I love The Blue Sword, much more than The Hero and the Crown. I admire the latter, but Blue Sword has my heart.
I also love The Outlaws of Sherwood and her retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, Spindle's End.
If you take sexual advantage of her, you're going to burn in a very special level of hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater.
Book ,'Our Mrs. Reynolds'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Dana - Mar 15, 2009 5:49:37 pm PDT #8585 of 28431
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
Beverly - Mar 15, 2009 6:22:17 pm PDT #8586 of 28431
Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.
Oh, I'd forgotten Outlaws--yes, that one's lovely. Spindle's End is a sentimental favorite of mine, too.
Check your profile addy, Dana.
Dana - Mar 15, 2009 6:29:54 pm PDT #8587 of 28431
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
t checks
t sees nothing from Beverly
t weeps
Beverly - Mar 15, 2009 6:39:39 pm PDT #8588 of 28431
Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.
(Sorry, minor distraction. Should be there now)
Nothing to see here. Move along.
Dana - Mar 15, 2009 6:41:44 pm PDT #8589 of 28431
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
There it is!
Consuela - Mar 16, 2009 8:45:14 pm PDT #8590 of 28431
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix
I love McKinley's early work so much, which is why Dragonhaven was such a disappointment. Unless things change radically, I won't be buying any more of her novels. ::sigh::
§ ita § - Mar 16, 2009 9:17:00 pm PDT #8591 of 28431
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Can you go into more details about Dragonhaven, 'Suela? What was so wrong with it? It sounds like you think it was the start of a trend, as opposed to an exception.
Fay - Mar 17, 2009 2:12:25 am PDT #8592 of 28431
"Fuck Western ideologically-motivated gender identification!" Sulu gasped, and came.
I didn't hate Dragonhaven. I thought it was fine, and fairly likeable, but it was no Blue Sword.
Kate P. - Mar 17, 2009 3:35:18 am PDT #8593 of 28431
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love
Not Suela, but I also really disliked Dragonhaven, and I've loved what I've read of her earlier books. My biggest problem with Dragonhaven was that the protagonist-narrator's voice was incredibly obnoxious and nearly incoherent. He seemed to be halfway to creating his own new slang, or grammar, such that I could barely understand some of the sentences themselves. And I couldn't really figure out why it had to be that way; his way of speaking didn't seem to be germane to the plot or setting or even an interesting facet of his character. I mean, I'm down with innovative uses of language to illuminate something about the story or the characters or the world they inhabit, but that didn't seem to be the case here. It was just... hard to understand, and made the story draaaaaaaag.
I haven't read her latest, Chalice, so I can't speak to whether or not it's a return to form.
Connie Neil - Mar 17, 2009 10:43:06 am PDT #8594 of 28431
brillig
I'm near the end of The Moonstone, and I'm in the pleasurable delight of seeing an excellent writer at work. The very different characters of the individual narrators, the way the mannerisms and feelings of the other characters are illustrated by the observations of the individual narrators, the sly, sarcastic humor that sidles in--this book has been a joy. The butler's stalwart passive-agressiveness at dealing with instructions he finds abhorrent but which have been given to him by his mistress is wonderful.
I feel sorry for Miss Clack, but her speeches about the duty of a Christian going about the Good Work should be printed out and handed around for insights into whackamole Evangelicals.