The Lions of Al-Rassan

[bedlamsbard]

So I finished reading Guy Gavriel Kay's The Lions of Al-Rassan today -- I'd originally bought it a year and change ago and read the first few chapters before getting distracted and putting it aside -- and, well. I wasn't actually all that impressed. Except for a few things. (This is clearly the reason why I'm now writing Narnia Golden Age assassination attempt fic. I KNOW; it was supposed to be the Prince Caspian assassination-execution fic.)

I mean, it should have been perfect! Everyone knows how I feel about doomed tragedy. (Er. You know what I mean.) James and Sirius! Anakin and Obi-Wan! PETER AND NARNIA, for God's sake! (Oh, yes, you were wondering my literary (ha) type? That was it. Doomed relationships where the two are parted forever without any chance of reconciliation! I guess Peter and Narnia is a step forward because they're both still alive, and, um, that thing where they're not both human. Or even sentient. Ahem. Also, for some reason, Narnia is the one fandom where I hesitate to write AUs; for HP and SW, I have disputed the "doomed" part of the plot numerous times. Yes, including that thing I promised I would finish this year. Wait. That was also doomed, except with the whole "Anakin is alive and not evil" thing going on. But I digress.) And yet...and yet.

It just all seemed forced, somehow. And...there wasn't enough development. Of anything. (Possibly George R.R. Martin broke me. At least, I felt that this should of been of at least A Game of Thrones length (or A Song of Ice and Fire, period), and it was not. So it felt forced and rushed, and also, I was confused. And, um, I didn't really like Guy Gavriel Kay's style of writing. (If the gods are good, I will be able to turn a phrase as well as Dennis Lehane and plot like George R.R. Martin and S.M. Stirling and write characters as well as Diana Gabaldon when I grow up. And look at the world with the same sense of whimsy as Diana Wynne Jones and Robin McKinley, and write adventure that grabs as well as Edgar Rice Burroughs. But now I really digress.)

I mean, I didn't hate the book, I was just disappointed, because it came very highly recommended. There were definitely things I liked -- favorite character was Rodrigo Belmonte, and I'm very fond of his entire family. Jehane bet Ishak was all right as far as plucky female characters go (I rather prefer Miranda Belmonte d'Alveda and Queen Ines, though), and Ammar ibn Khairan was....well, I'm not entirely sure what to think. He was...too perfect. Too blithe. And his professed loyalty, on which the tragedy hinged, seemed, at least to me, to come out of nowhere. Maybe it was just because I had trouble reading too closely -- I'm serious about GGK's style -- but it seemed like a lot of things came out of nowhere. Other characters I liked included Alvar de Pellino (except for the epilogue, what the hell?) and Husari ibn Musa. I'm sorry, but forget the rest of the characters, I would read an entire book about Husari ibn Musa and Rodrigo Belmonte's company and the rest of the characters be damned. I suppose I should correct myself; my favorite major character was Rodrigo and my favorite secondary character was Husari. Favorite scene: Carnival, hands down. (Y'all will see this in the currently in progress Narnia fic.) As for the rest, well...plot? Not developed enough for me. I mean, I know it's based on historical events or some such thing, but that's no excuse. That's even less of an excuse.

Also, me being a freak? I feel kind of bad for not liking it, as if I'd let various people down in some way. I KNOW. I AM A CRAZY PERSON.

Other books I have read/reread lately (this is code for, if you want me to talk about them, ask):

Dies the Fire, S.M. Stirling (reread)
The Protector's War, S.M. Stirling (reread)
A Meeting at Corvallis, S.M. Stirling (reread)
The Sunrise Lands, S.M. Stirling
Conrad's Fate, Diana Wynne Jones
The Pinhoe Egg, Diana Wynne Jones
The Lives of Christopher Chant, Diana Wynne Jones (reread)
Charmed Life, Diana Wynne Jones (reread)
Witch Week, Diana Wynne Jones (reread) (and you wondered where all the Narnia/Chrestomanci talk was coming from. Oh, I'm so tempted to write Peter/Christopher)
Dogsbody, Diana Wynne Jones (reread)
Dark Lord of Derkholm, Diana Wynne Jones (reread)
Year of the Griffin, Diana Wynne Jones (reread)
City of Bones, Cassandra Clare
City of Ashes, Cassandra Clare
Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik
The Terror, Dan Simmons (reread)
Apocalypse 2012, Lawrence Joseph

I suppose I should start on the next highly recommended book I've had for the past year and haven't read, China Mieville's Perdido Street Station. (This came recommended by my AP English teacher, so, uh, I should probably read it.)

Comments

[cupiscent.livejournal.com]

WE CAN NO LONGER BE FRIENDS! YOU ARE DEAD TO ME! SHUNNED! *sobs*

No, not really, though I am actually laughing because wow, how can you love my writing and I love your writing when I worship GGK and have specifically attempted to emulate his style in more than one Star Wars fic? *G*

And I'm particularly fascinated by your comment about the pacing - rushed and should-have-been-epic - because one of the things that flabberghasts me (in a good way; oh! in the best way) about GGK is how condensed he can make things while still pulling me in 110%. He is the antithesis of fantasy flab and it's absolutely incredible. He does it even more so in Song for Arbonne, which is my favourite of his books (having narrowly overtaken Al-Rassan in recent years). It takes place in approximately five epic scenes, and I could read it over and over again just to marvel at his storycraft in depicting those scenes with such luscious detail that it casts light and movement into the intervening time as well.

I waffle about him. I know it. He just inspires me so much.

I'm sorry it didn't move you like it does me, but I will say: don't give up on him. The first time I tried to read Song for Arbonne, I didn't make it out of the prologue. It wasn't until the second time I read it all the way through (so, the third time I picked up the book) that it became my hands-down favourite. So leave GGK a year or two, and then try again. It may grow on you.

Meanwhile, my favourite Diana Wynne Jones is Fire and Hemlock.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*solemnly* And so the great schism began. (Well, we are in fandom-land; crazier things have happened.)

Maybe the style just works in better in small doses? (The funny thing is, because it's the most recent thing I've read, I'm unconsciously copying his style in the latest fic. I, uh, at least it works there?) Something about it just bothers me -- too florid, I think. I mean, as long as we're talking source material, my favorite writer is Dennis Lehane -- and he's not a fantasy writer by any stretch of the word, he's a mystery writer! And I specifically tried to emulate him, back in my CSI:NY days. *finds this all very fascinating*

See, but to me, it didn't feel condensed, it felt like he had the idea of it being epic, and then picked certain scenes to write becaue he liked them, and they weren't necessarily the best scenes to do the job. So: rushed. And I'm trying to think of a fantasy writer (or, well, at this point any writer) who managed to condense an epic-size plot into a book of that size, and I'm not coming up with one at all. With Al-Rassan, it just felt...hmm. Like lacework? Holes, or something. (I'm sorry, I'm in knitting mood, so that's where half my analogies come from. It's a plus from the few months ago when everything was military and space analogies and my English teacher was writing on my papers to STOP WITH OUTER SPACE AND WAR ALREADY.) Maybe The Shadow of the Lion, by Mercedes Lackey, Dave Freer, and Eric Flint, or Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon -- actually...I just forgot what the book was called. King Arthur, very famous, first section of it was The Sword in the Stone, actual book was called something else -- but those are all longer. And anything Arthurian tends to be epic by definition, but The Shadow of the Lion definitely takes place in a shorter span of time. Everything else I consider epic are series. (For which, of course, we can probably blame Tolkien.)

My favorite Diana Wynne Jones is Dogsbody, which I reread the other day for the first time in, I think, four years. And then Howl's Moving Castle, which I also love. Oh, Howl. There was a debate somewhere on whether Chrestomanci or Howl was better.

[ladyprydian.livejournal.com]

I didn't really like Lions of Al-Rassan either, but Last Light of the Sun, and A Song for Arbonne were both good. Tigana is not to bad but very long.

Last Light of the Sun is very LOTR / Narnia theamed because it is very Celtic, Princes of the Cyngale (aka Wales) King of the Angylcin (aka England)and warriors from ... oh shit now I forget but they are essentially Vikings.

A Song for Arbonne is more about Troubadours in France.

His writing is better in these two novels, mainly because he has a better knowledge background in the worlds of the 'Dark Ages' / early middle Ages UK. Muslim Spain is a hard thing to do because there is very little documentation of it any more. When the Christians took the land back and forced the Muslim people back into Northern Africa they burned and pillaged any evidence of them ever being there.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'll look into those two. I have heard too many good things about Guy Gavriel Kay to just give up on him after one book. (As compared to, say, Stephanie Meyer, where I read Twilight in horrified fascination and then wanted to spork my eyes out immediately. Ahem.)

[ladyprydian.livejournal.com]

Twilight is something I am avoiding. From what I've heard it's like reading a giant Mary Sue.

I just can't deal with vampire fiction (I do like I am Legend for it's ambigious ending and the classic Dracula). I was forced to read Anne Rice (a friend made me)and ungh ...

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I read the first book. I like myself too much to try and torture my brain into submission by reading the second. I have read fanfic better than Twilight. I have read A LOT of fic better than Twilight. It's not even the vampire thing, it's everything. I've got a post on it somewhere back...

[liptonrm.livejournal.com]

I just had to say something because, well, I find it really kind of amusing that you're so not fond of GGK's style and yet you use it so well. And, no, I'm sure it's really not for everyone, especially as his voice is decidedly not like a lot of other fantasists who are writing at the moment. I'm rather fond of it, but I was also eased into it, the first of his novels that I ever read were also his earliest, and he hadn't quite hit his height of stylisticness yet.

Though, if you were willing to give Kay another chance, after reading, 'The False Knight' I would highly suggest that you look into Tigana. I was actually surprised to discover that you hadn't read Tigana yet because 'False Knight' felt like it was an unwritten scene from that book. Tigana is also the book that comes closest to the size and scope of most modern epic fantasy. I don't think anything could ever be as intricate as George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire but Tigana definitely comes the closest of all of GGK's work.

And there you go, there's my .05, for what it's worth. I just can't seem to stay away from a decent book discussion post. ;-)

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I wrote "The False Knight" approximately five seconds after finishing Al-Rassan; I'm one of those people whose writing style is affected by whatever I last read. (Actually, in retrospect, this would probably explain why everything I read while I was writing my novel was nonfiction.)

All right, I now have a list of GGK books to read when I get my hands on them. *grin* (My library doesn't carry any GGK.) Thank you for the rec!

I think book discussion is so much fun, because everyone takes away different things from a book, or a story, and it's so interesting to see what it is for different people!

[liptonrm.livejournal.com]

Hee. Look at all of us and our OMG YOU MUST READ MORE GGK! Please do not feel obligated to read more simply because we're so demanding. ALL SHALL READ OUR BOOKS AND DESPAIR or something. ;-)

BTW, I noticed a Diana Wynne Jones discussion further up the page and have to shamefully admit I haven't read even one of her books, even though I've had them rec'd to me for ages. Now it's your turn to tell me what I should be reading. Turn about and fair play and all of that.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*snort* I try not to judge an author based on a single book.

Oh! Okay. I haven't read all Diana Wynne Jones, and I didn't like everything I read, but I will rec my favorites. Dogsbody is an older novel; it's set in England and stars Sirius the dog star, who's been sent down to Earth in the body of a dog as punishment for a crime he didn't commit. It's a stand-alone, and I love it. Then there are Dark Lord of Derkholm and Year of the Griffin, which are connected; Dark Lord is better, in my opinion. In another universe, a world is being exploited to serve as, basically, a theme park for tourists who want to do the whole magical quest gig (find the treasure! kill the dark lord!), but the world is not happy, and they want a way to stop it, with hijinks. It's a very fun and moving novel (I know how that sounds, but trust me here) starring the family of Wizard Derk, who's been chosen to be this year's Dark Lord.

My other favorite is Howl's Moving Castle, which was recently (or, um, a while ago) made into an animated movie I haven't seen. I love Howl's Moving Castle. It stars Sophie, the oldest of three sisters, who's been turned old by a wicked witch and goes out to move herself into the moving castle of Wizard Howl, who's arrogant, conceited, and dyes his hair. The sequel is Castle in the Air, and I believe there's a new book out in the same 'verse, House of Many Doors, although I haven't read it yet.

Lastly, but not leastly, there are the Chrestomanci Chronicles (which are released in individual books, as well as omnibus editions with two books in each). Chrestomanci is a title, not a name, of a nine-lifed enchanter who governs magic in a series of related worlds. The Lives of Christopher Chant is the first one -- they aren't really written in order so much, so you can read them in publishing order or as they come out in the omnibus chronicles, which I believe is the same thing -- and it deals with Christopher Chant, a boy who can travel between worlds. Next is Charmed Life, which takes place some twenty or thirty years later and deals with another Chant, Cat Chant. The Chrestomanci books are the most well-known. (They're also the ones I am very tempted to cross Narnia over with.)