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[rivendellrose]

I finished Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist last night - I'd kind of wanted to leave it for a little longer, since it's great for my breaks at work, but I wanted too much to see it through.

Two main points: 1. zinjadu, you have got to read this book, as soon as nekokoban is done with it. You know how we're always bitching about how the Good People are portrayed poorly in movies and literature? Yeah. They're themselves in this book. Complicated, unpredictable, and downright scary. It's good stuff.

2. The one bad thing about this book? For the first three hundred pages, there are three female characters who are pretty central to the story - for the sake of simplicity, I'll call them the mother, the daughter, and the old intellectual woman (she's a college prof, if I recall). All three are educated, intelligent, and seem to be reasonably strong women. Yes, the daughter suffers from "victim whose pain starts to bring the men to realize something's up" syndrome, but so do a lot of people in the early parts of the book, so I didn't mind that. But by the climax of the book... By the climax, the old woman is randomly killed, the mother has had a hysterical break-down, and the daughter... just kind of disappears from the narrative. One minute she's doing absolutely everything she can to help the situation and then - poof! - gone, and you don't see her again until the very end, after everything's all better.

I realize this book was written in the late eighties, but for crying out loud! It was like, "oh, cool, this book has real female characters that... wait, where did they all go?!" It made NO FUCING SENSE. I'm sorry, I realize that a father's fury when his family is threatened is something that male authors just looove to play with, but considering how much he played up the "hell hath no fury" angle earlier in the book, I was expecting something pretty damned impressive from the women. And then, nothing. *Growls*

Anyway, good book. Just keep in mind that the author is still a total product of his times. Right down to mentioning doctored candy at Halloween and pagan cults possibly involved in human sacrifice. And even a bit of repressed memory stuff. I'll take late twentieth century urban legends for 10,000, Alex.

Comments

Scattered thoughts

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

Pagan cults don't do human sacrifice? *ducks*

Actually, I have pagan cults that do human sacrifice in my stories. And pagan cults that are trying to stop the psychos :D (But, you know the druids supposedly did it, and we know the Aztecs or Incas did, so there were cultures that did it before it became socially unacceptable.)

BUT I know what you mean it terms of dating the book. I remember being a kid (late 80s) and whenever they found a dead animal somewhere, everyone would be like, "OMG witches and/or Satanists! OMG! OMG!"

I was disappointed by the ending of the story, but I'm not sure for the same reasons you were. For the sake of spoilers, I won't say why on here.

Re: Scattered thoughts

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know they did it, but so did every religion in its infancy, as near as I can tell. I've got no problem with using it, it just added one more page, like you said, to the "do you think you could date yourself just a teensy bit more?" kind of feel of a lot of the book. Such is the hazard of contemporary urban fantasy - everything that makes it contemporary will, in twenty years, make it totally dated.

Yup. The paranoia of that decade was unbelievable. Satanists weren't so hip any more once you got past the early 90s, but we still watched a ton of videos debunking "recovered memory syndrome" and the "satanic ritual abuse cases" when I was in psych class.

So was I. After all the build-up, it just kind of... ended, everything tied up so neatly you could barely remember the drama that had led up to it. Bit of a let-down, after enjoying the rest of it so much. Still a good book, though, I thought.

Re: Scattered thoughts

[cirakaite.livejournal.com]

Such is the hazard of contemporary urban fantasy - everything that makes it contemporary will, in twenty years, make it totally dated.

True in most cases, but I've found that there are some which seem to almost be above that. If you ignore the names of the songs mentioned in Emma Bull's War for the Oaks (or treat them as classics!) I think it's withstood the test pretty well. It still seems edgy & fresh.

Re: Scattered thoughts

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

It's mostly details that grab you - the technology was an issue in Faerie Tale, since computers are brand new and they refer to a prototype MRI as "the first of its kind that's smaller than a whole room." It's still a great read, but I was amused by how much of the stuff brought back memories of childhood.

*Icon love* How did you get a picture out of that scene that wasn't underexposed?? I went through hell trying to lighten one of just Inara, and ended up having to touch up the blacks and hand-lighten her face.

Re: Scattered thoughts

[cirakaite.livejournal.com]

Oooh, yeah, that would do it. I'm always amused by the references to computers- there's one books by Spider Robinson which is almost as hilarious for the unintentional humour of the "first" Apple computer hooked up to the web as it is for the intention.

I didn't make it, unfortunately. My icon talents are nothing near good enough for that sort of scene . . .

Re: Scattered thoughts

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Heeee. Oh, yes. Nothing quite like computers to make something outmoded five minutes later. *g*

Yeah, it's a nasty scene for that. I was actually doing kind of okay with one idea I'd had, once I'd blacked out the background and stuck with just Inara and hers and Mal's hands... but then I didn't have room for text, so I failed anyway. Ah well.

Re: Scattered thoughts

[cirakaite.livejournal.com]

Icons can be a pain that way. I tend to stick with the easier ones anyway- no patience for all the word required in a really good one!

Re: Scattered thoughts

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

My skills aren't up to anything more complicated than cropping, resizing, maybe a bit of image editing with simple stuff like color, light, and removing things with judicious use of paint. But it's fun stuff, nonetheless.

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

I read this book years and years ago, and don't remember very much about it. I do recall that while I started out liking it, I was thoroughly disgusted with it by then end.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

There were definitely aspects that disgusted me, and the guy's concept of history seemed a bit... fuzzy, although I couldn't quite put a finger on what irritated me about it. And I think he horribly misidentified one of the main Fairy characters, but that's more personal opinion than anything I could actually argue. I might be misremembering, but I thought Ariel was one of Shakespeare's inventions, not a traditional character from folklore.

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

The archetype of Ariel is common to folklore, but I don't think the character himself is taken from an specific myths or legends. At least, none that I can think of off the top of my head....

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Hmm. My encyclopedia of Fairies and all that seems to be under the impression that Shakespeare was only Ariel's most famous appearance. He was also used in something by Pope, and was commonly called on by alchemists. Interesting. Still, I would have preferred good old Robin Goodfellow. ;)

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

He was also used in something by Pope, and was commonly called on by alchemists.

::dons geek hat:: Alexander Pope is an early 18th century poet, and probably borrowed the name from Shakespeare. As for the alchemy reference ... that would suggest an elemental of some sort, as opposed to a creature of Faerie.

Now I'm curious, lol! Does your book cite its sources? My motto has always been, when in doubt, go to the source material. :)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Let's see... Oh, he's also an archangel "associated with Venus in early Jewish writings, as well as medieval Christian astrology. Described by Heywood (1635) as one of the seven angelic princes" and also listed as a rebel angel by Milton in Paradise Lost. Those last are obviously post-Shakespeare, though, just like Pope.

Hmm... it does cite, but most of the references are stuff like the OED and The Reader's Encyclopedia, for this entry. And the "Fairies and Elves" in the Time Life collection on the Enchanted World. I'd say there's not a lot predating Shakespeare aside from the Jewish/Christian stuff, which makes me a bit leery of considering him a fairy. You're right that he sounds more like an elemental, and a Christian one at that.

[zinjadu.livejournal.com]

*ignores spoilers* Okay! Yays! More reading material! =D

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I hope you'll like it. The end has issues, like I said, but it's otherwise good in a lot of ways. *g*