With both QoA and KoA, I spent many moments mentally yelling, "No! No! No!" at the books. Starting from -- obviously -- Gen losing his hand. Going on to Gen being in love with Attolia. Then wondering why I was supposed to be at all interested in some guy named Costis when what I really wanted to know was what that marriage was like. I think I've always had enough faith in the author to assume it was going to make sense eventually -- and of course now I see all these things as absolutely brilliant and THE ONLY WAY POSSIBLE. As a (highly unsuccessful) writer myself, what I most admire in MWT's writing is her boldness. Cutting off the hand of your beloved trickster hero is bold. Having him fall in love with the woman who did it is bold. Writing a book where the reader doesn't quite know what's happening is bold. Putting your third book in a series largely in the PoV of a new character who doesn't know your hero is also bold. In fact, setting your book in a time and place that are sort of real but sort of not, just because you want it that way, is quite bold. And I LOVE that we don't know exactly how old anyone is, and tie ourselves in knots trying to figure it out. My kids' book critique group would have you believe that all books must state the main character's age in paragraph 1. MWT breaks all the stupid writing "rules" and I love her for it. -Philia
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Date: 11/15/06 01:05 am (UTC)As a (highly unsuccessful) writer myself, what I most admire in MWT's writing is her boldness. Cutting off the hand of your beloved trickster hero is bold. Having him fall in love with the woman who did it is bold. Writing a book where the reader doesn't quite know what's happening is bold. Putting your third book in a series largely in the PoV of a new character who doesn't know your hero is also bold. In fact, setting your book in a time and place that are sort of real but sort of not, just because you want it that way, is quite bold. And I LOVE that we don't know exactly how old anyone is, and tie ourselves in knots trying to figure it out. My kids' book critique group would have you believe that all books must state the main character's age in paragraph 1. MWT breaks all the stupid writing "rules" and I love her for it.
-Philia