READ THESE BOOKS.

[rj_anderson]

Oh, hurray, lizbee has written a fabulous review of Philip Reeve's Hungry Cities Chronicles so I can just point you to hers and not feel guilty that I haven't yet written one! Though I should also have remembered that I could point to jamesbow's excellent review, which was written ages ago, as well.

Now what I really must do is get on here and burble about my mad love for Megan Whalen Turner, but I want to re-read The Thief first to see if I like it better the second time. (I already know that the second and third books in the series are, unquestionably, LOVE. I just didn't warm to the first one for some reason.)

Comments

[my_daroga]

What's interesting about this is that I read The Thief at my husband's insistence, but haven't read the others yet because he didn't like them and never bought them!

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Well, Book 2 and 3 are quite different from the first, not least in the switch from first to third-person narration. Did your husband say why he didn't care for the latter two as compared to the first? He isn't the first person I've heard say so; but then I'm not the first person to find the original book somewhat unimpressive and get sucked in only by reading the next two. And of course there seem to be plenty of other people who simply love, or hate, all three.

Having now re-read The Thief, I like it much more than I did the first time; but I still think the second and especially third books are the real masterpieces. I don't think I would have fallen for Gen the way I did just from reading Thief -- it took the events of the next two books, and I think the change of narration, to really win me over.

[my_daroga]

Interesting. I just asked him, and this is what he said:

Imagine you watched the first Batman movie, and you liked it and liked the character and everything, and then in the first five minutes of the second film he receives a head injury and Vicky Vale cuts off his leg and he has to give up crimefighting and spends the rest of the film romancing the woman who did it to him.

Hmm. "I know it's his hand, you idiot," I said.

Anyway, from his point of view, he was really unsatisfied by the alteration of a character he'd been really involved with in The Thief. So it's a matter of your point of entry--not chronologically, but emotionally.

Now I *have* to read the others!

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Hee! I like your husband's description. Admittedly there is a disturbing element to the romance -- how many romances do you know of where the hero is literally terrified of the heroine, and with good reason? But fortunately Turner supplies some backstory about Gen's feelings and the reasons for them that have nothing to do with the loss of his hand, and that makes things a little better.

It's still disturbing, though, I will admit. Even now I wonder if I might be a little skewed to like the romance as much as I do, considering.

As for the change of career following a major injury, I'd already been through that with Miles Vorkosigan and it didn't make me like him any less (in fact I enjoyed him more in his new career), so I actually looked forward to that bit. To me it deepened the series and Gen's character to have him learning new skills and stealing less tangible goods, so to speak.

[my_daroga]

Well, when he described that to me, I thought, "Hey, that sounds entertaining." Which, you know, indicates that we may have some differences of opinion. What, a married couple?

So I'm placing a hold on the next one at the library/work, and I'll try to remember to come back to this discussion or post about it and let you know.

Seems I need to check out this Vorkosigan fellow, too.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Miles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Vorkosigan), for your reference. Megan Whalen Turner actually mentions Lois McMaster Bujold's writings as an influence in her endnotes to The Thief -- I'm not surprised.

squee

[etlhoy.livejournal.com]

My first exposure to The Thief was years ago as a booktape on an extremely long car ride in order to prevent me and my brother from murdering each other, and I have read it at least once since, but I never knew there were sequels, and since I absolutely loved the book, please refer to the subject line for my reaction.