Queens' Play
Aug. 29th, 2007 03:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rusty_haloFinished "Queens' Play."
Hmmm. Okay. I didn't like this one as much as the first. But it was still good.
[Disclaimer: I read it really fast, so please don't laugh at me if I say something stupid. Although you're welcome to correct me if I obviously missed something. And PLEASE don't spoil me!]
I felt like the first one had a bunch of incredibly vivid and striking moments: Lymond impersonating the Spaniard, Lymond rousing everyone in the whorehouse with a bagpipe player and the subsequent wrestling match, Lymond playing music for Christian's death even though it gave away his location, the duel between Lymond and Richard, Lymond risking his life to stop the messenger, all the scenes of Richard nursing Lymond back to health... etc. So many great moments. And a great progression from showing Lymond at his best--brilliant and badass and untouchable, and then to completely suicidally broken. Just awesome.
This one .. not the same. Only a couple moments really stood out to me: Lymond poisoned while disguised as Thady Boy, the chase on the rooftops, and the scene between O'LiamRoe and Lymond after they find Robin Stewart's body (Lymond putting his fist through the window was cool).
Um, which I guess is saying that the big emotional moments in this one didn't affect me as much? I seem to be totally invested in Lymond's relationship with Richard (who I don't even really like on his own). It was great when he showed up, but he didn't stay long enough. And the climax, stopping the explosives, wasn't tied into any big emotional or character stuff, so it just felt like a bunch of action without any emotional weight to it.
Also, the sex scene... wtf? Sorry, I was rolling my eyes at that. And Oonagh O'Dwyer was the most irritating character. She felt very one dimensional, even with her strong ideals, conflicted loyalties, and moments of humanity, mainly because the only thing she really seemed to have going for her was the fact that she was pretty and female. I don't like humorless fanatical people, maybe? But I didn't even get a strong enough sense of her personality to even say that for sure... I just don't see why either Lymond or O'LiamRoe gave a crap about her.
Robin Stewart was so sad. I mean, in a good way, he engaged my emotions. He always seemed kind of pathetic and doomed, and even when you found out how awful his actions were, it was hard not to feel sorry for him. He kind of reminded me of Cameron in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," someone who needs to stop whining about what he doesn't have, and resenting those who have more, and instead get off his ass and take charge of his own destiny. (I mean, I guess Stewart tried, but in a totally pathetic and rotten way that didn't work.)
I love how angsty Lymond was over his death, the way that Lymond uses people (almost always for "greater good" purposes) but forgets that they have human weaknesses and foibles that won't always lead them in the direction he expects. (Kind of like Dumbledore, isn't it? Although Dumbledore was always trying to create the illusion of his own above-it-all wiseness, whereas Lymond's more about creating the illusion that he's just using people for his own amusement, even when he actually cares about them.)
Funny how everyone falls in love with Lymond, isn't it? Will Scott and Robin Stewart both had such huge crushes on him. So much in these books to feed the fannish brain.
I've been reading discussions on LJ (trying desperately not to get spoiled!) and I'm amazed how many people don't like Lymond. I love him completely. He's the character archetype I totally get--someone who is brilliant and talented but DEEPLY fucked-up and broken, and who hides behind various masks, trying not to let anyone else get too close. (I mean, I've definitely had my moments of putting up masks and pretending not to care, when my heart was broken inside...)
I had a hard time getting into this book, probably as much as the first one. OMG, so much of it was in French! Like, a scene would end with a line in French, and without knowing the French, you'd be like "WTF just happened?" I mean, luckily if you kept reading you'd eventually be told, but it was awfully frustrating. I don't speak a word of French. And all the new characters! And they all have multiple names! There were a couple of moments where I'd read a paragraph five times and not get it, and I felt like Dunnett was deliberately trying to make me feel stupid. She's awfully show-offy with her knowledge, isn't she? But then she'd amuse me with clever things and I'd be okay with it again.
And the complex politics! I definitely didn't like the way she interwove the politics, because it was always in big expository chunks. Paragraphs and paragraphs of why this family was scheming this, and that nation was scheming that, blah blah blah. Without a character to latch onto, such things are meaningless to me, but I'd have to remember it because *eventually* it would tie into the reason for some character's action. I think George R. R. Martin does a much better job of this, because all the political maneuvering is done through characters we know and understand, and you actually SEE the action of it instead of being told (show don't tell, right?), so the political scheming becomes riveting instead of irrelevant/incomprehensible.
Oh and the other thing that irritated me, back to the whole "a story is better if you show the reader what's happening instead of just telling it," is that there'd be these big TELLING moments where some character would spout in dialog the theme you were supposed to have picked up. It's just a cheesy way for the author to make sure you're on the same page as her. Like when, after Robin Stewart dies, and Lymond gets all broody, O'LiamRoe thinks, in dialog form, exactly what Dunnett wants her readers to be thinking: that even though Stewart was pathetic and doomed, he hero-worshiped Lymond, and Lymond is still at fault for using and disregarding him. WE KNOW THAT. Sheesh. I mean, after all the MULTIPLE LANGUAGES and GAZILLIONS OF CHARACTERS we've had to slog through without explanation, she thinks we're too dumb to figure out the internal character stuff? This happened a bunch of times and really started to irritate me.
One thing I did love, which I saw other people complaining about, is the way Dunnett totally fucks with your head. I love that she doesn't even bother to tell you which character is Lymond at first. You think it's probably O'LiamRoe, but then Thady Boy did do that cool move saving the ship, so you're not sure, and she's not telling you either way, and it's driving you crazy not to know... and you're pissed, but then later you realize that she put you in the same position she put Stewart, so you understand why he, too, was confused about which character was Lymond in disguise. I laughed out loud at that.
I'm really going to have to re-read this one, with translations of the French. There are so many moments where Lymond's actions are completely incomprehensible, and all you know is that he has some ulterior motive for whatever he's doing, and that you'll find out later what it might actually be. And then it's hard to tell what ridiculous things he's doing on purpose for some secret reason, and what ridiculous things are actually mistakes. Definitely the kind of story that you'll benefit from on a re-read. It's almost like the first read is about getting the the bones of the thing, so that you can go back and actually appreciate all the nuances later.
And, damn, I can't wait to start on the next one. Too bad I have to pack for DragonCon tonight!
[Cross-posted to my InsaneJournal]
Hmmm. Okay. I didn't like this one as much as the first. But it was still good.
[Disclaimer: I read it really fast, so please don't laugh at me if I say something stupid. Although you're welcome to correct me if I obviously missed something. And PLEASE don't spoil me!]
I felt like the first one had a bunch of incredibly vivid and striking moments: Lymond impersonating the Spaniard, Lymond rousing everyone in the whorehouse with a bagpipe player and the subsequent wrestling match, Lymond playing music for Christian's death even though it gave away his location, the duel between Lymond and Richard, Lymond risking his life to stop the messenger, all the scenes of Richard nursing Lymond back to health... etc. So many great moments. And a great progression from showing Lymond at his best--brilliant and badass and untouchable, and then to completely suicidally broken. Just awesome.
This one .. not the same. Only a couple moments really stood out to me: Lymond poisoned while disguised as Thady Boy, the chase on the rooftops, and the scene between O'LiamRoe and Lymond after they find Robin Stewart's body (Lymond putting his fist through the window was cool).
Um, which I guess is saying that the big emotional moments in this one didn't affect me as much? I seem to be totally invested in Lymond's relationship with Richard (who I don't even really like on his own). It was great when he showed up, but he didn't stay long enough. And the climax, stopping the explosives, wasn't tied into any big emotional or character stuff, so it just felt like a bunch of action without any emotional weight to it.
Also, the sex scene... wtf? Sorry, I was rolling my eyes at that. And Oonagh O'Dwyer was the most irritating character. She felt very one dimensional, even with her strong ideals, conflicted loyalties, and moments of humanity, mainly because the only thing she really seemed to have going for her was the fact that she was pretty and female. I don't like humorless fanatical people, maybe? But I didn't even get a strong enough sense of her personality to even say that for sure... I just don't see why either Lymond or O'LiamRoe gave a crap about her.
Robin Stewart was so sad. I mean, in a good way, he engaged my emotions. He always seemed kind of pathetic and doomed, and even when you found out how awful his actions were, it was hard not to feel sorry for him. He kind of reminded me of Cameron in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," someone who needs to stop whining about what he doesn't have, and resenting those who have more, and instead get off his ass and take charge of his own destiny. (I mean, I guess Stewart tried, but in a totally pathetic and rotten way that didn't work.)
I love how angsty Lymond was over his death, the way that Lymond uses people (almost always for "greater good" purposes) but forgets that they have human weaknesses and foibles that won't always lead them in the direction he expects. (Kind of like Dumbledore, isn't it? Although Dumbledore was always trying to create the illusion of his own above-it-all wiseness, whereas Lymond's more about creating the illusion that he's just using people for his own amusement, even when he actually cares about them.)
Funny how everyone falls in love with Lymond, isn't it? Will Scott and Robin Stewart both had such huge crushes on him. So much in these books to feed the fannish brain.
I've been reading discussions on LJ (trying desperately not to get spoiled!) and I'm amazed how many people don't like Lymond. I love him completely. He's the character archetype I totally get--someone who is brilliant and talented but DEEPLY fucked-up and broken, and who hides behind various masks, trying not to let anyone else get too close. (I mean, I've definitely had my moments of putting up masks and pretending not to care, when my heart was broken inside...)
I had a hard time getting into this book, probably as much as the first one. OMG, so much of it was in French! Like, a scene would end with a line in French, and without knowing the French, you'd be like "WTF just happened?" I mean, luckily if you kept reading you'd eventually be told, but it was awfully frustrating. I don't speak a word of French. And all the new characters! And they all have multiple names! There were a couple of moments where I'd read a paragraph five times and not get it, and I felt like Dunnett was deliberately trying to make me feel stupid. She's awfully show-offy with her knowledge, isn't she? But then she'd amuse me with clever things and I'd be okay with it again.
And the complex politics! I definitely didn't like the way she interwove the politics, because it was always in big expository chunks. Paragraphs and paragraphs of why this family was scheming this, and that nation was scheming that, blah blah blah. Without a character to latch onto, such things are meaningless to me, but I'd have to remember it because *eventually* it would tie into the reason for some character's action. I think George R. R. Martin does a much better job of this, because all the political maneuvering is done through characters we know and understand, and you actually SEE the action of it instead of being told (show don't tell, right?), so the political scheming becomes riveting instead of irrelevant/incomprehensible.
Oh and the other thing that irritated me, back to the whole "a story is better if you show the reader what's happening instead of just telling it," is that there'd be these big TELLING moments where some character would spout in dialog the theme you were supposed to have picked up. It's just a cheesy way for the author to make sure you're on the same page as her. Like when, after Robin Stewart dies, and Lymond gets all broody, O'LiamRoe thinks, in dialog form, exactly what Dunnett wants her readers to be thinking: that even though Stewart was pathetic and doomed, he hero-worshiped Lymond, and Lymond is still at fault for using and disregarding him. WE KNOW THAT. Sheesh. I mean, after all the MULTIPLE LANGUAGES and GAZILLIONS OF CHARACTERS we've had to slog through without explanation, she thinks we're too dumb to figure out the internal character stuff? This happened a bunch of times and really started to irritate me.
One thing I did love, which I saw other people complaining about, is the way Dunnett totally fucks with your head. I love that she doesn't even bother to tell you which character is Lymond at first. You think it's probably O'LiamRoe, but then Thady Boy did do that cool move saving the ship, so you're not sure, and she's not telling you either way, and it's driving you crazy not to know... and you're pissed, but then later you realize that she put you in the same position she put Stewart, so you understand why he, too, was confused about which character was Lymond in disguise. I laughed out loud at that.
I'm really going to have to re-read this one, with translations of the French. There are so many moments where Lymond's actions are completely incomprehensible, and all you know is that he has some ulterior motive for whatever he's doing, and that you'll find out later what it might actually be. And then it's hard to tell what ridiculous things he's doing on purpose for some secret reason, and what ridiculous things are actually mistakes. Definitely the kind of story that you'll benefit from on a re-read. It's almost like the first read is about getting the the bones of the thing, so that you can go back and actually appreciate all the nuances later.
And, damn, I can't wait to start on the next one. Too bad I have to pack for DragonCon tonight!
[Cross-posted to my InsaneJournal]
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Date: 2007-08-29 09:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-29 09:18 pm (UTC)*stares fascinated at your usericon for five minutes before remembering to hit the "post comment" button*
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Date: 2007-08-29 10:36 pm (UTC)You get me sick, and Jabba's coming to our activities...
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Date: 2007-08-29 10:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2007-08-30 12:30 am (UTC)