|
|
Post by Rosie on Nov 17, 2018 15:25:55 GMT 10
Blurb: The drums of war are beating... Mages Briar, Rosethorn, and Evvy are visiting the mystical mountain kingdom of Gyongxe when they are suddenly called away. The emperor of Yanjing has invited them to see his glorious gardens. During their brief stay, though, the mages see far more than splendid flowers. They see the emperor's massive army, his intense cruelty, and the devastating magic that keeps his power in place.When the mages discover the emperor's plans to invade Gyongxe, they race to protect its treasured temples. But duty, magic, and terror threaten to drive them apart. With time running out, can the mages come together to save their spiritual home?
What are your thoughts?
|
|
|
|
Post by devilinthedetails on Nov 18, 2018 2:05:59 GMT 10
This one gets mixed reviews from me. I do enjoy the Eastern setting, which I do feel is vividly drawn even if I do wish that Yanjing were portrayed with more complexity instead of almost everything about that culture being treated as either humorously wrong or menacingly evil. Gyongxe actually had less appeal to me than Yanjing in terms of interest in the culture since it just felt like this gods blessed land with too much weird magic for the land and its people to have emotional resonance with me.
I also found the plotting and pacing of this book to be a bit off. Part of the problem is I think this book suffers from what I refer to as prequel syndrome where too many of the major plot points have already been revealed in previous works (Will of the Empress and Melting Stones) that surprise and suspense really suffer for it. For instance, Evvy's capture and torture are horrifying and heartbreaking, but those familiar with the previously published Emelan works (which is most of the target audience) already knows this was going to happen and was probably even waiting for it to occur, so when it unfolds, it's not shocking in a way that it needs to be to have the full emotional punch it should. It also means that Pierce probably already had the major plot points planned well in advance of writing this story, so the book between the major plot points to me seems to drag a lot. Overall the pacing and structure of the book sort of reminded me of a connect-the-dots worksheet for children.
I also think this book really had adult concepts--torture, war, war trauma--that were attempted, not always successfully to be included in a young adult's book. To be told successfully, I think this story needed to be darker and more horrifying than a young adult book could be. The book wants to be adult but it has to retain some element of the childish in order to still be classified as young adult, so that results in some narrative awkwardness where for example, the Yanjing emperor is evil incarnate but the main focus is on his crimes against cats and plants rather than people (he does commit crimes against people, but those aren't sufficiently dwelled on in my opinion). The Yanjing emperor feels like a children's book villain when we are supposed to be picturing him as an adult book's villain and that doesn't work for me.
I guess ultimately I like a lot of the ideas in this book--of exploring the devastating impact war can have on people--but found the execution lacking. I also was intrigued by Yanjing but found Gyongxe too boring because of its favored by the gods status. As a rule, I tend to prefer my fantasy with less divine intervention.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lisa on Dec 12, 2018 5:24:45 GMT 10
I felt very much the same, and for a lot of the reasons you mentioned.
Also, for someone who takes so much out of real-world experiences to create her own world-building, I felt like Tammy dropped the ball on this one. I wanted more of a Tibetan/Nepalese feel to the world, and I wanted less sinister "Yanjing is EVIL".
One of the things I found interesting is that when I was reading the presented horror of wars that Briar and Evvy went through, I was relieved because the things I'd imagined for the characters were so much worse. But on the other hand, now it's canon. When I was coming up with stuff there was that safety net of "but it could've happened differently". Now I know that these characters went through these experiences, and while I was imagining worse, it doesn't mean that these weren't awful and traumatic.
|
|
|
|
Post by devilinthedetails on Dec 12, 2018 9:44:32 GMT 10
I felt very much the same, and for a lot of the reasons you mentioned. Also, for someone who takes so much out of real-world experiences to create her own world-building, I felt like Tammy dropped the ball on this one. I wanted more of a Tibetan/Nepalese feel to the world, and I wanted less sinister "Yanjing is EVIL". One of the things I found interesting is that when I was reading the presented horror of wars that Briar and Evvy went through, I was relieved because the things I'd imagined for the characters were so much worse. But on the other hand, now it's canon. When I was coming up with stuff there was that safety net of "but it could've happened differently". Now I know that these characters went through these experiences, and while I was imagining worse, it doesn't mean that these weren't awful and traumatic. That is an excellent point about Gyongxe not having much of a Tibetan or Nepalese vibe to it. Perhaps that is why Gyongxe didn't feel as interesting to me as many of the other countries in the Emelan books. I thought a lot of that was down to over reliance on magic and the gods when creating Gyongxe, but it might also be because the culture wasn't as developed. I certainly would have loved to see a culture based on the Tibetan or Nepalese one since Eastern cultures don't get enough attention in fantasy books in my opinion. I was like you in that I had imagined worse traumas for Evvy and Briar after reading Will of the Empress and Melting Stones, but you are right that whatever horrors we envisioned wouldn't have been canon, but as soon as the terrible happenings were recorded in Battle Magic, they became canon, and, even if we were imagining worse, horrible things did still happen to those characters. In some ways, the fact that I was bracing myself for worse might have detracted from the horror of those moments when maybe it shouldn't have. Perhaps next time I reread I will do so with your point in mind and see if that changes how I read a bit. That's why I love doing rereads. Each time I make new discoveries. |
|
Maybe once we'd have seen it during Smackdown!