Alanna: The First Adventure
Apr. 20th, 2012 07:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerAfter an hour scooping ice cream at the ice cream social last night (my hand still hurts. OW), I finished rereading Alanna: The First Adventure last night. Some scattered thoughts:
1. This book is a lot rougher than Pierce's later series, in a number of ways. The prose is a bit shaky - there are times when the book feels more like the outline of a longer work than a novel in itself. (But this is part of the reason the book has such breathless pacing, so it's not all bad.)
And the character development is, well. Alanna is decently developed (I had forgotten what crippling self-doubt she suffers in this first book), but otherwise, it's mostly what character development? Especially for Jon's friends. There's a scene where Ali Mukhtab comments that Alex of Tirragen seems sly and secretive - foreshadowing, dun dun DUN. It would be much more effective if Alex of Tirragen had demonstrated any individuality at all before.
2. The world building is also rougher - both in the sense that it's very much slopped together, and that the world feels harsher than it does in the later series - less like modern people with modern sensibilities running around wearing tunics and swords.
3. There is a scene where Gary holds Ralon-the-evil-bully down while Raoul beats him to a pulp. Oh boys, you are the flower of chivalry. I'm so glad that you're going to be running the country hereafter.
4. I have to say, I feel kind of sorry for Ralon-the-evil-bully. Sure, he's evil, but EVERYONE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD hates him. The pages, the squires, the Crown Prince and his coterie, the Duke of Naxen, Sir Myles of Olau, the King of the Rogue and hence every villain in the city...
I bet Roger recruited him by promising to treat him like a human being rather than a cockroach.
5. Tortall clearly subscribes to a moral code that states that, while bullying is a bad thing, it's not nearly loathsome and despicable as tattling (tattling heretofore to be defined as "admitting to an adult that Ralon was the one who broke your arm"). This is a very common ethic in girls' fiction from around 1900, but it's fallen into disgrace since then (and good riddance).
Girl warriors aside, Tortall is sometimes very old-fashioned. (This is part of why it feels more legitimately historical than PotS.)
6. Pierce says the other pages don't resent Alan for hanging out with the squires. I have some trouble believing this. Alanna's not only hanging out with the squires, but she's hanging out with the very coolest squires, the Crown Prince and his posse, who also happen to be the most important nobles in Tortall and will doubtless take Alan along on their paths to power and glory. It would surprise me very much if the other pages didn't resent this.
But clearly, unlike Ralon, they aren't stupid enough to alienate the Prince's pet and risk the Wrath of Raoul.
1. This book is a lot rougher than Pierce's later series, in a number of ways. The prose is a bit shaky - there are times when the book feels more like the outline of a longer work than a novel in itself. (But this is part of the reason the book has such breathless pacing, so it's not all bad.)
And the character development is, well. Alanna is decently developed (I had forgotten what crippling self-doubt she suffers in this first book), but otherwise, it's mostly what character development? Especially for Jon's friends. There's a scene where Ali Mukhtab comments that Alex of Tirragen seems sly and secretive - foreshadowing, dun dun DUN. It would be much more effective if Alex of Tirragen had demonstrated any individuality at all before.
2. The world building is also rougher - both in the sense that it's very much slopped together, and that the world feels harsher than it does in the later series - less like modern people with modern sensibilities running around wearing tunics and swords.
3. There is a scene where Gary holds Ralon-the-evil-bully down while Raoul beats him to a pulp. Oh boys, you are the flower of chivalry. I'm so glad that you're going to be running the country hereafter.
4. I have to say, I feel kind of sorry for Ralon-the-evil-bully. Sure, he's evil, but EVERYONE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD hates him. The pages, the squires, the Crown Prince and his coterie, the Duke of Naxen, Sir Myles of Olau, the King of the Rogue and hence every villain in the city...
I bet Roger recruited him by promising to treat him like a human being rather than a cockroach.
5. Tortall clearly subscribes to a moral code that states that, while bullying is a bad thing, it's not nearly loathsome and despicable as tattling (tattling heretofore to be defined as "admitting to an adult that Ralon was the one who broke your arm"). This is a very common ethic in girls' fiction from around 1900, but it's fallen into disgrace since then (and good riddance).
Girl warriors aside, Tortall is sometimes very old-fashioned. (This is part of why it feels more legitimately historical than PotS.)
6. Pierce says the other pages don't resent Alan for hanging out with the squires. I have some trouble believing this. Alanna's not only hanging out with the squires, but she's hanging out with the very coolest squires, the Crown Prince and his posse, who also happen to be the most important nobles in Tortall and will doubtless take Alan along on their paths to power and glory. It would surprise me very much if the other pages didn't resent this.
But clearly, unlike Ralon, they aren't stupid enough to alienate the Prince's pet and risk the Wrath of Raoul.
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-21 01:26 am (UTC)Yes! And this is actually a big part of why I like SOTL best as a fan. It feels less...consciously trying to be Srs Medieval Fantasy (which starts really kicking in in the Kel books), and potentially more interesting, and the people both don't feel like modern people AND don't feel like real medieval people. I mean, it's still sloppy patched-together worldbuilding, but in some ways it's a lot more interesting.
3. There is a scene where Gary holds Ralon-the-evil-bully down while Raoul beats him to a pulp. Oh boys, you are the flower of chivalry. I'm so glad that you're going to be running the country hereafter.
Yeah, no shit. ALSO it kills me that in POTS, we find out that Eldorne, Tirragen, and Malven all got punished, as fiefs, for their part in the uprising.
But...Ralon was DISOWNED. Malven the fief did absolutely nothing wrong.
Meanwhile, Dunlath ISN'T punished for Yolane's treason, presumably because readers wouldn't like seeing wee!Maura get punished. A touch inconsistent, Jon?
Also agreed on Roger. Although I have to confess to liking fanon Roger who's smart and knows how to appeal to people's ambitions (because there has to be a reason for Alex and Delia to throw in with him, too), whereas canon Roger is...not actually that smart. Mostly OTT insane.
It would surprise me very much if the other pages didn't resent this.
But clearly, unlike Ralon, they aren't stupid enough to alienate the Prince's pet and risk the Wrath of Raoul.
Okay, now I want to read a story from the POV of Random Page.
The other thing that throws me about SOTL vs. POTS is that in SOTL, after Alanna gets her knighthood, all the wee pages and squires love and idolize her. Somewhere between that and POTS, Pierce apparently decided that was unrealistic, and now plenty of knights of her generation and younger don't like her at all. (Although in general I have trouble reconciling SOTL Alanna and post-Immortals Alanna with each other.)
no subject
Date: 2012-04-21 06:01 pm (UTC)(I loved PotS and I'm looking forward to rereading it, because I think it will stand up to it better than TIQ - or at least, the first couple of books will. But it's the least-medieval quasi-medieval fantasy EVER.)
Re: the progress: I also think that there's probably a part of Jon that will remain forever a spiteful teenager, and therefore punishes the people he hated as a teenager - so in his mind it doesn't matter that the Malvens disowned Ralon, because CLEARLY they should have drowned him in a bucket as a child so he never could have hurt Alanna.
Holding grudges: not a great quality in a king.
Whereas Jon was older when Yolane & co. committed treason, and (perhaps more importantly) he didn't know them personally, so he doesn't feel the same visceral hatred toward them.
Although really, I think you're right: I bet it didn't even occur to Pierce to have Jon punish Maura, even though really she ought to be considered just as guilty as the Malvens, because we've met Maura and she's awesome, whereas the Malvens are just "Ralon's relatives."
no subject
Date: 2012-04-21 06:18 pm (UTC)POTS has thoroughly modern values--but in terms of background, like descriptions of food and clothing and so on, Her Research Shows. Prior to POTS, the clothing was all a generic fantasy mishmash, the food was vaguely described. Suddenly there are kirtles and shifts and detailed food descriptions that bear more than a passing resemblance to real medieval foods.
Mind, I'm okay with the modern values in POTS, for the most part--I just cannot reconcile it with the world of SOTL, and I think the problem starts with Immortals. There's just a huge unexplained shift in how the world is described, the rules it operates by, and social mores.
I also think that there's probably a part of Jon that will remain forever a spiteful teenager, and therefore punishes the people he hated as a teenager - so in his mind it doesn't matter that the Malvens disowned Ralon, because CLEARLY they should have drowned him in a bucket as a child so he never could have hurt Alanna.
That's depressingly plausible. Poor Malvens. :-(
no subject
Date: 2012-05-06 02:30 am (UTC)The world building is also rougher - both in the sense that it's very much slopped together, and that the world feels harsher than it does in the later series - less like modern people with modern sensibilities running around wearing tunics and swords.
The Alanna series has always been my favourite of hers, and this is one of the reasons why. Corus! How much do I love Corus, as it exists in these books?! It's one of the fictional landscapes that's permanently embedded in my memory.
Though I hear you about the prose being very rough. It's certainly her first published book!
no subject
Date: 2012-05-06 08:15 pm (UTC)It's really astonishing how much better her prose gets just across SotL. This book is very rough, but by Lioness Rampant it's more than just serviceable: I actually cried when Liam died. (Of course, any halfway-competent character death makes me cry. But still!)