Ysabeau S. Wilce

A roving tentacle pops out of a toilet.

AWESOME.

So begins Flora’s Dare, the second book in the Flora Segunda series. Now that Flora is fourteen and has survived all the drama of the previous book, she starts turning her mind towards learning magic. Her problem is that there is no one to teach her, but soon Flora becomes embroiled in other problems, such as the squid that lives under the city, her best friend Udo’s newfound romance, and the startling truth of her own family.

I thought show more Flora’s Dare was a great continuation of Flora Segunda. It has all the same wit and cleverness, and is laugh-out-loud funny. Flora as a narrator is always charming, even when she’s complaining about the chores she has to do or moaning about her tyrannical parents. Her family complications, which I mentioned enjoying in my review of the first book, come back, and you see the General, Poppy, and even Idden at their finest (or not).

If there is a noticeable change in Dare, it’s that it reads slightly more adult. People swear and there are definitely sexual undertones in certain scenes. I like it though. One of the things I appreciate about this series is how subversive it can be. Wilce subverts gender cliches in having a woman as the top general, and men who stay home and take care of the children. Flora’s best friend is an undeniable fop, but his foppishness is not played out to be a weakness. In Dare, when Flora is threatened she warns her enemy that someone big and strong will come and save her, but she refers to this hypothetical person as “she.”

Flora’s Dare is a fantastic, quirky romp. If you haven’t read the first book, go read it. Then come and gobble this second one up. show less

Flora's Dare, by Ysabeau S. Wilce, is the sequel to Flora Segunda, which I read some years ago and enjoyed. Flora lives in an alternate world where magic works, the Aztecs rule client city-states in America, and Flora's town, Califa, is essentially a magical San Francisco (having lived there for many years, I had fun identifying which structures were the basis for which homes in the book). Flora is more determined than ever to become a Ranger like her heroine, Nini Mo, but that means she has show more to learn Gramatica, the language of magic, and there are few potential teachers available to her. In the process of seeking someone to mentor her, Flora learns that the earthquakes menacing Califa are the result of the thrashings of a giant captive squid, which will destroy the city if no one can stop it. And of course, nobody can stop it, except for Flora that is - if only she can escape from her bedroom, where her father has locked her in.... The ending of this book makes it clear that the series is not finished yet, which is a good thing; Flora is a Girl of Spirit and her bumbling adventures are both entertaining and at times a bit scary. In this installment, she learns much more about, well, everything than she ever thought she'd know, and she finds that the people around her are not always who she thinks they are. A bit of a wild ride, but tons of fun! Recommended - but read the first novel first. show less

Flora Nemain Fydraaca ov Fydraaca was the second Flora - Flora Segunda - born to her illustrious family, one of the most powerful in the city of Califa. The legacy of that other, earlier Flora - the one whose loss in the War had driven her father, Poppy, mad - hung over the great Fydraaca household, Crackpot Hall, with its eleven thousand rooms, all falling into disrepair in the absence of its magical Butler. As Flora (Segunda) reluctantly prepares for her upcoming Catorcena, or fourteenth show more birthday celebration, after which she will be considered an adult, and sent off to the Barracks, where all the Fydraacas - being a military family - are trained, she finds herself being drawn into the mystery of Valefor, the magical denizen of Crackpot and her family's banished Butler, as well as an adventure involving the Dainty Pirate - aka Boy Hansgen, the sidekick of Flora's own personal hero, Nini Mo, erstwhile leader of Califa's Rangers. Can Flora, together with her best friend Udo, triumph in her efforts to free both Valefor and Boy Hansgen, or will this new connection to Valefor drag her into Nothingness, and the Abyss...?

Despite its undeniable virtues - its highly original (and convincing) world-building, its fascinating use of language - I was convinced for approximately 90% of my read that Flora Segunda was going to be no more than a solid, enjoyable three-star title for me. I did appreciate the aforementioned world-building, of course - the alternate Californian/Mexican setting, with Califa being dominated by the Aztec-like Huitzils - as well as the mixture of Spanish, Italian(?) and Icelandic language, in the vocabulary of Califa. As someone who's studied Icelandic, I was thrilled to see that the eð - the Icelandic letter ð, pronounced with a voiced "th" sound, as in the beginning of the English word them, and distinguished from the unvoiced "th" sound, as in the English word thorn, which is represented by the letter þ - kept appearing, in names like Landaðon and Haðraaða!

I also appreciated the fact that this was a world of true gender equality, in which women held the same rank as men (Flora's mother is the Warlord's general), and was delighted to learn, through our discussion of the book, over in the Children's Fiction Club which I run on another site, that the idea of "Califa" is actually taken from the work of fifteenth-century Spanish author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, who wrote a series of adventure stories about the explorer Esplandián, and his encounters with Queen Califia, of the island of California (thanks, Bun!). I think I may have to track down some of these stories...

But despite these undeniable virtues, and my interest in the city of Califa, its customs and history, I couldn't say that I was emotionally involved with the characters, to any great extent, until the final section of the book. It was only when Flora met the earlier incarnation of Poppy, while fleeing through Bilskinir House, that I suddenly found myself gripped with any sense of urgency, or concern for the fate of the heroine. Then, on the very last page of the book, when Flore reflects upon the fact that, despite the challenges still ahead, and the failures behind, she had escaped from the worst fate of all - that of Nothingness - it all snapped into place for me, and my appreciation for the book rose dramatically. It suddenly seemed to me that this was the story of a common teenage experience - feeling as if one were a "nothing," being afraid that one would never be anything but a "nothing" - clothed in an appealingly fantastic shell. I've no idea if that was the author's intention, but it lent the entire story an emotional significance, for me, that it hadn't previously had, and convinced me that I needed to read the next installment, Flora's Dare!

I don't know that others will interpret the story as I did, but I think that all fantasy lovers - particularly those who relish intricate and entirely unfamiliar worlds - will enjoy it. show less

Oh my god, this is an amazing book. Hilarious, scary, filled with the most inventive, evocative kinds of magic and place. Great characters. Flora - short, red-headed, hot-headed - and Udo - handsome, charming, a clothes-horse - are basically a match made in heaven. This is a city in which i want to live and party and go on dates with people.