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lightreadsThe Orphans of Raspay
2/5. Another Penric novella. This time he and his resident chaos demon are taken captive by slavers. Pen then attaches himself to two young girls similarly on the auction block, and the three of them go through various travails and reversals to escape.
Yeeeeah. So the narrative problem here is that Pen is under no substantial threat, unless he gets extremely and repeatedly unlucky, not given what he can do. For him, slavers are inconvenient, not life-shattering. LMB tries to fix this with the introduction of the kids, who are threatened with separation and, implicitly, much much worse. But it doesn't work, because she also leans hard into her penchant for hijinx and funny reversals, and the result is like reading about someone taking a vacation with a "enjoy a slavery experience!" company. I only exaggerate slightly. This is definitely the tourist-friendly end of slavery. The Disney-would-have-an-attraction end of slavery.
I was not in the mood for that, and it got less and less okay the more I thought about it.
2/5. Another Penric novella. This time he and his resident chaos demon are taken captive by slavers. Pen then attaches himself to two young girls similarly on the auction block, and the three of them go through various travails and reversals to escape.
Yeeeeah. So the narrative problem here is that Pen is under no substantial threat, unless he gets extremely and repeatedly unlucky, not given what he can do. For him, slavers are inconvenient, not life-shattering. LMB tries to fix this with the introduction of the kids, who are threatened with separation and, implicitly, much much worse. But it doesn't work, because she also leans hard into her penchant for hijinx and funny reversals, and the result is like reading about someone taking a vacation with a "enjoy a slavery experience!" company. I only exaggerate slightly. This is definitely the tourist-friendly end of slavery. The Disney-would-have-an-attraction end of slavery.
I was not in the mood for that, and it got less and less okay the more I thought about it.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-25 09:29 pm (UTC)I find the ones I have read lightweight. Mostly because I know what Bujold is capable of. If she was a so-so author, I'd probably think eh, take it or leave it.
But I know she's capable of serving a feast. So I keep coming back, and the fact that she seems engaged in exploring the world of snacks (both in terms of length and content) is frustrating. And then if the snack foods have gone off...
no subject
Date: 2020-07-25 10:21 pm (UTC)Definitely lightweight. Also, I have some not-so-nice suspicions about the economics here -- you make a lot more money selling three $25 hardback novellas than one actual novel which those novellas should have been.