Sakura of DOOM

As you can probably tell, I am a) trying to catch up on old reviews (not even really old ones! Just from the past few months!), b) reading a lot, and c) trying to keep up with my reading so I don't add to backlog.

Possibly one day I will blog about something that is not books.

No, I lie. I will never stop talking about books! Books! Books books books books!

(This reading thing! With the long plotty books! It is still so awesome!)

Anyway, this is book 2 of one of Carey's typical epic trilogies. I read it about two months ago, so my memory is pretty fuzzy. I was extremely wary about this book despite the first book visiting a China analogue and amazingly NOT making my head explode because of the cover. I mean, at least it's not a red sari, and I really hope it's not supposed to be the heroine on the cover, since the heroine is from the world's equivalent of a Celtic tribe.

( Spoilers for book 1 )

In conclusion: This is very much a middle book of a trilogy where some momentum gets lost. I still love the central romance, but although I didn't end up wanting to chuck the book at something, I also think Carey didn't handle her India analogue as well as she did with the China analogue in book 1.

Moirin is a daughter of the Maghuin Dhonn (the bear magicians from the Imriel books), literally raised in a cave. But she's not fully Maghuin Dhonn either, for her father was D'Angelline, and a priest of Naamah to boot.

Like Carey's Kushiel books, this is a meaty start to what promises to be a meaty trilogy. I suspect you will already know if you will like this or not, given its similarities to Carey's other books. It begins with Moirin's childhood and gradually moves to her introduction to society in Terre d'Ange and then to "foreign" adventures elsewhere, contains the discovery of her true love, lots of sex, and the invocation of the heroes of the Kushiel books.

The main difference is that this takes place six generations after the Imriel books, which I actually found refreshing. (That, and no S&M, which I am a bit sad about.) There's still a little too much referencing of Imriel and Phedre—I would have liked their stories interspersed with other tales, so as to establish that yes, they are heroes and legends, but that they are only a handful of legends among many. Still, there was actually not as much as I had anticipated, given how much page-time Phedre gets in the Imriel books, and that was a pleasant surprise.

The other odd bit for me was the beginning, which is set in Alba. I kept thinking I was reading Juliet Marillier, given the focus on Moirin's possible witch-hood, the talk of the old ways passing, and the general setting. And then Moirin started to have sex, and I was like, "Oh yes! This is indeed Jacqueline Carey!" The strengths in the book are the same as in the Kushiel series, particularly Carey's attitude toward sex, the magical reproductive freedom granted to women in Terre d'Ange, and the way she treats romantic polygons in a way that miraculously does not make me want to throw things. Unlike the Imriel series, this is much less boring, thanks to Moirin not being overshadowed by former protagonists. Also, having Moirin as a newbie to the Terre d'Ange court scene makes things much, much more interesting.

The weaknesses are also the same as the previous Kushiel books, from the way Carey reimagines France but fails to do so for other countries (couldn't you have made Ch'in/China more female-centric instead of having that be the exception and falling into the whole "Asian cultures, they are misogynistic!" thing?). There is a huge emphasis on looks and gorgeously colored eyes and pale skin. And there's the whole "what these people need is a honkey," although it actually bothered me less than other versions of it in previous books. This was particularly surprising to me, given that the "foreign" country in question is Ch'in/China.

The other strange thing is the treatment of time periods. People have just discovered "Terra Nova" (and I dearly hope the next books are not about rescuing Indians or ignoring Indian genocide plsthxbai), so I assume the Europe-equivalent is around the 1400s. However, Ch'in is clearly modeled on Qing Dynasty China (1644-1911), and Alba seems firmly stuck in the medieval ages, if not earlier. I, however, am more irritated about the Ch'in thing, as every single person in the world seems to think that queues = China and I would like to note it is a VERY SPECIFIC DYNASTY! And that it is a Manchu thing!

But. I keep reading Carey—you can see how devoted I am because I even made it through the trilogy in which Imriel is emo—because she does some things very well.

( Minor spoilers (does not spoil ending) )

In conclusion: fairly standard Carey, I liked it better than the start of the Imriel trilogy, and I am still rather amazed I wasn't massively offended by her version of China.

I had thought previously that my remembered fondness for Carey's first three Kushiel books were because I didn't have as much taste when I read them, or other such insulting thoughts, partially based on how meh Kushiel's Scion left me.

Nope, not true. Still love the world, still love the over-the-top epicness of it, still love the strange kindness Carey has for her characters. This book thankfully hits those points, which I feel the first book missed -- there is lots of sex and sexuality and romance, there are larger-than-life conflicts and heroism, and there are lots of moments of grace. Also, amazingly, Carey makes the love triangle central to this book work for me. I suspect it's because all the parties are aware of the love triangle, and while there are some secrets being kept, they're really not very secretive.

Imriel continues to be emo in this book, but it worked better for me because people knew he was emo and called him out on being emo. I also like Dorelei and Sidonie very much (particularly Sidonie), so that made me happy. Also, I find I have a higher tolerance for people going off and deciding that they are In Love and it cannot be stopped when a) the people actually try to stop and b) their religion is based on the tenet that people should love as they will.

The thing that really twinged me about the book was the Yeshuites. In the prior trilogy, the Yeshuites follow Yeshua bin Yosef (aka, Christ), but are very clearly modeled after Jews. It bugged me a little when I read it back then, but probably not as much as it would bug me now. In this trilogy, we find the Yeshuites have adopted the cross as their symbol and are starting to take over things with armies, and wow, it really bugged me that they were modeled on Jews (Name ben Father's Name, speaking Habiru aka Hebrew, religious leaders being called "Rebbe" and etc.).

Anyway, will continue reading because of the brain candy and Sidonie and the acceptance of different kinds of sexuality and open relationships, but yeah. It bugs me.

Orson Scott Card is coming here!! Well, here as in the San Jose Barnes and Noble on the 13th! And I can actually make it and hopefully get my copy of Ender's Game signed and listen to him and meet an author! I am quite excited ^_^. I've never been able to go to one of these signings before as most authors I read don't tour in Taiwan. Or in Princeton it seems. I'm kind of scared to go because I've read some of his essays on his site and an interview with him in Salon, and I feel I'm not sure I actually want to hear what was going on in his mind when he wrote the books because it seems to very much disagree with what I see in them. So I don't want to have that impression in my head forever when reading the books, unlike Neil Gaiman, who seems from his blog to be quite personable and as quirky and as interesting as his writing suggests. But I'm going anyway because I really want a signed book, hee. And I've never gotten to do the fannish thing before.

Loot from Barnes and Noble: Anne Bishop's The House of Gaian, which hopefully will be better than the middle book of the trilogy; Teresa Medeiros' Once an Angel; the last fairy tale anthology edited by Datlow and Windling. Black something Ivory something? I always get the titles confused. Splurged and got it even though it was in trade because I love the anthology series very much.

Drooled over: Robin McKinley's Sunshine, which I very desperately want to read, but will wait patiently until a) the library copy is up for grabs b) the bookstore gets one or c) it comes out in paper. Generally this all happens at the same time, go fig. Also, saw the new Bujold book Paladin of Souls and really really really wanted to get it. The description looked interesting, the cover is quite gorgeous, then there was the added factor of a blurb from DWJ and several friends already talking about Bujold... didn't get it though, am still waiting. I'm pretty stingy with books (at least the non-mass-market ones) because I would be so broke if I weren't. If I don't see it soon in my bookstore with the employee discount, I'm probably going to end up splurging...

I haven't been on LJ lately because I've been buried in Jaqueline Carey's Kushiel's Avatar, which I finally got from the library. ( More here )

And now, onto the beginning of The Crystal City: ( here )

( Alias up to Phase One )