On Princes and Books
Apr. 12th, 2012 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkThe False Prince, by Jennifer Nielson, has been on my radar for a while, and today I finally got a chance to hightail my way to the bookstore and read it. I'm about 2/3-3/4 of the way through, and I thought I'd jot down some impressions.
In short, I like it. The writing's okay, not amazing, and the pacing is pretty slow in the first part of the novel, but Sage is a great protagonist. He's the epitome of the witty, deadpan snarking protagonist who gets by on his brain rather than brawn, and while he's hilarious and awesome, he's also very vulnerable in certain respects.
*MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW*
So either I am getting ridiculously genre savvy, or the revelation about Sage's true identity wasn't that shocking. I mean, I have to admit that I was tipped off by a review I read, which didn't actually spoil the Big Reveal, but said something about not being able to talk about certain spoilers, and I immediately made the leap. Because, come on, the protagonist is almost never who he/she says or thinks he/she is these days.
I wasn't too annoyed, though, because I kind of like the rebel prince trope. Although I do have to say that I don't exactly buy how Jaron already knew how to climb walls, pick up accents, and so forth; it seems rather convenient. And was Sage demeaning Jaron in order to keep up the act, or was it because he honestly dislikes himself in some way? I might know the answer once I finish the book, but for now, I have to say I'm very curious.
One more thing: I kind of dislike how heavy-handed the Big Reveal was, kind of like a sledgehammer to the face (Surprise!). It would have been interesting if the secret was kept until the end, except with enough hints for the reader to more or less figure everything out.
Anyhow.
This article is titled "On Princes" because I've been thinking about other princes lately. I started watching episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender--yeah, don't shoot me, I'm way late to the party, but the sheer number of episodes had always daunted me before, so now I'm just watching the show in a piecemeal fashion, since, thanks to the internet, I already know the basic plot anyways.
As I predicted, Zuko ended up being my favorite character (because I'm a sucker for angsty guys? Nah). He actually reminded me of my own protagonist of the EK trilogy. Both of them are princes; both of them have somewhat screwed-up families and problems with their father, who favors their sibling. Both of them are conflicted about what the "right" course of action is. Both follow kind of similar character trajectories. It's kind of funny that the resemblances are so strong, because I came up with the idea for EK long before I'd heard of Avatar.
Then again, there are some key differences. Whereas Zuko tries incessantly to please his father, my protagonist is a bit of a rebel. Also, I would say that Zuko's terrible actions (attacking villages, trying to capture the Avatar, etc.) were born out of a certain ignorance: because he's been brought up on Fire Nation propaganda, he honestly doesn't know how much misery he causes. My protagonist, on the other hand, is very much conscious about what he's doing, which, in a way, makes his actions somewhat worse.
Just some musings I had.
In short, I like it. The writing's okay, not amazing, and the pacing is pretty slow in the first part of the novel, but Sage is a great protagonist. He's the epitome of the witty, deadpan snarking protagonist who gets by on his brain rather than brawn, and while he's hilarious and awesome, he's also very vulnerable in certain respects.
*MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW*
So either I am getting ridiculously genre savvy, or the revelation about Sage's true identity wasn't that shocking. I mean, I have to admit that I was tipped off by a review I read, which didn't actually spoil the Big Reveal, but said something about not being able to talk about certain spoilers, and I immediately made the leap. Because, come on, the protagonist is almost never who he/she says or thinks he/she is these days.
I wasn't too annoyed, though, because I kind of like the rebel prince trope. Although I do have to say that I don't exactly buy how Jaron already knew how to climb walls, pick up accents, and so forth; it seems rather convenient. And was Sage demeaning Jaron in order to keep up the act, or was it because he honestly dislikes himself in some way? I might know the answer once I finish the book, but for now, I have to say I'm very curious.
One more thing: I kind of dislike how heavy-handed the Big Reveal was, kind of like a sledgehammer to the face (Surprise!). It would have been interesting if the secret was kept until the end, except with enough hints for the reader to more or less figure everything out.
Anyhow.
This article is titled "On Princes" because I've been thinking about other princes lately. I started watching episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender--yeah, don't shoot me, I'm way late to the party, but the sheer number of episodes had always daunted me before, so now I'm just watching the show in a piecemeal fashion, since, thanks to the internet, I already know the basic plot anyways.
As I predicted, Zuko ended up being my favorite character (because I'm a sucker for angsty guys? Nah). He actually reminded me of my own protagonist of the EK trilogy. Both of them are princes; both of them have somewhat screwed-up families and problems with their father, who favors their sibling. Both of them are conflicted about what the "right" course of action is. Both follow kind of similar character trajectories. It's kind of funny that the resemblances are so strong, because I came up with the idea for EK long before I'd heard of Avatar.
Then again, there are some key differences. Whereas Zuko tries incessantly to please his father, my protagonist is a bit of a rebel. Also, I would say that Zuko's terrible actions (attacking villages, trying to capture the Avatar, etc.) were born out of a certain ignorance: because he's been brought up on Fire Nation propaganda, he honestly doesn't know how much misery he causes. My protagonist, on the other hand, is very much conscious about what he's doing, which, in a way, makes his actions somewhat worse.
Just some musings I had.
