Book Review
Feb. 15th, 2004 06:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanithryudoWent to B&N today and read Mercedes Lackey's The Fairy Godmother. Here be my impressions.
Foremost of all, Mercedes Lackey once again astounds me at the fantasy settings she creates. While they can't claim the level of attention to minutae as Tolkien, they do stand out quite well as world-making concepts go. Recognizable inspirations where inspirations apply, and twist and turns that are truly unique.
This time, the concept is based on the fairy tales... of the folklore and Grimm's fairy tales persuasion. Except she's put together the collection of those tales as a coherent world, with it's own trappings that are both traditional and with twists in it.
Imagine a world with a great magical force out there, whose greatest concern is to create Drama and Tales, for good or for ill. It's called The Tradition, and is just exactly that. Whenever a child grows up with signs matching a beginning of some "Traditional" tale (be it the wandering prince searching for a fortune, the mistreated child of an evil stepmother, the princess cursed to have something awful to happen on her 16th birthday, etc, etc...), The Tradition begins to build up magic about him or her, urging and prodding them onto some set path...
But then reality and common sense kicks in. Not every mistreated stepdaughter in the kingdom of the right age could snare the prince of that kingdom. Especially if said prince was married already, or hasn't passed puberty yet, or worse - is a princess. Now most of these kids go back to somewhat normal life once the window of opportunity passes and they give up hope, for The Tradition for the most part stops meddling in their lives, allowing the mistreated girls to fall in love with the local farmer's boy, and so forth.
But for one, in this case our Cinderella-to-not-be, who still hasn't given up her dreams for a fairy tale ending (even if she might have given up on waiting for a prince to come), the amassed magic around her can be put to a better use. To become an Apprentice to her "Fairy Godmother" - well, actually the godmother of the local group of kingdoms.
Now, a fairy godmother's job might seem simple... help out the right lads to get the hand of the princess, help the right girls to meet their prince, throw out the occassional Test for princes out seeking their fortune, try to keep the evil sorceror(ess) from taking over, etc. But godmothers are human too, and come with their own sense of right and wrong. I mean, who would want a deathtrap for girls like a Bluebeard analog to set up on their watch? Or a deathtrap for young men like a Rapunzel analog? Of course, if they want to turn The Tradition away from a story that has begun, they'd have to be careful in the art of manipulating that force.
Or in creating a new path altogether for The Tradition. But where there's a will, there's a way.
Other things I liked of the story - wonderful bits of humor with some of the characters, such as the unicorns who go all googly eyed when a virgin human of the opposite gender comes along, the epilogue showing the fate of our girl's step-relatives in her absense, the wonderfully crafted characters both main and supporting...
The only thing I didn't like about the book was the cover art. Ugly as heck. What was the artist thinking?!?
Other news - Read through RK#3. Watsuki refers to the storyline as the "Megumi Arc", so I guess it does qualify as a storyarc. Ken-san is as cute as ever. Also, I think I actually prefer the scanlation wording to Viz's translations. It makes more sense in conjunction with the pictures.
Reread PSoH #4 and bought it. I'm just so easy for that series. :p
Foremost of all, Mercedes Lackey once again astounds me at the fantasy settings she creates. While they can't claim the level of attention to minutae as Tolkien, they do stand out quite well as world-making concepts go. Recognizable inspirations where inspirations apply, and twist and turns that are truly unique.
This time, the concept is based on the fairy tales... of the folklore and Grimm's fairy tales persuasion. Except she's put together the collection of those tales as a coherent world, with it's own trappings that are both traditional and with twists in it.
Imagine a world with a great magical force out there, whose greatest concern is to create Drama and Tales, for good or for ill. It's called The Tradition, and is just exactly that. Whenever a child grows up with signs matching a beginning of some "Traditional" tale (be it the wandering prince searching for a fortune, the mistreated child of an evil stepmother, the princess cursed to have something awful to happen on her 16th birthday, etc, etc...), The Tradition begins to build up magic about him or her, urging and prodding them onto some set path...
But then reality and common sense kicks in. Not every mistreated stepdaughter in the kingdom of the right age could snare the prince of that kingdom. Especially if said prince was married already, or hasn't passed puberty yet, or worse - is a princess. Now most of these kids go back to somewhat normal life once the window of opportunity passes and they give up hope, for The Tradition for the most part stops meddling in their lives, allowing the mistreated girls to fall in love with the local farmer's boy, and so forth.
But for one, in this case our Cinderella-to-not-be, who still hasn't given up her dreams for a fairy tale ending (even if she might have given up on waiting for a prince to come), the amassed magic around her can be put to a better use. To become an Apprentice to her "Fairy Godmother" - well, actually the godmother of the local group of kingdoms.
Now, a fairy godmother's job might seem simple... help out the right lads to get the hand of the princess, help the right girls to meet their prince, throw out the occassional Test for princes out seeking their fortune, try to keep the evil sorceror(ess) from taking over, etc. But godmothers are human too, and come with their own sense of right and wrong. I mean, who would want a deathtrap for girls like a Bluebeard analog to set up on their watch? Or a deathtrap for young men like a Rapunzel analog? Of course, if they want to turn The Tradition away from a story that has begun, they'd have to be careful in the art of manipulating that force.
Or in creating a new path altogether for The Tradition. But where there's a will, there's a way.
Other things I liked of the story - wonderful bits of humor with some of the characters, such as the unicorns who go all googly eyed when a virgin human of the opposite gender comes along, the epilogue showing the fate of our girl's step-relatives in her absense, the wonderfully crafted characters both main and supporting...
The only thing I didn't like about the book was the cover art. Ugly as heck. What was the artist thinking?!?
Other news - Read through RK#3. Watsuki refers to the storyline as the "Megumi Arc", so I guess it does qualify as a storyarc. Ken-san is as cute as ever. Also, I think I actually prefer the scanlation wording to Viz's translations. It makes more sense in conjunction with the pictures.
Reread PSoH #4 and bought it. I'm just so easy for that series. :p
