So. For school I just read five books in the past two days. The best of them is Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. The worst of them is The Magicians by Lev Grossman. In between are Caroline Stevermer's A College of Magics and A Scholar of Magics, and Robert Heinlein's Red Planet. Here are my capsule reviews of them.
5) The Magicians. Best described as "Harry Potter goes to college, then Narnia." But only if you think Harry Potter is the utter jerk I see him as. Lazy, selfish, arrogant, and full of "destiny" and the ability to ogle women, the hero drifts through this nearly plotless novel whining about how he wants to touch women's breasts, then whining about how when he does, it doesn't make him happy. Oh, and he learns magic too. And the author (a book critic for a major news organ...which is almost never a good sign, in my professional opinion as an English major) likes to babble about how God figures in fantasy (which apparently only means Lewis and Tolkien, who were also apparently pedophiles) can be killed by the kids who grew up without letting go of their fantasy...but hey, if you lose your girlfriend (and happen to kill bunches of other people too through laziness etc) you can live your fantasy instead of becoming a productive member of society (helping those nasty grey muggles...)
This book is horrible. Morally, artistically, you name it. The characters' concepts of sex and love are so immature I thought I'd accidentally picked up an Asimov novel. The moral choices given are as sophisticated as a Harry Potter novel - and like a Harry Potter novel, the hero is completely rewarded for being a passive whiner.
When I think of the fantasy books which are being turned out today, like Robin McKinley's Pegasus, or Elizabeth Moon's Oath of Fealty, or the reprints of Gillian Bradshaw's Hawk of May trilogy, or Mary Robinette Kowal's Shades of Milk and Honey, or Orson Scott Card's The Lost Gate, and then look at the blurbs for this kind of pretention, I despair. Until I remember that I can reread those other books.
Which I strongly advise anyone reading this blog to do. Cause they're all what Grossman was trying to achieve - books about flawed but admirable heros and heroines facing both incredible evil and incredibly mundane things with equal parts maturity and grace, told through excellent prose, evoking not only tragedy but hope, not just pain but eucatastrophe, not just darkness but joy.
4 and 3) A College of Magics and A Scholar of Magics. Best described as "Robin McKinley lite." Which is the exact same reaction I have to Diana Wynne Jones. Which McKinley herself would no doubt deplore, but there tis. I adore most of McKinley's works (I've avoided Deerskin and was bored through Rose Daughter and felt Dragonhaven was kind of, well, lazy) for the combination of incredibly beautiful prose, incredibly rich worldbuilding, incredibly consistent humor, and incredibly loveable characters (loveable not because they are "flawed" and therefore "believable" (I am so sick of people telling me Harry Potter is cool because he's an annoying whiner) but because they are mature, moral, and loving towards others, which naturally makes them loveable). Stevermer (and Jones, in my opinion) plays with a magic-infused 1910s Europe in which the balance of the world was messed up a couple of generations ago, and the French and English schools of magic (women and men only, respectively) have to raise up their chosen ones to set things right. Nice bits of romance (though the anti-marriage sentiment is rather annoying) and nice writing - but ultimately, the execution isn't up to McKinley's par. Where McKinley is incredible, Stevermer is fun.
Which is a whole lot more than I can say about any of The Magicians.
2) Red Planet. A Heinlein juvenile. And nowhere near my favorites (Citizen of the Galaxy and Starship Troopers). More along the lines of The Door Into Summer, and a bit better than the rather dull exposition fest Farmer in the Sky. Honestly felt like a redo of Out Of The Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis, with more science and less religion. And plucky boy heros. And libertarian politics.
1) Princess Academy. It's funny that my favorite book in this whirlwind research tour is a book about Princesses by a Mormon (recommended by a Mormon, Orson Scott Card, too). I'd actually already read Hale's Austenland, and thought it was okay for Austen paralit (miles better than Lost In Austen, the fanfic-that-got-filmed for no good reason). But Princess Academy, despite the title, is a treasure on the level of Susan Fletcher's Shadow Spinner. A story aimed at children and young adults which nonetheless builds the world and characters so clearly and beautifully that it's worthy of time and tears from all ages.
So, that's it. I'm tired. Going to watch my five-dollar Swan Princess now.
Postscript: I hope to get my Ideal Husband, Kraken, and Jane Eyre blogs up sometime (and since I'm hoping to see The Lincoln Lawyer tomorrow, probably a brief post on that too). We shall see.
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