Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

No one has published Elizabeth Wein’s latest book Firebird in the United States, but littlerhymes kindly sent me a copy so I got to read it anyway, which is good because otherwise I might have expired from yearning because the book is about Soviet! women! fighter pilots! in World War II! and thus basically everything that I have ever wanted in a novel.

I liked the book, but I have definitely decided that this is the truthful report that Nastia thinks out in her head but definitely 100% does not write down, because even if you set aside the Romanov stuff (although you can’t set aside the Romanov stuff; that alone could get her shot), she aided and abetted a deserter in a time of war. Nastia! No! Don’t confess that!! No army on earth is going to approve, and the Soviet armed forces are going to disapprove so hard that she’ll be lucky if she’s the only one who gets shot over it!

So yeah. The written report totally says something like “I landed behind enemy lines in hopes of rescuing my gallant comrade, but she was EXTREMELY DEAD so I couldn’t.” No mention of aiding said gallant comrade in desertion. Definitely no “and also she was the Princess Anastasia who escaped execution and became a Soviet flying instructor!” WHY, NASTIA.

I tend to think “Anastasia escaped!” narratives are overdone, but I actually rather liked this one, because “Anastasia escaped and became a hard-bitten, chain-smoking Soviet flying instructor” is such an unexpected angle. I mean, why not, I guess!



I also read Penelope Farmer’s The Summer Birds, which I felt ambivalent toward until the end, which I thought tied the book together well although in a slightly macabre fashion: it turns out that the mysterious boy who has taught the schoolchildren how to fly is actually the last of a magical species of bird, and he’s hoping to lead them away to an island to turn them into more birds of his kind so the species will survive.

Now that I’ve written it out like that, it sounds like the kind of ending I’d usually hate. It worked for me here because it fit with the tone of the book, which is far more melancholy than you might expect from a book about magical flying adventures, and also because it does fit with the boy’s characterization so far: you can feel that he did it out of desperation, not malice, and even though you’re glad the children aren’t going to be Pied Pipered away, at the same time it’s tragic that he failed and now his species will die out.



Then I got sick for a few days and needed something light to read, and Mary Stewart came to my rescue with Wildfire at Midnight. It’s not top-tier Mary Stewart, but even second-tier Mary Stewart is solidly satisfying, and just what I needed to cheer the dreary day.

What I’m Reading Now

I haven’t started anything new since I finished Wildfire at Midnight, because I’ve been indulging in schadenfreude over the internet meltdown about the last episode of Game of Thrones. People have been banging on for years about how this show is so “dark” and “morally complicated” and “realistic” and then it ended with the bad characters dead and most of the good characters alive and repenting of their sins like its a freaking Cecil B. DeMille epic. Did the showrunners trip and fall on a moral?

What I Plan to Read Next

I’m not sure! I’ve been looking longingly at my other Mary Stewart books, but there’s something to be said for parcelling them out over time as needed.

Comments

[ancientreader]

Speaking as someone who has had exactly 0 (zero) interest in GoT ever, even before there was a show, just from getting a look at a few of the paperbacks and thinking "Wow, those sure do look self-important," I am sooooooooo fucking relieved that the series is over. My one friend who followed it has good sense and never took it seriously, so.

I wonder whether you would enjoy Rachel Hartman's "Tess of the Road." I just finished it, having read it on the recommendation of a fandom friend with little tolerance for predictable narratives about girls. And. Yes. That. It's apparently third in a trilogy, but the first two focus on a character who's peripheral in this story. The one warning I offer is that if you like "Tess" half as much as my friend and I did, you will be dying for a/the sequel.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, self-important is exactly the right word for it. If people had been aware that they were watching a trashy dark soap opera, then I might have found it less aggravating, but the fact that people presented it as dark gritty realism that's sooo much more deep and important than *insert other fantasy series here* drove me up the wall. My dudes, wish-fulfillment is still wish-fulfillment even if the wish being fulfilled is sex and violence rather than cotton candy and rainbows.

[sovay]

“Anastasia escaped and became a hard-bitten, chain-smoking Soviet flying instructor”

Now I'm really disappointed this isn't out in the U.S. yet.

[osprey_archer]

Right? This is the kind of quality content we deserve, US publishers!

[evelyn_b]

What's the nature of the meltdown? I miss all the good meltdowns these days.

I tend to think “Anastasia escaped!” narratives are overdone, but I actually rather liked this one, because “Anastasia escaped and became a hard-bitten, chain-smoking Soviet flying instructor” is such an unexpected angle. I mean, why not, I guess!

I think I agree that this is an Anastasia escape narrative I can get behind.

[osprey_archer]

This meltdown is especially glorious because everyone seems to hate the episode for different reasons. It wasn't epic enough! It doubled down on all the issues with women and POC that Game of Thrones has had all along! There was a weird tonal shift halfway through to Game of Thrones: The Sitcom! Loads of ships were sunk or sailed but in the worst way possible! Etc. etc.

It's not quite How I Met Your Mother-bad, but it's still a pretty rough landing.

[evelyn_b]

Hah! I liked it for about half those reasons (chill instead of epic, GoT The Sitcom) - and I didn't care about any ships except Brienne/Jamie, which would have been better with a little more time to work itself out, but which closed to my satisfaction with a very in-character act of loyalty from Brienne.

I'm happy for the Stark girls and I hope they figure out how to train seagulls and stay in touch. John and Arya, too. Surely they can set up some kind of seabird-raven relay system?

[osprey_archer]

If GoT had been GoT The Sitcom all the way through, I might have actually watched it, but I can see how some GoT The Non-Sitcom watchers didn't appreciate the sudden left turn.

Surely after everything the Stark girls have been through, training a few seagulls to act like carrier pigeons will be a piece of cake. Or maybe Arya will come back from her sea adventures every few years to see how things are going in the North? Then she and Sansa can send a messenger dog (I'm seeing a kind of St. Bernard here, only with a message in a flask around its neck rather than whisky) to Jon and he can come hang out for a while or something, IDK.

[evelyn_b]

But consider: a double-barreled flask with messages AND whisky?

I'd love to see the Stark Family Reunion in ten or twenty years.

[osprey_archer]

Jon Snow sends heartfelt thanks for the whisky and remembers to tack on some kind of response to the actual message at least sometimes.

[asakiyume]

That ending to the Penelope Farmer story sounds like something I'd like a whole lot, but you said you were ambivalent about it most of the way through--what prompted the mixed feelings?

[osprey_archer]

I think I expected the flying to feel more magical. Which is not to say that it won't feel just the right about of magical to you! But I wanted more magic flying joy and less schoolroom dynamics, I guess.

[skygiants]

Somehow I had no idea Firebird was available in any form, time to embark upon efforts to hunt it down!

Wildfires at Midnight is the one where the villain's motivation is "how DARE they try to climb this MAGNIFICENT MOUNTAIN!", right?

[osprey_archer]

You're in the US, right? If you PM me your address, I could send you the book.

And YES, Wildfire at Midnight is absolutely the one with the weird Golden Bow human sacrifice "How DARE these climbers desecrate this MOUNTAIN" stuff. You do you, Mary Stewart!

Despite my attempts to restrain myself I've already zoomed on to begin reading The Gabriel Hounds, so I can't even pretend that the mountain thing put me off at all.

[skygiants]

I would absolutely take you up on that, thank you! I'll go PM my address straight away.

I've just picked up Stormy Petrel from a library giveaway so there is clearly more Mary Stewart in my future as well...

[osprey_archer]

It will be a few days before I get to the post office, but it should be winging its way to you soon enough!

[littlerhymes]

Everyone should become a hard-bitten, chain-smoking Soviet flying instructor. I demand this of every novel I read from now on!

[osprey_archer]

"But why is there a Soviet flying instructor on a 24th century starship?" asks a puzzled reader.

"AESTHETIC!"