book reviews for winged people (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
booksofafeather) wrote2011-03-27 11:29 am
booksofafeather) wrote2011-03-27 11:29 am
Entry tags:
Skellig
Short review: This is an amazing book... it feels claustrophobic, and vast at the same time, gloomy and hopeful, full of pain and full of light. It's a story about a mystery man, a lot of birds, and the flickering dreams of two children... and that really gives you all you need to know about it. There's much philosophy, and many interesting, inspiring questions asked, and the book holds birds and bird-people in high esteem, touching on the dreams that we have all had about them. It's wonderful.
Writing: The writing here is great. The story is written like shadows, only revealing itself halfway, and the story builds up and builds up like a rolling thunderstorm until it almost hurts to read.
From a winged person's perspective...: The winged person in this book is never shown quite directly, but only in hints. But those hints are worth ten of what's in many other books. Through all of the book, his presence provides a feeling of magic and mystery that touches everything in the story. You don't see him fly, but you will feel the power of flight through all the references to birds and flying that feed on each other and make the story feel like it's very tightly knitted. He's shown as beautiful not monster, even though he is crippled. There is lots of talk of myths, birds as evolution, and a somber kind of magic... I only want to hint at it, because it's lovely to see it, itself, but it truly is great for winged people, and a little bit of a different story from the usual ones about people who want to fly. Though, one of the main characters in it is someone who has a strong love of birds and desire to fly, and wants to protect them, which is nice too. It's shown in one place as a temporary love and not something she deeply felt from the beginning, but other than that one line, it's a very beautiful picture of someone who feels connected to birds.
Trigger warnings: Some mentions of dead birds. Threats of cruelty to birds. The winged character is shown as suffering and in pain clearly. Lots of reflections on death.
More thoughts...: Imagine two children dancing under a gloomy light, carefully touching the spiritual with reverent and shaking breaths. That's this book. It's full of mistakes and fumbles and beauty and childhood dreams, and important questions and issues like "is it possible for the soul to be overwhelmed and hurt by too much joy?" and "can love help a person heal?" and "how does it feel when magic leaves?" And, despite that last one, this isn't a book with a typical "the magic went away" ending. Indeed, even though the balance of magic shifts, it continues to be strong all the way through. I'll let you see what is meant by that.
It's a very tightly written story, where everything loops into itself-- coincidences, matching, things pulling on each other, feeding back. Everything's connected and not only is that a message of the story, but the writing itself brings out that message by echoing that. You really start to get a sense that big things are happening even when only small things are, which makes this book amazingly written. You'll get to feel the magical moment where we experience flight in half-dreams that we're never sure are real... and many other small fragments like that. For some people, it might hurt too much just to be teased by the small fragments. But it creates a beautiful poetry, that is greater than the sum of each individual thing that happens.
If you want to be made to feel that myths are real, if you want a shadow-feeling story about hope and promise, or if you just want something a bit different from the normal winged-people books that is still very relevant... a myth for the winged if you like... then by all means, read this book. I definitely give it five out of five. Skellig is within us all... and you will feel it, too.
Writing: The writing here is great. The story is written like shadows, only revealing itself halfway, and the story builds up and builds up like a rolling thunderstorm until it almost hurts to read.
From a winged person's perspective...: The winged person in this book is never shown quite directly, but only in hints. But those hints are worth ten of what's in many other books. Through all of the book, his presence provides a feeling of magic and mystery that touches everything in the story. You don't see him fly, but you will feel the power of flight through all the references to birds and flying that feed on each other and make the story feel like it's very tightly knitted. He's shown as beautiful not monster, even though he is crippled. There is lots of talk of myths, birds as evolution, and a somber kind of magic... I only want to hint at it, because it's lovely to see it, itself, but it truly is great for winged people, and a little bit of a different story from the usual ones about people who want to fly. Though, one of the main characters in it is someone who has a strong love of birds and desire to fly, and wants to protect them, which is nice too. It's shown in one place as a temporary love and not something she deeply felt from the beginning, but other than that one line, it's a very beautiful picture of someone who feels connected to birds.
Trigger warnings: Some mentions of dead birds. Threats of cruelty to birds. The winged character is shown as suffering and in pain clearly. Lots of reflections on death.
More thoughts...: Imagine two children dancing under a gloomy light, carefully touching the spiritual with reverent and shaking breaths. That's this book. It's full of mistakes and fumbles and beauty and childhood dreams, and important questions and issues like "is it possible for the soul to be overwhelmed and hurt by too much joy?" and "can love help a person heal?" and "how does it feel when magic leaves?" And, despite that last one, this isn't a book with a typical "the magic went away" ending. Indeed, even though the balance of magic shifts, it continues to be strong all the way through. I'll let you see what is meant by that.
It's a very tightly written story, where everything loops into itself-- coincidences, matching, things pulling on each other, feeding back. Everything's connected and not only is that a message of the story, but the writing itself brings out that message by echoing that. You really start to get a sense that big things are happening even when only small things are, which makes this book amazingly written. You'll get to feel the magical moment where we experience flight in half-dreams that we're never sure are real... and many other small fragments like that. For some people, it might hurt too much just to be teased by the small fragments. But it creates a beautiful poetry, that is greater than the sum of each individual thing that happens.
If you want to be made to feel that myths are real, if you want a shadow-feeling story about hope and promise, or if you just want something a bit different from the normal winged-people books that is still very relevant... a myth for the winged if you like... then by all means, read this book. I definitely give it five out of five. Skellig is within us all... and you will feel it, too.
no subject
I saw your post over on the Otherkin forum on LJ, but since I am not a part of that particular LJ community I couldn't respond there, so I followed you over here. Here's what I had to say:
Hiya :)
I've been practicing animal magic since the mid-1990s. If you;re looking for book recommendations, I've reviewed the majority of extant books on the topic here on my review blog. And I've also written a few books on the subject myself, based on my own experiences. If you want more immediate information, there's some info on my shamanism blog as well.
I don't have a ton of time for online stuff right now as I'm in grad school with an internship, but I try to answer emails as much as possible.
--Lupa :)
no subject
I decided today to buy your book, "Fang and Fur, Blood and Bone" as I heard that it is for people who want to develop their own rituals and ideas, not be told simply stereotypes from a totem dictionary ^^ Which is definitely for me... I don't think the "totem" idea is it so much, the more people talk about it because although it's valuable to learn the ways of different animals, that's not what I'm looking for as much for myself personally.
Instead I want to work to develop a relationship with the side of me that is swan, like a child of two cultures maybe. I was raised in one culture but I didn't learn the ways and the magic of the other culture and, I'm feeling I'm called to do that now, to humbly offer myself before the part of me that I was neglecting. I can't do that just learning stereotypes, I want a real relationship to grow. Otherwise, it's like... if you say, I'm half-Korean, and you decide to connect with your Korean ancestors by reading a book of Korean stereotypes ^^;; So... that's not so good... it sounds like your book will have a good approach to thinking about animal magic carefully so I'm looking forward to it! (And already, in my head, I have some ideas for rituals following along an "ancestor worship" pattern....)
I review fiction books here so there might not be a book review for you here, but, I will definitely write you what I thought anyway when I am done!! ^v^ Also, I'll be looking at your other links.
Also sorry if my writing is bad, it gets worse when I'm tired and I'm really tired ^^;;; But anyway, thank you!
no subject
And, yes, about Wolf, that makes sense. Totems have the ability to talk to us directly where it's harder for the animal to do that and us for understand it clearly, right?
I think for me, it's a little different feeling... I'm not a swan therian but my species is swan-winged. So, to me it's like a gryphon who was raised with lions, trying to find her eagle side again. It's that feeling. A little bit different from being therian but I think that your ideas will spark interesting thoughts hopefully! ^^