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Wed Reading Meme
Jul. 12th, 2017 08:57 pm1. What I just finished reading?
Kings Rising - Book 3 of The Captive Prince by CS Pascat
Your_Librarian has actually written a thorough and detailed review of this book, HERE. Which I pretty much agree with.
The only difference between us, is I've read a lot of romance novels, f/m and m/m, and I think one f/f, published, fanfiction, etc...so picked up right off the bat some of the romance conventions.
Kings Rising, as previously stated, is the third book in a series of novels that were initially written as a web serial on the author's live journal blog. This is important to note, because the series has some of the same failings as a lot of WIP "romantic" or "shipper" focused fan-fic, and romance novels.
By that, I mean, the writer adheres to a couple of romance novel conventions that unfortunately don't necessarily serve her story that well. She also goes out of her way to put the leads in romantic and/or sexual situations, that do little to drive the story or characters forward, and in some places grind the action to a halt. There's a few sequences that make no sense from a plot and character stand-point. I can almost hear the characters standing on the side lines protesting -- "wait! There is no way I'd bring a Sword into Kings Meet, or attack any one there, I'm not an idiot." Or "why in the hell, would I enter a tournament or even agree to hold one, when we are at war, with three unstable armies, and I've been injured? You nit witty writer!"
The reason romance writers and fanfic writers often do this is to cater to their readership, which expects adherence to these conventions, and wants certain things from the book or story. (I can't help but respect writers who tell their readers and fans to go screw themselves. And just write the story. Which is actually what literary writers and the sci-fi, noir, mystery and action genres tend to do. Hence the reason romance and romantic fanfic get such a bad rap. There's something to be said for the axion, give the audience/reader what they need not what they want. In other words tell the story, ignore the readership. Or as Stephen King put it once, if it doesn't serve your story or your characters, ax it.)
It's probably worth noting that this series is actually just a romance novel set in historical fantasy setting similar to ancient Greece and Rome. (It just happens to be between men instead of male/female. I'd say it was an LGBTQ romance, except I'm pretty certain the intended audience is heterosexual women. I don't really envision gay men reading and enjoying this, or gay women for that matter. Although I could be wrong about that.) So some of this probably can be hand-waved, since that's what the story is. It's not a fantasy series or historical series, but a romance, with the central bit -- being the romance and HEA between the two leads. Everything else is window dressing.
Which is the problem with it. It starts out as being a bit more than that...a fantasty history romance novel that focuses on things outside of the romance, and appears to have something to say.
But somewhere along the line that gets lost and as a result so does much of what made this story interesting and unique. At least to me.
It was okay, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone. If you read the series, you might want to stop with book 2. Which I thought had an interesting and thought-provoking ending.
What I'm reading now?
The Lord of the Fading Lands by C.L. Wilson -- interesting book, so far. It's a romantic fantasy. Emphasis on well both. The author unlike Pascat, above, is spending a lot of time building her world, and on developing various characters. It also has more than one point of view, or mulitple point of views -- third person close.
The heroine is not physically strong, rather confused, and has a disability of sorts. As a baby she was found and adopted by a handicapped wood-carver and his wife. Who were poor. But after adopting her, he became healed somehow. Also the child, Ellie, started having horrible night tremors and seizures. Being somewhat superstitious, her adoptive parents took her to the church, where they attempted to exorcise her of demons. Luckily they didn't decide to leave her there, and took her home and prayed. Eventually she learned to control her rages and emotions, along with the seizures, so they weren't as noticeable, and they appeared to go away. Her adoptive mother believed this was due to her accepting the Lord of Light as her savior, and being confirmed in the Church of Light.
Now, at 24, her parents fear she is to be forever unwed. This takes place in a medieval setting, where the system is somewhat feudal in nature, and most of the people are uneducated, and superstitious. Women get married around 18 or 16 is the norm. She has two sisters, who aren't adopted, and rather young, and the local Butcher's son, whom she despises and for good reason, is attempting to woo her. The one time they are left in a room together, he bites and sucks her neck, mauls her breasts, and shoves his tongue down her throat. Repulsed and frightened, she cries out in pain.
And is heard by Rain, The Tairyn Soul. King of the Light Fey. He's an ancient Fey Lord, who lost his truemate (soul mate) thousands of years ago. The Fey are for the most part immortal. And he's very powerful. He turns into a giant black cat with lavender eyes and black taloned wings (like a bats).
He's trying to save his kind. So seeks guidance from the Eye of the Oracle, which shows him a woman's face and the town he despises. (The town is where Ellie resides.) Thousands of years ago when his first truemate died, murdered by Dark Mages, he almost destroyed the world in a wild rampage of grief. The Light Fey are dying off. Fading.
Rain hears Ellie cry out in his soul and searches for her, no idea who she is. But knowing that now, a thousand years later, he's found, against all odds, another truemate.
Well, maybe. He has to woo her and win her first. It's complicated. And he's rather scary. Granted so is the Butcher Boy. In Ellie prays to the Gods to send her anyone but the Butcher boy, but I think she was thinking more in lines of a nice kind man who sells cloth or cuts wood.
There's a fairy-tale aspect to the story, which I rather like. It does have Cinderella vibe, although I don't see any wicked stepmothers -- unless her adoptive mother is wicked in attempting to marry her off to the first promising suitor available.
The writing is rather hyperbolic in places. I keep envisioning exclamation marks. Look, I'm EPIC! But I don't mind it, it's sort of fun and doesn't require much focus.
3. I've gone on another book buying spree at Amazon. They keep having sales, I keep buying books.
The latest? A vampire novel by Octavia Butler, entitled "Fledging" for $3.99.
I also have Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human, which was on sale for $1.99.
I keep collecting genre books. I'm flirting with Americanh, which is not a genre book, and Church may be doing it as a book club selection.
Kings Rising - Book 3 of The Captive Prince by CS Pascat
Your_Librarian has actually written a thorough and detailed review of this book, HERE. Which I pretty much agree with.
The only difference between us, is I've read a lot of romance novels, f/m and m/m, and I think one f/f, published, fanfiction, etc...so picked up right off the bat some of the romance conventions.
Kings Rising, as previously stated, is the third book in a series of novels that were initially written as a web serial on the author's live journal blog. This is important to note, because the series has some of the same failings as a lot of WIP "romantic" or "shipper" focused fan-fic, and romance novels.
By that, I mean, the writer adheres to a couple of romance novel conventions that unfortunately don't necessarily serve her story that well. She also goes out of her way to put the leads in romantic and/or sexual situations, that do little to drive the story or characters forward, and in some places grind the action to a halt. There's a few sequences that make no sense from a plot and character stand-point. I can almost hear the characters standing on the side lines protesting -- "wait! There is no way I'd bring a Sword into Kings Meet, or attack any one there, I'm not an idiot." Or "why in the hell, would I enter a tournament or even agree to hold one, when we are at war, with three unstable armies, and I've been injured? You nit witty writer!"
The reason romance writers and fanfic writers often do this is to cater to their readership, which expects adherence to these conventions, and wants certain things from the book or story. (I can't help but respect writers who tell their readers and fans to go screw themselves. And just write the story. Which is actually what literary writers and the sci-fi, noir, mystery and action genres tend to do. Hence the reason romance and romantic fanfic get such a bad rap. There's something to be said for the axion, give the audience/reader what they need not what they want. In other words tell the story, ignore the readership. Or as Stephen King put it once, if it doesn't serve your story or your characters, ax it.)
It's probably worth noting that this series is actually just a romance novel set in historical fantasy setting similar to ancient Greece and Rome. (It just happens to be between men instead of male/female. I'd say it was an LGBTQ romance, except I'm pretty certain the intended audience is heterosexual women. I don't really envision gay men reading and enjoying this, or gay women for that matter. Although I could be wrong about that.) So some of this probably can be hand-waved, since that's what the story is. It's not a fantasy series or historical series, but a romance, with the central bit -- being the romance and HEA between the two leads. Everything else is window dressing.
Which is the problem with it. It starts out as being a bit more than that...a fantasty history romance novel that focuses on things outside of the romance, and appears to have something to say.
But somewhere along the line that gets lost and as a result so does much of what made this story interesting and unique. At least to me.
It was okay, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone. If you read the series, you might want to stop with book 2. Which I thought had an interesting and thought-provoking ending.
What I'm reading now?
The Lord of the Fading Lands by C.L. Wilson -- interesting book, so far. It's a romantic fantasy. Emphasis on well both. The author unlike Pascat, above, is spending a lot of time building her world, and on developing various characters. It also has more than one point of view, or mulitple point of views -- third person close.
The heroine is not physically strong, rather confused, and has a disability of sorts. As a baby she was found and adopted by a handicapped wood-carver and his wife. Who were poor. But after adopting her, he became healed somehow. Also the child, Ellie, started having horrible night tremors and seizures. Being somewhat superstitious, her adoptive parents took her to the church, where they attempted to exorcise her of demons. Luckily they didn't decide to leave her there, and took her home and prayed. Eventually she learned to control her rages and emotions, along with the seizures, so they weren't as noticeable, and they appeared to go away. Her adoptive mother believed this was due to her accepting the Lord of Light as her savior, and being confirmed in the Church of Light.
Now, at 24, her parents fear she is to be forever unwed. This takes place in a medieval setting, where the system is somewhat feudal in nature, and most of the people are uneducated, and superstitious. Women get married around 18 or 16 is the norm. She has two sisters, who aren't adopted, and rather young, and the local Butcher's son, whom she despises and for good reason, is attempting to woo her. The one time they are left in a room together, he bites and sucks her neck, mauls her breasts, and shoves his tongue down her throat. Repulsed and frightened, she cries out in pain.
And is heard by Rain, The Tairyn Soul. King of the Light Fey. He's an ancient Fey Lord, who lost his truemate (soul mate) thousands of years ago. The Fey are for the most part immortal. And he's very powerful. He turns into a giant black cat with lavender eyes and black taloned wings (like a bats).
He's trying to save his kind. So seeks guidance from the Eye of the Oracle, which shows him a woman's face and the town he despises. (The town is where Ellie resides.) Thousands of years ago when his first truemate died, murdered by Dark Mages, he almost destroyed the world in a wild rampage of grief. The Light Fey are dying off. Fading.
Rain hears Ellie cry out in his soul and searches for her, no idea who she is. But knowing that now, a thousand years later, he's found, against all odds, another truemate.
Well, maybe. He has to woo her and win her first. It's complicated. And he's rather scary. Granted so is the Butcher Boy. In Ellie prays to the Gods to send her anyone but the Butcher boy, but I think she was thinking more in lines of a nice kind man who sells cloth or cuts wood.
There's a fairy-tale aspect to the story, which I rather like. It does have Cinderella vibe, although I don't see any wicked stepmothers -- unless her adoptive mother is wicked in attempting to marry her off to the first promising suitor available.
The writing is rather hyperbolic in places. I keep envisioning exclamation marks. Look, I'm EPIC! But I don't mind it, it's sort of fun and doesn't require much focus.
3. I've gone on another book buying spree at Amazon. They keep having sales, I keep buying books.
The latest? A vampire novel by Octavia Butler, entitled "Fledging" for $3.99.
I also have Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human, which was on sale for $1.99.
I keep collecting genre books. I'm flirting with Americanh, which is not a genre book, and Church may be doing it as a book club selection.