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What I Just Finished Reading
The Captive Prince – C.S. Pascat
Plotwise, it read like a bona fide BL novel in English. Craftwise, it read like decent fanfic, although I could have done without 90 percent of the adverbs. I can't shake the feeling that I know this story from somewhere.
Our main character Damen seemed a little too blasé about his captivity, and his flaying. I have high hopes that his complacency toward slavery will come back to haunt him, potentially as a wallow in helpless devotion to his captor. I imagine that exchange between Laurent and the Regent is significant, especially given the latter's preference for children. (Ew.) I do like that the racy bits are largely pandering to my tastes, versus standard romance novel or porn-for-straight-dudes tastes. I just hope they pander less to non-con/non-con BDSM/chan...I honestly can't tell where things are going at this point.
The novella at the end was of far better quality than the main novel; I hope the subsequent books take after it.
Prince's Gambit – C.S. Pascat
Okay, I'm hooked. Our heroes are clearly ciphers for Thor and Loki, but perhaps it's because I can rely on that shorthand/familiarity here that the book seems far more three-dimensional than it should be. Other elements remind me of Attolia, or Saintcrow's Romances of Arquitaine, or even a bit of Song of Achilles, and that's helping too.
For me, bad fantasy fails because it bumps me out of the narrative, and this should be doing that – (Who produces all the food and clothing for this bloated court and its rent boys and girls? Where are all the rent boys/girls coming from, anyway? Are their families upset that this has happened to them? What about the people who don't want to be pets? The slaves who don't learn to embrace abject groveling subservience? The commoners who think they're worth more than three coppers?) – but it isn't.
I am surprised by how much I like the dynamic between Damen and Laurent, which is more complex than I'd anticipated, and there are moments of shining humor that took me completely by surprise. The slow burn between them is also very, very well done, and hits pretty much all of my buttons. My one concern is that Laurent will prove to be too manipulative and omniscient to be believable, but I'll have to wait for the third book to find out.
Kings Rising – C.S. Pascat
I was absolutely right about the big reveal underlying much of Laurent's behavior, but it was handled so well, I'm pleased at having spotted it instead of irritated at its obviousness or heavy-handedness. I am also pleased at the way Damen's change of heart was revealed – as genuine and believable character development versus, again, heavy-handed with capital-L Lessons Learned moping and angsting.
I was surprised by an incorrect assumption I'd made concerning Jocaste, and completely blindsided by a nice piece of narrative symmetry toward the end.
Overall, in terms of some major kinks (worldbuilding, long-game plotting, character developmet) these books were far, far better than I thought they'd be and I am very glad to have read them, despite their having rendered me useless for doing anything else over the past five days.
The Late Works of Hayao Miyazaki – Dani Cavallaro
I finished it. I think my favorite passage is this:
“Redolent of thick noodles.”
"Redolent of thick noodles."
The entire book is written like that.
What I Am Currently Reading
The Strangler Vine – M.J. Carter
Largely put on hold because of the Captive Prince series, along with the fic.
Western Power in Asia – Arthur Cotterell
The conquest of Calicut and Malacca was put on hold for the Captive Prince series.
Someone out there is responsible for this. They know who they are.
Indonesian: A Comprehensive Grammar – James Sneddon, K. Alexander Adelaar, Dwi Djenar
I've forged ahead into se- and se-nya constructions. Unlike last week's affixes, my brain seems to take to this set.
What I'm Reading Next
Trees vol. 1 – Warren Ellis
I am going to wrap this one up this week, because I've had it signed out for a really embarrassingly long time.
Myth-Making and Religious Extremism and Their Roots in Crises – Arthur Neal & Helen Youngelson-Neal
I made it to chapter 6 before the dense prose made me take a breather. There are interesting ideas in this book, but the presentation could have been tightened and the editing, well, could have been done in the first place.
A Darker Shade of Magic – V.E. Schwab
This being my third stab at this novel since last November, I am determined to make headway this time.
これで以上です。
The Captive Prince – C.S. Pascat
Plotwise, it read like a bona fide BL novel in English. Craftwise, it read like decent fanfic, although I could have done without 90 percent of the adverbs. I can't shake the feeling that I know this story from somewhere.
Our main character Damen seemed a little too blasé about his captivity, and his flaying. I have high hopes that his complacency toward slavery will come back to haunt him, potentially as a wallow in helpless devotion to his captor. I imagine that exchange between Laurent and the Regent is significant, especially given the latter's preference for children. (Ew.) I do like that the racy bits are largely pandering to my tastes, versus standard romance novel or porn-for-straight-dudes tastes. I just hope they pander less to non-con/non-con BDSM/chan...I honestly can't tell where things are going at this point.
The novella at the end was of far better quality than the main novel; I hope the subsequent books take after it.
Prince's Gambit – C.S. Pascat
Okay, I'm hooked. Our heroes are clearly ciphers for Thor and Loki, but perhaps it's because I can rely on that shorthand/familiarity here that the book seems far more three-dimensional than it should be. Other elements remind me of Attolia, or Saintcrow's Romances of Arquitaine, or even a bit of Song of Achilles, and that's helping too.
For me, bad fantasy fails because it bumps me out of the narrative, and this should be doing that – (Who produces all the food and clothing for this bloated court and its rent boys and girls? Where are all the rent boys/girls coming from, anyway? Are their families upset that this has happened to them? What about the people who don't want to be pets? The slaves who don't learn to embrace abject groveling subservience? The commoners who think they're worth more than three coppers?) – but it isn't.
I am surprised by how much I like the dynamic between Damen and Laurent, which is more complex than I'd anticipated, and there are moments of shining humor that took me completely by surprise. The slow burn between them is also very, very well done, and hits pretty much all of my buttons. My one concern is that Laurent will prove to be too manipulative and omniscient to be believable, but I'll have to wait for the third book to find out.
Kings Rising – C.S. Pascat
I was absolutely right about the big reveal underlying much of Laurent's behavior, but it was handled so well, I'm pleased at having spotted it instead of irritated at its obviousness or heavy-handedness. I am also pleased at the way Damen's change of heart was revealed – as genuine and believable character development versus, again, heavy-handed with capital-L Lessons Learned moping and angsting.
I was surprised by an incorrect assumption I'd made concerning Jocaste, and completely blindsided by a nice piece of narrative symmetry toward the end.
Overall, in terms of some major kinks (worldbuilding, long-game plotting, character developmet) these books were far, far better than I thought they'd be and I am very glad to have read them, despite their having rendered me useless for doing anything else over the past five days.
The Late Works of Hayao Miyazaki – Dani Cavallaro
I finished it. I think my favorite passage is this:
His ecstatic vision is shattered as an enormous zeppelin descends onto the scene and proceeds to bomb the countryside below, while the boy is powerless to halt it. Strange creatures ride the zeppelin's hideous ammunition, which hangs from the aircraft by means of wires redolent of thick noodles.
“Redolent of thick noodles.”
"Redolent of thick noodles."
The entire book is written like that.
What I Am Currently Reading
The Strangler Vine – M.J. Carter
Largely put on hold because of the Captive Prince series, along with the fic.
Western Power in Asia – Arthur Cotterell
The conquest of Calicut and Malacca was put on hold for the Captive Prince series.
Someone out there is responsible for this. They know who they are.
Indonesian: A Comprehensive Grammar – James Sneddon, K. Alexander Adelaar, Dwi Djenar
I've forged ahead into se- and se-nya constructions. Unlike last week's affixes, my brain seems to take to this set.
What I'm Reading Next
Trees vol. 1 – Warren Ellis
I am going to wrap this one up this week, because I've had it signed out for a really embarrassingly long time.
Myth-Making and Religious Extremism and Their Roots in Crises – Arthur Neal & Helen Youngelson-Neal
I made it to chapter 6 before the dense prose made me take a breather. There are interesting ideas in this book, but the presentation could have been tightened and the editing, well, could have been done in the first place.
A Darker Shade of Magic – V.E. Schwab
This being my third stab at this novel since last November, I am determined to make headway this time.
これで以上です。
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From:
no subject
It sounds like you liked the conclusion quite a bit better than I did, but I think part of that was having the third book come out only after I'd read a fair bit of "Laurent Knows" meta. But the second book is so much fun, and I agree on these being better and more readable than I really had expected/than they by rights should be.
From:
no subject
And I'd not heard of the Dorothy Dunnett books, but I can see this is something I'll have to look into.
I was vaguely aware that this series existed, and that was the extent of it until a friend with excellent judgment recommended them. I was honestly going to stop after the first book, but she urged me to keep going, and I'm glad I did. So I didn't know anything about the plot, let alone the meta, before I started.
I would have liked them far, far less had Laurent not known. It would have transformed his canniness into more of an informed attribute, for one. But crucially, it turns his volume one physical torture and rape-by-proxy of Damen into something understandable and even heartbreaking given what we later learn about the timing of the Regent's predations. Without it, the first book would have seemed hastily written at best; more likely, I wouldn't have been able to swallow the claim that so many are loyal to Laurent because he's better than the decadent court around him, when his actions in the narrative spoke so loudly otherwise.
My gripe with the third book came at the trial (which I was honestly expecting, and where I thought more of the fandom dissatisfaction would lie). This section was hastily written: if the Regent's sly as hell, why didn't he plan for the letters' discovery? He had the tribunal in hand - I imagine they'd have swallowed it whole cloth if he hinted Laurent had forged the confession. But honestly, I was so invested in Laurent and Damen not dying at that point that I didn't care as much as I should have.
The second book is probably my overall favorite, but OMG, did the first book hit all my kinks - Damen's homecoming being other than he'd anticipated, the scales coming off his eyes on what slavery looks like, Laurent manipulating the fuck out of him with Isander and then not making use of the slave, the glimpses we see of Laurent's internal struggle with his feelings for Damen and how he thinks of sex as a tool to psychologically wound, and then slowly unlearns it. Gah.
From:
no subject
I was honestly going to stop after the first book, but she urged me to keep going,
I picked them up on a friend's recommendation, too, and was not entirely won over by book 1, but the Erastes short story (which drove home the point that Damen's acceptance of Akielon slavery was an unreliably narrator thing) made me more optimistic, and book 2 was just so much fun!
And, yeah, the "Laurent knows" explanation is almost required to make Laurent believable not to mention non-reprehensible.
From:
no subject
It's apparently quite a long series. I just picked up the first two volumes from the library this afternoon, so I may have more to report by next Wednesday. Thanks for pointing me at these books!
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
A Darker Shade of Magic- if you can truck on through this one, the sequel,A Gathering of Shadows, is just excellent. (My BFF read and enjoyed the sequel just fine without having read the first book.)
From:
no subject
For me, it's not so much that slave fic isn't my thing, as it is that the way slave fic is generally done is not my thing. When it's used to make an overly self-assured, holier-than-thou privileged character question their assumptions about everything and then come out a chastised, better human, you'll have me eating out of your hand. Pascat largely did that, and while showing, not telling.
So yeah, it hit a lot of my buttons, to the point where I was willing to forgive quite a lot. For instance, the realist me should see a future of ethnic violence, nationalist vendettas, revenge killings, and a wealthy elite saying "Hell no, we're not giving up our human property" and fomenting insurrection looming on the horizon. But the books made me so happy overall that I'm willing to suspend disbelief and think that Our Heroes really do unite their countries and abolish slavery, and perhaps the indentured servitude pet system as well.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Touché (toupée?) Ironically, this actually is redolent of thick noodles:
But yes, stay away from Cavallaro.
From:
no subject
I still dislike the ending of Kings Rising for a couple of reasons; 1. things were wrapped up far too neatly and quickly the last two chapters and 2. it needs an epilogue.
From:
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I agree that the ending was wrapped far too quickly as regards the Regent. I fail to see how the letters are such incontrovertible proof that the Council does a complete 180 upon seeing them. Why wouldn't the Regent say they were forged? How would that have been any less believable than everything else he's been feeding them about Laurent? And why in god's name did he not have a better plan for dealing with the letters than "Guess I'll just let Govart blackmail me, then." The Regent's been ahead of Laurent at every turn, and yet he can't find a single way to outwit Govart? It's sloppy.
I'm okay with the lack of epilogue because it leaves me free to pick from any number of potential "X years down the road" scenarios. Actually, I think an epilogue would have left me far less happy with the book, because it would have to touch on questions (What about an heir? Whither the institution of slavery? How successful were Our Heroes in putting down the Regent's supporters/uniting their countries) that would basically require an additional book to answer to my satisfaction.
From:
no subject
oh dear lord, i needed a fairytale romantic ending. what is happening to me?