attackfish (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
attackfish) wrote2011-06-15 04:52 pm
attackfish) wrote2011-06-15 04:52 pm
Entry tags:
The Land of your Dreams: The Secret Country Trillogy by Pamela Dean
The incense is gone from my favorite indy bookstore. And they had a half off sale on some of their YA fantasy. And I have no willpower when confronted with things with actual words and pages. So I bought the series with the prettiest cover and most interesting back cover summary and went home to devour.
Ted and Laura, and their cousins, Ruth, Patrick, and Ellen play a game every time they get together. Between them, they’ve made a place they call the Secret Country. They’ve been telling each other stories about this place since before they could remember. But now, Ruth, Patrick, and Ellen have moved to Australia, and for the the first time, Ted and Laura have no one to play the game with. When all five cousins find themselves in the real Secret Country, they aren’t sure whether they want to go home, or stay together. But when the Secret Country became real, so did all of its perils.
This is old school YA fantasy, classic secondary world, portal fantasy, castles, horses, and swords, fantasy, published in the eighties fantasy. So of course I wanted to read it. I somehow missed this when I actually was a young adult, and that’s just not right. As bored (among other things) as I am by the pseudo medieval settings of many fantasy novels, I can’t deny that sometimes it’s extremely satisfying to fall back on reading something so familiar. Plus, I just plain miss the way there used to be all kinds of YA secondary world fantasy coming out all the time. I mean Urban Fantasy is great, and all, but...
Plus, the premise of The Secret Country trilogy, kids being transported to a fantasy universe of their own creation, gives Dean a chance to invoke and challenge every pillar of standard, post-Tolkien medieval fantasy. And really, it’s a delightful jumble of the standard fantasy tropes with which I grew up, and since Dean pokes some gentle fun at them while she uses them, I can enjoy them guilt free as I pretend to be intellectual and meta.
Of course, The Secret Country trilogy wouldn’t be a very good set of YA novels if all they had going for them was a good concept. Dean’s witty prose, ubiquitous allusions to classic literature (especially Shakespeare, lots and lots of Shakespeare) and spot on characterization make for a highly amusing read.
The first book of the trilogy, which shares the name of the trilogy itself, opens with Ted and Laura stuck with the wrong cousins for the summer. The cousins on the other side of their family, the ones they haven’t spent every summer with since they all existed, and whose parents haven’t shared with their children the love of classic literature on which the five had helped build their friendship. The cousins who don’t like fantasy at all, but some weird science fiction shows instead. Now as a confirmed fantasy geek, whose writing was born from lots of childhood pretend games, and the daughter of a possibly even more confirmed sci fi geek, I love the subtle acknowledgement of the friendly rivalry between the sci fi fandoms and fantasy fandoms. Then, of course, our sci fi fan cousins turn out to be especially into space opera (and a lot of us fantasy fans go in for a good space opera, amiright?) and are playing their own sci fi based pretend game every time they can get away from Ted and Laura long enough... Made me wonder if there’s a universe out there based on their adventures.
Dean also portrays the tension between the main characters’ excitement to be in the world of their games and their anxiety and wish to return home. The plot of the first book of the trilogy in fact revolves around the five cousins’ search for a way to return home. Patrick’s perpetual scepticism about the very existence of the Secret Country, the intellectual knots he tied himself into to try to justify said scepticism, and his siblings’ and cousins’ frustration with him for it kept me giggling throughout the first book.
The second book in the trilogy, The Hidden Land, on the other hand, though the shortest, began to drag a bit. Set between the introduction and build up of the core conceit, and the explanation for said conceit, The Hidden Land had to survive on plot, characterization and good prose. The plots of these novels were never their strong point.
The third book, The Whim of the Dragon, was the longest in the trilogy, packed full of the exposition needed to wrap up the trilogy’s premise. I read it on the plane ride back from DC, so I got the benefit of a straight read-through with nothing else on my mind. Even through I was in exactly the right frame of mind to be absorbed completely into it, I was too busy being dissatisfied with the way the central conceit was explained.
And really, it was that conceit, and the possibilities it presented for which I was reading. Dean’s prose is witty and easy to read, but she enjoys exposition, and, I couldn’t seem to connect with the characters at all. Instead of sinking into the books, I remained detached, and self-aware. I read the books with a sort of knowing amusement that in retrospect makes me wonder how close to home the characterization really hits, and whether I’ve lost touch with the old days of me actually being part of the YA target audience. They weren’t that long ago.
Also, of the four female characters other than the cousins who had any real import to the story, one was a nagging nursemaid who was only present for the first book, one was an annoying, uncaring, creepy unicorn, and the other two were femme fatales. Ruth, one of the main characters, kept referring to one of femme fatales in what were effectively more PG terms for manipulative bitch (slut was implied too). It left a sour taste in my mouth.
Still, all three books kept me laughing. I’d recommend them to longtime fantasy fans, especially adults, but not to non-fantasy fans or anyone looking to enter the genre. The plays on the classic fantasy tropes are deft and witty, and they were fun.
Probably another way to put everything I said above is that I enjoyed The Secret Country trilogy, but I don’t think I’ll be rereading it. I’m still undecided as to whether I’ll make the effort to track down Dean’s adult novel, The Dubious Hills, which takes place in the same universe. Maybe if I see it in the library, or have nothing to read. It’s summer, after all. Pamela Dean can be found on livejournal at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pameladean.
Ted and Laura, and their cousins, Ruth, Patrick, and Ellen play a game every time they get together. Between them, they’ve made a place they call the Secret Country. They’ve been telling each other stories about this place since before they could remember. But now, Ruth, Patrick, and Ellen have moved to Australia, and for the the first time, Ted and Laura have no one to play the game with. When all five cousins find themselves in the real Secret Country, they aren’t sure whether they want to go home, or stay together. But when the Secret Country became real, so did all of its perils.
This is old school YA fantasy, classic secondary world, portal fantasy, castles, horses, and swords, fantasy, published in the eighties fantasy. So of course I wanted to read it. I somehow missed this when I actually was a young adult, and that’s just not right. As bored (among other things) as I am by the pseudo medieval settings of many fantasy novels, I can’t deny that sometimes it’s extremely satisfying to fall back on reading something so familiar. Plus, I just plain miss the way there used to be all kinds of YA secondary world fantasy coming out all the time. I mean Urban Fantasy is great, and all, but...
Plus, the premise of The Secret Country trilogy, kids being transported to a fantasy universe of their own creation, gives Dean a chance to invoke and challenge every pillar of standard, post-Tolkien medieval fantasy. And really, it’s a delightful jumble of the standard fantasy tropes with which I grew up, and since Dean pokes some gentle fun at them while she uses them, I can enjoy them guilt free as I pretend to be intellectual and meta.
Of course, The Secret Country trilogy wouldn’t be a very good set of YA novels if all they had going for them was a good concept. Dean’s witty prose, ubiquitous allusions to classic literature (especially Shakespeare, lots and lots of Shakespeare) and spot on characterization make for a highly amusing read.
The first book of the trilogy, which shares the name of the trilogy itself, opens with Ted and Laura stuck with the wrong cousins for the summer. The cousins on the other side of their family, the ones they haven’t spent every summer with since they all existed, and whose parents haven’t shared with their children the love of classic literature on which the five had helped build their friendship. The cousins who don’t like fantasy at all, but some weird science fiction shows instead. Now as a confirmed fantasy geek, whose writing was born from lots of childhood pretend games, and the daughter of a possibly even more confirmed sci fi geek, I love the subtle acknowledgement of the friendly rivalry between the sci fi fandoms and fantasy fandoms. Then, of course, our sci fi fan cousins turn out to be especially into space opera (and a lot of us fantasy fans go in for a good space opera, amiright?) and are playing their own sci fi based pretend game every time they can get away from Ted and Laura long enough... Made me wonder if there’s a universe out there based on their adventures.
Dean also portrays the tension between the main characters’ excitement to be in the world of their games and their anxiety and wish to return home. The plot of the first book of the trilogy in fact revolves around the five cousins’ search for a way to return home. Patrick’s perpetual scepticism about the very existence of the Secret Country, the intellectual knots he tied himself into to try to justify said scepticism, and his siblings’ and cousins’ frustration with him for it kept me giggling throughout the first book.
The second book in the trilogy, The Hidden Land, on the other hand, though the shortest, began to drag a bit. Set between the introduction and build up of the core conceit, and the explanation for said conceit, The Hidden Land had to survive on plot, characterization and good prose. The plots of these novels were never their strong point.
The third book, The Whim of the Dragon, was the longest in the trilogy, packed full of the exposition needed to wrap up the trilogy’s premise. I read it on the plane ride back from DC, so I got the benefit of a straight read-through with nothing else on my mind. Even through I was in exactly the right frame of mind to be absorbed completely into it, I was too busy being dissatisfied with the way the central conceit was explained.
And really, it was that conceit, and the possibilities it presented for which I was reading. Dean’s prose is witty and easy to read, but she enjoys exposition, and, I couldn’t seem to connect with the characters at all. Instead of sinking into the books, I remained detached, and self-aware. I read the books with a sort of knowing amusement that in retrospect makes me wonder how close to home the characterization really hits, and whether I’ve lost touch with the old days of me actually being part of the YA target audience. They weren’t that long ago.
Also, of the four female characters other than the cousins who had any real import to the story, one was a nagging nursemaid who was only present for the first book, one was an annoying, uncaring, creepy unicorn, and the other two were femme fatales. Ruth, one of the main characters, kept referring to one of femme fatales in what were effectively more PG terms for manipulative bitch (slut was implied too). It left a sour taste in my mouth.
Still, all three books kept me laughing. I’d recommend them to longtime fantasy fans, especially adults, but not to non-fantasy fans or anyone looking to enter the genre. The plays on the classic fantasy tropes are deft and witty, and they were fun.
Probably another way to put everything I said above is that I enjoyed The Secret Country trilogy, but I don’t think I’ll be rereading it. I’m still undecided as to whether I’ll make the effort to track down Dean’s adult novel, The Dubious Hills, which takes place in the same universe. Maybe if I see it in the library, or have nothing to read. It’s summer, after all. Pamela Dean can be found on livejournal at
pameladean.