![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impySometimes I worry that I'm a heroine hater. I worry that I read books for the plucky sidekick, the villain who lurks in the shadow and waits for Backstory Book to happen, the long suffering boy/girlfriend who is going to get their heart stomped so that the new shiny boy/girl of the week will win the day.
Sometimes, I'm pretty sure I have reason to worry. It's gotten so that I actually cheer and take note when I like the main character of a story these days. That can't be right, can it? For instance, I finished Fragile Eternity, a book I was really looking forward to. It had some serious problems and not all of them were my fault.
My fault: I don't remember just about anything from Ink Exchange other than I liked it. Sadly, my Goodreads review only tells me that I loved the Dark Kings. No shit, sherlock. Still, I should know better to go in to a new book in a series if I don't remember the old one, right? So I take this one as a hit for the team. I don't like it, but I take it all the same.
Possibly my fault: In general, I've liked just about everyone else in the books more than both Keenan and Ash. I don't think I had a raging hatred of either until this go round, though, so... I'm confused.
NOT MY FAULT: I wanted to choke Ash something fierce. If you don't read these and you want to avoid it and don't mind being spoiled so you can follow my rant, here's the condensed version of what's going on.
Ash and Keenan are the Summer Queen and King of Faery. Yay. There was a thing involving a curse and the death of the previous Winter Queen who happened to be Keenan's mother, but not terribly relevant to this. Ash is in love with Seth, so when she becomes Summer Queen, she lays down some ground rules. Namely, Queen is her job, so the Summer King is not hers in any romantic or sexual way. She's got Seth (mortal) and good times will follow because...
Keenan is sort of in love with Donia. I say sort of because he's been trying to find his summer queen for ages and Donia wasn't the One, but she's the one he still cares enough to fight with. Donia is the new Winter Queen. Donia is AWESOME. Anyway. Donia and Keenan have a bit of a problem being together, what with that fire and ice burning and whatnot. Still. Ash is all, "be together so I can be with Seth!"
Which is where you know things are going to go haywire. Ash flips out when she realizes (over and over again) that since Seth is mortal, he's gonna die. Instead of enjoying their time together, there's angst. It gets so bad that you'll put the book down and hold your head for a good solid ten minutes as you point out why this is stupid.
Elsewhere, War is going about trying to get everyone to kill each other. Just imagine Bellatrix from the HP movies and you'll see what I see. Nothing good comes from a visit from War, so after one, Donia stabs Ash.
For no real reason that I can see, besides this: Ash calls and cancels her date or whatever with Seth, then calls Keenan because she's dying. Seth freaks out when he realizes that she didn't even call him to be around her while she healed and so begins his Quest for Immortality.
Yeah. Because War skipping around to every court couldn't be enough of a reason to send Seth running. NO. Donia has to stab Ash before she's got a fantastic reason to do so.
As anyone who has ever read a damn story involving mortals going off to Faery (in any of its spelling formations) knows, time moves differently there. When Sorcha, the High Queen, offers Seth immortality in exchange for one month out of every twelve, he doesn't think to ask two important questions.
One) If he's still mortal in Faery, will he age, just really, really, really slowly? This is never addressed, btw.
Two) How much of a time lapse is there between Faery and reality? The answer is that his one month is equal to six months out there. The math is going to give me a migraine really.
Point is, Seth is gone for six months. Ash, who JUST pushed for Donia and Keenan to get together immediately takes Keenan's attentions away from Donia. (The Deal was that until Seth died, Donia and Keenan would give it a go. Donia was all happy for once and then bitches ruined it!) Six months later she decides she's ready to give being Summer Queen an honest try and tells Keenan she'll be his only queen, thank you very much.
THAT, my friends, is when a queen cuts a bitch. Just sayin'. Anyway, Seth returns, points out that HELLO. Everyone with a working braincell (that means everyone who wasn't Ash) knew damn well where he was, and that the people who weren't all that forthcoming about it? DUH. The Dark King (hello redeeming character of the book) was pissed BEFORE Seth left town, so of course he's not going to tell her what she wants to hear. Her king? Yeah. He's a bit of a whore and wanted Seth out of the way and wasn't at all subtle about it. Donia wanted to protect Keenan, so she was out. Would it have killed her to have waited a little longer before throwing herself at someone new?
Her response? But there was a girl's voice on the message you left!
To which he points out, duh, it was War.
I've gotta say that I would imagine her voice is pretty distinct, what with the going on and on about her beak-likeness and all. Plus? The Crazy always sounds Crazy, even on recordings.
You, Ash, have been removed from my "enh, okay" Heroine List and put on Notice.
It's tiring not liking so many heroines. They whine. They underachieve so that they can be just mediocre enough to appeal to a wider base of fans. They're Usagi when they could be anyone else in the Sailormoon Universe. And they do so without the self-awareness even she occasionally displays.
Sometimes, I'm pretty sure I have reason to worry. It's gotten so that I actually cheer and take note when I like the main character of a story these days. That can't be right, can it? For instance, I finished Fragile Eternity, a book I was really looking forward to. It had some serious problems and not all of them were my fault.
My fault: I don't remember just about anything from Ink Exchange other than I liked it. Sadly, my Goodreads review only tells me that I loved the Dark Kings. No shit, sherlock. Still, I should know better to go in to a new book in a series if I don't remember the old one, right? So I take this one as a hit for the team. I don't like it, but I take it all the same.
Possibly my fault: In general, I've liked just about everyone else in the books more than both Keenan and Ash. I don't think I had a raging hatred of either until this go round, though, so... I'm confused.
NOT MY FAULT: I wanted to choke Ash something fierce. If you don't read these and you want to avoid it and don't mind being spoiled so you can follow my rant, here's the condensed version of what's going on.
Ash and Keenan are the Summer Queen and King of Faery. Yay. There was a thing involving a curse and the death of the previous Winter Queen who happened to be Keenan's mother, but not terribly relevant to this. Ash is in love with Seth, so when she becomes Summer Queen, she lays down some ground rules. Namely, Queen is her job, so the Summer King is not hers in any romantic or sexual way. She's got Seth (mortal) and good times will follow because...
Keenan is sort of in love with Donia. I say sort of because he's been trying to find his summer queen for ages and Donia wasn't the One, but she's the one he still cares enough to fight with. Donia is the new Winter Queen. Donia is AWESOME. Anyway. Donia and Keenan have a bit of a problem being together, what with that fire and ice burning and whatnot. Still. Ash is all, "be together so I can be with Seth!"
Which is where you know things are going to go haywire. Ash flips out when she realizes (over and over again) that since Seth is mortal, he's gonna die. Instead of enjoying their time together, there's angst. It gets so bad that you'll put the book down and hold your head for a good solid ten minutes as you point out why this is stupid.
Elsewhere, War is going about trying to get everyone to kill each other. Just imagine Bellatrix from the HP movies and you'll see what I see. Nothing good comes from a visit from War, so after one, Donia stabs Ash.
For no real reason that I can see, besides this: Ash calls and cancels her date or whatever with Seth, then calls Keenan because she's dying. Seth freaks out when he realizes that she didn't even call him to be around her while she healed and so begins his Quest for Immortality.
Yeah. Because War skipping around to every court couldn't be enough of a reason to send Seth running. NO. Donia has to stab Ash before she's got a fantastic reason to do so.
As anyone who has ever read a damn story involving mortals going off to Faery (in any of its spelling formations) knows, time moves differently there. When Sorcha, the High Queen, offers Seth immortality in exchange for one month out of every twelve, he doesn't think to ask two important questions.
One) If he's still mortal in Faery, will he age, just really, really, really slowly? This is never addressed, btw.
Two) How much of a time lapse is there between Faery and reality? The answer is that his one month is equal to six months out there. The math is going to give me a migraine really.
Point is, Seth is gone for six months. Ash, who JUST pushed for Donia and Keenan to get together immediately takes Keenan's attentions away from Donia. (The Deal was that until Seth died, Donia and Keenan would give it a go. Donia was all happy for once and then bitches ruined it!) Six months later she decides she's ready to give being Summer Queen an honest try and tells Keenan she'll be his only queen, thank you very much.
THAT, my friends, is when a queen cuts a bitch. Just sayin'. Anyway, Seth returns, points out that HELLO. Everyone with a working braincell (that means everyone who wasn't Ash) knew damn well where he was, and that the people who weren't all that forthcoming about it? DUH. The Dark King (hello redeeming character of the book) was pissed BEFORE Seth left town, so of course he's not going to tell her what she wants to hear. Her king? Yeah. He's a bit of a whore and wanted Seth out of the way and wasn't at all subtle about it. Donia wanted to protect Keenan, so she was out. Would it have killed her to have waited a little longer before throwing herself at someone new?
Her response? But there was a girl's voice on the message you left!
To which he points out, duh, it was War.
I've gotta say that I would imagine her voice is pretty distinct, what with the going on and on about her beak-likeness and all. Plus? The Crazy always sounds Crazy, even on recordings.
You, Ash, have been removed from my "enh, okay" Heroine List and put on Notice.
It's tiring not liking so many heroines. They whine. They underachieve so that they can be just mediocre enough to appeal to a wider base of fans. They're Usagi when they could be anyone else in the Sailormoon Universe. And they do so without the self-awareness even she occasionally displays.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-15 12:57 pm (UTC)http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=9735225&id=193558430461&fbid=333149000461#/photo.php?pid=9686106&id=193558430461&fbid=329599290461
Love her covers - have heard eh things about the books themselves. I still want to read Wicked Lovely though.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-15 04:13 pm (UTC)And oooh, cover love!