Avielle of Rhia, Dia Calhoun

[jinian]

This is Calhoun's second "message" book in a row, and definitely the more successful. I like The Phoenix Dance with its retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses as an allegory for bipolar disorder, but the heroine's simultaneous medical approach to her own mood issues didn't mesh well with it. Avielle of Rhia is about how to live with the threat of terrorism. I didn't feel it overstated that message, though it was very clearly intentional.

What I liked about the story was the thing I like best about Calhoun -- her emotionally realistic approach to the main characters. She didn't take the easy way out with Avielle's older brother, who torments her because of racial prejudice but also because he's jealous of her relationship with their youngest brother; he's not a good person, but his motivations are in there and understandable. Later, there's a Cast of Colorful Characters to get the princess out of her isolation, and they're not very complex, but I was enjoying meeting them anyway.

This book and The Phoenix Dance are both about crafters. Avielle is a weaver, and her relationship with her mentor and her work are central to her finding strength in herself. The Colorful Characters are also primarily artisans of one sort and another, so there is lots of loving description of thoroughly envisioned items. Calhoun clearly cares about craftsmanship and beauty, and I am happy to read about it.

I had some problems with the ending. Avielle has a sudden realization that her idea to appease the bad guys is flawed in that the slaves they're asking for are real people, like people she knows. I found it a little heavy-handed to have some many of the people she actually does know become part of the tribute; that may have been necessary for the "OMG I surrender and turn evil" plot twist, but in my opinion that plot twist was crap. Avielle has been working toward being loving and open to her magical talents throughout the book, and suddenly her old fear that she's inherited evil comes back strongly enough for her to decide to join the bad guys? There had to be another way for her new friends to support her. But I still got all sniffly in public about it.

Definitely worth reading, though not up to White Midnight quality.

Comments

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

I like The Phoenix Dance with its retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses as an allegory for bipolar disorder

Huh. Is this is one you were mentioning to me a while back? The only version of TWELVE DANCING PRINCESSES I know of is Jeanette Winterson's, in (I think) SEXING THE CHERRY. I remember liking it well enough to photocopy some of the segments and sending them to people they reminded me of. :)

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I told you about this one. I have the book, so if you want to look at it you're welcome to. Shoudl I read the Winterson?

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd like to read it. I will look and see if I still have SEXING THE CHERRY, which in general I didn't like but that bit you might. If you wanted to read her and haven't, I'd suggest starting with THE PASSION and maybe ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT. I kind of stopped following her after the one about Julian Barnes' wife (she never says the gender of the other perosn but it's this long obsessive relatiosnhip, much much too familiar for me to enjoy it). Lots of people like her other stuff though. THE PASSION is the most 'speculative' in the kind of way that I think you might enjoy (and not find too pretentious). SEXING THE CHERRY I just plain didn't get, like, I didn't understand what was going on or what the point was, as if I was on drugs when I was reading it but I wasn't.

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

Okay, I finally got it from the library and read it, so now I can actually read your post and comment. :)

I did enjoy it and thought it was better than The Phoenix Dance, but I thought the message was a little heavy-handed. I didn't find it too jarring until Avielle started reading about how Dredonia had been taken over by religious "foundationalists" (I think was the term?), which I thought was pretty unsubtle.

And WTF ending? I didn't mind some of her friends becoming part of the tribute, but suddenly with no warning she gives in and decides to become evil and is then easily talked out of it?

I did like her relationship with her family: her older tormenting brother, her younger loving one (sadness!), and her mother ordering the cherry blossom tiara for her.