bookblogging
Jan. 19th, 2010 01:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceruseeNovels/prose books:
Romance:
Beverley, Jo: Christmas Angel.
Crusie, Jennifer: Bet Me
(both Crusie and this book particularly are major favorites of a friend of mine. I didn't love the book nearly as much as her, but it's a good book. It's easy for me to see why she loves it so much, knowing her--I bet she imprinted on Min like a baby duckling on its mama).
Phillips, Susan Elizabeth: Natural Born Charmer
(soooo much better than the other Phillips I tried, What I Did For Love. I fell in love with the first chapter, cooled slightly over the course of the book, but was consistently impressed by the way Phillips portrayed Blue's artistry--she showed it very naturally and consistently, in a way that made Blue feel like a real person).
YA:
Ono Fuyumi: The Twelve Kingdoms: The Vast Spread of the Seas
(apparently between the initial meeting of Naokawa/Shoryuu/En and Rokuta/Enki five hundred years ago and their current state of their uber-competent rule and the moderate harmony of their interpersonal relationship, there were a few decades of dissonance. The book is about that, as well as about their initial meeting, which I already know from the anime.
--I find it kind of bizarre that Shoryu and Rokuta could really go for twenty years without coming to understand each other--Shoryuu sure does play it close to the vest, huh? It's not like this is an entire world of immortals, where everything proceeds at a slower pace--most of the people of this world live and die in about the same number of years that we do, have the same relationship to time that we do--the same relationship that En and Enki were born into as taika, for that matter, and they both came into their roles as king and kirin quite young.
--I can't help but think that even though he was centuries older than the Keiki that our Taiki knows, Enki/Rokuta would have been a better person for Taiki to talk to about the confusion of being a taika and a kirin, and having spent those first few years in Hourai in human form, what with Rokuta having had presumably the same exact experience and possibly the same difficulties. For that matter, did no one on Mt. Hou remember Enki when they wondered whether Taiki would be okay?
It's interesting where Enki and Taiki's experiences diverge, though--Rokuta/Enki's major preoccupation and the source of his cognitive dissonance came from his lack of faith in kings, and his belief that the king he chose, any king at all, would inevitably destroy En, because that's what kings were: destruction. Taiki's was a more personal identity crisis, and a specific lack of faith in his own ability to fill his predestined role and to carry out the will of Heaven. Rokuta came from a war-scarred feudal society and had been abandoned to die by his own family, for reasons that he could comprehend very well even as a young child; Taiki came from a peaceful democracy and highly structured society where he simply did not fit in with his family, and was treated poorly by that family, for reasons too nebulous for him--or them-- to understand.
--Ribi's self-sacrifice fucking shattered me. I'm hugely upset that she did that and Enki did not flee, although I get that he was shocky and ill because of the blood. But dammit. Was it for nothing? Nothing besides showing the Gen province and Enki that she believed in King En enough to die for his efforts?)
Ribi also makes me again ponder the role of women in this world where women do not experience pregnancy or birth (because babies grow on trees! ONO your lovely BRAIN). It doesn't feel like a Le Guin-style ambitious total overhaul of gender roles (there is, for example, the all-female nurturing cadre of attendants on Mt. Hou, and the lamias--that is, the demons born to nurture the kirin--who all seem to be female; additionally, organized prostitution exists and thus far only seemed to involve female prostitutes and male clients), but Ono casually references a sort of egalitarian power structure in which women regularly crop up as monarchs, kirins, ministers, spies, lords, warriors, generals--although so far, not as common soldiers,--merchants, and landowners, all alongside men.)
Graphic novels:
Lutes, Jason: Berlin: City of Smoke: Book 2.
Romance:
Beverley, Jo: Christmas Angel.
Crusie, Jennifer: Bet Me
(both Crusie and this book particularly are major favorites of a friend of mine. I didn't love the book nearly as much as her, but it's a good book. It's easy for me to see why she loves it so much, knowing her--I bet she imprinted on Min like a baby duckling on its mama).
Phillips, Susan Elizabeth: Natural Born Charmer
(soooo much better than the other Phillips I tried, What I Did For Love. I fell in love with the first chapter, cooled slightly over the course of the book, but was consistently impressed by the way Phillips portrayed Blue's artistry--she showed it very naturally and consistently, in a way that made Blue feel like a real person).
YA:
Ono Fuyumi: The Twelve Kingdoms: The Vast Spread of the Seas
(apparently between the initial meeting of Naokawa/Shoryuu/En and Rokuta/Enki five hundred years ago and their current state of their uber-competent rule and the moderate harmony of their interpersonal relationship, there were a few decades of dissonance. The book is about that, as well as about their initial meeting, which I already know from the anime.
--I find it kind of bizarre that Shoryu and Rokuta could really go for twenty years without coming to understand each other--Shoryuu sure does play it close to the vest, huh? It's not like this is an entire world of immortals, where everything proceeds at a slower pace--most of the people of this world live and die in about the same number of years that we do, have the same relationship to time that we do--the same relationship that En and Enki were born into as taika, for that matter, and they both came into their roles as king and kirin quite young.
--I can't help but think that even though he was centuries older than the Keiki that our Taiki knows, Enki/Rokuta would have been a better person for Taiki to talk to about the confusion of being a taika and a kirin, and having spent those first few years in Hourai in human form, what with Rokuta having had presumably the same exact experience and possibly the same difficulties. For that matter, did no one on Mt. Hou remember Enki when they wondered whether Taiki would be okay?
It's interesting where Enki and Taiki's experiences diverge, though--Rokuta/Enki's major preoccupation and the source of his cognitive dissonance came from his lack of faith in kings, and his belief that the king he chose, any king at all, would inevitably destroy En, because that's what kings were: destruction. Taiki's was a more personal identity crisis, and a specific lack of faith in his own ability to fill his predestined role and to carry out the will of Heaven. Rokuta came from a war-scarred feudal society and had been abandoned to die by his own family, for reasons that he could comprehend very well even as a young child; Taiki came from a peaceful democracy and highly structured society where he simply did not fit in with his family, and was treated poorly by that family, for reasons too nebulous for him--or them-- to understand.
--Ribi's self-sacrifice fucking shattered me. I'm hugely upset that she did that and Enki did not flee, although I get that he was shocky and ill because of the blood. But dammit. Was it for nothing? Nothing besides showing the Gen province and Enki that she believed in King En enough to die for his efforts?)
Ribi also makes me again ponder the role of women in this world where women do not experience pregnancy or birth (because babies grow on trees! ONO your lovely BRAIN). It doesn't feel like a Le Guin-style ambitious total overhaul of gender roles (there is, for example, the all-female nurturing cadre of attendants on Mt. Hou, and the lamias--that is, the demons born to nurture the kirin--who all seem to be female; additionally, organized prostitution exists and thus far only seemed to involve female prostitutes and male clients), but Ono casually references a sort of egalitarian power structure in which women regularly crop up as monarchs, kirins, ministers, spies, lords, warriors, generals--although so far, not as common soldiers,--merchants, and landowners, all alongside men.)
Graphic novels:
Lutes, Jason: Berlin: City of Smoke: Book 2.
no subject
on 2010-01-19 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-01-19 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-01-25 08:24 pm (UTC)I don't think Ribi's sacrifice was for nothing - it does seem to have been the trigger that led to a number of other events, including Koya deciding not to replace the binding and the other female advisor helping Rokuta to escape. That being said: SERIOUSLY, Rokuta, WAY NOT TO RUN AWAY.
I am really interested to see what other female roles we see in later books.
no subject
on 2010-01-26 05:14 am (UTC)I think I seriously love Ribi, although she didn't get all that much screentime. It's that Aral Vorkosigan-style blend of deep integrity and pure steel, you know? Maybe you're right and it wasn't for nothing, even if it didn't work out quite the way she hoped it would. But seriously RUN AWAY ROKUTAAAAA.
Yeah, I bet Rokuta was not the Oracles' favorite kirin ever. They do comment a lot about how lovable Taiki is and how much his lamia and certain of the Oracles seem to love and favor. So maybe they don't always love the kirin like that just because they exist to serve the kirin.
no subject
on 2010-01-26 03:04 pm (UTC)Ono has a habit of making things work that shouldn't work! For example: Ribi's heroic baby-murder/suicide. :O Which I don't think any other author could have pulled off in such a way as to make Ribi come off as basically the strongest character in the book, man. She was pretty fantastic. (And I wanted to smack Rokuta when she was talking about her ideals and Shoryu's ideals, and Rokuta was like "BECAUSE YOU LOOOOOOVE HIM. SHORYU AND RIBI SITTIN IN A TREE." I mean, I laughed too, because Rokuta is so twelve, but seriously! Show a little respect. :O)
Yeah, I think it comes off in that book that Keiki was not the most popular kirin ever either . . . which, I mean, understandable. *laughing* But I could imagine it being that way for Rokuta too, while he was still very young and very rebellious (not to mention FULL OF ISSUES.)