Books - including Flora Segunda
Mar. 29th, 2007 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lady_schrapnellI saw (via Achuka) that Kevin Crossley Holland's Gatty's Tale is shortlisted for the Tir na n-Og award. Did I ever say that I loved this book? Oh yeah, seem to have said something of the sort...
With all the Stuff going on (both good and very much not-so), I've not been able to catch up on my bloglist, though I've started adding back a few at a time. I've no idea if Ysabeau S. Wilce's Flora Segunda is a book that everyone in the whole wide (child lit) world is talking about, for good or bad, or if it's only got the odd mention. At some point, I hope to be caught up enough to find out for myself. I read about it in Locus, where it was very favourably reviewed by Gary K. Wolfe. The reviewer who normally does the bulk of the YA books doesn't always send me rushing off to try to acquire books she likes, but this was an intriguing review and sounded like an intriguing book. And it was that!
I don't quite know where to start: I could write at great length about the setting of this book, which is wildly, imaginatively and even darkly rich; the characters, who are sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, and often mysterious; the plot, with the lovely shadowing of the adventure stories of Rangers that Flora and her sidekick Udo love; the politics... But I think it's worth reading for the house alone - well, there's a thing - the 'house' means more than just the building, which is Crackpot Hall. Crackpot Hall is like the best of all the wonderful buildings Diana Wynne Jones has done amalgamated (but not in a derivative way) and with gobs of Gothic weirdnesses thrown in generously. (And many have said Gormenghast, but I've never read it.) But the house, in this world, is the Butler, who - controls is the wrong word - holds the building together and maintains it, which, for a building with eleven thousand (moving) rooms and sentient (not to say malignant) elevators, is quite a serious business. The Butler of the Fyrdraaca family has been banished, so they have a bit of trouble with Crackpot Hall. Flora herself is an appealing character, and her fashion-conscious best friend Udo is as well. And it's a lucky thing, because Flora needs a good friend, with her Mamma nearly always away being the General (and determined Flora will be a soldier, home or away), and her father - a startlingly tortured character - mostly living up in his Eyrie. (Don't take the Elevator to reach it...)
On second thoughts, I won't actually say anything much about the plot (Flora finds the banished Butler and - rather dangerously - attempts to restore him to his position, much chaos ensues), but only mention my one hesitation about the book, which is the occasional use of language which, - well, I saw just now that it was the Publishers Weekly which said 'at times the narrative borders on self-indulgent'. I'm not sure if it is self-indulgent, but it's risky using words like 'potty' and the phrase quoted by PW 'Oh ugh and disgusting and yucky-yuck'. I don't think it comes off, but there's just such an abundance of wonderful enjoyments to be had, that it wouldn't stop me recommending the book (to anyone who doesn't run screaming 'Not my cup of tea!' at the above description) and eagerly looking forward to the sequel. I'm not always a fan of the required trilogy-or-more format for YA fantasy, but this world is so dense it would be a shame not to get to hang out in it a while. Besides, I want to find out about the first Flora...
With all the Stuff going on (both good and very much not-so), I've not been able to catch up on my bloglist, though I've started adding back a few at a time. I've no idea if Ysabeau S. Wilce's Flora Segunda is a book that everyone in the whole wide (child lit) world is talking about, for good or bad, or if it's only got the odd mention. At some point, I hope to be caught up enough to find out for myself. I read about it in Locus, where it was very favourably reviewed by Gary K. Wolfe. The reviewer who normally does the bulk of the YA books doesn't always send me rushing off to try to acquire books she likes, but this was an intriguing review and sounded like an intriguing book. And it was that!
I don't quite know where to start: I could write at great length about the setting of this book, which is wildly, imaginatively and even darkly rich; the characters, who are sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, and often mysterious; the plot, with the lovely shadowing of the adventure stories of Rangers that Flora and her sidekick Udo love; the politics... But I think it's worth reading for the house alone - well, there's a thing - the 'house' means more than just the building, which is Crackpot Hall. Crackpot Hall is like the best of all the wonderful buildings Diana Wynne Jones has done amalgamated (but not in a derivative way) and with gobs of Gothic weirdnesses thrown in generously. (And many have said Gormenghast, but I've never read it.) But the house, in this world, is the Butler, who - controls is the wrong word - holds the building together and maintains it, which, for a building with eleven thousand (moving) rooms and sentient (not to say malignant) elevators, is quite a serious business. The Butler of the Fyrdraaca family has been banished, so they have a bit of trouble with Crackpot Hall. Flora herself is an appealing character, and her fashion-conscious best friend Udo is as well. And it's a lucky thing, because Flora needs a good friend, with her Mamma nearly always away being the General (and determined Flora will be a soldier, home or away), and her father - a startlingly tortured character - mostly living up in his Eyrie. (Don't take the Elevator to reach it...)
On second thoughts, I won't actually say anything much about the plot (Flora finds the banished Butler and - rather dangerously - attempts to restore him to his position, much chaos ensues), but only mention my one hesitation about the book, which is the occasional use of language which, - well, I saw just now that it was the Publishers Weekly which said 'at times the narrative borders on self-indulgent'. I'm not sure if it is self-indulgent, but it's risky using words like 'potty' and the phrase quoted by PW 'Oh ugh and disgusting and yucky-yuck'. I don't think it comes off, but there's just such an abundance of wonderful enjoyments to be had, that it wouldn't stop me recommending the book (to anyone who doesn't run screaming 'Not my cup of tea!' at the above description) and eagerly looking forward to the sequel. I'm not always a fan of the required trilogy-or-more format for YA fantasy, but this world is so dense it would be a shame not to get to hang out in it a while. Besides, I want to find out about the first Flora...
