Which part of 'completely terrified' did you translate as 'show us your knives'?

[dolorosa_12]

So! I got a copy of The Demon's Covenant yesterday. Stupid Waterstones took a week to get it in, even though it was published on 27th May. I had to avoid all the fantastic release-day celebrations at marmalade_fish, including the live chat with sarahtales and all the spoilerific posts, which made me quite sad. But! Now I have a copy, and I've read it (twice, actually), and although I'm not at the stage of a coherent, Wordpress-worthy review, I'd like to flail about a little bit.

Spoilers abound, of course.


1. Alan is an insane and terrifying puppet master. I don't know why I didn't assume differently. All those references to chess should've made me suspicious, even if Nick's comment that 'Since I can't lie, Alan told me not to tell secrets' went right over my head.

2. sarahtales is queen of the plot twist. I didn't get the twist in Lexicon (although I had worked out that Nick was Black Arthur's son, which he isn't, but by some definitions is), and I didn't see the twist coming in Covenant either. I should pay more attention to the books' titles. The whole 'Nick has trouble with language and this book is called The Demon's Lexicon, hey, maybe Nick is the demon' thing went over my head, and with Covenant I missed the whole 'Alan is an insane chessmaster/pokerfaced liar/machiavellian schemer who probably could make unbreakable pacts with demons, y/y?' thing too.

3. You can tell sarahtales used to be a fic-writer. She's so hyper-aware of the shipping potentials for every single pairing, and she manages to ship-tease with just about all of them. I saw Alan/Mae, Seb/Jamie, Gerald/Jamie, Sin/Mae, Nick/Sin, Nick/Mae, Nick/Liannan, Nick/Jamie, and possibly others.

4. That being said, YAY FOR THE NICK/MAE!!!!! This is one of the few things where I rabidly ship one pairing (it ties in with the whole 'reducing me to a 13-year-old fangirl' thing) and I was so happy that the series seems to be agreeing with me in terms of shipping preferences. Although sarahtales is a devious person and likes to ship-tease, so maybe there'll be no Nick/Mae in book 3.

5. Anyone else notice that Jamie sounds a lot like sarahtales? At least the way she writes on her blog, that is. I don't think Jamie's her author-avatar or anything, I just think he has similar speech patterns, either consciously or unconsciously.

6. All the characters, however, seem to have attended the Joss Whedon Academy For Defensively Sarcastic Use of Language. I approve.


I might read it a third time now...

Comments

[tsarcasm.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I may have to read these books. I dout the stateside books stores are any better than Waterstone's though. Possibly worse.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

But now you know all the spoilers! I've just spoiled basically the entire first book for you!

Amazon is your friend, I think, if you want to buy copies. They're sold in the US as well as the UK.

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

hi, hi! I'd just like to jump in here and say that I prefer to order through indiebound bookstores (http://indiebound.org) and my local bookstore usually gets books i order in within 3 days or less! So if there's one in your area i'd definitely recommend checking it out and ordering Covenant through them.

otherwise, bookdepository.com (or .co.uk) is a great alternative to (icky skeevy horrible homophobic) amazon, and they have free shipping on all books!

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Ah, it's all moot to me since I don't have a card that works to buy things online, but thanks for the info. I'd forgotten about the numerous Amazonfails, and suggested it without really thinking, so thanks for correcting me.

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

oh! well, with indiebound, you're actually given the option of basically placing the order online through your local independent bookstore, and then picking it up in store and paying there instead. I do that all the time and it works great for me since a) my bookstore is literally right across the harbor and b) i frequently tend to go "oh i want that book!" at like 2 am or something when they're not open.

lksdajlasd don't mind me, i just have tons of love for indiebound and think they are a great resource for getting the most out of local independent booksellers.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

I love independent bookshops, so I'm grateful for the link, in that case.

Off topic, but are you the person who wrote a rather awesome response to the whole Gabaldon fanfic debacle?

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

haha, yes! :) *is Aja!* hello! sorry for randomly threadjumping on your LJ, i just saw a Covenant review and pounced, omg.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow! I'm happy that you pounced. :)

Mind if I add you?

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

Awww, not at all! :) thank you!

[tsarcasm.livejournal.com]

Lovely information, thank you. I'll look into the indiebooks. There's a local bookstore here in town I'm in all the time anyway, though I do feel better about buying used books.

[tsarcasm.livejournal.com]

I'm not a big worrier about spoilers. I'll likely forget all about it by the time I start reading.So no worries

[boojumlol.livejournal.com]

When I am finally able to give you The Complete Works of Maya you will notice that Draco is Jamie and Harry is Nick. It's not clear cut of course, there are many differences, but the way they speak and the way Nick/Harry thinks are really quite similar, especially in her last fic 'Drop Dead Gorgeous', which I believe she was writing at the same time as TDL. I think a lot of people who have read her fan fic get suckered into shipping Nick/Jamie because I've this. I'm all about Nick/Mae, too, though. :}

I never get the twists either. By the end of Lexicon I had figured out that there was something wrong with Nick and it was probably magical, but I was thinking of something along the lines of part of his personality having been removed, as in Robin Hobb. I thought he would be fixed and be ok. TDL possibly has the punchiest twist I've encountered in fantasy. I can't think of a rival at the moment, anyway.

[sarahtales.livejournal.com]

Draco is Jamie and Harry is Nick

*weeps* They're really not. But I am glad you like the twist!

And I am glad you liked Covenant, dolorosa_12!

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. I didn't mean to inadvertently start any drama...

I adored Covenant, so...thank you for writing it! I really liked seeing things from Mae's perspective. It gives you such a different opinion of things you've seen from Nick's in Lexicon - in particular how devious and not particularly nice Alan can be. There was an interesting discussion at some point in the book about the differences between 'good' and 'nice'. In Lexicon, you see (for most of the book), Alan as a nice, but not necessarily good person, and then in Covenant things are reversed. At least that was my impression...

This post is incredibly flailly and shrieky, but I am going to post something approaching a serious review at some point. Maybe after I've read Covenant for the fourth time...

[sarahtales.livejournal.com]

You haven't! Though I did feel I had to stand up for my beloved original characters for a moment, I also wanted to say thanks and I am deeply pleased you enjoyed, especially as changing POVs is a weird thing for a writer to do and a tricky thing for some readers to accept.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

changing POVs is a weird thing for a writer to do and a tricky thing for some readers to accept.

Only if you don't give the readers a reason to like the new POV. Since I liked Mae already in Lexicon, I wasn't going to complain if Covenant was told from her POV.

[boojumlol.livejournal.com]

*facepalm*

Sorry. Perhaps I should have said that there is an ocasional similarity in mannerism or speech.

The only twist I can think of that I love as much as The Demon's Lexicon's is the one from Fingersmith.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

I'm intrigued...

For someone who has studied literature at school, university and postgrad level for the better part of 20 years, and who has been a professional book-reviewer for the past nine years, I'm surprisingly bad at picking up on plot twists in anything other than the most derivative (ie Eragon-level) stories. Although oddly enough I managed to work out how His Dark Materials would end, simply because I knew that Pullman was a bit of a Joss Whedon when it came to screwing with your mind and tugging on your heartstrings.

The ending to The Beast of Heaven by Victor Kelleher is more of a punch, but it's scifi, not fantasy.

[boojumlol.livejournal.com]

Do you read books at a sitting (or two), like me? Reading like that doesn't really give us time to figure out twists. People who take a week (or more) to read a book have time to reflect. I just gulp.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Depends on the book. I'm more of a gulper (I read Covenant in about two hours, I think) - when I was a child and teenager I'd frequently come home after a three-hour gymnastics class which had been after school and read two or three or four books, every day. Yeah, I was hardcore...I can't read at quite that speed anymore, although when I was reviewing a lot more for the paper, I'd read about six or seven books a day so as to write the reviews quickly.

Reading in this way does have its drawbacks, though, as you say. I have on occasion read books so quickly that I missed key information and suddenly I was all, 'What? Why are they at a funeral? Hang on, Character B died? When did that happen?'

[verschreibsel.livejournal.com]

I agree with so much that you wrote. Again sarahtales managed to trick me depsite knowing knowing that Alan is a schemer. I mean I knew it and I still believed he wasn't lying. I thought that was over. But really that is his character. He is the puppet master. And I almost thought he'd pull a Dumbledore when Nick thought he'd betray him and it would turn out that the man behind everything has a much darker side. Like when we thought Alan wanted to punish Nick for what he did to his family. But oh my god that line "There's nothing in two worlds I love half as much as you" I nearly teared up. It's not a normal declaration especially Nick's answer but it means so much to them that sometimes Nick wants to be human for Alan. :) I loved that.

I liked the ship tease but I was torn. I love Alan although I grew to dislike him a bit in this book. No idea why. I wanted him to be happy and I knew Nick wouldn't be happy if Alan wanted Mae but Nick got her. Even though it's not even clear whether NICK wants Mae. Probably not or he's not aware of it. I mean I love Nick/Mae but with Alan loving Mae it wouldn't have worked. Nick kept telling her to choose Alan after all. I mean he knew Seb was interested in someone else and he would never take her away from Alan. But yeah I love Nick/Mae mainly because you can so easily picture yourself in Mae's place huh? I'm only half kidding. But that scene (it was in a snippet before the book was published too) when Nick tells her he's never going to ask her out and they're so close. That gave me chills.

I must say I have a soft spot for Nick/Jamie. I mean I loved their friendship and since it was Mae's POV I totally thought she was right about Jamie liking Nick. Or crushing on him. I admit I shipped Gerald/Jamie a bit from the snippet from the first chapter before the actual book came out but now it seems that that was more one sided on Jamie's part. I wish I could say I'd approve of him and Seb but since Seb didn't have the guts to leave the circle. He just needs another new boy that hasn't been introduced yet. haha :D

I love Jamie though. I think when I read the book a second time I'll have to write down the awesome quotes. :) But you're right I think it's because he's mostly the one to bring the humour in serious scenes it's just Sarah's humour.

I've only read it once and I'm not quiet ready for a second time. My mother read it yesterday and she says she stayed up until 3 am to finish it. But she like Demon's Lexicon more. Oh and about the title. That totally went over my head too mainly because I can seem to remember what covenant means since it was a completly new word to me and I have no idea how you pronounce it either.

sorry long comment is long.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about your comment being long, I love talking about these books!

I agree with you about the awesomeness of Nick and Alan's relationship. I love this series so much for how positively it portrays sibling relationships. Nick and Alan would kill or die for one another, and so would Mae and Jamie, and I adore that it's Nick's relationship with his brother, rather than a relationship with a love-interest (as it often is in this type of story) that makes him want to try to behave like a human.

I love Nick/Mae, but I also adore this series because although there's potential for shipping just about every pairing, romantic relationships never become the focus. Mae is attracted to Seb, Alan and Nick, but she's always her own person, and the story never forces her to choose one over the others. Nick is incapable of feeling love (or is he?) and his story subverts the typical 'bad boy saved by romantic love' cliche. Jamie is attracted to Gerald, but it's bound up in his much more important struggle to define himself as a magician.

I love all the characters, and it's impossible for me to pick a favourite because I identify with all the main four (ie Alan, Nick, Jamie and Mae; no doubt I'll identify with Sin after I've read the third book) - yeah, I even find things with which to identify in Nick!

[verschreibsel.livejournal.com]

Yes exactly. That scene was so meaningful to me and I just want to tell Nick: You already know what love is. It's the way you feel about Alan. In your own way.
:)

Personally Nick and Jamie are my absolute favourites. I'd say Mae is still my least favourite of the main characters (excluding Gerald as main character here). But since I love Nick and Jamie I missed Nick's POV a bit in some scenes and loved all the scenes with them together in a friendship way. They play each other well and I liked that Nick now includes Jamie and Mae in the list of people he wants to mark to protect them (as strange as that sounds).

Well Mae doesn't have very good choices one guy a magican and gay for her brother, one guy lying to her and not interested, one guy a demon incable of feeling tender emotions. Not a great bunch I'd say. Still the demon seems the most appealing huh?

So did you like Lexicon or Covenant more? :)

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Aww, I wish you liked Mae more! I think she's fantastic, and if I were younger she'd definitely be one of my literary role models (I think she might become a role model of sorts to me anyway).

I actually think I couldn't choose between Lexicon or Covenant. I adored Nick's POV, but I thought seeing things from Mae's POV was great too.

I'm still not convinced that Alan's not interested in Mae. I just think that he's so used to putting Nick before all other people that he closed himself off to the possibility of feeling anything for Mae.

[verschreibsel.livejournal.com]

I mean I like Mae but sometimes I get annoyed with her. I don't know. I don't hate her or anything.

I must say I agree with my mother and like Lexicon more now but after I read the book again I might like Convenant more. I liked Lexicon more the more times I read it.

Yeah I agree I had this lingering feeling there was something there but I just want to believe that Alan is over it (since he WAS crushing on her in Lexicon right?) because there's no way Nick would choose Mae if Alan still wanted her and Mae would feel guilty too. Even if she choose someone completly different while Alan was still there.

I might be convinced to ship Alan/Sin though. haha :) I'n a multishipper.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

I'm curious about what Nick and Alan were talking about after the final battle, and whether it had anything to do with the Mae situation. As you said, Nick would never attempt anything with Mae if Alan still wanted to go out with her, and straight after he talks to Alan, he goes over to Mae and starts hugging her and attempting to console her (in his awkward way) about her mother's death.

I'm pretty sure there are going to be Alan/Sin moments in Book 3. I can just feel it!

[verschreibsel.livejournal.com]

Yeah but demons know how someone feels right because they can use those feelings? Because Nick knew about Seb's feelings. Maybe he can't read Alan? Anyway they have more important problems than their love life I'd say.

I think what I disliked was that Mae was offered the same job as Sin even though Sin has been working for this her whole life and saw her mother die for it and Mae just has been aware of it a few months. I thought that was a bit unfair tbh.

Haha I know. I'm looking forward to it. I'm kind split about Sin. I like her and I don't. haha

The Complete Works of Maya (saratales former pen name)

[drackypotter.livejournal.com]

http://www.mediafire.com/?gvt5dzqz1en

Table of Contents --

Draco Malfoy, the Amazing Bouncing... Rat? Page 2-179
Chains and Chained Page 190-203
Underwater Light Page 204-769
Loved Those of Great Ambition Page 770-820
Extended Courtship Page 821-843
Flame and Shadow Page 844-881
Hatred Page 882-892
Contempt Page 893-907
Your Every Wish Page 908-946
Dancing Queen Page 947-966
The Professional's Guide to Badgering People Page 967-988
Crouching Lion, Hidden Badger Page 989-1006
How The Badger Has Fallen Page 1006-1021
Dark Side of the Light Page 1022-1091
A Distinctly Different Manner of Finding Prince Charming Page 1092-1117
Draco Malfoy, Ruler of the Universe Page 1118-1142
Quality of Mercy Page 1143-1856
Sirius Black, Super Genius Page 1857-1898
If You've a Ready Mind Page 1899-2127
The Way We Get By Page 2128-2230
Drop Dead Gorgeous Page 2231-2539
Coda to an Epilogue:
Twenty Years Later, or The Kids Are All Right Page 2540-2605

Re: The Complete Works of Maya (saratales former pen name)

[justabi.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, I am like desperate to find this PDF somewhere. My computer crashed and it was lost and ARG! I really want to read it again. Any chance you still have access to this and could help a sista out?

Re: The Complete Works of Maya (saratales former pen name)

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

I've never actually downloaded this, so I think you need to PM drackypotter if you want access to it. However, I think that Sarah has basically said she doesn't want anyone to continue circulating her old fanfic anymore, and I feel uncomfortable with my LJ being used to discuss it. Could you take the discussion to messages, possibly?

[drackypotter.livejournal.com]

The complte works of Maya: http://www.mediafire.com/?gvt5dzqz1en

Table of Contents --

Draco Malfoy, the Amazing Bouncing... Rat? Page 2-179
Chains and Chained Page 190-203
Underwater Light Page 204-769
Loved Those of Great Ambition Page 770-820
Extended Courtship Page 821-843
Flame and Shadow Page 844-881
Hatred Page 882-892
Contempt Page 893-907
Your Every Wish Page 908-946
Dancing Queen Page 947-966
The Professional's Guide to Badgering People Page 967-988
Crouching Lion, Hidden Badger Page 989-1006
How The Badger Has Fallen Page 1006-1021
Dark Side of the Light Page 1022-1091
A Distinctly Different Manner of Finding Prince Charming Page 1092-1117
Draco Malfoy, Ruler of the Universe Page 1118-1142
Quality of Mercy Page 1143-1856
Sirius Black, Super Genius Page 1857-1898
If You've a Ready Mind Page 1899-2127
The Way We Get By Page 2128-2230
Drop Dead Gorgeous Page 2231-2539
Coda to an Epilogue:
Twenty Years Later, or The Kids Are All Right Page 2540-2605