Jerrey kerroo hiaghtin as feed ny Shallee Lhaih. Shoh ny lhiah mee yn çhiaghtin shoh chaie:
Strawberry Marshmallow y.l. 5 (Barasui)
Mie foast. Kionnit aym er y gherrid.
A Forthcoming Wizard (Jody Lynn Nye)
Lioar vie. Ta laue aghtal ec Nye er karracteyryn: ta ny caggeyderyn failleilagh as ny h-anchaarjyn so-choennaghtagh. Hoshiaght ta Tildi fo smaght heshaght as fallsoonys lane ghraynoil oc, agh ny yei shen t'eh er bun so-chredjal as ta troyn resoonagh oc chammah. Er y laue elley, haink corree orrym oc as feer noidys, nyn gowraghyn screeu mie; ta kuse dy lioaryn elley er ngientyn leod ennymagh er noidyn, gyn feer ennaghtyn nyn oi. 'Sy lioar shoh, ta lheamyssyn ec cagh, as she mooadys dty lheamyssyn as dty 'reggyrt n'oi ta soilshaghey feeuid.
Ga dy vel ad goll er turrys, cha nee Turrys Fansee y Teihll t'ayn; t'ad bentyn rish dooieyn elley nish as reesht, agh cha nel monney "prose jiarg-ghorrym" ayn, as cha dennee mee dy row Nye soilshaghey dou dagh ooilley red v'ee er smooinaghtyn er.
Red by vie ass towse lhiam, ta'n lioar shoh cur jerrey er y skeeal. Va mee jerkal rish y treeskeealag chadjin, agh ta Nye er nyannoo yindys as er geau magh y mean marroo. Ta shalee ny kied lioar ny chied lieh ny shalee smoo vees bun y nah lioar shoh, as ta jerrey Forthcoming wheesh fondagh nagh noddym credjal dy hayrnys ee lioar elley assjee. T'ee feaysley reddyn dy jesh, as dy gennal son y chooid smoo, lesh cur asseeyn ennagh gys neunhee. Va shen ry-yerkal son y chooid smoo, agh er lhiams nagh daink eh dy ve far-hugyragh ny do-chredjal. Ta coayl as guin oc foast.
Red elley: ta Tildi ny sampleyr mie jeh caggeyder oayllaashagh firrinagh. Ta slaigh cur dwoaie urree, as cha nel ee reih caggey, chamoo taishbyney schlei caggee rere feme. Ny yei shen, cha nee cloart t'ayn, as cha nel ee tuittym neealloo car y traa. Ta erreeish eck er pian noidyn as beiyn, as ta arrys eck rish baase noidyn, ayns ynnyd taittin. T'ee so-lhottey foast: beg, faase-lauee, faitçhagh as mie-chreeagh. Gyn scansh da shen, cha nel ee lane taaue, agh ny smoo 'sy lioar shoh na'n lioar elley. Shen er coontey bondiaght as femeyn ny shalee, er lhiam: t'eh jannoo ny foddee ish. Ta'n faasid as so-lhottaght cooie da'n çhennaghys eck: ga dy vel un jargaght er lheh eck, cha nee Y Feer Feniagh Ynrican t'ayn as possan eiyrtyssee eck, agh un ven mastey possan er shalee.
Naight elley: cheau magh mee Giraffe liorish JM Ledgard fy-yerrey. Er lhiam dy beagh ee ro-ellynagh dou (cre'n reih Ghaelg son "artsy"? "lane ellynaghys", foddee?), as t'eh lane douyrid as fuilltaght, as gyn gien erbee choud's dod mee feddyn magh.
The end of week twenty-four of the Reading Project. Here's what I've read this week:
Strawberry Marshmallow v. 5 (Barasui)
Still good. Bought recently.
A Forthcoming Wizard (Jody Lynn Nye)
A very enjoyable read. Nye continues to handle characters well, with sympathetic antagonists and flawed protagonists. For the early part of the book Tildi is held captive by a group whose worldview is fundamentally abhorrent, but who still show reasonable and even admirable traits at times. At the same time, I felt genuine dislike and even anger towards them, rather than the nominal disapproval I sometimes feel towards token baddies. Everyone is at least a bit complicated: in general, Nye portrays all her characters with flaws, and the question is how big those are and how the character deals with them.
While the group end up travelling a fair way, this isn't really the stereotypical Fantasy Journey; they encounter a few more of the world's races, but there's not much in the way of sightseeing.
Impressively, this book actually wraps up the story; I was half-expecting it to turn into the typical trilogy, but Nye's pulled off the all-too-rare two-part fantasy novel and skipped the usual unnecessary middle section altogether. Rather than Quest, Bridge/Travelogue, Resolution, she has a quest in the first book which forms part of a larger quest in the second, and has an ending so conclusive that I can't really see her adding a third. The ending wraps things up pleasantly, and mostly optimistically, with many misfortunes being reversed. Some of this was predictable and/or heavily foreshadowed, but I felt like it didn't quite cross the line into saccharine and unrealistic territory. There are still some losses and pains for the party to bear, and a certain amount of character development too.
One thing that struck me is that Tildi is a decent example of a genuinely non-violent protagonist. She's distressed by violence without being a fainting violet, and neither chooses violence nor manifests sudden combat proficiency when forced into it. She sympathises with the pain of enemies and beasts, and regrets their deaths rather than taking satisfaction from them. This is pretty unusual in my experience of fantasy, at least in terms of doing those things convincingly rather than nominally. She's also very vulnerable, being physically weak, quite timid and generally nice, with recognisable limitations. At the same time, she isn't entirely passive, though I feel like she's more so in this book than the last; her quest and her captivity constrain her choices this time. Her limitations and vulnerability always felt in keeping with her stated character and background; despite her one unusual talent, Tildi isn't the common One True Hero with a retinue of themed followers, but one of several questers who just happens to be the protagonist.
In other news, I chucked out Giraffe by JM Ledgard, having decided it was looked artsy to suit me, while also having too much misery and gore, and no apparent cheer at all.
Yeah, so here's the thing... my depression has been pretty bad recently, which means reading new, unfamiliar and often somewhat hard-going books is just too much a lot of the time. On top of that I've ended up somewhat burned out on reading. Partly it's just the effect of reading so many new books in a short time, some of them quite hard work. Partly it's also doing plenty of other reading, not least during long boring shifts at work with nothing but internet to do. Plus I've had non-reading things I wanted to get on with; it's not like anyone's paying me for this! So at the moment I'm on a fairly fallow period. But hopefully things will pick up again.
On the plus side I've read a couple of things; on the downside, they haven't made any impression on the reading pile.
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