Warning: Girly Books Ahead
Dec. 4th, 2007 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blodeueddAfter yesterday's rambling review, I thought I'd try a frothy double feature, both bathroom reads (i.e. you can read a page or two at a time and you don't have to concentrate too hard):
Winds of Fate (Mercedes Lackey):
From the moment I first realised that books could be categorised into genres, I've always picked fantasy as my preferred type of reading. For several different reasons, I bypassed, or was completely unaware of, many authors that other girls my age were into (at least, that's what the internet has lead me to believe), most notably Anne McCaffrey, David Eddings and Mercedes Lackey. First off, the only person I really shared books with was M-P*, so I read whatever she got for Christmas or her birthday; secondly, I never really bought many books for myself, so was limited by what the library had to offer, most of the time; lastly, I naturally gravitated toward the more "serious" writers, such as Guy Gavriel Kay and Tad Williams (excepting my Dragonlance phase and Terry Pratchett, who should always be excepted).
It was with a wry smile on my lips that I cracked open this tome, the first volume of the The Mage Winds trilogy. I mean, it's hard to take seriously a book featuring a pink and purple horse on the cover! I never went through that horse phase that girls apparently go through (or is that an American thing? or was I half a generation too late? I can't think of any girl my age I know who was crazy about horses), so even if I were 12 -- probably when I would have gotten into this thing with maximum enthusiasm -- that wouldn't have been much of a point in its favour. As it was, I wasn't expecting much, and the story was more or less predictable. Headstrong, not-too-pretty, intelligent heroine; love-struck friend tagging along; magical animals and weapons; malicious enemy bent on MAKING THEM SUFFER!; impossibly sexy (or at least described as such) human-feline hybrids; all present and accounted for.
And then, and THEN! Like a bolt of lightning from the clear blue sky, I was suddenly confronted with a villain using sexual pleasure and pain in order to control his victims, complete with descriptions of the "atrocious pain lanced through her, but she could only writhe on the floor before him, craving HIS touch" variety. OH MY GOD! So THAT'S where all those fanfiction writers were coming from! And here I'd always assumed they'd been reading too much Anne Rice. Though she's probably at least partly to blame. As far as kinks go, magical control just isn't my thing, and I'd wondered about the prevalence of this type of scenario in the various anime fandoms I followed. So that's been cleared up, at least.
If I had access to books 2 and 3, I suppose I might read them, but I don't. I have book 2 of The Last Herald Mage trilogy sitting in my bookcase, though; should I bother? Briefly looking Mercedes Lackey up on the internet, I found the general consensus that the Winds trilogy was not her best and that The Last Herald Mage is much better, but it seems the main character spends books 2 and 3 angsting about his dead lover, killed in book 1, and I'd rather read about his lover alive than dead. At any rate, it's under 300 pages, I think, so I may as well.
* Yes, M-P read Anne McCaffrey, but for some reason I was never tempted. Perhaps because every time I'd ask M-P about how the book was progressing, I'd get an answer like: "Killashandra** and her boyfriend are having sex in the bushes," or, "The girl is bonding with her dragon while it's having sex," or, "They're having sex. Again." Sense a pattern, here? It wasn't reading about sex that I objected to, it's that I wanted a fantasy story, not a romance novel disguised as fantasy. It just seemed too... girly. To be fair, I did give McCaffrey a chance, when I was sixteen or so, but gave up halfway through the book, after wading through a hundred pages of the previously strong, cool heroine devolving into a helpless twit, lying around all hot and bothered while her boyfriend with the silly and unpronounceable name (F'flar? F'lhar?) ran around doing stuff. Oh yeah, and their dragons had sex.
* Yes, I remember the name of the damn book; it's been a joke between us ever since.
Final verdict: 6.5
Final verdict if I were 12 and hadn't read any fanfiction: 7.5
Shopaholic Takes Manhattan (Sophie Kinsella):
Before I get into what I thought about this, I'd just like to say that my father read this before I did, while he was visiting, after having polished off some Guy Gavriel Kay. He picked this one up because for some reason, Mercedes Lackey and her magical horses didn't appeal to him. Can't imagine why! His comment? "This isn't a very serious book, is it."
I read the first book, Confessions of a Shopaholic, a couple of years ago, and had to put it down halfway through because I really wanted to smack Becky Bloomwood upside the head. I picked it up again a few days later, when I was in a better mood, and finished it quickly, lest the urge return. I understand that it's meant to be a funny little diversion, so it's partly my fault for treating it as something more, but the fact is that the problems Becky has are all of her own making, and it seems there's always someone else around to help her out. On top of that, I still can't really figure out what Luke sees in her, apart from the fact that she's attractive, silly, well-dressed, and presumably good in bed. Shopaholic Takes Manhattan delves deeper into their relationship and again, there doesn't seem to be too much there, except that she distracts Luke from always thinking about work. Apart from that, expect the usual hilarity (!) of Becky trying to justify buying all sorts of things, then regretting it and wailing about how she'll never get out of debt.
Perhaps because I was only reading it a few pages at a time, this book sat better with me than the previous one. At least Becky finally begins to take responsibility for her actions, but I can't really think of what else to say, except to compare it to my other (rather limited) experiences with "chicklit".
Final Verdict: on the chicklit scale, 6.5, compared to The Devil Wears Prada (4) and Bridget Jones's Diary (9).
Winds of Fate (Mercedes Lackey):
From the moment I first realised that books could be categorised into genres, I've always picked fantasy as my preferred type of reading. For several different reasons, I bypassed, or was completely unaware of, many authors that other girls my age were into (at least, that's what the internet has lead me to believe), most notably Anne McCaffrey, David Eddings and Mercedes Lackey. First off, the only person I really shared books with was M-P*, so I read whatever she got for Christmas or her birthday; secondly, I never really bought many books for myself, so was limited by what the library had to offer, most of the time; lastly, I naturally gravitated toward the more "serious" writers, such as Guy Gavriel Kay and Tad Williams (excepting my Dragonlance phase and Terry Pratchett, who should always be excepted).
It was with a wry smile on my lips that I cracked open this tome, the first volume of the The Mage Winds trilogy. I mean, it's hard to take seriously a book featuring a pink and purple horse on the cover! I never went through that horse phase that girls apparently go through (or is that an American thing? or was I half a generation too late? I can't think of any girl my age I know who was crazy about horses), so even if I were 12 -- probably when I would have gotten into this thing with maximum enthusiasm -- that wouldn't have been much of a point in its favour. As it was, I wasn't expecting much, and the story was more or less predictable. Headstrong, not-too-pretty, intelligent heroine; love-struck friend tagging along; magical animals and weapons; malicious enemy bent on MAKING THEM SUFFER!; impossibly sexy (or at least described as such) human-feline hybrids; all present and accounted for.
And then, and THEN! Like a bolt of lightning from the clear blue sky, I was suddenly confronted with a villain using sexual pleasure and pain in order to control his victims, complete with descriptions of the "atrocious pain lanced through her, but she could only writhe on the floor before him, craving HIS touch" variety. OH MY GOD! So THAT'S where all those fanfiction writers were coming from! And here I'd always assumed they'd been reading too much Anne Rice. Though she's probably at least partly to blame. As far as kinks go, magical control just isn't my thing, and I'd wondered about the prevalence of this type of scenario in the various anime fandoms I followed. So that's been cleared up, at least.
If I had access to books 2 and 3, I suppose I might read them, but I don't. I have book 2 of The Last Herald Mage trilogy sitting in my bookcase, though; should I bother? Briefly looking Mercedes Lackey up on the internet, I found the general consensus that the Winds trilogy was not her best and that The Last Herald Mage is much better, but it seems the main character spends books 2 and 3 angsting about his dead lover, killed in book 1, and I'd rather read about his lover alive than dead. At any rate, it's under 300 pages, I think, so I may as well.
* Yes, M-P read Anne McCaffrey, but for some reason I was never tempted. Perhaps because every time I'd ask M-P about how the book was progressing, I'd get an answer like: "Killashandra** and her boyfriend are having sex in the bushes," or, "The girl is bonding with her dragon while it's having sex," or, "They're having sex. Again." Sense a pattern, here? It wasn't reading about sex that I objected to, it's that I wanted a fantasy story, not a romance novel disguised as fantasy. It just seemed too... girly. To be fair, I did give McCaffrey a chance, when I was sixteen or so, but gave up halfway through the book, after wading through a hundred pages of the previously strong, cool heroine devolving into a helpless twit, lying around all hot and bothered while her boyfriend with the silly and unpronounceable name (F'flar? F'lhar?) ran around doing stuff. Oh yeah, and their dragons had sex.
* Yes, I remember the name of the damn book; it's been a joke between us ever since.
Final verdict: 6.5
Final verdict if I were 12 and hadn't read any fanfiction: 7.5
Shopaholic Takes Manhattan (Sophie Kinsella):
Before I get into what I thought about this, I'd just like to say that my father read this before I did, while he was visiting, after having polished off some Guy Gavriel Kay. He picked this one up because for some reason, Mercedes Lackey and her magical horses didn't appeal to him. Can't imagine why! His comment? "This isn't a very serious book, is it."
I read the first book, Confessions of a Shopaholic, a couple of years ago, and had to put it down halfway through because I really wanted to smack Becky Bloomwood upside the head. I picked it up again a few days later, when I was in a better mood, and finished it quickly, lest the urge return. I understand that it's meant to be a funny little diversion, so it's partly my fault for treating it as something more, but the fact is that the problems Becky has are all of her own making, and it seems there's always someone else around to help her out. On top of that, I still can't really figure out what Luke sees in her, apart from the fact that she's attractive, silly, well-dressed, and presumably good in bed. Shopaholic Takes Manhattan delves deeper into their relationship and again, there doesn't seem to be too much there, except that she distracts Luke from always thinking about work. Apart from that, expect the usual hilarity (!) of Becky trying to justify buying all sorts of things, then regretting it and wailing about how she'll never get out of debt.
Perhaps because I was only reading it a few pages at a time, this book sat better with me than the previous one. At least Becky finally begins to take responsibility for her actions, but I can't really think of what else to say, except to compare it to my other (rather limited) experiences with "chicklit".
Final Verdict: on the chicklit scale, 6.5, compared to The Devil Wears Prada (4) and Bridget Jones's Diary (9).
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Date: 2007-12-15 04:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-15 04:59 am (UTC)