rushthatspeaks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rushthatspeaks) wrote2011-01-22 01:50 am
rushthatspeaks) wrote2011-01-22 01:50 am
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The Riddle and the Rune, Grace Chetwin (365 Books, Day 145)
The second of Grace Chetwin's books with Gom as protagonist; you could start here.
The thing I found most interesting about the first book (day before yesterday) was the way that I couldn't tell where the series was going at all. I can kind of tell now, after the second book, but this is still a lot more open-ended than many things I can think of. It seems to be structured more around general life milestones than around specific worldbuilding hooks, so that the first book is 'protagonist's childhood' and the second is 'protagonist decides what to do with his life', and the worldbuilding, which does exist, turns up insofar as it interacts with these things.
I rather like this approach, because quite often you get the protagonist going out into the world and stumbling on The Plot, whereas these books do have a plot, but it comes up in the same way that story-arcs work in daily real life, so that the plot is a concretion of associations concerning the things and people who happen to be around. I mean, there are also things and people who have prior involvement with Gom out there, business of their own with him and so on. But you don't get the impression (and it's an impression I get too often with some books) that everyone was sitting about waiting for him to turn up so they could finally exist.
So, again, not Great Amazing Literature or anything, but gently enjoyable, perfectly pleasant, better than it had to be.
The thing I found most interesting about the first book (day before yesterday) was the way that I couldn't tell where the series was going at all. I can kind of tell now, after the second book, but this is still a lot more open-ended than many things I can think of. It seems to be structured more around general life milestones than around specific worldbuilding hooks, so that the first book is 'protagonist's childhood' and the second is 'protagonist decides what to do with his life', and the worldbuilding, which does exist, turns up insofar as it interacts with these things.
I rather like this approach, because quite often you get the protagonist going out into the world and stumbling on The Plot, whereas these books do have a plot, but it comes up in the same way that story-arcs work in daily real life, so that the plot is a concretion of associations concerning the things and people who happen to be around. I mean, there are also things and people who have prior involvement with Gom out there, business of their own with him and so on. But you don't get the impression (and it's an impression I get too often with some books) that everyone was sitting about waiting for him to turn up so they could finally exist.
So, again, not Great Amazing Literature or anything, but gently enjoyable, perfectly pleasant, better than it had to be.