A Brief but Bewildering Experience with Romance

As many of you know I'm not much of a romance fan.  In fact I've been known to be enraged by stories claiming to be fantasies, but are really undercover romances.  Therefore you should all be surprised when I willing read a "Romantic Fantasy."   Oh yes.  Me.  A romantic fantasy.

In all fairness, I hadn't realized it was a romance when I picked it up, but then when I got home I realized the author was a romance author.  I threw caution to the wind though, in the spirit of reading new things, and decided why not? 

So I read it. It was the most bewildering thing I've ever read.  Not to mention hilarious.  And, here's the kicker, in a way, an extremely fascinating study into a realm of escapist romance that I had previously had little experience.

To start with, the plot in this book was...odd.  In that it was kind of hard to follow.  Not that it was complex, oh no, far from it, but rather it kept sorta...disappearing.  No lie. Even the characters kept forgetting about it, to the point that I had to remind themselves why they were on a quest in the first place.  Then, the male MC would come up with charmingly convenient and silly reasons to stay with the company so that the author could build more romance time.  I didn't buy it, but at the same time I was fascinated by how ballsy the author was to say "Hey, I know this is cliche and contrived, but I'm going to write it anyway, just for fun."

What was absolutely bewildering though was that the plot would resurface at random times and we would suddenly be reminded, that, oh yeah, there was an antagonist! And our "heroes" were in danger because bad  guys would randomly ambush them.

Now this was okay though, because the fight scenes would only last one sentence.  And they would read, I kid you not, "They dispatched them all easily."

LOL

Any good fantasy would take more time on a fight scene like that.  Not only because its important to the plot but because it helps build tension and danger and makes you want to turn the page.  In a romance, I suppose, its not so much the danger that's the page turner, but the love story that makes you want to keep reading, so you don't have to spend as much time with the fight scene.

Still I expected more than such a, ah, descriptive sentence.

The descriptions were another thing that was bizarre in that there weren't many of them.  The evil attacking creatures were only described as 'not quite humanoid.'  Having no way to visualize these enemies I just imagined they were banana slugs.

FEAR ME!! photo credit

The MCs were also not described, which I thought odd, but then I realized that perhaps this was purposely done so that the reader could project themselves and the man of their choice in the lead roles. 

The weirdest thing was the ending because there was absolutely no resolution to anything.  I know this is part of a trilogy, but nothing was resolved and the characters were right back where they started.  Which was even weirder for the non existent plot because you'd think, since nothing had been done to stop the antagonist, the kingdom would be in worse shape than it started out.  But it wasn't.  It was perfectly fine.  Which makes no sense for me as a fan of logic.

The book did end however with the male and female MC not getting along, so clearly you need to read the next book in the trilogy to see how they make up.

Normally, books like this would annoy me, but I realized that this book wasn't necessarily supposed to be good.  It is just supposed to be simply escapist literature.  And in its own way it was charming in its silliness.

And here's the kicker:  I'm going to read the rest of the trilogy.  Not because it was good, not because I'm taken by the romance (which is pretty cringeworthy), not because I like the characters, but because it is the most baffling and perplexing story I have ever read.  It does things I would never ever do in writing, nor do I value in good books.  But I have to see what other random things happen.  I have to see if the fight scenes get shorter, I want to know if the villains are described.  I have to know if there is ever an ending or if more random nonsense happens. 

Reading this book is like venturing into a foreign land full of humor and nonsense.  I can't see what happens next

The Book of Heroes

I just finished 'The Book of Heroes' and it left me very unsatisfied.  And a little irritated.  In fact, it did something I've never really encountered in a book and it left me a little put out.  So, what did I think of it?

The Good: The imagination in this book was lovely.  It could almost be the love child of Haroun and the Sea of Stories and The Neverending Story.  The attempt at the concept was very good too, looking at the dark side of heroism.  I appreciate looking at multiple levels, especially in fantasy.

The Bad: There are many of them.

First of all was the writing itself in that it was just.so.plodding.and.BORING.  Here though, I can't really blame the author.  This book is actually a Japanese novel and so the english version is naturally a translation.  Translating is hard and getting the authors tone and voice in a novel is even harder so I bet my opinion on the writing would change had I read it in its original language.

I can't, though, blame the translation for the authors incessant need to explain every little detail of something unfamiliar.  Seriously.  Whole pages of explanation that broke up the plot and made me not care.  The worst part about the explanations, though, was that when you really thought about them, they were filled with logical fallacies.  In the end, I couldn't accept the world because I found the reasoning and statements too filled with holes.  In addition to the fallacies there were some blatant contradictions which didn't help matters. For example, at one point, the characters are talking about The Hero (good) and the King in Yellow (bad) and that they are two sides of the same coin.  Black and White.  But then, a few sentences later, someone mentions 'oh but there are shades of gray too.  Where do you draw the line?"  This is an extremely good point and puts in serious question what the people believe about the good and the bad....BUT THEY DON'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.  The statement is totally ignored, despite the fact it calls into question the foundations of the whole concept!!

The WTF:  The ending.  Oh boy the ending.  I just...I'm still a little speechless by the ending.  Not only speechless but unsatisfied.  You see, through the entire book we, the reader, and the MC are led to believe that the MC is trying to save her brother from the antagonist.  And when I say the whole book, I mean all the way until the last 20 pages or so.  There are no clues to say otherwise.  Then, all of a sudden, at the end of the book--nope!  You weren't saving your brother at all!  Here's the ending to the real plot!  Hope your satisfied even though all themes and characters were built up around the OTHER plot line.  How the hell am I supposed to be satisfied then?!

I have no idea why this was done. I'm not saying an author can't keep plot points hidden, or misdirect the attention of their reader--in fact that is an important tool of the author.  However, when you spring a new plot on us, out of the blue, at the very end of the book, it ruins everything that was built before AND puts a sour taste in the reader's mouth.  It felt like a deliberate break in a reader's trust just for a gimmicky ending.

Not a fan, not a fan.

I don't really recommend this book, and don't plan on ever rereading it.  It has its high points, but between books with similar plots, I'd choose Haroun and the Sea of Stories instead.

Rar rar rar

Ever get to that point when you're writing, and you lose all faith in what you're writing.  You think its boring or the writing is mediocre or no one will want to read it?

Yeah that's where I am right now with my current short.

So instead I'm playing with these:

And watching Top Gear.

Problem (not really) solved.

Honor's Paradox and What I learned About World Building from Cowriting

I finished Honor's Paradox yesterday and it was fantastic.  As fantastic as all the other books in Hodgell's series with this time really exploring that question of honor, especially as it applies to the Kencyr.  That's another reason I love fantasy, it allows you to really explore deeper questions and ideas.  Anyways  I've raved about these before but every time I read them I'm reminded of the incredible complex world building that goes into these books.  And the most complex part about it I think is not the geography or ecology, but rather the history of Rathillion and the Kencyrath.

And I'm insanely jealous of her skills. 

And it got me thinking of how I had, years ago, failed miserably at trying to write a novel length work because of the world building.

Now, after reading Hodgell's stuff, its sort of whet my apetite to eventually try to write a trilogy or series or something where more world building is involved and this time I know how to do it.  Or at least I feel more prepared.  And for that, I think, I can thank my cowriters.

You see, before I didn't know how to go about writing a story in a new world.  I felt as if I had to know everything about every culture and every part of the world ahead of time, got bogged down and gave up.  Or just stopped caring because I just wanted to start writing and ended up lost and confused.

I didn't realize what I was doing wrong until I started writing with other people.  In our group written project, we started with a world created by one of the authors.  But the key I needed was that it wasn't fully developed.  The history was created, the basic geography, the basic races were created.  But there were many details and many things we ended up writing when we got to them because they only made sense when our characters had to interact with their environment.

In other words, a basic foundation was laid and the history was created so other details could follow logically behind.  Creating that foundation is still difficult, but its easier than trying to tackle every little thing at one time.

I still wouldn't really consider myself a world building, but now that I think I understand it better, I'm excited to play with it more.  And that's the fun of writing :)


Last thing I want to mention has nothing to do with world building...but rather the book cover of Honor's Paradox.  Really cover artist?  I really doubt Jame could be mistaken for her brother Torisen, and Torisen be mistaken for Jame so often if Jame's rack was so big.  Unless there's something about Tori that we don't know o.O

Help Me with My Reading List!!

True to my word I did my best to compile a 'to read' list for 2012.  And its kinda short.  As in it only has 10 books on it--although one spot is reserved for a series that a friend of mine recommends and, well, I can't remember the name of the series or how many books are in it.  So maybe I do have 50 books.  Who knows!

Anyways, I'm not trying to completely fill my list but I really really need some recommendations!!  So anyone out there...help!!  What books do YOU recommend for me to read??

As a note, I do prefer fantasy, but if there's a book you believe in and want me to read---or there's a book you want to torture me with--please let me know.  I'm ready, willing, and excited to try something new!  I'll read anything from kids to adults.

My own list is below:

1. Honor’s Paradox

2. A Dance with Dragons

3. Prelandra

4. That Hideous Strength

5.  YA fantasy series that is recommended by friend

6. The Wise Man’s Fear

7. The Book of Heroes

8.  The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairy Land in a Ship of her Own Making

9. Brave Story

10. The Hunger Games