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timepiececlockI'm 2/3rds of the way through, about when the main characters are trolling a sci-fi fantasy literary con, and I am... ambivalent. My mom got it for me for Christmas, and I read the back and thought it sounded neat, too.
Princess of Wands seems to divided into two, possibly three, small novellas, with individual but successive plots, involving the same main characters but a changing cast of minor characters. I wasn't impressed with the first one, which I can summarize with a headline: "Tentacle monster raping prostitutes defeated by ninja supermom." Sounds like a great parody, right? Too bad the book is taking it seriously.
The main characters feels very Mary Sue-ish to me; she's an interesting idea but her skills are taken past the point of cool to the point of annoying. The one thing I like about her-- her devoted religious faith-- is the most interesting thing about her character but the most annoying thing about the author's style. There's something in the writing that is... not quite proselytizing, but not quite not. The author makes a great of show for including other religions and other faiths, and indeed has made the heroine's acceptance of other faiths as part of the subplots, but I don't always like how he characterizes other faiths. There's something vaguely patronizing about it.
I'm also not thrilled with his characterization of women. All the strong female characters are either young and hot and sexualized (Barabara is a ninja MILF whose appearance is mentioned just about CONSTANTLY, and Janea is a "sexual healing" prostitute.) All the other female characters, the ones who are less strong magically or who are minor characters to the plot, are either "normal" looking, overweight, or older women. So basically if you're not hot or if you're old, then you're just support to the heroes and you exist only to propel plot.
The sexualized healing prostitute character actually bothers me less than the fact that Barbara is a modest homemaker who is not only phenomenally skilled in guns AND martial arts, but who is ALSO incredibly good-looking and has superpowers. The only reason I like her strong faith is that without the modesty imposed by it, her character would be almost unbearable. Even that feels false, though-- having a woman this amazing, and having her being appropriately Christian modest, too? She's a fanboy's dream.
Maybe that is really what bugs me. That I felt like this is a book about a woman that's been written by a man who doesn't understand how to write women, so the women he writes are caricatures, parodies of real women. So what could have been an interesting idea (a deeply religious woman and professional mother called to leave her safe life and fight evil) had it been written by a female author or by a male author who really understands females (especially law-enforcement women), is instead a disappointing jumble of male fantasy archetypes of what women should be like in their fantasy world of perfect tits and high kicks. Also, did I mention that a prostitute gets raped by a 30 foot tall giant sea monster with tentacles? Yeah. The mechanics of that (or lack of) made me almost throw the book down.
Things I see repeated a lot that bug me:
-rape, monster rape, human rape, more rape
-describing people as overweight or not
-confused depictions of paganism, non-Christian religions
-banality of the villains introduced
HOWEVER, that's not to say that I hate the book. There are a couple of minor things I like about it. The reason I'm kind of enjoying the last 70 pages is that the characters are currently infiltrating a fandom convention, and the author seems to be very familiar with fen culture. I suspect that's why the whole story sounds like something written by a fanboy... it probably was written by a fanboy. (and there's a reason the term is fan"boy" instead of "man".) Still, stupid assumptions and cliches aside, reading about a bunch of people infiltrating a convention is amusing, as you can imagine. For anyone who's ever been to a con (Fanime Con 3 times, myself) there's a certain verve and energy about it that comes across in the writing from even a mediocre writer. I kind of wish the whole book had been set in this wacky environment; I've been in fandom enough to know that there are pretty hilarious and original characters in fandom culture, and a murder-mystery set at a SF con would be entertaining, if it were well-written and done in a way that was respectful, not didactic (as it is here, a bit.) Something akin to the way the film Dogma treats Catholicism, I think. Something like that, I would love to read.
This book? I'll finish it. But I doubt I'll read another by the author. His narrative is decent and balanced, but lacks any real thrill, beauty, or imagination. And a mediocre narrative with characters I'm not impressed by and a plot that's so far a bad dream of Tomb Raider meets X Files... nah.
Oh, and the reviewer on the back cover who compared this to Buffy? I could kick you. I could kick you IN THE BALLS. [I know you have them.] This is not what Buffy is about, and Joss Whedon, for all his flaws, can still write women in ways that are worlds more interesting and complicated than this.
Princess of Wands seems to divided into two, possibly three, small novellas, with individual but successive plots, involving the same main characters but a changing cast of minor characters. I wasn't impressed with the first one, which I can summarize with a headline: "Tentacle monster raping prostitutes defeated by ninja supermom." Sounds like a great parody, right? Too bad the book is taking it seriously.
The main characters feels very Mary Sue-ish to me; she's an interesting idea but her skills are taken past the point of cool to the point of annoying. The one thing I like about her-- her devoted religious faith-- is the most interesting thing about her character but the most annoying thing about the author's style. There's something in the writing that is... not quite proselytizing, but not quite not. The author makes a great of show for including other religions and other faiths, and indeed has made the heroine's acceptance of other faiths as part of the subplots, but I don't always like how he characterizes other faiths. There's something vaguely patronizing about it.
I'm also not thrilled with his characterization of women. All the strong female characters are either young and hot and sexualized (Barabara is a ninja MILF whose appearance is mentioned just about CONSTANTLY, and Janea is a "sexual healing" prostitute.) All the other female characters, the ones who are less strong magically or who are minor characters to the plot, are either "normal" looking, overweight, or older women. So basically if you're not hot or if you're old, then you're just support to the heroes and you exist only to propel plot.
The sexualized healing prostitute character actually bothers me less than the fact that Barbara is a modest homemaker who is not only phenomenally skilled in guns AND martial arts, but who is ALSO incredibly good-looking and has superpowers. The only reason I like her strong faith is that without the modesty imposed by it, her character would be almost unbearable. Even that feels false, though-- having a woman this amazing, and having her being appropriately Christian modest, too? She's a fanboy's dream.
Maybe that is really what bugs me. That I felt like this is a book about a woman that's been written by a man who doesn't understand how to write women, so the women he writes are caricatures, parodies of real women. So what could have been an interesting idea (a deeply religious woman and professional mother called to leave her safe life and fight evil) had it been written by a female author or by a male author who really understands females (especially law-enforcement women), is instead a disappointing jumble of male fantasy archetypes of what women should be like in their fantasy world of perfect tits and high kicks. Also, did I mention that a prostitute gets raped by a 30 foot tall giant sea monster with tentacles? Yeah. The mechanics of that (or lack of) made me almost throw the book down.
Things I see repeated a lot that bug me:
-rape, monster rape, human rape, more rape
-describing people as overweight or not
-confused depictions of paganism, non-Christian religions
-banality of the villains introduced
HOWEVER, that's not to say that I hate the book. There are a couple of minor things I like about it. The reason I'm kind of enjoying the last 70 pages is that the characters are currently infiltrating a fandom convention, and the author seems to be very familiar with fen culture. I suspect that's why the whole story sounds like something written by a fanboy... it probably was written by a fanboy. (and there's a reason the term is fan"boy" instead of "man".) Still, stupid assumptions and cliches aside, reading about a bunch of people infiltrating a convention is amusing, as you can imagine. For anyone who's ever been to a con (Fanime Con 3 times, myself) there's a certain verve and energy about it that comes across in the writing from even a mediocre writer. I kind of wish the whole book had been set in this wacky environment; I've been in fandom enough to know that there are pretty hilarious and original characters in fandom culture, and a murder-mystery set at a SF con would be entertaining, if it were well-written and done in a way that was respectful, not didactic (as it is here, a bit.) Something akin to the way the film Dogma treats Catholicism, I think. Something like that, I would love to read.
This book? I'll finish it. But I doubt I'll read another by the author. His narrative is decent and balanced, but lacks any real thrill, beauty, or imagination. And a mediocre narrative with characters I'm not impressed by and a plot that's so far a bad dream of Tomb Raider meets X Files... nah.
Oh, and the reviewer on the back cover who compared this to Buffy? I could kick you. I could kick you IN THE BALLS. [I know you have them.] This is not what Buffy is about, and Joss Whedon, for all his flaws, can still write women in ways that are worlds more interesting and complicated than this.
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Well...
Date: 2007-12-31 02:42 am (UTC)Okay, let me put it this way - when your main character says to a kidnapped woman that he at least deserves a blowjob for the rescue then, well, you're in Frank Miller Land, the not-nice Frank Miller Land. I just ignore the mindless sexings and fake emotions and his politics and put them in the background and focus on the big guns he writes about.
Re: Well...
Date: 2007-12-31 06:18 am (UTC)Sounds like an asshat.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-31 07:22 am (UTC)And this author sounds like a total waste.