(no subject)

[meganbmoore]

Not that I need more books, but can anyone offer up opinion on Sara Douglass's Wayfarer books, Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel books, Brian Sanderson's Mistborn books, or Elizabeth Hayden's Symphony of Ages books?  (Yes, I know those aren't the official titles for some...)

Comments

[anatomiste.livejournal.com]

I believe you don't enjoy characters to whom everything comes easily, and who develop and progress through the plot without real challenges. (I hope I'm paraphrasing your views here correctly!) I'm having trouble deciding where Phedre (the viewpoint character) is according to these criteria--they're not something I think of much when I read; if anything, I like competency, and difficult problems for which a character is ill prepared make me nervous...

This being said, what I do know is that Phedre is a Mary Sue. This is mitigated by her living in a land full of extraordinary and beautiful people, and by the fact that she does develop--while she's clever and creative and charismatic from the start, she also gets wiser in her understanding of her world, so that from the point of view of the end of the second book, her voice at the beginning of the first seems naive.

A major difference between the first and second trilogies (that I actually remember!) is the narration--the first is all by Phedre, the second by another character close to her. In the first, I wasn't bothered by her Mary Sue-ness because I was absorbed by her voice; in the second, the viewpoint character constantly focuses on her from the outside and keeps going ON AND ON AND ON about how perfect and beautiful and good she is.