Tortall and Other Lands

[Kypriotha]

Since it doesn't fit easily into the other forums, I'm posting this here. What are your thoughts on Tammy's collection of short stories? What's your favourite story? Least favourite?

[devilinthedetails]

I enjoyed this collection of short stories overall. I don't tend to read a lot of short stories but I appreciated how quickly these short stories could be read through before bed, and it's a collection that it is easy to read alongside other books since each story stands alone and you can spread out the reading without feeling like you are forgetting anything. For someone who likes to read multiple books at once, that is appealing. The short story format also seemed to give Tammy a chance to explore settings she wouldn't normally and delve into characters in the Tortall universe that she wouldn't have the opportunity to touch on in her novels.

There were some stories that stood out in particular to me. I enjoyed the Kitten story since it was neat to see the world from her perspective (her thinking how it was frustrating to not be able to directly communicate with humans though she understood everything they say was poignant for me) and to see Kaddar and Carthak again made me very happy. The only way it could have been improved to me was if Kally had made an appearance as well. I so would have loved to see Kally and Kaddar interact in canon. All I have right now is my imaginations of how they relate as the couple, but it would be awesome to read about it in a short story like this.

The 'Student of Ostriches" story was also a cool expansion of the Tortall universe that gave us an awesome backstory for a very minor character mentioned in Lioness Rampant. It really fleshes out the world to hear the histories of such minor characters. That's always fun for me. I love minor characters taking center stage for a bit.

I also enjoyed the "Lost" one. It was refreshing to see a girl with a more scholarly dream overcome abuse to study at the University. It connects very well to the scholar in me. Her dream and story resonates with me because of that.

"The Hidden Girl" was also a great read because we got to meet a girl who chose to veil and didn't see veiling as a bad thing. In the past with the Bazhir, I thought Tammy focused a lot on the negative sides of veiling, so it was nice to see her explore the other side of the issues in this story: to acknowledge that for women who choose to veil it can be an empowering thing.

My least favorite was "Nawat." It reinforced a lot of my feelings about Nawat not being fully human and still having a crow's rather than a man's mindset and morality about many things. It also reinforced my reservations about Aly/Nawat as a couple since again Nawat is in many ways a crow, not a human, and we see the consequences of that here with Nawat contemplating culling his child for having a disability (or "wrongness") and lying to Aly about it. Yes, he ultimately decides not to cull his child for her disability, but I feel like it shouldn't be a moral dilemma to realize that we shouldn't cull people just because they have a disability. Especially because his motivation for not culling Ochobai in the end is that she is his favorite, not the epiphany that people with disabilities deserve the same dignity and compassion as all other humans. Also I wouldn't be surprised if him having a favorite child and being so blatant about it causes rifts and bitterness to develop in his family. So, basically, this story touched on a sensitive topic for me (how people with disabilities should be treated) and mostly botched it. I get some people will like it and take completely different messages out of it, and that's fine. I could see it being a good read for a Nawat fan or an Aly/Nawat fan, but as someone who was never a big fan of either, the story just didn't work for me.

Tammy did mention at one point being interested in writing a story from Ochobai's perspective. I might enjoy that more. To put the focus on the person with the disability--to explore the challenges she faces and how she overcomes them--would be fascinating. I'd prefer to read that than about her father resisting the urge to cull her.

[Kypriotha]

My favourite story of this collection is probably "Lost". I liked reading about a female in a different position to most of the other female protagonists. I'm also a huge fan of anything Darking related

I also liked the linked stories "Elder Brother" and "The Hidden Girl". Again, I liked reading about a different type of female character, but I also liked the link back to Wolf-Speaker.