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Oct. 6th, 2003 04:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
firstfrostMost recently finished book: Court of the Midnight King. Sort of a Mists of Avalon take on Richard III. I bought it in London, and now realize that it's not even distributed in the US, presumably because Americans don't know who Richard III was.
I quite liked it. The writing is good, the love plots aren't inordinately sappy, but are instead moderately understated. I liked the frame story, too - I didn't start out liking it ("Why is there a frame story? What the heck is it doing?") but it grew on me. The frame serves to underscore/foreshadow the oncoming doom, and to point out more clearly the differences between this version of the story and the Shakespeare version (as well as the "real" Richard). There was a nice bit of philosophy about the secuctive allure of a proper villain, and the "magic system" was interesting.
Probably not in my top ten books ever, but one of the best books this month.
I quite liked it. The writing is good, the love plots aren't inordinately sappy, but are instead moderately understated. I liked the frame story, too - I didn't start out liking it ("Why is there a frame story? What the heck is it doing?") but it grew on me. The frame serves to underscore/foreshadow the oncoming doom, and to point out more clearly the differences between this version of the story and the Shakespeare version (as well as the "real" Richard). There was a nice bit of philosophy about the secuctive allure of a proper villain, and the "magic system" was interesting.
Probably not in my top ten books ever, but one of the best books this month.
