Just realized I’m behind on updating my 100 books thread (I’ll make it to 52 books this year; next year I’ll add the 48 others).
For books 35-43, it’s been fiction. Series fiction to be exact.
A series from Libba Bray:
Great and Terrible Beauty
Rebel Angels
The Sweet Far Thing
Interesting. Nice thick books you can sink into. Very modern in a historical period that wasn’t known for being modern. Interesting concepts about feminism. The best parts were the alternate world and the twists and turns resulting from that alternate world. Some mature sexual themes. I enjoyed the mystery and the twists and turns. Several times I thought I was in modern times and not Victorian England, which is a flaw. Some of the themes (in spite of the feminist slant) are rather patriarchal. Grade: B-
A series from Phil Rickman: (4 of the 11 in the series)
Wine of Angels
Midwinter of the Spirit
A Crown of Lights
The Cure of Souls
I love these books. The story of an unconventional female priest in the Anglican Church taking on the role of Deliverance Minister on the borderlands of Wales and England, a spooky place full of occult worship and ancient mysteries. She’s also a single mom and not even sure about most of the hocus-pocus going on. Her faith, however, is inspiring. I love this character. Mature supernatural themes. Grade: A
And the Golden Compass series from Philip Pullman:
The Golden Compass
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass
Now seen as a classic of children’s literature, these books mesmerize and captivate. Perhaps I’m picky, but I have issues with some of Pullman’s claims (he’s a self-avowed enemy of C.S. Lewis and Narnia) and I don’t think Pullman was able to rise to the level of Tolkien or Lewis, but I give him credit for attempting the very thing he scorns. It works for me, but won’t work for others. Strong anti-Catholic themes, anti-God themes. Incredible ideas about multiple dimensions. A game-changing series for young readers, although I believe Narnia and LOTR will outlive this series (my personal opinion, mind you). Grade: A-
It’s fun to dive into a series. You get to stay with the characters longer and I enjoy noting how the author ends each book and begins the next (every author has their own way of doing this). I’ve also enjoyed the lessons on conflict. You just can’t write a series without major conflict in each book. It just doesn’t work. And conflict is why we read. We’ve all read books where something mundane is happening. What we read for is the subtext. A cup of coffee being poured is cliche unless there is something new going on under the surface (the coffee is being poured by a murderer and the reader knows it, but the characters don’t).
So this long dip into series fiction has shown me once again how important it is to really ratchet up the conflict. A writing book I’m reading recommends over-the-top responses by characters to show who they are. Then dial those responses back 25 percent. There’s your conflict.
Thus, a man throws a rock through a windshield in anger. Hm. Kinda boring. Say the guy throws another guy through the windshield in anger. Dial it back 25 percent: the guy attempts to throw another person through a windshield. It may be a rough example, but it works for me. It’s enough of a response to get me paying attention but not over the top so that I don’t believe it.
I’ll be back in the next two weeks with the rest of my 52 books for 2009. Stay tuned!
Comments on this entry are closed.