... 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.
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momijizukamori
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Date: 2006-04-05 10:08 pm (UTC)... 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.