I like the book and the series a lot--which is good, because I would _never_ have been willing to read Hunger-Games-in-a-school-of-magic-and-magic if I didn't go in to it with a _lot_ of faith in Naomi Novik, and she totally came through.
Interestingly (to me), the themes of the book (tho' not the writing) were very Frances Hardinge, to me. Here's what I said a few years ago about the themes of Frances Hardinge books.
*Do not trust any member of the hereditary aristocracy, however personally well-meaning *Wealth is always obtained at the expense of the impoverished, and the more invisible the impoverished are the worse their conditions will be *Monsters are everywhere but can be vanquished, even (sometimes) accidentally *Powerless people are powerful together.
This was more ambivalent about the hereditary aristocracy, and kinda hedged the 'powerful together' bit by having already powerful people be even more powerful together. But the point about concentrations of wealth coming at the expense of the impoverished, and the consequences of not seeing the impoverished... she just did such a good job with that, possibly better even than Hardinge does.
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I enjoyed it a lot!
Date: 2022-10-22 01:58 pm (UTC)Interestingly (to me), the themes of the book (tho' not the writing) were very Frances Hardinge, to me. Here's what I said a few years ago about the themes of Frances Hardinge books.
*Do not trust any member of the hereditary aristocracy, however personally well-meaning
*Wealth is always obtained at the expense of the impoverished, and the more invisible the impoverished are the worse their conditions will be
*Monsters are everywhere but can be vanquished, even (sometimes) accidentally
*Powerless people are powerful together.
This was more ambivalent about the hereditary aristocracy, and kinda hedged the 'powerful together' bit by having already powerful people be even more powerful together. But the point about concentrations of wealth coming at the expense of the impoverished, and the consequences of not seeing the impoverished... she just did such a good job with that, possibly better even than Hardinge does.
Thanks,
-V.