possibly unpopular opinion

[lauradi7dw]

On the free Friday afternoon of Boskone, I hauled myself down basically to attend the "Turning Tropes Upside Down" panel, on which Nineweaving was a panelist. (and was pleased to chat with NEgothick in the lobby). In the discussion of the tediousness (?) of the boy hero's journey, people were willing to grant Taran the assistant pig-keeper a pass, as being worth reading. I had never read anything by Lloyd Alexander. Intrigued by the idea of an oracular pig (as opposed to Some Pig), I checked "The Book of Three" out of the library. Would I have liked it when I was eight or nine (about the time it was published)? I was mostly into the Bobbsey Twins at that age, I think, and simplified kid biographies. Did I like it now? No. It took me weeks to drag myself through it in little bits. I guess most epic heroes are irritating as people (Odysseus, Aeneas, King Arthur, depending on the telling), and Taran sure was. Brave enough, I guess, but didn't seem to experience any personal growth, although maybe that happens some time in the next four books. Hen Wen the pig loved him, though, which speaks well for him.
Now I know where a variety of SCA folks snagged their Welsh-like names.

Another book mentioned in the same panel was "Furies of Calderon" by Jim Butcher. The claim was that the reader really liked it for a while, and then threw it across the room. I will start it next. I am not a book thrower, but will feel free to quit at any time.

Comments

[nosrednayduj]

Someone once recommended Jim Butcher to me. I was underwhelmed by the woodenness of the female characters, which is unfortunately common among male authors.

I started to say that I didn't remember what book I read, but then I hunted it up on my goodreads feed. My review of Storm Front: "I couldn't get into this book. There was casual sexism that annoyed me. I suspect the author thought he was presenting his female characters in a positive light, but I didn't like it, and put it down after a hundred or so pages."

(Actual review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2021069302 )

[landofnowhere]

The first Prydain book is definitely the weakest, but I'm not sure I'd recommend reading more if Taran annoyed you. (If you want to skip to the bit with the most person growth, read Taran Wanderer, which is the one book in the series which is really doing something different from generic fantasy.) I don't know if you'd enjoy other Alexander, most of his protagonists are Taran-clones. I massively enjoyed the Vesper Holly adventures as a kid, they're quite different (though imagine if a less-silly Eilonwy got to protagonist all the time) but don't hold up as much as an adult.

I'm curious when the reader threw "Furies of Calderon" across the room (I recently made it 2 1/2 books into that series, then had to return book 3 to library, will take up again at some point). The depiction of the female characters was better than in Storm Front (I read 1 1/2 books of that series), but also had its issues.

[negothick]

Are the libraries still open where you are, lauradi7DW? Here in Eastern CT, they've been closed for a week. I think we're past the age where we can love The Prydain chronicles--though I dutifully read them when they first appeared. I remember being unimpressed back then--and Wikipedia reminds me that the first one was published in 1964, though the mass market paperbacks came later. I seem to recall reading Evangeline Walton's retellings of the Welsh myths at about the same time, and being far more impressed by them.

I really did and do love the bard Fflewdyr Fflam

[lauradi7dw]

No, the library (and all other municipal buildings except the DPW) are closed. I have lots of unread books in the house, years worth of partially read magazines, and a couple of ebooks. I still mostly read stuff on the web.

[sorcyress]

I have a borrowed copy of Calderon that I've been meaning to read since, oh, college or so. But it's hard to get back into Jim Butcher now that I've read a bunch of Seanan McGuire --people (correctly) compare his Dresden Files with her October Daye, but the female protagonist and extensive queer cast give me a lot of joy, and because it's McGuire, I can trust that her characters are not going to get raped, ever, and that turns out to be really important for me and fiction.

~Sor