-
NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
[June] What are you reading?
- Thread starter Krug
- Start date
I just finished Earth Logic, by Laurie Marks, and man, was I disappointed.
It’s the sequel to her book from a few years ago, Fire Logic, which I enjoyed massively. I wouldn’t want everything I read to be like it, but it was a breath of fresh air – pistols in a fantasy world, two female protagonists who have a mature romantic relationship, and a message of forgiveness and ending hatred. Good quality stuff.
And now, Earth Logic, which worked so well in some ways and clunked profoundly in others. To be brief, since I don’t imagine that this is a book most people have read or will read:
- It’s cool to see fantasy with people of alternate sexualities. I wish there’d been a few more straight people, or people in straight relationships, featured in the book, but I imagine that gay people reading most fantasy feel the same way most of the time, so I was willing to take it as a walk in someone else’s shoes.
- The first hundred and fifty pages felt like throat clearing, which was bad for two reasons. First, the first book opened really quickly, and to have this one clunk out with the characters essentially saying “Gosh, the situation is complex, we don’t know what to do, let’s angst on it for awhile,” really didn’t gather enough momentum for me. And second, it’d been three years since I read the previous book, and Marks missed a great opportunity to reintroduce me to her characters. I had trouble remembering who was who, and who was sleeping with who, and who had given birth to who, and it didn’t help to have a young girl calling everyone her mother or father in some kind of collective-family spirit. Yes, collective families: wonderful. But remind me who the couples are, first.
- A lengthy political discussion is not ENWorld-viable, but anyone who has read this far will not be surprised to learn that the author is a liberal, and that this book has a strong message of shades-of-gray, forgiveness rather than violent justice, and seeking the more complex solution. That’s all wonderful – it’s good to see some fantasy doing that in general, and as a big ol’ liberal myself, I love the message. But this book struck me as conservative propaganda disguised as liberal propaganda. In this book, the conservatives are the people who actually get things done, while the liberal people read this world’s equivalent of Tarot cards, moon about, try to find inspiration in old poetry, drink tea, confess that they don’t know what to do, read some more Tarot cards, consult old children’s stories in dreams to find a solution, angst about their relationships, and then read a few more Tarot cards just for kicks. Good heavens – I’d vote conservative, too, if those were my options.
- There’s a big character conflict that seemed almost entirely contrived to create some tension. It doesn’t go anywhere or do anything except make the two female protagonists feel sad about not getting to be with each other, which isn’t bad in itself, but it’s built up as this massively important thing that… isn’t.
- The end of the story felt like an enormous cop-out. If you’re going to go with “the solution is to be peaceful, the solution is to look beyond easy answers, the solution is to change people’s minds, not force them into obedience” as your big ethical theme, do you have any idea how much it kills your theme to have your earth-witch heroine manifest massive magical power in the climax to make it impossible for anyone to fight her, so that nobody has any choice except to make peace? It’s like the grand political statement massively derailed and fell into typical-fantasy land, where the big magic prop does all the heavy lifting in the end. And this story, until that point, was the antithesis of big-magical-prop stories.
So there we go. Bummer of a read. I’d been waiting for this one for awhile, and now I’m thinking that the first book, Fire Logic, really was intended as a standalone book, but Marks had to crank out a second book to make the publishers happy. While it still had a good lyrical feel, it was a big disappointment overall.
It’s the sequel to her book from a few years ago, Fire Logic, which I enjoyed massively. I wouldn’t want everything I read to be like it, but it was a breath of fresh air – pistols in a fantasy world, two female protagonists who have a mature romantic relationship, and a message of forgiveness and ending hatred. Good quality stuff.
And now, Earth Logic, which worked so well in some ways and clunked profoundly in others. To be brief, since I don’t imagine that this is a book most people have read or will read:
- It’s cool to see fantasy with people of alternate sexualities. I wish there’d been a few more straight people, or people in straight relationships, featured in the book, but I imagine that gay people reading most fantasy feel the same way most of the time, so I was willing to take it as a walk in someone else’s shoes.
- The first hundred and fifty pages felt like throat clearing, which was bad for two reasons. First, the first book opened really quickly, and to have this one clunk out with the characters essentially saying “Gosh, the situation is complex, we don’t know what to do, let’s angst on it for awhile,” really didn’t gather enough momentum for me. And second, it’d been three years since I read the previous book, and Marks missed a great opportunity to reintroduce me to her characters. I had trouble remembering who was who, and who was sleeping with who, and who had given birth to who, and it didn’t help to have a young girl calling everyone her mother or father in some kind of collective-family spirit. Yes, collective families: wonderful. But remind me who the couples are, first.
- A lengthy political discussion is not ENWorld-viable, but anyone who has read this far will not be surprised to learn that the author is a liberal, and that this book has a strong message of shades-of-gray, forgiveness rather than violent justice, and seeking the more complex solution. That’s all wonderful – it’s good to see some fantasy doing that in general, and as a big ol’ liberal myself, I love the message. But this book struck me as conservative propaganda disguised as liberal propaganda. In this book, the conservatives are the people who actually get things done, while the liberal people read this world’s equivalent of Tarot cards, moon about, try to find inspiration in old poetry, drink tea, confess that they don’t know what to do, read some more Tarot cards, consult old children’s stories in dreams to find a solution, angst about their relationships, and then read a few more Tarot cards just for kicks. Good heavens – I’d vote conservative, too, if those were my options.
- There’s a big character conflict that seemed almost entirely contrived to create some tension. It doesn’t go anywhere or do anything except make the two female protagonists feel sad about not getting to be with each other, which isn’t bad in itself, but it’s built up as this massively important thing that… isn’t.
- The end of the story felt like an enormous cop-out. If you’re going to go with “the solution is to be peaceful, the solution is to look beyond easy answers, the solution is to change people’s minds, not force them into obedience” as your big ethical theme, do you have any idea how much it kills your theme to have your earth-witch heroine manifest massive magical power in the climax to make it impossible for anyone to fight her, so that nobody has any choice except to make peace? It’s like the grand political statement massively derailed and fell into typical-fantasy land, where the big magic prop does all the heavy lifting in the end. And this story, until that point, was the antithesis of big-magical-prop stories.
So there we go. Bummer of a read. I’d been waiting for this one for awhile, and now I’m thinking that the first book, Fire Logic, really was intended as a standalone book, but Marks had to crank out a second book to make the publishers happy. While it still had a good lyrical feel, it was a big disappointment overall.
Hijinks
First Post
All of Eddings's works up to and including the Althalus book (because as far as I know, it was intended to be a series) were excellent, and I re-read them frequently. Unfortunately, I can't get into his latest "Elder Gods" series. I've noticed that Eddings tends to have characters explain to each other what's already happened (and what I've already read), so I get annoyed having to read it over and over again.
Example: Character A is being introduced in the book for the first time. Character B is introducing Char A to Char's C and D. Char A and B have a conversation about Char C; Char B explains to Char A what Char C has done this far in the book. Then Char E enters the plot for the first time. Char B then explains the same past actions to Char E. It just gets old. I don't remember that going on in his older books, to this extreme; I think he's trying to fill space
Currently I'm reading the Three Mousketeers series, thanks to the Dumas thread here
Inspired me!That will get interrupted by Half-blood Prince and, in September, my favorite author's latest novel is supposed to come out, Diana Gabaldon's A Breath of Fire and Ashes. Soooo excited!! *bounces happily*
Amazon.com says that Half-blood Prince isn't supposed to come out until July??
Cthulhu's Librarian
First Post
Besides game books for the ENnies, I'm now reading:
Star Wars Revenge of the Sith novilization
Candyfreak by Steve Almond
Star Wars Revenge of the Sith novilization
Candyfreak by Steve Almond
Angel Tarragon
Dawn Dragon
Caddyshack: The novelization of the movie. 
Steel_Wind
Legend
Re-reading Song of Ice and Fire in anticipation of Feast for Crows. Currently near the start of Clash of Kings.
Similar Threads
