in which I egregiously misremember The Winter Prince, apparently

[kate_nepveu]

Picking up conversation with sovay from here so I don't have to ROT13 things, also in case someone else can help me figure out my weird brain.

SPOILERS for Wein's The Winter Prince; series spoilers in comments.

My memory of The Winter Prince is that it spent the whole book making me care about the relationship between the Mordred-equivalent and his legitimate brother, and then still killed the brother (possibly not in a way that made Mordred-equivalent culpable?), and I was REALLY MAD about it and promptly resolved not to read any of the sequels.

After the Readercon Dunnett panel, I was talking with ladysciencenerd about Wein and mentioned that I held a major grudge against The Winter Prince because the whole book was spent making me care about the characters' relationship and then it went and did the thing anyway—referring to the above, though not saying it because spoilers. ladysciencenerd then made absolutely amazing faces—repeatedly opening and closing her mouth, vertically-raised index finger moving out and back from her face—before visibly making up her mind and saying that it got fixed in the next book. And I was very dubious that "not actually dead!" was a good idea, but didn't ask for details because, again, spoilers in a public hallway.

And then sovay asked me about it, and I figured I should double-check my memory, and . . . no, they both live, and Mordred-equivalent pledges his loyalty to his brother. And now I have no idea whatsoever how I did that. I mean, I only reread the last chapter, because busy, but it doesn't look like something I could find ambiguous? I did read it in paper, and now I have the ebook, but I don't see any suggestion anywhere that it was revised.

So: was I reading something else and misremembering it for the Wein series? Did I just massively fail to understand it? Have I fallen into The Berenstein Bears universe?

I am baffled.

Oh, and I am trying to update the booklog: here's a pretty short entry about this year's Tiptree winner.

Edit: solved in comments!

Comments

SPOILERS

[coffeeandink]

Maybe you also read A COALITION OF LIONS? Because in that it does look like the Arthur figure died. Those of us who came into the series via a short story set later know this appearance is incorrect but I don't think this has been revealed in the books published so far.

(There is a completed unpublished book in the sequence, and I burn for it.)

I think you would really like the Telemakos books, fwiw.

Re: SPOILERS

[kate_nepveu]

*opens up book*

Oh RIGHT after all that it was the _very first chapter_ of the next book that undid it all!

Whew. I'm so glad that I hadn't completely made that up.

Re: SPOILERS

[sovay]

Those of us who came into the series via a short story set later know this appearance is incorrect but I don't think this has been revealed in the books published so far.

Not to my knowledge in the novels, just the short story "Fire." Word of God which I heard personally from Wein the last time she was at Readercon is that Lleu not being dead is a major point of The Sword Dance, but if that's not the completed-but-unpublished novel you're referring to [edit: and if it is AAAAAAGH HOW DO I GET A COPY], it must still be in progress.

I think you would really like the Telemakos books, fwiw.

I liked them very much.

Re: SPOILERS

[kate_nepveu]

thanks!

can I skip COALITION?

Re: SPOILERS

[sovay]

can I skip COALITION?

I think it's worth trying. It's a transitional book between the British and Aksumite settings and the third one, The Sunbird, picks up with a different protagonist, whom The Lion Hunter and The Empty Kingdom will then follow.

Re: SPOILERS

[kate_nepveu]

thanks! I'm not sure I can get over how mad I am about the Lleu thing.

Re: SPOILERS

[adelynne]

I recommend giving it a shot. Very little of the book is set in Britain. While Goewin spends a great deal of time mourning her family, she is also discovering a new setting and other surprising twists and turns. Plus she's got the cousin/fiance to deal with and that comes back in the Telemakos books. And it is the first time you meet Telemakos, who is worth meeting here.

Plus, there's the whole "you know he's not _really_ dead" thing?

Re: SPOILERS

[kate_nepveu]

honestly I'm not sure that he's not really dead doesn't make it worse!

Re: SPOILERS

[rilina]

(There is a completed unpublished book in the sequence, and I burn for it.)
WHAT. GIMME.

I heart the Telemakos books.

Re: SPOILERS

[adelynne]

Re: unpublished book

Look at this interview + excerpt from The Sword Dance. http://writingya.blogspot.com/2008/11/wbbt-elizabeth-e-wein.html

Re: SPOILERS

[kate_nepveu]

also -- I'm not sure I can bring myself to read COALITION, because I'm still mad about this. can I read the next books without it?

Re: SPOILERS

[coffeeandink]

Yes! The next three books work very well alone.

[adelynne]

ladysciencenerd == adelynne (thereby proving the "nerd" portion of the username...)

Yes, I was a bit confused because I thought that the battle happened in the next book, but it was true to the series. And I haven't ever managed to get my mitts of "Fire" but I was reading Wein's livejournal (when it existed), and her commentary on Megan Whalen Turner's "A Conspiracy of Kings" (https://chachic.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/queens-thief-week-guest-post-by-elizabeth-wein/ - bless the internet and the ability to track down something I read in 2012 with a well-directed Google search) led me to believe that Lleu was in the unpublished-but-written Telemakos book. Which, once again, AAAAARGGHHH.

[kate_nepveu]

thanks!

[oracne]

I had actually forgotten all that - THE WINTER PRINCE is the one I don't own, and the Telemakos books were the ones that really stuck with me.