Books 2012: at last, good fiction, we meet again

Books 2012: 8-9


8. Gemma Files, A Book of Tongues. Chizine, 2010.


This book, along with Bear and Monette's Companion to Wolves,is going on my list of books who, despite not having major human female characters, nonetheless demonstrate that it is possible to write books in which the female background characters are never cardboard.

(Me, a cranky feminist? ...Well, yes, now that you mention it.)

It's a good book. I stayed up far too late reading it. Post-Civil-War American West with magic. Dead gods. Solid characterisation. Believable sexual relations between men. A prose style that's mostly clear and really rather pretty, though on occasion it slides towards the baroque.

Cliffhanger, dammit. And I'm too broke to run out and immediately get number two. And number three. (Although if I get number two, perhaps I can convince someone to let me review number three. Maybe. Watch me scheme.)


9. Rae Carson, The Girl of Fire and Thorns. Greenwillow Press, 2011.


YA in the epic fantasy mode with scope and personality. Getting some - deservedly - really good press. I owe stillsostrange and jmeadows and stillnotbored and maybe a couple of others for the recommendation.

It hits the sweet spot. Good characterisation, strong prose, women who talk to each other and whose lives don't necessarily revolve around men, discovering who you can be when you trust yourself, war, explosions, death, a love triangle that really isn't, people being sensible, interesting world-building.

Carson's done a damn solid job here. I understand there's a sequel in the works for late this year: if I tell you my feelings on that are give it to me! give it to me now!...

...I believe you might understand that I very much enjoyed this.

Euripides, Bacchae, 821-848

Διόνυσος

στεῖλαί νυν ἀμφὶ χρωτὶ βυσσίνους πέπλους.

Πενθεύς

τί δὴ τόδ᾽; ἐς γυναῖκας ἐξ ἀνδρὸς τελῶ;

Διόνυσος

μή σε κτάνωσιν, ἢν ἀνὴρ ὀφθῇς ἐκεῖ.

Πενθεύς

εὖ γ᾽ εἶπας αὖ τόδ᾽: ὥς τις εἶ πάλαι σοφός.

Διόνυσος

Διόνυσος ἡμᾶς ἐξεμούσωσεν τάδε. [825]

Πενθεύς

πῶς οὖν γένοιτ᾽ ἂν ἃ σύ με νουθετεῖς καλῶς;

Διόνυσος

ἐγὼ στελῶ σε δωμάτων ἔσω μολών.

Πενθεύς

τίνα στολήν; ἦ θῆλυν; ἀλλ᾽ αἰδώς μ᾽ ἔχει.

Διόνυσος

οὐκέτι θεατὴς μαινάδων πρόθυμος εἶ.

Πενθεύς

στολὴν δὲ τίνα φῂς ἀμφὶ χρῶτ᾽ ἐμὸν βαλεῖν; [830]

Διόνυσος

κόμην μὲν ἐπὶ σῷ κρατὶ ταναὸν ἐκτενῶ.

Πενθεύς

τὸ δεύτερον δὲ σχῆμα τοῦ κόσμου τί μοι;

Διόνυσος

πέπλοι ποδήρεις: ἐπὶ κάρᾳ δ᾽ ἔσται μίτρα.

Πενθεύς

ἦ καί τι πρὸς τοῖσδ᾽ ἄλλο προσθήσεις ἐμοί;

Διόνυσος

θύρσον γε χειρὶ καὶ νεβροῦ στικτὸν δέρας. [835]

Πενθεύς

οὐκ ἂν δυναίμην θῆλυν ἐνδῦναι στολήν.

Διόνυσος

ἀλλ᾽ αἷμα θήσεις συμβαλὼν βάκχαις μάχην.

Πενθεύς

ὀρθῶς: μολεῖν χρὴ πρῶτον εἰς κατασκοπήν.

Διόνυσος

σοφώτερον γοῦν ἢ κακοῖς θηρᾶν κακά.

Πενθεύς

καὶ πῶς δι᾽ ἄστεως εἶμι Καδμείους λαθών; [840]

Διόνυσος

ὁδοὺς ἐρήμους ἴμεν: ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἡγήσομαι.

Πενθεύς

πᾶν κρεῖσσον ὥστε μὴ 'γγελᾶν βάκχας ἐμοί.
ἐλθόντ᾽ ἐς οἴκους ... ἃν δοκῇ βουλεύσομαι.

Διόνυσος

ἔξεστι: πάντῃ τό γ᾽ ἐμὸν εὐτρεπὲς πάρα.

Πενθεύς

στείχοιμ᾽ ἄν: ἢ γὰρ ὅπλ᾽ ἔχων πορεύσομαι [845]
ἢ τοῖσι σοῖσι πείσομαι βουλεύμασιν.

Διόνυσος

γυναῖκες, ἁνὴρ ἐς βόλον καθίσταται,
ἥξει δὲ βάκχας, οὗ θανὼν δώσει δίκην.


Dionysos:
Put on now woven cloth about your body.
[Get dressed now]

Pentheus:
What, this? From a man I'm made into a woman.

Dionysos:
Lest they slay you, if you're seen as a man there.

Pentheus:
Indeed, you're right about this again. You're just like some wise man of old.

Dionysos:
Dionysos taught us these things.

Pentheus:
So how might these things which you advised me come nobly into being?
[So how may I accomplish your advice?]

Dionysos:
I'll make you ready, going inside the house.

Pentheus:
With what garments? Women's? But it's shameful to me.

Dionysos:
No longer, you're a willing spectator of the maenads.

Pentheus:
With what garment do you say you'll cover my body?

Dionysos:
I'll spread out the long hair on your head.

Pentheus:
And what have you aranged for me for the second part of it?

Dionysos:
A garment falling to the feet: and on your head will be a maiden's head-band.

Pentheus:
And what else will you add to this for me?

Dionysos:
A thyrsos in your hands, and the dappled hide of a deer.

Pentheus:
I could not don a female garment.

Dionysos:
But you'll let out blood, [if] joining battle with the bacchantes.

Pentheus:
True. First it's necessary to go spying.

Dionysos:
More wise at least than with troubles to hunt troubles.

Pentheus:
And how through the city am I avoiding the notice of the Kadmeans?

Dionysos:
We're going by a deserted road. I'll lead the way.

Pentheus:
All better on condition that the bacchantes not laughing at me.
[Everything is better as long as the bacchantes don't laugh at me.]
Going into the house... I'll deliberate on what seems good.

Dionyos:
It's allowed. In every way beside me it [is] ready.
[Okay. I'm ready in every way.]

Pentheus:
I should go. For either [I'll go] carrying weapons
or I will obey these plans of yours.

Dionysos:
Women, the man is set down into the cast of the net,
and he'll be present at the bacchae, where by death he'll pay the price.