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dolorosa_12) wrote2021-04-08 04:27 pm
dolorosa_12) wrote2021-04-08 04:27 pm
The moths of memory
Today I went to the market, pottered around a bit at home (cleaning, gardening, etc), and spent way too much time scrolling around on Instagram. It's cold, grey, and very unspring-like weather. In spite of that, blossoms are beginning to bloom on our apple trees, and the various seedlings I'm growing on the kitchen windowsills are thriving, although repotting them outdoors will have to wait until it's warmer.
Today's prompt for the book meme is as follows:
8. A book that feels like it was written just for you
There are so many things I could put here, but some I want to use for other days of this meme, and so I have decided on not one book, but a series: Samantha Shannon's Bone Season. This so far consists of four books and three novellas; there will ultimately be seven novels, with a possibility of several more novellas as well. The series is set in our near future, but it imagines a sharply divergent world in which people have supernatural powers, a shadowy group of otherworldly beings is fighting a cosmic battle on the other side of the veil, and an oppressive, militaristic regime is gobbling up the world into its control. Resistance takes many forms, and the series' heroine — whose privileged upbringing as the pampered daughter of a regime official was undercut by her secret life as an enforcer for an underworld gang with supernatural abilities — is starting to gather these disparate groups together into something approaching an organised revolution.
Samantha Shannon started writing the series when she was a university student, and the first book was published when she was twenty-one, and bears the telltale signs of an inexperienced author — a huge infodump at the beginning, and a lack of assurance when writing about certain things outside her experience. But as the series has progressed, the writing has become stronger, and the fourth book — published earlier this year — was excellent. What drew me in to the series was the fact that it hinged on fraught relationships and the interdependence of humans and otherworldly beings (that sort of thing is like catnip to me), but what's kept me reading is the vivid magic system — based on clairvoyance, seances, fortunetelling and Victoriana — and the realistic depiction of the toll and trauma trying to lead a revolution has taken on the series' heroine. I like that she's allowed to be messy, allowed to fail and be frightened, and to make mistakes as a result of her difficult life, realistic fears, and the trauma she has experienced.
I only stumbled onto this series as a result of Matthias spotting it and asking me if I thought it was something I might enjoy, and I'm so grateful for that moment of serendipity (and for the fact that my husband knows and recognises my tastes in fiction so well).
9. A book that reminds you of someone
10. A book that belongs to a specific time in your mind, caught in amber
11. A book that came to you at exactly the right time
12. A book that came to you at the wrong time
13. A book with a premise you'd never seen before quite like that
14. A book balanced on a knife edge
15. A snuffed candle of a book
16. The one you'd take with you while you were being ferried on dark underground rivers
17. The one that taught you something about yourself
18. A book that went after its premise like an explosion
19. A book that started a pilgrimage
20. A frigid ice bath of a book
21. A book written into your psyche
22. A warm blanket of a book
23. A book that made you bleed
24. A book that asked a question you've never had an answer to
25. A book that answered a question you never asked
26. A book you recommend but cannot love
27. A book you love but cannot recommend
28. A book you adore that people are surprised by
29. A book that led you home
30. A book you detest that people are surprised by
Today's prompt for the book meme is as follows:
8. A book that feels like it was written just for you
There are so many things I could put here, but some I want to use for other days of this meme, and so I have decided on not one book, but a series: Samantha Shannon's Bone Season. This so far consists of four books and three novellas; there will ultimately be seven novels, with a possibility of several more novellas as well. The series is set in our near future, but it imagines a sharply divergent world in which people have supernatural powers, a shadowy group of otherworldly beings is fighting a cosmic battle on the other side of the veil, and an oppressive, militaristic regime is gobbling up the world into its control. Resistance takes many forms, and the series' heroine — whose privileged upbringing as the pampered daughter of a regime official was undercut by her secret life as an enforcer for an underworld gang with supernatural abilities — is starting to gather these disparate groups together into something approaching an organised revolution.
Samantha Shannon started writing the series when she was a university student, and the first book was published when she was twenty-one, and bears the telltale signs of an inexperienced author — a huge infodump at the beginning, and a lack of assurance when writing about certain things outside her experience. But as the series has progressed, the writing has become stronger, and the fourth book — published earlier this year — was excellent. What drew me in to the series was the fact that it hinged on fraught relationships and the interdependence of humans and otherworldly beings (that sort of thing is like catnip to me), but what's kept me reading is the vivid magic system — based on clairvoyance, seances, fortunetelling and Victoriana — and the realistic depiction of the toll and trauma trying to lead a revolution has taken on the series' heroine. I like that she's allowed to be messy, allowed to fail and be frightened, and to make mistakes as a result of her difficult life, realistic fears, and the trauma she has experienced.
I only stumbled onto this series as a result of Matthias spotting it and asking me if I thought it was something I might enjoy, and I'm so grateful for that moment of serendipity (and for the fact that my husband knows and recognises my tastes in fiction so well).
9. A book that reminds you of someone
10. A book that belongs to a specific time in your mind, caught in amber
11. A book that came to you at exactly the right time
12. A book that came to you at the wrong time
13. A book with a premise you'd never seen before quite like that
14. A book balanced on a knife edge
15. A snuffed candle of a book
16. The one you'd take with you while you were being ferried on dark underground rivers
17. The one that taught you something about yourself
18. A book that went after its premise like an explosion
19. A book that started a pilgrimage
20. A frigid ice bath of a book
21. A book written into your psyche
22. A warm blanket of a book
23. A book that made you bleed
24. A book that asked a question you've never had an answer to
25. A book that answered a question you never asked
26. A book you recommend but cannot love
27. A book you love but cannot recommend
28. A book you adore that people are surprised by
29. A book that led you home
30. A book you detest that people are surprised by
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Makes me wonder how she got published in the first place ... I thought publishers were very picky these days.
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As to why she got published in the first place, presumably the publishers saw potential in the series. Publishers like to throw their weight behind things they a) find easy to market and b) think will be easy to sell, and I suspect young woman who started writing these when she was a teenager and got a publishing deal while still in university felt like something that would be very easy to market and appeal to the press.