As a sister, I think of this as a quintessential Sister Book. I was just talking to a mother who thinks of it as a quintessential Mother Book. I suppoAs a sister, I think of this as a quintessential Sister Book. I was just talking to a mother who thinks of it as a quintessential Mother Book. I suppose it’s both, like Peter Pan is all about childhood and growing up, or Betsy-Tacy is all about friendship and staunch individuality.
I don’t usually pine for half stars, but I have things with this one that made me want to give it 3.5 stars but I liked it so much I just can’t round I don’t usually pine for half stars, but I have things with this one that made me want to give it 3.5 stars but I liked it so much I just can’t round it down to 3??
Dickens! Sibling love! More Dickens! MORE SIBLING LOVE!
The beauty and brutal honesty of Gingell’s stories never fail to…do something to me. I don’t know what they do. It’s kinSavage mercy, indeed.
*shivers*
The beauty and brutal honesty of Gingell’s stories never fail to…do something to me. I don’t know what they do. It’s kind of scary, though.
Part of me wants to say that in this finale (for the first time in ten books, which is VERY FORGIVABLE), the themes overtake the plot just a little. There’s a lot of thematic resolution and a lot of things that Pet has heretofore only said, that she’s now able to put into satisfyingly conclusive action.
But mostly, I think, there is just so much resolution of characters. It’s very satisfying.
Anyway, it was nice to reread it and actually pay any sort of attention to the main plot. I still had this obsessive need to rush through to get to the parts that Really Matter (i.e. that involve That One Character), but I curbed them enough to enjoy the actual story. Pet, triumphant, curious and compassionate and a legend in her own right in the world Behind (but still human to the core), takes up all the gifts she has been vouchsafed in order to protect her people and finally take on the king. (And she doesn’t stop there.)
She’s come so far from the Pet of book 1, and I’m so flamin’ proud of her.
”I warned you,” he said, and for an instant he could nearly have been JinYeong, all snarl and furious heat. “I warned you, Pet. I am not your chess piece.” “I know,” I said. “I’m yours. But I’m the flamin’ queen, and you better not forget it.”
(can we talk about that relationship for a sec, though? i mean. i just. *shivers again*)...more
Last year (I think) I reread my three favorite Austens (Persuasion, Sense & Sensibility, and Northanger Abbey). I didn’t reread Pride & Prejudice becaLast year (I think) I reread my three favorite Austens (Persuasion, Sense & Sensibility, and Northanger Abbey). I didn’t reread Pride & Prejudice because I’d already reread it several years prior. I didn’t reread Emma because…I wanted to, I did, but you do not know with what intense dread I await the Box Hill scene. It’s unendurable.
I had to reread it now, for a podcast episode, and I’m very glad I did. Jane Austen is so funny. It’s a sunshiny book. I love Mr. Knightley very much. (He resides next to Henry Tilney in my affections, I do believe.) (And for everyone’s edification, I make the announcement that as far as movie versions go, Johnny Lee Miller is the SUPERIOR Mr. Knightley.) Jane Fairfax is also a character I’ve always really liked.
Emma herself is, of course, the crowning glory. She’s not really unlikeable; she’s just…wrong. And a snob. And doesn’t work particularly hard at anything. But those bad qualities are paired with true kindness, intelligence, and a readiness to admit she was wrong and do better next time that most of us can only dream of equalling. I ADORE that mixture in her. I adore that Jane Austen acknowledges that that mixture EXISTS in people....more
i’ve always had a soft spot for kay (call it the sympathy of an older sibling whose younger sibling has also surpassed her in both skill and populariti’ve always had a soft spot for kay (call it the sympathy of an older sibling whose younger sibling has also surpassed her in both skill and popularity, that may be it, or not), and this is the first book i’ve read that makes him a sympathetic character (i really liked him, bluntness and all), so thank you phyllis ann karr for that
also thank you phyllis ann karr for this mordred. i love him. (i keep thinking about the types of antiheroes i like—normally i’m more of a gawain sort of girl (gawain is also wonderful in this book)—and mordred from this book and athelas from the city between books have certain similarities that intrigue me, not least the similarity of me inexplicably loving them far too much…but that’s a ponderment for another day.)
it was delightful reading this book in one- or two-chapter snatches in between my life, and toward the end it got so good. i suspect i am overly invested in the orkney family drama.
but basically, in this book, kay and mordred ride around in the woods trying to figure out who poisoned sir patrise (another knight of the round table) and there is a lot of banter
like i said, it was great.
if i was more conversant with arthurian legend, i’d have been less confused, but i was conversant enough (or the book was written well enough) to follow what i needed to and enjoy myself (and smile at a few of the references i did understand).
(content is basically just what you would find in malory—i assume, not having read much malory. there’s weird violence and adultery is technically illegal but you’d never guess from the actions of the majority of the characters)
ALSO ALSO that song “The Simple Joys of Maidenhood” started going through my head early on, and it’s SO APPROPRIATE shall i not be on a pedestal worshipped and competed for? shall i not be carried off or better still cause a little war? and like shall two knights never tilt for me and let their blood be spilt for me? and shall a feud not begin for me? shall kith not kill their kin for me? &c. (By the end Lancelot’s “C’est Moi” was also going through my head, and it too is appropriate, if not quite as perfect as Guinevere’s.)...more
It did not matter that I had already read it. I still had to read this right after book 8. I simply couldn’t leave it there. The way this book ends giIt did not matter that I had already read it. I still had to read this right after book 8. I simply couldn’t leave it there. The way this book ends gives me hope concerning the plotline I care about most, and so maybe I can take a break before book 10. No good reading it in a haze of I-just-want-this-to-turn-out-somehow-right-regarding-my-favorite-character again. I wanna appreciate all the good stuff.
There’s a lot of it. Daniel and Morgana’s relationship makes me happy. The werewolves calling Lord Sero progressively worse names and having outdated vocabularies makes me happier yet. Old Mad Bloke is here doing his thing. It’s a cozy book all around, despite the stupid magical arena which I hate. Everyone else hates it and thinks it’s stupid too, which kind of helps. There’s a lot of chilling in the house, recovering and bonding, with just occasional actiony interludes. I kind of love it.
The ending is wildly cathartic in at least two ways, and also it’s Zero’s book.
I really like Zero as a character, even though I don’t ever talk about him, seems like. He’s very interesting. And…and I really like him, is basically all. He was more front-and-center in the earlier books, but for a while now he’s been sidelined by JinYeong and even Athelas a bit, and I’m just really happy that this is his book.
No one mentioned “the Troika” a single time in this book, and thank goodness because I think of the Russian vehicle every time. Try imagining Zero, Athelas, and JinYeong as a horse-drawn carriage. Just…just try it. Isn’t it awful?
Oh, also, a thing happened at the end of this book that I’d realized reluctantly was gonna happen—I’d resigned myself to it, even, despite my initial violently negative feelings toward the very idea—but it happened in such a perfectly typical Pet-and-JinYeong sort of way. I…liked it, guys. I liked it.
How does W. R. Gingell make me love everything I hate? It’s an honest question....more
One time, a friend sent me this quote. I think she found it off Pinterest or something, just a random quote worked up all pretty on a background pictuOne time, a friend sent me this quote. I think she found it off Pinterest or something, just a random quote worked up all pretty on a background picture: “Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.”
She said it had made her think. (She made me read Ender’s Game for the same reason. She was always thinking and then dragging me in to think too.)
It made me think, that’s for sure. “You are the result of the love of thousands” comes into my head sometimes, along with this dim, half-visual idea of my ancestors standing in shadowy lines, back and back into oblivion: with me, here, a bright improbable drop of shining, animated dust at the point of the sword, the unlikely result of so many choices and so much love. All of which was never up to me. (Then I usually fade away into musings on Chesterton’s “democracy of the dead,” but that’s irrelevant here.)
This book brought that vividly to mind.
What makes Pet special? It’s her parents. It’s their choices that gave her—not everything she has, but the ability to have it at all. She’s different not because of herself, but because of what her parents did and gave for her.
There’s nothing to do with a gift like that, except be grateful for it and make flamin’ sure you don’t waste it.
I had very mixed feelings on this book the first time around. I loved that part, and I both loved and hated the way W. R. Gingell made good on previous books’ promises. I should have known she would; I’ve read enough of her books by now to know she is, above all, honest with her characters. The reveal in this book is honest: no band-aids over gaping wounds, no pretending people aren’t exactly what they are. But I would have been okay with a little pretense. I would have been okay if we’d taken book 7’s explanation and left it there. I respect so much that she didn’t, but also there are still more explanations needed, and the last two books had better provide them.
Also, the first time through, I didn’t like the sirens plotline, was annoyed by Athelas’s “ClickClock” joke and even Zero’s distaste for lip-synching, and definitely didn’t appreciate JinYeong being all proof against the sirens’ wiles simply because he’s so stubborn about the fact that he’s more beautiful than them and he won’t let them be more beautiful than him. I mean it is funny, yes. And kind of…touchingly childlike? JinYeong is touchingly childlike in many ways. It just annoyed me, though. Maybe it still did this time around, a little.
I don’t know why I didn’t like the sirens plotline, though. It’s good. The climax at the nest is gorgeously atmospheric and sharp with danger. Pet actually gets hurt; you feel the first touch of things heating up out of control, even out of the control of Zero. I know Abigail and her group are the least interesting group of characters in the series for me (though I’m fond of Ezri and her cricket bat; it’s perfect that she’s the one besides JinYeong who calls Athelas “old man”), and that that’s part of why books 6-8 aren’t my favorites. The other part is that I don’t always enjoy the melding of magic with technology, even though it’s clever, and that’s what books 6-8 are all about: 8 most of all, with the sirens being a central plotline.
Mostly, though, this book is possibly one of the best-crafted of the series, though it can’t be my favorite. It…honestly just hurts too much for that.
(Who am I and when did books start giving me emotions. I hate it. Make it stop.)
W. R. Gingell’s writing is deceptively simple. Emphasis on deceptive. And that’s one of the highest compliments I can give....more
”I adore poetry,” said the King, who had himself written a rhymed couplet which could be said either forward or backward, and in the latter positio”I adore poetry,” said the King, who had himself written a rhymed couplet which could be said either forward or backward, and in the latter position was useful for removing enchantments. According to the eminent historian Roger Scurvilegs, it had some vogue in Euralia and went like this:
‘Bo, boll, bill, bole. Wo, woll, will, wole.’
A pleasing idea, temperately expressed.
“A pleasing idea, temperately expressed.” It’s my kind of humor, okay?! I cackled into my silent, shadowy house at eleven at night and went on chuckling periodically thereafter.
This book was in general a delight. It had A. A. Milne’s signature jokes that you don’t know are jokes till you’re already past them, and it’s the going past them obliviously like that that constitutes the joke. The swineherd gag went on for far longer than I thought was possible. I was pleased with how all the storylines worked themselves out, and the only thing better than the narrator’s sort of reluctant, exasperated fondness for the eminent historian Roger Scurvilegs is his blatant partisanship toward Belvane—who is, in fact, the villainess of the piece....more
I forgot this is the one where Pet gets that first big memory back and I love it so much.
I also forgot this is the one where it kind of fully registerI forgot this is the one where Pet gets that first big memory back and I love it so much.
I also forgot this is the one where it kind of fully registers for me that JinYeong is just…a teenager. Who, because of what happened to him, regressed a bit and is now learning again and having to deal with heightened emotions. Which is not easy, because emotions can already feel overwhelming, especially when you’re a teenager. Like, heck, I know adults who can’t keep a lid on their emotions. Fortunately the damages in those cases usually don’t involve throats getting actually ripped out. Anyway, this makes me understand JinYeong and like him a lot better. When he explains to Pet how he trusted her that one time not to fight, I melt.
I did not forget that this is the one that made promises I really wanted it to keep, but also was really really mad when book 8 did end up keeping them. It’s just terrible, really, how W. R. Gingell keeps the promises she makes her readers....more
I think this is the version I read? Wrong cover, right translator.
My favorite bit is the fight with Grendel’s mother, I think, though objectively nothI think this is the version I read? Wrong cover, right translator.
My favorite bit is the fight with Grendel’s mother, I think, though objectively nothing beats the gloom leading up to the dragon fight. I mean just for nice stringing together of words.
Also Wiglaf=John the Apostle is SUCH A COOL PARALLEL...more
Mr. Campion grew on me slowly, but I really like both him and Margery Allingham’s writing style. The ending of this one confused me, and the title makMr. Campion grew on me slowly, but I really like both him and Margery Allingham’s writing style. The ending of this one confused me, and the title makes no sense, but I figured out the murderer (not that it was particularly hard) and I was worried for a while that it was someone else (whom I liked) and the side characters are a lot of fun....more
-Mabel, our sharp, pinched little heroine, hiding under tables and darting through reflecting pools -Hatter and Hare, mad and clever -The White Knight, -Mabel, our sharp, pinched little heroine, hiding under tables and darting through reflecting pools -Hatter and Hare, mad and clever -The White Knight, chivalrous and witless -JABBERWOCKY -Jack, arrogant and lazy and made selfish and apathetic by his “twisted little childhood” -the Queen of Hearts and her card sharks, extraordinarily scary villains -homages to the Alice books and Carroll’s work in general
Honestly, I love the Alice books, but…for very specific reasons. Meaning retellings aren’t necessarily going to please me.
This one, though…somehow it combined the nonsense and characters of the original with a fairytale-ish take-down-the-corrupt-monarchy plot and it worked beautifully. It’s so bizarre (as it should be; it’s Wonderland), but it worked beautifully. And it was kind of my favorite thing? I love both those things, but I didn’t know you could successfully combine them.
Moreover, Gingell didn’t change the characters. The Hatter, the Hare, the White Knight, they have all the characteristics of Carroll’s versions, even talking the same way, while also being Gingell’s characters, serving Gingell’s story. It made me happy.
Underland feels like Wonderland. That’s really the best way I can put it. It’s a clever retelling, but it’s a respectful retelling, especially, and that’s the thing.
I even like what a short book it is. I’ve come to decide that whatever the shortest way you can tell your story is, that’s the best way to tell it. Don’t make novels out of short stories or trilogies out of novels. Don’t write 100,000 words when you could write 50,000. Don’t make your movie 2 hours when it could be 90 minutes. Don’t make it the plot of a full season of a TV show when all it needs to be is a two-hour movie. I am tired to death of bloat and dead weight in stories, and you don’t know how refreshing it is to read a story where every word and every scene is necessary and compelling. Where you look over the slim finished product and are amazed at how small it is but more at how much there was packed into that small space. How complete it felt. That’s the mark of good writing. That’s exactly what this story was.
The only thing I had even the slightest quibble with was the romance—and even that I mostly liked, except when it verged too far into normality (mainly in a few of Jack’s lines). Jack’s a very unique character, and I dislike when unique characters say very typical things just because they happen to be in love. Fortunately he mostly didn’t.
TLDR: amazing Wonderland retelling, I’m in actual love...more