I didn't get into this book, at first. I really wanted to because I'd read such glowing reviews at that point -- I have read less enthusiastic ones since then, but I'd heard only good about it when I picked it up, despite the fact that actually it was a random choice from the collections of abandoned books that are charity shops. I had a good feeling about it, when I picked it up. Anyway, it took me a while to get into -- the beginning, the idea of a Cemetary of Forgotten Books, that was amazing and I wanted more to be done with that. I wasn't so enamoured of the stuff about Clara -- I saw little point in it, even, and I'm still not entirely sure what the point was in terms of the main plot. I mean, a lot of other things come together, but not the Clara thread, really, considering so much time was spent on it.

It did pick up, after a while, and I didn't actually guess everything ahead of time, which is a plus. Some things I figured out juuuust before the text revealed it -- like the surprise siblings -- and was pretty pleased with myself for getting there just before the text did: I like it when a book does that to me. Once I was about one hundred pages into it, I found it more like a book I just couldn't put down.

There are some lovely phrases in it, too. I didn't find such startling beauty in it as other people did, but again, after one hundred pages or so, I started to find them.

I didn't like the way that every so often someone would tell Daniel a story and it would drop into italics, all reported actions, no real dialogue and such -- just summaries. It would have been a weightier book if they were written out properly, as a story-within-the-story, I suppose, but they would probably have been more interesting that way.

I ended up liking it, but I wouldn't say it blew me away.

(Since I didn't mention this above -- it's by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, translated by Lucia Graves.)

It's a bit disappointing that this trilogy goes from a strong start, in the shape of Bridge of Birds, to something that certainly doesn't match up to that. There were parts I liked about Eight Skilled Gentlemen, but I do think the trilogy got weaker with each successive book. Probably a good thing that it stopped being published, or so wikipedia tells me. On the one hand, I've become fond of Number Ten Ox and Li Kao -- on the other, not much new is being done with them. Again, I don't know exactly how, but I guessed who the bad guy would be, just like with The Story of the Stone. It's pretty much, "Who do you like most and want to be a good guy? It's him."

There were some beautiful parts, as in Bridge of Birds, but I felt like a lot of the humour and beauty was confined to that first book. Which is sad.

From seventhe and lassarina.

Reply to this post with the degree you'd award me based on my participation in fandom.

For example:

"Dr. Sev has been awarded a Ph.D in AU Crack, with a concentration in blowjobs."

or

"Sev carries dual Masters degrees in Twincest and Pirating."

I need the entertainment...

I didn't like The Story of the Stone as much as I liked the first book of Barry Hughart's trilogy, Bridge of Birds. It didn't strike me as anything like so amusing, for a start. I also somehow managed to predict the villain of the story, based on the way Bridge of Birds concluded. I was a little sad, because it felt obvious and I liked the character.

The fact that the narrator himself was confused is interesting, but didn't help the story at all. It doesn't make for satisfying reading because you're told at the beginning that this one is kind of incomprehensible.

Still, it was nice to wander round with Number Ten Ox and Li Kao again. There were some lovely parts, although nothing stood out to me as much as the lovely parts of Bridge of Birds. I'm going to read the third book, but the first book stands on its own beautifully.

Bridge of Birds makes a nice change from the standard Western fantasy. Barry Hughart is a Western writer, of course, but he's drawing on non-typical settings and sources -- although, of course, a lot of the stories and lore in this book is made up for the purposes of the story, there are also things I recognise from the little I've read of Monkey (Journey to the West). It's different enough to be refreshing. Some of the stories it includes are lovely -- particularly the one that turns out to be central to the plot. It's quite fun to read: there were quite a few giggles and smiles, from me at least.

Although the story is told in first person, from the point of view of Number Ten Ox, you don't get to know the characters in very much depth. There are some nice touches to the character of Number Ten Ox -- doing things he used to do as a child for comfort, for example -- but mostly the important thing is the quest. The tone of it, too, reduces violent/difficult things down to quite simple, unemotional description, with death being almost casual, which is probably exactly as expected, but still impacted my reading of it. For me, it made it a quick read, but it unfortunately also produced a tendency for me not to remember characters properly and to get a bit confused by them, because I wasn't invested whether they lived or died and how we left them and how they might come to meet up with the main characters again.

The ending is unashamedly lovely, and worth the read almost in itself -- the way everything comes together, and you can see the fairytale that this novel would make. I enjoyed it a lot, and I'll certainly remember it as fun -- the characters will probably not stick in my head, though.

Reread 30th November, 2009.

I've read all the rest of Guy Gavriel Kay's fiction since I read this the first time. It's definitely not my favourite. The writing style doesn't quite seem so smooth and easy -- there's something a bit dictatorial about his writing in places in this book, so that instead of letting us make observations, he's handing them to us pre-packaged and not letting us do so much work. I don't remember that in his other books, but it struck me quite strongly, rereading The Last Light of the Sun. It's funny: I think I like The Last Light of the Sun more than I did the first time I read it, and yet I have more criticisms. For example, I don't think I got to know and love the characters as much as I did in, say, the Fionavar Tapestry, or Tigana. GGK can tug on my heartstrings with the best of them -- probably is the best of them -- and I did feel it, in this book. Alun was a character I found compelling because the Cyngael are so obviously Welsh. I tried to sympathise with him, really wanted to, but so often he was too cold and presumptuous... I wish that Judit had been more of a character; I think she would've been fun. I found her a sympathetic character.

I found that the end wrapped everything up a bit too neatly, too. Alun marries Kendra, Bern goes home and marries the girl bitten by a snake (and to my shame, I can't remember her name, I found her that much of a non-character -- she, too, could have been more compelling), Thorkell dies, Alun gets to free Dai... all of it. I wish there'd been more attention paid to the raggedy-ends -- Thira, Bern's whore, or Hakon, the Erling who loved Kendra, Rhiannon... It feels like all the threads are resolved with a bit of handwaving. I wanted more. But then, I always do, with GGK.

I don't know how I feel about the portrayal of the Welsh (yeah, yeah, Cyngael, but we know what he means) in this book. It certainly doesn't anger me, certainly.

On Sunday, it'll be time to post my kink_bigbang. For right now, I have a bit of a teaser. My artist made a minimix, and so did I, so it's my minimix that I'm providing now -- and, in a couple of days, I'll be able to link to it on this post. This comes complete with teasers from the fic.

The cover art is by auroraprimavera.



( NSFW )

You've made your fic requests of me; now I'm making requests of you! Aka, I just posted my holiday wishlist, including fandom-ish things someone might want to do for me.

Here!

Joanne Harris' first book, The Evil Seed, is quite different to later works like Chocolat. It's still compelling, but it's weighed down a bit more by description. It could have been worse: I liked the way she mixed up the timelines, even if it is quite a normal way of doing it. If she'd revealed all via the diary too soon, there'd have been little point in reading. I didn't really like the way it all ran together at the ending -- it became confusing, even though it was meant to emphasise the cyclical nature of everything.

I liked the idea of the vampires, or Nightwalkers if you like, rising because they're remembered. It puts an interesting new spin on the comforting part of the legend, that vampires can be laid to rest. I liked it: that's more haunting than your average vampire novel, where everything can be put back in its place at the end. I liked that it didn't end with Joe and Alice back together, because that too would have been comforting, the end you kind of come to expect.

It's over written in places, but I still found it compelling and easy to read. Worth a read if you want to see how Joanne Harris does vampires.

I was quite doubtful about Robin McKinley's Chalice, initially. It took a while to really get going, and while it did, there was a lot of skipping around between time periods, which I found a little confusing. I read it on my ereader, which made it a little more difficult to just turn back a few pages and reread stuff to connect up the dots and sort out my confusion, which might have helped -- but at the same time, I should've been able to read the story linearly.

I did enjoy it quite a lot, though, especially when it got to the last half of the book or so. I found the whole concept of the world, as it slowly unfolded -- the demesnes and the Circle and the different roles within the Circle -- intensely interesting, and kind of wish we'd seen more of the other roles, and actually seen the Circle in action. I wish we knew more about the Master, both his role in the Circle and the actual Master that the story follows, what he was like when he was a Fire priest, etc. At the same time, I liked the way we see glimpses of the world while not really knowing the rules, like Mirasol herself. I liked the symbolism of the Chalice, I liked the way she found power and found the ways to make things work again. I liked both Mirasol and the Master, and I also liked the even vaguer figure of the Seneschal.

I don't feel as if the characters were all that fleshed out, other than Mirasol. I almost could've wished the book was twice or three times as long, to show me more of all the things I was interested in. I liked the ending, and I'd been hoping for it all along, but I didn't really want it to end. This book could have got five stars from me, no question, if it had done a bit more somehow. Still, I enjoyed it very much as it is.

I want to write you fic for Christmas! To qualify, you need to be on one of my flists, a regular commenter to my fics, or one of my artists for a Big Bang.

Please give me several options. For example, if you asked me for Final Fantasy VI, Gau/Cyan, I'm sorry, I wouldn't know the first thing about how to go about it. I'm going to try and indicate in the list what will be easiest for me, what level of canon I have, etc. If I can't write you any of the options you offer, heaven forbid, I'll comment back and let you offer more options.

I can't promise anything about the length of the fic. Some people might have epics. Some people might get multiple stories, since I already had things in mind for them.

So, what I'm offering, in order of preference, ish.

-Supernatural. Just about anything here. If you want a particular kink, ask; there are some I won't write because I don't find them even slightly appealing (watersports, etc). Stuff like bondage, knifeplay, gunplay, breathplay, etc, I will write. I will try to do any pairing, but bear in mind I have only seen up to the end of season four. I am most comfortable with Sam/Dean, John/Dean and Dean/Castiel. Dean/Jo, Dean/Cassie, Castiel/Anna, Sam/Jess and Dean/Jess (AU) are also possible. But I just totally imagined how I would make Castiel/Chuck work, so don't feel limited.
-The Dark is Rising. Again, just about anything. I tend not to write kinkfic in this fandom, and I won't write underage smut, but on the other hand I've written knifeplay and crossdressing fic for TDIR, so... Favourite pairings to write: Will/Bran, Bran/Barney, Simon/Will, Stephen/Will.
-Kingdom Hearts I/CoM/II. I haven't finished 358/2, I will not write anything with Xion in it. In fact, I'm not comfortable with the Organisation in general. I can manage Axel and Roxas, and possibly Larxene and Demyx. Otherwise, not really. I mostly write Riku/Sora, Riku/Sora/Kairi, and Axel/Roxas. AUs are my favourite game here.
-Final Fantasy IV, VIII, X/X-2. I don't feel comfortable with any of the others currently, and haven't really been writing in these fandoms... Still, I'm willing to try, and within these fandoms I'm extremely flexible. Ask and ye might receive.
-Merlin. This is problematic since I have a dearth of canon and will only write little snippets of Arthur/Merlin, but if you want plotless Arthur/Merlin, or possibly AU, then ask away.
-Firefly. I will try most things in this fandom, but by habit write Mal/Simon and Simon/River. I've always wanted an excuse to write more Mal/Inara and Simon/Inara.
-Persona 3. I haven't played The Answer and I know basically nothing about the PSP version coming out. I could probably write Mitsuru/Yukari, Akihiko/Mitsuru and Akihiko/Shinjiro. I don't think I can promise anything, but ask and ye might receive...
-Persona 4. I haven't finished playing this, but if you prompt me with something that catches at my imagination...
-...Anything else you know you have in common with me, that I haven't already said I'm not comfortable with, and you think you want me to try. Buuut if I haven't offered it here, I'm not that comfortable with it at all.

Give me as much or as little of a prompt as you wish, but please tell me if you don't want me to go above, say, PG13. I will try very hard to write this stuff for you. I can't make promises, and I might prioritise based on who is closest to me (e.g. feywood will undoubtedly have priority), but I shall tryyy. ♥

Little Women is so preachy in places that it's a wonder I loved it as much as I did, when I was younger. Reading it now, the preaching is more obvious than ever -- though, I still love it. That's part nostalgia, and part Jo. She's my favourite character of them all. Her faults, her temper, is like mine, and she's a writer, and she's by far the most interesting of the girls. Meg is just irritating, to me, and likewise Amy; Beth is sweet, but we keep getting told how sweet and perfect she is, which is somewhat trying. Jo's mistakes are funny and endearing -- salt instead of sugar on berries, indeed -- and she's no saint.

Must confess, I wept a little, reading this again. Even at points which I've never cried at before. There was something about the family feeling and the way the children try so very hard that got to me extremely, this time.

One thing I don't like very much is the relationship between Meg and Brooke. I mean, it doesn't come out of nowhere, but I'm just not that invested in it and so the time spent on it bores me.

I was never that interested in reading the sequels to this. I was content in the picture of the family we get at the end -- the parents reunited, Meg and Brooke together, Beth getting better, etc, etc. So don't plague me with tales of Beth's death!

Read this for my Robin Hood module, as with Ivanhoe. This is the second book which I just couldn't read as anything but an English Literature student; my lit student hat remained firmly jammed upon my head. It pains me to read other people's reviews and thoughts on this, given that they're so wildly inaccurate about it. E.g. someone thinking it was "the" book of Robin Hood (and not knowing about the ballad tradition, or the forerunners to this such as Ivanhoe). Or someone thinking it's written in Old English (see also: my review of Ivanhoe). Seriously, no, guys. It's not even Middle English. It's faux-Middle English in parts, but it isn't even that old a text, for God's sake. Even Shakespeare (late 1500s/early 1600s) was writing in Modern English. This was written in 1883 or so, right? About as Anglo-Saxon as what I'm writing right now!

And then people thinking this is "the" book, the original. Sheesh.

Obviously, a lot of the stories come straight from the surviving ballads -- perhaps all; I haven't read every single Robin Hood ballad. They're expanded upon by Howard Pyle, in that he writes them out as a coherent narrative and with all the same characters recurring, and obviously it's not in verse. It's a pretty sanitised version, given that Robin rarely kills as an outlaw: once when he becomes an outlaw (as opposed to the fifteen he kills in the original ballad, Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham) and once when he kills Guy of Gisborne (and unlike in the ballad, he doesn't cut Guy's face off). It wasn't obvious that it was an adaptation for children, from the language -- it's not exactly difficult, but nor is it easy or exciting. Still, in the time period, perhaps that's not surprising. (I should have some basis of comparison, given my Introduction to Children's Literature course, but I can't bring anything to mind right now.) The sanitisation gave it away rather, in any case.

I did get kind of bored reading it, honestly. Each tale is more or less the same -- they're practically all "Robin meets his match" stories, and at the end the stout yeoman will join the band. The writing isn't intensely exciting, as I mentioned. I did enjoy it, and possibly would have enjoyed it more in small doses. And, of course, it's very episodic so it can easily be read in small chunks.

It's, ah, one of the more 'homosocial' Robin Hood stories I've read, honestly. There are two or three mentions of Marian, at most, and she doesn't come into it as a character at all -- I half-expected a chapter that came from Robin Hood and Maid Marian. And Will Scarlet is so very, very camp. And Little John and Robin are so very very close. It kind of read like a slashfic of Robin Hood, sometimes.

I will confess, the epilogue made me want to cry. Oh, Robin. Incidentally, apparently tales of Robin's death are quite rare, and this is one of the few.

(Note: If anyone wants links to the ballads, or indeed, this book, online, I know where the book can be downloaded legally as an ebook, and where the ballads are collected online.)

This is probably my least favourite of all the Narnia books. I often skipped this, when I was younger, and actually contemplated it this time. The characters are not my favourites, at all -- Tirian and Jewel inspire me with no particular affection, and while I actually find Eustace and Jill less annoying than in The Silver Chair, I don't find them compelling either.

What makes the book worth it, for me, is the end. It's hard, because it's the end of Narnia, but it's also a beautiful end -- the Time giant, the stars falling, squeezing the sun out, and everyone going to Aslan's country. I liked the universalist aspect of what happens to Emeth (although I have problems with the good god/bad god thing with Aslan/Tash -- it's all very binary, which is not what I believe). It's good to see a "nice" Calormene character.

Thinking about it, the writing is also less friendly and more serious than in the other books. It's hard to make a last stand sound like fun and games.

The last two books are definitely not in line for my favourites, when it comes to Narnia. There are various factors -- one of which is simply that I don't like seeing Narnia come to an end! But the main one is that I don't find Jill, Eustace and Puddleglum that compelling as main characters. Or Rillian, for that matter, even though he's Caspian's son. They're quite realistic and human, and lack the nobility that Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy have, I think. Perhaps too realistic. I want to kick Jill a lot of the time for making excuses and not doing what she knows is right. Nobody else is much better. Puddleglum is an interesting idea for a character, but I don't find him that compelling.

It doesn't help that this book is fairly dreary. Snow, stone, cold, giants, underground, sunless seas... there are some beautiful, beautiful sections, like the description of Bism, and little gems about Narnia, like about how serious it is to ask a centaur to stay for the weekend. Overall, though, I find it hard to get into and sympathise with the characters.

I do find myself tearing up, even now, at Caspian's death and renewal.

I think I say that every Narnia book is a runner up for my favourite. Actually, that's how I feel: I love them all so much. Prince Caspian introduces my favourite characters of the series: Caspian and Reepicheep. I can't put my finger on exactly why I love it so much. I guess it has aspects of a kind of "King Arthur returns" story -- only, in Narnia, which I love even more. The Pevensies have to do some camping and adventuring, and things aren't easy, and there are references to Greek mythology (Bacchus) and to things that were vaguely mentioned in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (again, Bacchus, and the fauns dancing, etc).

The writing is, again, warm and intimate, just the right amount of knowing and understanding. Oddly enough, I don't think I would accept this kind of narrator from a more modern writer. It's so intimate, so like C. S. Lewis has sat you down next to him (or if you're a child, on his knee) and started to tell you a story -- perhaps a little condescending, but you can accept it from him, because you accept it. That's how I found it.

Also, I might just never have 'got it', but I can't really see which Biblical story this is an allegory of, if it is at all. Were all the Narnia books allegories?

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is my undisputed favourite, however much I love all the others. It has everything that I love about Narnia in it -- the warm, personal narrator; Caspian; Reepicheep; my favourite Pevensies... There's something about the more episodic structure that appeals, too. There's lots of detail that I find lovely, even just the little detail, like the spell for the refreshment of the soul in the magician's book, and the way Eustace feels like it's peeling a scab off when Aslan peels off his skin, and the sea-people in their sea-kingdom.

I can't put my finger on why Caspian is my favourite character of all the Narnia books. My mental image of him is beautiful, which I suppose helps: there was very good, gorgeous cover art on my original edition, I think. And he's noble, and good. I suppose it also helps that he's human, that sometimes I want to kick him -- it makes him less than too good to be true.

This story is utterly golden in my mind.

The Horse and His Boy isn't one of my favourite books of the series, now. I think when I was younger it might have been one of my favourites -- I think I owned a BBC dramatisation of it, or something like that, which was pretty good and helped my very positive memories of it. Shasta wasn't my favourite protagonist even then, I think, though I did love Aravis and wished we saw more of her.

Looking at it now, The Horse and His Boy feels like a bit of an aside, really. Shasta/Cor, Aravis and the two horses aren't that important, ultimately, to the history of Narnia. The other books all cover pretty important moments -- creation, freedom from oppressive regimes, new rulers, daring rescues... This book hardly has Narnian characters in it, and when it does, they're not absolutely central to the plot. It's more about Archenland and Calormen -- which is nice, in seeing more of the world, but it just doesn't seem to quite fit.

The writing is still beautiful, the narrator still a benevolent omniscient storyteller type. The book makes me want to go to Narnia as much as the others do. If I say I don't love it as much as the others, that doesn't mean I don't love it very much.

But now for Prince Caspian!

I think I liked The Fourth Bear more than I liked The Big Over Easy. I am very used to Jasper Fforde's style, tricks and puns, but this book had some sections I found truly brilliant -- and read at length to my flatmate. This one seems even more meta-fictional than the others: more so than The Big Over Easy, anyway. It's been a while since I read the Thursday Next books.

One thing I felt really sad about was Ashley losing his memory of his date with Mary. I actually really wanted them to get together. Ashley was a really sweet character -- quirky and sometimes used just to get a joke in, sure, but that goes for every character in Jasper Fforde's books so far.

One of the things I don't know how I feel about, with Jasper Fforde's stuff, is that -- certainly with the Nursery Crimes books, anyway -- I can't ever figure out how it's going to end, or how it's going to get there. It's not that fun reading something entirely predictable, sure, but sometimes I wish I had just a bit more of a clue. Mind, everything does tie up in a neat little bow at the end, with stuff from the beginning (or middle) tied back neatly into the main story. It's unpredictable, but maybe somebody paying more attention, or someone a bit quicker, might be able to predict it somewhat. Also, part of it might be getting references -- I wouldn't have understood the Dorian Gray subplot much if I didn't know the story of Dorian Gray.

I've found Jasper Fforde's books generally fun/amusing. I'd read the Thursday Next books; I expected to enjoy Nursery Crimes. There was nothing I'd point to that was wrong with the book, although being familiar with his writing, I wasn't terribly surprised by the tone, form, style, etc, etc. Someone else described it as a "beach read for nerds" -- which sounds just about right to me. It's heavy on puns and references, light on real characterisation. While there has to be a plot, it feels very much like the plot is there to contain the puns and references, not really for its own sake.

It's easy to read and fun; I'm not sure I'll ever reread it. I found Thursday Next more compelling -- it helps that I adore Jane Eyre, and I wasn't used to Fforde's style then.

I love this book so much and I always have. It's a good start to the world of Narnia, and I suggest it rather than The Magician's Nephew, which people tend to think of as the first book. It is, chronologically, but it's not the best place to start. The writing is wonderful -- warm and like a storyteller, and it always makes me feel as if I'm curled up in front of a fire being told a story (even if I'm freezing cold on a train in a really uncomfortable seat). This is one of the most magical books in the series for me, and probably would be my favourite, if I wasn't so awfully fond of Caspian. He was one of my absolute favourite characters when I was younger. But, since he doesn't come into this book, I shall save my raptures about him for the future.

The Biblical aspect of this book is utterly obvious, but I don't think that detracts at all from the beauty, strength and magic of the story. The theme of self-sacrifice is common in literature: it's more obvious here, and yet I still think it can be read just as a story, if you want to ignore the allegory. In fact, I never had any problem doing so. I didn't feel betrayed when I realised Aslan was Jesus, like some other children; I don't think it's there to trick you, only to tell a beautiful story. The story of Jesus is, without any religious conviction necessary, a beautiful one.

The characters -- mainly the four children -- aren't too good to be true, which is nice. Peter can be an ass, Susan isn't the most sympathetic person in the world, Edmund is... Edmund -- even Lucy has her moments of not doing what she should (think about the battle, where she crossly tells Aslan to give her a minute).

The dedication is also a lovely thing about this book. Though I've never grown out of fairy tales, and I hope I never will.

I cannot be critical about this book.