Books: The Demon's Covenant
Dec. 27th, 2010 07:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vcmwYesterday I checked The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan out of the library and finished it in about three hours during which I did not stop to breathe.
This surprised me greatly, as, after finishing The Demon's Lexicon, I picked up the 2nd book and put it down somewhat listlessly over the course of, oh, 4 months? at the library. I opened it up, didn't care for Mae's voice in the first few pages, put it down. I thought about things that intrigued me in the first book and found I didn't want to know how they developed.
Except yesterday I changed my mind, and today I just spent an hour reading little snippets of other teaser stuff online. Obviously, I am in fact a sucker for a certain kind of book (brooding, angst = good, as long as not accompanied by embarrassment humor). Also, best Goblin Market in a long long time. Way tromps all over the one in Stardust, I think personally. And a magical system that meets that whole "it has to cost" requirement without making me want to vomit all over cheesy tropes of self-sacrifice. (Most magical systems that cost strike me as deeply contrived, so I admire that this one doesn't.)
I really liked that there were multiple possible romantic entanglements for Jamie. He doesn't have a one-true-love gay hookup! And there are in fact multiple boys he can crush out on! Yay! (Apologies to other adorable gay characters in teen fantasy fiction, but I do get tired of them having one destined boyfriend... it gets to the point where, once you have a brooding gay teen guy in fantasy, the next gay guy who shows up is clearly their MATE. And I say bwahahaha no to that, so this was a nice change.)
The bits with the mother over the course of the story arc were really excellent. I was not pleased with where they ended, but I thought the journey was a thing of beauty. As sometimes, adults mess up not out of ill will but because they're not terribly well equipped for the task.
My main hesitation with these books is one I have increasing hopes that book three will not totally crush me with. Basically, I think if someone wants to have certain [warm, fuzzy, passionate] human feelings, and feels a need for those feelings, and tries to express them and study them, that's basically good enough. So I have very mixed feelings about Nick's character arc through books one and two, because I think he's doing fine. It's not as if the rest of the characters aren't murderous. I reserve the right to throw books violently at the wall if Nick has some big Pinnochio-esque "I'm a real boy!" moment at the end of book three.
Also, I liked how Mae has what seems like a very typical "girl in paranormal romance land" set up with all of these various guys who she somewhat drools over... and no. She is not that character in this story, and I thought the book did a stellar job of hauling against narrative inertia to accomplish this. Boy #1 does not like her, he secretly conflictedly likes her brother. Boy #2 does like her but is nonetheless using her in order to protect his brother. Boy #3 barely thinks she's human because she can't do the big fancy magic. And so forth. So watching her pinball between these people and between the narrative conventions that would normally link them was, for me, delightful.
This surprised me greatly, as, after finishing The Demon's Lexicon, I picked up the 2nd book and put it down somewhat listlessly over the course of, oh, 4 months? at the library. I opened it up, didn't care for Mae's voice in the first few pages, put it down. I thought about things that intrigued me in the first book and found I didn't want to know how they developed.
Except yesterday I changed my mind, and today I just spent an hour reading little snippets of other teaser stuff online. Obviously, I am in fact a sucker for a certain kind of book (brooding, angst = good, as long as not accompanied by embarrassment humor). Also, best Goblin Market in a long long time. Way tromps all over the one in Stardust, I think personally. And a magical system that meets that whole "it has to cost" requirement without making me want to vomit all over cheesy tropes of self-sacrifice. (Most magical systems that cost strike me as deeply contrived, so I admire that this one doesn't.)
I really liked that there were multiple possible romantic entanglements for Jamie. He doesn't have a one-true-love gay hookup! And there are in fact multiple boys he can crush out on! Yay! (Apologies to other adorable gay characters in teen fantasy fiction, but I do get tired of them having one destined boyfriend... it gets to the point where, once you have a brooding gay teen guy in fantasy, the next gay guy who shows up is clearly their MATE. And I say bwahahaha no to that, so this was a nice change.)
The bits with the mother over the course of the story arc were really excellent. I was not pleased with where they ended, but I thought the journey was a thing of beauty. As sometimes, adults mess up not out of ill will but because they're not terribly well equipped for the task.
My main hesitation with these books is one I have increasing hopes that book three will not totally crush me with. Basically, I think if someone wants to have certain [warm, fuzzy, passionate] human feelings, and feels a need for those feelings, and tries to express them and study them, that's basically good enough. So I have very mixed feelings about Nick's character arc through books one and two, because I think he's doing fine. It's not as if the rest of the characters aren't murderous. I reserve the right to throw books violently at the wall if Nick has some big Pinnochio-esque "I'm a real boy!" moment at the end of book three.
Also, I liked how Mae has what seems like a very typical "girl in paranormal romance land" set up with all of these various guys who she somewhat drools over... and no. She is not that character in this story, and I thought the book did a stellar job of hauling against narrative inertia to accomplish this. Boy #1 does not like her, he secretly conflictedly likes her brother. Boy #2 does like her but is nonetheless using her in order to protect his brother. Boy #3 barely thinks she's human because she can't do the big fancy magic. And so forth. So watching her pinball between these people and between the narrative conventions that would normally link them was, for me, delightful.
