50 in '11: #5

[sakon76]

Title: Rosemary and Rue
Author: seanan_mcguire
Length: 346 pages

Okay, so I bought this book for Wonderful Husband sometime last year and have been holding off on reading it for a couple of reasons. One of which was the fact that his bookmark has been stuck at page 95 for months (I largely ignore the fact that he doesn't read as much as he should in favor of the fact that I don't read nearly as much as I should... and my "doesn't read enough" has a lot more pages in the theoretical goal count than his). Another was that I know one of the author's close friends and had a probably self-imposed mental pressure going that way. And a third was that the cover and summary gave me the impression that this was a film noir universe (IE, the universe is corrupt and nothing anyone can do will ever change that), and I despise film noir. I loathe it with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. It ain't my thing.

But last night after getting only mild critiques at my writing class, I felt the need to read something. And given that I had a doctor's appointment this morning (yay waiting room), I wanted a paperback. So I snagged a second bookmark, finessed the book out of Wonderful Husband's pile, and was over a hundred pages in by lights out.

Fortunately for me, it's not a film noir urban fantasy. The Powers That Be in the universe are complex... some good, some bad, some insane, and some absent. It's very clearly set in the author's home turf (having been reading her blog for several years, I can almost spot which sections she has physically tramped over or through as well as which experiences were drawn from her own life). It's a well-fleshed-out universe (my writing teacher would go into fits over how many minor characters Seanan has in play, but then I have issues with a good portion of what my writing teacher presents as gospel), and very clearly the first book in a series. The main plot of this book gets finished, but there are many threads that get raised to hopefully be resolved in the future.

The Fae... well, I'm probably at a disadvantage having Mercedes Lackey's books as my main comparison. Short version, they worked within the mythology she set up as the background of the universe. I ended up with only one dangling question regarding things recorded to be played back later (technology interacting with magic), but even if I ever meet Seanan again, I'm not sure I'll ask it. I don't like sounding stupid and given the level of detail she puts into everything, I've no doubt she knows how it works within the context of this universe.

Verdict: Recommended, especially if you like mythology, fairy tales, San Francisco, and urban fantasy. In any combination.

Comments

[femme4jack.livejournal.com]

Sounds very good!

[tainry.livejournal.com]

Ah! I have that one in the stacks somewhere too! Bought mostly because another author here on LJ said it was fabby and also because it's set in SF - a city I love to visit but am of two minds about moving into as a resident. <3 I'm probably stuck on page 95 or thereabouts as well. ^^; I got distracted by some very, very good space opera and a metric aftload of nonfiction. I was wary because I burned out on urban fantasy in the late 80's reading too much DeLint all at once. ^^;;;;;;; Anyway, there are things I definitely like about Rosemary & Rue so far - I just need to get back to it.