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Like all sensible people, I would like to be in the Chrestoverse: the magic is not only first-rate but it is run by a terrifically crushable, thoughtful and standing-for-no-nonsense man in an embroidered dressing-gown; moreover, it is characterized by people having sudden moments of insight, almost in passing, which are not always pleasant but which enable them to rearrange their whole lives and senses of selves in a more workable manner.
However, very unexpectedly, when thinking about this question in bed last night I realized that I am actually in Fire and Hemlock. This is particularly unexpected because F&H is not one of my favourite DWJs. It's not one of my least favourites, either - it's on about my second or third rung down from the top - but I have a slightly cross feeling with it a lot of the time because so many people like it best, and to me it seems like the things they like in it are not very DWJ. BUT, having said that:
• Evil Female Lead who rules through sentimentality - check
• Alienation from family home, complete with nowhere-to-stayness - check (though not quite as graphically as [spoiler - you know the bit])
• Magic practised partly intuitively, partly via the teachings of a grandmother - check (though not my own grandmother)
Cross-age relationship involving
•the writing of fiction, in which magic is involved - check
•older person needing saving from pact with deathless/undead person - check
•younger person being both a girl and a boy - check
So... yes, that surprised me. I would have gone for Charmed Life or Power of Three (which absolutely doesn't fail to enthral, btw, Kirin - it's probably one of my top three. Certainly top five) off the top of my head, because I am Cat Chant or Gair (though when I did the 'what DWJ character are you?' I got Lukin, from Year of the Griffin, which is also about right... ooh, and when I finally start that Temple thread I will be able to bollocks on to my heart's content about how that test is actually a really good divination method! Yayy!)
Quantum, seriously, you would be in Homeward Bounders? The only DWJ book to... [spoiler, you know the thing at the end]? Why is that? (Not that I think it's bad or anything - I think my gf probably would be too, from some things she's said about it - but... dude!)
PS: geekily - I'm sorry, I tried to resist this, but Earlier - The Ogre Downstairs is her third book (or second, if you don't count Changeover, her first published novel - an adult non-fantasy book which has recently been reissued and which I've never read but I hear isn't that great). Her second (or first, if you don't count Changeover) was Wilkin's Tooth (also published under the title Witch's Business), which is awesome. |
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