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Books
What I'm reading these days:
Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years by Elizabeth Wayland Barber - I can't thank![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
klostes enough for recommending this to me, because it's *wonderful*. Traces the history of weaving from the first knotted strings in the Paleolithic through the intervening millennia, with a light, entertaining writing style that's nevertheless filled with detail and information. Despite the title and subject matter (dealing with gender roles through history) it avoids being overtly political, focusing instead on the daily lives of the women who spent much of their waking time weaving cloth for their families.
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik -xparrot pushed this series at me with a "You'll love it!", and I did love it ... well, considering that I'm only one book into the series at this point. It's very heavily, and obviously, influenced by Patrick O'Brian's naval-warfare novels -- basically, this is the Napoleonic Wars with dragons. More interesting than the battles for me were the details of how dragonback cavalry in the British and French service have been integrated into the existing historical background. And I loved the mental image of dragons as warships or bombers, with gun crews on their backs. The characters are wonderful.
There were a couple of things I didn't like about the book, one of which was the ending (well, a certain aspect of the ending). This is just a personal thing of mine, but I really dislike "Chosen One" type stories (i.e. where the hero turns out to be cooler than everybody else for some special reason) and I equally dislike (or, more accurately, I'm just really sick of) "The battle is lost! Wait! OMFG secret special ability saves the day!" endings ... and this book did BOTH to me. Aaaargh! Does Temeraire really HAVE to be the coolest dragon in the British fleet? The fact that he was a Chinese dragon was special and cool enough for me, and I actually *liked* that he wasn't the Coolest Dragon In All Existence ... up until the last chapter of the book MADE HIM THAT WAY.
*sigh*
Good book regardless, but still, aaargh!
The other thing that bugged about the book wasn't a problem with the author; it's more of a moral problem with the world itself, and that's the way that dragons are treated. Actually, I *like* that the author has done it this way because it's far, far more believable, given the historical context, that they would be treated as, basically, glorified beasts of burden rather than actual people. (Particularly considering that, at this point in time, the qualification of "people" was basically reserved for white males even among human beings.) I think the part that really bothered me was when the traitor's dragon was sent off to be breeding stock, because given that the dragons are just as intelligent and sensitive as humans, this is nothing less than state-sponsored sex slavery. The fact that it did bother me, yet was taken matter-of-factly by the characters, is probably a compliment to the author's world-building skills. Still, it *does* make it a little harder to throw myself thoroughly into the battle scenes when I'm mostly feeling a trifle weirded-out by the bloodthirsty patriotism of the dragons, given that they're supporting a government that gives them no say whatsoever in their lot in life.
Anyway, criticism aside, I *did* like the book and I *do* recommend it to those looking for fantasy of a slightly different flavor; my problems with it basically come down to personal taste rather than the quality of the book itself.
Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years by Elizabeth Wayland Barber - I can't thank
klostes enough for recommending this to me, because it's *wonderful*. Traces the history of weaving from the first knotted strings in the Paleolithic through the intervening millennia, with a light, entertaining writing style that's nevertheless filled with detail and information. Despite the title and subject matter (dealing with gender roles through history) it avoids being overtly political, focusing instead on the daily lives of the women who spent much of their waking time weaving cloth for their families.His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik -
xparrot pushed this series at me with a "You'll love it!", and I did love it ... well, considering that I'm only one book into the series at this point. It's very heavily, and obviously, influenced by Patrick O'Brian's naval-warfare novels -- basically, this is the Napoleonic Wars with dragons. More interesting than the battles for me were the details of how dragonback cavalry in the British and French service have been integrated into the existing historical background. And I loved the mental image of dragons as warships or bombers, with gun crews on their backs. The characters are wonderful.There were a couple of things I didn't like about the book, one of which was the ending (well, a certain aspect of the ending). This is just a personal thing of mine, but I really dislike "Chosen One" type stories (i.e. where the hero turns out to be cooler than everybody else for some special reason) and I equally dislike (or, more accurately, I'm just really sick of) "The battle is lost! Wait! OMFG secret special ability saves the day!" endings ... and this book did BOTH to me. Aaaargh! Does Temeraire really HAVE to be the coolest dragon in the British fleet? The fact that he was a Chinese dragon was special and cool enough for me, and I actually *liked* that he wasn't the Coolest Dragon In All Existence ... up until the last chapter of the book MADE HIM THAT WAY.
*sigh*
Good book regardless, but still, aaargh!
The other thing that bugged about the book wasn't a problem with the author; it's more of a moral problem with the world itself, and that's the way that dragons are treated. Actually, I *like* that the author has done it this way because it's far, far more believable, given the historical context, that they would be treated as, basically, glorified beasts of burden rather than actual people. (Particularly considering that, at this point in time, the qualification of "people" was basically reserved for white males even among human beings.) I think the part that really bothered me was when the traitor's dragon was sent off to be breeding stock, because given that the dragons are just as intelligent and sensitive as humans, this is nothing less than state-sponsored sex slavery. The fact that it did bother me, yet was taken matter-of-factly by the characters, is probably a compliment to the author's world-building skills. Still, it *does* make it a little harder to throw myself thoroughly into the battle scenes when I'm mostly feeling a trifle weirded-out by the bloodthirsty patriotism of the dragons, given that they're supporting a government that gives them no say whatsoever in their lot in life.
Anyway, criticism aside, I *did* like the book and I *do* recommend it to those looking for fantasy of a slightly different flavor; my problems with it basically come down to personal taste rather than the quality of the book itself.
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Re: your critiques - he's not the coolest dragon in all existence - well, not yet, anyway. ^^ He's remarkably unusual for Europe, but he's not one of a kind in the world...I guess this doesn't bother me, though; they are fantasies, and fantasy stories traditionally are about the chosen heroes more than the everymen. I like the series partly because Laurence is an everyman; he's nothing special. Temeraire is, but Laurence is playing Watson to his dragon's Holmes (or Sam to Frodo, if you like your heroism going the other direction) and it lends sympathy to both of them...
The deus ex machina of the final battle didn't bother me, because the final battle is not the point of the book at all. It's really more an exploration of the world, with the battle not a culmination of the story so much as the latest event in a chain, one more scrape to get out of. At least that's the way I read it...
And the moral problem you mentioned? Oh, you have to read the other books. You really won't be disappointed ^^
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I figured it looked like something that might be addressed in future books! I'm really looking forward to seeing how that's handled, actually -- like the role of women in Corps society, it's got lots of potential for very intriguing storylines (and Temeraire's smart as a whip and already given to questioning his role in society, so ... yeah, very interested to see how that developes).
Just because I know the chosen-one thing is a genre trope doesn't stop it from annoying me. ^^ This is also one of the things that bugs me about a lot of anime. But it does always depend on how it's done; I think in that case, the last-minute revelation of "Why yes, he is a Celestial, the rarest dragon in all existence!" ticked me off because I'd been thinking, earlier in the book, how cool it was that she HADN'T done that and had made him one of the less-rare Chinese breeds. I've read things where the Chosen-One or "more special than the rest of you" trope didn't grate on me at all, but usually when it's introduced right off the bat (i.e. Saiyuki or DBZ) so I know where I stand with the story.
I think the big trouble with the Chosen One thing, especially in a book like this that *isn't* high fantasy but is supposed to slot into our real world, is that it's just so unlikely that it kind of throws me out of the world. I'd be more willing to accept it in a more standard-fantasy setting, but one of the things that makes this series cool is the feeling that this is our world only with dragons ... and then having things like Temeraire discovering a Cool Power That Saves The Day(TM) right when it's needed most is the kind of thing that just doesn't happen in our world, so it threw me out of the story a little bit. The whole rest of it kind of has a feeling of "ordinary people struggling along and doing the best they can", and then that part was very High Fantasy and ... I dunno, it just left a bad taste in my mouth.
I know it's her first book, though, and I'm willing to cut her slack for that, especially since I like the way the rest of it is set up. And I also know that my feelings in that area diverge from probably 90% (or more) of regular fantasy readers; I know people who *love* the Chosen One plot and read specifically for that.
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Though I do have a tendency to root for the paupers and the everymen who get involved anyway, so I can see where you're coming from. ^^ Sam's the gifted one, but Dean is the one I love...
With Temeraire in particular, while the deus ex machina 'cool power' was just that, as cheesy as deus ex always is (and I forgave it because it is her first novel, and because the battle felt out of left field anyway so it didn't unduly bother me that its solultion was as well) - I really quite liked the Celestial revelation at the end. All through the book there were hints that he was more than what he seemed, and I was pleasantly surprised that I hadn't actually guessed the truth. (I'm also influenced by knowing how crucial that development is to the series as a whole, and what she does with it...)
At any rate, you gotta admit, Temeraire and Laurence are cute like anything ^_^ yay for dragon+rider smarm!
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Oh, totally! And I sent you an email on this...
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