petty grumbling; half-assed review of Mélusine

I worked 9 to 6 at the store today. I am not enamored of that shift, mostly because I usually get up around 9:30am, and even if I go to bed early so as to make sure I get enough sleep, my body insists that I'm not supposed to be up at 8, and would I please go back to bed now... or else... where 'or else' is defined as a serious risk of nodding off at the cash register.

*grumble*

This, my friends, is why caffeine exists.

-------------------------------------

In other news, I bought Black Powder War, the third of Naomi Novik's Temeraire series (the Napoleonic Wars, with dragons!).

And a couple days ago I finished reading Sarah Monette's Mélusine, which was distinctly odd because the lush, decadent tone (plus Felix and Mildmay, the we-didn't-know-we're-brothers brothers, one of whom is canonically gay, people) reminded me of a lot of darker, semi-explicit fanfiction. I'm not used to reading that in published works, unless it's vampire erotica and thus frequently tacky to the extreme!

Seriously. There is a moment where Felix actually looks at Mildmay and lusts after him. Granted, it's only one moment, and Felix is totally insane at the time -- he spends 90% of the book insane to some degree, thanks to complications of magic and old trauma -- but still. Very weird to see that in a library book.

Beyond that, Mélusine has the feel of a first novel -- the pacing is a little shaky, especially at the beginning and end, and some of the ways she creates lower-district slang feel distinctly modern-American instead of organic to the vaguely French/Latin feel of the city of Mélusine and its empire -- but it holds attention and I liked Mildmay a lot. Also, there are plot threads that didn't get resolved, which, combined with a couple points in the last fifty pages, make me think I should expect a sequel sometime in the next few years. Which would make me happy... so I think the book works. *grin*

(In a totally random note, I am amused by the number-system Monette uses. The people of Mélusine count using base ten, which seems to be the system used by the rest of the world, and yet there seem to be a lot of hangovers from an older base seven system, like the use of 'decad' for 'week.' However, the use of 'septad' for things relating to sevens throws a wrench in that neat theory. The use of 'septad-day' and 'septad-night' for 'noon' and 'midnight' confuse things even further -- how do they count and divide time? Basically, it's a badly-explained mish-mash, and I itch to make sense of it.

*headdesk* Someday, I really have to get my sporadic obsession with organization and tidy world-building under control.)

petty grumbling; half-assed review of Mélusine

I worked 9 to 6 at the store today. I am not enamored of that shift, mostly because I usually get up around 9:30am, and even if I go to bed early so as to make sure I get enough sleep, my body insists that I'm not supposed to be up at 8, and would I please go back to bed now... or else... where 'or else' is defined as a serious risk of nodding off at the cash register.

*grumble*

This, my friends, is why caffeine exists.

-------------------------------------

In other news, I bought Black Powder War, the third of Naomi Novik's Temeraire series (the Napoleonic Wars, with dragons!).

And a couple days ago I finished reading Sarah Monette's Mélusine, which was distinctly odd because the lush, decadent tone (plus Felix and Mildmay, the we-didn't-know-we're-brothers brothers, one of whom is canonically gay, people) reminded me of a lot of darker, semi-explicit fanfiction. I'm not used to reading that in published works, unless it's vampire erotica and thus frequently tacky to the extreme!

Seriously. There is a moment where Felix actually looks at Mildmay and lusts after him. Granted, it's only one moment, and Felix is totally insane at the time -- he spends 90% of the book insane to some degree, thanks to complications of magic and old trauma -- but still. Very weird to see that in a library book.

Beyond that, Mélusine has the feel of a first novel -- the pacing is a little shaky, especially at the beginning and end, and some of the ways she creates lower-district slang feel distinctly modern-American instead of organic to the vaguely French/Latin feel of the city of Mélusine and its empire -- but it holds attention and I liked Mildmay a lot. Also, there are plot threads that didn't get resolved, which, combined with a couple points in the last fifty pages, make me think I should expect a sequel sometime in the next few years. Which would make me happy... so I think the book works. *grin*

(In a totally random note, I am amused by the number-system Monette uses. The people of Mélusine count using base ten, which seems to be the system used by the rest of the world, and yet there seem to be a lot of hangovers from an older base seven system, like the use of 'decad' for 'week.' However, the use of 'septad' for things relating to sevens throws a wrench in that neat theory. The use of 'septad-day' and 'septad-night' for 'noon' and 'midnight' confuse things even further -- how do they count and divide time? Basically, it's a badly-explained mish-mash, and I itch to make sense of it.

*headdesk* Someday, I really have to get my sporadic obsession with organization and tidy world-building under control.)