(no subject)

[clo_again]

I finished Graceling and was- kind of disappointed. I guess being stalked by a book for two weeks might give you unrealistic expectations but I kept getting annoyed at it for skipping over actual plot in favour of the romance. I'm all for romance in fantasy; I'm a sucker for it but not at the expense of this entire fascinating world getting short-changed for the sake of "OH PO YOUR EYES ARE SO STUNNING, LET ME FLAIL OVER THEM SOME MORE." It felt like nothing so much as the middle part of a trilogy, with the background and characters established, but without the opportunity for the ULTIMATE RESOLUTION (which would be, I'd say, peace between the seven kingdoms, although the politics was dealt with lightly to the point of frustration and the threat of Leck in this book was strong enough that it could've been genuinely terrifying if not dealt with so abruptly at the end - seriously, did she realise her deadline was looming?) so a filler story was needed to carry them all along. I loved Katsa, I really did and she was the thing that kept me reading along with Bitterblue who was kind of awesome even with her limited characterisation but there just wasn't enough in this book to make it a favourite. It felt frustratingly like getting to skim the top layer of frosting off a cupcake; sweet, delicious but ultimately not filling.

I'm in no way surprised that Kristin Cashore's already written the prequel to it. I'm just disappointed she didn't write that one first and give us a truly epic fleshed out duo/trilogy of books because this is a world that deserves fleshing out. I won't resell the book because Katsa was indeed awesome and the cover is beautiful but... I won't be in a hurry to reread either.

Sigh. So that's that. I've picked up Havemercy next though and it's suckered me in by page eleven with the character voices alone. Looking forward to reading it on the train to Lancaster tomorrow.