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I am reading a terrible book, and it's making me deeply frustrated.
The prose is bland, and occasionally awkward. It remembers the social rules of its supposed historical model only when they're interesting plot complications, and not when they might interfere with the scene the author wants to write. The protagonist is a blithering moron in everything except her Really Effective Science Honest, and written--as is the only other female character in the book so far--like the author hasn't actually met many women, much less talked with them at length. The omniscient is poorly and confusingly handled so that I'm often not sure whose perspective descriptions are being given from, as there's no voice for the omniscient narrator to clarify. People exposit at each other at the drop of a hat. There was a tedious and meandering prologue full of people who aren't in the first chapter which was so boring that the first time I tried to read the book I gave up before in even getting through that.
And. Dammit. It is taking a concept that I love and a setting I like, and...I'm still reading, because I really really want to see if these things I like will come to interesting plot points. And it's not even an original concept! It's just a very straightforward and blatant mashup of Twelfth Night and steampunk and boarding school stories.
I may stop reading just to preserve my own dignity--the ending of the book has been projected from chapter two, and I would be deeply surprised if it didn't tick off all the boxes on about a six-item checklist that I can predict from there--but...concepts I like. Elements I like. Based on one of my favorite plays.
Dammit.
The prose is bland, and occasionally awkward. It remembers the social rules of its supposed historical model only when they're interesting plot complications, and not when they might interfere with the scene the author wants to write. The protagonist is a blithering moron in everything except her Really Effective Science Honest, and written--as is the only other female character in the book so far--like the author hasn't actually met many women, much less talked with them at length. The omniscient is poorly and confusingly handled so that I'm often not sure whose perspective descriptions are being given from, as there's no voice for the omniscient narrator to clarify. People exposit at each other at the drop of a hat. There was a tedious and meandering prologue full of people who aren't in the first chapter which was so boring that the first time I tried to read the book I gave up before in even getting through that.
And. Dammit. It is taking a concept that I love and a setting I like, and...I'm still reading, because I really really want to see if these things I like will come to interesting plot points. And it's not even an original concept! It's just a very straightforward and blatant mashup of Twelfth Night and steampunk and boarding school stories.
I may stop reading just to preserve my own dignity--the ending of the book has been projected from chapter two, and I would be deeply surprised if it didn't tick off all the boxes on about a six-item checklist that I can predict from there--but...concepts I like. Elements I like. Based on one of my favorite plays.
Dammit.