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Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys: Fat Charlie has problems. A nebbish at work in London, oppressed by his fiancee’s mother, he lives with the legacy of mockery and humiliation his father – who turns out to be a trickster god – left him with. Then he discovers his father is dead, and a trip to Florida for the funeral disrupts his life entirely, as his long-lost twin brother returns, stealing his fiancee and bollixing his job. To survive, he has to reconcile himself to his family and find his own inner strengths, which tasks are related. Although the story was well-told, I found it fairly predictable, with a bit of the problem of Job – remember how Job gets a spanking new life (and wife, and kids) rather than returning to the old one(s) he loved so well? Fat Charlie’s humiliations, gleefully inflicted on him by father and brother with the sickening justification that it was for his own good, also gave me a bit of trouble with my embarrassment squick. I find it especially appalling that the narrative structure – which requires Fat Charlie to be oppressed until he discovers his self-confidence – urges us to judge Fat Charlie as unfit, not really a man, for being what the story requires him to be, when the metastructure is all about narratives controlling our lives.
Neil Gaiman, Coraline: Coraline, bored and ignored at home, steps through a different door and into a different house. There’s another mother there, with black button eyes, and another father and people almost like the people she knows in her real home. They promise her adventure and fun, forever and ever, but she doesn’t quite believe them. But, with the other mother in the way, will she be able to go home? Gaiman has constructed a creepy little story about the pull of the unknown and how, once over the threshold, all we want to do is go back – especially when we can’t.
Sean Stewart, Nobody’s Son: I really liked Mockingbird and A Perfect Circle, but it was downhill from there – until now. This YA fantasy is set in fantasyland, a quasi-medieval place where the magic has almost gone away. It starts with happily ever after: what happens when Shielder’s Mark, a peasant boy, defeats the curse that has kept a wood haunted for hundreds of years and claims his reward from the not-quite-as-grateful-as-hoped king. Palace intrigue, love, terror and magic ensue. Stewart slakes his need for the baroque in fairytale language, all “ald” and “klept” and “aye,” but makes it work by grounding the exotic speeches in completely recognizable impulses. By adding great deeds to his mix of mundane and magical but focusing on the aftermath rather than the doing, Stewart makes his characters people I want to read about while still avoiding the cliches.
Rebecca Lickiss, Never After: Not Just Another Frog-Meets-Girl Story: Speaking of which: this is a much less successful attempt to rewrite fantasy cliches by mushing them together. A prince finds an enchanted castle where all the inhabitants are asleep – but sadly for him, the source of the curse is three sleeping princes, and he needs a princess to wake them. So he goes for his cousin-princess, but she has no interest in marrying, besides which the evil fairy who cursed the castle insists she has to pass a “princess test” by spinning straw into gold before she can kiss them. Problem is, Lickiss doesn’t do anything interesting with the setup. The princess cousin even ends up forced into marriage against her better judgment, but it’s clear she’ll be happy about it in the end.
Neil Gaiman, Coraline: Coraline, bored and ignored at home, steps through a different door and into a different house. There’s another mother there, with black button eyes, and another father and people almost like the people she knows in her real home. They promise her adventure and fun, forever and ever, but she doesn’t quite believe them. But, with the other mother in the way, will she be able to go home? Gaiman has constructed a creepy little story about the pull of the unknown and how, once over the threshold, all we want to do is go back – especially when we can’t.
Sean Stewart, Nobody’s Son: I really liked Mockingbird and A Perfect Circle, but it was downhill from there – until now. This YA fantasy is set in fantasyland, a quasi-medieval place where the magic has almost gone away. It starts with happily ever after: what happens when Shielder’s Mark, a peasant boy, defeats the curse that has kept a wood haunted for hundreds of years and claims his reward from the not-quite-as-grateful-as-hoped king. Palace intrigue, love, terror and magic ensue. Stewart slakes his need for the baroque in fairytale language, all “ald” and “klept” and “aye,” but makes it work by grounding the exotic speeches in completely recognizable impulses. By adding great deeds to his mix of mundane and magical but focusing on the aftermath rather than the doing, Stewart makes his characters people I want to read about while still avoiding the cliches.
Rebecca Lickiss, Never After: Not Just Another Frog-Meets-Girl Story: Speaking of which: this is a much less successful attempt to rewrite fantasy cliches by mushing them together. A prince finds an enchanted castle where all the inhabitants are asleep – but sadly for him, the source of the curse is three sleeping princes, and he needs a princess to wake them. So he goes for his cousin-princess, but she has no interest in marrying, besides which the evil fairy who cursed the castle insists she has to pass a “princess test” by spinning straw into gold before she can kiss them. Problem is, Lickiss doesn’t do anything interesting with the setup. The princess cousin even ends up forced into marriage against her better judgment, but it’s clear she’ll be happy about it in the end.
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I'm not familiar with these writers, but Coraline sounds remarkable. Is it a suitable book for children?
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Um, *totally* random --- a long time ago, I'm talking years, you posted a snippet of a story in which Clark has some kind of scar on his face. And I was remembering how much I was intrigued by it and I would love to re-read that snippet, but I fear I will never be able to find it on my own. Do you remember what i'm talking about? And if so, could you link me to it when you get the chance.
Thank you!!
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