Legendborn
Jul. 3rd, 2021 01:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraLegendborn, Tracy Deonn. Lodestar nominee. I finished this book almost two weeks ago but I'm having some trouble doing stuff lately so here's a post I wrote most of awhile ago.
I thought this book did some really cool stuff! I also felt like I was reading it for approximately forever (something like two weeks, according to when I got the ebook from the library), so either it was in fact enormously long, or it had pacing issues. (Let's take the rest of this behind a cut, for MAJOR SPOILERS.)
The thing is, I get that Deonn wanted to hold back the Big Cool Twist for the climax of the book, but if I hadn't been reading this for the Hugos, I never would have made it that far. Waiting until 93% to reveal the motive heart of your story is a risky move. I guess you're counting on word of mouth to tell people "no, no, it's cool, just keep going, it'll pay off"? And I guess that worked, I mean, it got her onto the Lodestar ballot, but I'm not sure it worked for *me*, like, I'm not sure I'm willing to go be a mouth of word. A lot of the pieces did eventually come together and I can see why she wanted all those threads in there but for so long it felt like too many different pieces being juggled. (And I still had no idea at the end who half the named characters were, like, kids start dying and I was just like "wait, is that one of the friendly ones?".)
But, okay, how much do I love the twist. Like, heck yes, bring that "Sally Hemings' descendants at the Jefferson association meetup" reality to YA fantasy. Some Kindred energy in this Chosen-One genre. I think Deonn said in her bio that she was second-generation-fandom (I can't check this now, the ebook expired) and I am so curious whether her Arthur and Merlin are from Merlin fandom as well as Dark Is Rising - the shipping vibes are kind of pointing in that direction to me. I did read an interview where Deonn mentions being an ATLA fan, and a quick search reveals that she's a Zutara shipper, which also tracks. I am curious to see where the story goes, now that we've finally hit liftoff! Could definitely see it being interesting.
I thought this book did some really cool stuff! I also felt like I was reading it for approximately forever (something like two weeks, according to when I got the ebook from the library), so either it was in fact enormously long, or it had pacing issues. (Let's take the rest of this behind a cut, for MAJOR SPOILERS.)
The thing is, I get that Deonn wanted to hold back the Big Cool Twist for the climax of the book, but if I hadn't been reading this for the Hugos, I never would have made it that far. Waiting until 93% to reveal the motive heart of your story is a risky move. I guess you're counting on word of mouth to tell people "no, no, it's cool, just keep going, it'll pay off"? And I guess that worked, I mean, it got her onto the Lodestar ballot, but I'm not sure it worked for *me*, like, I'm not sure I'm willing to go be a mouth of word. A lot of the pieces did eventually come together and I can see why she wanted all those threads in there but for so long it felt like too many different pieces being juggled. (And I still had no idea at the end who half the named characters were, like, kids start dying and I was just like "wait, is that one of the friendly ones?".)
But, okay, how much do I love the twist. Like, heck yes, bring that "Sally Hemings' descendants at the Jefferson association meetup" reality to YA fantasy. Some Kindred energy in this Chosen-One genre. I think Deonn said in her bio that she was second-generation-fandom (I can't check this now, the ebook expired) and I am so curious whether her Arthur and Merlin are from Merlin fandom as well as Dark Is Rising - the shipping vibes are kind of pointing in that direction to me. I did read an interview where Deonn mentions being an ATLA fan, and a quick search reveals that she's a Zutara shipper, which also tracks. I am curious to see where the story goes, now that we've finally hit liftoff! Could definitely see it being interesting.
