Naamah's Blessing, Jacqueline Carey (365 Books, Day 292)

[rushthatspeaks]

So the reason why I continue reading Jacqueline Carey, as a general thing, is her standalone novel Santa Olivia, which is pure lesbian loup-garou awesomesauce, a genuinely good book, and one of those books that makes me think the author probably has another good book floating around in there somewhere.

The reason I still read the Kushiel books is... huh. I appear to have entirely forgotten. I guess there must be one or I wouldn't have found myself sitting down with this, but damn if I know why I care anymore. In fact, I kind of think I don't.

I mean, for one thing, the major things I liked about the Kushiel books were the kink positivity and the way the important relationships in the series are the ones between women. This latest trilogy has no kink to speak of and while it's much more explicit about female relationships being Important, the main ones here are just not that interesting, because the protagonist spends all her time traveling and consequently doesn't spend long enough in any one place to build anything really complex. And her relationship with her husband feels like second verse, same as the first trilogy in several directions.

Anyway. This was the last of... I have no idea how many of these trilogies there have been at this point. The protagonist has been, and I am not making this up, being hauled around the entire map of the globe because it is her gods-given Destiny. No, really. She feels Destiny and she goes. As far as I can tell, the goal of her Destiny is to give the people who put the maps in the fronts of books more to do. One of Carey's more irritating qualities has always been that when there is a map in the front of the book, come hell or high water our protagonists will go everywhere pictured on it. This leaves you sitting there going oh, hey, we only have x number of pages left, I guess it's going to be pretty whirlwind about x city, huh? and then it is. Not the frame of mind you want to be in if you are looking for an immersive reading experience.

In this installment, our protagonist goes off to America to deal with some plot from book one. It is an amazing example of how a writer who is genuinely trying to write a story which assumes the personhood and agency of all of her characters and the validity of many different cultures can nevertheless end up writing a story which boils down to What These People Need Is A White Person To Save Them. She does attain the feat of being the only fantasy writer I have read who does not instantly go 'Aztecs = massive human sacrifice all the time = everyone in this culture is either terribly deluded, fighting the system, or horribly evil' and instead goes 'people generally have reasons for the customs they have evolved and it is not the business of outsiders to think they understand those reasons', except that by the end of the book the protagonist has wound up accidentally changing the whole system anyway so it becomes irrelevant. *facepalm* Also, nobody in either the alt-Aztec or alt-Inca cultures ends up with any agency; the villain is a white guy, the people who kill him have come from Europe (at least one came from China, I guess, that's something); don't even get me started on the whole thing where he's ruling as a god-king because it is clearly trying to be a commentary on the entire way the Spanish were and it fails completely. I mean this is a book in which on every surface level the author is saying as hard as she can LOOK THESE ARE PEOPLE DAMMIT and on every plot level they just don't get to do things. Aargh.

Anyway, there is some consolation in the fact that one protagonist or another from the various Kushiel trilogies has now literally been hauled over ninety percent of the world, which means that she's either going to stop the series, write a book set in the Pacific islands (PLEASE NO), write a book set in Antarctica (okay, that would be hilarious, I'll take it), or maybe write one set entirely in the alt-France where she is clearly the most comfortable and has done the most worldbuilding, just for a change?

I suspect that whatever it is, I'll end up reading it, both for the trainwreck factor and because Santa Olivia (which you should all read! it's really good!) is the sort of book that makes me automatically keep reading an author for a few years in (possibly futile) hope. But this one, well. NO. A world of no. Not playing to her strengths. Don't bother.

Comments

[dorothean]

Your writing this confirmed my decision not to read any more of Carey's Kushiel spinoffs. I love the first trilogy, but I gave up on subsequent books after I checked the first book in the second trilogy out of the library with a vague memory of having started it before but not having been able to finish it, then, while reading, realized that everything in the book was actually familiar: I had in fact read the whole book but simply not remembered doing so because it had made so little impression on me.

I do not want her to go to any Pacific islands, either.

But Santa Olivia is great! (The only thing that annoyed me about that was that she decided to make her protagonist's name French when it would have made so much more sense for her to be Lupe.)

[boundbooks]

Now I must try Santa Olivia. I read Kushiel's Dart, which I thought was very well-written, but the characters didn't grab me. So, I'm totally game to try more of this author's writing style, but in a different series!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I loved Santa Olivia. (And haven't been able to read the others.)

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

You're making me think I would on the whole feel better for continuing to avoid this series.

Also, maps. I hate maps. One of the more enjoyable things about my 470,000-word fantasy extravaganza was having the shape of the world(s) interfered with by Powers about 50,000 words in such that it is not mappable any more, because while going a mile north, a mile east and a mile south reliably takes you to the same place, it is often not the same place that you would get to by just going a mile east. (Technically it is consistently mappable if you use five spatial dimensions, but most people can't actually make their brains do that and I'm pretty sure it's going to be beyond bookbinding tech for some time to come.)

[seishonagon.livejournal.com]

I haven't read this one yet, but am going to for many of the same reasons as you.

Also, I liked the first three Kushiel books, especially the third. I was kind of neutral toward the first of the Naamah books, and I didn't care too much for the second one. The third I didn't have much hope for, and I'm gld to have that confirmed before I read it, so I won't go into it with any higher expectations born of wishful thinking.

I did read Santa Olivia recently, and absolutely loved it.

[sorenlundi.livejournal.com]

There is a Tanith Lee novel that takes place in Antartica. In an Egyptian pyramid under the ice.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

I usually never say this, and I don't say it to recommend you read my 7 volume hugely (many would say over)long saga which you would have to do because it isn't until the last couple volumes where the reader actually gets into the point of view of any of my Mesoamerican elves, BUT I just want to say that I totally write good Aztec/Mexica peoples who are self actualized. Mostly because I am married to a spouse whose PhD specialty was Post-Classic Mexico (i.e. Aztec era).

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

I mean this is a book in which on every surface level the author is saying as hard as she can LOOK THESE ARE PEOPLE DAMMIT and on every plot level they just don't get to do things.

This reminds me of Jay Lake's Mainspring. Not in a good way.

write a book set in Antarctica (okay, that would be hilarious, I'll take it)

I have only read the first Kushiel book, on purpose, but I would read this.