"The Crystal Cave" by Mary Stewart

 This is part of my journey through some older fantasy books. This was ok, because I had just finished a really good book I was definitely not as enthusiastic about this one. Tigana just has such a lovely cast of characters. This book just focuses on the protagonist the entire time and as a result just feels flat and lonely.

The story tells Merlin's life leading up to his raising of King Arthur. It starts with him as a child, a bastard in the house of an English noble. He meets a wizard in the woods and learns from him, but ends up running away when his grandfather dies and his uncle that hates him takes over. This doesn't last long, he is kidnapped and taken to Ambrosius who is trying to become king. It's then revealed that Ambrosius is his birth father, and that Merlin has some form of Sight that sometimes lets him see the future. Merlin helps Ambrosius win, Ambrosius then dies unfortunately and his brother Uther becomes king. Uther falls for the Duchess of Cornwall and Merlin helps them hook up and produce Arthur. Story ends with them procreating and Merlin predicting to his manservant that this child will be the greatest king of England.

As I have alluded to, I found this story to really lack colorful characters since so much of it is Merlin going off on his own. He repeatedly says that he loves being by himself in caves which would be a great opportunity to clarify some part of his magic. But that also never happens either. Plenty is explained as just being good at engineering, but his Sight comes and goes and is never quite clarified. He seems less like an actual wizard and more like some confused priest.

The treatment of women is also pretty abysmal. Repeatedly they are called whores or sluts, and the only women with any hint of a thought process are Merlin's mother and the Duchess at the end. Of course, I should emphasize, both women are just there to have children. Really disappointing since the author is (checks notes) a woman. Like I really don't care if it's to be "historically accurate" I don't want to read it.

This is part of a series about King Arthur but I really don't think I'll be checking out the rest of the series. This one stands enough on its own and I can stop reading here without needing more of it.

This Is Beautiful: Moving?

 Alright so I spent this past week moving myself into an apartment in North Carolina and it was surprisingly... not painful? I tried to be smart about it and got the place and had furniture delivered in advance. And then it took multiple big shopping trips to get the rest of the stuff and some food. But overall this wasn't that bad? Which surprised me a lot, I feel like moving is one of the most stressful things you can do. But everyone has been super friendly, and I think after inhabiting multiple apartments I'm used to a no frills life and I know what I need to function. And it's exciting to think of the opportunities here and the things I'll be able to do! So trying to ride that excited wave for the last few weeks before I officially change residences.

“Tigana” by Guy Gavriel Kay

This is one of my favorite fantasy books that I’ve read in a while. The plot is really nicely wrapped up, the conflict is complicated, there are multiple viewpoints and elements of action, and it is really thought provoking. In the 10^th anniversary afterword by the author, he mentions how this is primarily a book about memory. How if you destroy the memory of someone or someplace you eliminate it on a deep level. And that’s so interesting to think about in a fantasy setting.

The book opens with Devin, a singer in a troupe, being hired to sing at the Duke’s funeral. During the proceedings he follows one of his fellow musicians up to a mysterious room where she shoves him behind a panel and they overhear about a meeting taking place in the woods. Devin goes to listen and hears about a plot to overthrow the two wizard tyrants in the region. The meeting is interrupted by one of the other musicians in his troupe, Alessan, and he is revealed to be a prince of Tigana. Tigana is a land that used to exist, after Brandin (one of the tyrant wizards) loses his son in a battle in Tigana he overthrows the region and uses magic to make it impossible for anyone not born there to learn, remember, or hear the name. Alessan takes Devin away when the meeting is found and explains that to him. Devin realizes that he is from Tigana and joins the cause. They return to the meeting place and everyone there was slaughtered by Alberico, the other wizard tyrant. Also the Duke is revealed to not be dead, merely faking to get this plot started. He also joins them as he is secretly a minor wizard.

We swap to narration from Dianora, a concubine to Brandin. It is revealed that she is from Tigana and came there originally to kill Brandin, before falling in love with him. She is also a sister of Baerd, one of the men with Alessan. Back to Devin and co., they are traveling around stoking unrest until they run into a troubadour wizard Erlein. Alessan as a prince binds Erlein’s power to his cause. Erlein protests as he now can only do magic that Alessan orders, and he tries to run away. But he is eventually resigned. They continue until Alessan gets word that his mother is dying. They head back to Tigana to see her where she rebukes him for not taking on Brandin himself. She then dies. By now though some geopolitical shenanigans are in action, Brandin is trying to establish himself as King of the land. To legitimize this, Dianora does a Ring Dive, a ritual where she grabs a ring he throws from the sea. Brandin and Alberico are now at each other’s throats, but there is a kind of stalemate where they aren’t at war yet. To kick things into motion, Catriana (a member of the original musical troupe) kills the relative of Alberico’s near them and attempts to sacrifice herself. Erlein saves her of his own accord and Alessan frees him. They go to battle soon after, and it is revealed that the plan is for their motley crew of wizards and magic users to shield Alberico until the last second when Brandin sends every ounce of magic at him. Brandin kills Alberico but leaves himself powerless. This removes the enchantment from his Fool, now revealed to be the Prince of Tigana that killed his son and was thought dead. The Fool kills Brandin before dying. Dianora drowns herself and her servant greets Alessan and co. In the end, Baerd never learns what became of his sister and the servant hides the identity of the Fool.

Now first of all, the writing style of this book is amazing. It is easy to understand and super clear, which is important with all of the geopolitical maneuverings taking place. There are multiple times where the reader is dropped into a situation with no context, and then has to put together pieces to figure out what exactly is going on. But Kay makes it very simple for the reader by not using a fantastic style of writing and instead just being accessible to a wide audience. I can’t stand when fantasy authors think that if they write in an archaic manner that it’ll elevate their story or something and Kay does not fall into this trap.

So much of the book has to do with the importance of memory and stories. Obviously there’s Tigana being wiped from the face of the earth with its memory destroyed. Many of the characters are living through the pain of being able to remember that land, but not being able to say it to others. Now part of what felt fake about this is that Devin does not remember Tigana at all, but being born there he feels a duty to join their cause. It just doesn’t feel like he has a stake in this, but to be fair that is partially addressed in the text as Devin acknowledges that he just feels that it’s the right thing to do to sign up. There is also memory with regards to different characters. At the very end, the identity of Brandin’s killer remains hidden. I thought that might have been unfair, but there is a sense that it would be too much for Alessan to know that he brother was alive and enchanted this whole time. His brother got his revenge in the end, and that fulfilled him, and once he is dead it sure doesn’t matter to him how he gets remembered. Alessan as well seems to have a sense of his legacy and import and thinks about that carefully, he is frequently emphasized to be a good and fair leader.

It is interesting to me that the book has a sort of “chosen one” plot with Alessan, and yet the main protagonist is Devin who is an ordinary guy. We get to learn about Tigana and this plot through his eyes, which makes a lot of sense narratively. But it feels ahead of its time that the narration is just a smidge off center. Alessan is clearly who everyone and everything revolves around, and we don’t get behind his eyes at any point in the book. I quite like this choice, I think it makes sense to tell the story this way and also it lets Devin comment on the proceedings around him as an outsider to a lot of the plotting.

The book is delightfully not black and white, or good versus evil. Which is so nice as a lot of fantasy tends to fall into that trope. Alberico is the closest to a true bad guy, he slaughters everyone at the beginning and is known for wanton killing. Brandin gets more complicated as we see him through Dianora’s eyes, but it still doesn’t change the fact that he destroyed Tigana and there is very little mourning for him. Alessan is the closest we have to a true good, but he binds Erlein. They argue over this constantly, and the author mentions in the afterword that this is supposed to make the reader think about what lengths someone should go to for their cause. It is softened quite a bit by who Alessan is, and with Erlein coming over to his cause, but the conflict is there nevertheless.

Interestingly, there is some queer representation. It is not much, but it is mentioned that the two female dancers in the musical troupe hook up, and that women or men can be attracted to each other. The presence of this feels kinda cool to me given that this book came out in the late 80s. But none of the main characters are queer, none of the sex that is had (nothing graphic, but it is there) is queer and that just feels like a missed opportunity. If there’s a whole scene of Devin having sex with some queen whose castle they stop in, you can have some queer characters exist more prominently.

Finally I do have some complaints. Most have been mentioned already, Devin’s motivations for joining Alessan feel forced. Catriana as well, its stated that she joined because her father never fought for Tigana and fled before it began. Which feels ridiculous to me, her father is not her. But there is a whole theme with her and Alessan of disappointment between parents and children that this does add to. I just feel that having multiple tyrants is more motivating than your dad choosing life. On a similar vein, it is not totally clear what the aftermath of all this is. Alessan is ruling Tigana, sure, its alluded to that he becomes King of the whole area in the epilogue. But this is where things fall apart, sure Alessan is a good man but is he a good leader? How does he rebuild after all of this conflict? None of that is made clear, and in that way the book is very similar to typical “chosen one” fantasy stories. Which is disappointing after such a great discussion of conflict and memory and choices.

Anyways, despite all of that I loved this book. It was gripping in its intensity and made you root for all of the characters. There is a softness at the heart of it that also just felt warm and made you want to disappear into this world. Unfortunately there isn’t a sequel, which I expected, the story is self-contained, but Kay has plenty of other novels I may check out.

This Is Beautiful: Love's Labors Lost

 Ok so this isn't and won't be my favorite Shakespeare play. BUT even though I wasn't in it, Shakespeare in the Arb did this play this summer and I was able to see it multiple times to catch my friends. I then also went back and revisited "Lovely Little Losers" from the Candle Wasters in the hopes of picking up on more stuff from the play. And it worked, I realized a lot of odd things were just direct references to Shakespeare. It's an interesting adaptation since it's the characters from "Much Ado About Nothing"/"Nothing Much To Do" and as a result stuff gets rearranged. But I enjoyed it much more now that I know what it's about!

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

It took me a little longer but I finally completed the final game in the original Layton trilogy on my phone. It is interesting to me that the entire trilogy is based on three different ways there are entirely different and fabricated worlds created.

The unwound future starts when Luke gets a letter from his future self. They then head to a clock shop from which they are transported to the future and meet Big Luke. In this future, Layton has become a gang boss and they need to band together to take him down. Meanwhile, Layton sees someone who looks like his old, dead girlfriend who died in an explosion. Eventually though, Layton from the past figures out that Big Luke is actually a rich villain who is trying to get all of the scientists working on time travel together to then blow them and the city up. Additionally, the woman Layton sees is revealed to be his old girlfriend who was temporarily sent to the future but she then almost immediately like degrades. Layton advocates for Big Luke on the grounds that those scientists killed his parents with their experiments, and they all return to London. The game ends with Luke moving with his parents to the US and being separated from Layton.

There are some big highs and lows of this game to me. I hate that Layton and Luke deceive Flora and leave her behind somewhere. Honestly throughout the series I wish Flora was better incorporated, Layton supposedly adopted her so he might as well act like it. I also think it’s a little lame that the London of the future is actually a huge underground bunker that Big Luke dressed up all fancily. Seems a little farfetched, but the last game had hallucinogenic gas so guess it’s relatively reasonable. It does give some fun spaces to explore. Also the poor keeper of the lost puzzles, Granny Riddleton, is replaced not once but TWICE! And that feels ridiculous.

A high though is the treatment of Big Luke with compassion at the end. Layton saves his life as a child, and then again here in the game by advocating for him. It’s a nice message and I love that the game ends on that. Because it is aimed at kids doing puzzles, it’s important to know that you are allowed to grieve but also that it cannot consume you like that. Fault can be leveled at people without having to resort to revenge.

Anyways, this is a delightful little trilogy. I don’t think there’s other Layton games for the phone which is sad, but there’s a brand new one coming out soon that I am very excited for!

This Is Beautiful: Wrapping Up At Work

 This is my last full week at work, I'm around until the end of the month so this time next week I'll actually be in the moving process haha. But it's nice to wrap everything up and start sorting things and deleting or storing etc. It helps to really reflect and just feel a sense of accomplishment. It's been seven years here, and turns out that I do have things to show for it!

“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen

My partner started reading me Pride and Prejudice as I had never read the book and he wanted to watch the adaptations with me. I had seen a play that our friend put on that was one of the first adaptations of the work for the stage, so I knew the rough shape of it, but hearing the original work of course had so much more detail. I overall thought it was fun, it still isn’t really my thing, but it is cool to see what the fuss is about for a classical work of literature.

The book follows Elizabeth Bennett, one of several daughters in the Bennett family. There’s a fuss in their town with a rich gentleman moves in, Mr. Bingley, and he quickly develops affection for her sister, Jane. Meanwhile Bingley has this friend, Mr. Darcy, who is standoffish and a little rude. There are high hopes for Bingley and Jane, but Bingley suddenly moves away. Meanwhile Elizabeth is proposed to by her cousin who is a clergyman, she turns him down, and her friend ends up marrying him instead. Elizabeth goes to visit them and is proposed to by Darcy. She turns him down as well, citing that he ruined her sister’s relationship and the prospects of another officer she’s friends with. Elizabeth ends up visiting his manor with her aunt and uncle and running into him, which is when they get the dreadful news that her younger sister just ran off with that officer of the army that Darcy hates, validating his impression of him. Elizabeth hurries home to try and locate her sister and get her married to this officer. Eventually she is, and it is revealed that Darcy stepped in to save her from scandal. Everyone gets married!

In case you haven’t picked up on this, I am not a big romance fan. I do not get the appeal. So this isn’t a book I would have picked up on my own. Yes I know that Austen was revolutionary for writing about women and that her books don’t pass the reverse Bechdel test (as in: the men have very little inner lives) but it just isn’t something I would want to spend time on. Having said that, I did enjoy this experience. I do think Elizabeth is a great character and she and her sisters were delightful. Having said that, I still don’t like care about much of the book. So much emphasis is placed on class and seems ridiculous today, and there’s all sorts of mannerisms that the characters care a lot about and I don’t. Which is partially why I like Elizabeth, she refuses to participate in a number of these herself. But it would be hard for me to keep myself reading if I don’t find what the characters find important.

I know it’s not the most enlightened take, but not my favorite book. I did enjoy being forced to consume it though! Austen’s writing is a lot of fun, you can tell she enjoys her characters as well, and I think the more delightful part of this for me will be comparing different adaptations.