minutia_r

Finally managed to read The Lifted Veil

It’s … I got to be honest, it’s not George Eliot’s best work. It’s got a number of pithy epigrams and well-observed moments, but it lacks the psychological, plot, and worldbuilding complexity of most of her novels. Still, it’s interesting to see that she was writing about telepathy and precognition narrowing somebody’s life choices and human connections before, say, Frank Herbert was a twinkle in anyone’s eye.

Enjoying Beanstalk so far. Magic school adventures is a popular genre and so is D&D adventures, which makes it all the more surprising that I can’t recall ever reading a D&D character class school adventure. I think fans of Richard Gansey the Third would enjoy Rupert Willington Jons Hammerfeld the Seventh. The book would be improved in my opinion with a professional edit, but when you’re reading free books on the internet you pays your no money and you takes your chances.

But really–"the older young adult"?

(Please note that the book isn’t strewn with awkward epithets in general, which makes that one all the more glaring.)

LATER:

Finished Beanstalk. It’s not one of those fantasy trilogies where each book is basically self-contained; it ends, if not exactly on a cliffhanger, then at the beginning of a new journey which promises to resolve some of the questions left hanging.

@tanoraqui, since you’ve been looking forward to my review, here it is.

On the whole, I liked it. Like I said earlier, the premise was really clever, and I’m surprised I haven’t seen a D&D character class school story before. And unlike some books I could name (looking at you, Every Heart a Doorway) I feel like it lived up to its promise. At the end of the day sometimes it’s not that deep–you want a story abut schoolmates who become friends while fighting monsters and also The Man, and this delivered. @windsroad, Ii know you were on the lookout for lighthearted tropey fantasy a while back; I think you might like this one.

Like I said, it could have used an edit. There was occasional formatting weirdness, and the awkward and unnecessary epithet thing came up several more times, though not enough to be seriously annoying. At least one character’s name changed partway through the book. The POV could have been tighter in the main story sections–I don’t think that tight third POV is always the right choice or that head-hopping is always bad, but I really think that especially in the beginning where we’re being introduced to a lot of new stuff at once it would have been helpful if we were seeing it more firmly through a single pair of eyes.

(Speaking of which, as long as we’re talking about what I would have done were I the editor of this book, I really think Clement ought to have been cut from the first scene if not altogether. We’ve already got our hands full trying to learn about this whole new group of people, don’t introduce one who’s going to basically drop out of sight for the rest of the book.)

The flashback and flash-forward sections I felt were a little awkward too, although on the whole I understand and appreciate what the author was trying to do with the NPC obituary chapters.

There was some worldbuilding weirdness. Despite occasional hints that the town where the Academy is located was supposed to be somewhat Japanese-influenced–mentions of daikon and sake and people eating with chopsticks, a character with the family name Saito and another with the personal name Sakura–the whole thing was so firmly vaguely-European-ish-fantasyland that every time one of these things was mentioned if felt jarring. Similarly, Laney, one of the main characters, has dark hair and dark skin, comes from a desert culture with goats and camels and date palm oases, and is called Laney Jones, and her brother’s name is Liam. Other desert clans are called the Smiths and the Greens. There may be a point that the author is trying to make here but I think it’s somewhat muddled, especially since 90% of the names in the book are like that.

I also kind of wish the protagonists occasionally got into more trouble at school for doing things they’re not supposed to do. Harry Potter got detention, why couldn’t they? Honestly I probably would have liked a bit more of the school side of things in general, but that’s just a personal preference.

I did really enjoy all the friendships, though, which is really mostly what the book was about! As far as shipping potential goes I could definitely go for Laney/Grey, although I could do without the whole “guy calls girl by a name she has asked not to be called by” thing.

(I’m looking at you too, Fangirl. Although it annoyed me more there because it was part of a whole pattern where the love interest ignored the protagonist’s boundaries because he knew what was good for her, and was validated by the narrative. Other examples:

Protagonist: *buys boxes of protein bars so she won’t have to go to the cafeteria*

LI: If I EAT all your protein bars, you’ll have to come to the cafeteria and be around other people! >:D

and

LI: Why isn’t your writing partner walking you home from the library, is he some kind of CAD.

Protagonist: I… don’t want anyone to walk me home from the library?

LI: Not to worry! I, a true gentleman, will walk you home from the library.

Writing partner, some time later: *turns out to be an UTTER CAD*

But, uh, I digress.)

Anyway! It was fun and clever, would recommend, will probably be reading the rest at some point.