Elsewhere / Nevernever
Jul. 21st, 2010 11:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishDisclaimer: The only Bordertown I've read prior to these was Emma Bull's Finder. I've never read any of the anthologies: I own Bordertown and The Essential Bordertown but just haven't made time for them, partly due to not having access to the other two. But with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ellen_kushner gushing about the forthcoming new anthology, I figure I might as well get caught up before it gets here.
Will Shetterly, Elsewhere
Runaway teen comes to city on the border between Faerie and the World, finds self. There's a lot to like here: the plot stays fairly tight even while Ron, the viewpoint character, wanders all over the place, Ron is just enough of a jerk to be interesting and complex while still likeable, several of the secondary characters are believable and good company. The setting mostly makes me happy as well, but that's to be expected.
I started out feeling a little uncomfortable with the glamorization of the life of the runaway. Right about the time I'd convinced myself that it was okay, it was a fantasy, the tough-guy facades of the various runaways started wearing thin. In theory I like this a lot: it leads to complex characters doing stupid things because they need to, or because they think they're the right things to do. (See Susan Palwick's "Shelter," in which people repeatedly react in the worst possible way for the best possible reasons.) Here... it seemed altogether too easy. Except for Ron and Mooner (and secondary characters Mickey and Goldy), every character was plain as day just below the surface: easy to read, easy to sympathise with, easy to understand. Simplistic. I wanted more psychological complexity from these complex-on-the-surface characters, and felt cheated when I didn't get it.
Good ending (if a bit roundabout to get there). I'm not sure what I think of the wolf transformation as a story element here. It certainly makes for a more interesting character for any later stories.
Will Shetterly, Nevernever
According to the copyright page this is a fixup of two of Shetterly's (well, one co-written with Emma Bull) previous Bordertown stories featuring Ron the Wolfboy. It shows. There are two chapters that consist of "and then time passed," which is about the most awkward way I can think of to handle that.
So, it's two stories, tied together by an introductory story and by a PLOT TWIST that I found not so much unbelievable as wholly unnecessary. I felt the middle section ("Danceland") had strong characters and a twisty plot, but a weak Final Showdown (launching a raid on stoners isn't all that suspenseful no matter how hard you try), and the last ("Nevernever") was a neat tale of revenge and redemption and incomprehensible elves, ruined by the need to incorporate the PLOT TWIST at the ending. I don't remember much about the first section, so I must not have been too impressed by it either.
I'm pretty sure I'd like these better as short stories. The fixing-up did very little for me, except in terms of making them available.
In retrospect I wanted these to be "Milo Chevrolet's The Last Hot Time," which is unfair to everyone concerned.
ellen_kushner gushing about the forthcoming new anthology, I figure I might as well get caught up before it gets here.Will Shetterly, Elsewhere
Runaway teen comes to city on the border between Faerie and the World, finds self. There's a lot to like here: the plot stays fairly tight even while Ron, the viewpoint character, wanders all over the place, Ron is just enough of a jerk to be interesting and complex while still likeable, several of the secondary characters are believable and good company. The setting mostly makes me happy as well, but that's to be expected.
I started out feeling a little uncomfortable with the glamorization of the life of the runaway. Right about the time I'd convinced myself that it was okay, it was a fantasy, the tough-guy facades of the various runaways started wearing thin. In theory I like this a lot: it leads to complex characters doing stupid things because they need to, or because they think they're the right things to do. (See Susan Palwick's "Shelter," in which people repeatedly react in the worst possible way for the best possible reasons.) Here... it seemed altogether too easy. Except for Ron and Mooner (and secondary characters Mickey and Goldy), every character was plain as day just below the surface: easy to read, easy to sympathise with, easy to understand. Simplistic. I wanted more psychological complexity from these complex-on-the-surface characters, and felt cheated when I didn't get it.
Good ending (if a bit roundabout to get there). I'm not sure what I think of the wolf transformation as a story element here. It certainly makes for a more interesting character for any later stories.
Will Shetterly, Nevernever
According to the copyright page this is a fixup of two of Shetterly's (well, one co-written with Emma Bull) previous Bordertown stories featuring Ron the Wolfboy. It shows. There are two chapters that consist of "and then time passed," which is about the most awkward way I can think of to handle that.
So, it's two stories, tied together by an introductory story and by a PLOT TWIST that I found not so much unbelievable as wholly unnecessary. I felt the middle section ("Danceland") had strong characters and a twisty plot, but a weak Final Showdown (launching a raid on stoners isn't all that suspenseful no matter how hard you try), and the last ("Nevernever") was a neat tale of revenge and redemption and incomprehensible elves, ruined by the need to incorporate the PLOT TWIST at the ending. I don't remember much about the first section, so I must not have been too impressed by it either.
I'm pretty sure I'd like these better as short stories. The fixing-up did very little for me, except in terms of making them available.
In retrospect I wanted these to be "Milo Chevrolet's The Last Hot Time," which is unfair to everyone concerned.