lightreads (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lightreads) wrote2015-12-10 02:35 pm
lightreads) wrote2015-12-10 02:35 pm
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Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Sunshine
4/5. From early on in the current urban fantasy movement, from the early Vampire Period (you know, like the Blue Period, but vampirier). A baker in a slow-motion-supernatural-apocalypse world comes into her power after getting entangled in vampire wars.
Finally reading this, only a decade late. On the plus side: baking; a beautiful sense of extended family and community around the bakery; characters who all want to feed everybody; a protagonist whose romantic relationship is strong and steady and respectful the way two very independent people would be. On the minus side: oh, whoops, there were clearly supposed to be another eight books that she never wrote. And that, IIRC, she got incredibly snotty with people over requesting, even though this is the first book in a series, I'm sorry it just is.
I will say this about the fact that this book is 85% setup for a series that doesn't exist: it lets the vampire be the vampire. He is genuinely inhuman here, and creepy, and only sexy in the most uncomfortable of ways where it's clear the impulse is rather horrible to both parties. And the intimacy built between the baker and the vampire is . . . well, it's two aliens squinting uncertainly at each other across the wreckage, basically. And a series would have ruined that, most likely. As it is, this book can end well for everyone, but with ambiguous and uncomfortable implications, and I liked that.
So in short, a good example of the genre, with more warmth and richness than many later followers. But you've got to go in understanding that this was, like, a world-building exercise for McKinley or something. I almost wish she had turned the impulse to creating an elaborate tabletop game; it might have gotten her what she wanted and pissed off way fewer readers.
Note: Currently $1.99 on Kindle.
4/5. From early on in the current urban fantasy movement, from the early Vampire Period (you know, like the Blue Period, but vampirier). A baker in a slow-motion-supernatural-apocalypse world comes into her power after getting entangled in vampire wars.
Finally reading this, only a decade late. On the plus side: baking; a beautiful sense of extended family and community around the bakery; characters who all want to feed everybody; a protagonist whose romantic relationship is strong and steady and respectful the way two very independent people would be. On the minus side: oh, whoops, there were clearly supposed to be another eight books that she never wrote. And that, IIRC, she got incredibly snotty with people over requesting, even though this is the first book in a series, I'm sorry it just is.
I will say this about the fact that this book is 85% setup for a series that doesn't exist: it lets the vampire be the vampire. He is genuinely inhuman here, and creepy, and only sexy in the most uncomfortable of ways where it's clear the impulse is rather horrible to both parties. And the intimacy built between the baker and the vampire is . . . well, it's two aliens squinting uncertainly at each other across the wreckage, basically. And a series would have ruined that, most likely. As it is, this book can end well for everyone, but with ambiguous and uncomfortable implications, and I liked that.
So in short, a good example of the genre, with more warmth and richness than many later followers. But you've got to go in understanding that this was, like, a world-building exercise for McKinley or something. I almost wish she had turned the impulse to creating an elaborate tabletop game; it might have gotten her what she wanted and pissed off way fewer readers.
Note: Currently $1.99 on Kindle.
no subject
I loved the persistence of things in this story. The life of the diner doesn't stop just because there's an apocalypse coming: Rae refuses to leave her bakery, however wounded she is, until her stepfather finds someone to cover her shift. And the uncomfortable need for Rae and Con to stay in contact stays important, however many agents they need to fool or vampires to flee. There's not much hand-waving here.
This is one of my go-to stories. One of the wonders of the digital age is that I can carry Sunshine on my *phone*, like a security blanket, and slip my hand into my pocket and pat it when stressed. *g*