Book #33: Graceling, Book #34: The Flesh Cartel

[thistlechaser]

Graceling by Kristin Cashore.

A couple chapters into Graceling and I was ready to quit. The main character, a teenage girl, was the best fighter in the world. She was literally impossible to beat. Barehanded and unarmored, she could fight and beat more than a dozen armed, armored, and trained knights. And her eyes were two different colors.

Sounds like the very picture of a horrible character, doesn't it? But I'm glad I stuck with the book, because it was darned good. The main character had enough flaws to balance all that power, the plot was interesting, I loved the world, and the other characters were great. (The writing was good, other than the author both didn't know how to use semicolons and had a great love of them. I kept hoping she was using them incorrectly for style reasons, but I think it was just that she didn't know better. Sad!)

In the fantasy world the book was set, a few people were born Graced -- they're the best in the world at something. It could be something useful, like fighting, designing weapons, riding horses, or it could be something somewhat helpful, like being able to bake the very best cherry pies in the world, or it could be totally useless, like being the best person in the world at spotting pictures in the clouds or counting backwards. Also, all Gracelings have two different color eyes. (And what a fun RP setting this could be! There would be so many fun Graces people could RP out!)

I've been trying to figure out how to explain the plot without spoiling it, but I'm failing. I'll just say that three interesting people (two with Graces) team up to get to the root of a mystery and then have to deal with the evil they find.

Graceling is part of a trilogy, which apparently can be read in any order. I bought one of the other two already, and I'm looking forward to reading it.

[Edit: Flesh Cartel moved to its own post.]

Comments

[kamalloy.livejournal.com]

I *adore* Graceling, but I have to admit your first paragraph made me wince a little - framed that way, it does sound kind of terrible. But the author totally justifies the setup, and the characters and world-building are so good. I really enjoyed Fire - not quite as much as Graceling - and am eagerly awaiting Bitterblue when it comes out in paperback in September. (I'm one of those crazy physical-book people. ^_~)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing flaws take longer to write in than (super)powers? The flaws didn't start showing up until about 10% into the book; I almost gave up at the 5% point, which was was the height of how overpowered (and seemingly flawless) she was.

By the way: I still hate that ebooks don't give you page numbers, only percents. I understand it (since you can change the font size), but it makes it trickier when talking to someone who read the physical version!

Fire is the second one I have. It sounds really interesting! I'll read Bitterblue sometime after that. (Usually I like reading a series of books in a row, so not sure why I'm not feeling that for this series.)

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Huh, my ebook (Kobo) gives page numbers - though the pages match some ur-version, so it might take me three or four virtual page turns to get to the next page.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I wonder if it's more a specific book formatting issue than a device issue? Every now and then I do get book numbers, but it's pretty rare.

Ah ha, googling tells me that on a Kindle/.mobi file it's up to the author if they want to enable it or not. It'd be better if it were "disable it if they didn't want it", then it would be enabled by default.

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

Re: Graceling...may have to read that. I enjoy that hook - congrats, you get a superpower. No one said it will be a good one. Misfits (the British version of US show Heroes) had that - immortality, time travel, invisibility, telepathy...and the girl with the unfortunate power that anyone who touches her is consumed by uncontrollable lust for her. Or the guy, much later in the series, who calls himself a Lacto-mancer (telekinetic control of milk products).

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha! I didn't make the Misfits-Graceling connection, but you're totally right. The Graces never change, but otherwise it's a lot alike.

And no thanks at all for reminding me about the lacto guy. :P

I hope you enjoy it, too!

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I just read Graceling, too! And I felt kind of the same way - it took a loooong time to hook me, but when I started enjoying it, I liked it a lot. I listened to the audio version, so I didn't have the semicolon issue in my face. (Actually, the audio version is full-cast, like a radioplay, which is quite engaging! It's the first such audiobook I've listened to - there have been several with multiple narrators for different POV characters, but this is the first where all dialogue is spoken by that character's actor.)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

The semicolon thing was interesting. She knew how to use it in the more "advanced" (less common) way: to divide complex things in a list. It was the more simple/common way she messed up. "He wanted a sandwich for lunch; but not peanut butter."

Wow, that sounds like a great way to do an audiobook! I don't think I've even heard one with multiple narrators... (But I rarely listen to them, so.) If I ever go back to a long commute, audiobooks will be how I fill my time.