I'm not suggesting this is a thing you should do, but it is a thing it is possible to do, in case you wanted to know that. I was definitely wondering about this, so thank you. I've been toying with the idea of getting hold of the sequels to "just read the parts I'm interested in," but since I'm constitutionally incapable of skimming this would inevitably devolve into reading each entire book. It's good to know things do improve somewhat if I ultimately end up going that route.
(I don't know why I feel compelled to explain worldbuilding I found stupid in a book I didn't particularly like, but here we are :P) I'm glad you did though. ^^ Broken record warning--as female submission is not my kink and because the Night Court's recruitment system rubs my 20th century social sensibilities the wrong way, my attention was on other aspects of the story. I was much more interested in learning what Phedre and Alcuin would do after they purchased their independence and the legal right to use their skills independently of Delauney's whims. Alas, the narrative disappointed me on that front, too...
This does not get better in the first trilogy (I think, possibly, worse, as Phedre meets more people who are not D'Angeline and continues to feel superior to all of them). I was worried about that. Even in the first book, I found Skaldi culture--where people call a slave a slave--preferable to the disingenuous decadence of D'Angeline society.
The second trilogy switches narrators, and apparently it was just a Phedre POV thing, which I found retroactively reassuring. But man, that never stopped being a huge turn-off. Yeah, mm. Thanks for this insight--at the very least, it sounds like I should take a substantial breather before I pick the series back up, if indeed I ultimately do.
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I was definitely wondering about this, so thank you. I've been toying with the idea of getting hold of the sequels to "just read the parts I'm interested in," but since I'm constitutionally incapable of skimming this would inevitably devolve into reading each entire book. It's good to know things do improve somewhat if I ultimately end up going that route.
(I don't know why I feel compelled to explain worldbuilding I found stupid in a book I didn't particularly like, but here we are :P)
I'm glad you did though. ^^ Broken record warning--as female submission is not my kink and because the Night Court's recruitment system rubs my 20th century social sensibilities the wrong way, my attention was on other aspects of the story. I was much more interested in learning what Phedre and Alcuin would do after they purchased their independence and the legal right to use their skills independently of Delauney's whims. Alas, the narrative disappointed me on that front, too...
This does not get better in the first trilogy (I think, possibly, worse, as Phedre meets more people who are not D'Angeline and continues to feel superior to all of them).
I was worried about that. Even in the first book, I found Skaldi culture--where people call a slave a slave--preferable to the disingenuous decadence of D'Angeline society.
The second trilogy switches narrators, and apparently it was just a Phedre POV thing, which I found retroactively reassuring. But man, that never stopped being a huge turn-off.
Yeah, mm. Thanks for this insight--at the very least, it sounds like I should take a substantial breather before I pick the series back up, if indeed I ultimately do.