While She Knits
Oct. 5th, 2012 09:26 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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queensthiefGosh, it's been quiet around here!
What great things have you read recently that are totally obscure? Something other people are unlikely to ever find on their own?
I'll go first:
Boris by Cynthia Rylant - if you've ever loved a pet, you'll like this one. So sweet! And, it's told in verse.
A teen sci-fi series that you'll like if you're a Star Trek nerd * - the Galahad series by Dom Testa. A comet has infected the earth with a disease that is killing off all the adults. As a last-ditch effort to save the human race, scientists build a spaceship to travel to another planet, and choose 251 disease-free teens who must learn how to get the ship there, and colonize the planet. Lots of fun. The first book is The Comet's Curse.
* No, not me. Not a bit.
What great things have you read recently that are totally obscure? Something other people are unlikely to ever find on their own?
I'll go first:
Boris by Cynthia Rylant - if you've ever loved a pet, you'll like this one. So sweet! And, it's told in verse.
A teen sci-fi series that you'll like if you're a Star Trek nerd * - the Galahad series by Dom Testa. A comet has infected the earth with a disease that is killing off all the adults. As a last-ditch effort to save the human race, scientists build a spaceship to travel to another planet, and choose 251 disease-free teens who must learn how to get the ship there, and colonize the planet. Lots of fun. The first book is The Comet's Curse.
* No, not me. Not a bit.
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Date: 10/10/12 02:05 am (UTC)The series is much more traditional fantasy-oriented (and less political intrigue and romance) than the MWT's, but... well Eli Monpress is a rascal and a silvertongued charmer and a hella powerful wizard, but above all he's a THIEF; and he's short and dark and almost as good as he thinks he is and I love him madly.
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Date: 10/10/12 02:20 am (UTC)Hee! Anything that someone loves madly is worth checking out. Thanks for the rec! :)
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Date: 10/10/12 01:20 pm (UTC)~mwt
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Date: 10/10/12 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 10/11/12 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 10/11/12 09:15 pm (UTC)Ooh, Megan, it says on the cover--from Booklist--"Fans of Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora will be thrilled with Eli Monpress."
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Date: 10/11/12 09:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 10/10/12 08:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 10/10/12 11:26 pm (UTC)Yeah, the real reason I got into the series in the first place was because of Miranda. Then it was Nico. Spirit Eater is still my favourite book out of the series, so I'm hoping you'll love it!
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Date: 10/10/12 08:27 pm (UTC)Why can't you recommend it too heartily? I LOVE these books and I really, really, really blame
Ooh, I did't even see that parallel at the beginning. See how much of a shallow reader I am? I thought Eli was sent to prison after being caught "stealing" the king's horses (which he purposely planned).
At first I did think that Eli's like Gen, but after the first book, I must admit that there wasn't much similarities. Eli's much too charismatic and charming and everyone loves him (well almost), whereas Gen's snarky and sarcastic and has troubles getting people to like him (except for Sounisians). If anything, I think Eli's a lot more like Flynn Rider. Gen's much smarter, much braver, much more heroic, a much better swordsman, I could go on!!! But I shall not, because it is a universal axiom that Eugenides is just the most awesome thing in the galaxy.
he's short and dark and almost as good
Wait, wait, wait... my book says that he's tall and pale.
"...dark haired, tall for humans, thin built..." (Spirit War, 452)
...can't find the pale reference right now. *gasp* This must be one of those atrocious editing errors! I hate the editing errors, with names switching from one character to the next, Ugh.
Not to say that I don't love Eli Monpress. He just recently jumped onto my "favourites" bandwagon, and that was when he was pretty much at his lowest, most pitiable state. (Have you read the 4 chapters of the next book? T__T Poor Eli!)
Hmm... the only reason I can see why some Sounisians may not hop onto this series is the lack of twisty politics and wits. The books are heavily reliant on action and adventure, humour and fun, but they're not exactly all that high up on political intrigue.
I'd also agree with you that there isn't much romance; on the first 2 books there aren't any at all. But once you get to the third, and especially the fourth, there's quite a bit. Of course it isn't as... passionate as Gen/Attolia (because half of those involved is a dumb log), and maybe I'm just easily swayed over these things, but Nico has one of the saddest, yet sweetest romance I've read in a while. Or maybe I'm just biased, because she's a total woobie. =P
Aaaand, I'm pretty sure none of this makes any total sense right now, but
-o-
Aand while I'm at it, why don't I answer the question as well.
The only books that I've read recently that can be considered under the radar and that hasn't been mentioned yet, is Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris, and The Magical Misadventures of Prunella Bogthistle by Deva Fagan. Both are children's book, both are light reads (the former one being very, very corny and cheesy). But I had fun reading them (precisely because they can be corny and cheesy. =P)
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Date: 10/10/12 10:03 pm (UTC)Here, I'll solve your search for pale...In SR, when he was putting on hiw ridiculous blonde wig (for the express purpose of making Josef wince XD) It said something about the blonde wig complimenting his pale skin more than his natural color did....Try looking there!
And LadyJane - you have to tell us all about what you thin of SEater, and what you think of Nico/Josef (We are Nico/Josef shippers, can you tell?!) and if you ship Miranda and Eli XD
And look. I love this series so much I have a LoEM icon. "The first rule of thievery is 'the last place a man looks is under his own feet.'
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Date: 10/11/12 01:32 am (UTC)"The pale golden locks hung in subtle waves around his face, setting off his pale skin in a way his own dark hair never had," (LoEM Omnibus, 435). And, "Eli's skin, always pale, was now a horrid mottle of black and purple" (626). You were right; and I wasn't hallucinating!
...I'm... trying... not to hijack this thread ... by gushing about Nico/Josef.... trying... trying...
Well, since we're on the topic of similarities / differences between QT and LoEM, I'll just say that the theme of "Who can love a monster?" that is so prevalent in QoA (and maybe even parts of KoA) is also a theme explored in LoEM, especially Spirit War. Even though both Attolia and Nico were forced into becoming what they are, the way they deal with it at the present time is vastly different. I just find it interesting how both girls were made to believe they weren't worth anything or they can't survive unless they act as weapons (Attolia constantly compares herself to a scythe, and Nico can pretty much destroy the whole world by... well, eating it), and how in the process of assuming a 'weapon-like' identity, they lose their real selves (quite literally in Nico's case). And I love how even though the books imply that these two need love to validate their self-worth, both series also show that not all love is healthy, perfect, or good.
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Date: 10/11/12 01:05 pm (UTC)Nice Nico/Irene comparison....Another great reason for Sounisians to read Eli! I think the two biggest difference between the way Irene handles her situation and Nico handles hers, are these:
1. Nico has Josef, and even if he's as dense as his swords romantically, he has always been there to support her, believe in her, and generally treat her like a human being not a monster. Irene, on the other hand, was pretty much alone until Gen came along. I mean, she had Relius as a friend, but not in the sort of way that she could tell him how she felt or the things that bothered her. Now that she has Gen, she has to work to reverse all those years of internalizing all those feelings.
2. Nico has someone to blame, if that makes sense. Without the demon, she would just be a normal girl, but with the demonseed inside her, she becomes a potential weapon. So like Tesset told her, she is not a demonseed, she is a human with a demonseed inside her. Irene doesn't have that excuse. She is a weapon because she needed to be, so she made a decision to make herself into a weapon. Of course, Relius telling her to trust noone didn't help, now did it ?! But at the end of the day, she has no one to blame but herself, regardless of now necessary she believes her actions to be.
SO pretty much, Nico has it slighlty better than Irene, but Irene is lucky in that Gen came after her, telling her that he loved her, and basically that he didn't beleive she was a monster, and that he would love her anyway even if she was. Nico's got Josef, who's a little on the slow side in the relationship department, and while she desperately needs to hear that some one loves her anyway, the only she hears it from is the demon. And he's not a bargain XD But I do think that usually, Josef's actions speak louder than his words - like when he defends her to ELi or Slorn, or goes through his 'Mother Hen" routine, of fights Sted or the LoS to protect her.
And you thought *you* were hijacking this thread!! I can't help it - Your coparison was tooooo interesting to ignore! =D
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Date: 10/12/12 02:17 am (UTC)I agree with Josef's actions speaking louder than words. He's not much of a talkative guy anyway.
Now that I think about it, it's kind of hard to describe the damages they both incur. Your second point about blame made me think of something that worried me in Spirit Eater. Do you think that the whole "Master of Myself" approach is potentially suggestive of victim-blaming? I understand that it's actually a way to unlock the full potential of a wizard, and maybe I shouldn't be over and psycho analyzing things, but even though I thought that technique was really cool on one hand, I thought it had some pretty sad implications for the way Nico has been handling things. Because if she is the "master of herself" then it implies that her whole suffering is her fault, because she let it happen. Tesset always tells her that nothing she doesn't want to happen to her would if she's got enough control and understanding, and so when bad things do happen to her, she blames herself. That's also one of the things the demon manipulates her to do; every time she couldn't save Josef, the demon tells her it's her fault. I mean, I understand that as readers we blame the demon for all the suffering Nico had to go through, but I'm not so sure if she believes she's as blame-free as she should be. Maybe it's just the phrasing of "letting things happen to her" that gets me uncomfortable, because it really undermines the violation she experiences under the demon's hands.
And with Irene, the lines are blurry as well. While I also think that Irene made the decision to take up queenship all by herself, did she really have much choice? I used to blame her for that as well, and I couldn't understand why she was so jealous of Helen when she was the one who decided to be queen of a country such as Attolia. I think this was one of my questions from a post earlier this year (
ugh that horrible post... still feel bad about what happened there, sorry guys), and people enlightened me by saying that she didn't really have much choice in the matter. She would have probably been assassinated as soon as she was married off, or she would have lived a very bad life watching others screw her country over.And would you look at that? Two ginormous paragraphs. This is quickly turning into an analysis... not a book recs post. Hmm, mods, just give me a warning if I'm stepping over the line!
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Date: 10/12/12 12:36 pm (UTC)But this is good - Now everyone sees how much we need people to discuss this sereis with XD
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Date: 10/12/12 11:45 pm (UTC)Going to Amazon right now to order The Spirit War.
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Date: 10/13/12 02:05 am (UTC)And The Spirit War was great, though The Spirit Eater was still my favourite. Last third if SW is definitely intense, but I spent most of the book heartsick for Nico. =P I've already pre-ordered the last book!