when we left our heroes ...

[truepenny]

I have uploaded Chapter Two of The Virtu.

If you need or want the plain text version, it's here.

[ETA: just in case you're coming late to the ballgame, Chapter One is here. Or here in plain text.]

Comments

[woodrunner.livejournal.com]

UNCLE!

I was already convinced to buy it after the first chapter... Reading more will make me salivate impatiently.

[godream.livejournal.com]

Oh, awesome. And we have to wait till July to buy the whole thing? *impatient sigh* Thanks for the excerpt!

Chapter Two

[adelev.livejournal.com]

Fantastic. And I mean that both literally and sarcastically. The first chapter was good, but this chapter, quite aside from any assessment of "quality", is everything I look for when I choose a fantasy book to read just for the pleasure of it. And so how the heck am I supposed to wait until July to get this book?? Or even until next month for the next chapter for that matter? Ah well, if I must, I must...

Thank you.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Horrid temptress! I am trying to WAIT. [cries]

Well, not really. I actually feel okay. I will just pretend this post NEVER HAPPENED.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I wish I had something clever to say, to prove I was reading, but no. I am so happy you posted this! And also very grateful for the plain text.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

You don't have to prove anything--at least not to me. I'm just glad you like it.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I like it lots! You picked up on things I wasn't expecting to see continued, so I am startled and pleased. And I was already rereading Melusine after The Queen in Winter made me impatient for more of your writing.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Okay, now I'm curious. Which things were you not expecting me to pick up again?

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Incest.* Labyrinths. Oneiromancy.

... which I guess is everything, leaving the question of what I did expect you to pick up. Hmm. I expected the plot to concentrate on getting Felix (and Mildmay) back to Melusine (forgive me, I am going to be lazy about accent marks) and on reversing or at least recomplicating the magical and political damage done by Malkior. The labyrinths and everything about Troia felt very much like plot-machinery -- no, that's not quite it. Troia felt like plot machinery, something to get Felix out of his immediate mess; it was so convenient for the plot that I didn't expect any parts of it to have independent life. Whereas the labyrinth seemed so disconnected from the rest of the plot that I sort of read it as local color.

This is sounding very negative, and I don't mean it to be. What it feels like, as a reading experience, is that the first two chapters of The Virtu make Melusine's structure seem more solid in retrospect.

* This is especially funny to me because I have been reading so much manga and also because I read chapter two the day after reading an article on genetic sexual attraction (http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,956454,00.html) and the chapter on same in Jared Diamond's The Third Chimpanzee.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Huh. That's interesting.

Thank you!

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Also, your prose is delicious. Just in general. I mentioned this elsewhere today, but you might not have seen it, so I thought it was worth mentioning again.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

::blushes::
Thank you!

And, no, wherever else you said that, I haven't seen it.

[(Anonymous)]

This drip-feeding is agonising but I don't seem to be able to stop. Felix does a have a bit of a problem with the concept of love without desire doesn't he? although he's really good on desire without love.

Margaret