Cursor's Fury
Aug. 25th, 2008 06:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI like this book. A lot. I kind of want to hug it and read it over again.
It's the theme, mostly, and the way it ties together stuff that isn't always clear in flashy fantasy stories.
It says it somewhere near the front, only I don't know which page so I don't know as I'll quote it right:
Warriors fight.
Soldiers fight together.
And then it spends the rest of the book showing how that plays out, proving the point, showing things about discipline and coordination and teamwork, and having fun mixing the military with the fantasy elements so you get some spectacular magic set pieces and some spectacular military set pieces and then get some that couldn't happen without both elements. It's really good.
It has the inventive application of magic that seems to me likely a result of playing way too many RPGs and seeing how far you can push the rules. And I mean that in a good way. I've had a lot of fun with spells that specify how much weight you can throw around without putting a miniumum on the size of the component parts, for instance. Imagine a P90s worth of smart bullets that just keep going... *happy grin*. So having had two books to establish the rules of magic in this 'verse, in this third one he pushes them and plays with the applications and it's *fun* because he sets it up, gun on the mantelpiece, and yet you don't see it coming until it rolls out at the big moment. That's craft, that is.
Also the air battles need special mention. In comics flying seems to be basically about striking a pose mid air. That's about it. But here it combines elements of airplane dogfights, skydiving skills, and things that come only from the established rules of magic. And then it brings them all alive until you can feel the wind in your face and imagine the noise and the sudden fright in the lack of noise. It's another time where the tricks are all adequately set up by the rules but come up at just the right moment. It's really great fun and I haven't seen anything quite like it. And also, who doesn't like flying? Flying is just *cool*.
There's a bit of a cloud though. Female characters again. There's the annoyance in the Good Girls Don't attitude, where the nice people only have one or two boyfriends in their whole lives, and they don't dump anyone, they have tragic deaths motivating them. And, okay, bonus for motivating the women by killing the men, rather than t'other way around. But. How many people have only ever shagged one or two people? And this in a 'verse where contraception is as easy as furycrafting, as easy as deciding. And there's big social pressures to make babies and social systems that forbid marriage while making arrangements that make babies more likely, so honestly, I just can't see it. People would have a lot of sex. But there's minor characters who are... there's a variety of words used, but involved in economic exchanges that involve sex. And they're not all evil. So, okay, ignore that. Then we're just left with things like female characters taking time out from being kick arse action hero chicks to feel 'feminine' because they get to be yielding when their bloke is all strong and manly. Bleargh. And the other bit where she learns to dress and walk like a sex worker to infiltrate the palace - because of course you never do that as a cook if you can do it in a bikini - and she feels all womanly again because men is looking at her like mobile meat. And because she's one of the good girls then this is the first time that's ever happened to her. Because all the good girls don't think they're pretty. And have I mentioned this bit makes me want to hit the book a bit? Because :eyeroll: doesn't quite cover it. And it's not just the feminine=yielding=pleasing-to-men. Or the way that women pleasuring women gets mentioned for shock value as part of the horrible degrading training of one of the bad girls. It's the thing where it's so asymmetrical. Men never feel manly because they're yielding to women's desires. Men never dress up pretty to try and attract a woman. Men never use their looks to get in to anywhere. It's really frustrating.
But the biggie is simple - when a male character does something good, it's because they care about the country, their duty, the big abstracts valued in their society. When a woman does something good it's for one particular man. The kick arse chick is protecting her husband, though she needs him to save her in the end. The healer woman risks her life for a man not because he's given loyal service and risked his life to protect her child for twenty years, but because secretly she's in love with him. The exotic spy woman does everything to follow her man around. It's only the bad womens that make plans to take power, gain equality, and run the kingdom, without it being because they're in love.
*headdesk*
Okay, so, it's not irretrievable. There's a way of reading it that makes it more like all the good women do things for High Lord and Country and then because they're good people prove they have the capacity to fall in love. And their other half men are doing samelike things. But... there's lots of men that are just doing duty stuff, and one that does duty and happens to get true love out of it, and their stories are quite different. But when it's from a woman's point of view, it's not the big Duty things, it's the oh no her bloke is in danger. Isn't right.
Writing it down, it seems to me I probably wouldn't notice it much if it wasn't so... typical. If there wasn't already a great big sore place around there.
And the choice of which characters are pov characters does a lot too. I mean, if it was Kitai's story about following her mad Aleran and finding out how his world works, things would be different. Not in that one women-motivated-by-men way, but the view of the world would be different. Wouldn't fit the story so much though. But the women that are pov characters - and it's a massive improvement over the Dresden Files that there *are* those povs, don't get me wrong, it's just the specifics that grate - they're there to fall in love and think about babies. And, thankfully, kick arse and save the kingdom, or else the military side of the plot would be muchly insufficient to save my interest. So there's good stuff, but... couldn't there be one couple where it's the man who is only involved for his girl's sake and thinks about babies a lot and it's the woman who is all political and focused?
... which might be what the Steadholder and the Slave are meant to be, but they spent the entire book with him having a fever and her fixing it, so if so it be right difficult to see.
I grumble about stuff some, but this book have lots of good points. As well as the young man's military story, there's the young woman's spy story, and the lady healer's story, and the politics that winds around mostly the women, and a lot of scenes where women talk to each other about work and politics, and some very strong stories all round. Is good.
And one of the driving engines of politics in the 'verse is women trying to get equality and people trying to abolish slavery. Is also good.
There is the slight problem that the women thus far have all been so utterly kick arse that you can't see how they got to be unequal in the first place, or indeed how they are unequal right now. With only following the stories of women who get to be steadholder or cursor or academ or high lady in equivalent ways to the men in the stories we don't have much of a sense of what they're fighting for. In the legions they do the cooking and cleaning and not the fighting unless they dress up and pretend to be men. As slaves they're more likely to be used for sex... but the places that abused slaves use the same techniques to get perfect obedience out of male and female both, so you end up wondering. Is the whole women's revolution about the threat of rape? In a world where their magic is the equal of any man's? So there's inequality, we're told, but we're not show how. It feels weird.
In random niggly details, there's the language thing. Random italicisation issues. If legionaire is a term in regular use then why do they keep putting it in italics? Stuff like that.
There's another thing where I never quite figured if it was a good or not. One of the central characters has what his society considers a massive disability. Can't do magic. And I liked that, because it's one of the ways I like stories to deal with disability, to sneak up on it sideways like that. But then actual existing disabilities get brought in, like physical stuff, injuries, hurt legs and arms and ears and heads. And there's casual comments about how a deaf captain's not much use. When he's always giving signals, but mostly with waving, not yelling. It feels a bit stupid. But is possible is meant to feel stupid. Certainly the inequalities in the society based around magic strength are meant to look stupid. Which is cool, cause then it's about using the abilities you've got to make a difference. Works great. I just... will look very carefully at the non-metaphorical disabilities, because, much room to screw up.
I write it all down and it feels like the things I didn't like about the book were quite small on balance and the things I did like were great. And unlike the Dresden Files, by the same author, I don't get the overwhelming urge to run away and look for books with actual women in. There's women here. Just... with some issues.
Is still good book.
PS my tags auto suggest 'boobs' when I start typing in 'books'. I can't decide if I should go correct my tags so it not do that or just start imagining boobs with lots of words written on.
... no, actually, written down like that I ... decide pretty easily...
It's the theme, mostly, and the way it ties together stuff that isn't always clear in flashy fantasy stories.
It says it somewhere near the front, only I don't know which page so I don't know as I'll quote it right:
Warriors fight.
Soldiers fight together.
And then it spends the rest of the book showing how that plays out, proving the point, showing things about discipline and coordination and teamwork, and having fun mixing the military with the fantasy elements so you get some spectacular magic set pieces and some spectacular military set pieces and then get some that couldn't happen without both elements. It's really good.
It has the inventive application of magic that seems to me likely a result of playing way too many RPGs and seeing how far you can push the rules. And I mean that in a good way. I've had a lot of fun with spells that specify how much weight you can throw around without putting a miniumum on the size of the component parts, for instance. Imagine a P90s worth of smart bullets that just keep going... *happy grin*. So having had two books to establish the rules of magic in this 'verse, in this third one he pushes them and plays with the applications and it's *fun* because he sets it up, gun on the mantelpiece, and yet you don't see it coming until it rolls out at the big moment. That's craft, that is.
Also the air battles need special mention. In comics flying seems to be basically about striking a pose mid air. That's about it. But here it combines elements of airplane dogfights, skydiving skills, and things that come only from the established rules of magic. And then it brings them all alive until you can feel the wind in your face and imagine the noise and the sudden fright in the lack of noise. It's another time where the tricks are all adequately set up by the rules but come up at just the right moment. It's really great fun and I haven't seen anything quite like it. And also, who doesn't like flying? Flying is just *cool*.
There's a bit of a cloud though. Female characters again. There's the annoyance in the Good Girls Don't attitude, where the nice people only have one or two boyfriends in their whole lives, and they don't dump anyone, they have tragic deaths motivating them. And, okay, bonus for motivating the women by killing the men, rather than t'other way around. But. How many people have only ever shagged one or two people? And this in a 'verse where contraception is as easy as furycrafting, as easy as deciding. And there's big social pressures to make babies and social systems that forbid marriage while making arrangements that make babies more likely, so honestly, I just can't see it. People would have a lot of sex. But there's minor characters who are... there's a variety of words used, but involved in economic exchanges that involve sex. And they're not all evil. So, okay, ignore that. Then we're just left with things like female characters taking time out from being kick arse action hero chicks to feel 'feminine' because they get to be yielding when their bloke is all strong and manly. Bleargh. And the other bit where she learns to dress and walk like a sex worker to infiltrate the palace - because of course you never do that as a cook if you can do it in a bikini - and she feels all womanly again because men is looking at her like mobile meat. And because she's one of the good girls then this is the first time that's ever happened to her. Because all the good girls don't think they're pretty. And have I mentioned this bit makes me want to hit the book a bit? Because :eyeroll: doesn't quite cover it. And it's not just the feminine=yielding=pleasing-to-men. Or the way that women pleasuring women gets mentioned for shock value as part of the horrible degrading training of one of the bad girls. It's the thing where it's so asymmetrical. Men never feel manly because they're yielding to women's desires. Men never dress up pretty to try and attract a woman. Men never use their looks to get in to anywhere. It's really frustrating.
But the biggie is simple - when a male character does something good, it's because they care about the country, their duty, the big abstracts valued in their society. When a woman does something good it's for one particular man. The kick arse chick is protecting her husband, though she needs him to save her in the end. The healer woman risks her life for a man not because he's given loyal service and risked his life to protect her child for twenty years, but because secretly she's in love with him. The exotic spy woman does everything to follow her man around. It's only the bad womens that make plans to take power, gain equality, and run the kingdom, without it being because they're in love.
*headdesk*
Okay, so, it's not irretrievable. There's a way of reading it that makes it more like all the good women do things for High Lord and Country and then because they're good people prove they have the capacity to fall in love. And their other half men are doing samelike things. But... there's lots of men that are just doing duty stuff, and one that does duty and happens to get true love out of it, and their stories are quite different. But when it's from a woman's point of view, it's not the big Duty things, it's the oh no her bloke is in danger. Isn't right.
Writing it down, it seems to me I probably wouldn't notice it much if it wasn't so... typical. If there wasn't already a great big sore place around there.
And the choice of which characters are pov characters does a lot too. I mean, if it was Kitai's story about following her mad Aleran and finding out how his world works, things would be different. Not in that one women-motivated-by-men way, but the view of the world would be different. Wouldn't fit the story so much though. But the women that are pov characters - and it's a massive improvement over the Dresden Files that there *are* those povs, don't get me wrong, it's just the specifics that grate - they're there to fall in love and think about babies. And, thankfully, kick arse and save the kingdom, or else the military side of the plot would be muchly insufficient to save my interest. So there's good stuff, but... couldn't there be one couple where it's the man who is only involved for his girl's sake and thinks about babies a lot and it's the woman who is all political and focused?
... which might be what the Steadholder and the Slave are meant to be, but they spent the entire book with him having a fever and her fixing it, so if so it be right difficult to see.
I grumble about stuff some, but this book have lots of good points. As well as the young man's military story, there's the young woman's spy story, and the lady healer's story, and the politics that winds around mostly the women, and a lot of scenes where women talk to each other about work and politics, and some very strong stories all round. Is good.
And one of the driving engines of politics in the 'verse is women trying to get equality and people trying to abolish slavery. Is also good.
There is the slight problem that the women thus far have all been so utterly kick arse that you can't see how they got to be unequal in the first place, or indeed how they are unequal right now. With only following the stories of women who get to be steadholder or cursor or academ or high lady in equivalent ways to the men in the stories we don't have much of a sense of what they're fighting for. In the legions they do the cooking and cleaning and not the fighting unless they dress up and pretend to be men. As slaves they're more likely to be used for sex... but the places that abused slaves use the same techniques to get perfect obedience out of male and female both, so you end up wondering. Is the whole women's revolution about the threat of rape? In a world where their magic is the equal of any man's? So there's inequality, we're told, but we're not show how. It feels weird.
In random niggly details, there's the language thing. Random italicisation issues. If legionaire is a term in regular use then why do they keep putting it in italics? Stuff like that.
There's another thing where I never quite figured if it was a good or not. One of the central characters has what his society considers a massive disability. Can't do magic. And I liked that, because it's one of the ways I like stories to deal with disability, to sneak up on it sideways like that. But then actual existing disabilities get brought in, like physical stuff, injuries, hurt legs and arms and ears and heads. And there's casual comments about how a deaf captain's not much use. When he's always giving signals, but mostly with waving, not yelling. It feels a bit stupid. But is possible is meant to feel stupid. Certainly the inequalities in the society based around magic strength are meant to look stupid. Which is cool, cause then it's about using the abilities you've got to make a difference. Works great. I just... will look very carefully at the non-metaphorical disabilities, because, much room to screw up.
I write it all down and it feels like the things I didn't like about the book were quite small on balance and the things I did like were great. And unlike the Dresden Files, by the same author, I don't get the overwhelming urge to run away and look for books with actual women in. There's women here. Just... with some issues.
Is still good book.
PS my tags auto suggest 'boobs' when I start typing in 'books'. I can't decide if I should go correct my tags so it not do that or just start imagining boobs with lots of words written on.
... no, actually, written down like that I ... decide pretty easily...