(no subject)

[electricland]

In other book news, I read the following over the long weekend:

The King's Peace, Jo Walton (excellent! -- sorry crankygrrl; we'll have to discuss one of these days)
Prince Caspian, C.S. Lewis (also excellent)
Death in Cyprus, M.M. Kaye

The last turned out to be tiresome. Our Hero is masterful and enigmatic. Around the middle of the book I assumed that I probably thought this was wonderful at age 15. When I read a bit farther I remembered that I found it just as irritating at age 15 as I do now, because Our Hero is masterful and enigmatic to the point of not giving Our Heroine anything like enough information to stop her behaving in classic Too Dumb To Live fashion. (Spoilery details on request.)

So when I got home I borrowed The Talisman Ring (Georgette Heyer), because let's face it, none of her heroines is ever Too Dumb to Live without a good reason, and if any hero in this book ever tried being masterful and enigmatic he'd learn the error of his ways in short order. And he'd be laughed at.

Comments

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

The first book in the series lost me in the first chapter. I can believe that she's improved but I don't think she can win me back.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

That is the first book in the series, and you explained why she lost you in the first chapter, but having read it, I think you're mistaken.

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

O_o

Tell me why.

spoiler warning

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Sorry, wanted time to type this coherently.

Briefly (spoiler warning for those who haven't read the book), as I recall, you objected to the first chapter on 2 main grounds:

1. main character's comfort with nudity in front of 6 leering barbarian invaders
2. use of rape as shorthand for character development

For 1, I agree that it's hard to buy for us, as a culture with a considerable amount of body shame. For this character, it's not being naked that's the problem, it's the imminently-going-to-be-raped-and-killed that bothers her; being naked as such is an irrelevancy. I was OK with it for a combination of the following reasons:

- it's a nice way to contrast the cultures
- she's shown elsewhere in the book as being completely comfortable with being nude in mixed company, bathing, training, etc.
- a touch of unreliable narrator; she does in fact have to make a bit of an effort to ignore being naked

Anyway, that's a reasonably minor point. For the second, if I were writing the same book I wouldn't necessarily have made that choice. BUT, here are my thoughts:

- First off, it's not rape as shorthand for character development -- that's when the character becomes a total badass, or otherwise a completely different version of her previous self, as a consequence of rape. This character was well on her way to total badassery before she was raped. There are other equally badass females who haven't been raped.
- In fact, it's not rape as shorthand at all -- it's a plot point. The rape has consequences for the heroine and for other characters, including the rapist, that resonate through the book, and in fact I suspect that we're not done with it yet.

There you have it. I can't remember where you gave up the book, but if it was right at the beginning then I think you should give it a second chance.

[raithen.livejournal.com]

oopsie. Your copy of _The Talisman Ring_ would be being carefully looked after right about now. and it has made lots of new friends....

[electricland.livejournal.com]

not a problem! if you didn't have it, it would be in a box right now...

[stilldeepwater.livejournal.com]

Hey, I was a huge fan of M.M. Kay when I was 15! My favourite is Death in Berlin. Both hero and heroine are quite interesting, even if the heroine has her silly helpless moments. I have to agree with you, Death in Cyprus was not the greatest.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

I remember liking some of them very much indeed -- Death in Kenya, obviously, and I think I liked Berlin too. (Jen just discovered them recently, and also agrees that Cyprus is not one of the better ones.)

I also found the love story in Cyprus completely unconvincing, which is kind of a dealbreaker. But I did like some of the secondary characters quite a bit, and the setting was lovely.