Today, something special for you ^v^ A guest review of Charles deLint's Someplace to be Flying, by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
charcoalfeathers!
If you're interested in doing guest reviews too, please, let me know, I'm happy to put yours up ^^ I also accept any discussions of books that are on the theme if you want to write an essay about the book, deconstruction, compare two books, etc. I would like this to be not just book reviews, but a place where winged people and people with dreams of flight can discuss and explore fiction... so... if you have anything on topic... I'm happy to include it.
Short review: The corbae (corvid animal-people) and canids (canine animal-people) are playing out their ages-old disagreements once again, and this time the cauldron of creation is in the middle of it. In spite of some shortcomings, this is a satisfying read with a lot of really neat thoughts and stories about animal people and mythology.
Writing: I enjoyed his short stories first, and only moved on to his full length novels later; and it always feels a little to me like his novels are reaaallly drawn out short stories. In some ways, it's nice that it doesn't end so quickly. But other times, I get lost in all the plots going on. Perhaps that's just my lack of attention span these days. ^^; It's also neat to watch all the plot threads coming together over time for a finale.
But in general, his writing style is good and sort of blends to the background. Except for the "story teller" parts: these are fantastic, exceptional. You really feel like you're listening to someone telling a story around a campfire.
From a winged person's perspective...: This book is more of a fae/therian type of book than one about winged people per se, but I think there's something in here for everyone. deLint is always heavy on mythology, especially Native American mythology, and this book is no exception. Rather than birds, or winged people, the characters in this story are almost like fae with animal associations; most of them can shift between an animal form and a human form, and they have a lot of traits like their animals when they're in the latter.
So you could safely say that this book will appeal to corvid and canine therians quite a lot in that way. I think it would be hard for a winged person not to enjoy that aspect of it, too.
Though anyone who associates with cuckoo birds might come away a bit upset. ^^;
Trigger warnings: The main one that struck me was about crows dying and their bodies being mistreated. Someone who wants to be winged is abused. There's a decent amount of violence. Lots of talk about what it means to be sane or crazy, and some fairly intense descriptions of someone being institutionalized. Basically this is a really adult book: if you're worried about triggering something, tread lightly.
( More thoughts... )
charcoalfeathers!If you're interested in doing guest reviews too, please, let me know, I'm happy to put yours up ^^ I also accept any discussions of books that are on the theme if you want to write an essay about the book, deconstruction, compare two books, etc. I would like this to be not just book reviews, but a place where winged people and people with dreams of flight can discuss and explore fiction... so... if you have anything on topic... I'm happy to include it.
Short review: The corbae (corvid animal-people) and canids (canine animal-people) are playing out their ages-old disagreements once again, and this time the cauldron of creation is in the middle of it. In spite of some shortcomings, this is a satisfying read with a lot of really neat thoughts and stories about animal people and mythology.
Writing: I enjoyed his short stories first, and only moved on to his full length novels later; and it always feels a little to me like his novels are reaaallly drawn out short stories. In some ways, it's nice that it doesn't end so quickly. But other times, I get lost in all the plots going on. Perhaps that's just my lack of attention span these days. ^^; It's also neat to watch all the plot threads coming together over time for a finale.
But in general, his writing style is good and sort of blends to the background. Except for the "story teller" parts: these are fantastic, exceptional. You really feel like you're listening to someone telling a story around a campfire.
From a winged person's perspective...: This book is more of a fae/therian type of book than one about winged people per se, but I think there's something in here for everyone. deLint is always heavy on mythology, especially Native American mythology, and this book is no exception. Rather than birds, or winged people, the characters in this story are almost like fae with animal associations; most of them can shift between an animal form and a human form, and they have a lot of traits like their animals when they're in the latter.
So you could safely say that this book will appeal to corvid and canine therians quite a lot in that way. I think it would be hard for a winged person not to enjoy that aspect of it, too.
Though anyone who associates with cuckoo birds might come away a bit upset. ^^;
Trigger warnings: The main one that struck me was about crows dying and their bodies being mistreated. Someone who wants to be winged is abused. There's a decent amount of violence. Lots of talk about what it means to be sane or crazy, and some fairly intense descriptions of someone being institutionalized. Basically this is a really adult book: if you're worried about triggering something, tread lightly.
( More thoughts... )
