Crown Duel

Warning: angry rant. I was going to review this on my blog, but I tend to leave my more ranty stuff here and the better thought out, critical things on my blog.

Bran sighed. “I thought it a good notion, but obviously you don't. Here. You do whatever you think best. I'll bide by it.” He dropped the wallet into my lap. “But I wish you'd give them a fair listen.”

Well, no one can fault me for not giving this book a fair chance.

I don't know if it's because of the books I've been choosing, or if I'm just apathetic about all books right now, but lately my books have ranged from okay to I hate it with a passion.

This one falls in the later category.

Honestly, I should have listened to myself when, eight pages into it, I took a break. I had this instinct that I wouldn't like it. The strange part is that what I thought would be my problem wasn't.

The world is typical of fantasy. No complaints except the fact that I am getting tired of it. The plot starts off so slowly and I was ready to say the most memorable thing about this book was my boredom - then it picked up only to promptly turn into a ‘captured - escape - captured - escape' cycle over and over as our main character traveled though the countryside.

Allow me to note two things about that last sentence. First, I hate the ‘endless journey' type of stories. They never work for me, and no, I don't believe every traveling story is an endless journey. I like quest style adventures, where the character/s are working towards a destination. I hate the books where the character/s are constantly moving, returning to a place they left and generally going in circles or backtracking.

Secondly, I cannot call our main character (Meliara by name, countess by birth) our heroine. Because, and here is where the killing it with fire comes it, I hate her.

Now thoroughly annoyed, I said, “Well, if you're done listening to us sit here and make fools of ourselves, why don't we get on to whatever it is you're going to hold over our heads next?”

She thinks everyone is out to get her, that they are laughing at her simple country ways. So she plays up her ‘wildness'. She'd rather meet the prince wearing holey, patched and filthy clothes than a borrowed dress. Why? Because if she keeps up the whole ‘provincial filth' line, then she doesn't have to worry about anyone actually laughing at her - because, well, they don't truly know her, do they?

There was no irony visible in face or manner as he wished me a safe journey. I felt my face go hot as I gritted out a stilted “Thank you.”

She is a self-absorbed, self-obsessed little brat that has to be always right. She is shrill and surly. She refuses to think about things from another perspective because her way is the only way. She won't listen to anyone. She's insecure so she's over compensating by taking it out on everyone around her.

She always thinks the worst of people - that they're laughing at her thick, country ways behind their hands. That if they're not willing to stand and fight (and die, thanks to the horrid plan she made because, after all, her brother's no warrior) then there's something wrong with them. She claims to have spent all these years preparing to ‘free' the ‘commoners' but, when she finds out that they're content, she wonders if it was all a waste. She refuses to look past face value. She's useless and worthless and, as much as she might try to deny it, she's doing all this for the accolades.

But I had been raised to think of others (...)

Well then her parents must be so proud of her. She refuses to think about anyone else's position. She's hypocritical. It's all some else's fault. She's going to destroy her people out of pure spite.

What might be even worse than all this is that no one calls her on it and they are always making excuses for her. It's not her fault - no matter how stupid the thing she does is. After all, she is a ‘lively' and ‘spirited' girl. (Both quotes taken from professional reviews on the book.)

I sincerely wish ‘spirited' didn't mean the same as ‘unruly, stubborn brat'.

Finally, I speculate that the guy that had been nothing but kind to her is going to be a love interest in the sequel. Which is a shame because him, I like. In fact, if they'd commit an uprising and burn the countess, I'd like everyone in the book. (I already do kind of like everyone else.)

I first encountered Sherwood Smith in an excellent anthology ([b:Firebirds 40160 Firebirds An Anthology of Original Fantasy and Science Fiction Sharyn November http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309211431s/40160.jpg 17234924]), where I was taken with her story “Beauty”. Purely on the strength of that story, I went right out and bought the related double novel, [b:Crown Duel 8612613 Crown Duel Sherwood Smith http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1279746420s/8612613.jpg 4398231]. I'm sorry to stay the story was far better than the book. In fairness, I note that the story was written several years later.This first book was disappointing. For one thing, some of the language is careless. Early on, a pair of characters are described as having hip flagons. Flagons? Flasks are traditional here. A flagon is large pretty much by definition, generally not watertight, and basically not suited for the hip. There are a few others like this; not a lot, but enough to throw me off as a reader, and to weaken my confidence in the author. Some continuity flaws don't help.The story itself is determinedly Young Adult, though the protagonist's age is never clear. That's no problem; I like YA. But even writing about a teenager doesn't excuse some of the weakness here. For example, on the run, fearing torture and death, repeatedly ill, just past escaping a trap, and literally surrounded, Mel nonetheless decides to play a childish prank. Young is one thing. Dumb is another, and not one that most readers are looking to relate to.Even before that point, the story has its flaws. Mel is injured, gets sick, gets rescued and partly healed, gets sick, gets rescued and partly healed, gets sick ... you see where this is going. It's just not the most inventive of plots. There were opportunities here for some interesting growth and reflection, as Mel and her idealism confront cold hard reality, and realizes there's more to the world than she knew. Unfortunately, that brief realization is about as far as she goes. The characters are likeable and Mel is mildly fun, but there's no real depth anywhere.All in all, disappointing. I admit that the short story left me expecting a lot, but this isn't even close to what I hoped for. If I hadn't bought this as a double novel, I wouldn't have gone on to [b:Court Duel 596308 Court Duel (Crown & Court, #2) Sherwood Smith http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328052963s/596308.jpg 16280489].