Read-Along: Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett, Part 3 (Final)

Today concludes the read-along of Terry Pratchett’s Wintersmith.   For the next three weeks, I will be participating in a read-along of the final novel in the Tiffany Aching series, I Shall Wear Midnight. I’m also planning on joining a read-along of Scott Lynch’s Republic of Thieves in November.  I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes next for Locke & Jean!

The questions for today are provided by Dab of Darkness, and cover from chapter 8 to the end of Wintersmith.  There are spoilers through the end of Wintersmith ahead.

1) What did you think of Annagramma's blunderings and then her reveal to Tiffany about her parentage? 

I think it makes sense, in the end.  Annagramma has a somewhat similar background to Tiffany, but instead of being proud of it, she wants to hide it. A lot of Tiffany’s witchery is about being true to herself, while Annagramma’s has been tied up with pretending she’s someone else.  I suppose putting on an act is actually a fundamental part of Annagramma’s identity, in a way.  Luckily, a good act is exactly what her townspeople want!  She just had to change up her props a little to fit what they needed.  Things have ended up a lot happier for Annagramma than I expected.

2) Lady Summer makes herself known in this section of the book. How did your impressions change with each time we saw her? 

The first glimpse of her was pretty much what I expected, she seemed irritated that some young thing had usurped her position.  I hadn’t considered how deadly the Summer Lady is, though.  I guess I was thinking of her more as the Spring Lady, making things grow and bringing abundance.  I guess the point was that life depends on the dance between the Summer Lady and the Wintersmith, and can’t endure with either of them alone.

3) Ah, the Cornucopia, the Horn of Plenty. Was it all you expected? What would you ask from the Cornucopia if you had it for a day? 

Gruyère, filet mignon, and French wine.  I’m sure only the best would come from the cornucopia!

4) Werk, werk, werk. So many chickens! Which is worse: 5 kilted Feegles hiding under your bed or a house full of chickens? What would you do with so many of the feathered egg-laying manure factories? 

I think the chickens would probably smell worse (though I know the Feegles don’t often bathe).  Realistically, I would probably sell them to somebody.  My little apartment has no room for chickens.

5) The winter was a harsh one, with wolves in the ice tunnels. However, Mistress Weatherwax put a stop to the wolves but never said how. What do you think she did? 

My immediate thought was that she killed them all, but that seems very un-Weatherwax-like.  My second thought was that she gave them a look, and they knew they’d best not cross her.

6) The immortal who tried to make himself into a man: did you enjoy the Wintersmith's attempts to make himself a man?

It was often funny, but also a bit chilling at times (no pun intended).  I can see how Tiffany pitied him—he had no idea what it was he was missing about being human. He gained the ability to think and to move like a human, but never the ability to understand human existence.

 7) Granny Weatherwax tests Rob Anybody's spelling and then sets him a heroic task. Do you think she was right to set that in motion or do you think someone else would have some up with the same idea?

I think Rob and the Feegles were the right people to send.  They’ve wandered around in pretty much all worlds, so they had a lot of knowledge to help Roland out in the underworld (though that is a really weird statement to make about Feegles).  Granny Weatherwax made the point that they can’t be heroic because they aren’t afraid of the underworld—but at the same time, I think their lack of fear helped Roland out.  And, you know, maybe they’ll come back down to the underworld with Roland later to kill all the monsters.  They can bring sandwiches and have a picnic afterward.

8) Finally, did you applaud Tiffany's solution to the Wintersmith dilemma? Did you find the ending satisfactory?

Yes, it makes sense that winter has to die for spring to come.  And she didn’t destroy him and his castle because she hated him, she did it because it was what she was supposed to do. 

Review: The Highest Frontier by Joan Slonczewski

The Highest Frontier by Joan Slonczewski

Published : Tor 2011

Awards Won : John W. Campbell Memorial Award

The Book :

”Jennifer Ramos Kennedy, a girl from a rich and politically influential family (a distant relation descended from the famous Kennedy clan), whose twin brother has died in an accident and left her bereft, is about to enter her freshman year at Frontera College.

Frontera is an exciting school built with media money, and a bit from tribal casinos too, dedicated to educating the best and brightest of this future world. We accompany Jenny as she proceeds through her early days at school, encountering surprises and wonders and some unpleasant problems. The Earth is altered by global warming, and an invasive alien species called ultraphytes threatens the surviving ecosystem. Jenny is being raised for great things, but while she's in school she just wants to do her homework, go on a few dates, and get by.” ~WWEnd.com

This is my 8^th novel for the Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge over at World's Without End, which means that I've never read anything by Joan Slonczewski before.

My Thoughts:

The Highest Frontier is basically a story of daily life, focusing on the activities of a freshman college student and the school's president. The timescale is roughly the first semester of Jenny's college career. She spends her days involved with schoolwork, research, social activities, volunteer work, local and national politics, and slanball, a zero-gravity sport where the ball is handled by thought power. President Dylan Chase, on the other hand, primarily deals with administrative problems and his relationship with his partner, who is the local pastor. There are tons of interesting scenes and subplots, but I kept expecting the story to build up into something more. While there was something of a climactic event near the end of the book, I didn't feel like it tied everything together. I'm left wondering if this is going to be the first of a series, and the more intriguing issues will be further explored in future installments.

A lot has gone into building Jenny and Dylan's world, far more than I can possibly discuss in detail here. Some aspects seemed spot on as an extrapolation from the present, such as the obsession with social media and constant connectivity (to Toynet, the next generation internet), as well as the weakening of academic curricula. Other things seemed a bit strange, like that a primary divide between political parties was the religious point of whether or not space existed beyond Earth's moon. I also found the cultural obsession with Marilyn Monroe and Paul Newman a little odd, considering that their heyday is already roughly half a century in the past. The environmental degradation of the Earth is pretty scary, as is the precariousness of life in space habitats, despite their Star-Trek-replicator-like amyloid technology.

There are many characters in the story, but many seemed to have a certain childish quality. I think that this might be an aspect of the future culture, with its Toynet escapism and coddling academics. Despite the dangerous decline of Earth, technology seemed to allow most of the rich to hide safely in their fantasies. Most of the students of Frontera, like Jenny, come from extremely wealthy and well-connected families, but we see some of them come out of their sheltered bubbles as they get to know the poor settlers in the nearby farming colony. I initially found Jenny to be an irritating heroine, mostly due to her extremely privileged life and her condescension towards others. As time went on, though, I think she showed herself to be a genuinely good kid, who just needed to learn more about the world and other people. Even if the story ultimately felt like just a series of events, it was fun to watch Jenny slowing maturing.

My Rating: 3.5/5

The science-fiction-daily-life story of The Highest Frontier follows Jenny's first semester of college, as well as the college president's life in the same time period. The world was very detailed, and while some aspects seemed a little farfetched, others were a disenheartening extrapolation of current trends. There are tons of subplots that are interesting in their own rights, but I never felt like they gelled into a complete story. I am wondering if there is a sequel planned, which might include a continuation of topics such as Earth's deteriorating environment, the difficulties of life in orbit, and the developing situation concerning the alien ultraphytes.   

Read-Along: Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett, Part 2

It’s time for week two of the read-along of Terry Pratchett’s Wintersmith! This week’s reading is chapters 5 through 7, and questions have been provided by Lisa of the blog Over the Effing Rainbow.  I actually decided to travel to London this weekend, just to get more in the mood of British fantasy while writing my answers!  (Okay, not entirely true, I went to actually went London to see friends, and it just happened to coincide with the Wintersmith reading ^_^.)

  

1. "I'm not here..." At Miss Treason's funeral, we see Tiffany get the better of the Feegles, sneaky though they are! What do you think of the way Tiffany's 'witching' is getting better here?

I think it’s kind of interesting that the types of “witching” Tiffany is best at involve manipulating herself, more than her surroundings.  In the previous books, her “See Me” trick was her most advanced skill (though it turned out to be pretty dangerous), and here we see her able to render herself effectively invisible.  Even the warmth magic we see at the beginning of the book primarily involved her holding herself in balance, rather than tossing elemental energy around randomly.  I think it’s a pretty cool take on “witchery”, and it’s also pretty impressive that she can out-hide pictsies. 

2. It's decided that Annagramma gets the cottage, at the meeting of witches - but we learn that Mistress Weatherwax put Tiffany forward for it. Do you think Tiffany should have gotten the cottage?

No, I don’t think so.  For one thing, she didn’t want it.  She wants to go home to the Chalk.  For another, while she is probably skilled enough at this point to take on a cottage, it would not help her in the witch network.  A lot of witchery seems to be social-network influenced, and having a young girl promoted over all the older, more experienced contenders, just because she was a pet of Mistress Weatherwax’s, would not do wonders for Tiffany’s reputation.  So, I think Mistress Weatherwax would be right to say Tiffany was ready for it, but I don't think everyone else would see it that way.  I tend to agree with Tiffany that the whole situation was a designed by Mistress Weatherwax to show everyone that Mrs. Earwig is a lousy witch teacher.

3. Nanny Ogg appears at last, to take Tiffany in while the wintersmith's about. Next to Mistress Weatherwax, she's my favourite of the witches! What do you think of her so far?

She seems pretty great.  All of the witches we’ve seen so far have been very solitary, so it’s nice to see that this is not necessarily the rule.  It’s also nice to see that women can have magic and families in Discworld.  I like that we have both a very stereotypical witch (Miss Treason) and a very non-stereotypical witch (Nanny Ogg) in the same story.

4. We learn a little more about "the dance" that Tiffany interrupted, now - and I love the summer-winter mythology that's explained to her here. What's your take on the effect it's having on Tiffany (and her feet)? And do you think we'll be seeing more of the Summer Lady as well as the Wintersmith?

I think we’ll be seeing more of the Summer Lady in Tiffany, and possibly more minor gods like Anoia.  I think we will definitely see more of the Wintersmith, in a literal sense, because he seems quite determined to construct himself a human body. 

5. Poor Annagramma ... I'm starting to have a little more sympathy for her now, as she turns up desperately seeking skulls! Do you think she's got what it takes to be a good witch, when it counts? Or is her case as hopeless as it seems?

I think it is as hopeless as it seems.  It’s not that she’s a bad person, but she just really isn’t cut out for this.  And as Nanny Ogg says, Tiffany is not going to get any thanks for helping her. I’m actually wondering if Annagramma is going to realize this really isn’t her calling, and end up going to University to become a female wizard.

6. Oh, dear. Rob Anybody has a Plan ... With all of the seriousness surrounding what Tiffany's gotten herself into, do you think the Feegles can help her this time? Or are even they in over their heads?

I am pretty amazed as to how well their plan seems to be working.  They said, “Tiffany will read anything put in front of her,” and they were so right.  I did like that Tiffany’s initial reaction to the romance novel was that the author didn’t seem to know much about raising and caring for sheep.  I have no idea if this will help her with her feelings about Roland (the Feegles are really not equipped to help her with that), but maybe she can get more used to the idea of romance from the books.  Then again, she is only just thirteen, so she has plenty of time to figure out what the feelings she has about Roland mean.