ArchEnemy by Frank Beddor
Dec. 28th, 2009 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
With the exception of a rebellion early on about which I was rather “meh” (it seemed like Beddor needed something for Alyss and Dodge to do for a while to keep them out of the palace) I think this was a pretty strong conclusion to the series, and definitely a stringer book than its predecessor, Seeing Redd. Though, Alice may have made me appreciate it more than I might have otherwise.
I can’t help but think a conversation between Beddor and the Alice writers might be something like this:
Beddor: You know what’s cool? Queens! Queens are cool! I think I need to have a lot of them!
Alice Writers: Crazy Evil Queens are totally cool! Of course, all good rulers are traditionally men, and that shouldn’t change.
Beddor:You are stupidheads.
Alice Writers: Did you say something?
Beddor: Not a thing. Know what else is cool? Women who discover long lost fathers but are more concerned about whether or not their queen would ever trust them again than being incomplete without paternal approval.
Alice Writers: What? How can she have adventures without constantly fretting about her father? Unless it’s the Boyfriend thing. Personally, we’re prone to having heroines torn between untrustworthy men who may or may not have good intentions and chivalrous sleezes with hearts of gold.
Beddor: I’m more prone to honest, loyal, angsty, swashbuckling (if sometimes annoyingly overprotective) bodyguards who don’t get in the way of the heroine doing her thing myself, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt for a girl to have someone to go on adventures with her, as long as he doesn’t get in the way of saving the world and all.
Alice Writers: Saving the world is more important than angsting over men?
Beddor: Go away Stupidheads, I have to write about royal assassins silently bonding as they take on armies.
Given recent discussions, it may be worth noting that Beddor has a fairly positive take on Dodgson. The worst thing this Dodgson does is assume that a little girl’s claims of coming from another, fantastical world are the product of her imagination. Which, of course, is pretty traumatic if the little girl knows it’s true and thought he was the only one who believed her, but is also understandable.
I can’t help but think a conversation between Beddor and the Alice writers might be something like this:
Beddor: You know what’s cool? Queens! Queens are cool! I think I need to have a lot of them!
Alice Writers: Crazy Evil Queens are totally cool! Of course, all good rulers are traditionally men, and that shouldn’t change.
Beddor:
Alice Writers: Did you say something?
Beddor: Not a thing. Know what else is cool? Women who discover long lost fathers but are more concerned about whether or not their queen would ever trust them again than being incomplete without paternal approval.
Alice Writers: What? How can she have adventures without constantly fretting about her father? Unless it’s the Boyfriend thing. Personally, we’re prone to having heroines torn between untrustworthy men who may or may not have good intentions and chivalrous sleezes with hearts of gold.
Beddor: I’m more prone to honest, loyal, angsty, swashbuckling (if sometimes annoyingly overprotective) bodyguards who don’t get in the way of the heroine doing her thing myself, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt for a girl to have someone to go on adventures with her, as long as he doesn’t get in the way of saving the world and all.
Alice Writers: Saving the world is more important than angsting over men?
Beddor: Go away Stupidheads, I have to write about royal assassins silently bonding as they take on armies.
Given recent discussions, it may be worth noting that Beddor has a fairly positive take on Dodgson. The worst thing this Dodgson does is assume that a little girl’s claims of coming from another, fantastical world are the product of her imagination. Which, of course, is pretty traumatic if the little girl knows it’s true and thought he was the only one who believed her, but is also understandable.