Grishaverse - Shadow and Bone through Ruin and Rising

[olivermoss]

I finished up the trilogy while I was away. My main take-away is that the plot:pages ratio is wild.

I liked a lot of what went on in the series. A lot of things that are often handwaved in a lot of genre fiction I real, they really dealt with the complexity of it. I really like that the book didn't just end and they really went into what life was like after. But, outside of the ending being given a good amount of time to breath, a lot of the series went ahead at a break neck pace with lots of turning on a dime.

Also, some of the steam-punky combining magic with science feels like it would do better in a visual medium. Netflix famously made mincemeat of it, but sections almost felt designed more for a show than a book.

Honestly, I wish I liked it more. There is a lot I like about it.

I am going to read the rest of the Grishaverse books, but I am taking a break between this and starting the Crows books. I also want to re-watch the show, but not until after I read the Crows books

Ending spoilers under the other type of cut

I had trouble vibing with the way the story resolved because Alina spent way more time homesick for the Little Palace or even the army tents than where they grew up. Them not feeling like they ever had a home was a recurring theme and even a plot point. Them going back and making it a home is a lovely idea, but it's kinda sad to me that they are mostly isolated from the other survivors and just have staff that think they are loony tunes.

Also, happy or tragic I wanted more resolution for poor Nicolai, who could only really be understood by Alina or maybe Mal. Even just as friends, I wish they where still in each other's lives and not just rare visits.

In certain ways the ending was beautiful and bittersweet, but I never got the impression that that's what Alina would want from anything in the previous pages of the series. Protect the kids and get away from positions of power? Sure, but actually run the orphanage herself? Have all the other adults, besides Mal, profoundly mis-understand her? I'm glad they are together and the place is under their control, but...idk maybe I'll feel differently if I read more of the books in the series or re-read them later.

Comments

[mistressofmuses]

I really should read the first trilogy... And I somehow didn't realize that there's a duology *after* the Crows duology. (And I don't know how I didn't know that, since I feel like at least the first of those was out when I first read the Six of Crows books.)

[olivermoss]

The whole series is bigger than I realized. The Crows books are a lot long, like many more pages per book. I though they'd been short since I knew a lot of that plot got randomly shoved into the show. It'll be interesting to eventually see it again and see how everything got chopped up.

Also, I posted at least two rants about something in the show not making sense, now that I've read the books I realize what was missing and I was right about it needing a map-based intro like an HBO show.

[mistressofmuses]

I knew that there was the original trilogy, and then the Crows duology (which are each quite long!) I didn't realize there were more after that! I really should read the rest.

I understand that shoehorning the Crows plotline into the show was like, a move to try and capitalize on the popularity of that duology, and I don't think they did a terrible job of where they did make them intersect... but it was also Very Not The Books (at least mostly). It's a shame, because I think there could be a very fun adaptation of them, but it's doubtful it will happen. (The casting was pretty great though, imo.) It'll be interesting to see how you find them, compared with what the show utilized.

Ah! I didn't quite finish the show, but I can see it being helpful to sort of ground the locations a bit, especially when the show jumped around so much.

[olivermoss]

The original trilogy has a wild plot:word-count ratio. I am baffled by what Netflix did, no wait it was Netflix making a short term buzz/marketing decision over long-term anything or ever completing a show. It was Netflix being Netflix.

OMG reading the books and realizing what was going on geographically made me remember how frustrated I was by the show. The show really was a mess

[mistressofmuses]

It makes me so angry that Netflix does that shit. Because I really do think it could have been a great show, and the things the show did well were great! But it had no room to breathe, and it absolutely tried to cram too much in, even when it didn't make sense to do it.

I wish the show hadn't been such a hot mess. I never quite finished it, but I think it had genuine potential that was just... never allowed to be realized.

I'll have to give the rest of the books a read, so I know what the show *should* have been doing...

[olivermoss]

Yeah, that show could have had legs and still be selling merch and stuff. I listened to an audio post by the author and her initial writing class was a screen writing one, which was completely unsurprising to me. I though the books felt written with adaptation in mind, and I might have just been off by a few degrees.

I will get to the Crows book soon... somehow

[mistressofmuses]

Right? It could have been a much more engaging, longer-term story. They could have let it have room to breathe, maybe allowed the different book series to become their own seasons or series instead of trying to force them into the same space.

I'm not shocked to hear that she started off with learning screen writing! My sample pool of her writing is small so far, but I do think that it's very suited to adaptation... and it sucks that such a promising opportunity was squandered by Netflix choosing to Netflix.

(I copied out my TBR list again, filtering in another ebook charity bundle thing I bought, and I am Dismayed all over again, so I really feel that "soon... somehow.")

[olivermoss]

I've got book clubs, the upcoming comic con and now TV show announcements derailing me. I've read a lot this month, but I need to get on some Kingfisher and Starling soooon

[mistressofmuses]

So much keeps happening!

I have two Kingfisher books and another Starling one on my list and theoretically should be hitting them soon. (Multiple bird-named authors...)

[olivermoss]

I didn't even notice the bird names! But yeah, need to get on top of my bird named authors!