Wells, Martha - The Element of Fire

[oyceter]

The country of Ile-Rien is largely run by Dowager Queen Ravenna, as her son Roland hasn't been particularly good at the whole exercise of power thing. Thomas, captain of the Queen's guard, soon finds himself (more) entangled in court politics after the rescue of an imprisoned wizard, and when Roland's half-Fayre half sister Kade shows up, things get even more complicated.

I wanted to like this more than I did, particularly since it has court intrigue, which I love, and a dowager queen, which I also love. Ravenna is awesome, but I found myself somewhat bored by Kade, who feels like a fairly standard heroine. She's introduced as this great threat to the throne and as a trickster, but what we see of her tends to be some verbal trickery and very little surprise. She feels a lot like a McKinley heroine, albeit with less insecurity about her looks.

I'm also sick of the Fayre/Fay/Faerie/Fairy/Sidhe/Seelie/etc. I didn't feel like there was much new about them in the book, and that plus the faux Europe environment really didn't do it for me. I don't think it's the book's fault, but after reading books specifically not set in Europe, a return to faux Europe felt like a step backwards. Also, the intrigue stops near the middle of the book, and a lot of explosions start happening, which I find much less interesting.

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I bounce off Wells myself, but if you like her prose but not her setting, City of Bones is sort-of Middle Eastern and Wheel of the Infinite appears to be sort-of India.

[oyceter]

I tried City of Bones a really long time ago, and bounced off pretty hard, as in, I couldn't even figure out the plot or any character motivations. I am somewhat sad, as people keep reccing Wells as fantasy of manners, but there wasn't enough for me.

It all comes together in the end

[bellatrys.livejournal.com]

Actually, before the end it starts coming together, the way an avalanche does, but it all gets explained and wrapped up pretty well by the end. You have to treat it more like a John Le Carre novel, a picaresque story of a picturesque Big Ancient City which turns out to be seething with byzantine politics on multiple levels - the aristocrats and their power fights, the quasi-religious-warrior-order and their internal and external battles for control, the organized and disorganized crime groups and their struggles for power verging on struggles for survival, ordinary workers' struggles for survival, anti-mutant and anti-foreigner prejudice also resulting in very literal struggles for survival, and over it all the Ancient Historical Puzzle which turns out not to just be about cool chic-y retro fascination with the Storied Past (or even serious scholarly geeky fascination with the Storied Past) but the key to world survival or destruction - and the clues are all there from the beginning, once you get to the end, ouroboran...

Needless to say, this is pretty much crackfic for me - SF/Fantasy/Swashbuckling/Archeologist/Political Thriller - but I don't see that it would necessarily be your, or everyone's, cup of tea.
{I am trying to avoid spoilers, but if you want a VERY spoilery explanation of what was going on in City of Bones I can do that, too! I would so like to see a graphic novel of it, personally - would like to do one, but I don't think I can manage it.)

I liked "Necromancer" and "Element of Fire" because I like Baroque-set and Victorian-era Parisian novels like Les Miserables and The Three Musketeers, but most attempts at doing those settings in Fantasy versions tend to be very blah and disappointing, and the characters lacking, and Rien feels real and the people the sort of characters I can care about, and the ongoing tension between public perceptions and underlying realities always gets me hooked in a story.

[chomiji]

The follow-on books to this (Death of the Necromancer and the "Fall of Ile Rien" troilogy) are better. But they are Euro-centric.

Also, she's written a very wonderful un-European fantasy, The Wheel of the Infinite, which really doesn't get enough love. The main character is a crabby, temperamental but romantically active older priestess, and the setting vaguely resembles pre-industrial Indo-China - perhaps Cambodia. An excerpt is available at Wells' site.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

". The main character is a crabby, temperamental but romantically active older priestess,"

With excellent taste in hunky younger men(even if he was way out of his league.)

[chomiji]

tsk! You never told me you'd read this one! I wanna see the results of my successful recs! (And yes, in the same vein, I owe you a blog entry for Twelve Kingdoms ...)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I included it in that poll about all the books I read!

I think that I liked it(well, I know that part) but had trouble thinking of what to say, and then I was in a bad mood for a while and then...forgot to post on it. *hangs head*

[oyceter]

I may try that one, though I've bounced off another one of her books in the past as well.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

This one very much felt like the first book it was, IMO, and I always try to wave as many painful first-book issues as I can in a first book, but it had a lot. It also catered a lot to my pulpy swashbuckling needs in the second half, so I didn't mind the explosions.

[oyceter]

*nods* Heh, I think I was in it more for the court intrigue than the swashbuckling.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I love both, so I was good all around, for the most part.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I'm also sick of the Fayre/Fay/Faerie/Fairy/Sidhe/Seelie/etc.

Oh, me too. That was one of my biggest 'but why?' moments when reading Death of the Necromancer, which I mostly quite enjoyed -- it wasn't just that the f(a)(e)(r)(y|ie) are a bit tiresome by now, they felt sort of unnecessary. Like fantasy setpieces rather than a part of the worldbuilding.

Admittedly, in Death, they played quite a minor role (which probably didn't help the impression).

[chomiji]

I'm wondering whether Wells eventually felt the same - they seem to have disappeared from that world by the time "Fall of Ile Rien" takes place.

[oyceter]

Yeah... and there was the whole mention of the Fayre deal with Hell, and it was entirely too lifted from everything else about the Fae. I was all, "What hell? What religious system do you have? A literal hell of damnation? What what?"

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Element of Fire is one of my comfort reads, and has been for some years now - probably because I'm not sick of the Little People element and I really enjoy a good swashbuckling. I prefer it to the also-excellent Death of the Necromancer, partly because I'm very fond of Kade (hadn't noticed the McKinley-esque comparison, but that works for me) and I love the Dowager Queen with a mighty and abiding love. Wheel of the Infinite is also a ton of fun, and I enjoy City of Bones although I remember being unhappy with the ending.

Actually, Wells is one of those authors I really like a lot but who doesn't seem to get much attention - Kage Baker is another.

[oyceter]

The Dowager Queen is made of awesome.

Sadly, I bounced pretty hard off Baker too, so possibly it's a style thing...

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I am a big Wells fan--I read her for character, so the setting doesn't matter much to me. I get similar things from her books that I got from Barbara Hambly's fantasy. I just wish I could identify what those things were.

[oyceter]

*nods* I dunno... I've bounced off Hambly as well (with the exception of Dragonbane), so maybe it is the similar elements? Not that I can identify them either!

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I get a feeling close to favorite fanfic from their characters, and am just swept along. It is puzzling. If I knew what it was, I would bottle it.

[(Anonymous)]

You know, when I first skimmed over this post, I read the first paragraph plus "court intrigue" and threw it on my to-add-to-TBR list. I've never heard of Wells, so I'm excited at even the possibility of another fantasy of manners source.

[oyceter]

Go for it! I think I just bounced off it, but it sounds like many other people like it for the fantasy of manners.