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May. 12th, 2005 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
exsequarHey kiddos. My life right now? Ridiculously easy. Classes are easy going, i get close to zero homework, and I graduate from high school in a month. There is the small detail of a term paper dangling over my head like a sword that will drop in four days... but I'll live. Not like it matters at *all*, this paper, as in one month I will be OUTTA HERE, and my grade will matter very little. I have an incredibly solid A right now, so even if I got like a B on the paper (not likely - I'm a perfectionist, and will work all through Sunday night to finish this if I have to) it wouldn't matter in any significant way. Except for maybe losing me Valedictorian.
The only thing? I'm freaking EXHAUSTED. I have not felt this wiped out for a long time. I have to take naps in the senior room in the middle of the day just to make it through the rest of my classes. It's probably partially that I've been going to bed pretty late this week - but I have done that in weeks before, and not felt this absolutely horrendous, like I'm about to pass out or my head is going to explode any second. I think it must be a lingering after-effect of the stress of APs and all that craziness. I stayed alert through it because I needed to, but now my body is conking out on me. Which is NOT GOOD, because hello body! Term paper! Not to mention a dance performance next week. Erg.
In other news. I finished The Sarantine Mosaic today, a two part fantasy series by Guy Gavriel Kay. And this man is... a genius. A frigging genius, I'm not kidding you. He is the best story teller I think I have ever read. So I am going to write down my thoughts about the books here, so that I don't forget.
I loved the ending. Loved loved loved the ending. You all know me, a hopeless shipper, and it ends with an actual relationship starting between the main character and the ex-Empress of Sarantium, who was probably my favorite character in the whole series. She's smart, brilliant, clever, strong, and I just loved her entire manner. She was also endearing because she was in a loving relationship, a true and mutual marriage that was based in love, not money. Her husband (the Emperor) was brutally murdered (which saddened me - I liked him a lot too) and I admired her strength in dealing with that, while she still allowed herself to mourn. And then, a year later, she comes to Crispin... and I was just so very happy, because that's the kind of happy ever after I always want but never get! Kay pulls off the entire epilogue so so beautifully; it is realistic and believable, yet satisfies me so perfectly, I couldn't have asked for a better ending. Alixana and Crispin? How perfect is that?
I liked Leontes for a little while, probably because I am unconsciously susceptible to the whole celebrity thing, but he turned out to be an asshole. Gr. At least he recognized Styliane's treachery. Bitch deserved to die, but instead he blinded and branded her and imprisoned her on an island, keeping her alive in an act of supposed "mercy" but actually dooming her to a much more horrible death-in-life. I never felt any sympathy for her at all, but apparently Crispin did. Which is a strange disparity. Usually I have the same opinions towards characters as the main character does, simply because I see them through his or her eyes. I think I just don't like sluts. I really really don't like them, at all. Except for Brian Kinney, but he doesn't count. He's queer. :P ;)
The one tiny complaint that I have, though it's not through any fault of Kay's, is that he gave me glimpses of so many rich and fascinating characters, but by the end of the story most of them had largely fallen off the map. Not really, because they were still present and mentioned and everything, but characters whose point of view we had gotten for a chapter or a few chapters just never gave their opinion again. A prime example is Scortius, whom I truly adored (although why the fuck does he like Thenais? She was a psychobitch o.O) and I would have liked some sort of closure with him, instead of seeing him through Rustem's eyes. I also would have liked to see his tryst with Shirin pursued, because there was true chemistry there. Shirin is another underdeveloped character that I really liked a lot. And Kasia, too.
But of course the little things must be sacrificed when things like murder and revenge and imperial succession and wars waged and wars canceled and betrayal are all happening at once. And I completely understand that. Kay has a magnificent way of juggling many disparate threads; he did it in Fionavar, and he did it again here. He controls everything very competently and gives it at least some sense of closure. And he keeps his characters all in relatively close proximity, able to communicate - I contrast this with Wheel of Time, which has become so hopelessly out of hand after 10 books that it seems like Tar'mon Gaidon is not going to happen simply because everyone's all over the place! But I digress. With Kay, his overriding plot always drives everything else, and he develops an immensely rich world. It is actually a testament to his writing that I can fall in love with a character after only seeing from their eyes for one chapter. And i do understand that only some characters have a useful viewpoint at any point in time. And in the end it all had to come back to Crispin, for it was Crispin's journey at the beginning and must end that way. Another thing I found strange though was how fully the focus shifted to Rustem, a pretty random guy, for a really long time. When we returned to Crispin I felt like he was almost a stranger because I hadn't been reading very often and consequentially didn't read about Crispin at all for a couple of weeks.
I don't think I liked Gisel very much. She always seemed to be trying too hard. Martinian was great, of course. I also liked Carullus, and Astorgus, and Pardos, and Kyros. Didn't care too much for Crescens, duh. But you can see just how many characters were introduced, sufficient in complexity that I was able to make detailed decisions about their characters.
On the whole this might be the best fantasy work I have ever read. I am sad that Kay hasn't written very much, since he takes so long to write things - I think I only have one or two of his books left to look forward to :( But i definitely highly recommend these books, if you're a fantasy fan at all!
The end ^_^
The only thing? I'm freaking EXHAUSTED. I have not felt this wiped out for a long time. I have to take naps in the senior room in the middle of the day just to make it through the rest of my classes. It's probably partially that I've been going to bed pretty late this week - but I have done that in weeks before, and not felt this absolutely horrendous, like I'm about to pass out or my head is going to explode any second. I think it must be a lingering after-effect of the stress of APs and all that craziness. I stayed alert through it because I needed to, but now my body is conking out on me. Which is NOT GOOD, because hello body! Term paper! Not to mention a dance performance next week. Erg.
In other news. I finished The Sarantine Mosaic today, a two part fantasy series by Guy Gavriel Kay. And this man is... a genius. A frigging genius, I'm not kidding you. He is the best story teller I think I have ever read. So I am going to write down my thoughts about the books here, so that I don't forget.
I loved the ending. Loved loved loved the ending. You all know me, a hopeless shipper, and it ends with an actual relationship starting between the main character and the ex-Empress of Sarantium, who was probably my favorite character in the whole series. She's smart, brilliant, clever, strong, and I just loved her entire manner. She was also endearing because she was in a loving relationship, a true and mutual marriage that was based in love, not money. Her husband (the Emperor) was brutally murdered (which saddened me - I liked him a lot too) and I admired her strength in dealing with that, while she still allowed herself to mourn. And then, a year later, she comes to Crispin... and I was just so very happy, because that's the kind of happy ever after I always want but never get! Kay pulls off the entire epilogue so so beautifully; it is realistic and believable, yet satisfies me so perfectly, I couldn't have asked for a better ending. Alixana and Crispin? How perfect is that?
I liked Leontes for a little while, probably because I am unconsciously susceptible to the whole celebrity thing, but he turned out to be an asshole. Gr. At least he recognized Styliane's treachery. Bitch deserved to die, but instead he blinded and branded her and imprisoned her on an island, keeping her alive in an act of supposed "mercy" but actually dooming her to a much more horrible death-in-life. I never felt any sympathy for her at all, but apparently Crispin did. Which is a strange disparity. Usually I have the same opinions towards characters as the main character does, simply because I see them through his or her eyes. I think I just don't like sluts. I really really don't like them, at all. Except for Brian Kinney, but he doesn't count. He's queer. :P ;)
The one tiny complaint that I have, though it's not through any fault of Kay's, is that he gave me glimpses of so many rich and fascinating characters, but by the end of the story most of them had largely fallen off the map. Not really, because they were still present and mentioned and everything, but characters whose point of view we had gotten for a chapter or a few chapters just never gave their opinion again. A prime example is Scortius, whom I truly adored (although why the fuck does he like Thenais? She was a psychobitch o.O) and I would have liked some sort of closure with him, instead of seeing him through Rustem's eyes. I also would have liked to see his tryst with Shirin pursued, because there was true chemistry there. Shirin is another underdeveloped character that I really liked a lot. And Kasia, too.
But of course the little things must be sacrificed when things like murder and revenge and imperial succession and wars waged and wars canceled and betrayal are all happening at once. And I completely understand that. Kay has a magnificent way of juggling many disparate threads; he did it in Fionavar, and he did it again here. He controls everything very competently and gives it at least some sense of closure. And he keeps his characters all in relatively close proximity, able to communicate - I contrast this with Wheel of Time, which has become so hopelessly out of hand after 10 books that it seems like Tar'mon Gaidon is not going to happen simply because everyone's all over the place! But I digress. With Kay, his overriding plot always drives everything else, and he develops an immensely rich world. It is actually a testament to his writing that I can fall in love with a character after only seeing from their eyes for one chapter. And i do understand that only some characters have a useful viewpoint at any point in time. And in the end it all had to come back to Crispin, for it was Crispin's journey at the beginning and must end that way. Another thing I found strange though was how fully the focus shifted to Rustem, a pretty random guy, for a really long time. When we returned to Crispin I felt like he was almost a stranger because I hadn't been reading very often and consequentially didn't read about Crispin at all for a couple of weeks.
I don't think I liked Gisel very much. She always seemed to be trying too hard. Martinian was great, of course. I also liked Carullus, and Astorgus, and Pardos, and Kyros. Didn't care too much for Crescens, duh. But you can see just how many characters were introduced, sufficient in complexity that I was able to make detailed decisions about their characters.
On the whole this might be the best fantasy work I have ever read. I am sad that Kay hasn't written very much, since he takes so long to write things - I think I only have one or two of his books left to look forward to :( But i definitely highly recommend these books, if you're a fantasy fan at all!
The end ^_^
