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beccaelizabethI finished reading the Malloreon.
I can see why I used to like it. I used to believe God had chosen for me a particular future involving a husband and babies. Since I now look back on that version of me with vast bewilderment (and a great deal of relief that I grew out of it) the ending no longer works for me at all. In fact it irritates the hell out of me.
Having read the whole second set of books I can't understand why Ce'Nedra is even in them. I mean in the first books she has a personality. She has stuff to do. She raises an army and becomes co-ruler of the West and proves herself a shrewd observer of people and really good at talking and talking them into things. Do any of these things carry through into the second set? Not a one. Because, you see, she is now Garion's Wife, and her entire story is about that. She is married to him, they have marriage problems, they get over them, they has sex, they has babies. Baby gets stolen and she spends the bulk of the books wandering around being assorted kinds of mentally ill (depressed or delusional), often in ways tangled up with mind control. And that's *it*. This is the same woman who raised an army! But as soon as she gets married all she is is a baby machine and when that function is denied to her her poor womanly little mind can't cope.
I hate this rather a lot. You can probably tell.
There's bits of these books that have theme and story arc and stuff. There's a story about learning not to hate. Which is rather a relief given that the end of the first set was all about hate. In this one it's about choice, which is win.
But, and this irritates me very much, there appears to be only one choice in the whole book. All the characters keep on going on about fate and how submitting to the prophecy makes them feel good.
I've also been reading a lot of Doctor/Master fic lately, including one where the Doctor gets conditioned with pleasure whenever he says Master, and, well, that whole thing really reminds me of something...
So there's the predestination aspect that irritates quite a lot. There's the treatment of female characters, where they mostly exist to try and manipulate men, every action of theirs is interpreted as being about manipulating men, and the concept that actually it might just be that (for instance) they have food cravings because they do indeed crave food is somehow alien to the narrative. They're women from the point of view of some very self centered men, is what I'm saying, each and every one of them.
And then there's the bit where becoming 'good' means becoming more like the West, including drinking ale if you're a guy and wearing gender appropriate clothing by Western standards, instead of all those men-in-silk-robes and women-in-trousers that them other countries wear. Seriously, you can tell when characters are switching sides, they start fitting the gender norms of the country of the point of view character. Annoys the hell out of me. What was wrong with the woman in the leather trousers? And her ending irritates me vastly too - she gives away her knives??? Since when is it a happy ending to hand your power away? Like Pol saying to Durnik "Anything you say" and just agreeing and following along after him. Oh, and having twins, as her extra special happy ending. Yes, she's raised a lot of kids, but if she wanted some herself for goodness sakes she surely could have had them. It's like she had to get done raising Garion and waiting for Durnik to become super special and earn a happy ending.
Durnik spends the whole of the books acquiring all the skills of the rest of the group, far as I can see. He goes from being a sensible practical guy to being kind of a sue. It irritates.
And then there's the thing where I know it'll end that way, it always ends that way, all these mainstream books end that way, but... there's a couple of dozen characters in these books, in all, and the happy ending for every single one of them is to get married (in neat little monogamous boy-girl couples, even in societies that aren't monogamous until then) and have children.
Except for the eunuch. He gets to go back to his giant snake. Queen. Who missed him. It's kind of like marriage, except they have pet snakes instead of babies.
Oh, and also? The happy ending on a cosmic scale is that the planet will eventually become monotheistic. Won't that be nice? Don't know how that'll work when all the other gods are also real and love their people too, but apparently everyone will worship the new guy eventually.
This annoys. Rather a lot.
So, anyways. Have finished reading. Books are now on a shelf I have to climb on furniture to reach. They will likely stay there for the forseeable future.
I still like Silk. I could like Velvet if she wasn't so very obviously designed as Silk's other half. If she existed with her own agenda and just happened to catch Silk's eye, I'd like her quite a lot. As it is she was introduced along with the idea she fancies Silk, and that makes her all about him with incidental accomplishments. Which makes her hard to like.
I've got to start writing more female characters. I mean there's ones I actually like in Doctor Who and Torchwood and Buffy and Angel, and here I am only writing about a couple of guys. Granted the bit where they're a couple is a refreshing part of what I don't find in many sources yet, but the bit where there's no women in my story any more isn't cool either. I can write about Tosh and Martha and Willow and... huh, Tosh and Willow would really work...
Anyways. Fanfic. Has more of the stuff I like and less of the stuff I don't like and if I like it not I can hit the back button.
I know it's a theoretical possibility to give up on books too, I just don't seem to have the right mind for it.
I can see why I used to like it. I used to believe God had chosen for me a particular future involving a husband and babies. Since I now look back on that version of me with vast bewilderment (and a great deal of relief that I grew out of it) the ending no longer works for me at all. In fact it irritates the hell out of me.
Having read the whole second set of books I can't understand why Ce'Nedra is even in them. I mean in the first books she has a personality. She has stuff to do. She raises an army and becomes co-ruler of the West and proves herself a shrewd observer of people and really good at talking and talking them into things. Do any of these things carry through into the second set? Not a one. Because, you see, she is now Garion's Wife, and her entire story is about that. She is married to him, they have marriage problems, they get over them, they has sex, they has babies. Baby gets stolen and she spends the bulk of the books wandering around being assorted kinds of mentally ill (depressed or delusional), often in ways tangled up with mind control. And that's *it*. This is the same woman who raised an army! But as soon as she gets married all she is is a baby machine and when that function is denied to her her poor womanly little mind can't cope.
I hate this rather a lot. You can probably tell.
There's bits of these books that have theme and story arc and stuff. There's a story about learning not to hate. Which is rather a relief given that the end of the first set was all about hate. In this one it's about choice, which is win.
But, and this irritates me very much, there appears to be only one choice in the whole book. All the characters keep on going on about fate and how submitting to the prophecy makes them feel good.
I've also been reading a lot of Doctor/Master fic lately, including one where the Doctor gets conditioned with pleasure whenever he says Master, and, well, that whole thing really reminds me of something...
So there's the predestination aspect that irritates quite a lot. There's the treatment of female characters, where they mostly exist to try and manipulate men, every action of theirs is interpreted as being about manipulating men, and the concept that actually it might just be that (for instance) they have food cravings because they do indeed crave food is somehow alien to the narrative. They're women from the point of view of some very self centered men, is what I'm saying, each and every one of them.
And then there's the bit where becoming 'good' means becoming more like the West, including drinking ale if you're a guy and wearing gender appropriate clothing by Western standards, instead of all those men-in-silk-robes and women-in-trousers that them other countries wear. Seriously, you can tell when characters are switching sides, they start fitting the gender norms of the country of the point of view character. Annoys the hell out of me. What was wrong with the woman in the leather trousers? And her ending irritates me vastly too - she gives away her knives??? Since when is it a happy ending to hand your power away? Like Pol saying to Durnik "Anything you say" and just agreeing and following along after him. Oh, and having twins, as her extra special happy ending. Yes, she's raised a lot of kids, but if she wanted some herself for goodness sakes she surely could have had them. It's like she had to get done raising Garion and waiting for Durnik to become super special and earn a happy ending.
Durnik spends the whole of the books acquiring all the skills of the rest of the group, far as I can see. He goes from being a sensible practical guy to being kind of a sue. It irritates.
And then there's the thing where I know it'll end that way, it always ends that way, all these mainstream books end that way, but... there's a couple of dozen characters in these books, in all, and the happy ending for every single one of them is to get married (in neat little monogamous boy-girl couples, even in societies that aren't monogamous until then) and have children.
Except for the eunuch. He gets to go back to his giant snake. Queen. Who missed him. It's kind of like marriage, except they have pet snakes instead of babies.
Oh, and also? The happy ending on a cosmic scale is that the planet will eventually become monotheistic. Won't that be nice? Don't know how that'll work when all the other gods are also real and love their people too, but apparently everyone will worship the new guy eventually.
This annoys. Rather a lot.
So, anyways. Have finished reading. Books are now on a shelf I have to climb on furniture to reach. They will likely stay there for the forseeable future.
I still like Silk. I could like Velvet if she wasn't so very obviously designed as Silk's other half. If she existed with her own agenda and just happened to catch Silk's eye, I'd like her quite a lot. As it is she was introduced along with the idea she fancies Silk, and that makes her all about him with incidental accomplishments. Which makes her hard to like.
I've got to start writing more female characters. I mean there's ones I actually like in Doctor Who and Torchwood and Buffy and Angel, and here I am only writing about a couple of guys. Granted the bit where they're a couple is a refreshing part of what I don't find in many sources yet, but the bit where there's no women in my story any more isn't cool either. I can write about Tosh and Martha and Willow and... huh, Tosh and Willow would really work...
Anyways. Fanfic. Has more of the stuff I like and less of the stuff I don't like and if I like it not I can hit the back button.
I know it's a theoretical possibility to give up on books too, I just don't seem to have the right mind for it.