#Book Critique

[tommock]

I DNF'd Mistorn: Here's Why

Disclaimer: You asked for this. Let me start there. Don't get mad at me, Mistborn lover. If you clicked on this link, and that means you are taking the dagger into your own hand. The wound is self-inflicted!

I did not finish Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. I know, I know, its actually called The Final Empire. The name Mistborn has stuck with so many readers for a reason, so I'll continue to use it as a shorthand. The book didn't work for me, but I think WHY it didn't work for me might be interesting to read about, especially for fellow authors.

If you have read and enjoyed the Mistborn books, or any work by Brandon Sanderson, I'm delighted. I want to applaud any work of fiction that brings people joy (so long as it or its author is not reprehensible in some way (he said, covering his ass)). I don't want you to think this is me taking shots at you or at Sanderson. I'm just talking about a work of fiction and what it did to my brain.

Believe me when I tell you I have no delusions about being some high-handed minister of good taste. You should see some of the anime I watch to destress at the end of a long day trying to be a self-published author, editor, and, well, just an ordinary semi-functioning human being.

I've read many, many books and loved them, only to come back to them later and find they were … less deserving of my matured tastes. Sometimes books meet us at the right time. If Mistborn was, or is, one such book for you, I would be a jerk and a fool if I tried to tell you that you were wrong for liking it. That isn't what this is. But, if you're at all curious why I didn't like it the way you did, here are my thoughts.

Instead of trying to construct some long elaborate essay, I've decided to present my reading notes as I was writing them. If you're at all familiar with my SPFBO9 opening reads thread, this is in a similar, though much protracted style. This is my travelogue of the first few chapters. If these notes are rough or feel stilted in places, I'm sorry. I DNF'd the book a few months ago, and I found in trying to clean up my notes that I was making up commentary to fill in gaps and I don't think that's fair. I've tried to provide some context where I could.

Pages referenced are from the first mass market edition, published August 2007 by Tor

My Notes:

Starts well enough. Interesting introduction to the fantastic elements of the environment (the ash fall) and the enslavement of the skaa. Some neat 2nd world titles “obligator,” etc.

Not great, not riveting, but competent introduction of world and one protagonist, Kelsier. He doesn't know what to do with Vin, though. Disconnect between the characters as we're told they are and their actions. Lacking coherent motivation.

(P.5)The slave that stands and stares defiantly sending a chill through the lord so-and-so is a bit melodramatic. Both actions struck me as over the top.

(writing note)…too many “of courses”

The writing is competent and descriptive. The Mist at night is another interesting setting detail.

(p.6) I immediately dislike Kelsier. “I’ll have to cure them of that (fear of the mist) some day.” This is has an unsympathetic arrogance about it. If this is also the man who stared defiantly at lord-so-and-so, hes blasé about endangering these people, and seems to look down on them, much like lord-so-and-so. I suspect this impression is not intentional. I suspect I’m supposed to think him strong and clever. We’ll see.

(7) rolling his eyes at these people. This seems intentional. But it’s also annoying.

(10) beatings beatings beatings. These “peasants” and their daily beatings. Did I mention the beatings? Their lives are harsh! There are beatings!

(‘) what is this talk about Tepper “leading” the skaa? Leading them how? They’re slaves! What decisions are they making? No, really. What is this forced little conflict? It’s pointless.

(‘) “How do you do that?” “What?” “Smile all the time” - there’s no reason for him to ask this. It’s unmotivated dialogue. How do you smile all the time? How? No. Why, sure. “You keep smiling. Is something about our home funny to you?”

(19-20, ch.1) I’m having trouble with Sandersons storytelling. This is coming across as heavy handed and simplistic. Here’s Vin. She was betrayed. There are betrayals. This boy who came to get her who’s nice enough will also betray her. But the ash is free…

I wonder if we’re going to slowly work through the alphabet section by section. Ash, then beatings and betrayal… who knows what could be next? Crime? I bet it’s crime.

Also - Reen’s sayings and betrayal. I think in general I find it a bit affected when we meet a character and they’re immediately thinking of their backstory … but that’s probably not fair of me. I think what comes across as affected is Sandersons execution. There’s a very light fiction - YA quality about Vin’s angsty introduction. I might have loved it if I read it at 14, but not now.

I’d like to think of an example of what would be more appealing to me - the introduction of a character with similar enough circumstances… Actually, Gideon the 9th might be a good example. We get to hear Gideon’s voice in the prose and the dialogue and get a strong sense of her character as well as the specific and very interesting world building details of how she got into the 9th house. Here, Reen’s betrayal is left completely unexplored, and so I wonder why bring it up at all except for that cheap YA punch in the gut of “my brother betrayed me and now I’m here.”

Maybe Sanderson felt some necessity to move faster here. He wanted to get to the city theiving … but it isn’t working for me, so obviously I think it was a mistake. Obviously he was hoping this would create a sense of anticipation that we would eventually find out HOW Vin’s brother betrayed her, but because he leads with it and then doesn’t explain it, it makes it seem like it doesn’t really matter HOW Vin was betrayed, what’s important is that she was betrayed and now she doesn’t trust anyone. It’s just a bit weak.

THE HEAVY HANDEDNESS (People being mean to Vin - her hard life) (21) the slap in the face (23) Theron looking Vin up and down - “eyes lingered on her … running down the length of her body. … She was hardly enticing (didn’t even look 16); some men preferred such women, however.” (24) “what do you know?” “Enough” - Vin hurts her, expositional dialogue about her brother’s debt and selling her to a whorehouse.

(25) fearing Vin would disappear in a scene she doesn’t have much to do during, we get these unnecessary interjections of her watching the interaction, followed by the explanation of Camon thinking Vin is his good luck charm. This should have been presented earlier, because it just interrupts the dialogue here. But also, it feels inaccurate after Vin made such a useful critique of Camon’s servants. She seems much more useful in other ways than a luck charm, and comfortable offering her criticism without the slightest hesitation.

This chapter ends rather abruptly and without much Go to it. Vin uses her Luck and gets our stuffy official to consider her boss’s mundane business proposal.

The notion that Camon brings Vin along because he thinks of her as his luck charm feels really thin, especially on a job like this where everyone has to look the part. Which raises an important question: what was Vin doing there? I mean literally. Why didn’t Camon have SOMETHING for her to do. Camon didn’t dress her up in any part, she didn’t have any kind of cover story as his daughter or nurse or anything. Just some kid in the room dressed … who knows how while important official business is discussed. She just floats somewhere, doing nothing, as far as anyone is concerned.

VIN’S MOTIVATION Where is it? What does she get out of making this work for Camon if he has no idea what she’s doing? Why is she avoiding him if this is such an important job? Why is she helping him at all?

The pieces are there, but Sanderson doesn’t put them together.

Camon should know about Vin’s ability to “smooth things over” in some capacity. This would give him a serious reason for her being there on this crucial job. Vin should be motivated to help him because if this lucrative job works out, it will go a long way towards paying off her brother’s debt. Now suddenly there is a sense of urgency for her instead of just having a bad time owned by a “crew leader” getting slapped around. The scam itself isn’t enough. Frankly, it’s kind of boring at this point. It’s a slow moving beurocratic swindle.

(32) Kelsier. Sanderson is doing a good job introducing some thieves’ cant here as Dockson and Kelsier are planning their job, talking about how they need a “Smoker.” Someone is a good Tineye. The loss of a man to the Steel Ministry underscores the mortal risk these men are taking. But … there’s something about all this crime play that feels a bit cute, like Sanderson had only a passing, generic understanding of (fictional) gangs/criminal organizations. He’s spent his world building energy on the fantasy aspects of the story - the dystopian Tolkien Lord Ruler and Steel Ministry, skaa, ashfalls, mist - but not on developing the criminal world of the characters, linguistically speaking. They’re all crews working on a job headed by a crew leader. This is the world we’re living in, most immediately, and yet it feels the most underdeveloped.

“Kelsier shook his head. ‘No. He’s a good Smoker, but he’s not a good enough man.’ Dockson smiled. ‘Not a good enough man to be on a THIEVING CREW … Kell, I have missed working with you.”

This stopped me dead. I laughed at the book and put my hand over my eyes. “Thieving crew” is just silly. It’s sixth grade D&D language, but even more ridiculous is the sentiment of Dockson’s statement: that character is somehow a moot point because they are criminals. It’s as if he’s saying: we’re breaking the law, so we’re the bad guys, and bad guys don’t work with “good men.”

Here we see Sanderson’s shallow understanding of the characters he’s portraying. They are stealing from slavers who exist in the service of a brutal, oppressive dictator. But put that aside, and consider we’ve just been told one of their ilk had been caught and beheaded by the Ministry. The risk these people are facing couldn’t be higher. Working with people they can trust, a stand up guy or a “good man,” would be one of the most important things to them. From their point of view a “good man” doesn’t mean a patron saint of the poor, but it means a hell of a lot. If a guy is a drunk who cheats on his wife, you can’t trust him not to turn on you. If he gambles too much, you can’t trust him not to gamble on your safety. He doesn’t keep his apartment clean, how can you trust him to be conscientious about keeping you alive. It all matters - even more so because he’s on a “thieving crew.”

Now, Sanderson probably didn’t give this line more than a moment's thought. He was writing fast and sailed right over it. But that’s exactly the problem. It gives the book a kind of childish, YA feeling.

(33) “Kelsier turned with curious eyes.” I’ve written lines like this, but I almost always revise them because I write about eyes too much. The point is his eyes aren’t curious, Kelsier is, and it shows on his face. I can’t picture curious eyes, and I’m sure you can’t either. And I would cut the next line of dialogue - going to chastise my brother … we already know he was going to do this because he said so, and the line just isn’t very good anyway. A look of curiosity from Kell, and the promise from Dockson “it’ll be worth your time,” gets us out of the section better. Sometimes the best repartee between characters is a look.

(33-34) the scenes with Vin remain heavy handed, and affected. This section adds almost nothing to the story accept for the disappointingly narrow view of a fantasy underworld that the women in it are only ever whores. This from a world crawling with Smokers and Tineyes? I think not. The clumsy presentation of Vin’s awful life is what makes these sections particularly affected. With her particular ability to use her Luck, I can’t help but wonder why she’s even still here. That seems to be the story to me. Not the abuse, but why she remains when she clearly has the power to get out. She can smooth over deals with reps from the SM, but she hasn’t thought to calm some member of the crew and then just … walk? Go literally anywhere in the city and use her Luck to get work where she won’t be whipped and slapped. It seems like the easiest thing in the world, so why hasn’t she done it? This is what the story here could have been, and it would have been so much more interesting.

Obviously she has to be there so Sanderson can have terrible things happen to her so she can be saved by Kelsier just like he saved the other raped scaa girl (let’s all take a moment to roll our eyes) and then her character can have a trajectory from passive victim to active hero - but that’s an excuse, and excuses don’t make good stories.

That said, as is, these two pages could be cut entirely and with very minor revision to the next session, nothing would be lost. It introduces a hideout we don’t need to know about, abuse that is redundant, over the top and unmotivated, and then Camon says “it’s time.” It’s just a prelude, in which nothing happens, before the actual scene. So just cut to the actual scene.

(36) we finally find out what the Camon job was supposed to be, I suspect because Sanderson finally decided what the details were. It would have been much more interesting to know this earlier, just like it would have been more interesting to understand about the particulars of Vin’s brothers betrayal earlier, so we could understand the context of the story being told.

But a LARGER ISSUE continues to emerge. First Camon tells Vin nothing about his plans. She says she is apparently the only crew member who didn’t know what was going on. Then, as they sit in the waiting room, in the vey belly of the obligator beast, he tells her everything. Why? Because Sanderson wants us to know even though he never decided who this character was.

He wants her to be a passive victim of inordinate abuses by a group of irredeemable villains, who only avoids constant sexual assault through the exhausting use of her secret magic so she can be saved and then learn how to be powerful later. But he also wants her to be a smart, capable member of Camon’s crew who is considered as such, because he knows passive protagonists aren’t interesting and because he wants us, the reader, to know what’s going on, and also think that Vin is cool. She can’t be both at the same time. She either needs to be less of an abject, pathetic victim, or she needs to be less involved in this big important scam - and that means she knows less about it and does less to make it work. As is, he’s done too little with either idea of her character and both Vin and Camon are an unmotivated mess.

(42) steel inquisitor. Cool, creepy, disgusting - something straight out of hellraiser.

(43) “Besides, I’m not about to let a possible Mistborn slip away from us” Ah!

Ch3 (45) after the meeting with the obligator (that was a trap), is the first time Vin ever expresses any interest in getting away. Much too late Sanderson gives us a much too thin reason why Vin hasn’t run away (considering the conflicting versions of her character as mentioned before). It’s little more than an afterthought.

(47) in no more than 2 pages Vin goes from never thinking she could make it on her own to leaving for good, telling herself she’d survived sleeping in alleyways before, she could do it again and - “Reen had taught her how to scavenge and beg. Both were difficult in the Final Empire … but she would find a way, if she had too.”

So far, this is all based on a bad feeling. More motivation conflict - Vin has no problem telling Camon directly how his plans won’t work and that he should change the way the servants are dressed, helps him succeed with her luck in both plans, but sees no reason to tell him “I have a bad feeling about this. That was too easy. Why did that obligator suddenly agree. Doesn’t this seem weird to you?”

Sanderson has many of the right pieces, but he hasn’t been able to put them together coherently.

(45)(And, just as an aside, I’m not sure why a girl who has spent to book so far reiterating to herself that EVERYONE WILL BETRAY ME is going out of her way to tell Ulef she has a bad feeling and to get him to come with her. Sanderson says “if he would go with her, then at least she wouldn’t be alone.” But he has also up until this point defined her character by a near constant desire to be alone - when she is introduced sitting in the window of the hideout thinking her brothers word “Vin wasn’t on duty; the watch-hole was simply one of the few places where she could find solitude. And Vin liked solitude. ‘When you’re alone, no one can betray you’- (37) at the “It’s just another betrayal, she thought sickly. Why does it still bother me so? Everyone betrays everyone else. That’s the way life is … She wanted to find a corner - someplace cramped and secluded - and hide. Alone.”

(47) "Bringing Ulef was a good idea. He had contacts in Luthadel." These after the fact explanations are no good. This isn't Vin thinking this, it's the author coming up with more justification for Vin's action, but in order for her character to seem active and motivated, this needed to be revised into the section where Vin decides to bring Ulef. Now it's just tacked on - oh, yeah, and, by the way, if you weren't sure it made sense for Vin to do this, Ulef probably knows people. So, there.

It doesn’t wash. Who is this girl? Can she not stand the idea of being alone, or is it the one and only thing she wants? Is she strong and resourceful in spite of her circumstances, or is she a passive victim? Does she believe everyone will betray her, or does she desperately want to believe otherwise because she can’t live in such an unkind world? Sanderson doesn’t seem to have been able to make up his mind. Maybe some of these details were added in revision on the suggestion of beta readers and the result is a checkerboard character. I’ve seen that before where you make a suggestion to a writer and they add your suggestion but they don’t make the necessary changes to the rest of the book so that the new material earns its place, they just throw it in and dust off their hands - job well done, gotta stay on schedule to publish! But now I’m just writing fan fiction about Sanderson’s process. I don’t know.

(55) Vin’s “weakness” - the contradictions/inexactitude of characters seems to be an ongoing issue for Sanderson, at least for Vin. Is she weak and has to pretend to be strong, or is she strong and often chooses to pretend to be weak (so far she has seemed to be weak and act weak, other than her Luck).

Well, that's as far as I got. Kel shows up just in time to be the wrath of justice for Vin. He's the superman who will make everything alright for this feckless girl. Our hero. Did Sanderson lay it on thick enough? Did you get that these people were all so irredeemably and stupidly bad? Aren't you so glad this strong man has shown up to be Vin's vengeance, just like had been telegraphed all along?

Sorry, I don't mean to be sarcastic. This part of the narrative really isn't so bad, its just been so heavy handedly and clumsily lead up to that there's no thrill in it for me. It isn't a bit satisfying. I'm just glad I don't have to read about any of these shallow side-characters anymore. Except, I have no intention to read on, so I don't have to read about any of them anymore.

Is this book bad? Yes and no. I don't want to read any more, and only read as far as I did as an examination of storytelling, so for me its bad. You only get so many eyerolls before I have to say that. The sentences are very clear and coherent. On their own, they are coherent. Together, they fail to paint of picture of coherent characters who drive the action of the story. If you don't have that, at least in my book, you've got nothing.

The images work. The setting, in its broad strokes, is eveocative. I'd love to set a DnD campaign in a world of ash and a dark lord and all that (I'm not the least mad about the cliché of the dark lord, by the way. Who doesn't love archetypical stories?) But, as near as I can tell, there are no human beings in this book. No one is real. The characters are just that, only characters in a book. They are paper cutouts. They fall flat when the hand of the author isn't pushing them around and making them do things.

Fans often hold Sanderson up as the gold standard of a fantasy author who produces work fast. And having read this far into Mistborn, I can say this about it: It reads like it was written fast.

Yes, Mistborn was an earlier book of his, so I can't judge him by it alone. But it is a work that is so often held up as a favorite by his readers. That's why I picked it up, to see what all the fuss was about. There were many things I enjoyed, but what I enjoyed wasn't the narrative. The story and the characters who moved it were the thing that I enjoyed least. The unique magic and broad setting details and description of places and creepy Inquisitors were what I liked best. The proper nouns were fun.

But proper nouns don't make a story for me. So I did not finish Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.

If I were looking for a light fantasy read that I didn't have to take seriously and I could pick up and put down whenever I wanted because it was never that exciting or particularly witty or clever, but managed to string along one event after another and kept them going, more or less, whether it made much sense or not, until the end, I think Mistborn would be a fine book to dip into. Lots of people have read it. But then, that seems to me to be its major appeal. It’s a book you can talk about with other people.

It's not enough for me, though. There's lots of fun fantasy books out there that feel more coherent, and, well, INTERESTED in the story they're telling. Interested in violence and revolution and crime in an oppressively totalitarian, dystopian world. Interested in the plight of a young girl who only wants … well, what does she want? To be safe? But the only way she finds she can be safe is to go toward danger and realize how very strong she is? Maybe this story would like to be that, but it hasn't been for the first 60 or so pages.

Sanderson's novel felt more interested in the large and vague story shapes around the characters - a city, a dark lord, slavery, soot snow, bad mist, some kinds of magic, and (I cringe to say it) rape and thieving and beatings - but not in the world of their lives.

I've heard good things about The Way Of Kings from people who did not like Mistborn either, but its safe to say at this point that I have reservations about my reading tastes being a good match for Sanderson's work, at least at this point in time.

If I'm looking for fun I'd rather read another swanky, noir fantasy by Douglas Lumsden any day, or the next gothic gaslamp fantasy mystery by Morgan Stang, or discover my next favorite author, indie or otherwise.

I don't think Mistborn was terrible by any stretch of the imagination. Sanderson has delighted readers for over a decade now! He's prolific, hard working, and he delivers what his fans want, and he and they continue to be richly rewarded for his efforts. He is a Name in the genre, often listed alongside the greats. And why not? Isn't pleasing readers what this is all about? Taylor Swift has oceans of adoring fans, and she's no less deserving of her accolades. Brandon Sanderson is the Taylor Swift of fantasy, you could say. I just don't like her music either.

[jules-ln]

Sorry Anon, the post was too long so I decided to make it its own post instead of an answer

Let me write my Bible because I have thought about this more than I should and I'm mentally ill

First the silence of the girls

I'm going be honest and say that while I don't like this book, I can recognize that is very well written and author makes it very interesting

But!

The girls were silenced indeed 😅

Like, if you're going to market your book as a "feminist" retelling of the Iliad I'll expect your level of feminism to be more advanced than what Homer was writing

Don't get me wrong, I know that women and children are often overlooked at wars specially in a historical context, but what Pat Barker was presenting as feminism was simply "Women suffer more than men in wars 😥" and that is the same thing that Homer was saying hundreds of years ago, more than that, I'd say that Homer did it better

And you know, it's supposed to be a feminist retelling, so I was expecting sorority to be a thing, specially because the only other source of comfort, respect and friendship a woman like Briseis could have had then would've been other enslaved women

But no, we don't really see sorority in the greek camps for more than a couple of paragraphs at best, and I got the feeling that some women characters were just genderbents of the male heroes, like Odysseus's enslaved woman is clever, Nestor's enslaved woman is maternal, florals for spring? groundbreaking

More than that, in the Iliad there is a character named Iphis that is Patroclus's enslaved woman and Briseis mentioned being close friends with her. So you expect that being a close friend of the protagonist she should have a lot of dialogue, specially in conversations with Briseis, don't you think?

Bish, I don't even remember her talking at all to begin with, much less to Briseis! 🤣

The only meaningful relationship Briseis has in the book are Achilles and Patroclus, her life orbits around these men and the other women don't matter

And that leads me to my other point

Briseis doesn't do ANYTHING.

Now, I know, I know, I know. Briseis doesn't do anything in the Iliad either, but that's some of the problems I have with Iliad adaptations.

Like, none of them will EVER be as good as the Iliad, to any writer that think that they can make an adaptation of the Iliad be as good as the Iliad. Sit down, you aren't that guy

So really, they should just do what MM did. Do your own thing that can stand on its own without hanging on the Iliad. Even if it's different, that's a good thing

Now, I say all of that because, it would've been Good if Briseis did something, ANYTHING at all other than stand there and look pretty

You might say "it's accurate to the Iliad" I say "A protagonist that doesn't do anything at all and doesn't influence the world around them in any way is boring"

There was even this part where Briseis wonders about how much control Patroclus has over Achilles, And I was here like "Yesssss, Briseis is going to emotionally manipulate Patroclus to control Achilles so she can be the one who is actually in control of both"

Nope, that, didn't happen, like, at all

Even at some point the narrative kicks Briseis out of the story to focus on Achilles and Patroclus, and like, feminism where? 😅

Once again that leads to my next point. Patroclus and Achilles part was more interesting.

Unironically, the best part of the book was the relationship that both had, it was the type of relationship that was like "I love you, but ngl I kinda hate you and want to kill you too unironically" And I think that's interesting! That's new, I've never read anything like that regarding those two before!

But that's a problem, because when I bought the book I wanted to read about women, I wanted to read about Briseis, not about Achilles and Patroclus, and that the author made them SOOOO much more interesting than Briseis, is just sad

Then there's the problem of the rapes scene, which, in this day and age if you're going to add a rape scene in anything, you better have some freaking good reason. And in this book, they're there for mere shock value, it doesn't give anything to the story, it doesn't change the tone of the book, a good editor would've take them out, but I guess it was part of the "feminist" message 🙄

But really, I don't hate the book, like I said, it's well written in my opinion, but it is a disappointing book because it could've been a great book with some tweaks here and there

Now about The song of Troy

ACHILLES YOU SON OF A BITCH FUCKING LIPLESS MUPPET I HATE YOU Y SI CIEN AÑOS VIVO CIEN AÑOS CHINGAS A TU MADREEEEE

Now that we got that out of the way

See, the thing is that I've read the song of Troy some time ago, and I mostly rage read it so I don't remember it very well

Like I hated it SO MUCH it it it Flames flames FLAMES on the side of my head (yes, it's a reference) so I'm just going to say the things I remember that made me mad

🔸️Helen is the prime example that writing women that don't suck ass ISN'T an innate skill in women, like she was one of the most misogynistic characters that I've ever read and if I was Menelaus in this book, I would be happy that she was gone, bon voyage biatch!

🔸️Both the book and Achilles treat Patroclus like Trash

🔸️The story treats Achilles like an uwu boy that can do no wrong when in reality in the book he's an idiotic asshole estúpido kbron hijo de la chingada pinche mamon bastardo agarras tu espadita la haces rollito y te la metes por el culo pendejo de mierda. Yeah, I don't like Achilles in this book

🔸️Odysseus is written to allegedly be very smart, sadly in actuality he's very dumb, because you see, the whole thing about the fight between Agamemnon and Achilles was an elaborate plot by him to get the Trojans to come out if I remember correctly, now, I think any good good tactician will tell you that an overly elaborate plan that will result in like half of your men dying with no guarantee of it being successful anyway, isn't so smart

🔸️Briseis was written so badly... I'm just going to put it this way, at some point in the book Achilles hits her, and that was the best fucking thing Achilles did in that book, like yess fucking muppet slap that bitch again. Oh but don't worry, Briseis in the book was ok with being slapped and not in a kinky way

🔸️Helen hits Andromache, and so did Hector. I'm going to leave it at that

🔸️I don't remember too well because at this point the fog of rage was too thick, but I think Achilles and Hector kinda fell in love when they were fighting? Which was very weird

So make yourself a favor and don't read it

If you want a good adaptation read these

🔹️War music by christopher logue, it isn't finished because sadly the author died, but best adaptation I've read so far

Here's a quote I like:

"When Nyro’s mother heard of this

She shaved her head; she tore her frock; she went outside

Ripping her fingernails through her cheeks:

Then down her neck; her chest; her breasts;

And bleeding to her waist ran round the shops,

Sobbing:

‘God, kill Troy.

Console me with its death.

Revenge is all I have.

My boy was kind. He had his life to live.

I will not have the chance to dance in Hector’s blood,

But let me hear some have before I die.’

‘I saw her running round.

I took the photograph.

It summed the situation up.

He was her son.

They put it out in colour. Right?

My picture went around the world.’"

🔹️La cólera by Javier Olivares and Santiago García, is a comic in Spanish, but if you can get your hands on one copy, do it, it's so good and the art is beautiful, one of the best portrayals of Achilles I've seen, Pyrrha also appears

🔹️An Iliad, by Denis O'Hare and Lisa Peterson, is a play, and tbh I don't like this one as much as I do the other two, but it is SOOO GOOD too.

🔹️En mitad de tanto fuego by Alberto Conejero, this one is a play; short and sweet and the narrator is Patroclus, very new too, and as far as I know it's only in Spanish, but if you can get it, do so, because it's very good.

Let me translate a part of it to the best of my abilities to tempt you a bit

"How short was life, how short... Now bury me as soon as possible so I can cross the gate of Hades. Bury me, Achilles. And if someone in the future finds my tomb and opens it, let them see how smoke comes out of my shroud still. Because of the desire, Achilles, because of the desire"

[lizzie-dude]

I've been trying to figure out why I didn't like the sun and the star for a while now and I think I finally get it, so here are my useless ramblings.

Rick Riordan's books have always been silly and full of jokes, and they've always had cute fluffy romance moments, but there have also always been sacrifices. In the first five books, people die. A lot of people. You obviously know that camp half-blood is going to win the titan war, but while reading it you're worried about individual characters, because it's been shown that important characters can die. There are stakes. The heroes of olympus had a lot less death, but they were equally full of depressing moments and serious topics. Leo remembering his mother's death, what happened with Frank's grandma, Percy and Annabeth being separated for six months, what happened with Reyna's family, Percy and Annabeth falling into tartarus, Nico's scene with Cupid, Bob being left behind, and probably a lot of other things I'm forgetting. There was tragedy, there was sacrifice, the books could be serious when they wanted to be. Even in the trials of Apollo, which were much more full of jokes and references, tried to balance it out with Jason's death.

To me, tsats didn't have any moments like that. I knew throughout the whole book that Will wouldn't be left behind in the underworld and that Bob would be rescued. It didn't feel like there were any stakes at all. Not only was there no sense of loss, or even the possibility of loss, but it practically erased some of the tragic moments from other books. I can't feel the same sense of tragedy rereading Bob's sacrifice now, because I know he just gets taken home and none of it mattered anyway. That part of House of Hades was emotionally impactful because you thought he was never coming back; Bob gave his life and his freedom for his friends and that's what made the moment beautiful. But all of that is just...undone. So is Nico's trauma. I get that Rick was doing the whole "your problems will always be a part of you, but you can still learn to live with them" thing, but the way Nico's issues were resolved still feels incredibly shallow to me. To take years of pain and loneliness and heartbreak, to take the feelings of a kid who lost his mother and his sister, who's dad never truly loved him, who was ostracized from the only society he knew, who only found company among the dead, who had feelings he had been told all his life were wrong, who loved someone that could never love him back, who faced the depths of Tartarus, who lost his closest friend after he had only begun to heal, to take that kid's feelings and turn them into cute little fluffy balls feels so freaking insensitive I can hardly put it into words. Trauma can be healed, it can be recovered from, it can be lived with, but it can't just be turned into something sweet and wholesome.

Idk if I explained all of this right, I was trying to articulate how I felt. You can agree or disagree.

[lifecyclesofmayflies]

Ok. So.

I just finished listening to H.D Carlton's "Haunting Adeline" and the sequel "Hunting Adeline"

Now, I am not a professional writer, so far be it from me to critique someone who is, BUT...

There are a few things about the books that really bothered me...(sexual content not withstanding)

My biggest gripe, is the repetitive usage of certain things. For instance, the amount of times the various characters "lick their lips" before speaking, the way everyone's eyes "round" over and over, and the way their "teeth clicked" at least 50 times.

The big one for me, though, was the way she used the term "fisted her hair," what (I have take a rough guess) was 40 times in the second book alone. Sure, once or twice is acceptable, but as an author is it not incumbent upon you to vary your phrasing?

Grip, clench, clasp, grab, control... the list of terms for holding something forcefully in one's hand continues.

These were the first two books of this nature I have ever listened to, and by the end of the second book I found myself fully ignoring the sex scenes. Not because they were necessarily boring but rather that I got bored of how "expertly" everything was done in every scene. It eventually became boring to me that everything was done so perfectly to where I would just have to roll my eyes and smile at it.

They were entertaining though and I don't regret listening to them at all.

[intothestacks]

J. R. R. Tolkien vs. C. S. Lewis & critiquing each other's books

[bayoudusion]

No hate to Sally G reen but wtf is wrong with that half bad trilogy?? Why is it baked in misogyny, anti gay tropes and why does the book's prejudice have to be just an allegory for racism ( I mean ikw it's becuz mfs can't understand that depiction of racism =/= pro racism) while not featuring any poc main characters???

Imagine being outdone by a netflix adaptation of your original work. I'd never come back to civil society again.

[yara-farhunt]

Tired of people harassing you over critiquing/criticizing popular/well-liked (or otherwise) series in any media? Don’t worry, this is the server for you where you can criticize any media to your hearts content! This is currently a small server but I’m pretty active on Discord! 😊

It’ll be an 17+ server due to the variety of adult content (I.e. Viv’s work, Family Guy, South Park, etc.) having the possibility of being mentioned when it comes to the topics involved.

It’ll be a great server for artists, writers, game developers, and other creative fields, and reviewers and other types of critics!

[deambulationsdelabibliothecaire]

Hateread de Tara Duncan tome 10 – Dragons contre démons - Chapitre 20

Ceci est un Hateread du tome 10 de la saga Tara Duncan, inspiré par le long travail de Patricklemorse. Pour plus d’explications ou d’introduction, référez vous au post « Hateread de Tara Duncan tome 10 – Dragons contre démons - 0 : Dans les épisodes précédents » !

L’ensemble des extraits cités entre guillemets et en italiques appartiennent à madame Sophie Audoin-Mamikonian, que j’appellerai Madame S.A.M par facilité.

Hello les loulous !

Vous lisez certainement cette intro un moment après la publication du post sur le chapitre 19, mais sachez que je commence immédiatement après avoir fini le chapitre précédent. Celui-ci était si mauvais que j’ai désespérément besoin de prendre quelque chose de bon dans cette saga avant de refermer mon document LibreOffice.

La dernière fois, Mara trahissait l’Empire, tuait un Très Haut Mage et volait la sphère-négation, tout ça dans un chapitre qui arrivait à être chiant à mourir en dépit des enjeux.

Aujourd’hui, nous rejoignons notre mauvaise troupe sur Tadix. Le chapitre 20 s’intitule « Archange, ou comment découvrir que son futur potentiel peut-être petit copain voire fiancé est sans doute un sérial killer. »

Bref, la dernière fois qu’ils apparaissaient, nos sacrés camarades venaient tout juste d’invoquer Archange et sa clique, ce à quoi certains dragons ne réagissaient pas très bien.

Archange ordonne à ses démons de se calmer avant que tout ça vire au bain de sang. Tout ce beau monde se détend, les démons sont tous des top models, et Archange va voir Tara, ravi de la croiser. Tout ça ne plaît pas du tout à Cal, qui lâche un grognement. Parce que même le génie du groupe réagit comme un clebs quand il voit sa copine se faire draguer par un prétendant politique.

« Fafnir écrasa le pied de Cal, ce qui le fit sursauter. Il jeta un regard blessé à la naine, qui le lui rendit froidement, haussant ses sourcils roux d’un air de dire : « Eh bien quoi ? Tu veux vraiment tout faire rater ? » »

Putain, même Fafnir a une réaction logique, tu la sens ton efficacité, Cal ?

« Il se sentait l’âme d’un homme de Cro-Magnon. À moi ! À moi ! En fait, il aurait bien attrapé Tara pour l’emmener dans sa caverne. (les hommes de Cro-Magnon ne méritent pas la comparaison avec Cal. Et je suis persuadée qu’ils étaient mille fois plus subtils que ce que Madame S.A.M. imagine. Also Cal vient d’Autremonde et les bouquins passent leur temps à nous dire qu’il est inculte sur tout ce qui concerne la Terre, il ne devrait pas se faire ce genre de réflexion)

Sauf que, pour l’instant, Tara avait l’air littéralement hypnotisée par le bellâtre. Elle le regardait comme s’ils étaient seuls au monde. Cal espéra très fort que c’était du cinéma. Qu’elle n’oubliait pas que ce… truc était un monstre sous ce corps trop parfait. (Oh mais fait chier… qu’est-ce qu’on en a à foutre de la réelle apparence d’Archange ? Certes, je ne choisirai peut-être pas un démon pour une partie de jambes en l’air, mais 1/ peut-être qu’il y a des gens qui aiment bien, d’où tu juges. 2/ les relations inter-espèces ne doivent pas être si rares que ça dans cet univers, il y en a eu plusieurs simplement dans le magic gang 3/ La visée de Tara n’est pas de se marier par amour pour Archange, mais pour former une alliance politique qui leur éviterait une guerre ! Un autre parti envisagé était Chem, tu crois qu’elle a envie de pécho son mentor ? Donc qu’est-ce qu’on s’en fout d’à quoi il ressemble en vérité, ou du fait qu’il cache à quoi il ressemble ?? L’essentiel, ce sont ses actions, à la fin, pas le nombre d’yeux qu’il a !)

En fait, si Cal avait été dans les pensées de Tara, il aurait été encore plus inquiet. Parce que lorsque Archange avait plongé ses yeux verts dans les yeux bleu marine de Tara, la jeune fille avait senti… quelque chose.

Comme si elle était attirée par Archange. Un peu comme ce qu’elle ressentait… avait ressenti pour Robin, lorsqu’elle était folle amoureuse du demi-elfe. »

Ce bouquin aurait dû s’appeler « Tara Duncan : Adonis contre apollons ». Quand j’ai commencé ce PDF, j’attendais de la baston, pas un concours de JoJo poses. Je veux juste qu’un dragon casse la gueule d’un démon à ce stade, s’il n’y a que ça je serai déjà contente. C’est dire.

Sur ce, Archange ordonne à ses subalternes de distribuer les cadeaux qu’ils ont amené.

« Les démons avaient bien étudié les Omoisiens. Ils savaient ce qui allait plaire à Lisbeth. Tout n’était qu’or et joyaux étonnants, pierres extraites de leurs planètes, nouvelles couleurs, nouvelles textures, étoffes soyeuses rebrodées d’animaux improbables. Tara ne put s’empêcher d’être surprise. Elle ne savait pas pourquoi mais elle avait du mal à imaginer que les démons avaient un tel sens artistique. Mais elle comprenait très bien ce qu’ils faisaient. « Regardez, nous ne sommes pas différents de vous, nous aimons les mêmes choses, nous avons le sens de la beauté, soyons amis. »

C’était incroyablement habile. D’ailleurs, tout autour d’elle, elle sentait que les gens se détendaient »

Putain mais quelle habileté de fou d’offrir des cadeaux pour briser la glace face à des alliés politiques. Trop malins les gars. Stade avancé de réflexion, 4739 de QI, hauts potentiels intellectuels.

« [Lisbeth] leur offrit de précieuses semences, des blés résistant aux maladies, des pousses d’arbres fruitiers en stase prêtes à être plantées, des embryons d’animaux, un millier environ, des objets et gadgets fabriqués par ses usines et ses savants. Elle montrait l’étendue de ce qu’AutreMonde et Omois pouvaient apporter aux nouvelles planètes. Les machines mi-mécaniques mi-magiques, des systèmes de communication (elle avait la ferme intention d’inonder ce nouveau et juteux marché avec ses plaquettes de cristal-phone super-sophistiquées avec projection holographique des appelants, mémoire de plusieurs milliers de TMO52 etc.), des connaissances médicales aussi, des sorts de Reparus automatiques très coûteux et complexes, puisqu’on ne pouvait pas se guérir soi-même, ou encore de merveilleux parfums, des onguents onctueux et adoucissants, bref, un panel très varié dans lequel leurs futurs partenaires commerciaux allaient pouvoir choisir ce qui leur serait utile.

C’était aussi intelligent que ce qu’avaient fait les démons. »

Nan. Nan, c’est bien plus intelligent que ce qu’ont offert les démons, bien plus élaboré et ciblé, et une plus grande preuve de considération. Rendons à César ce qui appartient à César, ça, c’est une écriture de Lisbeth telle qu’elle la mérite. D’autant que, si on est indulgent envers madame S.A.M. et qu’on choisit de dire que ce n’est pas un élément sorti du chapeau, les Reparus automatiques ne sont pas répandus dans l’univers de Tara Duncan. Ce qui signifie que Lisbeth réserve ces éléments coûteux à la diplomatie avec les démons. Très in-character pour le personnage. À côté de ça, les tissus péniblement décrits que leur offrent les démons, ils peuvent aller se rhabiller avec.

« De fait, avec ses coffres regorgeant de joyaux et d’étoffes, il paraissait un peu futile, quoique très luxueux, alors que l’Impératrice montrait sa volonté de commercer. D’accord. Le point était pour Lisbeth. Il tourna son regard vers Tara. La jeune fille l’avait certainement conseillée. Il ne devait pas, jamais, sous-estimer l’intelligence de la jeune humaine. »

Oui bah c’est ça, suppose que le mérite revient à Tara et pas à Lisbeth. C’est sûr que Lisbeth n’a pas l’intelligence de prendre cette décision elle-même. Elle n’est jamais qu’Impératrice d’Omois depuis plusieurs années. Une broutille.

Bon, cela dit, vu la façon dont elle a exercé son pouvoir dans les chapitres précédents, la narration a probablement raison d’accorder cette idée à Tara. Mais ça m’énerve profondément.

Archange est parfait et il trouve Tara parfaite, blablabla. C’est l’heure de la récré, et par récré on entend que les démons vont se balader un peu partout et le reste des gens présents aussi. On a une redite de la blague « Ce serait drôle si on tuait un démon sans faire exprès oupsie » du chapitre 17, mais qui ne marche pas cette fois. Les âmes démoniaques, prisonnières des objets que porte Tara, se tiennent à carreau.

Un Tadixien vient s’enquérir du magicgang, ce qui fait réagir bizarrement Fabrice, qui se demande s’il ne serait pas atteint un peu par la magie démoniaque de la troupe d’Archange. Oupsie doupsie.

« Fabrice aurait dû rester sur Terre » : 3 (surtout que pour l’instant il est aussi utile qu’un plot).

Et sur ce, Glubl est de retour !! Vous savez, le type que rencontre Moineau pendant la réception, dans le chapitre 4 ? Je l’aime bien, même s’il n’a pas fait grand-chose pour l’instant. C’est le moment d’en apprendre un petit peu plus sur lui :

« Comme Sylver, il était une sorte d’hybride. Une création artificielle voulue par un sortcelier qui désirait que des humains, et non plus des gnomes, soient capables de communiquer avec les Santivoriens. Il avait donc mélangé les ADN, mis les produits dans le ventre de plusieurs mères porteuses humaines, puis attendu de voir ce qui allait en sortir. La majorité des infortunés frères et sœurs de Glubl étaient morts ou étaient nés si déformés que la mort aurait été préférable. Fort heureusement, le sortcelier en question avait fini par être démasqué et emprisonné. Glubl avait été confié à des parents humains, mais, très jeune, avait manifesté de grandes capacités télépathiques. Dès qu’un Diseur se promenait à proximité, le jeune garçon était capable de percevoir ce qu’il disait. »

Bon, mis à part cette histoire d’être né « si déformé que la mort aurait été préférable » (je vois d’où ça vient mais ça a des petits relents de validisme quand même), je trouve l’origin story de Glubl cent fois plus intéressante que tout ce qui a été tenté en terme de personnages jusque-là. Sincèrement.

Tara va pour se reposer, mais elle croise…

« Mourmur les attendait près de l’entrée du couloir alors qu’ils se dirigeaient vers leurs chambres. »

YES, enfin ma dopamine est de retour.

« — L’Impératrice ne fait pas confiance aux démons (ça, elle n’était pas la seule !). Elle pense qu’ils vont peut-être tenter d’utiliser leur magie démoniaque afin de faire venir d’autres démons, maintenant qu’autant d’entre eux sont ici. Mes petits bijoux sont là pour les en empêcher. Ils bloquent le flux du pentagramme, on ne peut pas l’utiliser, et si on passe les défenses de mes machines, elles émettent tout de suite un signal d’alarme qui réveillerait un mort. Elles passent aussi du vert au rouge dès qu’un vortex est ouvert dans un rayon de cent tatrolls (j’ai tendance à penser qu’il y a plus subtil, comme alerte. Genre quitte à ce que Lisbeth et Tara aient toutes les deux des montres, utilisez-les pour les avertir discrètement, afin que les démons ne se doutent pas qu’on sait ce qu’ils sont en train de faire ? C’est donner une information capitale à un potentiel ennemi... Bon je sais pas pourquoi je me fatigue, Mourmur son truc c’est les explosions, pas la discrétion). Grâce à ma présence dans le cercle, j’ai pu mesurer tout ce dont j’avais besoin pour nous protéger et surtout pour les calibrer. Pardon si cela a pris autant de temps, mais j’ai dû utiliser une partie de la magie que vous envoyiez dans le vortex afin de les rendre compatibles avec. (Mourmur qui s’excuse ? OOC, je suis entièrement sortie de l’histoire. Plus sérieusement, le mec est giga imbu de lui-même et a une trop forte confiance en lui, il devrait plutôt se vanter)

Le vieux savant avait l’air très satisfait de lui (MERCI, ça c’est le Mourmur que je connais). Tara comprenait à présent un peu mieux pourquoi il avait fait partie de l’étoile du pentagramme, alors qu’il était le plus faible d’entre eux en magie, et de loin, mais aussi pourquoi il avait été si long et si compliqué de faire venir les démons »

Oui, c’est bien ce que je pensais, Mourmur n’excelle pas en magie comme le reste de la famille. Faut pas s’étonner après si c’est mon personnage préféré (même si, faut avouer, s’ils avaient continué de développer Manitou, ça aurait sans doute été lui mon préféré).

« Ils hochèrent tous la tête d’un air très convaincu.

Tara aperçut du coin de l’œil une silhouette qu’elle connaissait bien.

Angelica.

La peste parlait avec un démon qui semblait l’écouter avec passion.

Tara serra les lèvres. Qu’est-ce que son ennemie était en train de manigancer encore ?

À la fin de la discussion entre Angelica et le démon, alors que Mourmur continuait à expliquer ce qu’il avait mis en place pour les protéger, Tara faillit avaler de travers. Angelica venait de poser la main sur le torse musclé du démon, moulé par une fine chemise bleue. C’était un geste très intime pour quelqu’un qu’elle avait dû rencontrer deux minutes plus tôt ! Le démon sourit et ils partirent ensemble.

— Et toi, Tara, qu’est-ce que tu en penses ?

— Hein ? dit Tara qui n’avait pas écouté un mot.

— Deux, répondit Cal, moqueur. (Bon, je peux critiquer Cal autant que je veux, mais celle-là j’aurais pu la faire, j’accepte. L’un de mes crushs répond bien « Feur » quand on lui dit « Quoi », donc bon...) Nous nous demandions si tu pensais que les démons étaient aussi inoffensifs qu’ils s’appliquent à le paraître ou bien des bêtes assoiffées de sang. Pour l’instant, les bêtes assoiffées de sang mènent cinq voix contre une, notre amie Fafnir s’obstinant à les trouver « mignons ». »

Étrangement, j’aime bien cette scène… ? Oui, mes standards ont fortement baissé, mon fav c’est Mourmur et je lis Tara Duncan, de plus le chapitre précédent était affreux… Mais en terme de mise en scène et de dialogue, elle fonctionne. C’est facile de la visualiser car elle se découpe exactement comme un extrait de série télévisée. Là je comprends l’idée, et c’est plutôt bien retranscrit.

Tara apprend que Lisbeth a décidé d’éloigner les chambres de ses amis de la sienne. Mais bon, le fait que Lisbeth accepte leur présence est déjà une faveur que j’ai du mal à comprendre.

« Tara rentra donc seule dans sa suite toute blanche et prit une douche pour délasser ses épaules fatiguées par la charge de magie. Les sièges, perchés sur de fragiles tiges d’acier, robots animés et non pas magiques, s’écartaient sur son chemin. La première fois qu’elle s’était assise sur l’un d’eux, elle avait eu peur que son poids ne le fasse basculer ou ne le casse, mais le siège avait tenu le choc. Puis, d’une voix métallique, lui avait signalé qu’elle pouvait se laisser aller, qu’il était inutile qu’elle se tienne sur la pointe des pieds afin de répartir son poids et qu’il avait été fabriqué pour supporter une masse de deux tonnes. Tara avait fait la grimace, ces robots étaient un peu trop malins à son goût. Elle préférait les bons vieux fauteuils de bois confortables animés sur AutreMonde.

Au moins, eux ne parlaient pas. Enfin, pas encore »

Des fauteuils animés comme des robots c’est giga stylé, Tara est juste une hater des Tadixiens, c’est fou. Je suis sûre que si Mourmur ou Cal lui avaient fabriqué la même chose elle aurait trouvé ça super original et inventif. Et puis bon, un truc en principe pas vivant mais qui parle et rend des services elle en a un sur sa nuque, c’est sa changeline. Et je doute que son exosquelette du tome précédent n’était pas un poil robotisé. Les doubles standards ça suffit.

Bon, j’exagère, je ne suis pas opposée à ce qu’ils développent l’aversion irrationnelle de Tara envers une planète inconnue. C’est simplement dommage que ce soit contre Tadix qu’elle soit hostile, car à part les mœurs des Tadixiens autour des banquets, il n’y a rien d’extraordinairement détestable. Au moins, la narration nous fait savoir que ce n’est que le point de vue de Tara. Pour l’instant.

« La changeline lui créa un pyjama moelleux et frissonnante, parce que la température était un peu fraîche dans sa chambre, (je ne sais pas pourquoi j’ai ri en imaginant à quoi ressemblait un pyjama « moelleux et frissonnante ». Disons que coller ces deux bouts ensemble n’était pas super habile) Tara se glissa avec Galant à ses côtés dans le grand lit tout aussi blanc. Elle posa les Objets près d’elle, les sangles se resserrèrent afin de l’empêcher de s’envoler pendant son repos et sombra dans un sommeil sans rêve, tandis que son pégase l’enveloppait de ses ailes duveteuses. (mais l’image de cette chambre… je veux vivre là-bas, vraiment. Pourquoi on passe autant de temps sur AutreMonde ? Tout ce qu’ils ont pour eux c’est des palais faits en pierres précieuses)

Le lit la réveilla une heure plus tard, tandis que les sangles se rétractaient et qu’une douce lumière commençait lentement à éclairer la chambre. Tara sourit en réalisant qu’elle était surprise. D’habitude, soit on l’enlevait, soit quelqu’un s’introduisait dans sa chambre, soit il se passait quelque chose de bizarre ou d’étrange. Et là, rien. Comme si on lui donnait un petit répit avant que les choses vraiment sérieuses ne commencent. Elle s’étira et commença à se lever.

Puis se figea lorsqu’une voix bien connue murmura doucement.

— Tara ? »

Et le chapitre se termine ainsi ! J’ai bien fait d’enchaîner avec celui-là, il était nettement plus agréable à lire.

La prochaine fois, nous nous concentrerons sur Robin ! Ce sera l’occasion de savoir ce qui lui est arrivé.

D’ici là, à toutes !

[martinebirgitte]

Authors and the publishing market really, REALLY gotta figure out something to do with the YA section.

YA (young adult) in book-marketing is books marketed for age 12-18.

Spice should not be in the same book section as books for 12 year olds! That’s crazy! Another section should be made especially for MATURE YA!

A lot of people say “yeah but YA is actually for age 16-20 or 18-20”, but this doesn’t matter. The BOOK-marketing has set YA for age 12-18.

[luvbugs-blog]

PLS PLS PLS GIVE FEEDBACK

hey guys! i know i haven't published anything as of late, but i promise i do have a few fics in the works (and pls send in fic ideas... since i've gone to college, my brain has been musty dusty).

but i wanted to ask, if i made a side blog dedicated to book reviews, would you give it a look? i want to start a side job as a book critic, but i need a portfolio of works! let me know!

everyone have a great day and STAY WARM (if you live in an area where it is snowing!)

[chronicallytall]

THOUGHTS?

So what would people be wanting to see? Book wise, poetry, personal bits and bobs etc. I was thinking of working on a re read of all the ACOTAR books and analysing the plot, characters and general quality of the books. My second idea was deep diving into the amazing poet Anna Akhmatova, her work is once and everyone needs to know her story! Her poem Requiem is absolutely breath taking. So lemme know what people are feeling and even suggest anything else they would want to learn or know about, I just want to keep learning and doing it this way seems fun and takes away the academic tax that projects like this usually have.

Mwah - Aleks

[juliangreystoke]

Don't forget to catch up on this nonsense that dropped on Friday! Will we finally have dragons in this dragon book?!

[benditlikebechdel]

If you’re a reviewer/critic/influencer/editor withholding coverage to respect the #HCPOnStrike picket line, here’s how I’m replying to HarperCollins pitches in the meantime. Been sending a bunch of these and thought sharing a template might be helpful 💛

[i-na-ri]

Anybody else not really like the seven husbands of EH or is it just me??

It wasn’t bad, not by any means. It was a good concept and parts of the story were genuinely intriguing. But it just felt so…empty? Like I never really got a full view of Evelyn’s personality because we only see her from her POV, and most of the things she does are completely selfish and sometimes horrible and it’s difficult to sympathize. She just felt … empty. Like her only personality trait was “famous and hot”, and it kinda ended there. Not only that Celia was just terrible and I genuinely don’t understand why they were in love because she had like … no good qualities. Like yes, I understand they were in love, but why? What do they do for each other? What good qualities do they share to uplift the other?

The pacing also felt kind of weird and TJR’s writing style isn’t one I particularly mesh with. When I read I’m looking for a literary experience, and sometimes it felt like there was nothing profound or new about it. Just words on a page trying to tell her life. And that just isn’t really what I was into?? Also a good like 3 of her husbands were useless and added nothing to the story.

Im not trying to dunk on people who like it. We all have different tastes, it just wasn’t mine. But what I will say was for how hyped up this book was, it definitely fell a bit short for me and I’m wondering if anyone else feels this way.

Thoughts?

[cephalopodology]

*jumps headfirst into the fandom with this shit*

Hahah well uh hi there everyone 🥴/ lh

mainly I am critiquing from a writer’s perspective. I actually really love and enjoy Matthew as a character, and some of his scenes are my favorite (like the reverse mermaid one, forever iconic), so no hate to him.

It’s just plot-wise I feel things would be smoother w/o him yknow

would love to hear what y’all think tho

[midnight-fantaisie]

Prospérine Virgule-Point et la phrase sans fin - Laure Dargelos

Informations générales

Titre : Prospérine Virgule-Point et la phrase sans fin

Auteur : Laure Dargelos

Édition : Rivka (2021)

Résumé : 

Demi-Mot aurait pu être un village ordinaire, s’il n’était pas bâti à la limite du Texte. Jour après jour, les habitants polissent et astiquent les lettres ; ils entretiennent ces milliers de caractères qui, ans leur concours, se seraient déjà effondrés. Chez les Virgule-Point, l’aînée de la fratrie a choisi une voie bien différente : fleuriste ! Elle préfère bichonner les Trompettes à pétales plutôt que de faire prospérer l’empire des points et des virgules. Mais un événement inexplicable ne tarde pas à l’entraîner dans une spirale qui la dépasse.

Et si l’avenir du village était en jeu ? Et si tout était lié à la Phrase sans fin, cette mystérieuse phrase laissée en suspens par l’Auteur ?

Avis personnel

Monde : 

Nous sommes ici dans un monde totalement original qui m’a séduite dès la première page : le Monde des Mots. Une monde qui vit grâce aux écrits des auteurs, dans le “Monde réel”. Demi-Mot, le village natal des personnages principaux, est basé sur un écrit manuscrit que l’auteure n’a jamais terminé.

Personnages : 

Prospérine Virgule-Point est certainement mon personnage préféré (et le nombre de fois où j’ai voulu l’appeler “Point-Virgule”!). Et j’adore aussi Héloïse, petite plante toute mignonne ! En réalité, tous les personnages sont attachants et vraiment chouettes ! J’ai donc beaucoup aimé aussi Ernest, Poppy, Honoré.

Histoire : 

Nous sommes dans le Monde des mots où toutes les familles, ou presque, on un lien avec la littérature. Les noms de familles vont des lettres d’alphabet aux signes de ponctuations en passant par les caractères spéciaux (si chers aux mots de passe !). 

Prospérine vivait très bien sa vie de fleuriste dans un monde où tout le monde s’occupe du Texte jusqu’à ce qu’elle retrouve un corps dans sa boutique. À partir de là commence une aventure à laquelle elle ne s’attendait pas. Accompagnée de sa plante, de son frère et d’un certain Honoré Point-Virgule, notre héroïne va découvrir que tout n’est pas toujours rose et que son village est en danger. En effet, les lettres commencent à s’effondrer et si le texte disparaît, le village disparaîtra aussi...

Écriture : 

L’auteur a réussi un exploit : dès la première page, j’étais plongée dans ce monde littéraire ! Tout est fait pour qu’on plonge rapidement dans cet univers si original.

En plus, le roman est aussi graphique, car il y a quelques dessins au fil des pages et l’auteur joue vraiment avec le texte (quand Prospérine grimpe sur un mur, elle grimpe sur le texte du livre par exemple). C’est vraiment très bien fait !

Un roman que j’ai dévoré en quelques jours et que je recommande vivement. C’est vraiment un coup de cœur !