The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones
Dec. 5th, 2015 11:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lightreadsThe Merlin Conspiracy (Magids)
2/5. Standalone sequel to her Deep Secret, which I loved. More alternate universe-hopping magical shenanigans.
I am at a loss here. Deep Secret is charming and sweet and complicatedly kind. This book is – I don't even know what this book is, aside from a mess. It's a splattery mash of magic and personalities; it is perhaps appropriate that a literal elephant walks through this book, randomly trompling things. The plot is, eh, whatever, things happen, it more or less hangs together. But the few parts of this book I can comprehend on a meta level strike me as confused at best, wrongheaded at worst. This book is sort of about influence – magical, familial, political – in relationships, which is a way tidier explanation than anything in the actual pages, and to the extent it is a thinking creature at all, this book has no comprehension of consent or why it's important.
What the hell, DWJ?
2/5. Standalone sequel to her Deep Secret, which I loved. More alternate universe-hopping magical shenanigans.
I am at a loss here. Deep Secret is charming and sweet and complicatedly kind. This book is – I don't even know what this book is, aside from a mess. It's a splattery mash of magic and personalities; it is perhaps appropriate that a literal elephant walks through this book, randomly trompling things. The plot is, eh, whatever, things happen, it more or less hangs together. But the few parts of this book I can comprehend on a meta level strike me as confused at best, wrongheaded at worst. This book is sort of about influence – magical, familial, political – in relationships, which is a way tidier explanation than anything in the actual pages, and to the extent it is a thinking creature at all, this book has no comprehension of consent or why it's important.
What the hell, DWJ?
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Date: 2015-12-05 09:08 pm (UTC)I will agree consent wasn't handled very well, though. (I do feel like it was trying to... maybe? ...go somewhere with it, what with the myriad ways people fail in that respect, but it never quite engaged/)
Right, I kept trying to follow the thoughts, and they just ... didn't ... go ...
This book would probably be excellent while high or otherwise quite loopy, you're right. You'd just be like, oh, telepathic elephant, cool! rather than my ...what? Why?