Oliver Moss (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
olivermoss) wrote2025-01-02 01:16 am
olivermoss) wrote2025-01-02 01:16 am
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I finished Burning Water and omg I have so many notes...
This book is weird, and not just in an 'artifact of how the late 80s' type way. Some of the things Di and others do in this book protags would not get away with in other Mercedes Lackey books, including ones published around the same time. I have a strong suspicion that with the Valdemar stuff taking off her publisher just wanted to put out more stuff by the author and this was what she had. It's got to be earlier writing. It's a mess. I am fairly certain that the main characters spend more time moralizing than working on the case, but also the morality of Diana Tregarde in this book is incoherent and contradictory.
One of the things that is a departure from ML's typical writing is that she treats POC people like they are their skin color first, people second. There is so much othering of some groups. I am not saying she was perfect later, but she wasn't like this. Also, I'd probably be more annoyed but I was listening to it as a audiobook and it took me a while to realize that the 'Amerind' who had messed up and they needed to put pressure on, they weren't talking about another town, it was a very short lived term for Ingenious People in the US, short for American Indian.
The book is a mess. If I'd read it as e-book I'd probably have a list of quotes I'd copied for effect about race and gender. As it was, Di and Mark constantly, constantly calling any time in the AM 'Ack Emma' is so fucking bad when you are hearing it instead of reading it.
I could dig into the problems of this book for ages, but I just want to focus on one good thing and one cringe thing.
The good: It does not feel like the first book in a series, it feels like a book randomly pulled from the middle of a series, in a good way. The world feels fleshed out and like there is a lot of lore. We do meet some of the referenced characters later on.
The bad: During the 'investigation' where Di passed judgement on all sorts of people and activities, there is a section that is just pure in-group-cringe. Almost every other person who isn't 'totally mind-blind' is wacky and barely functional, unless they get rescued by the Neo-Pagan movement early enough. Even those who do join the movement, if it's too late they are doomed. There is so much detail on that reflects, quite frankly, how some hippy / sci fi fan people act cranked up to 11. Or at least how some of them acted back then. A modern version of this 'look, I am so not like other people into the occult' tour of the community would be taking furries and otaku to task.
To be fair, Di does take Mark to task for finding them odd, but also in a 'we're the lucky ones' sort of a way and, just... there is only one reason to go into so much detail on something that does nothing to actually advance the plot. ML is A-logging hard for a good long time in this book.
Okay, now to end this before I go on about something like how much ink is spilled to show that Di is the smartest and coolest and everyone is impressed. Actually, wait, one more thing... how Di sounds at times, the pointless going on at length about stuff just to show how smart she is, the over-explaining just to make it clear when things go wrong it *wasn't* that Di had a lapse in judgement.. how Di sounds is how I'm scared I sound at times, how I'm scared my writing comes off. Like it almost gave me anxiety because I was like 'tell me I don't sounds like this'
Anyway, really, really hoping I remember right and that Children of the Night is loads better.
This book is weird, and not just in an 'artifact of how the late 80s' type way. Some of the things Di and others do in this book protags would not get away with in other Mercedes Lackey books, including ones published around the same time. I have a strong suspicion that with the Valdemar stuff taking off her publisher just wanted to put out more stuff by the author and this was what she had. It's got to be earlier writing. It's a mess. I am fairly certain that the main characters spend more time moralizing than working on the case, but also the morality of Diana Tregarde in this book is incoherent and contradictory.
One of the things that is a departure from ML's typical writing is that she treats POC people like they are their skin color first, people second. There is so much othering of some groups. I am not saying she was perfect later, but she wasn't like this. Also, I'd probably be more annoyed but I was listening to it as a audiobook and it took me a while to realize that the 'Amerind' who had messed up and they needed to put pressure on, they weren't talking about another town, it was a very short lived term for Ingenious People in the US, short for American Indian.
The book is a mess. If I'd read it as e-book I'd probably have a list of quotes I'd copied for effect about race and gender. As it was, Di and Mark constantly, constantly calling any time in the AM 'Ack Emma' is so fucking bad when you are hearing it instead of reading it.
I could dig into the problems of this book for ages, but I just want to focus on one good thing and one cringe thing.
The good: It does not feel like the first book in a series, it feels like a book randomly pulled from the middle of a series, in a good way. The world feels fleshed out and like there is a lot of lore. We do meet some of the referenced characters later on.
The bad: During the 'investigation' where Di passed judgement on all sorts of people and activities, there is a section that is just pure in-group-cringe. Almost every other person who isn't 'totally mind-blind' is wacky and barely functional, unless they get rescued by the Neo-Pagan movement early enough. Even those who do join the movement, if it's too late they are doomed. There is so much detail on that reflects, quite frankly, how some hippy / sci fi fan people act cranked up to 11. Or at least how some of them acted back then. A modern version of this 'look, I am so not like other people into the occult' tour of the community would be taking furries and otaku to task.
To be fair, Di does take Mark to task for finding them odd, but also in a 'we're the lucky ones' sort of a way and, just... there is only one reason to go into so much detail on something that does nothing to actually advance the plot. ML is A-logging hard for a good long time in this book.
Okay, now to end this before I go on about something like how much ink is spilled to show that Di is the smartest and coolest and everyone is impressed. Actually, wait, one more thing... how Di sounds at times, the pointless going on at length about stuff just to show how smart she is, the over-explaining just to make it clear when things go wrong it *wasn't* that Di had a lapse in judgement.. how Di sounds is how I'm scared I sound at times, how I'm scared my writing comes off. Like it almost gave me anxiety because I was like 'tell me I don't sounds like this'
Anyway, really, really hoping I remember right and that Children of the Night is loads better.
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I tried to reread it a few years later, probably later high school, and bounced off. I can't remember quite why I gave up on the reread, but I remember just not liking it much.
I'd been wondering if I should try it again, and I'm a bit relieved to hear that it's probably not worth the attempt, ha.
Children of the Night... I do think was a lot better, but the flaws were more apparent when I did go back to read it the most recent time as an adult. It's possible that it's nostalgia goggles that lead me to still think of it fondly, but while I don't think it's actually *as* good as teenage-me thought, there's still stuff I enjoyed.
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It was a really formative book for me.