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FMK: Discount Armageddon
Poll post coming soon! But first, I have finished Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire!
It was fun! I enjoyed it! The characters were great! Much like the other McGuire I have read, I felt like the more I thought about it, the less there there was there! (I can't think of a single piece of internal evidence other than Verity's word that it took place in Manhattan instead of, like, Columbus, Ohio. The Price-vs.-Covenant thing really doesn't work with the logistics that are set up in the book. Verity's main character note is that ballroom dance is the most important thing to her, she tells us this at least every fifth page, and yet at no point does she ballroom dance, even as practice. Etc.)
And I did really like the variety of cryptids and the cryptid community, but the "cryptozoologist" thing still bothers me, in that a cryptozoologist is a very specific thing situated in a very specific time and culture - it is not something like "witch" that has enough meanings with enough history you can basically go with whatever - and I would really really love to read an urban fantasy about cryptozoologists - and Verity Price is really really not one. (I mean, you could make a cool backstory about how the Prices and allies adopted the terminology ironically in the 60s to further distinguish themselves from the Covenant - or that Sanderson got himself in WAY over his head with a Price girl at some point and came out very confused, which is a fanfic I would definitely read - but she does not seem to be doing that.)
But! It is a urban fantasy in which ALL OF THE SEX IS UNAMBIGUOUSLY AND EXPLICITLY CONSENSUAL, and I didn't even know that was a thing that existed, so I will forgive it A LOT for being that. (I would also enjoy the fanfic about how Price family sex education includes a unit about how part of their mission is to introduce the urban fantasy community to the idea of "affirmative consent" which it had previously lacked entirely.)
I have Down Among The Sticks and Bones on its way from the library, but I have learned it is NOT about the Skeleton Girl (with that title how is it not about the Skeleton Girl?) so I find I am not that excited about it coming.
It was fun! I enjoyed it! The characters were great! Much like the other McGuire I have read, I felt like the more I thought about it, the less there there was there! (I can't think of a single piece of internal evidence other than Verity's word that it took place in Manhattan instead of, like, Columbus, Ohio. The Price-vs.-Covenant thing really doesn't work with the logistics that are set up in the book. Verity's main character note is that ballroom dance is the most important thing to her, she tells us this at least every fifth page, and yet at no point does she ballroom dance, even as practice. Etc.)
And I did really like the variety of cryptids and the cryptid community, but the "cryptozoologist" thing still bothers me, in that a cryptozoologist is a very specific thing situated in a very specific time and culture - it is not something like "witch" that has enough meanings with enough history you can basically go with whatever - and I would really really love to read an urban fantasy about cryptozoologists - and Verity Price is really really not one. (I mean, you could make a cool backstory about how the Prices and allies adopted the terminology ironically in the 60s to further distinguish themselves from the Covenant - or that Sanderson got himself in WAY over his head with a Price girl at some point and came out very confused, which is a fanfic I would definitely read - but she does not seem to be doing that.)
But! It is a urban fantasy in which ALL OF THE SEX IS UNAMBIGUOUSLY AND EXPLICITLY CONSENSUAL, and I didn't even know that was a thing that existed, so I will forgive it A LOT for being that. (I would also enjoy the fanfic about how Price family sex education includes a unit about how part of their mission is to introduce the urban fantasy community to the idea of "affirmative consent" which it had previously lacked entirely.)
I have Down Among The Sticks and Bones on its way from the library, but I have learned it is NOT about the Skeleton Girl (with that title how is it not about the Skeleton Girl?) so I find I am not that excited about it coming.
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Ugh tho if I had a nickel for every book that did this kind of thing it would just about match my pile of nickels for every time it's obvious that whatever the character's note happens to be is clearly whatever the author wistfully wishes they were but has no idea what doing As Your Life is actually like.
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Uhhhuh.
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The part about her explaining why she loves it and why she chooses it even though it's hard is well-done in the first book too, but it's all... her explaining, and never her dancing. It's like a 300-page tease that never gets resolved.
(I mean, I managed to write an urban fantasy story that's 80% ballroom dance and I avoid dancing at all costs, so Seanan should be able to do it.)
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This is a thing I appreciate very much about her work. Across the board, she's good about writing consensual sex (the only exception I can think of is a pre-series sexual relationship in Toby Daye about which, IIRC, the books don't go into more detail than necessary to convey that it was, at best, badly unbalanced in terms of power dynamics and fairly skeevy), and she flat-out DOES NOT write rape.
(Has anyone linked you to her post about that? I'll dig it up if you'd like.)
I don't actually know (or maybe don't remember?) which other McGuire you've read, other than Every Heart a Doorway. (I feel like I've asked you that before, so apologies if the info's in my head and just not coming to mind.) Do you know about the InCryptid books shifting between narrators periodically? I love the series, but on a book-by-book basis my feelings vary depending a lot on who's narrating.
I hope you do like Down Among the Sticks and Bones despite the lack of the Skeleton Girl. I was quite fond of it.
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Thank you in advance for your time!
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It was originally posted to LJ, but since she's using Dreamwidth now, here's the imported-to-Dreamwidth link.
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I appreciate the link - thank you again. ^-^
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I read the link you posted downthread and I think I'd seen it before but I hadn't made the connection, I think because it's all about female characters getting raped, but tbh the rape in urban fantasy as a genre tends to me more equal-opportunity - like, the misogynist dynamic she talks about is definitely ALSO there, but I have read as much urban fantasy where male leads are getting raped as with female leads*. "Main character faces skeevy noncon scenario" seems to be a feature of the genre even in male-led urban fantasy. Which is interesting! 'Let's count how many different ways Harry gets nonconned in this book' was a large thread of DF fandom when it was big. And also makes the idea of a couple of long urban fantasy series with NO NONCON AT ALL seem really really refreshing and subversive just for that.
I did know that InCryptid jumped around between Verity's relatives in POV! I might try some more if they fall into my hands but I don't think I fell in love hard enough to have to go hunting them down immediately.
The twins' secondary world was just the one I was by far the least interested in of all the ones that got mentioned. Literally any of the others would have been more interesting! Oh well, I probably would have been much madder if she screwed them up.
*Possibly this is because I tend to nope out of series where women are constantly getting raped faster than series where men are, which is on me. But after about ten volumes of the Dresden Files you start just REALLY WANTING him to finally learn what sex he had freely consented to would actually look like. Rivers of London got a lot better after the second book, but Peter did not have a great time in the second book, even if the mindwhammy convinced him he did. Even Ashers, which is only sort of urban fantasy and doesn't do explicit sex, has James getting tied up and his emotional and bodily autonomy horribly violated at least once a book.
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The expectations we've been trained to have are SO SCREWED UP.
I think because it's all about female characters getting raped, but tbh the rape in urban fantasy as a genre tends to me more equal-opportunity
*nodsnods* I don't know if I wish that surprised me more or less. I've read very little male-led urban fantasy.
In context, it makes perfectly good sense that Seanan's post was entirely about female characters, since she hardly ever writes male POV characters. When that post came out, I think the only example was a chunk of Newsflesh that has a male POV; at this point, the only other example is that Verity's brother narrates books 3 and 4 of InCryptid. I still literally forget that she writes dudes at all. (Sorry, Alex.)
I did know that InCryptid jumped around between Verity's relatives in POV! I might try some more if they fall into my hands but I don't think I fell in love hard enough to have to go hunting them down immediately.
FWIW, I think the other female-narrated books are all stronger than the first, if only because the first sets up so much of the worldbuilding. Verity narrates books 1, 2, and 5, and this year book 6 gave us her sister, Antimony, who I adore. (I love both sisters in very different ways. Books 2 and 6 may be my favorites overall.) Next year we get another book with Antimony, and after that...IIRC a few years ago I saw Seanan lay it out up to book 10, but I don't remember exactly how it goes, just that we'll get narrators who aren't from that trio of siblings.
I'm personally very against skipping books in series, but also for the record, if you're more comfortable skipping around: while I like Alex fine and I really enjoyed some of the family things we learn in book 3 (and knowing Seanan's writing, it wouldn't surprise me if things from his books become very important...), I find him dull compared to his sisters and find his books (3 and 4) generally weaker.