World Fantasy Con Freebie: The Bone Doll's Twin
Rachel Brown
disappointing, IIRC. This year we only got two, but one of the
authors mentioned that this one, by Lynn Flewelling, was good. So
despite some cliched elements early on (overuse of capitalization, a
baby destined to rule whom the bad guy ruler is trying to kill,
celibate wizards working for the Light God, etc) I gave it a shot.
Actually, it is good, and those cliches are worked out in unexpected
ways. The set-up: a warrior queen is supposed to rule, but the evil
king wants his son to inherit instead, so he's been killing off all
the women in line to inherit. So when a princess gets pregnant with
the destined girl-baby, said good-guy wizards decide to raise the baby
in secret. Do they spirit her away? No! They murder her twin brother
and do a nasty bit of magic so the dead baby looks like a girl, and
vice versa. Then they take off, leaving behind a half-crazy mother, a
guilt-stricken father, a girl who thinks she's a boy, and the very
pissed-off ghost of her dead twin brother.
I'm not sure the set-up is entirely logical-- why don't they take both
babies and high-tail it to another continent?-- but the story really
takes off from there. It's a neat blend of high fantasy with horror,
a nice page-turning style, interestingly tortured characters, and some
moral complexity.
It's also the first book of a trilogy, so I'm not sure how it all
works out. I'd love to see the boy/girl grow up with the world's
worst sexual identity crisis and confront the do-gooders who killed
her brother, though, alas, it's indicated pretty clearly that she does
indeed eventually take the throne rather than telling them all to go
to hell. But you can't always get what you want.
Rachel
James Nicoll
Rachel Brown <rpho...@mediaone.net> wrote:
>Last year's WFC giveaway books were pretty much unifomly
>disappointing, IIRC. This year we only got two, but one of the
>authors mentioned that this one, by Lynn Flewelling, was good.
PLease excuse any typos: I have a twenty pound cat in my
face, determined to get my full attention. Why is it EFP never talks
about the quantity of drool one can get from a single cat?
The number of freebies seemed to highly variable. Someone
got two copies of China Meivelle's latest, whereas I got none. Most
odd.
Rachel Brown
> >Last year's WFC giveaway books were pretty much unifomly
> >disappointing, IIRC. This year we only got two, but one of the
> >authors mentioned that this one, by Lynn Flewelling, was good.
Hi, James, sorry I didn't get a chance to talk more. Teresa was not,
in fact, present at the con.
> The number of freebies seemed to highly variable. Someone
> got two copies of China Meivelle's latest, whereas I got none. Most
> odd.
I sure didn't. I wish I had-- then I could have had him sign it, and
given away my at-home copy to a deserving party. (This did not stop
me from accosting him at the signing table, though.)
Incidentally, though I haven't yet read Powers' _Declare_, I suspect
that the fact that Mieville's _Perdido Street Station_ didn't win the
WFA was an indication, not that the judges were bonkers, but that it
was an exceptionally strong year.
Though I remain baffled that Mary Gentle's _Ash_ didn't make it to the
final ballot. Though both _The Amber Spyglass_ and _Lord of Emperors_
were well-written and had some wonderful scenes, neither even came
close to matching it as a whole. (I haven't read Volsky's book
either-- has anyone here?) I also think Martin's _A Storm of Swords_
deserved a place on the ballot, but I can see why people may have
found it impossible to judge as a single book, and unfair to judge as
part of a continuing series.
Melanie and Steve Rasnic Tem's "The Man on the Ceiling" (available in
the year's best fantasy collection) was also an excellent choice, a
true story about the dark places in our minds and lives and how we
deal with them. I mentioned to one of the judges that I was surprised
that it had even made it on the ballot, let alone won, given that a)
it's not exactly genre, and b) it's not exactly fiction. He said that
those points had been discussed, but the judges decided that it was in
fact a story, was in fact fantasy, and was so good it deserved to win
no matter how unusual it was. I agreed.
Rachel
James Nicoll
Rachel Brown <rpho...@mediaone.net> wrote:
>jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) wrote in message > Rachel Brown <rpho...@mediaone.net> wrote:
>> >Last year's WFC giveaway books were pretty much unifomly
>> >disappointing, IIRC. This year we only got two, but one of the
>> >authors mentioned that this one, by Lynn Flewelling, was good.
>
>Hi, James, sorry I didn't get a chance to talk more. Teresa was not,
>in fact, present at the con.
>
>> The number of freebies seemed to highly variable. Someone
>> got two copies of China Meivelle's latest, whereas I got none. Most
>> odd.
>
>I sure didn't. I wish I had-- then I could have had him sign it, and
>given away my at-home copy to a deserving party. (This did not stop
>me from accosting him at the signing table, though.)
See, I avoided him because I stalled partway through King Rat, but
not for quality issues. I am just not in a gritty fantasy mood at the moment.
Also when I _do_ read his stuff, I don't want the experience to be
swayed by having met and liked/disliked him.
>Incidentally, though I haven't yet read Powers' _Declare_, I suspect
>that the fact that Mieville's _Perdido Street Station_ didn't win the
>WFA was an indication, not that the judges were bonkers, but that it
>was an exceptionally strong year.
It certainly had a number of highly recommended books I bounced
off of, so far. Not, I stress, though any failing of the authors.
I note at the novel length, as with the novel length
Hugos, the candidates are largely not Americans. Two Canadians
(For values of 'spent winters in Alberta as a kid = CDN*), two
British and one definitely from the US. Don't know where Volsky
is from. Looking through the recent WFA lists, the WFC seems to
take the World part of their name seriously.
James Nicoll
* Certainly 'spent summers in Texas as a kid' does not show nationality
but the workings of a malign fate and shouldn't be held against anyone
so unfortunate.
Rachel Brown
Re: China Mieville
> See, I avoided him because I stalled partway through King Rat, but
> not for quality issues. I am just not in a gritty fantasy mood at the moment.
You want to avoid _Perdido Street Station_ as well till you are, then.
> Also when I _do_ read his stuff, I don't want the experience to be
> swayed by having met and liked/disliked him.
Hmm. I'm not sure I'd mind liking someone's work more because I liked
them-- I don't have to earn a living as a reviewer, so a purely
objective critical faculty isn't that important to me.
But I don't think it works that way. There are several writers who
I've had very pleasant meetings with, or can tell via the net or
observing them at cons are wonderful people, and I still don't like
their books.
It did rather spoil my enjoyment of Marion Zimmer Bradley's books when
she was rude to sixteen-year-old me at a signing. I have no such
conflicts regarding China though, having coffee with him and a few
others was one of the highlights of the trip.
> I note at the novel length, as with the novel length
> Hugos, the candidates are largely not Americans. Two Canadians
> (For values of 'spent winters in Alberta as a kid = CDN*), two
> British and one definitely from the US. Don't know where Volsky
> is from. Looking through the recent WFA lists, the WFC seems to
> take the World part of their name seriously.
I think _Galveston_ just won some Canadian fiction award. I was under
the impression that Sean Stewart was not actually Canadian, but
presumably that was checked at the ballot level.
Rachel