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[idiosyncreant]

So today's rather-than-writing programme included LotR behind the scenes snippets, The Cat Returns (Ghibli anime--not as wonderful as Miyazaki but I love that Baron), and a few stories out of the Wizards anthology.

I also am behind by about a week getting my thoughts on The White Darkness together here. So.

Geraldine MacCaughrean's YA The White Darkness again tackles a whole different sort of story than she's written before with close attention to how this particular story needs to be told. This one is about a girl who loves Antartica, and especially "Titus" Oates, of Scott's doomed party of explorers. And the story here MacCaughrean decided to match to that historic background. I'd describe it as--

Relentless. I saw a review complaining that there was no really good twist in the stories, they were predictable, blar-de-blar.... But it's not supposed to be really twists. When each thing happens, it is something that Symone has been ignoring her own internal doubts about. That is never explicitly stated--and that's why I think that person missed it.

This book really pushes the heroine into the pain and darkest-night of a quest like few things I've read--and it's not even in that vein of literature.  And she grows, and has some healing, though she's always going to be in pain from things that have affected her before the story even starts.

OSC's The Stonefather in the Wizards anthology was likewise not really any vastly plot-twisted sort of a story, and I still found it really  good. Now, I don't demand plot-twists. I don't like unoriginality, but I'll take certain forms of it over a hard-to-follow storyline any day. This one was not hard to follow. It was just true, like I want my fantasy quests to be. True in some way I can't define.

I've enjoyed all the stories in Wizards a lot, so now I know how to look for short stories I want to read. ^_^ Magazines are harder for me to get into.

Comments

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I loved the White Darkness. So many layers to the story. Did you notice when action gets really riveting, about halfway through, that the tense changes from past to present? (And no, I didn't notice it until someone else pointed it out to me.) I thought that was very cool and made the story seem that much more intense and urgent.

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

I didn't notice it while reading, either. It made so much sense, I think because it all felt immediate anyway. I've noticed there's shades of the past-tense, and in this book it's very much a chronicling, not a recounting. If that makes sense. Part of that, I think, is how much inside Sym's head is the foreground of the story.

I was dubious about the premise, with "Titus" and all that, but the deafness and purposeful rejection issue sold it.

I love MacCaughrean. I don't love all her books, but as an author she is one of the coolest EVAR. The reason I don't love all her books is part of it--she never seems to tell a similar story to any of her others.