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crankyoldmanFinished The Snow Queen's Shadow
This is mostly a rant. Spoilers abound.
So, the last two books in the Princess Series were made to explore Talia and Snow's lives. Talia's was heartbreaking and wonderful and probably the strongest in the series.
Snow's was... really disappointing.
Yes, yes, I get it. Isolating childhood with an evil mother means you're probably not going to end up well-adjusted. Talia's backstory wasn't exactly sunshine and rainbows either. I was willing to go along even with the conceit that there was a demon possessing Snow which sends her on a spiral of vengeance. It's been done, but fine, if you want to go there, go there. Not like I don't see that all the time with powerful female magic users who aren't primarily healers.
My main problem is with Gerta. Yes, clever combining the Snow Queen story and the Snow White one. They both have snow in the name. So clever. Only not.
My problem with Gerta is that she is basically Snow, but taking out all those annoying flaws of hers. You know, the flaws that made me happen to like the character and turn her into an actual human being (her immaturity and brashness was a great contrast to Talia and the reason I LIKED THEM SO MUCH TOGETHER because they obviously LEARNED SO MUCH FROM EACH OTHER). And put in this milder, desperately wanting to please, not as powerful as Snow construct. Quite literally a construct. Which oh yeah, just happens to immediately be in love with Talia!
WHICH WE ARE THEN SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE THAT TALIA GETS WITH IN THE END.
There are a million ways the Snow/Talia thing could have been resolved. It irks me to no end how quickly gay people are allowed to go straight for someone in fiction, but GOD FORBID a straight character go gay for another one. Or you know, BE BISEXUAL. It was going so well with Talia, on a lot of fronts, but it's like he forgot to write in why exactly a fantastic character like Talia would be in love with Snow. Because Snow is either light-hearted and bawdy like the other books or POSSESSED BY A DEMON or a sad lonely child.
There were also issues with the format of the story. Which started with a downer and just KEPT UP THE DOWNER TRAIN until suddenly the ending! And then happy and joking! WHERE THE FUCK DID THAT COME FROM.
I missed Snow for the entire book. And clearly she was the only one holding up the humor (except for random Tommy Knockers, oh har har, and other fairy throw away characters) because there was basically nothing fun going on. At all. Snow's an evil unstoppable force (great, my favorite sorceress trope only not) and Danielle's kid is taken and her husband is a zombie so she's barely keeping it together (understandably) and Talia is barely keeping it together because SNOW IS AN EVIL UNSTOPPABLE FORCE and Beatrice is dead.
But hey at least we have Gerta around, to dump exposition and tell us about Snow's childhood, instead of hearing it from a real person. Of course, she's not actually funny herself, she just parrots funny things that Snow used to say. You know. Back when she was a character.
At the very end, where they are talking about a mission to get the Girl with the Silver Hands? I think that would have made a better book. And it would have been clever tying together that with Snow's backstory (like they tied Red Riding Hood with Talia's backstory, NOW THAT IS ACTUALLY CLEVER). And given Snow the character development maturity that she needed, instead of rebooting her as GERTA THE REPLACEMENT CONSTRUCT.
Did I mention I hated Gerta? Cause I do. A lot.
I'd get into the mixed messages, but I have wasted far too much time on a book that I was disappointed by.
This is mostly a rant. Spoilers abound.
So, the last two books in the Princess Series were made to explore Talia and Snow's lives. Talia's was heartbreaking and wonderful and probably the strongest in the series.
Snow's was... really disappointing.
Yes, yes, I get it. Isolating childhood with an evil mother means you're probably not going to end up well-adjusted. Talia's backstory wasn't exactly sunshine and rainbows either. I was willing to go along even with the conceit that there was a demon possessing Snow which sends her on a spiral of vengeance. It's been done, but fine, if you want to go there, go there. Not like I don't see that all the time with powerful female magic users who aren't primarily healers.
My main problem is with Gerta. Yes, clever combining the Snow Queen story and the Snow White one. They both have snow in the name. So clever. Only not.
My problem with Gerta is that she is basically Snow, but taking out all those annoying flaws of hers. You know, the flaws that made me happen to like the character and turn her into an actual human being (her immaturity and brashness was a great contrast to Talia and the reason I LIKED THEM SO MUCH TOGETHER because they obviously LEARNED SO MUCH FROM EACH OTHER). And put in this milder, desperately wanting to please, not as powerful as Snow construct. Quite literally a construct. Which oh yeah, just happens to immediately be in love with Talia!
WHICH WE ARE THEN SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE THAT TALIA GETS WITH IN THE END.
There are a million ways the Snow/Talia thing could have been resolved. It irks me to no end how quickly gay people are allowed to go straight for someone in fiction, but GOD FORBID a straight character go gay for another one. Or you know, BE BISEXUAL. It was going so well with Talia, on a lot of fronts, but it's like he forgot to write in why exactly a fantastic character like Talia would be in love with Snow. Because Snow is either light-hearted and bawdy like the other books or POSSESSED BY A DEMON or a sad lonely child.
There were also issues with the format of the story. Which started with a downer and just KEPT UP THE DOWNER TRAIN until suddenly the ending! And then happy and joking! WHERE THE FUCK DID THAT COME FROM.
I missed Snow for the entire book. And clearly she was the only one holding up the humor (except for random Tommy Knockers, oh har har, and other fairy throw away characters) because there was basically nothing fun going on. At all. Snow's an evil unstoppable force (great, my favorite sorceress trope only not) and Danielle's kid is taken and her husband is a zombie so she's barely keeping it together (understandably) and Talia is barely keeping it together because SNOW IS AN EVIL UNSTOPPABLE FORCE and Beatrice is dead.
But hey at least we have Gerta around, to dump exposition and tell us about Snow's childhood, instead of hearing it from a real person. Of course, she's not actually funny herself, she just parrots funny things that Snow used to say. You know. Back when she was a character.
At the very end, where they are talking about a mission to get the Girl with the Silver Hands? I think that would have made a better book. And it would have been clever tying together that with Snow's backstory (like they tied Red Riding Hood with Talia's backstory, NOW THAT IS ACTUALLY CLEVER). And given Snow the character development maturity that she needed, instead of rebooting her as GERTA THE REPLACEMENT CONSTRUCT.
Did I mention I hated Gerta? Cause I do. A lot.
I'd get into the mixed messages, but I have wasted far too much time on a book that I was disappointed by.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-21 10:11 pm (UTC)Sorry for not placing this.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-21 11:56 pm (UTC)Yes.