what may or may not be hard reality

Finally, for you xclairedelune ('cause really, I don't think anyone else cares :P ), my comments on Califia's Daughters. Enjoy! (or not... I warn you now, it's much long and pointless stuff in there.)


Califia’s Daughters

Spontaneous reflection:

Damn, it’s over already? Gosh, I liked it. It was so comfortable to read. There was no rush to find out what was going to happen, and at the same time it kept me hooked the entire time. There was nothing that made me uncomfortable, or put me on edge, or made me nervous. It was interesting, and exciting, occasionally a little scary. I read it slowly, relishing each page.

I love Dian. I want to see much more of her (eh, preferably in a Susan Lewis post-baby kind of way). The ending made me cry. (Yes. I admit it. I’m a softie.)

Still, though, there were the issues. Which, I might add, because they are long and plentiful, does not in any way mean that I did not love this book. I love it so much that I feel it worthy of hours upon hours spent of my time. Believe me, if I did not love it, I would have simply been happy with a ‘Feh. Crap.’ and this in is in no way that.

Issues:

Indistinct and Vague

It confused me. It’s not the book’s fault, but rather my previous experience with other books in similar genres. It’s sci-fi/fantasy, and reminds me for some reason of The Rhapsody Trilogy by Elizabeth Hayden, and hence; I’m expecting big epic tales of war and heroines who save the world. It also reminds me of über fic, and therefore I expect certain things of Dian that her character does not live up to; not her fault, my fault.

Also, besides telling a tale of one woman’s winter, I’m not certain what it’s trying to accomplish.

The book seems unable to decide if it wants to deal with the entire world and what has happened, or Dian's story. And even Dian’s story is fractured, and unclear over what story it’s really trying to tell. I realize that King is aware of this, since the parts of the book are indeed named for the three tales; Valley, Road and Ashtown, but still, it confuses the reader (that would be me) to not know where the story is headed. Not that every story should have a distinct problem stated at the beginning and the rest of the book should be dedicated to solving it. Hell, I don’t know what I’m saying, really, but the entire novel feels like but a small part of something larger (sequel, yes?), like there should be 15 books, and Dian’s little story but a slice of a larger whole.

And what was that about Dian’s infertility that suddenly was no more?

Lot of trouble for little story

In a criticism that’s blatantly based on what I’m used to from fantasy, Dian doesn’t warrant all this trouble. King has gone to all this trouble creating this massive new universe, and then the heroine is just a random chick out to make things a little bit better for her people, and to save this one guy. Usually, (yes, I’m aware of what I’m doing) when someone goes to all the trouble of creating an entire Alternate Universe, it’s because the story will concern the entire universe. When an author is mainly interested in a character and her trials and tribulations, the author usually settles for a reality that is more easily recognized, and doesn’t spend this much time and energy on trying to bring all the aspects of this new world alive in the readers mind, and then just leave it all and spend the story in one single person who is more or less insignificant on the whole. All this is again not necessarily bad about the book, but it throws the reader (that would be me, again, just trying to sound more formal) for a loop. It also, in a way, makes the large world feel less important, and leaves the reader wondering why we had to keep up with all this back story that really wasn’t needed.

Straight-ness

The book, while receiving kudos for it’s wonderful treatment of lesbianism, is still inherently heterosexual. Which is not bad. Not at all. I’m just noting that it is. I’ve been spoiled, by Kate Martinelli, by ‘what-was-her-name’ in Justice Hall, by all the fantastic über I’ve been reading. Is it wrong to be drawn towards books with predominantly lesbian characters? Anyway, this book treats it wonderfully, lesbian relationships and considered normal and are also shown as such, Dian even has a serious-ish relationship with Margaret, but still, she’s primarily straight. But with the likeness it has to über fic, and my previous experience with it, it kept raising my hopes; the Laine/Dian thing, and especially the Dian/Robin thing. Is it bad that I was disappointed when Robin turned out to be a man? I am, primarily, drawn towards female characters, (this is where I weirdly feel like proclaiming: ‘my best friend’s a boy, and I love him more than anyone else outside my family! I have nothing against men!’ which would even almost be true, but still, when it comes to stories, I need female characters.) and female characters who are females together with each other. (Yeah, yeah, so sue me.)

Characters as Plot Devices

There are all these characters; they’re introduced, given a back-story, but in the end it’s never followed up. It feels a little incomplete. It start out, and Judith and Laine and Isaac are, while not *as* important as Dian, still have the feeling of recurring supporting characters. And for a while they are. But then she leaves, and their continued story falls away, and it’s Dian on the Road, and suddenly this girl, Willa, is the most important supporting character, and Ling’s relatives in Meijing. But then they too, and their stories, are left behind, and it’s Dian and Robin. Dian is the only steady focus, and it’s like she’s moving between different frames, all of them with a different premise. It also leaves the reader (me) with the distinct feeling that all the supporting characters are only plot devices, with the only function of shaping Dian’s story, which makes the reader (me) a little on edge since I had begun to care about those secondary characters, and then they’re suddenly just left behind in favour of something else. I would have liked to know what went on in the Valley in Dian’s absence, what happened during Miriam’s move south, and how Teddy developed with the dogs, and how Willa’s time in Meijing was spent, and what happened to Margaret after the uprising, and all kinds of things. Eh. Sequel, please.

Über-likeness, The Growing in particular

The whole book reads like an über, just too... well, heterosexual. Only übers never have this same problem establishing the background. Readers and writers of the über stuff are so used to different times/worlds/places that they never waste a lot of time on determining them, it gets straight to the story. Really, that little note in the Prologue on what had happened to the world, that would have been enough. You could have gone straight to the story from that.

Dian also shares many many traits with her über counterparts. The lone female warrior, fierce and intense, love for her family, but doesn’t really let people all that close to her (I was literally a little disappointed in Dian that she didn’t live up to the Xena standards. But the problem is mine, not hers. Dian’s not the first character to have this happen, though; it’s kind of annoying.), tall, strong, all that stuff, even the blue eyes, only the blonde hair sets her apart.

I feel like I’ve mentioned The Growing over and over several times already, so I’ll go into it a little more specifically. Where TG gains points on CD: TG, in accordance with usual über standards doesn’t go to any great lengths at all to explain what’s happened but instead assumes that the reader will catch on as they go along. CD has all these ‘by-way-of’ explanations that serve only to explain the past to the reader, but serves no real function for the characters, and only end up slowing down the story.

Similarities: both CD and TG are set in a not so far away future. CD deals with a time significantly *after* disaster has struck, whereas TG is dealing with the actual time *when* disaster is striking, but in both cases the daily lives of people have been irrevocably changed to similar standards of living. Also points for TG: the main characters are actually saving the world; Dian is only saving that guy Robin.

Then there’s the journey. While TG spend a whole lot of time on other stuff, there’s the journey in the end that’s remarkably similar (or at least share several aspects) to the latter part of Dian’s journey. The whole snow – injured – rescued – cabin in the woods thing, compared with Koda’s snow – injured – cabin in the woods, it just struck me as extremely similar. The only thing missing is a female Robin with blonde tresses.

Then there’s the likenesses between Dian and Koda. Dian has her dogs, Koda has her wolves. Their personalities, their physique, everything.

Sci-fi/fantasy

Yes, we know it’s supposed to be set in the future. Yes, we know they’re supposed to be different from us, and never have experienced all the things we take for granted today. But the whole 'fascination over today's luxuries' also goes a little bit too far, somehow. Reminds me a little of this short story I wrote ages ago, a little sci-fi piece about a boy in the future when the surviving population of the Earth had been forced to relocate to the moon for continued survival. And having a novel remind me of a short story I wrote in 9th grade just doesn’t reflect positively on the novel. Sorry.

Final Verdict:

I loved it. So much. (No, really, I promise.) A lot of it’s in her writing, but the story, the characters, everything. Such a cool idea; a world that is so different than today’s. I think Jane Fletcher had a similar premise in The Wrong Trail Knife, but it was years ago that I read that.
Would I like it as much had I not known it was Laurie? Yes. Would I spend this much time analysing it? Probably not. The criticism is a token of my love. I promise.

Bring on the debate!