7
As mentioned on here before, I'm a huge fan of Katherine Arden's Winternight Trilogy, so I was really excited to read her newest book for adults (after she took a detour into children's spooky fiction). Warm Hand of Ghosts takes place during WWI and according to the jacket, involves a meeting with the Devil on the battlefields of Flanders....or is it in a haunted hotel on the outskirts....
In any case, I loved the way Winternight combined Russian history and folklore into a really atmospheric world people with unforgettable characters. So I delved with in great expectations. And. Well.
>! It was slow. And a lot of telling instead of showing. At first, I wondered if her sojourn in children's fiction had blunted her abilities (and I still wonder if that's part of it). The pacing was slow, the characters flat and obvious. Three chapters in a collapsed 'pillbox' where nothing really happens? And how is a German in the same pillbox with the Canadian? After 70 pages, I was no longer interested in finding out. I ended up skipping to the last 50...surely it got better? No, not as far as I could tell. No atmosphere or complexity whatsoever. Even the devil seemed boring! (and this woman studied Russian....did she not read Master and Margarita?) < Which made me wonder -- in this time when everything is subject to purity spirals and taking offense and things and a complete lack of humor -- has all of this sucked the life out of our artists and writers imaginations?
As I said, I loved the Winternight Trilogy, but then -- I'm an American (like Katherine Arden). I've seen that there's been criticism of her using Russian folktales while not being Russian, ie another 'appropriation' slam, another 'how dare someone who isn't (fill in the blank) write about (fill in the blank). And so instead of being inspired by stories and landscapes and letting her imagination run wild, it's as if she did all kinds of research to make sure she didn't get anything wrong, and then wrote a flat, slow, boring book that wouldn't offend anyone. Frankly, virtually every book I've tried to read in the last 2 years, other than by JKR, seems just as flat, virtuous and unimaginative as this one.
Has anyone else run into this?
I actually have not gotten into her. I had her first book on my list for awhile. I just got Novik's Deadly on my Libby last night. And i am about half way through The Voice by Le Guin.
I'm not particularly sure by what you mean by 'flat.' But, too much worrying about being perfectly accurate when you are writing fantasy is crazy. I mean big things, like GRRM not knowing how long it takes to get a fire going on, is sad and distracting. But, details of folktales--- folktales that are subverted by many authors... what is the point?
I do kind of worry. For something i am writing, i choose all biblical or Hebrew names and base their personalities and actions largely on their names. So if i am told i am not allowed to use them it's gonna change everything. I wasn't going to do too much religious stuff initially, but i do want to set up one of the countries as a theocracy now. I think i actually sort of figured out what i am going to do for the 3rd act miscommunication tho.
How long does it take to get a fire going? (The prospect of knowing more than GRRM is tempting.)
Around 20 mins. It depends of course. That's even with a lighter and fuel.
Thanks! How long does it take GRRM's characters, then? I don't suppose they have lighters.🤔
No they don't. In the first Cat chapter she starts a full on fire in order to burn a letter.