Seraphina, Rachel Hartman
Jul. 28th, 2012 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jinianAt approximately 3:30 today I learned of the existence of this book. I dropped everything and went to the bookstore, where I found the book prominently displayed in the kids' section -- I love my bookstore -- and recommended the author to the cashier. Then I went to the Ballard Library, where SPL's copy of Amy Unbounded: Belondweg Blossoming lives, and checked that out so I could read it after. (They have eight copies of Seraphina and sixty people on the waiting list. Not acceptable.)
When I got home, Wim had come back from his bike ride. I came to him and displayed this book, and I talked in ALL CAPS for at least a paragraph about how great Rachel Hartman is and how I found out there was this novel and went to get it immediately and I loved it very much.
If possible, I now love it even more having finished. (I was going to say I had done nothing else but read since getting home; this is not strictly true as I tried to read it and put away the dishes at the same time, which works not well.) Hartman hasn't been making comics for some years, but Amy Unbounded was one of the absolute best comics ever. And I have tried to pay attention to the stuff Hartman has done since, but kind of bounced off the related Girlamatic comic, and oh well, I guess there was never going to be more.
But there IS, and there's going to be MORE after, and it's TEXT, and you need to read it.
Seraphina lives a life of secrets and pushing back against her father. We start with her birth, which is creepy, why is she being called "it" by the people around her, and then bibliomancy gives her a heretic patron saint. Then we skip to the beginning of her career as assistant palace composer, and she'd promised to stay out of sight, but the music she's in charge of will ruin the royal funeral unless she plays it herself.
It takes a long time to find out the extent of everyone's secrets, and we get there by way of murder and courtly intrigue: the royal funeral is for a prince with a mysteriously missing head who was found in a forest, and the dragons' general is coming to town to affirm the human-dragon treaty that he signed with the queen, three human generations ago. There are authentically scary stalkers and militants, but it's not a transparent political allegory or anything. The best part is, we get to everyone-loves-everyone, including the dragons, who seem naturally to be some kind of emotionless, possibly crystalline-brained creatures, but when they transform themselves to interact with humans all bets are off. I can also recommend Seraphina's mental garden construct, which is not exactly a memory palace but rather serves to manage the intrusive visions she has of mysterious people, which cause seizures when they happen unexpectedly.
I have one quibble, which is that she has a phobia that I think was unrealistically easy to overcome. And I would personally have examined the decapitated guy's neck wound, which I think would've partially solved the mystery a bit sooner.
Reading this directly after Crown Duel as I did, I think I can say with confidence that if you like that you'll enjoy Seraphina too. Please go read it! I want the publisher happy so I can get the sequel as soon as possible.
When I got home, Wim had come back from his bike ride. I came to him and displayed this book, and I talked in ALL CAPS for at least a paragraph about how great Rachel Hartman is and how I found out there was this novel and went to get it immediately and I loved it very much.
If possible, I now love it even more having finished. (I was going to say I had done nothing else but read since getting home; this is not strictly true as I tried to read it and put away the dishes at the same time, which works not well.) Hartman hasn't been making comics for some years, but Amy Unbounded was one of the absolute best comics ever. And I have tried to pay attention to the stuff Hartman has done since, but kind of bounced off the related Girlamatic comic, and oh well, I guess there was never going to be more.
But there IS, and there's going to be MORE after, and it's TEXT, and you need to read it.
Seraphina lives a life of secrets and pushing back against her father. We start with her birth, which is creepy, why is she being called "it" by the people around her, and then bibliomancy gives her a heretic patron saint. Then we skip to the beginning of her career as assistant palace composer, and she'd promised to stay out of sight, but the music she's in charge of will ruin the royal funeral unless she plays it herself.
It takes a long time to find out the extent of everyone's secrets, and we get there by way of murder and courtly intrigue: the royal funeral is for a prince with a mysteriously missing head who was found in a forest, and the dragons' general is coming to town to affirm the human-dragon treaty that he signed with the queen, three human generations ago. There are authentically scary stalkers and militants, but it's not a transparent political allegory or anything. The best part is, we get to everyone-loves-everyone, including the dragons, who seem naturally to be some kind of emotionless, possibly crystalline-brained creatures, but when they transform themselves to interact with humans all bets are off. I can also recommend Seraphina's mental garden construct, which is not exactly a memory palace but rather serves to manage the intrusive visions she has of mysterious people, which cause seizures when they happen unexpectedly.
I have one quibble, which is that she has a phobia that I think was unrealistically easy to overcome. And I would personally have examined the decapitated guy's neck wound, which I think would've partially solved the mystery a bit sooner.
Reading this directly after Crown Duel as I did, I think I can say with confidence that if you like that you'll enjoy Seraphina too. Please go read it! I want the publisher happy so I can get the sequel as soon as possible.
