MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 2117

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Fire_Rose/ book placement
	by "Ambermoon Shadowstar" <ambermoon00-+AT+-hotmail.com>

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Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1999 17:36:46 EDT
From: "Ambermoon Shadowstar" <ambermoon00-+AT+-hotmail.com>
To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk
Subject: Fire_Rose/ book placement
Message-ID: <19991024213647.67455.qmail-+AT+-hotmail.com>

Heyla listsibs,

    I really am alive. If not, I should like proof of my ghost standing so I 
can go around playing tricks on people instead of doing my homework, which 
along with other bothersome RL issues has kept me from the list. But I am 
stealing this time, for my one brief walk in the halls of Mist before 
sinking back into (forced) lurkdom.

   A very belated welcome back Alianora! I am in fact still around, or at 
least halfway here. Tell me if you manage to get hold of 
Prince_of_Fire_and_Ashes (I haven't).

   I recently found and read a new (for me) Misty book, The_Fire_Rose. 
Actually, I suppose I should put spoiler space in for this one.
S
P
O
I
L
E
R

S
P
A
C
E

It was enjoyable reading, but I must say I was disappointed. For one thing, 
the characters were all completely one-dimensional. Misty's greatest 
strength is in her characterizations, so I thought it especially a shame. 
Cameron's dubious morality as a robber baron certainly could have been 
explored more, and Rose could have been fleshed out as well. Belfast and du 
Mond seemed below even Misty's usual standards of uncomplicated villains, 
which were remarked on a while ago by someone whose identity I forget. The 
plot was also rather transparent: I guessed that he would remain a beast 
before I was even halfway through. The theme of beast in appearance/ beast 
in soul could have been worked out more as well, IMO. I liked Firebird much 
better for her retold fairy tales; I have yet to find Black_Swan.

E
N
D

S
P
O
I
L
E
R

On the subject of book placement in libraries (and bookstores as well for 
that matter), it is a sad fact that many fine works are hidden in YM. The 
section is not simply horrid teen romance novels; some of the fantasy books 
put there are age-appropriate, for instance Diana Wynne Jones, Patricia C. 
Wrede, Brian Jacques, and early Misty. Others don't belong but often get put 
there anyway by librarians or clerks who don't know what to do with them. (I 
asked a bookstore person about where the best place would be to find the 
titles I wanted, since it seemed they could randomly be in Children's or SF, 
and she said just to keep checking both.) However, I am lucky because the 
library I go to has a whole wall of just SF/Fantasy, and they order new 
books in the genre as well. I am trying to educate my school librarians in 
books of this sort to buy; there have been some improvements.

   See what happens when I don't post for a while . . . . I shall stop now, 
though hopefully my absence this time won't be as long.

meringue sheep to all,
Ambermoon
Singer of Fire
Royal Defender of the Brat

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End of MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 2117
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