Book with a Shadow: Chalice
Oct. 3rd, 2021 02:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ermingardenDay 3 of the October book meme:
3. A book where you really wanted to be reading the "shadow" version of the book (as in, there are traces of a different book in the work and you would have preferred to read that one)
Chalice by Robin McKinley
I absolutely loved reading Chalice. Many of the elements that most intrigued me, though – How do the elemental priesthoods work? What is it like to become a priest of Fire, and to live as one? – were left sketched out rather than fully developed. That's not a criticism of the book: Chalice is Mirasol's story, so it makes perfect sense that we only have a vague sense of things she doesn't have personal knowledge of. But if Chalice is Mirasol's story, its shadow is Liapnir's story, and the shadow does interest me a little more. Well, that's what fanfic is for....
The remaining questions:
4. A book with a worldbuilding detail that has stuck with you
5. A book where you loved the premise but the execution left you cold
6. A book where you were dubious about the premise but loved the work
7. The most imaginative book you've seen lately
8. A book that feels like it was written just for you
9. A book that reminds you of someone
10. A book that belongs to a specific time in your mind, caught in amber
11. A book that came to you at exactly the right time
12. A book that came to you at the wrong time
13. A book with a premise you'd never seen before quite like that
14. A book balanced on a knife edge
15. A snuffed candle of a book
16. A book you'd take with you while you were being ferried on dark underground rivers
17. A book that taught you something about yourself
18. A book that went after its premise like an explosion
19. A book that started a pilgrimage
20. A frigid ice bath of a book
21. A warm blanket of a book
22. A book written into your psyche
23. A book that made you bleed
24. A book that asked a question you've never had an answer to
25. A book that answered a question you never asked
26. A book you recommend but cannot love
27. A book you love but cannot recommend
28. A book you adore that people are surprised by
29. A book you detest that people are surprised by
30. A book that led you home
3. A book where you really wanted to be reading the "shadow" version of the book (as in, there are traces of a different book in the work and you would have preferred to read that one)
Chalice by Robin McKinley
I absolutely loved reading Chalice. Many of the elements that most intrigued me, though – How do the elemental priesthoods work? What is it like to become a priest of Fire, and to live as one? – were left sketched out rather than fully developed. That's not a criticism of the book: Chalice is Mirasol's story, so it makes perfect sense that we only have a vague sense of things she doesn't have personal knowledge of. But if Chalice is Mirasol's story, its shadow is Liapnir's story, and the shadow does interest me a little more. Well, that's what fanfic is for....
The remaining questions:
4. A book with a worldbuilding detail that has stuck with you
5. A book where you loved the premise but the execution left you cold
6. A book where you were dubious about the premise but loved the work
7. The most imaginative book you've seen lately
8. A book that feels like it was written just for you
9. A book that reminds you of someone
10. A book that belongs to a specific time in your mind, caught in amber
11. A book that came to you at exactly the right time
12. A book that came to you at the wrong time
13. A book with a premise you'd never seen before quite like that
14. A book balanced on a knife edge
15. A snuffed candle of a book
16. A book you'd take with you while you were being ferried on dark underground rivers
17. A book that taught you something about yourself
18. A book that went after its premise like an explosion
19. A book that started a pilgrimage
20. A frigid ice bath of a book
21. A warm blanket of a book
22. A book written into your psyche
23. A book that made you bleed
24. A book that asked a question you've never had an answer to
25. A book that answered a question you never asked
26. A book you recommend but cannot love
27. A book you love but cannot recommend
28. A book you adore that people are surprised by
29. A book you detest that people are surprised by
30. A book that led you home
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-03 06:25 pm (UTC)I would also like an explanation of why there's no priest of Water, to go with Fire, Air, and Earth--it's been a while since I read the book, so I don't recall if that was ever explained, but... seems like an interesting omission if so!
(For me, the structure of the Circles and demesnes are what I can't stop thinking about. Are Chalices always female? How do other places outside the Willowlands function? Are there variations in the system? And so on.)
Either way, it all comes down to fanfiction, doesn't it?
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-03 07:05 pm (UTC)It sure does – but the problem is, then we have to go to all the trouble of writing it ourselves, and I'm lazy!
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-03 06:39 pm (UTC)I think the shadow story, for me, is that of the Chalice who came before Mirasol.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-03 07:01 pm (UTC)The only other book I've read by McKinley is Spindle's End, which I did not like nearly so much as Chalice, so I can't really speak to her general tendencies.
I'm of two minds about the previous Chalice: On the one hand, I am curious about her! On the other, I do like how we see Mirasol and Liapnir having to deal with the aftermath of a tragedy they themselves don't really understand, and I think knowing more about her would diminish that. (In that regard it reminds me a little bit of Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides, another novel I love.) Perhaps McKinley should have pulled a JRRT and included appendices!
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-03 07:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-03 07:16 pm (UTC)