Never have I loathed a character as much as Jack Randall. Can't wait till we see him again.
I'm way ahead, though: Breath of Snow and Ashes is the sixth book in the series that I'm just finishing up. It's been a long time since any of the main characters have seen Scotland. The focus is still primarily on Fraser's Ridge, much like the previous book. The number of residents of the ridge have steadily grown larger, especially after a number of new tenants from Scotland move in. Naturally, the new tenants are protestant, and see the Catholic Jamie as nothing short of the devil, but a protestant by the name of Tom Christie and Jamie's son-in-law Roger help bridge the gap as much as possible. Galbadon continues to emphasize the danger inherent in this time period, what with the war rapidly approaching and roaming bands of men who attack Claire and Marsali when they're out alone. Claire is kidnapped, beaten and raped--at least, until Jamie (et al) comes to save her.
There's an awful lot of rape in these books, I have to say. On the one hand, it's plausible that there really would be this constant threat to women in this time, what with being pretty much defenseless and property and all. But on the other hand, it seems we can't go more than ten chapters without somebody being at least threatened with rape. It's starting to feel like a repetitive and slightly cheap way to drive up the tension. At least it's equal-opportunity rape (what with Jamie and Randall), but still.
So, partly because Claire used her reputation as a witch/healer to fend off the men of this dangerous band, and partly because of her actual healing skill and refusal to conform to many standards of the time (no cap please!) the residents of the ridge begin to regard her as a devil woman. When Marsali's next child is born a dwarf tensions just run higher, because clearly, that's the devil's work right there. The McGillivray's start to shun Claire when she informs them that their son Manfred has syphilis (the pox), and they shame her for slander. Then Malva Christie--who Claire regarded as her protege--names Jamie the father of her unborn child and is later found murdered in Claire's arms, after Claire attempted to cut her child from her dead body (obviously she didn't murder her, but that's not how most of their people see it).
Basically, bad luck and modern decisions keep getting Claire in a world of hurt, and Jamie has to keep hunting her down to save her. When we're not saving Claire, we're saving Brianna, kidnapped by Stephen Bonnet. Again, I feel that I can possibly chalk this up to the time period, but after six books it gets a little old with all the your-princess-is-in-another-castle and here-comes-the-rape-train. While I still like the series (and $5/book for kindle makes it easy to keep going) it's not quite got that same hook into my heart that the first book did.
Writing-wise, we're seeing a lot of the meandering plotline that we saw in the previous books. I still think this is an interesting tactic, where you literally cannot sum up the plot in a sentence. It's more this-happens-then-this-which-leads-to-this than it is one central question. At the Writers in Paradise conference we talked about the concept of a central narrative question, and how it strengthens writing. The pieces that did the best in our workshop were the pieces that had a very strong question, and Mr. Watson emphasized that the strongest is phrased as: Will Character1 Blank Character2?
Now, a short story will probably only have one question, or one large question and a few small ones. But a novel might have one really big question (for example re: Outlander book 1, will Claire stay with Jamie?), it's got to have a metric ton of smaller questions of varying sizes. This series interests me because it doesn't have one central question for many of these books, but a series of plotlines weaving in and around each other. We might say that the main unifying plotline in this book is the degeneration of the Fraser's standing among the families of the ridge as war approaches, but there's many smaller plotlines woven together around it that contribute to their downfall. So it's difficult to summarize this book accurately and I like that. It indicates a level of complexity that's very intriguing.
So I guess it shows that, done right, you can actually avoid that central question, but it's still something to keep in mind for us newer writers. Like the rules of grammar and punctuation, maybe you should know how to use them properly before you start disregarding them.
“Couldn’t be simpler,” I assured him. “I do a process called fecal sedimentation to concentrate the stool, then look for the eggs under the microscope.”
He nodded, plainly not following. I smiled kindly at him.
“All you have to do, Bobby, is shit.”
His face was a study in doubt and apprehension.
“If it’s all the same to you, mum,” he said, “I think I’ll keep the worms.”
Real danger had its own taste, vivid as lemon juice, by contrast with the weak lemonade of imagination.
“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Fraser,” she whispered, tears trembling becomingly on her lashes. “He— we— we didna mean to hurt ye.”
I watched with interest from somewhere outside my body, as my arm lifted and drew back, and felt a sense of vague approval as my hand struck her cheek with enough force that she stumbled backward, tripped over a stool, and fell, her petticoats tumbled up to her waist in a froth of linen, wool- stockinged legs sticking absurdly up in the air.
“Can’t say the same, I’m afraid.” I hadn’t even thought of saying anything, and was surprised to feel the words in my mouth, cool and round as river stones.
Overall: 4 stars
Amazon: A Breath of Snow and Ashes
More reviews: A Breath of Snow and Ashes on Librarything (Average 4.26 stars)
A Breath of Snow and Ashes on Goodreads (Average 4.41 stars)
No comments:
Post a Comment