Tribute to Martha Wells' "Raksura" Series

Jade, sister queen, and Moon, first consort, from the Indigo Cloud Court, of Martha Wells' Raksura series.

I really liked the first two books of this series, especially the world-building (so interesting how the gender dynamics are switched around because the biology of the Raksura). And for some reason, the third book of this series multiplied my "like" of the characters into "love," so I wanted to paint a fanart tribute to the series.

But I had so many issues painting this! I actually started this painting before the painting of Mercy, and I ended up having to paint Mercy as a breather/break from this one. My tribulations painting this are as follows:

Originally I wanted to paint Moon in his winged Raksura form, but I had major issues with figuring out how to do black scales with a bronze undersheen, so I ended up turning him into groundling form. Which was actually good, because my attempts at the Raksura frills apparently look like girly ruffles. I didn't really know what to look at as a reference for Jade/Moon's spines and frills. And then I had to repaint over Moon's face twice because it looked weird. And then I repainted over Jade's face three times, and I'm still not happy with how she looks. I wanted to approximate how cute Moon and Jade are in when they snarl at each other (eg., because one has taken some risk that the other doesn't approve of, but would of course do themselves) but Moon looks too young to me, and Jade looks too harsh. And by the time I put a single layer of scales on Jade, I felt like there was already too much going on with her skin to do another overlying pattern of grey. Also, I originally had Jade with claws, but then the picture started to seem really sinister, since I couldn't make Jade's face look less mean, and Moon's looking all vulnerable in groundling form! So I made them more like hands and less like claws, and then decided to throw out accuracy with the book for what was fun to paint, and made her wings translucent. *breathes*.

But despite all that, now I sort of want to draw Frost, Thorn and Bitter, the royal Clutch, with maybe Stone in the background, and oh that would be way too complex for me...

I was listening to the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce while painting this (pre-Mercy breather), and actually finished it off without an audiobook. It was around Christmas Eve/Christmas though, so I MAY have been listening to Christmas music.

THOUGHTS on "Master of Crows" by Grace Draven

Master of Crows by Grace Draven
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Silhara, the "Master of Crows" is a reviled mage who finds himself in the unenviable position of being courted by an evil god. This evil god is rather determined to get Silhara as his enslaved avatar, so Silhara sends to the hated Conclave for an apprentice to help him find a way out. Martise, a slave owned by the High Bishop of the Conclave, is sent to his home in this capacity, having been told that if she finds evidence of Silhara's heresy, she will be freed from slavery.

I loved this book. I totally fell in love with Silhara, his bad-temperedness, his rumpled/scowling morning manner, and his directness with Martise. When he decided he wanted her, and that no substitute would do, he accepted it with no prolonged, tormented anguish about how she was a spy. He made the realization, made his decision, and then made his move. It was a nice change from over-angsting woe-is-me heroes, who anguish and act like jackasses towards the heroine because of their inability to make a resolution between facts of the world and their emotional needs. (end rant)

I also liked Martise. Her life has trained her to hold her tongue and be submissive, and her position as a servant/spy in Silhara's household reinforces this. Yet of course she finds herself being goaded into rebelliousness by Silhara's manner. And I liked how she could see through Silhara's claims of being immoral, and find humour.

Speaking of humour, I also really enjoyed how their relationship played out with rather humorous interactions that were intertwined with the plot. For example, Martise is trying to communicate with the High Bishop of the Conclave, who has told her that she must sing to his trained crow in order to send messages. Only, Martise has a very poor singing voice and Silhara's horrified reaction to it had me laughing. I also loved Silhara's attempt to assuage Martise's worry about her nudity when he is applying a salve to her sore muscles: he tells her that he had grown up in a brothel, and that unless she had something really unique, like three breasts, he wouldn't be curious enough to ogle her. I particularly loved how this came to be a joke between them when their interactions turned romantic. Like the previously mentioned interaction, this scene is fluidly interwoven with the plot - Silhara only notices Martise's soreness when he tries to avoid giving her magic lessons, and this avoidance was a consequence of his struggle with the god that is trying to make him his avatar.

As for the storyline, I loved how Martise's hidden magical "gift" (while it did come to save the day in the end), is, in the scale of things, a terrible thing that is of no use to her. It's so often the case that the hero/heroine in PNR realizes their hidden talents, and these talents are deus ex machina, For Martise, her hidden gift is primarily a way to bind and enslave her, and not a way for her to get power. So often these hidden gifts are escape hatches, and instead, Martise's gift is a terrible weakness. As a reader, I had expected it to be something wonderful, and when it turned out not to be, I sympathized with her as she grieved, and felt that her grief make her a stronger character mentally. This twist in the plot also introduced an (additional) complication into Martise and Silhara's relationship, as Silhara's magical disposition is such that he could take advantage of her weakness. Seeing them acknowledge this and deal with this (especially Silhara's piss-poor attempts at comfort) made their relationship feel much more real. I also love how Silhara, at this point, doesn't pull a standard alpha-male reaction and tell Martise that he'll protect her. Rather, he asks her to let him give her the means to protect herself.

The writing style was smooth and gorgeous. I'm really looking forward to anything else Grace Draven comes out with.

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THOUGHTS on: Sharon Shinn's "Troubled Waters"

Title: “Troubled Waters”

Author: Sharon Shinn

Series: n/a

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

I love Sharon Shinn's writing – in particular, I love her style of prose, and her style of world-building. “Troubled Waters” was no different – the prose is gorgeous, and the world is beautifully crafted. Although it's not one of my favourite books by Shinn [1], I definitely enjoyed reading it.

For the past ten years, Zoe Ardelay has lived in exile with her father, Navarr Ardelay, a brilliant and passionate sweela man who was formerly a favourite advisor of the King. “Troubled Waters” opens with Navarr's funeral, and Zoe deep in grief, unsure of what to do with her future. Her decision is made for her, however, by Darien Serlast, an advisor to the King who arrives at her village with summons. Zoe is to come to Chialto to become the King's fifth wife. Events do not unfold exactly as planned, however, and eventually Zoe finds herself surrounded by unexpected truths about her father, why he was exiled, her mother's family, the royal succession, and even unexpected truths about herself.

Since I love Shinn's world-building, I'll talk about that first. Nearly every aspect in the world portrayed in “Troubled Waters” is driven by a superstitious system of random blessings. These are blessings fall into five categories, each associated with i) a natural element, and ii) a human element: there is elay (air/soul), hunti (wood/bone), sweela (fire/mind), coru (water/blood), and torz (earth/flesh)[2]. The seasons and colours are organized according to these categories, and people also tend to fall into these five categories, each associated with characteristic personality traits. For example, if you are hunti, you are like wood, and have the characteristics associated with its random blessings like resolve, loyalty and steadfastness. If you are sweela, you are like fire, and have charm, intelligence, passion and creativity. If you are coru, you are like water – changeable, flexible, but persistent.

I found this world of random blessings interesting and intricately built, as I usually find Shinn's worlds, but what I love best about Shinn's world-building is that we are usually shown how the world works, and not told. That is, there are no paragraphs as above, whose sole purpose appears to be informing the reader of how the world works. Instead the reader gleans pieces of the world, and how the pieces fit together from observing the characters, or interactions between characters. For example, we learn what characteristics a Hunti man has when Doman, the (unofficial) hunti mayor of Zoe's village obdurately takes care of a grief-stricken Zoe; we get hints of what a sweela woman should be like when Darien tries to appraise Zoe's character. And while there are parts where we are overtly told how certain aspects of the world works, these parts are never given to the reader purely for world-building's sake – they are slipped in as explanations for assumptions that characters have made, or actions that they took which might otherwise seem strange to the reader. In other words, they are given exactly at points when the reader would be wondering about and wanting explanations, and the little bits of world-building provide this explanation in exactly the right amounts[3]. I think Shinn's skill at world-building is quite rare; it's often the case that I will be reading a book, and feel like the narrator is giving me a lecture about how the world works[4].

As for the characters, I liked Zoe and Darien, although I didn't find them particularly noteworthy. Zoe is described as a coru woman with a sweela heart – flexible, but resilient and persistent, with a passionate core. There were times when her character seemed inconsistent – while she is generally portrayed as very flexible, and easily adaptable, at times she was deliberately contrary, just for (what seemed to me like) the sake of being contrary. It was only around Darien that she behaved this way, however, which I realize now probably showed how Darien affected her. Zoe was also, at the rare time, irresponsible. I found that I could usually justify her mistakes, however. SPOILER

For example, Zoe's confrontation with Alys, where she abused her power as the Lalindar prime. I could justify Zoe's actions, although I did think it was a mistake, because i) I could see how she viewed Alys as a dangerous threat that no one seemed willing to check, and ii) Zoe's powers were very new to her, and unlike other primes, she was never trained to be prime, therefore hadn't had the time the other primes had to think about the consequences of her powers.

Darien Serlast is described as hunti through and through. This is pretty characteristic of a Shinn hero – steadfastness is the bedrock on which she builds her heroes: witness Gabriel from “Archangel,”, Tayse from “Mystic and Ryder,” Gaaron, from “Angelica”, Kent from “Summers at Castle Auburn,” etc.[5] He didn't seem to make much of an impression on me though – maybe he will improve with re-reading (Kent certainly did. I went from feeling lukewarm about Kent to him being one of my favourite heroes.) Thinking back, I suppose I can isolate one thing that makes Darien different from other Shinn heroes: although honourable, loyal and steadfast, Darien Serlast is willing to obfuscate the truth in order to keep the kingdom stable. He is willing to mislead the public and hush up scandals if he feels its for the greater good. All in all, I liked Darien, but not overmuch.

As for the romance between Zoe and Darien, like all Shinn books, it seemed to me to be fairly understated for a category romance[6], aware that I am that one would probably read it as quite blatant from a category fantasy. I was a little disappointed with the romance however – my heart didn't get caught in all the highs and lows the way it did for Rachel and Gabriel's relationship in “Archangel”[7] and I didn't fall in love with Kent like Corie did in “Summers at Castle Auburn.” I might come back and see how I feel about it when I re-read “Troubled Waters” (as I likely will).

Prose: A+ (If I could choose one writer whose writing style I could steal, it would be Sharon Shinn's. Gorgeous, lush, and yet the beautifully crafted words never distract me from the story she's telling. Unlike Patricia A. Mckillip, who I love and think has even more gorgeous prose, but I'm often distracted by just how gorgeous the prose is...)

Plot: B (I don't associate Sharon Shinn with lots of twisty plot turns, and so was surprised by at least one of the twists here. I may not have been, had been reading it as I would a Carol Berg or Diana Wynne Jones novel, where I sit up and look for plot twists. There was some political intrigue though, which is the way I like my fantasy – sprinkled with political intrigue. A bit odd considering how I have to force myself to pay attention to modern-day politics)

Characters: B- (They were ooo-kay, solid characters, though I felt pretty lukewarm towards them.)

World-building: A+ (Love, love, love.)

X-factor: A (I love Sharon Shinn)

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[1] I have obsessively re-read “Archangel” and “Summers at Castle Auburn,” and I think the only books of hers that I haven't re-read, and probably won't (excepting Gateway, which I haven't read yet), are “The Shapechanger's Wife,” “Wrapt in Crystal” (not sure why, but these ones didn't work for me) and “Jenna Starborn” (not because I didn't like it, but if I'm in the mood to read something like “Jenna Starborn”, I'll probably just go re-read “Jane Eyre”.) Oh, and “The Alleluia Files” because I borrowed that one from a friend instead of buying it.

[2] There are also three uncategorized blessings, which are rare.

[3] Of course, when I say “exactly the right amounts,” this is completely subjective. It's exactly the right amount for my default reading style. Some readers may feel she tells too much, depending on your reading style, and how much you pay attention. For example I feel that Diana Wynne Jones, whom I love, has hardly any explicit explanation of how her worlds work at all. The characters just go about their actions, and go about saying the things they say, and thinking the things they think, with the assumptions they would have having grown up and lived in their world. As the reader, you have to piece together, from their actions, thoughts and words, exactly how the world works. I felt the same way about the first Kate Daniels book “Magic Bites” by Ilona Andrews (by the later books I was already familiar with the world. I can't help but also mention here that I love this series. Kate Daniels is one of my favourite heroines). These books have fantastic world-building, but it required more active reading than is default on my part. So if you find the amount of explanation that Diana Wynne Jones gives to be the right amount, you might find Sharon Shinn to be too pedantic, but for my reading style, Sharon Shinn's world-building is just perfect.

[4] Interestingly, this is the exact opposite of what I want in academic writing. In academic writing, I want the theoretical framework and assumptions to all be explicitly stated and laid in the same place, preferably with a helpful table summarizing said assumptions. And preferably under a heading labelled 'theoretical framework and assumptions' or such. But it irks me when all of the world-building in a fantasy novel is dumped explicitly on me like this – I much prefer getting little implicit hints and clues, and building the world in my head from those bits and pieces. Although getting explicit explanations in fantasy novels is not nearly as annoying as confronting implicit assumptions and vague hints in academic writing.

[5] I think Jesse from “Fallen Angel” might be an exception. He didn't make much of an impression on me. Maybe I'll re-read it to check.

[6]...modern romances, I mean. I've quite enjoyed the Georgette Heyers I've read (Cotillion, Frederica), but find the romance in her novels to be too understated for my tastes.

[7]...then again, I've read "Archangel" some 26+ times (I stopped counting after 26).

THOUGHTS on: Carol Berg's "The Soul Mirror"

Title: "The Soul Mirror"

Author: Carol Berg

Series: Collegia Magica Series 002

(Previous in series: "The Spirit Lens")

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

(Review written April 3rd, 2011)

I loved "The Soul Mirror" - Anne de Vernase is a fantastic heroine. Four years before the "The Soul Mirror" begins, Anne's world fell apart; her beloved father is charged with treason (Anne's own testimony damning him), her brother is taken to be a hostage while her father is at large, and her mother's mind has broken and twisted into madness.

Since these events (which unfolded in "The Spirit Lens"), Anne has been struggling with the financial burden of keeping her home afloat for her captive brother and sister, who is away at the College Seravain. Things do not become easier for her: "The Soul Mirror" opens with Anne learning that her 17-year old sister, Lianelle, has died in a horrific explosion. And worse, Lianelle's suspicious death is being brushed away as a foolish accident and no one at the College Seravain will answer Anne's questions.

When she Anne returns home, Portier de Savarin Duplais, the Royal Accuser who mercilessly collected evidence to convict her father four years before, awaits with the news that Anne has been summoned to court. She is to become part of Queen Eugenie household, as a maid of honour, in the hopes that she may make an honourable alliance. As anyone in her position would be, Anne is wary and untrusting. What purpose could she, the single remaining able-bodied member of the Vernase family, serve at the court of the man her father betrayed? Certainly no man would consider marriage to the daughter of a traitor a beneficial alliance. At court, Anne fears for her life, and soundness of mind.

Although Anne is afraid and suspicious of those around her, she is not cold. Berg shows the reader Anne's vulnerability: her pain at being helpless and unable to do anything for her sister, mother and brother, terrible victims of circumstance. And despite Anne's vulnerability, she is not at all a weak heroine. She is also angry on behalf of her victimized family, furious that their victimization has been covered up under the pretty guise of courtly politeness and bureaucracy, or brutal magic. And Anne shows that she is willing to face her substantial fears in order to stand up for the truth.

One thing I particularly enjoyed in "The Soul Mirror" is how differing viewpoints/perceptions were put forward, or kept hidden. We see Anne's perception of Portier. Because the reader knows that Portier is honourable from previous acquaintance in "The Spirit Lens", we are aware that Anne's perception is subjective, and can view Portier's demeanour and actions through Anne's eyes, and see her interpretations, even while calculating our own interpretations of Portier's actions. However, there is also the aspect of how Anne perceives her own situation and actions. Because Anne's voice is so strongly written, her motivations always seemed so honest and clear that I did not consider at all how her actions and circumstances might appear to others. So when, near the end of the book, we are given a glimpse as to how vastly different her actions and situation appeared to others not privy to her state of knowledge and motivations, it was as revelatory for me, as the reader, as it was for Anne.

I love reading romance, and while the romance in "The Spirit Lens" didn't do much for me, I very much enjoyed the gentle sort of romance that developed in "The Soul Mirror." I was surprised by it, but after the surprise passed, the pairing of the characters seemed obvious to me.

My subjective rating:

Prose: A (not as much to my taste as Sharon Shinn or Patricia A. Mckillip, but pretty gorgeous)

Plot: A (twists!)

Characters: A+

World-building: B-

X-factor: A

Oh, and the cover art for both "The Spirit Lens" and "The Soul Mirror" is gorgeous. In fact, I practically decided I would read these based solely on the beautiful cover art.