I didn't get along with Abeni's Song at all, but I loved Unraveller - I'd nominated it - and honestly I think both those books are middle-grade, yeah. That kind of 9-12-year-old bracket, which I personally much prefer anyway but I don't know if I should be voting for it to win the Lodestar!
Herla, former lover of Boudica, now leader of the Wild Hunt
Ooh. I think I might feel similarly on the queerness but that's a deeply intriguing sentence.
I did not love the idea of a magical power of kingship transmitted through bloodlines and originally bestowed by a being named Sovereignty. Again, this could have been interesting if explored and challenged, but as it was it was basically "divine right of kings, but it's pagan rather than Christian so it's FINE". It's still not fine!
It's absolutely still not fine! I actually specifically am noodling at a book idea that's very much "what if magical divine right of kings is real but actually monarchy is still bad!"
This is very readable, but it also felt extremely disjointed (probably because it started life as a set of short stories), which made it hard to connect to anything that was happening, because the narrative kept making sudden swerves and failing to follow up on the consequences of previous threads. It's also RIDDLED with typos, my favourite being the secret stash of gold bouillon (and my least favourite being the mysterious disappearance of every 'd - I spent a while wondering if this was meant to indicate a Future Speech Pattern, but I think not?).
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Date: 28 Aug 2024 07:45 (UTC)Herla, former lover of Boudica, now leader of the Wild Hunt
Ooh. I think I might feel similarly on the queerness but that's a deeply intriguing sentence.
I did not love the idea of a magical power of kingship transmitted through bloodlines and originally bestowed by a being named Sovereignty. Again, this could have been interesting if explored and challenged, but as it was it was basically "divine right of kings, but it's pagan rather than Christian so it's FINE". It's still not fine!
It's absolutely still not fine! I actually specifically am noodling at a book idea that's very much "what if magical divine right of kings is real but actually monarchy is still bad!"
This is very readable, but it also felt extremely disjointed (probably because it started life as a set of short stories), which made it hard to connect to anything that was happening, because the narrative kept making sudden swerves and failing to follow up on the consequences of previous threads. It's also RIDDLED with typos, my favourite being the secret stash of gold bouillon (and my least favourite being the mysterious disappearance of every 'd - I spent a while wondering if this was meant to indicate a Future Speech Pattern, but I think not?).
LOL, same on all counts!