Banner of the Damned, Sherwood Smith
Apr. 18th, 2012 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jinianThis is a marvelous epic fantasy with diverse orientations, relationships, cultures, and ethnicities. The shortness of my review in no way reflects upon the excellence of the book. Thanks again for the recommendation, rachelmanija!
Sherwood Smith wields a fierce pen of merciless sympathy, and this time she has turned it on: useless court appendages. We saw some of her respect for courtly manners in Crown Duel, of course, but after all the riding and sailing and fighting since then one might have forgotten that the peace-loving Colendi, who strive for elegance and right conduct, are smart and valid despite what other characters we've loved have thought of them. Here we see them from the inside, and they make perfect emotional sense.
Of course I was crazy about this, it's a book about someone who is a researcher, a reader, and a massive geek. And she dissected the oft-invoked but never before explained Waste Spell! The reason I basically forced it on my mom the minute I got the chance, though, is that it's also a highly effective suspense novel. I realized long before Emras did that something was really wrong, and I honestly didn't know how most of it was going to turn out. This made for extremely compelling reading. It's definitely my favorite book so far this year.
I was most struck by the way this seduction by evil pokes a reader right in her own particular weakness. See how easily and thoroughly Emras gets entangled in experiencing other people's lives? By the way, what is it you're doing right now? For how many pages? And you stayed up late to read it? (After a while, I was rooting for Emras to go down the hall and talk to people, which is a very odd position for a withdrawn introvert to be in.)
rachelmanija!Sherwood Smith wields a fierce pen of merciless sympathy, and this time she has turned it on: useless court appendages. We saw some of her respect for courtly manners in Crown Duel, of course, but after all the riding and sailing and fighting since then one might have forgotten that the peace-loving Colendi, who strive for elegance and right conduct, are smart and valid despite what other characters we've loved have thought of them. Here we see them from the inside, and they make perfect emotional sense.
Of course I was crazy about this, it's a book about someone who is a researcher, a reader, and a massive geek. And she dissected the oft-invoked but never before explained Waste Spell! The reason I basically forced it on my mom the minute I got the chance, though, is that it's also a highly effective suspense novel. I realized long before Emras did that something was really wrong, and I honestly didn't know how most of it was going to turn out. This made for extremely compelling reading. It's definitely my favorite book so far this year.
I was most struck by the way this seduction by evil pokes a reader right in her own particular weakness. See how easily and thoroughly Emras gets entangled in experiencing other people's lives? By the way, what is it you're doing right now? For how many pages? And you stayed up late to read it? (After a while, I was rooting for Emras to go down the hall and talk to people, which is a very odd position for a withdrawn introvert to be in.)
no subject
Date: 2012-05-05 09:08 pm (UTC)