Liz is really kicking my butt at this blog thing. Even though all her books are books for class and she doesn’t seem to LIKE any of them… that sucks, bro.
I just realized that I do have something to post about in between posting about the rest of To Hold the Bridge. I recently picked up my old and beloved copy of Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith (the two-in-one version) and ended up on Goodreads/Amazon trying to figure out which of her other books were also set in the world of Remalna. Turns out…..a lot of them? But they’re totally all over the board in like, every imaginable way. Smith released a prequel about the love interest’s background back in 2010 (which I plan to purchase and read in the near future), and there’s a kindle collection of two short stories she’s written about the main characters’ future children, titled Remalna’s Children, which I did purchase and read and will review shortly.
But I also discovered that while these are all YA books, Smith’s foray into adult fantasy epics, Inda and it’s self-titled series, is ALSO set in the same world. Apparently. I guess. This is something that Smith is criticized about a lot in reviews of her Remalna books in particular – that she’s been thinking/writing about this world for so long that it’s gotten to the point where she’s almost shutting the audience out. It’s at once too detailed and not detailed enough. There’s so much great world-building and hints at a huge, fascinating and complex international history and politics, but a lot of these stories are cut off too soon as short stories or novellas, or they’re children’s and YA books that actually don’t get particularly deep into just how big and dense the world is! Or else they’re set in a different culture than those that have been utilized elsewhere and there’s very little cultural overlap to bring the audience into tying the stories together. I’ve tried to read Inda multiple times since it came out, not knowing it was set in this world and I can’t get past the first chapter UUUGGGHHHHHHH.
The more I think about it, the weirder I find the idea of writing children’s, YA and adult fantasy books in the same universe. It messes up the tone, so the series don’t fit well together as a jumping point from one age bracket to the next. But it also is a pretty interesting idea. I don’t know, I just don’t care about Inda. Eh.
Actually, wait. I think a part of this is just that I don’t care about pirates or sea wars. Holy shit, I think that’s the main problem I have. Remalna’s Children has two stories, the first of which, “Beauty,” I liked but thought was too short, I would have liked an entire book about Mel and Vidanric’s youngest child. Also, I’ve read this story before, I think it was previously published in a YA fantasy anthology I read at some point. The second story is “Court Ship” and I thought it was really stupid. I haaaaate stories about royals and normal people falling in love because they talked a couple times and wow they’re such hard workers and down to earth for a prince! and the normal person throwing their life away or trying to “make it work” with the crown prince blah blah blah. DOWN WITH THE BOURGEOISIE!!!!! DESTROY THEM!!! And TO MAKE IT EVEN WORSE THE GIRL LOVE INTEREST IS A SAILOR, AND THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF THE PRINCE’S GRANDFATHER’S FIRST LOVE. AND THE OLD PEOPLE SERVED ON THE SAME SHIP AND FOUGHT IN THE WAR~~~~! AND HE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH OF HER LITTLE KID BROTHER OHHH NOOOO. VOMIT. VOMIT EVERYWHERE. Also the foreign teenage nobility characters in this were sooo obnoxious to read and I was incredibly amused by how hokey the attempt at racial diversity was (it wasn’t bad, and I am definitely not saying she shouldn’t have done it, it was just….a little heavy handed? But, props, I guess. Also I should recognize that generally white people need this to be really explicitly spelled out for them, so maybe I shouldn’t rag on this.).
I feel like I should say, this is all a personal opinion, and I do enjoy Smith’s books and continue to read them. Also, I’M PISSED THAT THE EBOOK OF CROWN DUEL HAS SCENES NOT INCLUDED IN THE PRINT COPY. WHAT THE FUCK!? I NEED TO BUY THE EBOOK TOO?!
So yeah, I need to get back to reading the books IN MY QUEUE and finishing To Hold the Bridge.
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