Fire and Wings
May. 15th, 2025 04:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearI finished two books this week:
Jeweled Fire by Sharon Shinn is the third in the Elemental Blessing series, this time following Princess Corene on her journey to foreign lands in pursuit of her purpose. She was my least favourite character in the first book, was very effectively rehabilitated in the second, and makes for an excellent protagonist in book three. It's interesting to see other places outside the kingdom where the first two books took place, as well as representatives from even further afield. There's also a great exploration of different attitudes to queerness - Corene's kingdom doesn't even have a word for it because it's not remarked upon enough to need one, while other countries demonstrate different levels of prejudice or not. The romance part of this book is a bit clunky and also a bit problematic in some ways, but I decided I could get on board with it by the end of the story. And the next book in the series focuses on my favourite new character from this book, so I'm really looking forward to continuing with my reread.
The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard is my next choice for my Reviews Revisited series on YouTube. I remember nothing about when I read this book before or what I thought of it (though I have an inkling that I DNF'd it...) but it largely kept me engaged throughout this time around. It's about an alternate version of Paris (in the mid-1900s?) where the Great War came about because of a conflict between different Houses of Fallen angels... It's very complicated and quite confusing in places, with multiple different factions and every character working towards their own personal agenda. It's pretty grim in places and there are a lot of seemingly significant aspects that are introduced and then resolved very quickly, which leaves the climax feeling a bit nothing-y. It's definitely a minor instalment in a bigger story, but I don't think I'm invested enough to carry on with the series.
Jeweled Fire by Sharon Shinn is the third in the Elemental Blessing series, this time following Princess Corene on her journey to foreign lands in pursuit of her purpose. She was my least favourite character in the first book, was very effectively rehabilitated in the second, and makes for an excellent protagonist in book three. It's interesting to see other places outside the kingdom where the first two books took place, as well as representatives from even further afield. There's also a great exploration of different attitudes to queerness - Corene's kingdom doesn't even have a word for it because it's not remarked upon enough to need one, while other countries demonstrate different levels of prejudice or not. The romance part of this book is a bit clunky and also a bit problematic in some ways, but I decided I could get on board with it by the end of the story. And the next book in the series focuses on my favourite new character from this book, so I'm really looking forward to continuing with my reread.
The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard is my next choice for my Reviews Revisited series on YouTube. I remember nothing about when I read this book before or what I thought of it (though I have an inkling that I DNF'd it...) but it largely kept me engaged throughout this time around. It's about an alternate version of Paris (in the mid-1900s?) where the Great War came about because of a conflict between different Houses of Fallen angels... It's very complicated and quite confusing in places, with multiple different factions and every character working towards their own personal agenda. It's pretty grim in places and there are a lot of seemingly significant aspects that are introduced and then resolved very quickly, which leaves the climax feeling a bit nothing-y. It's definitely a minor instalment in a bigger story, but I don't think I'm invested enough to carry on with the series.
