drive-by booklogging

[kate_nepveu]

I read Alix E. Harrow's The Ten Thousand Doors of January and disliked how it incorporated the fantasy of political agency. (No spoilers in that post; link to spoilers within.)

Poll #24259

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 26

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Comments

[hebethen]

I had much the same reaction and am glad to see I am not alone.

[lavendertook]

SPOILER ALERT**********Thank you--I was intrigued and disappointed at once with the book, and what you've said puts the nail on it how the main conceit doesn't really work by the end. The door between worlds motif with her ability to write them into being was a nice handling of the conceit that didn't pay off for the reason you stated. I also felt the narrator'a voice changed from ironic nineteenth century mode that was somewhat twee, but also had some good imagery and sarcasm then switched to a plainer modern first person narration as it went on, and didn't account for the change. Lastly, I was annoyed by the fetishization of her mom's blonde hair, undermining the narrator as a woman of color, and if it was meant to be a point of internalized racism, there was no reveal of that.

[athenais]

I did not like the book, as I said when I read it, but I hadn't thought through what the general plot was doing as opposed to just not caring for the voice everything's in. Excellent points.

[phi]

I still haven't made it past the first chapter, in spite of all the critical praise it received. It's not that the introductory tone was twee, because I've enjoyed stories with rather twee narration. But the way in which the narrative voice tried to be ironic and cynically critical of the power structures just didn't quite ring true to me, and I still can't put my finger on why.

[jhameia]

I have feelings about magical historical fiction because of stuff like this, and most of them are not good feelings. A friend of mine once ranted, "if there really was such a thing as magic in a world, THEN WHY DID WE STILL GET COLONISED?" And I still think about that--how small or large magics put in the hands of the colonised still have the exact same history playing out, because the narrative of white supremacy is so entrenched. It's also my difficulty with a lot of steampunk as well... you plonked all this accelerated tech in the past and... the grand narrative is the same?

Anyway thanks for the review!

[kate_nepveu]

in the end this is one of the reasons I like Temeraire so much!

[hilarita]

I paused reading, because I didn't like the voice. Now I'm somewhat disinclined to finish the book.