bookpost from June, sheesh
Apr. 17th, 2012 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jinianWhy do I write things and just let them sit around the desktop?
sequels disappointing and otherwise
(Thanks tooctopedingenue for Mistwood and Faerie Winter!)
Oh, Eona. I am so very disappoint. I was looking forward to this enormously, but it centered on the appeal of the "bad boy"/RAPIST and the lure of his dark power. There is an anemic love triangle set up vs. the "good boy" --![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
neile says she saw it as about the power, but I think I am allergic to "girl must choose!" setups and it drove me up the wall. Also the solution to "you're not acting like the person I know, who was not a jerk" is "power changes people into jerks, sorry"? Really?
The Last Little Blue Envelope, Maureen Johnson. More of the same travels around Europe, which were charming, but now with added Bronte-flavored brooding love interest. I'm undecided about there being a sequel at all, as I kind of liked the "shit happens" aspect of the last envelope being stolen with her backpack, but as a sequel this is a decent success. It examines what happens later with your feckless actor non-boyfriend, and I think the protagonist faced up to the situation reasonably well. I just disagree with the "love makes the Brooding Hunx open up" message, as in my experience people who are jerks to you do not reform during the period that you are willing to cope with their assholery, love or no.
(Also wasn't that into the second Scarlett book, unfortunately.)
Faerie Winter is an excellent sequel, just the kind of thing I want to see. Like Bones of Faerie, the narrative has a cool tone, but I still felt involved with the characters. The jeopardy in this one, while directly related to the climax of the first book, is in no way rehashing the same problems. The problem of the winter did feel less immediate for most of the book, but in a way that made the immediate danger more compelling when people began to be directly endangered. Really good stuff.
I think Huntress is a stronger book than Ash, possibly because I like delving into worldbuilding more than I like fairy-tale retellings.
Fury of the Phoenix is a good second part to the story but does NOT stand alone well; I see where the incluing was attempted but it didn't work, even for me having read Silver Phoenix about a year ago, I was confused. Also, there are major problems with the story overall. I cannot excoriate it better than Winterfox did: http://50books-poc.livejournal.com/373367.html.
Nightspell is not Mistwood #2, and I liked it better. The mystery feels more immediately important, and the characters' emotions aren't distant and nonhuman, which feature of Mistwood made it hard to feel connected or intrigued. (It was like that for a reason, but it didn't work well for me.)
sequels disappointing and otherwise
(Thanks to
octopedingenue for Mistwood and Faerie Winter!)Oh, Eona. I am so very disappoint. I was looking forward to this enormously, but it centered on the appeal of the "bad boy"/RAPIST and the lure of his dark power. There is an anemic love triangle set up vs. the "good boy" --
neile says she saw it as about the power, but I think I am allergic to "girl must choose!" setups and it drove me up the wall. Also the solution to "you're not acting like the person I know, who was not a jerk" is "power changes people into jerks, sorry"? Really?The Last Little Blue Envelope, Maureen Johnson. More of the same travels around Europe, which were charming, but now with added Bronte-flavored brooding love interest. I'm undecided about there being a sequel at all, as I kind of liked the "shit happens" aspect of the last envelope being stolen with her backpack, but as a sequel this is a decent success. It examines what happens later with your feckless actor non-boyfriend, and I think the protagonist faced up to the situation reasonably well. I just disagree with the "love makes the Brooding Hunx open up" message, as in my experience people who are jerks to you do not reform during the period that you are willing to cope with their assholery, love or no.
(Also wasn't that into the second Scarlett book, unfortunately.)
Faerie Winter is an excellent sequel, just the kind of thing I want to see. Like Bones of Faerie, the narrative has a cool tone, but I still felt involved with the characters. The jeopardy in this one, while directly related to the climax of the first book, is in no way rehashing the same problems. The problem of the winter did feel less immediate for most of the book, but in a way that made the immediate danger more compelling when people began to be directly endangered. Really good stuff.
I think Huntress is a stronger book than Ash, possibly because I like delving into worldbuilding more than I like fairy-tale retellings.
Fury of the Phoenix is a good second part to the story but does NOT stand alone well; I see where the incluing was attempted but it didn't work, even for me having read Silver Phoenix about a year ago, I was confused. Also, there are major problems with the story overall. I cannot excoriate it better than Winterfox did: http://50books-poc.livejournal.com/373367.html.
Nightspell is not Mistwood #2, and I liked it better. The mystery feels more immediately important, and the characters' emotions aren't distant and nonhuman, which feature of Mistwood made it hard to feel connected or intrigued. (It was like that for a reason, but it didn't work well for me.)
