A note to fantasy authors everywhere: unless you are Tamora Pierce, do not give your protagonist, antagonist, or main love interest strange eyes. I know it's super duper cool. I understand your need. But you have to resist. Be strong.Graceling by Kristin Cashore takes place in a land where some people are Graced with a special talent or ability. Sometimes it's something not altogether useful, like climbing trees or making really fabulous cherries jubilee, but sometimes it's something more... dangerous. Take, for example, Katsa. Katsa has a killing Grace, and is used by her uncle, the king, as a weapon, sending her out to frighten unruly lords into submission. Sounds like fun! And by fun, I mean, you know. Not fun.
Which brings us1 to something that needs to be discussed: Katsa's eyes. Namely, the fact that one of them is blue and the other is green.
Look. I know that it's, you know, awesome. But it's NOT OKAY. You know what else is NOT OKAY? Naming the main love interest (who, coincidentally, has one silver eye and one gold eye) Po. PO. NOT SEXY. NOT SEXY AT ALL.
And then there's the whole I-can-kill-you-with-my-bare-hands thing. But let's not get into that. Let's just say that if you like fantasy and you don't mind tired, overused fantasy tropes, then you won't mind Graceling. If you want something more original,2 you might want to skip it and go reread some Tamora Pierce books, because Tamora Pierce is BOSS.3
Graceling is... odd. It doesn't seem to know what kind of book it wants to be, occilating between the kind of book that names countries according to a cute little North-South-East-West system, or the kind of book where the Tortured Heroine Broods, Glowers, and Kicks Ass to Defeat the Evil King. Neither is particularly compelling.
I say put Graceling near the bottom of your pile.
Here are some people that disagree with me:
Teen Book Review
Bookshelves of Doom
Ink Mage
Disagreeably, having two eyes that are decidedly the same color, and yours,
Eli
1. Not really. Good transition, Eli!
2. Or if not entirely original, at least better.
3. Tamora Pierce is the only person from whom I will accept Strange Eyes.
12 comments:
I really like your site, but - aaagghh! It's PIERCE. Tamora PIERCE. Remember, I before E, except after C? Just like that.
-maddy in austin
Eli, you know I love you, but ... wow. :P I'm reading & liking this one right now. I don't read much fantasy, granted, so it might just be that I have no frame of reference.
But you like the Mortal Instuments trilogy, do you not? And Jace's golden eyes count as strange in my book.
I find it interesting that you consider Tamora Pierce your standard... I have struggled through several of her books and consider them full of "tired, overused fantasy tropes" as you put it.
I suppose different strokes for different folks. ;)
Maddy- Corrected. Thanks! I always forget which way her name is spelled.
Steph- Yeah, everybody disagrees with me. YOU'RE ALL WRONG. GRAR.
Tess- I dunno if I'd count golden eyes as "strange." Cause some people DO have golden eyes, you know? Maybe not. Also, he's not human, and strange eyes in nonhumans are okay.
Maybe I'm just rationalizing.
Virginia- Yeah, but see, she did it FIRST. Well, maybe not, but at least she did it first for me-- I read all her books when I was in elementary/middle school, so maybe they just have a special place in my heart.
Which books were the ones you didn't like?
- Eli
Tamora Pierce KICKS BUTT. she's (almost) my idol. well, not really, 'cause she writes the books and i read them and then write about them... but whatever! *she rocks!!* but the eyes thing gets a little old... what is with the purple?!
Alright, I feel compelled to point this out, but two different colored eyes is not that strange. As in, it's strange, but it's also possible. There are people in real life with two different colored eyes. It's this condition. Or a childhood head injury. It is an actual thing.
So it's very different than, like, purple eyes (which, correct me if I'm wrong, was what Tamora Pierce has done? I've only read some of her stuff)
Thanks for the link.
I agree that Po is a stupid name (unless you're Chinese or something, I suppose (with my nonexistent knowledge of Chinese names) it might be normal then. They used it in the movie Mulan). I laughed as I was reading your review, because I really don't understand your hatred of the weird eyes! Was it great & necessary? Not really. But you had such a strong reaction to it!
Tired, overused fantasy tropes...Yeah, kind of. But so is Tamora Pierce. This book reminded me very, very much of Tamora Pierce. Love them both, but I certainly won't be applauding their originality any time soon.
Interesting review.
Haven't read this one, but I agree on the strange eyes thing. Well maybe not strange eyes, but distinctive eyes. It's very very overused. Unless there's a practical reason for distinctive eyes, like being able to shoot lasers out of them or having mini-clock-things in them (Scott Westerfeld, I applaud you for that invention) then please, no more. Find another feature to distinctify.
Po? For real? That is the most unromantic romantic name I have ever seen in my entire life. Besides Ping. Which is possibly worse.
Although, doesn't Jace have spaztastice eyes? From the Clare books?
Po. Hmm, not sure I could get into that name either.
And Tamora Pierce is awesome! :)
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