Maura McHugh has an incredibly nice and super insightful review of Flora Segunda on her blog. Of all the reviews I've gotten so far, Maura's the only one to point out a few effects I was working hard to achieve, and which--since no one else had noted them--I feared I had utterly failed to achieve.
All good reviews are delightful, of course, but this one is particularly pleasing. I find it easy to get all the whiz-bang adventurey hi-jinks down, it's the subtle stuff that is so very very hard. Trying to strike a balance between telegraphing your sub-text (and then it's hardly subtext any more is it?) and being so sub-textual that you are sub-sub and no one notices--that's a difficult teeter-totter to stay on.
Thank you, Maura!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
You didn't fail to telegraph those subtleties, because even I noticed them and I'm subtlety-challenged. But probably not many people will be able to describe the more subtextual dynamics quite as well as M. McHugh did. Instead you'll get kids saying things like, "My [mom/dad/so-called life] is just like that!"
Here's something I don't know if you intended to telegraph or not, but I was glad to see it (even if it turns out my wires were crossed and I'm making it up out of whole cloth): There's room for ordinary, even slightly gauche people in Califa too! So many of your citizens and denizens seem to be gifted with supersized globs of innate "cool." Take Ban ... yikes! downright intimidating! -- and Udo and Val seem like they're on a fast track to hipsterdom. But for me Flora was really true-to-lifesized and approachable from beginning to end, very easy to identify with, yet still a completely effective heroine. I liked her a lot. Consider the next installment bought.
Thanks Ysabeau, I'm glad you liked my review, but of course, it's just a reflection of your excellent writing. :)
Post a Comment