trying to get myself to read more again!
my brain decided i'm not allowed to read any of the books i've got in progress and actually want to read, so i switched to something i suspected would "read itself" to get the momentum going again.
i've read one naomi novik book before and i remember it was easy but not, idk, insultingly simple? both this one and "spinning silver" had a wonderful internal "folk tale" logic and tight plot. plenty of female characters, YA without focusing on romance, high stakes magical adventures, would probably read again.
4/5 one star off because with how well everything else is executed i do wish it was more... literary? alright, no, if it's a first person perspective of a peasant girl it can't be too literary... in that case i'm taking one star off for the "eclectic slavic" theme. everything is vaguely polish and in some ways it's delightful with some truly deep cuts in there. you can guess from the fantasy names they're meant to reflect Cracow, Warsaw, Gdańsk or Gdynia, the Vistula etc. on the other hand some things are truly baffling/out of place for this level of research/accuracy. why are some people's names spelled accurately in polish and others in a strange phonetic transcription? please settle on one. you have Kasia and Agnieszka (which btw does not shorten to Nieszka, what) but then Marisha for Marysia? And Stashek - is that Staszek or Stasiek? (and some minor other stuff. like why would a polish medieval peasant refer to something as "hummingbird fast"? or how do you have the wind at your plural backs, when each of you is facing a different direction?) but i'm being pedantic, most of the time it was easy to just brush all of that under the carpet of "fantasy".
2/5 this is the guidebook for the tarot of the drowning world. i remember now why i never reference it. the author seems to be unclear on the name of the deck. despite each entry being accompanied by a blown up image of the card, she never references the actual images. the major arcana are somewhat interesting - each one a mini-essay around our relationship to environment, its exploitation etc. even if it has little to do with the image or card meaning, i can see how you could use that sort of lens to read a deck, why not. so points for that and the good bibliography.
the minors is where the thing really makes no sense. falkner gives an outline to each suit, at some points using marseille concepts (batons for farmers but not cups for clergy or coins for merchants), at other times using esoteric corespondences (cups for emotions, swords for intellect). it's inconsistent and incongruous with the artists' vision. the deck as-is has some interesting things going on that aren't mentioned at all, e.g. the design of the court cards. personally i see the deck as very vibrant and alive, the vegetation lush and not troubled at all. the black backgrounds of the deep water feel like scrying mirrors, the figures in the water feel dream-like and magical - more lady of the lake than the results of our self-made ecological downfall. (obviously that's just my interpretation and i'm not rating this a 2/5 only because of that discrepancy, there are simpy Issues). back to the tarot bookshelf with ye.
another great blend of action and lore. loving the various creative ways our characters come up with to circumvent each others' disabilities and limitations, helping others navigate a world that wrote them off. might just read this volume again for the confidence boost and food for thought. i like how each character has a strength-that-is-a-weakness. they seem a little bit too on the nose, but there's just so many individual threads and stories that this Highlighted Traits help them not get lost in the shuffle.
i feel like it should be a 4 but i'm... missing something? so maybe a 3/5 for now. i have many questions... i'm confused about the ending. so in the end it was all about the prophecy, not killing god? was it specifically about lyra? if so, why? what was it about her in particular? or was it about any individual who happened to arrive at that situation (puberty + witch + first love), and it just so happened, through many little synchronicities, that it was her? wasn't it about both lyra and will? why wasn't he part of the prophecy? what exactly was lyra's choice/the fall?? you can't choose to Not Mature physically, so not that... i thought it would be the later choice of closing the windows, unselfishly, moving away from childish self-centered-ness. but a) she had already acted in the interest of others throughout the series and b) the big dust glow already happened under the tree. so is it what Mary said, choosing to live with your full spirit, even if it means you're not following the rules/being "good"? if so, what sort of a choice is that for someone who wasn't really ever under the pressure to be "good"? why would her particular, conscious choice to do that generate so much dust compared to other people?
also other questions about asriel, his motivation, how people knew about him inter-dimentionally, how did they all build the fortress in a matter of a few weeks etc.
a grand sweeping adventure, for sure, with many emotional moments. it was cool how the "right things" happened when the protagonists acted from their own integrity vs. just following what others wanted of them, no matter how important it seemed. but i feel like that confused john travolta gif.
5/5 what the hell, so many good books recently. i mean i'm happy - it means i don't have to wonder whether to record all the books or only the good ones. wonderful heart-wrenching story about parenthood, love, hope, and responsibility against the backdrop of climate collapse. if you've got climate anxiety (so valid) maybe skip this one. generally there's plenty of other trigger warnings to heed but nothing was really for simple shock value. it was all excellently woven to serve the main themes and the stories of the ensemble. (huh, just saw a review complaining about a not very believable plot-twist and i'm not sure what plot twist they mean?? was there one?)
i mean... i started reading and accidentally left the eggs cooking for 3 hours... it's definitely engaging, i like the quick and seamless lore-dump/world building, things are happening rapidly without being overwhelming. "interesting" choice to forbid healing magic??
4/5 re-read. honestly the 1 point off from a 5/5 is for too good a job writing tense moments. the dread builds up and instead of wanting it resolved i'd rather just not read it and then i forget to pick it back up for days and days. somehow even more brutal than the previous one. this is how far i've read previously. i want to trust the author but it's kind of ? to root for the main characters, when their mission is "yes, go join/help this deranged guy, lord A Little Child Murder Is Beneficial Actually, on his totally normal interdimensional war/murder mission" (atrocities done in the name of god = get rid of god? my man, people will find different ways to justify the atrocities). idk! taking a break for other books. looking forward to dr malone's adventures, though!
5/5 recent pick-up from an indie bookshop. honestly i just wanted something self-contained and idk literary? slam dunk, what a great story. i love how it slowly started taking shape with each new mentioned crumb of info, like the looming dread of a tragedy. and then how neatly and satisfyingly it all snapped into place. i lack the proper words for the nuances of grief, the parallels, overlaps. like... a house haunted with mirror reflections down long hallways. reflections upon reflections. also - great structure, felt almost like a Good Meal.
5/5 a re-read! i haven't yet managed to finish the first trilogy, only ever got two books in, but i'm feeling good about this attempt. i love the world-building and the fairy-tale feel of it juxtaposed with the idk brutality of being a child, religious fanaticism etc. probably would've been obsessed if i'd actually read it as a child, alas - never heard of it at the appropriate age. also even after i heard of "his dark materials" - that just doesn't sound like a cool fantasy series, more like edgy porn?? but i'm very happy my appalled friend lent me their copies at the beginning of the pandemic. got my own book now (3 in 1), hope it /delivers/. (also, as before, reading about the alethiometer makes me want to dip back into lenormand!)
