SBD -- good writing
Jul. 17th, 2006 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksIt is Smart Bitches Day!
Time to think up something fabulous and smart and succinct and intellectual and [insert other adjectives here] about romance as a genre. Or even about a particular romance novel. But I haven't been reading romance all week, I've been rereading: Novik's His Majesty's Dragon and Lois McMaster Bujold's Paladin of Souls. My only romance reading this week was Nora Roberts' new release Angels Fall. I have stuff to say about that book, but I'm still mulling it over. So, back to Paladin of Souls.
I'm an LMB fangirl. I've managed to pawn her off on family, friends, coworkers and now blog readers (check out Jennie's review of A Civil Campaign. I've blogged about how I notice new stuff in The Curse of Chalion every time I read it. Well, while rereading Paladin of Souls, I realized something new and re-realized something I'd already thought about. First, at heart, POS is women's fiction. Yes, there is adventure and a little thread of romance, but the heart of the book is Dowager Royina Ista escaping her old life and building a new one. Early in the book, she tells another character that half her life is behind her and the remaining half in front of her; she doesn't know what she wants, only what she doesn't want. She feels bereft and angry -- at herself and at her gods; she doesn't seek death, although she does seek numbness. She sets out on a "pilgrimage" -- but she isn't seeking anything from the gods, only escape. Before long, her travels are overtaken by adventure, both military and mystical. I get caught up in the plot, so I hadn't realized how very much this is WF before. Old life abandoned -- check; loss of loved one and ensuing grief -- check; carry over issues from spouse/marriage -- check; building of new life -- check. I tend to avoid WF, mostly because I find it not so romantic or entertaining: too much angst and grief -- if I wanted to know about marriage issues and recalcitrant children, I would pick up the phone and call friends and/or family to hear about it in real life.
Second realization (not so new) is that religion permeates this book. I'm an areligious person, thinking most of the grief in the world can be traced back to organized religion. But this religion doesn't bother me, probably because: 1) it is utterly unrelated to any of the big three dominant religions, and 2) it strikes me as being similar to older pagan religions, with the god and goddesses being mother, father, son, daughter and bastard. Even while creating this new theology, LMB recognizes the tension between beliefs -- the tension between nations in her world is in part a result of geopolitics and partly related to the fifth god -- is he a god or a demon? Quintarian believers vs. Quadrene believers.
How can I read this book, given that it is saturated with religion and is women's fiction, however adventurous and fantastic? I don't know, but I can. And it's the mark of a very good writer that those things don't bog me down or get in the way of telling an engrossing tale.
Time to think up something fabulous and smart and succinct and intellectual and [insert other adjectives here] about romance as a genre. Or even about a particular romance novel. But I haven't been reading romance all week, I've been rereading: Novik's His Majesty's Dragon and Lois McMaster Bujold's Paladin of Souls. My only romance reading this week was Nora Roberts' new release Angels Fall. I have stuff to say about that book, but I'm still mulling it over. So, back to Paladin of Souls.
I'm an LMB fangirl. I've managed to pawn her off on family, friends, coworkers and now blog readers (check out Jennie's review of A Civil Campaign. I've blogged about how I notice new stuff in The Curse of Chalion every time I read it. Well, while rereading Paladin of Souls, I realized something new and re-realized something I'd already thought about. First, at heart, POS is women's fiction. Yes, there is adventure and a little thread of romance, but the heart of the book is Dowager Royina Ista escaping her old life and building a new one. Early in the book, she tells another character that half her life is behind her and the remaining half in front of her; she doesn't know what she wants, only what she doesn't want. She feels bereft and angry -- at herself and at her gods; she doesn't seek death, although she does seek numbness. She sets out on a "pilgrimage" -- but she isn't seeking anything from the gods, only escape. Before long, her travels are overtaken by adventure, both military and mystical. I get caught up in the plot, so I hadn't realized how very much this is WF before. Old life abandoned -- check; loss of loved one and ensuing grief -- check; carry over issues from spouse/marriage -- check; building of new life -- check. I tend to avoid WF, mostly because I find it not so romantic or entertaining: too much angst and grief -- if I wanted to know about marriage issues and recalcitrant children, I would pick up the phone and call friends and/or family to hear about it in real life.
Second realization (not so new) is that religion permeates this book. I'm an areligious person, thinking most of the grief in the world can be traced back to organized religion. But this religion doesn't bother me, probably because: 1) it is utterly unrelated to any of the big three dominant religions, and 2) it strikes me as being similar to older pagan religions, with the god and goddesses being mother, father, son, daughter and bastard. Even while creating this new theology, LMB recognizes the tension between beliefs -- the tension between nations in her world is in part a result of geopolitics and partly related to the fifth god -- is he a god or a demon? Quintarian believers vs. Quadrene believers.
How can I read this book, given that it is saturated with religion and is women's fiction, however adventurous and fantastic? I don't know, but I can. And it's the mark of a very good writer that those things don't bog me down or get in the way of telling an engrossing tale.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-18 12:42 pm (UTC)kate r
no subject
Date: 2006-07-18 01:03 pm (UTC)I'm dense (sorry) -- what do you mean when you ask does she buy into it? Do you mean as an author investing in the world she has created and creating a reliable continuity for the series? Or on a personal level? In terms of the books, yes, she has bought in. The religion is ingrained in the characters in all three books, a part of everyday life that they are used to, that they participate in almost automatically, although not necessarily by rote. Some are more devout than others, but even the most obscene are not godless. The different orders have specific roles spiritually and also practically. And the gods themselves have roles to play in the books, although they repeated point out to the mortal "players" that they have only as much grasp on the physical realm as believers give them through their own will.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-18 02:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-18 05:15 pm (UTC)LMB
Date: 2006-07-18 05:43 pm (UTC)I think I'll work my way through Miles first. :)
Re: LMB
Date: 2006-07-18 05:44 pm (UTC)Re: LMB
Date: 2006-07-18 05:54 pm (UTC)Yes, Ista was the princess's mom in the first book. She wasn't crazy (I think) as much as she was grief-striken, guilty, and cursed. At the start of Paladin, her mother has died and she's trying to figure out what to do with the rest of her life. She doesn't want to die (and be taken up by the gods she despises) but she doesn't want to be forced to live a circumscribed life in the family fold, either. Hence the pilgrimage that becomes an action-adventure. On it's face, I shouldn't like Paladin at all, but I do. :shrugs:
Taken as a whole, I like the Miles series better, but The Curse of Chalion is my favorite LMB book. I think the larger scope/span for character development works in Miles's favor over the long haul.
Have you picked your next Miles book? Just curious :)
Re: LMB
Date: 2006-07-18 11:06 pm (UTC)Otherwise, I need to see what my library has. I was thinking Komarr, but maybe I should go back and start at the beginning. I usually like to read series in order. Plus I think Miles as a young man must be really interesting. Overcoming all kinds of difficulties. :)
Re: LMB
Date: 2006-07-19 12:00 am (UTC)I didn't read them in chronological order, just in the order that I found them at the library.
Have you checked out baen.com? Mountains of Mourning, a novella, is available in the free section of their online library.
Re: LMB
Date: 2006-07-20 05:59 pm (UTC)Re: LMB
Date: 2006-07-20 06:36 pm (UTC)