Fran Wilde

Almost halfway through the season, this is the guest author contribution. I've only known Fran Wilde as author of second-world Fantasy before, so this seemed a somewhat surprising choice, but it is obvious throughout the installment that the author was having lots of fun with this, and even appears to have some done research (or maybe just happens to know Prague well), going by the extensive name dropping of street and place names.

In short, another enjoyable episode, in a second season that show more so far I'm enjoying even more than the first: things come to a first crisis here as almost everyone of any relevance is converging at a boxing match, and complications are piled upon complications. Like in Season One, the plot is a mess but it seems a far more focused mess as the various intrigues actually are related to each other (even if most of the players are at this stage unaware of that). Utterly delightful. show less

Though initially delighted to get my hands on an advanced copy of Riverland, I soon felt burdened by the task of getting through what I had expected to be a fun and fast read. It strikes me as one of those books that simply should have been better. The author seems to be smart and a good writer. She presents an interesting concept with lots of unique elements to make it stick out, but somewhere in the writing process it must have just fallen apart.

The way the story unravels is the real heart show more of the matter. During the sisters's first journey to the magical other-world, the stakes are set pretty high; the boundaries between reality and the world of dreams are collapsing, and it is our heroines's responsibility to fix it. I strapped myself in for a tense fantasy with lots of harrowing near-misses and a constant clock ticking down to doomsday. But then the girls go back to their world and just... Go about their normal lives for a couple days? Most of the subsequent returns to the dream-world, a place they can only visit at night lest they get trapped there, are spent just lazily touring around, and these visits always end with a mad dash back to their world. The emotions that any one chapter were meant to evoke in the reader felt totally incongruous.

For a while, I thought Fran Wilde was employing a clever gimmick by having the tone of and movement through the dream-world reflect how time often unwinds at weird rates in dreams. In the same way, I assumed Wilde's poetic writing style and her descriptions that managed to be both very specific and fuzzy-'round-the-edges were a part of a dream motif. Since neither of these were ever proven to be on purpose, I assume they were just flukes.

For what it's worth, Wilde does capture the inner world of an abused child well. Both sisters are hyper-aware of their mistakes, because they've grown up in a context where any error has dire consequences. They use imagination as a coping mechanism. They also condemn all anger, even the normal and healthy kind, because of their associations with their raging father. As a librarian, I welcome books that will expose kids to real-life struggles. Riverland could have been a good resource for children in messy family situations, but I fear the odd style and pacing will make it inaccessible to the kids who need it most. show less

I went into Riverland blind, not even remembering Fran Wilde had written a couple short stories I had read. So I went in not expecting much, especially since none of the other 2019 Lodestar Award finalists really rose above the level of "pretty good." It took me a bit of time to orient myself in Riverland, and I wasn't sure what I thought because I wasn't exactly sure what was actually happening. (It's a tricky thing, fantasy books where something is magic and something else is only pretend show more magic.) But once I figured it out, I was hooked. Riverland is about two preteen sisters who use storytelling as a refuge from an awful home life; the older sister, Eleanor, is our viewpoint character as she works her hardest to protect her younger sister, and to keep herself out of the line of fire, too, by taking on responsibilities no child should have to. I found the book's depiction of her home life actually made me anxious, I was so worried about her. The way the fantasy elements are woven in is really effective, and though I struggled a tiny bit with the exposition, the fantasy world is evocative and the stakes high. show less

I had a lot of high hopes for this. I really did. I thought to myself, "Oh wow, a society of fliers. A whole world of fliers! This could be utterly awesome, giving me lots and lots of necessary extrapolations and unusual twists and turns, whether societal, setting, or even character-centered."

Instead, I'm introduced to a completely forgettable and utterly predictable plot, with: A Chosen One. An Outcast Sect. War like a Football Game.

Huh? Am I reading YA? Trials, graduation, snobby rich show more kids, dashed expectations. Okay. there was a little flying, but it was like listening to a game. Where were the serious consequences? Oh... serious consequences are all in the dashed expectations: The MC and ME.

Later on, the plot remains absolutely scrutable. She can choose to level up with tattoos that give her better blah blah at the risk of blah blah, she'll have to remain outside of the regular caste and Sing. Yeah. Like a bat. And like a siren. And oh yeah, don't feed the animals.

The worldbuilding is probably the best part of the novel, but it is mostly there in the background, and it went deep enough to flog my waning attention.

Seriously, I wanted more flight and a story that wasn't exactly like EVERY OTHER recently popular dystopian YA novel. I was never surprised. Not even once. There were lots of opportunities for the novel to break off in new directions.

Do we really want another story about a squad of outsider tribals trying to save the misunderstood animal species from the other tribals? Substitute pieces at your convenience.

Other than that, it wasn't like the novel was written poorly. It wasn't. All my interest just drained away because it didn't bother to stand out. It just followed formula and relied on setting to try and carry it.

I DID like the novel better when I thought about the kinds of adventures that I might have had. The possibilities are still there, sitting unrealized. I just don't think I'll go out of my way to find them out except in my own head.

I'm rather disappointed. show less