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Reading Wednesday
Mar. 10th, 2021 07:18 am Just finished: Return of the Trickster by Eden Robinson
To the tune of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," where have all the editors gone?
Friends, I have been hotly anticipating the third and final book in Robinson's Trickster series forever—the second ended on such a cliffhanger, and her writing is general incredible. And there's a lot that's great in this one too. It's got fantastic characters, imaginative fantasy, visceral body horror, weirdly, some pretty useful vegan recipes, and even a Sasquatch. But like 90% of the genre books I've read lately, it fails to live up to the sum of its parts, which I chalk up to rushed publication.
The good news is it's bonkers; the bad news is it's bonkers.
Two main problems, really: 1) there are too many characters, even with a George R.R. Martin-esque slaughter of the cast, and 2) Jared isn't active enough in his own story. He starts the story barely holding himself together (literally) and isn't in much better shape by the end, meaning that he pretty much has to be saved by everyone else. Which is kind of a cool concept, in that addiction is fairly central to the plot, but the problem is that he's also the only viewpoint character, and that makes things structurally awkward. A lot of the action happens around him, and Robinson resorts to short, italicized chapters from other characters' POV so that we know what's happening at all.
Also I'm going to come out and say it: The epilogue is bad. Not what happens in it—that's rad—but how what happens is told. It's just an abrupt ending that doesn't honour the story.
I read an interview with her after that said that at first she wrote a draft where everyone just talked out their problems, and it made sense and was boring, and another draft, after the pandemic had begun (and I imagine, after the show and Michelle Latimer fucking her over) that was really dark and everyone died. Somewhere in between was the right call, and this version almost gets there, but it needed another editorial pass.
Currently reading: Nothing right now—will look and see what I've got to read tonight.
To the tune of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," where have all the editors gone?
Friends, I have been hotly anticipating the third and final book in Robinson's Trickster series forever—the second ended on such a cliffhanger, and her writing is general incredible. And there's a lot that's great in this one too. It's got fantastic characters, imaginative fantasy, visceral body horror, weirdly, some pretty useful vegan recipes, and even a Sasquatch. But like 90% of the genre books I've read lately, it fails to live up to the sum of its parts, which I chalk up to rushed publication.
The good news is it's bonkers; the bad news is it's bonkers.
Two main problems, really: 1) there are too many characters, even with a George R.R. Martin-esque slaughter of the cast, and 2) Jared isn't active enough in his own story. He starts the story barely holding himself together (literally) and isn't in much better shape by the end, meaning that he pretty much has to be saved by everyone else. Which is kind of a cool concept, in that addiction is fairly central to the plot, but the problem is that he's also the only viewpoint character, and that makes things structurally awkward. A lot of the action happens around him, and Robinson resorts to short, italicized chapters from other characters' POV so that we know what's happening at all.
Also I'm going to come out and say it: The epilogue is bad. Not what happens in it—that's rad—but how what happens is told. It's just an abrupt ending that doesn't honour the story.
I read an interview with her after that said that at first she wrote a draft where everyone just talked out their problems, and it made sense and was boring, and another draft, after the pandemic had begun (and I imagine, after the show and Michelle Latimer fucking her over) that was really dark and everyone died. Somewhere in between was the right call, and this version almost gets there, but it needed another editorial pass.
Currently reading: Nothing right now—will look and see what I've got to read tonight.
