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solarcatNormally, I try to pimp books only to people I know will love them. However, in this case, I have a sneaking suspicion that most of my flist is in that group, so I'm pimping to a slightly wider audience.
Those of you who are already familiar with the book? COME SQUEE WITH ME IN COMMENTS, PLZ! *wants to have a squee fest*
Those of you who aren't familiar with the book, please read on...
Some of you may be aware of/be fans of Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson books (Moon Called, Blood Bound and Iron Kissed, with another to follow that I forget the title of). I'm certainly a fan of the books; I love them to bits, in fact. However, I had heard a couple of times from other fans that I should really give her other books a try, too. So, as I was in the bookstore picking up Cry Wolf (which is set in the MT universe and is awesome), I also picked up a book called Dragon Bones, and Dragon Blood, its sequel. It is the first of these which I shall be pimping to you today (and I will probably pimp the second tomorrow, after I've devoured it XD ).
As always, I will try to keep this review free of spoilers. ^_^ It's long, though, and may devolve into squee. I'll try to contain myself. ;)
To begin, I will give you the jacket copy:
Playing the Fool
Most everyone thinks Ward of Hurog is a simple-minded fool--and that's just fine by him. But few people know that his foolishness is (very convincingly) feigned. And that it's all that's saved him from death at the hands of his abusive father, who's always seen Ward as a bitter rival for power.
When his father dies, Ward becomes the new lord of Hurog...until a nobleman declares that he is too dim-witted to rule. Ward knows he cannot play the fool any longer. To regain his kingdom, he must prove himself worthy--and quickly.
Riding into a a war that's heating up on the border, Ward is sure he's on the fast track to glory. But soon his mission takes a deadly serious turn. For he has seen a pile of magical dragon bones hidden deep beneath Hurog Keep. The bones can be dangerous in the wrong hands, and Ward is certain his enemies will stop at nothing to possess them...
Okay, so. This, and the cover (oh, the cover is SO pretty!) were what convinced me to buy it, along with the knowledge that I like Patricia Briggs' writing. I admit, I was cautious. Those of you who are acquainted with my reading habits will know that, while I'm a big fan of urban fantasy, sword-and-sorcery is not generally my favorite thing. I don't know why, and I have nothing against it, I just tend not to read it (I'm the same way with really intense sci-fi, for some reason). This book threatened to be very s-and-s, which was worrisome, but, as I said, the cover was gorgeous, it was Patricia Briggs, and I have a terrible, terrible weakness for the whole "abused royal son/daughter fights for and gains kingdom" stories (shh, don't tell!). Yes, secretly, I love the fairy tale. So, away I went, with the book in hand, and I started reading it.
You guys. This book? Is awesome. I tore through it in a day, as anyone who was at the BJD meetup yesterday and was part of that conversation can tell you. At 2pm, I was three chapters into it. I finished, after reading in fits and starts all day, at around 4AM, and then I couldn't sleep because all I wanted to do was bounce around the room making excited dolphin noises. (No, really. I mean it. Only reason I didn't was I didn't want to wake J. up.) After thinking about it a little, I decided that simply telling you the book is AMAZING probably won't convince everyone to read it, and I needed to identify precisely what was amazing about it. So, I gave it some thought, and this is what I've come up with:
1. World Building
Yes, you get your classic "map of the land" at the beginning of the book, but you don't really need it (it's helpful for relative distances between cities, I suppose, though I didn't use it at all when I was reading and am only thinking of it now. It's not necessary). The world is referred to mainly as the Five Kingdoms, with the addition of Vorsag to the south (and the fact that I consistently read "Vorsagian" as "Vorkosigan" is a sign that fandom has infected my brain, as I have never even read any of the Vorkosigan saga). I think the most interesting thing about it is the way that it's never info-dumped on you; you work out a lot of the politics as you go on. Obviously, there's exposition, but never of the "As you know, X, ________" type. Briggs is really good at giving the sense of the world, sketching the outline, and leaving you to fill in the details, which makes it a lot of fun. Trying to parse the religious systems in the book was really fun for me, as there are hints about all sorts of past turmoil and such, but, again, it's never info-dumped, so it truly is something to figure out. Which, as you may have guessed, is <3. Plus, as I said, there's so much of a sense of a whole world about it. Despite focusing mainly on a few characters and being written primarily in the first person (more on that later), it never feels claustrophobic.
2. POV
I tend to dislike first-person narration. Dunno why, it's a personal thing, but I make exceptions in Patricia Briggs' case, because (as said before) I liked the MT books, which were also first-person. This book didn't let me down, which made me very happy. The writing is just wonderful. But, as anyone who writes in first-person or has ever tried to knows, first-person is very limited. In the case of this book, that limitation is one that needed to be shucked off occasionally, so that the story could be filled in. Yes, I suppose it wasn't totally necessary -- the story could have been told exclusively from Ward's point of view, but it would have been lacking SO much of the stuff that I just really dug about the book. What Briggs does is have occasional third-person chapters, which focus on the characters that are out of Ward's sight -- his cousins, Erdrick and Beckram, and a nobleman, Garranon. I won't get into too much detail about this now, because I'll hit it in the fourth section, but the POV shift was extremely important, and it's handled in a chapter format, so that the majority of the book is in first person, and the chapter headings clearly indicate the POV switches. Unlike some books that do this, the switches never feel jarring; I was never thrown out of the story, which is a big thing for me. And, looking back, those POV switches filled in a lot of detail that I never would have seen if it had been told purely from Ward's point of view (like the "holy shit!" moment I mention in section 3, down there *points*).
3. Plot Twists
The plot of this book twists. It twists like a very twisty thing. All I can say? The world needs more very twisty things. Every single plot twist and turn in the book is beautifully handled, and as a good twist does, they usually caught me off guard for a moment. I actually can't remember if I said, "Holy shit!" aloud on the bus or not, but I have a pretty strong suspicion I did. Still, the best thing about these twists is that they make perfect sense. They catch you off guard, but then you take a second, review all the little details that have built up, and go, "Ohhhhhhhhhhh!!" Every single thing that happens is foreshadowed in beautiful, subtle touches, and while I had some strong suspicions about certain things (that I ended up being mostly-right about! yay!), even when those things were revealed, it was never, ever boring. Little things you forget about come back and end up being extremely important, and there are some wonderful red herrings floating around. The "rollercoaster ride" analogy is overused, but it really fits this book well. It's fun, it's exhilarating, and you get off at the end kind of wobbly but really, really wanting to go back and do it all over again. (Seriously, the only thing I'm sad about with this book is that I can never read it again for the first time. I would LOVE to be able to forget everything that happened and hit all those moments unprepared again.)
4. Characters
I pretty much saved the best for last, here. The characters in the book are wonderful. They're real, they're fun, they're occasionally chilling (no, not telling who). Part of the reason that I can get past the first-person narration in Briggs' work is that I like her protagonists, and this is definitely no exception.
Ward is a great character -- he's been through a lot in a relatively short life. It's still remarkable to me that he's meant to be 19; he's got a lot of maturity, though you get glimpses of his insecurities and his flaws. He's a good person, which is great, but he's not an infallible hero. A lot of the time, he doesn't quite know how to relate to the people around him. He's got a rocky relationship with his brother, doesn't really trust most of his extended family, and feels very personally responsible for his younger, and mute, sister's safety. He's devoted to his people, and desperately wants what's best for Hurog. So much so that he sometimes doubts whether he should be the one in charge of it.
What I like best about him, though, is the subtle humor. In playing the fool for everyone, he manages to dish out plenty of insults and small revenges with a completely innocent façade. There are moments, throughout the novel, of unexpected humor that actually made me laugh out loud. The adventure is wonderful, but it will remain in my head a novel that I snickered my way through. Just wait until you find out what he names his warhorse. XDDD
The other characters are equally interesting. Even the supporting cast, who aren't as fleshed out as characters, still feel like real people. There are different sides to them, and best of all, they actually feel connections to each other, not just to "the hero". There's a scene, late in the book, where some of the supporting characters are mourning a fallen comrade, that was just lovely in its execution.
Perhaps my favorite part, though, is the antagonist. Or, should I say, "Antagonist? Where? Wait, who?" Which is not to say that there isn't an antagonist. It's that there are several antagonists, and only a couple of them are "bad guys". I draw the distinction here because as I worked through the book, several of those plot-twisty "ohhhh!" moments (the "holy shit!" moment in particular!) were ones that gave different views of the antagonists in the plot, and suddenly a "bad guy" wasn't so "bad" anymore. I ended up rooting for a character that I was pretty sure, when I first met them, I was going to hate, and ended up hating a character I thought I was really going to like. Well, "hate" isn't the right word, I suppose. I loved every one of the characters, but my allegiances shifted a LOT as the story progressed, and it was brilliant.
So. Those are the primary reasons, at least in my retrospective view, that I adored the book. But, I've left out one very important one (to me), because I think the book could be enjoyed by anyone for just the reasons above. But I feel it is important to note, this book is maybe the slashiest book that ever slashed. 0___0 Possibly an overstatement, but not by much. There's some good subtext goin' on, lemme tell ya (like a very suspiciously placed ellipsis which has stolen my heart). I was all ready to be in love with it anyway (once a book has made me truly, unexpectedly laugh, it's a pretty good bet I'll love it), and then along came Oreg, and now, after the book has finished, all I can really say is, "Where is the actual last line in the book, where it says 'and then they had sex, the end'???" Okay, so other people may see other things in it, though the whole relationship between Ward and Oreg (and Tosten, to a degree, considering his mad jealousy issues) is really beautifully portrayed no matter how you choose to look at it and interpret it. I fully believe you can read the whole book with slash goggles totally off and love it to pieces anyway (because really, it's an incredibly good read), but... Well. Read it for yourselves. (And then someone jump on the Ward/Oreg ship with me, PLEASE?? *puppy eyes*)
Oh, and before I leave you, I should leave you with a warning for references to actual gay sex in the book. It's not, like, detailed or graphic or anything, but... well. I don't think anyone with homophobia issues would have survived my flist for very long, but there it is. (And no, I'm not telling you where, when, who or how. You get to find out on your own.) And yes, I realize that to many of you, this is likely less of a warning and more of an incentive.
For those of you with further interest in this book (which should be all of you... *poke. poke*), here is a link to the Amazon.com page for it (though I don't recommend reading the reviews -- they are FULL of spoilers for some of the really, really good plot twists):
Buy Me! Read Me! You Know You Want To!
Those of you who are already familiar with the book? COME SQUEE WITH ME IN COMMENTS, PLZ! *wants to have a squee fest*
Those of you who aren't familiar with the book, please read on...
Some of you may be aware of/be fans of Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson books (Moon Called, Blood Bound and Iron Kissed, with another to follow that I forget the title of). I'm certainly a fan of the books; I love them to bits, in fact. However, I had heard a couple of times from other fans that I should really give her other books a try, too. So, as I was in the bookstore picking up Cry Wolf (which is set in the MT universe and is awesome), I also picked up a book called Dragon Bones, and Dragon Blood, its sequel. It is the first of these which I shall be pimping to you today (and I will probably pimp the second tomorrow, after I've devoured it XD ).
As always, I will try to keep this review free of spoilers. ^_^ It's long, though, and may devolve into squee. I'll try to contain myself. ;)
To begin, I will give you the jacket copy:
Playing the Fool
Most everyone thinks Ward of Hurog is a simple-minded fool--and that's just fine by him. But few people know that his foolishness is (very convincingly) feigned. And that it's all that's saved him from death at the hands of his abusive father, who's always seen Ward as a bitter rival for power.
When his father dies, Ward becomes the new lord of Hurog...until a nobleman declares that he is too dim-witted to rule. Ward knows he cannot play the fool any longer. To regain his kingdom, he must prove himself worthy--and quickly.
Riding into a a war that's heating up on the border, Ward is sure he's on the fast track to glory. But soon his mission takes a deadly serious turn. For he has seen a pile of magical dragon bones hidden deep beneath Hurog Keep. The bones can be dangerous in the wrong hands, and Ward is certain his enemies will stop at nothing to possess them...
Okay, so. This, and the cover (oh, the cover is SO pretty!) were what convinced me to buy it, along with the knowledge that I like Patricia Briggs' writing. I admit, I was cautious. Those of you who are acquainted with my reading habits will know that, while I'm a big fan of urban fantasy, sword-and-sorcery is not generally my favorite thing. I don't know why, and I have nothing against it, I just tend not to read it (I'm the same way with really intense sci-fi, for some reason). This book threatened to be very s-and-s, which was worrisome, but, as I said, the cover was gorgeous, it was Patricia Briggs, and I have a terrible, terrible weakness for the whole "abused royal son/daughter fights for and gains kingdom" stories (shh, don't tell!). Yes, secretly, I love the fairy tale. So, away I went, with the book in hand, and I started reading it.
You guys. This book? Is awesome. I tore through it in a day, as anyone who was at the BJD meetup yesterday and was part of that conversation can tell you. At 2pm, I was three chapters into it. I finished, after reading in fits and starts all day, at around 4AM, and then I couldn't sleep because all I wanted to do was bounce around the room making excited dolphin noises. (No, really. I mean it. Only reason I didn't was I didn't want to wake J. up.) After thinking about it a little, I decided that simply telling you the book is AMAZING probably won't convince everyone to read it, and I needed to identify precisely what was amazing about it. So, I gave it some thought, and this is what I've come up with:
1. World Building
Yes, you get your classic "map of the land" at the beginning of the book, but you don't really need it (it's helpful for relative distances between cities, I suppose, though I didn't use it at all when I was reading and am only thinking of it now. It's not necessary). The world is referred to mainly as the Five Kingdoms, with the addition of Vorsag to the south (and the fact that I consistently read "Vorsagian" as "Vorkosigan" is a sign that fandom has infected my brain, as I have never even read any of the Vorkosigan saga). I think the most interesting thing about it is the way that it's never info-dumped on you; you work out a lot of the politics as you go on. Obviously, there's exposition, but never of the "As you know, X, ________" type. Briggs is really good at giving the sense of the world, sketching the outline, and leaving you to fill in the details, which makes it a lot of fun. Trying to parse the religious systems in the book was really fun for me, as there are hints about all sorts of past turmoil and such, but, again, it's never info-dumped, so it truly is something to figure out. Which, as you may have guessed, is <3. Plus, as I said, there's so much of a sense of a whole world about it. Despite focusing mainly on a few characters and being written primarily in the first person (more on that later), it never feels claustrophobic.
2. POV
I tend to dislike first-person narration. Dunno why, it's a personal thing, but I make exceptions in Patricia Briggs' case, because (as said before) I liked the MT books, which were also first-person. This book didn't let me down, which made me very happy. The writing is just wonderful. But, as anyone who writes in first-person or has ever tried to knows, first-person is very limited. In the case of this book, that limitation is one that needed to be shucked off occasionally, so that the story could be filled in. Yes, I suppose it wasn't totally necessary -- the story could have been told exclusively from Ward's point of view, but it would have been lacking SO much of the stuff that I just really dug about the book. What Briggs does is have occasional third-person chapters, which focus on the characters that are out of Ward's sight -- his cousins, Erdrick and Beckram, and a nobleman, Garranon. I won't get into too much detail about this now, because I'll hit it in the fourth section, but the POV shift was extremely important, and it's handled in a chapter format, so that the majority of the book is in first person, and the chapter headings clearly indicate the POV switches. Unlike some books that do this, the switches never feel jarring; I was never thrown out of the story, which is a big thing for me. And, looking back, those POV switches filled in a lot of detail that I never would have seen if it had been told purely from Ward's point of view (like the "holy shit!" moment I mention in section 3, down there *points*).
3. Plot Twists
The plot of this book twists. It twists like a very twisty thing. All I can say? The world needs more very twisty things. Every single plot twist and turn in the book is beautifully handled, and as a good twist does, they usually caught me off guard for a moment. I actually can't remember if I said, "Holy shit!" aloud on the bus or not, but I have a pretty strong suspicion I did. Still, the best thing about these twists is that they make perfect sense. They catch you off guard, but then you take a second, review all the little details that have built up, and go, "Ohhhhhhhhhhh!!" Every single thing that happens is foreshadowed in beautiful, subtle touches, and while I had some strong suspicions about certain things (that I ended up being mostly-right about! yay!), even when those things were revealed, it was never, ever boring. Little things you forget about come back and end up being extremely important, and there are some wonderful red herrings floating around. The "rollercoaster ride" analogy is overused, but it really fits this book well. It's fun, it's exhilarating, and you get off at the end kind of wobbly but really, really wanting to go back and do it all over again. (Seriously, the only thing I'm sad about with this book is that I can never read it again for the first time. I would LOVE to be able to forget everything that happened and hit all those moments unprepared again.)
4. Characters
I pretty much saved the best for last, here. The characters in the book are wonderful. They're real, they're fun, they're occasionally chilling (no, not telling who). Part of the reason that I can get past the first-person narration in Briggs' work is that I like her protagonists, and this is definitely no exception.
Ward is a great character -- he's been through a lot in a relatively short life. It's still remarkable to me that he's meant to be 19; he's got a lot of maturity, though you get glimpses of his insecurities and his flaws. He's a good person, which is great, but he's not an infallible hero. A lot of the time, he doesn't quite know how to relate to the people around him. He's got a rocky relationship with his brother, doesn't really trust most of his extended family, and feels very personally responsible for his younger, and mute, sister's safety. He's devoted to his people, and desperately wants what's best for Hurog. So much so that he sometimes doubts whether he should be the one in charge of it.
What I like best about him, though, is the subtle humor. In playing the fool for everyone, he manages to dish out plenty of insults and small revenges with a completely innocent façade. There are moments, throughout the novel, of unexpected humor that actually made me laugh out loud. The adventure is wonderful, but it will remain in my head a novel that I snickered my way through. Just wait until you find out what he names his warhorse. XDDD
The other characters are equally interesting. Even the supporting cast, who aren't as fleshed out as characters, still feel like real people. There are different sides to them, and best of all, they actually feel connections to each other, not just to "the hero". There's a scene, late in the book, where some of the supporting characters are mourning a fallen comrade, that was just lovely in its execution.
Perhaps my favorite part, though, is the antagonist. Or, should I say, "Antagonist? Where? Wait, who?" Which is not to say that there isn't an antagonist. It's that there are several antagonists, and only a couple of them are "bad guys". I draw the distinction here because as I worked through the book, several of those plot-twisty "ohhhh!" moments (the "holy shit!" moment in particular!) were ones that gave different views of the antagonists in the plot, and suddenly a "bad guy" wasn't so "bad" anymore. I ended up rooting for a character that I was pretty sure, when I first met them, I was going to hate, and ended up hating a character I thought I was really going to like. Well, "hate" isn't the right word, I suppose. I loved every one of the characters, but my allegiances shifted a LOT as the story progressed, and it was brilliant.
So. Those are the primary reasons, at least in my retrospective view, that I adored the book. But, I've left out one very important one (to me), because I think the book could be enjoyed by anyone for just the reasons above. But I feel it is important to note, this book is maybe the slashiest book that ever slashed. 0___0 Possibly an overstatement, but not by much. There's some good subtext goin' on, lemme tell ya (like a very suspiciously placed ellipsis which has stolen my heart). I was all ready to be in love with it anyway (once a book has made me truly, unexpectedly laugh, it's a pretty good bet I'll love it), and then along came Oreg, and now, after the book has finished, all I can really say is, "Where is the actual last line in the book, where it says 'and then they had sex, the end'???" Okay, so other people may see other things in it, though the whole relationship between Ward and Oreg (and Tosten, to a degree, considering his mad jealousy issues) is really beautifully portrayed no matter how you choose to look at it and interpret it. I fully believe you can read the whole book with slash goggles totally off and love it to pieces anyway (because really, it's an incredibly good read), but... Well. Read it for yourselves. (And then someone jump on the Ward/Oreg ship with me, PLEASE?? *puppy eyes*)
Oh, and before I leave you, I should leave you with a warning for references to actual gay sex in the book. It's not, like, detailed or graphic or anything, but... well. I don't think anyone with homophobia issues would have survived my flist for very long, but there it is. (And no, I'm not telling you where, when, who or how. You get to find out on your own.) And yes, I realize that to many of you, this is likely less of a warning and more of an incentive.
For those of you with further interest in this book (which should be all of you... *poke. poke*), here is a link to the Amazon.com page for it (though I don't recommend reading the reviews -- they are FULL of spoilers for some of the really, really good plot twists):
Buy Me! Read Me! You Know You Want To!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2008-08-26 01:59 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-08-26 05:20 am (UTC)XDDD
no subject
on 2008-08-26 08:40 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-08-27 01:15 am (UTC)Though, I warn, the gay sex is not so much with the squee, so I would not get too excited.