspect this is because in the Black Jewels trilogy, Bishop has written directly from her id, and everything is so over the top and insane and cracktastic that it works its own strange magic on me.

Oh, yes. I only read the trilogy, I think, and not even that in ages (though now I'm wondering if they're still on my shelves at home, where I'll be next month), but I was prepping a comment to say pretty much the above while you were writing about Penile Delights. The books are just _so_ absurd and _so_ serious about it that I kinda have to respect them. Kinda.

[oyceter]

I know! See, I wish Sebastian had sort of worked, but I think it just didn't feel insane enough, despite the Penile Delights and all.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I am going to Book Mooch right now to get me some Anne Bishop.

[oyceter]

Or you can borrow mine! I've got the Black Jewels trilogy and the stand-alone set in that world, though I sold my TirAlainn trilogy and never bought the Ephemera duology (the one Sebastian belongs to).

I must warn you though, the prose is pretty bad. And.. well, all of the caveats that I said above.

[kate_nepveu]

My theory is that they're like early Mercedes Lackey books.

(And I still kinda like the literalness of the Mary-Sue dom.)

[oyceter]

I love the literalness of the Mary-Sue-dom! And the fact that the three heroes are Lucivar, Saetan and Daemon. Because... really.

I think they are totally like the early Mercedes Lackey books, except for the graphic sex and magic cock rings and the fact that all the main characters we're supposed to like graphically kill people who anger them. Wish-fulfillment for the goth crowd!

[kate_nepveu]

My recollection is that there's about as much detail in the sex as in early Lackey, it's just nastier so seems more graphic. But I will refrain from doing a side-by-side comparison just now.

Lackey does save the graphic killing for later books. =>

[oyceter]

Y'know, I think you're probably right about the graphicness. I just remember it more vividly because of the magical cock rings and etc.

Wow, I didn't realize Lackey did graphic killing later on!

[kate_nepveu]

Well, okay, I think the most graphic is getting pounded into a pulp by a not-horse's hooves. Which is a bit more than dagger-shot to the heart, at least, but the most graphic stuff still does get saved for the protagonists.

[oyceter]

I find it so interesting how the graphic stuff is saved for the protagonists! Especially because both Lackey and Bishop do the thing in which sexual perversion signifies villainy (though I think Lackey backs off it a bit later? I'm mostly thinking of the cat-guy villain in the Elspeth books), but it's totally ok and justified if your protagonists splatter people's guts over a room because they were pissed off.

[kate_nepveu]

I don't think Lackey ever says what her non-villains are doing in bed besides a general soft-focus emotional description, so that does leave the field open to the villains by default.

But what I meant for Lackey is that the graphic violence usually gets saved _to happen to_ the protagonists. =>

[oyceter]

Ah oops, my bad!

[msagara.livejournal.com]

Ummm. I liked these three books (I liked the second one best). I sell them as comfort books when I rec them.

I don't analyze comfort books in general; I have a bunch of them. (Exception would be, say, Pratchett, who I will analyze because there is weight in the work that bears it). Actually, more on that: I think some books have weight, bear examination -- even demand it. By its nature -- to me -- as a comfort read, this type of book doesn't.

Almost all of the manga I read, I read in the same way; I understand that, held up to a magnifying glass, the books or stories or characters don't bear scrutiny -- but the nature of what I want out of them doesn't demand scrutiny; possibly its opposite.

But I would agree with everything you've said above.

[oyceter]

I think I like the first and third the best because I am secretly a Jaenelle/Daemon shipper deep down inside (he waits 1000 years to find her! OMG!), but I adore Jaenelle's relationship with her entire family, along with the formation of the coven and the boyos.

I think I'd also have to reread these to see if they're comfort books or not; I suspect there's too much gender stuff that I find problematic to make them a good comfort read for me (but everyone's comfort reads are different).

And I've found that I actually sort of enjoy figuring out why some things work for me and some don't; I have much of the same reaction to manga as you (the comfort read part), but I sort of like seeing what buttons they're pushing and how. This is probably because rachelmanija posted something about cool bits before, and I like seeing how they work to see if I can do that in my stuff.

Well, unless it's Yuki Kaori. Then I just sort of boggle at her audacity.

But yes. I think I need to reread these soon!

[kate_nepveu]

I like the second one the best too, because it has the silly fun stuff of her friends.

I think my mother is of the opinion that my principal character flaw is over-analyzing things. And I certainly wouldn't suggest you scrutinize things if that destroys your enjoyment of them. I just happen to find that when things are comfort reads because they go straight to the id, like these, I can acknowledge the over-the-top nature of the button-pushing and still have my buttons pushed when I go back.

[oyceter]

I cling to my Gothic shipper heart! Though structurally, I think the first is the best; the second and third read like she had written the first one over years and the latter in a rush when she signed the contract.

Still, I love the coven and the boyos and poor Saetan being overrun by girls. And Lucivar being all big-brother-y.

I have found that reading manga has greatly increased my ability to acknowledge over-the-top insanity while still enjoying the heck out of it.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

I think my mother is of the opinion that my principal character flaw is over-analyzing things.

LOL! This is often said of me.

I didn't mean, btw, to take a swipe at anyone who does analyze things; I would be on very shaky ground if I did so. (this also to oyceter.)

I find that I can acknowledge things post-read, but if I'm analyzing as I'm reading, it means I'm trying to figure out what doesn't work for me. So if books by the same author didn't work for me, I'll know why well before I'm finished. If I'm too aware of the button pushing on that first read, it means that I'm not on some level engaged with the text. I'm unfortunately very single-minded.

But conversely, if it does work for me, I don't tend to analyze books that I respond to on a purely emotional level; whereas I will analyze books that I respond to emotionally -and- intellectually. I generally do not finish books that don't emotionally engage me. But then again, when a friend and I were watching Buffy, my response to the end of one of the episodes was a squeal of delight at the structural consistency and (for Buffy) subtlety of the episode, and hers was more, ummm, earthy. I feel structure >.>.

[oyceter]

I didn't mean, btw, to take a swipe at anyone who does analyze things; I would be on very shaky ground if I did so.

Oh no, I didn't read you as saying that at all! I just find it fascinating to see how different people treat their comfort reading and what counts as comfort reading and what doesn't.

I've found that I analyze as I read more and more, probably because I'm thinking about what I'm going to post about it ;). It's funny how blogging books has changed my reading habits!

[kate_nepveu]

I don't usually consciously analyze when I read: it's diving in and then, when I surface, that level of thinking re-emerges. It's rare that I don't get all the way under. (Movies & audiobooks, being slower, get the dual-track reaction: "Mmm, Daniel Craig is nice to look at | What, what's going on with the plot?")

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Also, one restaurant in the Den of Iniquity served Penile Delights (penis-shaped breadsticks, probably with a side of creamy white sauce, no I swear I am not making this up!).
This is the point in your post where I started laughing hysterically.

[oyceter]

OMG. I know! Me too! I wouldn't rec Anne Bishop to you; I think the Gothic cracktasticness of it would just make you roll your eyes.

But I am glad you now share the mental image of Penile Delight breadsticks with me ;).

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

It's all true, and that's why we love it even as we feel slightly wrong doing so.

On the subject of slightly (or not so) wrong, I think I'll have to check out this Sebastian thing of hers. (On the subject of romance novel clichés… nice name. *rolls eyes*)

[oyceter]

HEE! I know! Oh oh oh! The best thing is, the second book is called Belladonna, which I am trying to get ILLed despite the Den of Iniquity and dismembered breadsticks just because it's about a cold, icy, powerful heroine who sekretly long for looooove.

[hysteriachan.livejournal.com]

I really do enjoy the Black Jewels books (and therefore liked Dreams Made Flesh reasonably well), but... yeah. ^^ I like your interpretation very much. (Have you read The Invisible Ring? It didn't work as well for me, but it built on my established fondness for the world.)

I tried reading her second trilogy, and I think I *might* have read the second one--but I honestly can't remember, since my only remaining impression is of how unspeakably DULL the series was. Everything about it. o_o

[oyceter]

I have indeed read The Invisible Ring! It was ok, but I cheered when Daemon showed up and the foreshadowing (backshadowing?) of the end of Queen.

The second trilogy really bored me, and Sebastian quite clearly didn't work. I think part of it is because it isn't as crazy! I mean, if you are going to have incubi and witches and whatnot, may as well go all the way!

[hysteriachan.livejournal.com]

I have Sebastian on order from the library (I'd heard it wasn't as good as the Black Jewels set but much better than the second trilogy), and now I'm wondering if I should cancel it or read it anyway for sporking purposes. Ah, decisions...

[oyceter]

Hey, if you end up finishing it, let me know what happens! I am curious, but not curious enough to wade through the thing.

[hysteriachan.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I'll try. ^^ (My book blogging, as you can undoubtedly tell from the radio silence on that journal, continues to be abysmal.)

[littlebutfierce]

I love the trilogy too--so bad & ridiculous it's good! & also, I read them as comfort books too, as someone else mentioned. I do find the v. v. essentialist gender stuff to be wearing after a while... but one of the things I find comforting about the books is that they're about really fucked-up people who are trying to find ways to love each other (not just romantically, but Daemon & Saetan, etc.) & they keep messing it up b/c they're screwed-up people, but they keep fumbling & trying to do it. Which, oh, ha ha, how many people could NOT identify w/that? I'd like to meet one, someday. ;)

[oyceter]

Yes to the gender stuff! I managed to be ok with it this time around by saying it was romance tropes turned into biological imperatives, but sometimes it goes a little too far. Ditto with the misunderstandings and misinterpretations of actions.

[redrose3125.livejournal.com]

I like the fact that it's not just about the primary male-female lover relationships, there's all the parent-child and sibling and friend stuff in there too.

It really is feel good fiction, to me.

[tatterpunk.livejournal.com]

I SWEAR I am not making this up!

Why is it I am vastly more entertained by your summup than by actually reading the novel? (It was one of those books I found myself skimming 90% of the time. I honestly just couldn't concentrate on it.)

I suspect this is because in the Black Jewels trilogy, Bishop has written directly from her id, and everything is so over the top and insane and cracktastic that it works its own strange magic on me.

Ditto. And you just perfectly phrased why some gloriously cheesy books are also some of my absolute favorites. (Can an author go too far into the id? I'm wondering how I can apply this theory to Laurell K Hamilton, is all...)

And heeeeee for your reiteration of the trilogy's finest points. I read them as they were published, which put me in middle school through early high school, so a lot of the, um, ironies flew over my head, but... hee!

Although I have to say that I'm a little amazed at how Jaenelle's status of One Sue To Rule Them All doesn't ruin the books. I think it's because we never see inside her head, and we only relate to her through the other, flawed and personable (to differing degrees) characters; in this way she works more like a constantly-evolving plot device than a character. (i.e. I cared more about how her troubles would affect Daemon than how they would change Jaenelle's story.) It begins to fall apart in the second and third books, though, when she becomes more involved in the main narrative. And I thought the weakest parts of Dreams Made Flesh were her appearances.

[oyceter]

I read the books in high school, and most of the ironies flew over my head too!

I'm still sad about how boring Sebastian was; I feel books starring incubi should be chock-full of id-y goodness. And yet...

[oursin.livejournal.com]

For the sort of thing Sebastian sets out to be, dull is just not the way to go - I have just about given up on it, yawning like mad.

On recent reread of the Black Jewels trilogy I found it had faded considerably, something I also found with Storm Constantine's Wraeththu trilogy. Perhaps id monsters are one-shot only?

[oyceter]

Sebastian really is boring, isn't it? And it shouldn't be!

I am wondering if the BJ trilogy will fade for me or not; I had expected to want to throw Dreams Made Flesh against a wall, but apparently I'm not done with the world yet.

[helen-keeble.livejournal.com]

*runs to Amazon to order these*

(and I wait in morbid anticipation to see what Amazon suggests as "you might also enjoy..." after this, given that I've also bought every single one of Laurell K Hamilton's Merry Sue Gentry series)

[oyceter]

Bwahahahah! I do have warn you that the prose and most of the other things aren't good! And there are horrible gender portrayals, as well as condemnations of "non-normal" sexuality!

But I'm very curious to see what you'll think.

[tigerbalmv.livejournal.com]

Hello. I was telling friends about my review of 'Sebastian' over dinner last night, and one of them pointed me here. I think your analysis of Anne Bishop is excellent and funny probably better than mine. However, here's a link for those who are interested. (http://tigerbalmv.livejournal.com/15714.html)

[oyceter]

Oh, awesome, thanks!

(also, am totally chuffed that an entry of mine was mentioned at the dinner table! so cool!)

[nojojojo.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you, thank you. I've been trying to articulate for years why Anne Bishop's Black Jewels novel are simultaneously one of the worst things I've ever read, and also disturbingly compelling. I've read the books multiple times. I've occasionally thrown them across the room, usually laughing hysterically... but then I've gone and collected them to resume reading. How does she do this?!

Had the same reaction to Sebastian, though. I couldn't even finish it, and don't plan to touch the followups with a ten-foot pole. It wasn't white sauce, with the Penile Delights, BTW -- it was cheese. Hopefully white, because yellow cheese would suggest smegma or infection, and that's a whoooooole other kind of disturbing.

Strangely, though, I didn't have the same reaction to her Pillars/witches novels. They were actually okay -- decently written, minimal stupid. But less compelling, too.

[oyceter]

I know! It's so insane and sometimes so awful (esp. on the gender stuff). And yet! And yet!

It wasn't white sauce, with the Penile Delights, BTW -- it was cheese. Hopefully white, because yellow cheese would suggest smegma or infection, and that's a whoooooole other kind of disturbing.

HEEEEE! Oh, that is so very disturbing.

I didn't hate her Pillars books, but I thought they were sort of boring... true, they didn't have insane Penile Delights or Dens of Iniquity, but I think they sort of missed the insanity boat.

Psst, apparently there will be more Black Jewels books!

[sioned.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I needed that laugh.

Found my way here through one of the Carnival of SciFi Feminists....

Like another commenter, I consider the Black Jewels books "comfort reads" - but then, I also have two whole shelves full of Lackey books next to the bed that I dig into when I get sick.

Thought it worth commenting that I read and re-read the Black Jewels books *multiple* times over the last few years where I worked a really carppy and stressful job and frequently dreamed of being able to commit that kind of graphic violence to my managers. Would that be taking the Mary Sue in reverse, to take how she's already been written and THEN dream about it?

[oyceter]

Would that be taking the Mary Sue in reverse, to take how she's already been written and THEN dream about it?

Hee! I suspect that's a very successful Mary Sue, then.

[ki-caelum.livejournal.com]

Thanks for such a hilarious review. I was linked here as I've just read Tangled Webs, the latest (and awesomely awful) installment of the Black Jewels trilogy. I think you put into words all the things that are dreadful and yet somehow work in the original trilogy.

I had heard Sebastian was bad. I did not know about the Den of Iniquity, or the Penile Delights. I...there are no words.

Only, apparently, dismembered bread penises.