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Green Universe #1
Green
She was born in poverty, in a dusty village under the equatorial sun. She does not remember her mother, she does not remember her own name€”her earliest clear memory is of the day her father sold her to the tall pale man. In the Court of the Pomegranate Tree, where she was taught the ways of a courtesan€¦and the skills of an assassin€¦she was named Emerald, the precious jewel of the Undying Duke€™s collection of beauties.She calls herself Green.The world she inhabits is one of political power and magic, where Gods meddle in the affairs of mortals. At the center of it is the immortal Duke€™s city of Copper Downs, which controls all the trade on the Storm Sea. Green has made many enemies, and some secret friends, and she has become a very dangerous woman indeed.Acclaimed author Jay Lake has created a remarkable character in Green, and evokes a remarkable world in this novel. Green and her struggle to survive and find her own past will li
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Jay Lake
238 books252 followersJay Lake lived in Portland, Oregon, where he worked on multiple writing and editing projects. His 2007 book Mainspring received a starred review in Booklist. His short fiction appeared regularly in literary and genre markets worldwide. Jay won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, Endeavour Award, and was a multiple nominee for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 375 reviews
April 9, 2011
I was drawn to this book by the dramatic cover, and info on the jacket - the story sounded original, touching, dramatic, and adventurous. While it was an excellent IDEA, the book itself fell short - very short.
Jay West uses literary tools like a boy swinging a 2x4 board at the reader's head. Characters the reader is not supposed to like are described with multitudes of adjectives that imply "bad" i.e. hair like maggots... lips like a duck... and a great many more. When used sparingly, these can be subtle hints to a reader that may be only realized subconsciously. not so in this book.
If you are of the firm belief that any time girls get together, they all decide that the female body is irresistible and they get naked, and do all kinds of things that young boys supposedly dream about, this is the book for you. West seems obsessed with the idea, and rather than making a believable lesbian heroine, rather waves his own daydreams of girl on girl bondage around with disregard for the plot, with cheesy anatomy names like "sweetpocket" that one is supposed to read without laughing, and not get a similarly named frozen lunch item marketing song stuck in one's head.
The IDEA of the book carried me through to the end, though this wasn't a page turner/couldn't put it down... more a morbid curiosity.
Don't believe the jacket, or the cover. While beautiful, they do not accurately represent this book.
Jay West uses literary tools like a boy swinging a 2x4 board at the reader's head. Characters the reader is not supposed to like are described with multitudes of adjectives that imply "bad" i.e. hair like maggots... lips like a duck... and a great many more. When used sparingly, these can be subtle hints to a reader that may be only realized subconsciously. not so in this book.
If you are of the firm belief that any time girls get together, they all decide that the female body is irresistible and they get naked, and do all kinds of things that young boys supposedly dream about, this is the book for you. West seems obsessed with the idea, and rather than making a believable lesbian heroine, rather waves his own daydreams of girl on girl bondage around with disregard for the plot, with cheesy anatomy names like "sweetpocket" that one is supposed to read without laughing, and not get a similarly named frozen lunch item marketing song stuck in one's head.
The IDEA of the book carried me through to the end, though this wasn't a page turner/couldn't put it down... more a morbid curiosity.
Don't believe the jacket, or the cover. While beautiful, they do not accurately represent this book.
August 12, 2011
well....that was a terrible book. I was thoroughly deceived, by both the cover art, the inside cover (which only applies to the first third of the story) and the first few pages I read in the bookstore. It starts out strong, full of detailed description and an interesting viewpoint and then....just don't read it. just don't.
This is not one of those stories where the book was awesome and the plot line depressing, but moving. This is one of those books where you read the last twenty pages and go what the F#@#$K, very loudly and slam the book on the table because you feel cheated. And your sister looks over from the computer and gives you a dirty look.
Seriously. The only good thing about it is that I didn't pay full-price.
Thank god.
This is not one of those stories where the book was awesome and the plot line depressing, but moving. This is one of those books where you read the last twenty pages and go what the F#@#$K, very loudly and slam the book on the table because you feel cheated. And your sister looks over from the computer and gives you a dirty look.
Seriously. The only good thing about it is that I didn't pay full-price.
Thank god.
September 22, 2009
As a peasant girl, Green is sold by her father to become a courtesan in a far-off land. The opening is fantastic--lots of sensory details and thoughful world-building--and Green's courtesan training is earthy and believable. But once she leaves the walls of her training courtyard behind, the story breaks down. The plot meanders and circles, and Green's motivations are confused and often contradictory. (Mere pages after declaring that her mission in life is to prevent child-slavery, she angrily declares she doesn't care about saving anyone. One moment she can't wait to free her city--the next she's asking what's in it for her. She's young, but no person changes their mind so drastically, so often.) I don't really buy the conception of gender essentialism and sexuality that underpins much of this book. The ending is anticlimactic and awful. I'm giving this a few stars because the first half was enjoyable and the writing style pretty good. But Lake should learn how to write a *novel* before he attempts another one.
July 28, 2012
Major spoiler alert!
This is a nasty, gross, disgusting, boring excuse for a novel. I read the first 2/3 of it and had to put it down. This is what happens in this sorry waste of paper!(It doesn't deserve to be called a book.)
The protagonist, who later calls herself Green, is a 4 year old girl sold into slavery by her poor father right after both her mother and grandmother die. She is then taken far from her home to a secluded palace from hell called the pomegranate court where she stays for 8 years completely isolated aside from her horrible teaching mistresses, who train her in the arts of being a high lady through heinous beatings and almost psychopathic mental abuse in hopes that she will be chosen as their immortal duke's consort. Has anyone's Wrong-O-Meter started going off yet? But wait, it gets better! Eventually Federo, the man who brought Green to the pomegranate court, brings a new nice teacher "The Dancing Mistress" who is of a non-human race called the Pardines, which as the author describes them I can only imagine look like freaky tall humanoid chinchillas! Anyway, Freaky Chinchilla Lady basically teaches Green how to be a ninja, but neglects to teach her the responsibilities that come with that skill such as not randomly killing people! When it finally dawns on Green to escape she uses her super ninja high kick to lash out at the head teaching mistress, killing her. The head mistress definitely deserved some form of punishment, but I think the author could have found a better way than having Green murder her. After that she runs out of the palace and hides with Federo and Chinchilla Lady who are actually part of a plot to kill the evil duke, who Chinchilla Lady says stays alive through ill-gotten magics stolen from her people. Federo and Chinchilla Lady were going to use Green as a pawn to get close to the duke and kill him, but Green messed that up when she decided to kill head mistress and run away. So green agrees to kill the duke in exchange for the knowledge of how to get back to her homeland. Green kills the duke and sets of for her home, a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, and finds that her father has gone completely nuts and is married to a new lady who doesn't want Green around. So then Green leaves for the big city and on the way meets a priestess of some goddess who tells Green to come to the temple if she is ever in trouble. Long story short Green finds herself out of work and in trouble so she goes to the temple which is where i stopped because things got way too nasty for me. At this point Green is about 13, and she decides to join the all-female order where they basically kill criminals and are all lesbians and have lesbo sex all the time. in my opinion regardless of Green's sexual orientation, 13 is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to young! That's where I stopped (because it's NASTY!!!!!). DO NOT read this book! If you could rate it negative stars, I would.
This is a nasty, gross, disgusting, boring excuse for a novel. I read the first 2/3 of it and had to put it down. This is what happens in this sorry waste of paper!(It doesn't deserve to be called a book.)
The protagonist, who later calls herself Green, is a 4 year old girl sold into slavery by her poor father right after both her mother and grandmother die. She is then taken far from her home to a secluded palace from hell called the pomegranate court where she stays for 8 years completely isolated aside from her horrible teaching mistresses, who train her in the arts of being a high lady through heinous beatings and almost psychopathic mental abuse in hopes that she will be chosen as their immortal duke's consort. Has anyone's Wrong-O-Meter started going off yet? But wait, it gets better! Eventually Federo, the man who brought Green to the pomegranate court, brings a new nice teacher "The Dancing Mistress" who is of a non-human race called the Pardines, which as the author describes them I can only imagine look like freaky tall humanoid chinchillas! Anyway, Freaky Chinchilla Lady basically teaches Green how to be a ninja, but neglects to teach her the responsibilities that come with that skill such as not randomly killing people! When it finally dawns on Green to escape she uses her super ninja high kick to lash out at the head teaching mistress, killing her. The head mistress definitely deserved some form of punishment, but I think the author could have found a better way than having Green murder her. After that she runs out of the palace and hides with Federo and Chinchilla Lady who are actually part of a plot to kill the evil duke, who Chinchilla Lady says stays alive through ill-gotten magics stolen from her people. Federo and Chinchilla Lady were going to use Green as a pawn to get close to the duke and kill him, but Green messed that up when she decided to kill head mistress and run away. So green agrees to kill the duke in exchange for the knowledge of how to get back to her homeland. Green kills the duke and sets of for her home, a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, and finds that her father has gone completely nuts and is married to a new lady who doesn't want Green around. So then Green leaves for the big city and on the way meets a priestess of some goddess who tells Green to come to the temple if she is ever in trouble. Long story short Green finds herself out of work and in trouble so she goes to the temple which is where i stopped because things got way too nasty for me. At this point Green is about 13, and she decides to join the all-female order where they basically kill criminals and are all lesbians and have lesbo sex all the time. in my opinion regardless of Green's sexual orientation, 13 is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to young! That's where I stopped (because it's NASTY!!!!!). DO NOT read this book! If you could rate it negative stars, I would.
June 15, 2011
Green is barely a toddler when her father sells her to Federo, a man who travels around looking for young female children on behalf of a faraway Duke. Taken halfway across the world, not even able to speak the local language, Green is imprisoned in the Pomegranate Court, where she endures a ruthless training program designed to mold her from an innocent, illiterate child into a sophisticated courtesan or concubine for the Duke’s court. Various Mistresses teach her the skills a lady needs and punish her cruelly at the slightest misstep or shortcoming. It isn’t until Green meets the Dancing Mistress, a catlike “pardine” who ends up teaching her much more than just dancing, that she begins to get a better understanding of the city surrounding the Pomegranate Court — and her real purpose for being there...
As a novel, Green is a mixed bag. There’s much to like here, and it isn’t hard to see why some readers raved about this book. At the same time, some of its aspects may prevent you from truly enjoying all it has to offer. In the end, I couldn’t get over Green’s problems, and while I enjoyed some sections of the novel, in the end my opinion wasn’t a positive one.
The real star of Green is its eponymous main character. Describing Green as a strong female protagonist doesn’t even begin to do her justice. Put through an inhuman training program at such a young age that she ends up having a larger vocabulary in the new language than in her mother tongue, she never loses her focus or her courage for a moment, tackling each challenge head-on and mastering an impressive array of skills, from cooking to martial arts. Rather than being cowed when she meets the “Factor” who runs her training, she refuses to accept the name he bestows upon her (“Emerald”). In an act of rebellion, she takes to calling herself “Green” instead, because she doesn’t know the word for “emerald” in her original language. Later in the novel, as her circumstances change, she continues to be a fascinating and deep character.
Another positive aspect of Green is Jay Lake’s distinctive and gorgeous prose, something I’ve come to expect from this author after having read several of his short stories in the past. Take, for example, this paragraph, less than a page after a very young Green meets her first Mistress in the Pomegranate Court: "She was to be my first killing, at a time when I should already have known far better. I would have slain her that initial day, out of simple spiteful anger. It was the work of years to lacquer the nuances of a worthy, well-earned hatred over the fearful rage of the child I was."
Unfortunately a strong main character and lovely prose weren’t enough to make this novel work for me. The first section, focusing on Green’s training, is probably the best part of the book, but it ends with a plot twist I found highly improbable to say the least. Although there’s an explanation that makes it slightly more plausible later on, it almost made me give up on the novel right then and there. Things don’t improve much from that moment on. In a later part of the novel, when Green has entered an all-female religious order, the story features some lesbian sex scenes and BDSM-style whipping sessions. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this (on the contrary, as far as I’m concerned), but Jay Lake ruins it by using the truly cringe-worthy euphemism “sweetpocket” for a woman’s genitalia and making references to intercourse between minors like Green and the older “Mothers.”
Towards the end of the novel, Green improbably gets involved in the fight to save a city she should feel little or no loyalty towards at all. This leads to some unconvincing theological noodling and a rushed and improbable ending that left me frustrated more than anything. I truly enjoyed the first 150 pages or so of this novel, but after a strong start, Green completely fell apart, to the point where I strongly considered giving up on it several times. If not for Jay Lake’s beautiful prose and some lingering curiosity about Green’s fate, I probably would have ditched this novel long before the end.
Side note: Green is graced by a beautiful and striking cover illustration by Dan Dos Santos, but what may strike some people most about it is the skin color of the protagonist, who is clearly described as having “dark brown” skin in the novel but appears to be distinctly paler on the cover. Regardless, whether this is intentional “white-washing” or not, it’s a gorgeous and memorable cover.
In the end, it’s hard not to have mixed feelings about Green. Parts of the novel are excellent, while others are so poorly executed that it almost makes you forget about the good bits. Unfortunately, most of the better parts come early on, and the poor ones later, so by the time you reach the end of the novel you’re left with a bad taste in your mouth. I had high hopes for this novel, based on Jay Lake’s excellent short stories, but after turning the final page, I felt mostly disappointed that Green didn’t deliver on its early promise.
(This review was also published at www.fantasyliterature.com on 6/15/2011.)
As a novel, Green is a mixed bag. There’s much to like here, and it isn’t hard to see why some readers raved about this book. At the same time, some of its aspects may prevent you from truly enjoying all it has to offer. In the end, I couldn’t get over Green’s problems, and while I enjoyed some sections of the novel, in the end my opinion wasn’t a positive one.
The real star of Green is its eponymous main character. Describing Green as a strong female protagonist doesn’t even begin to do her justice. Put through an inhuman training program at such a young age that she ends up having a larger vocabulary in the new language than in her mother tongue, she never loses her focus or her courage for a moment, tackling each challenge head-on and mastering an impressive array of skills, from cooking to martial arts. Rather than being cowed when she meets the “Factor” who runs her training, she refuses to accept the name he bestows upon her (“Emerald”). In an act of rebellion, she takes to calling herself “Green” instead, because she doesn’t know the word for “emerald” in her original language. Later in the novel, as her circumstances change, she continues to be a fascinating and deep character.
Another positive aspect of Green is Jay Lake’s distinctive and gorgeous prose, something I’ve come to expect from this author after having read several of his short stories in the past. Take, for example, this paragraph, less than a page after a very young Green meets her first Mistress in the Pomegranate Court: "She was to be my first killing, at a time when I should already have known far better. I would have slain her that initial day, out of simple spiteful anger. It was the work of years to lacquer the nuances of a worthy, well-earned hatred over the fearful rage of the child I was."
Unfortunately a strong main character and lovely prose weren’t enough to make this novel work for me. The first section, focusing on Green’s training, is probably the best part of the book, but it ends with a plot twist I found highly improbable to say the least. Although there’s an explanation that makes it slightly more plausible later on, it almost made me give up on the novel right then and there. Things don’t improve much from that moment on. In a later part of the novel, when Green has entered an all-female religious order, the story features some lesbian sex scenes and BDSM-style whipping sessions. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this (on the contrary, as far as I’m concerned), but Jay Lake ruins it by using the truly cringe-worthy euphemism “sweetpocket” for a woman’s genitalia and making references to intercourse between minors like Green and the older “Mothers.”
Towards the end of the novel, Green improbably gets involved in the fight to save a city she should feel little or no loyalty towards at all. This leads to some unconvincing theological noodling and a rushed and improbable ending that left me frustrated more than anything. I truly enjoyed the first 150 pages or so of this novel, but after a strong start, Green completely fell apart, to the point where I strongly considered giving up on it several times. If not for Jay Lake’s beautiful prose and some lingering curiosity about Green’s fate, I probably would have ditched this novel long before the end.
Side note: Green is graced by a beautiful and striking cover illustration by Dan Dos Santos, but what may strike some people most about it is the skin color of the protagonist, who is clearly described as having “dark brown” skin in the novel but appears to be distinctly paler on the cover. Regardless, whether this is intentional “white-washing” or not, it’s a gorgeous and memorable cover.
In the end, it’s hard not to have mixed feelings about Green. Parts of the novel are excellent, while others are so poorly executed that it almost makes you forget about the good bits. Unfortunately, most of the better parts come early on, and the poor ones later, so by the time you reach the end of the novel you’re left with a bad taste in your mouth. I had high hopes for this novel, based on Jay Lake’s excellent short stories, but after turning the final page, I felt mostly disappointed that Green didn’t deliver on its early promise.
(This review was also published at www.fantasyliterature.com on 6/15/2011.)
January 23, 2011
I described Green, when I was about halfway through the book, to a friend by saying it was "languid, but not slow." One of the things that amazes me about the book is that it covers, in 368 pages, three distinct phases of Green's life (in fact, several times I found myself thinking that in the hands of another high fantasy author, each section of this book would have been a 400-500 page book of its own). So the pace of the book cannot be said to be "slow." And yet, Green's voice as she narrates is melancholic, languid, pining for what she thinks she has lost. Lake takes the old "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" trope and really drives home, through Green, the fact that we never really understand what life is like for others when the only lens we have to view it through is that of our own experiences. Green repeatedly finds herself confronted with how her life might have been different, and each time it happens there is the potential for her to change her thoughts -- and yet, like most normal people, she retains her anger and her wish for something different despite all evidence that the life she was handed is in some ways better than the life she would have left had Federo never found her. Of course, it's not that simple, and I think in the end the best we can say is that Green's life would have been brutal and dangerous either way.
So the book may feel languid, thanks to Green's voice, but it is not at all slow. Events happen, and in the nature of the world, we don't always know the outcome because we're getting the story from Green's point of view completely and she is not a narrator who tells the story out of order. If she were, that great languid quality of her voice would be lost. Because she is a child of two societies (continents? they are separated by a vast sea), it is inevitable that Green will journey back to the land of her birth, just as it is inevitable she will return to Copper Downs to finish what was started. The reader can sense this inevitability, but Green herself drops very few hints at it. When Green leaves for Kalimpura, I did have a momentary thought of "that's it? Lake is just leaving this whole plot thread hanging to go off in search of a completely different story?" That momentary thought is to Lake's credit. It shows that I was caught up, perhaps more than I thought at the time, in what Federo and the Dancing Mistress were really up to with Green. It shows that a jarring, but perfectly logical, change of scene and storyline, was exactly what the book needed, and more importantly it was exactly what Green needed. It proves, as I said earlier, that events happen and sometimes we are not privy to the outcome. Especially in the type of world in which Green lives. There is no internet, no cell phone service, not even a magical approximation of those things. So when Green is out of touch with what is going on in Copper Downs, so are we. Even when she hints, from whenever in her life she is narrating this, that there were events going on that she had no awareness of ... she still doesn't tell us what those events were. She perfectly replicates the insular life she lead.
So the book may feel languid, thanks to Green's voice, but it is not at all slow. Events happen, and in the nature of the world, we don't always know the outcome because we're getting the story from Green's point of view completely and she is not a narrator who tells the story out of order. If she were, that great languid quality of her voice would be lost. Because she is a child of two societies (continents? they are separated by a vast sea), it is inevitable that Green will journey back to the land of her birth, just as it is inevitable she will return to Copper Downs to finish what was started. The reader can sense this inevitability, but Green herself drops very few hints at it. When Green leaves for Kalimpura, I did have a momentary thought of "that's it? Lake is just leaving this whole plot thread hanging to go off in search of a completely different story?" That momentary thought is to Lake's credit. It shows that I was caught up, perhaps more than I thought at the time, in what Federo and the Dancing Mistress were really up to with Green. It shows that a jarring, but perfectly logical, change of scene and storyline, was exactly what the book needed, and more importantly it was exactly what Green needed. It proves, as I said earlier, that events happen and sometimes we are not privy to the outcome. Especially in the type of world in which Green lives. There is no internet, no cell phone service, not even a magical approximation of those things. So when Green is out of touch with what is going on in Copper Downs, so are we. Even when she hints, from whenever in her life she is narrating this, that there were events going on that she had no awareness of ... she still doesn't tell us what those events were. She perfectly replicates the insular life she lead.
July 11, 2014
Green is the story of a girl sold into slavery and raised to be the concubine of a tyrant, and how she manages to wrest her destiny back from the control of others.
I had to take a couple of runs at this one. What I expected would be the plot for the whole novel came to a sudden climax about a third of the way through. Then it seemed a whole new story started as the heroine moved to a different continent with completely new characters and story goals. It was oddly unsatisfying, and I stalled here on the first read.
But the writing was good and the themes interesting, so I gave it another go a few months later, and found that the story did eventually circle back around to where it started, and what had seemed a little disjointed and episodic in fact was not. You have to trust Lake on this one. He's not a formulaic writer, but he does produce a satisfying ending to an interesting story.
I had to take a couple of runs at this one. What I expected would be the plot for the whole novel came to a sudden climax about a third of the way through. Then it seemed a whole new story started as the heroine moved to a different continent with completely new characters and story goals. It was oddly unsatisfying, and I stalled here on the first read.
But the writing was good and the themes interesting, so I gave it another go a few months later, and found that the story did eventually circle back around to where it started, and what had seemed a little disjointed and episodic in fact was not. You have to trust Lake on this one. He's not a formulaic writer, but he does produce a satisfying ending to an interesting story.
June 1, 2014
UPDATE 6/1/2014: My blog about Jay Lake's death.
At Shelf Inflicted, I continue my Jay Lake Pre-Mortem Readathon with the lucky number seven review: GREEN, first in a series of three told by the title character, Green.
Anyone who has paid the slightest attention to my thunderings on the subject knows how I feel about fantasy, majgickq, and teenagers. Yet it gets 3-plus stars!
At Shelf Inflicted, I continue my Jay Lake Pre-Mortem Readathon with the lucky number seven review: GREEN, first in a series of three told by the title character, Green.
Anyone who has paid the slightest attention to my thunderings on the subject knows how I feel about fantasy, majgickq, and teenagers. Yet it gets 3-plus stars!
June 28, 2016
The book started off strong, but had some serious plot issues. The beginning was a fairly standard child-training-to-be-awesome plot (pretty much every fantasy book which is set in a school), but with a twist, because Green is actually a slave and being taught against her will. However, instead of going where I thought it would go, the book suddenly takes a turn for the unexpected...in a bad way.
If he had just written the book that I expected was coming, I think that could have been quite good. Instead, we experience a very hasty and unexplained ending to the original plotline and wind up in a completely different book, which is entirely unrelated. It takes a bloody long time for the plot to circle back and explain WTF actually happened in the first third, and calling it explaining is really giving it too much credit. There are really three almost unrelated plotlines here, and honestly, none of them end in a way that is satisfying enough to close an entire book.
Moreover, Green's character can get a little annoying. She's extremely fixated on certain things, and is not endearing enough for me to forgive her many flaws, even if I do identify with many of these flaws (bullheadedness, rashness, impatience).
I give it two stars because the beginning was so strong, and it did touch on some interesting ideas. But really, a fantasy book about a spunky young girl who kicks ass, and you lost me a third of the way through the book? It had to have been pretty bad.
If he had just written the book that I expected was coming, I think that could have been quite good. Instead, we experience a very hasty and unexplained ending to the original plotline and wind up in a completely different book, which is entirely unrelated. It takes a bloody long time for the plot to circle back and explain WTF actually happened in the first third, and calling it explaining is really giving it too much credit. There are really three almost unrelated plotlines here, and honestly, none of them end in a way that is satisfying enough to close an entire book.
Moreover, Green's character can get a little annoying. She's extremely fixated on certain things, and is not endearing enough for me to forgive her many flaws, even if I do identify with many of these flaws (bullheadedness, rashness, impatience).
I give it two stars because the beginning was so strong, and it did touch on some interesting ideas. But really, a fantasy book about a spunky young girl who kicks ass, and you lost me a third of the way through the book? It had to have been pretty bad.
February 16, 2011
The only reason this book gets two stars instead of one is that I didn't throw my iPod against the wall and I did finish it. Frankly, Green is a complete mess of a novel. It starts off okay, then it makes a jarring turn into lesbian BDSM when the protagonist is about thirteen. She has sex with not only girls her age, but older women who are mother figures as well. I was not expecting the book to go there. I wasn't surprised that Green had sex with other women. After all, she'd been completely isolated from men most of her life. However, the whipping and the girl/woman thing was just icky. Plus, the section of the book that was part of just didn't have much to do with the rest of it.
The character of Green never made much sense to me. She bounces from situation to situation and ends up fighting a battle to save a city that she didn't feel an attachment to. The whole ending was rushed and I couldn't figure out why Green was involved. Oh, she gives her reasons, but they're ridiculous in light of what came before.
Don't even bother with this one.
The character of Green never made much sense to me. She bounces from situation to situation and ends up fighting a battle to save a city that she didn't feel an attachment to. The whole ending was rushed and I couldn't figure out why Green was involved. Oh, she gives her reasons, but they're ridiculous in light of what came before.
Don't even bother with this one.
July 21, 2009
Typical orphan fantasy: girl is sold into slavery, girl is trained in the ways of the courtesan and assassin (for 150 pages with no chapter breaks!) girl willfully breaks free of her captors and turns the deadly skills they have taught her back on them. I've seen this story before, and done better in Lowachee's Warchild. The pacing was slow, the language melodramatic and the sex gratuitous. And I won't even get into the portrayal of the main character, who could articulate herself fluently by age 4 (did I mention she was the child of a peasant?) This rec'd mostly rave professional reviews, so it could just be me not appreciating genre fic, but I thought the best thing about this book was the cover.
March 5, 2015
***Mild Spoilers***
Do you like your books with plenty of girl-on-girl action, some bondage, and none of those icky 'feelings' people are always talking about? Do you think the idea of schoolgirls (ages 12-15) getting it on in a dormitory is HOT? Are you sick of books with ordinary love relationships and tired of feeling outcompeted by 'nice guys'? Than I highly recommend Jay Lake's "Green". None of those annoying man-on-woman love scenes, just beatin's and underage same-sex orgies! And how about an interspecies sex scene completed by a masturbating mastermind?! Now THAT'S good writing folks, harharhar. "Green"... now at amazon and bookstores everywhere.
Ok, in all seriousness...
This book has so many flaws that it's difficult to know where to start. So.. I'll start with the good stuff.
1.)Writing. At times it is extremely well done. I appreciate a derth of detail in the sex scenes. There are a few really striking lines in this. It isn' ALWAYS good, but I would have given it two stars.
HOWEVER...
And here's the bad. And it is oh-so-very bad. This book manages to insult every single group of people it represents. I'll stick with just the most annoying (to me) ones, and leave the more indepth talk to the experts.
1.) Straight men. Not one, NOT ONE, straight man is portrayed in this book who isn't some sort of evil monster. Either they are using women for their pleasure, or they are being used to evil ends. Ordinary (read: non-powerful) men are just pawns, and the victims of their own drives... apparently. There are no normal man-woman relationships here. There are no happy marriages here. Don't ask me how there are so many children in this world. The ONE time Green has 'relations' with a man, she is so sore the next day that she can't fight.
2.) Women. If Green is our representative, we are all whining, guilt-mongering, nymphomaniacs. Leave too many girls alone for too long and nature will take it's course... well, that is, if by 'nature' we mean some disgusting male fantasy about all girl schools and lustful coming-of-age young women. NOT reality. And Green in no way reflects anything feminine. Any attempt she makes at strength is undermined by her own weaknesses and inabilities, at times she talks like a (male) trucker at a roadside pit stop.
3.) Victms of abuse. So kids who are beaten later grow to crave that sort of torture, and to find it sexy? I don't think so. And the pedophile nature of the sex in this book can't be overlooked- it isn't sexy, it's disgusting. I won't even get into the dedication at the front other than to say the author's daughter has a right to be VERY VERY angry when she sees what her father so lovingly dedicated to her. I know I'd be. Abuse victims have their own demons to face, and this book treats it as a romantic and valuable experience... not as the atrocity it really is.
4.) Homosexuals. There aren't any healthy gay couples in this book, either, except for the barest mention of one... odd for a book that abounds with gay sex. In fact, the only 'love' Green mentions feeling is when she has sex with a man (who later dies... of course), even though she's about as promiscuous as they come. Gay sex isn't for keeps... in this book.
5.) Slavery and sex-slaves. Because, apparently, it's better to be owned property in luxury than to be free and poor. This book is a complete FAILURE at talking about this point. If the author REALLY wanted to make a statement, he needed to spend far more time and energy thinking this through, and it probably deserved it's own book. Instead, it's just a quick mention in here, which is insulting and condescending (Green realizes she's better off.. exit stage left.)
But the worst part is.. it's hard to care about those things because of Green herself. She's a cardboard cut-out with a painted on face. We are supposed to identify and feel sorry for her as a 3 year old with the intellect of a 19 year old and the body of a 10 year old. And it only gets worse as she ages... and you can easily see the middle-aged man behind the curtain. It just didn't work for me. This heroine fails to be cool, kick-ass, or anything at all but a too-wise nymphomanic teen who whines about things she has no control over, and doesn't control the ones she can. For instance, much of the book she talks about ending child slavery.. but when she has to choose between an adult friend and a child, guess which she picks? Sure, she whines for the next 2 pages.. but that's it. No other acknowledgement of her own hypocrisy.
The plot meanders around, starting at one point and ending up somewhere completely different. There are, as others have mentioned, three distinct phases in this book. And they are not knitted together very well.
One of the final scenes bears mentioning. The girl-on-catgirl with criminal masturbating mastermind is not to be missed. And for that laughable scene.. it gets one star for being hilariously ridiculous.
Do you like your books with plenty of girl-on-girl action, some bondage, and none of those icky 'feelings' people are always talking about? Do you think the idea of schoolgirls (ages 12-15) getting it on in a dormitory is HOT? Are you sick of books with ordinary love relationships and tired of feeling outcompeted by 'nice guys'? Than I highly recommend Jay Lake's "Green". None of those annoying man-on-woman love scenes, just beatin's and underage same-sex orgies! And how about an interspecies sex scene completed by a masturbating mastermind?! Now THAT'S good writing folks, harharhar. "Green"... now at amazon and bookstores everywhere.
Ok, in all seriousness...
This book has so many flaws that it's difficult to know where to start. So.. I'll start with the good stuff.
1.)Writing. At times it is extremely well done. I appreciate a derth of detail in the sex scenes. There are a few really striking lines in this. It isn' ALWAYS good, but I would have given it two stars.
HOWEVER...
And here's the bad. And it is oh-so-very bad. This book manages to insult every single group of people it represents. I'll stick with just the most annoying (to me) ones, and leave the more indepth talk to the experts.
1.) Straight men. Not one, NOT ONE, straight man is portrayed in this book who isn't some sort of evil monster. Either they are using women for their pleasure, or they are being used to evil ends. Ordinary (read: non-powerful) men are just pawns, and the victims of their own drives... apparently. There are no normal man-woman relationships here. There are no happy marriages here. Don't ask me how there are so many children in this world. The ONE time Green has 'relations' with a man, she is so sore the next day that she can't fight.
2.) Women. If Green is our representative, we are all whining, guilt-mongering, nymphomaniacs. Leave too many girls alone for too long and nature will take it's course... well, that is, if by 'nature' we mean some disgusting male fantasy about all girl schools and lustful coming-of-age young women. NOT reality. And Green in no way reflects anything feminine. Any attempt she makes at strength is undermined by her own weaknesses and inabilities, at times she talks like a (male) trucker at a roadside pit stop.
3.) Victms of abuse. So kids who are beaten later grow to crave that sort of torture, and to find it sexy? I don't think so. And the pedophile nature of the sex in this book can't be overlooked- it isn't sexy, it's disgusting. I won't even get into the dedication at the front other than to say the author's daughter has a right to be VERY VERY angry when she sees what her father so lovingly dedicated to her. I know I'd be. Abuse victims have their own demons to face, and this book treats it as a romantic and valuable experience... not as the atrocity it really is.
4.) Homosexuals. There aren't any healthy gay couples in this book, either, except for the barest mention of one... odd for a book that abounds with gay sex. In fact, the only 'love' Green mentions feeling is when she has sex with a man (who later dies... of course), even though she's about as promiscuous as they come. Gay sex isn't for keeps... in this book.
5.) Slavery and sex-slaves. Because, apparently, it's better to be owned property in luxury than to be free and poor. This book is a complete FAILURE at talking about this point. If the author REALLY wanted to make a statement, he needed to spend far more time and energy thinking this through, and it probably deserved it's own book. Instead, it's just a quick mention in here, which is insulting and condescending (Green realizes she's better off.. exit stage left.)
But the worst part is.. it's hard to care about those things because of Green herself. She's a cardboard cut-out with a painted on face. We are supposed to identify and feel sorry for her as a 3 year old with the intellect of a 19 year old and the body of a 10 year old. And it only gets worse as she ages... and you can easily see the middle-aged man behind the curtain. It just didn't work for me. This heroine fails to be cool, kick-ass, or anything at all but a too-wise nymphomanic teen who whines about things she has no control over, and doesn't control the ones she can. For instance, much of the book she talks about ending child slavery.. but when she has to choose between an adult friend and a child, guess which she picks? Sure, she whines for the next 2 pages.. but that's it. No other acknowledgement of her own hypocrisy.
The plot meanders around, starting at one point and ending up somewhere completely different. There are, as others have mentioned, three distinct phases in this book. And they are not knitted together very well.
One of the final scenes bears mentioning. The girl-on-catgirl with criminal masturbating mastermind is not to be missed. And for that laughable scene.. it gets one star for being hilariously ridiculous.
September 18, 2009
Green is a girl with problems. Big problems. And it shows. After being sold off by her father at the age of four, she's taken to a distant land with unfamiliar customs and language, Copper Downs. I'd complain too. Seen as a “blank slate,” she’s raised to be an educated and elegant plaything of The Duke, a demigod who has ruled Copper Downs for 400 years. Green isn't exactly thrilled by those plans, and she vows to adjust them.
And as could be expected of any strong protagonist, Green is mad. She is mad at the man who bought her from her father, even though he’s one of the few who show her kindness. She’s mad at her teachers who beat her when she’s disobedient. And she struggles to be mad at her father, whose motives for selling her she never quite can, or won’t allow herself to, understand.
Over the course of her training Green had forgotten her birth name. When she was deemed "ready," her owners give her the name Emerald. Never having known the word in her native tongue, she calls herself a word she remembers, Green. When she realizes how fully wretched her life is about to become, she slashes her face, ruining her precious beauty--her escape from her captors is bloody, and the blood is not only hers.
Green is about finding home and fulfillment. After she escapes her isolated life of rigid training, she flees across the sea to find the home she was taken from years earlier. She doesn’t quite find what she is looking for, as she realizes she’s more a creature of Copper Downs than her birth-home, Selistan.
Both adults and older teens will love this title. The low-fantasy setting will attract non-fantasy readers – there’s not much spellcasting here, just all-too-real deities that squabble for power leaving mortals strewn about in their wake. Slight problems with pacing make the book feel episodic at times; it could probably have been expanded slightly and turned into two books. However, one of the most compelling heroes I’ve read about easily compensates, which makes this an excellent book I’ll certainly be recommending. Oh and, the cover! Just look at that gorgeous cover!
And as could be expected of any strong protagonist, Green is mad. She is mad at the man who bought her from her father, even though he’s one of the few who show her kindness. She’s mad at her teachers who beat her when she’s disobedient. And she struggles to be mad at her father, whose motives for selling her she never quite can, or won’t allow herself to, understand.
Over the course of her training Green had forgotten her birth name. When she was deemed "ready," her owners give her the name Emerald. Never having known the word in her native tongue, she calls herself a word she remembers, Green. When she realizes how fully wretched her life is about to become, she slashes her face, ruining her precious beauty--her escape from her captors is bloody, and the blood is not only hers.
Green is about finding home and fulfillment. After she escapes her isolated life of rigid training, she flees across the sea to find the home she was taken from years earlier. She doesn’t quite find what she is looking for, as she realizes she’s more a creature of Copper Downs than her birth-home, Selistan.
Both adults and older teens will love this title. The low-fantasy setting will attract non-fantasy readers – there’s not much spellcasting here, just all-too-real deities that squabble for power leaving mortals strewn about in their wake. Slight problems with pacing make the book feel episodic at times; it could probably have been expanded slightly and turned into two books. However, one of the most compelling heroes I’ve read about easily compensates, which makes this an excellent book I’ll certainly be recommending. Oh and, the cover! Just look at that gorgeous cover!
September 4, 2009
This is the vibrant, beautifully told story of a young girl sold into slavery and how she reacts to the oppression as she grows. It's got a touch of Jacqueline Carey's 'Kushiel' series to it (minus 90% of the sex) - besides the initial story with young Green being raised to be a noblelady, there's a certain sense of elegant sensuality paired with a strong and strong-minded female protagonist.
Green is very well drawn - conflicted, confused in some ways, and despite years and distance, to some degree interminably bound to her past - a past that lingers in her mind, a ghost of what she'd lost. There's some good world building here - some interesting cultural details that really catch the imagination. I'm particularly fond of the bell-sewing custom Green's home country has. It feels real.
Gods and goddesses in this universe are indeed very real - if not always what you expect or desire. This coupled with a underlying spiritual theme running through the book helped lead to an ending with a full-circle sort of tang to it that was very satisfying.
Interesting protagonist, fun world building. A most enjoyable read.
Green is very well drawn - conflicted, confused in some ways, and despite years and distance, to some degree interminably bound to her past - a past that lingers in her mind, a ghost of what she'd lost. There's some good world building here - some interesting cultural details that really catch the imagination. I'm particularly fond of the bell-sewing custom Green's home country has. It feels real.
Gods and goddesses in this universe are indeed very real - if not always what you expect or desire. This coupled with a underlying spiritual theme running through the book helped lead to an ending with a full-circle sort of tang to it that was very satisfying.
Interesting protagonist, fun world building. A most enjoyable read.
July 17, 2010
This story has an interesting flavour to it. This story isn’t happy, and its beauty is more the stark breathlessness of a plain ravaged by weather than the spiralling grace of a field of cherry blossom trees. There is beauty there, but the protagonist’s life is hard, and that description is unrelenting. Green is stolen of choice, and that theme of trying to make one’s own destiny is the pervasive one. The character is interesting if psychotic. The story is strange, but not boring. Be warned that sexual choice is free in this setting world, and is not bound by the black and white of puritannical North American reinforcement almost always found in cough young adult books. The characters are not hedonists, rather just not bound by the judgments of choice that we in this society are in regards to who we share our bodies and time with.
Green is an interesting character, for all that she is utterly insane in a tightly-bound way. The story is harsh, as life is harsh, but not unrealistically so. Worth a read if you’re not going to get too shocked by a story that doesn’t follow every accepted norm for the market.
Green is an interesting character, for all that she is utterly insane in a tightly-bound way. The story is harsh, as life is harsh, but not unrealistically so. Worth a read if you’re not going to get too shocked by a story that doesn’t follow every accepted norm for the market.
March 1, 2010
This book was weird, just...really weird. The first part was really interesting - the part where Green was being trained up in the Pomegranate Court to be a courtesan. I was really surprised when I noticed that the author of the book was a man, since he did an excellent job of understanding and portraying the trials of a young girl coming of age. However, after Green left the Pomegranate Court (which happens about a third of the way through the book) and began wandering the world things get really strange and unbelievable. After all the girl-on-girl action and the S&M, it became obvious that it was indeed a man that wrote this book. The plot kept getting stranger and stranger, and by the end, i wondered why i was even still reading this book. It was a somewhat satisfactory ending, all things considered, but it was still just too out there for me. Can't say i'd recommend this one, I sort of feel like the last two thirds of the book were a waste of my time.
May 3, 2018
Let me save you some time.
In this book, there is the word 'sweetpocket' to describe a vag. Despite the word 'vagina' being perfectly fine literally pages before.
Moving right along. I certainly hope the person who wrote all the bullshit on the cover about this book got a raise, because DAMN it took me for a fool. It promises an exciting story about a girl trained as a courtesan, escaping to freedom to become an assassin!
Was she trained as a courtesan? Other than the sweetpocket conversation, no. She is apparently supposed to be the favorite of The Factor (Rob Liefeld super-villain based on Simon Cowell or oh shit he's like a creepy zombie Duke? YOU DECIDE!), but goes 'fuck this', cuts her face to 'ruin her beauty' because this novel was Written by a Man as opposed to a male writer, kills some Mistress who we were probably supposed to feel some kind of way about but WOMP WOMP no back story for her either so we just kind of have to take Green's word for it that she was Very Sad to have spin-kicked her to death or whatever very cool comic book maneuver she pulled off for Maximum Grit and Moxie and goes to live in the sewer with some dude and the Dancing Mistress, who is either some kind of cat lady or Master Splinter from the Ninja Turtles with unexplained self-esteem issues and a sex change.
But hey, guess what, you never find out jack shit about either one of them either, because OH SHIT WE'RE ON A BOAT BITCH because according to the Fantasy Code if you haven't buckled some swashes you aren't a real book or something honestly this is where I had to stop.
Did I mention this book does not have chapters to remind you that life is just endless suffering without reprieve? Because it does not have chapters to remind you that life is just endless suffering without reprieve.
Jay Lake, I see you dedicated this book to your daughter. If you want her to continue to love you, I strongly suggest the only thing you ever say about it, on your deathbed, is that you once dedicated a published book to her. Do not tell her which one. Maybe leave it in your will and hope that if she does read it it is in that happy (for you) window of time where it is considered impolite to speak ill of the dead.
And, you know, maybe if you dedicate a book to your kid, make sure it's not the one that has a sex parable in it that has nothing to do with ANYTHING and uses the word 'sweetpocket'.
Fucking sweetpocket, man. Thanks for putting THAT gem in my autocorrect dictionary.
In this book, there is the word 'sweetpocket' to describe a vag. Despite the word 'vagina' being perfectly fine literally pages before.
Moving right along. I certainly hope the person who wrote all the bullshit on the cover about this book got a raise, because DAMN it took me for a fool. It promises an exciting story about a girl trained as a courtesan, escaping to freedom to become an assassin!
Was she trained as a courtesan? Other than the sweetpocket conversation, no. She is apparently supposed to be the favorite of The Factor (Rob Liefeld super-villain based on Simon Cowell or oh shit he's like a creepy zombie Duke? YOU DECIDE!), but goes 'fuck this', cuts her face to 'ruin her beauty' because this novel was Written by a Man as opposed to a male writer, kills some Mistress who we were probably supposed to feel some kind of way about but WOMP WOMP no back story for her either so we just kind of have to take Green's word for it that she was Very Sad to have spin-kicked her to death or whatever very cool comic book maneuver she pulled off for Maximum Grit and Moxie and goes to live in the sewer with some dude and the Dancing Mistress, who is either some kind of cat lady or Master Splinter from the Ninja Turtles with unexplained self-esteem issues and a sex change.
But hey, guess what, you never find out jack shit about either one of them either, because OH SHIT WE'RE ON A BOAT BITCH because according to the Fantasy Code if you haven't buckled some swashes you aren't a real book or something honestly this is where I had to stop.
Did I mention this book does not have chapters to remind you that life is just endless suffering without reprieve? Because it does not have chapters to remind you that life is just endless suffering without reprieve.
Jay Lake, I see you dedicated this book to your daughter. If you want her to continue to love you, I strongly suggest the only thing you ever say about it, on your deathbed, is that you once dedicated a published book to her. Do not tell her which one. Maybe leave it in your will and hope that if she does read it it is in that happy (for you) window of time where it is considered impolite to speak ill of the dead.
And, you know, maybe if you dedicate a book to your kid, make sure it's not the one that has a sex parable in it that has nothing to do with ANYTHING and uses the word 'sweetpocket'.
Fucking sweetpocket, man. Thanks for putting THAT gem in my autocorrect dictionary.
February 8, 2012
This one’s been floating in and out of the house for a while – ever since the sequel, Endurance, showed up on my doorstep…
drey’s thoughts:
Green is the story of a girl who’s bought, brought to a land across the seas from her home, and trained to be the best courtesan in Copper Downs. She can read and write, cook for kings, sew for queens, dance like an angel. She can also hold a grudge.
When Green decides enough is enough, she does the only thing she knows will get her out of this form of captivity – she mars her beauty. And kills her caretaker, accidentally. But things done are done, and now she has to run. Drawn into intrigue beyond her ken, Green next dispatches the one who bought her – and sets into motion more than she can comprehend. She is barely twelve, after all.
The next chapter in Green’s life brings her home – along with disillusionment – and surprise that she makes it that far. When she’s drawn into the folds of Kalimpura’s ranks of women warrior priestesses, Green seems to thrive. And you’re happy that she has a place to belong. But if that were it, the story would be over. Instead, she’s sent back to Copper Downs to deal with the mess she left behind.
Jay Lake’s world is vivid and well-defined. I didn’t like how women and children are treated, but I think that plays a huge part in my liking Green. She’s impetuous and brash, and thinks she can handle anything. Oh, the folly of youth. She is also an underdog, and still very much just a child.
I will be reading Endurance as soon as I can to find out what happens next to this unlikely God-maker.
drey’s rating: Pick it up!
drey’s thoughts:
Green is the story of a girl who’s bought, brought to a land across the seas from her home, and trained to be the best courtesan in Copper Downs. She can read and write, cook for kings, sew for queens, dance like an angel. She can also hold a grudge.
When Green decides enough is enough, she does the only thing she knows will get her out of this form of captivity – she mars her beauty. And kills her caretaker, accidentally. But things done are done, and now she has to run. Drawn into intrigue beyond her ken, Green next dispatches the one who bought her – and sets into motion more than she can comprehend. She is barely twelve, after all.
The next chapter in Green’s life brings her home – along with disillusionment – and surprise that she makes it that far. When she’s drawn into the folds of Kalimpura’s ranks of women warrior priestesses, Green seems to thrive. And you’re happy that she has a place to belong. But if that were it, the story would be over. Instead, she’s sent back to Copper Downs to deal with the mess she left behind.
Jay Lake’s world is vivid and well-defined. I didn’t like how women and children are treated, but I think that plays a huge part in my liking Green. She’s impetuous and brash, and thinks she can handle anything. Oh, the folly of youth. She is also an underdog, and still very much just a child.
I will be reading Endurance as soon as I can to find out what happens next to this unlikely God-maker.
drey’s rating: Pick it up!
December 12, 2018
Bullet Review:
This book started out with SO much promise! I truly was LOVING the first 1/3 or so of the book and had plans to hop immediately onto books 2 and 3.
And then, she leaves Copper Downs to her homeland, and the entire plot derailed. The ending saved this from an abysmal failure, but this is truly an utter disappointment to me. I wanted SO BADLY to love this book, and at the end, I'm like, meh.
There's a hefty part of me that wants to rant about certain relationships in this book.
I'll just leave that here to fester a bunch of hate comments.
Full Review:
The woman known as Green tells us the story of how her father sold her to slavers, before she even really remembered her own name. This little girl then is taken to a very secluded palace/academy, where she is taught to be a great lady - probably more of a courtesan. Only her teacher instills in her other knowledge - sneaking around, climbing, being strong, etc. But Green is too independent to stay within the walls forever.
This is one of those books I picked up at a local independent bookstore because 1) the premise was interesting and 2) the author signed the book (sadly the author has died since he signed this book). I kept holding onto the book throughout because it had such an intriguing premise! I finally got the chance to read it with a good friend of mine - and the results were very mixed.
It's probably not very fair to review this nearly a year after reading, but in some ways, it really can tell you what stood out. And honestly, in my mind, that first third of the book stands vividly in my memory - little Green being led away from her father and her oxen (I cannot remember now what she called him, but I remember her dedication to that fellow). Her many attempts to sew bells on her cloth. The training she underwent. And the defining moment when she named herself. These memories are still alive nearly a year later.
That said, I can't recall much of anything after that. She leaves the training grounds, gets involved in the streets of her old homeland, some random women - nothing stands out. Even that dreaded "Underage sex with a mentor" bit that so many reviews rant and rail against barely makes a blip on my memory (contrast that to the utter outrage I still have over The Acceptable Child Rape Scene.
I suppose 3 stars is super accurate in that regard; the first part of this book is really brilliant, and probably 5-stars. But as for the rest of the book, I cannot remember much of anything - easily 2 stars. I don't, of course, expect to remember every single event of every single book I read, but I am surprised that I can remember the first part so much better than the last.
Will I read the sequels? Unlikely...I don't even recall where the story left off, so picking up a sequel is bound to be confusing. Would I read more by the author? Well, unfortunately, Jay Lake has passed and has a limited selection of books. I'm not saying no, but he's certainly not going on my "Autobuy" shelf. Would I recommend this book? Sure! Why not! It's a decent read, and who knows, while I may not have enjoyed the end, I'm sure many others would.
This book started out with SO much promise! I truly was LOVING the first 1/3 or so of the book and had plans to hop immediately onto books 2 and 3.
And then, she leaves Copper Downs to her homeland, and the entire plot derailed. The ending saved this from an abysmal failure, but this is truly an utter disappointment to me. I wanted SO BADLY to love this book, and at the end, I'm like, meh.
There's a hefty part of me that wants to rant about certain relationships in this book.
I'll just leave that here to fester a bunch of hate comments.
Full Review:
The woman known as Green tells us the story of how her father sold her to slavers, before she even really remembered her own name. This little girl then is taken to a very secluded palace/academy, where she is taught to be a great lady - probably more of a courtesan. Only her teacher instills in her other knowledge - sneaking around, climbing, being strong, etc. But Green is too independent to stay within the walls forever.
This is one of those books I picked up at a local independent bookstore because 1) the premise was interesting and 2) the author signed the book (sadly the author has died since he signed this book). I kept holding onto the book throughout because it had such an intriguing premise! I finally got the chance to read it with a good friend of mine - and the results were very mixed.
It's probably not very fair to review this nearly a year after reading, but in some ways, it really can tell you what stood out. And honestly, in my mind, that first third of the book stands vividly in my memory - little Green being led away from her father and her oxen (I cannot remember now what she called him, but I remember her dedication to that fellow). Her many attempts to sew bells on her cloth. The training she underwent. And the defining moment when she named herself. These memories are still alive nearly a year later.
That said, I can't recall much of anything after that. She leaves the training grounds, gets involved in the streets of her old homeland, some random women - nothing stands out. Even that dreaded "Underage sex with a mentor" bit that so many reviews rant and rail against barely makes a blip on my memory (contrast that to the utter outrage I still have over The Acceptable Child Rape Scene.
I suppose 3 stars is super accurate in that regard; the first part of this book is really brilliant, and probably 5-stars. But as for the rest of the book, I cannot remember much of anything - easily 2 stars. I don't, of course, expect to remember every single event of every single book I read, but I am surprised that I can remember the first part so much better than the last.
Will I read the sequels? Unlikely...I don't even recall where the story left off, so picking up a sequel is bound to be confusing. Would I read more by the author? Well, unfortunately, Jay Lake has passed and has a limited selection of books. I'm not saying no, but he's certainly not going on my "Autobuy" shelf. Would I recommend this book? Sure! Why not! It's a decent read, and who knows, while I may not have enjoyed the end, I'm sure many others would.
March 3, 2024
DNF @ 13%
After 50 pages of what is essentially a monologue from the perspective of a 3 or 6 year old (hard to say, really), I was bored enough that I decided to
1. Take a nap
2. Check Goodreads to see what the overall rating is (low) and what the reviews are (bad)
3. Based on 1 and 2, stop reading this book
I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf for years, and apparently there was a reason I never bothered picking it up. Yawn.
After 50 pages of what is essentially a monologue from the perspective of a 3 or 6 year old (hard to say, really), I was bored enough that I decided to
1. Take a nap
2. Check Goodreads to see what the overall rating is (low) and what the reviews are (bad)
3. Based on 1 and 2, stop reading this book
I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf for years, and apparently there was a reason I never bothered picking it up. Yawn.
October 6, 2011
ever finish a book, put it down, and think, whew, i'm so glad i'm done with that?
you know it's bad when you've read to the last 30 pages and you're feeling like a plowhorse heading to the barn.
it's not a terrible book--not the kind that makes you throw it against a wall--but it has some really nasty sentences. like:
"They went both one way and the other."
sentences like this drive me nuts. why not "They went both ways" or less succinctly "They went one way and another"?
and, admittedly, my attention wandered, but why does Lake bring up characters as if we'd met them before, when we had not? why write about the poor protagonist aching after having been stretched out upon a rack and whipped, when no such mention of it occurred previously? some serious continuity failures in this book.
not to mention, the first 100 or so pages of the book deal with our young protag's harsh education, and we are told repeatedly that she gets beaten, beaten, beaten. that if she does something, she'll get beaten. if she doesn't, she'll get beaten. this poor child is beaten so often in the first 100 pages that you feel like calling Child Welfare Services on the book itself, and having it hauled off to jail.
by the time she finally stops getting beaten, the reader feels pretty numb to all that beating.
i'm not entirely sure why i kept reading this book. admittedly the only bookstore within 45 miles of my home recently closed, that may have something to do with it. sometimes the book offers some hope of turning interesting, but then grabs for the nearest cliche to hand. men come off appallingly in this book--not a one who doesn't end up deserving the knifing, bludgeoning, stabbing, gouging, eyeball removal, or neck-snapping she applies to them with fierce evenhanded fists of justice.
i'm giving it two stars because something in there held my interest long enough to finish it. but just barely. there's a sequel coming up of course which i shall not be reading at all.
you know it's bad when you've read to the last 30 pages and you're feeling like a plowhorse heading to the barn.
it's not a terrible book--not the kind that makes you throw it against a wall--but it has some really nasty sentences. like:
"They went both one way and the other."
sentences like this drive me nuts. why not "They went both ways" or less succinctly "They went one way and another"?
and, admittedly, my attention wandered, but why does Lake bring up characters as if we'd met them before, when we had not? why write about the poor protagonist aching after having been stretched out upon a rack and whipped, when no such mention of it occurred previously? some serious continuity failures in this book.
not to mention, the first 100 or so pages of the book deal with our young protag's harsh education, and we are told repeatedly that she gets beaten, beaten, beaten. that if she does something, she'll get beaten. if she doesn't, she'll get beaten. this poor child is beaten so often in the first 100 pages that you feel like calling Child Welfare Services on the book itself, and having it hauled off to jail.
by the time she finally stops getting beaten, the reader feels pretty numb to all that beating.
i'm not entirely sure why i kept reading this book. admittedly the only bookstore within 45 miles of my home recently closed, that may have something to do with it. sometimes the book offers some hope of turning interesting, but then grabs for the nearest cliche to hand. men come off appallingly in this book--not a one who doesn't end up deserving the knifing, bludgeoning, stabbing, gouging, eyeball removal, or neck-snapping she applies to them with fierce evenhanded fists of justice.
i'm giving it two stars because something in there held my interest long enough to finish it. but just barely. there's a sequel coming up of course which i shall not be reading at all.
February 20, 2011
I really thought I was in for a simple YA fix. I was deceived and I accuse the cover artist. Honestly I was searching for a light read (usually YA is the best of fluff and stuff after a binge on Dickens and Proust). All I can say is "WTF"!! Really all the sexual action and the S&M was just "WTF", then I realized it's a male writer..."duhh"....
I really wanted to enjoy this book, great premise; girl sold into slavery but really being secretly made into a weapon, all the while it's a competition amongst other candidates to be the "immortal duke's" consort. I was expecting her to duke it out mentally as well as phsyically with the other girls and the duke and then....'deadpan'...wow all those pages of tedious and repetitive words of anguish over her lost damn bells and her ox and her name she can't remember and the whippings and etc...all adds up to nothing...I stopped reading after she high tails it out of Copper stone or whatever and eventually there's girl on girl action and weirdness....ehhh....I'm open minded and what not but it was just ehhhh....she was young and these old women are propisitioning her and even the voice of the author comes in too loud when Green thinks "ill" of gay male coupling but "understands" lesbians...."REALLY"...lol...there was never anything funny about this book but when I read that I broke out laughing...lol from there I was 100% sure it was going to get raunchy in the Lily of the valley....no thanks ....(this book is now stored with my other "WTF" that includes the Witching Hour and if I had'n't given it away 'Let the Right One In')
I really wanted to enjoy this book, great premise; girl sold into slavery but really being secretly made into a weapon, all the while it's a competition amongst other candidates to be the "immortal duke's" consort. I was expecting her to duke it out mentally as well as phsyically with the other girls and the duke and then....'deadpan'...wow all those pages of tedious and repetitive words of anguish over her lost damn bells and her ox and her name she can't remember and the whippings and etc...all adds up to nothing...I stopped reading after she high tails it out of Copper stone or whatever and eventually there's girl on girl action and weirdness....ehhh....I'm open minded and what not but it was just ehhhh....she was young and these old women are propisitioning her and even the voice of the author comes in too loud when Green thinks "ill" of gay male coupling but "understands" lesbians...."REALLY"...lol...there was never anything funny about this book but when I read that I broke out laughing...lol from there I was 100% sure it was going to get raunchy in the Lily of the valley....no thanks ....(this book is now stored with my other "WTF" that includes the Witching Hour and if I had'n't given it away 'Let the Right One In')
January 28, 2010
I read this book in an afternoon, put it aside, thought "meh" and completely forgot about it. I only remembered it existed when the library's overdue-book notice arrived.
The premise is promising: a young girl sold by her father, transplanted to a foreign country, shaped to be a noble woman/courtesan and, secretly, a weapon. The story had several elements I usually love -- a strong-willed female main character, several interesting settings, (no bog-standard fantasyland here), clashes of cultures and expectations -- but nothing sparkled. I'm even tempted to describe the result as "bland".
Green, the first-person narrator tells the story as an adult reflecting on her childhood. Unfortunately, Lake does not manage to pull the voice off: the distant Green waxes quite wondrously lyrical, but never comes truly alive.
Meanwhile, the plot fizzles from one event to the next, ending in a *pop* rather than a bang. Chopped up, this book might contain several diverting short stories. Glued together as a novel, it did not work for me. (Though it has got a very pretty cover!)
Overall, not a bad way to spend a rainy afternoon, but not something to seek out.
The premise is promising: a young girl sold by her father, transplanted to a foreign country, shaped to be a noble woman/courtesan and, secretly, a weapon. The story had several elements I usually love -- a strong-willed female main character, several interesting settings, (no bog-standard fantasyland here), clashes of cultures and expectations -- but nothing sparkled. I'm even tempted to describe the result as "bland".
Green, the first-person narrator tells the story as an adult reflecting on her childhood. Unfortunately, Lake does not manage to pull the voice off: the distant Green waxes quite wondrously lyrical, but never comes truly alive.
Meanwhile, the plot fizzles from one event to the next, ending in a *pop* rather than a bang. Chopped up, this book might contain several diverting short stories. Glued together as a novel, it did not work for me. (Though it has got a very pretty cover!)
Overall, not a bad way to spend a rainy afternoon, but not something to seek out.
November 25, 2011
Despite its problems, it’s easy for me to see why some readers absolutely love Green. Lake’s writing is absolutely stunning and Green herself is a fascinating well-wrought character with incredible depth. These two facts might serve to carry some readers through. However, for others, the unbelievable and endlessly dragging second half filled with events that seemed more filler than anything else will leave readers with a sour impression. In the end, Green left me wishing Lake had focused more on the character Green rather than endless journeys and odd happenings in foreign lands punctuated by a poor ending. However, regardless of my feelings, this book is still a solid three star read which may appeal to some readers and not others. There are things in Green that are absolutely stunning, which are nicely balanced by other things which may cause a few eyes to roll.
Read my full review here:
http://bookwormblues.blogspot.com/201...
Read my full review here:
http://bookwormblues.blogspot.com/201...
April 25, 2010
I was instantly attracted to this cover, and found myself looking for it in paperback everytime I went into a bookstore. Finally, I relented to my curiosity and bought the hardback. I shouldn't have. This book is divided into three parts. The first part isn't so bad, but it goes from okay, to not so good, to awful pretty quickly. The main character has A LOT of rather [insert adjective here:] sexual encounters, all lesbian and all without much investment. Which makes this books' dedication (to his daughter) even more creepy. Overall, I felt like this book used a lot of ideas that other writers did successfully (most notably Jacqueline Carey for her combining of sex and politics), only he didn't work on his thoughts enough to make this story work. Pass on this book!
September 3, 2011
This is an unusual review for me to make, in part because I haven't previously reviewed an author who I have followed as closely as Jay Lake, and because I don't normally review novels where I have read other reviews of the same work before. It just happened that way.
I can't exactly recall when I heard of Jay Lake, but some time over the last few years I disovered I enjoyed the way he thought and wrote about things, and I also have huge respect for his honesty, particularly with his challenges with cancer. I read a few of his short stories and found that I also liked the way he wrote.
Green is one of his more recent novels and I admit that my interest in reading it was catalyzed by its mixed reviews. Since I had the misfortune of reading these reviews before reading the novel, I would also like to devote a little of my review time to some of the common criticisms - which I genuinely believe are poorly rendered.
Let's get the salient points of the earlier reviews out of the way.
The one that is most ludicrous to my mind are the several commentators who chose to criticise Jay Lake's dedication. I wont repeat the dedication but it is to his daughter and it is clearly personal. I have read enough of Jay's blogs to know that he has a wonderful father-daughter relationship and the dedication in my mind is an extension of this. Because the book covers adult topics and the main character's (Green's) open sexuality is explored somewhat in this book, commentators seem to think there is a complication with Jay dedicating the book to his daughter. This is a reflection of poor thinking on the part of the commentators, who should focus on the novel, not the dedication.
Some of the criticisms of Jay's novel are directly, or indirectly, associated with the his treatment of Green's sexuality. I can add that I read a few snipes at his choice of certain words, such as "sweetpocket" for vagina. The biggest problem that I had with such criticisms (the general sexuality topic, not the choice of words), is that the commentators didn't really explain why they had a problem. What surprised me was that when I read the book I didn't actually think the sexual descriptions and themes were overdone at all, and half-expected more becuase of those earlier reviews. In my mind Green's sexuality - particularly the same-sex experiences, are entirely consistent with her most unusual upbringing, where it was dominated by insulated, female-only cliques. More importantly, it was not something that dominated he story - this is not an erotic novel. I beleive that most commentators who took strong issue with this aspect of the novel are really dealing with their own biases. Regarding the choice of words for women's body parts, I think again that the choices made by Lake were made to reflect Green's upbrringing - after all this novel is written in First Person.
Nuff said on that.
I enjoyed Green. I particularly liked the world-building. It was partially carried out by using real world reference points to allow the reader to more readily dive into the many different races and locations he constructed. Kalimpura has a north African field to it, and Copper Downs smacks of Europe. Even choice of names of characters and places follow the same patterns. And yet, there are unique elements to the world as well. I like the setting of the technology levels more into the renaissance than in typical Middle Ages, which adds color to the story. It is always refreshing to read a story that isn't heavily awash with multiple races of sentient beings (elves etc), and the Pardines (a feline-like warrior race) added just the right degree of 'differentness' to the world, without overdoing it. While not unique, jay Lake makes good use of the idea of a world closely associated with gods, and the symbiosis that exists between those who worship and those who are worshipped. One of the earliest books I read that covered the concept of gods relying on workshippers to exist, was the Merlin novels by H Warner Munn - Lake treats the concept equally as well.
The character Green is complex. Very complex, and after all, she is what this story is all about. Her journey, growth, and her ability to reconcile her most tumultuous early life with the many two-sided benefits she gained from it. This theme is explored with further depth in her many interactions with people who were instrumental in forcing her destiny - and many ironies fall out. This major theme, and the way Lake has portrayed it, is reason alone to read Green and admire it.
Green is written essentially in three parts, and for much of the reader's journey, there is a small undercurrent of concern that they aren't tied completely together. The first part of the story is an odyssey - Green's. It is about how she is sold and how she suffers and becomes skilled in many crafts as a trainee concubine. Her interaction with the Dancing Mistress and Federo (the agent who bought her), adds spice to the story and (only later found), crystalizes why in fact the three parts of the novel are in fact fundamentally one story. The second part of the story is when Green returns to her homeland and gets trained as a religious assassin in Kalimpura. While elements of this part are important extensions of Green's 'journey' - particularly reality checking her mental template of her origins - the Kalimpura setting does feel like a very different story, with different aspirations and purposes for the protagonist. However, the third and final part - back in Copper Downs, but now a degraded land under threat from the genesis of a chaotic god. Again, this is a different story, and yet, as it unfolds, all three parts start to intertwine in many more ways than what could possibly be imagined. I don't want to give too much away of the plot - I will simply state that Lake successfully adds unifying reasons for events in all three parts, where Green was an important witness or actively involved.
So how well does Jay Lake do all this? I think admirably. Lake successfully develops a very complex character - as I stated, in my view this was the prime purpose of the novel. And yet, he also weaves a complex plot that, for the first two thirds of the story, appeared to be quite linear. I don't know if the starkness of change of the three 'parts' of the novel could have been made less stark or not - or if it was entirely intended, but I think Lake pretty much pulls it off.
I would recommend Green to any discerning fantasy reader - particularly if the reader is after depth of characterisation.
Five stars.
I can't exactly recall when I heard of Jay Lake, but some time over the last few years I disovered I enjoyed the way he thought and wrote about things, and I also have huge respect for his honesty, particularly with his challenges with cancer. I read a few of his short stories and found that I also liked the way he wrote.
Green is one of his more recent novels and I admit that my interest in reading it was catalyzed by its mixed reviews. Since I had the misfortune of reading these reviews before reading the novel, I would also like to devote a little of my review time to some of the common criticisms - which I genuinely believe are poorly rendered.
Let's get the salient points of the earlier reviews out of the way.
The one that is most ludicrous to my mind are the several commentators who chose to criticise Jay Lake's dedication. I wont repeat the dedication but it is to his daughter and it is clearly personal. I have read enough of Jay's blogs to know that he has a wonderful father-daughter relationship and the dedication in my mind is an extension of this. Because the book covers adult topics and the main character's (Green's) open sexuality is explored somewhat in this book, commentators seem to think there is a complication with Jay dedicating the book to his daughter. This is a reflection of poor thinking on the part of the commentators, who should focus on the novel, not the dedication.
Some of the criticisms of Jay's novel are directly, or indirectly, associated with the his treatment of Green's sexuality. I can add that I read a few snipes at his choice of certain words, such as "sweetpocket" for vagina. The biggest problem that I had with such criticisms (the general sexuality topic, not the choice of words), is that the commentators didn't really explain why they had a problem. What surprised me was that when I read the book I didn't actually think the sexual descriptions and themes were overdone at all, and half-expected more becuase of those earlier reviews. In my mind Green's sexuality - particularly the same-sex experiences, are entirely consistent with her most unusual upbringing, where it was dominated by insulated, female-only cliques. More importantly, it was not something that dominated he story - this is not an erotic novel. I beleive that most commentators who took strong issue with this aspect of the novel are really dealing with their own biases. Regarding the choice of words for women's body parts, I think again that the choices made by Lake were made to reflect Green's upbrringing - after all this novel is written in First Person.
Nuff said on that.
I enjoyed Green. I particularly liked the world-building. It was partially carried out by using real world reference points to allow the reader to more readily dive into the many different races and locations he constructed. Kalimpura has a north African field to it, and Copper Downs smacks of Europe. Even choice of names of characters and places follow the same patterns. And yet, there are unique elements to the world as well. I like the setting of the technology levels more into the renaissance than in typical Middle Ages, which adds color to the story. It is always refreshing to read a story that isn't heavily awash with multiple races of sentient beings (elves etc), and the Pardines (a feline-like warrior race) added just the right degree of 'differentness' to the world, without overdoing it. While not unique, jay Lake makes good use of the idea of a world closely associated with gods, and the symbiosis that exists between those who worship and those who are worshipped. One of the earliest books I read that covered the concept of gods relying on workshippers to exist, was the Merlin novels by H Warner Munn - Lake treats the concept equally as well.
The character Green is complex. Very complex, and after all, she is what this story is all about. Her journey, growth, and her ability to reconcile her most tumultuous early life with the many two-sided benefits she gained from it. This theme is explored with further depth in her many interactions with people who were instrumental in forcing her destiny - and many ironies fall out. This major theme, and the way Lake has portrayed it, is reason alone to read Green and admire it.
Green is written essentially in three parts, and for much of the reader's journey, there is a small undercurrent of concern that they aren't tied completely together. The first part of the story is an odyssey - Green's. It is about how she is sold and how she suffers and becomes skilled in many crafts as a trainee concubine. Her interaction with the Dancing Mistress and Federo (the agent who bought her), adds spice to the story and (only later found), crystalizes why in fact the three parts of the novel are in fact fundamentally one story. The second part of the story is when Green returns to her homeland and gets trained as a religious assassin in Kalimpura. While elements of this part are important extensions of Green's 'journey' - particularly reality checking her mental template of her origins - the Kalimpura setting does feel like a very different story, with different aspirations and purposes for the protagonist. However, the third and final part - back in Copper Downs, but now a degraded land under threat from the genesis of a chaotic god. Again, this is a different story, and yet, as it unfolds, all three parts start to intertwine in many more ways than what could possibly be imagined. I don't want to give too much away of the plot - I will simply state that Lake successfully adds unifying reasons for events in all three parts, where Green was an important witness or actively involved.
So how well does Jay Lake do all this? I think admirably. Lake successfully develops a very complex character - as I stated, in my view this was the prime purpose of the novel. And yet, he also weaves a complex plot that, for the first two thirds of the story, appeared to be quite linear. I don't know if the starkness of change of the three 'parts' of the novel could have been made less stark or not - or if it was entirely intended, but I think Lake pretty much pulls it off.
I would recommend Green to any discerning fantasy reader - particularly if the reader is after depth of characterisation.
Five stars.
March 3, 2011
I have morphed into an internet shopper. It’s a symptom of the age of technology. Well, that and the fact that I don’t own a car. I do my commuting by bus and metro, on my own two feet, or by hitching a ride with friends. Ergo, I don’t usually shop in brick-and-mortar bookstores. When I actually do go to a bookstore, I can easily get caught up in the wonder of ‘so many new books in one place!’
Let’s recap: physical bookstores are dangerous. I am liable to pick up any pretty book that catches my eye and wander to the cash register with it. I’m not so likely to do that online. In fact, when I shop online I usually search for books I’ve heard about from fellow bloggers (thanks for all the amazing suggestions, by the way!). BUT. I went to a bookstore the other day and actually touched real books, and Green is the one I came away with, despite having never heard of it before that day, and having no recommendation beyond a blurb by Mary Robinette Kowal on the back cover. You’ll remember Ms. Kowal from the insanely awesome Shades of Milk and Honey. Yes, that one.
I haven’t read truly enjoyable first-person narrative in a while. I tend to have a hard time with it – the unreliable narrator issue, flashback scenes and narrowed focus put me off. [insert obvious question: but don’t I read a LOT of YA novels? And aren’t they KNOWN for first person?] Part of the reason I bought this book was that the first two pages were compelling, and Green’s voice was authentic. I felt the dust and the heat, I heard the bells. I could see the scene – almost be a part of it through Green’s eyes – in a way that I haven’t since my experience with the first chapter of Alex Bracken’s Brightly Woven. It had slight shadings of Memoirs of a Geisha, the tiniest of flavors from The Good Earth – mostly in a descriptive sense.
But even as Green succeeded as a first person account of a girl being raised as a courtesan and trained on the side as a fighter, it was uneven in other respects. The book captured a lot of the uncertainty of finding yourself, finding a goal to live for and a way to move forward that happens as a teenager. What it didn’t do was convince me that Green had any emotional connection to other characters (and I know she was meant to). Secondary characters were perforce slighted in stage time, and felt like flimsy paper stand-ins for real people.
The book also contained a lot of ‘mature content.’ Let me be clear: GREEN IS NOT A YA NOVEL. There’s sex, violence, violence AND sex, among other things. Regardless of the moral compass of each character and/or the specific reader, such content can work in a novel, or it can seem out of place and weird. In Green, it worked part of the time, and in other parts felt like a teenage boy’s favorite skeezy dream. I was unimpressed.
Let’s review: Green was really interesting. I read fantasy and science fiction a lot, and yet I haven’t read something like this in a long time, if ever. I read it the whole way through, even though I objected strongly to certain material, and felt that portions of the novel lagged. I contemplated it for days to find out why I reacted negatively sometimes, and why other pieces spoke to me so clearly. In the end, I’d dub it a book I ‘like,’ but not one that I will return to.
Recommended for: those who like their stories a with a touch of the exotic and a strong lashing of dark content, enthusiasts of god/goddess myths in literature, and fans of a strong first-person narrator in an epic fantasy tale.
Let’s recap: physical bookstores are dangerous. I am liable to pick up any pretty book that catches my eye and wander to the cash register with it. I’m not so likely to do that online. In fact, when I shop online I usually search for books I’ve heard about from fellow bloggers (thanks for all the amazing suggestions, by the way!). BUT. I went to a bookstore the other day and actually touched real books, and Green is the one I came away with, despite having never heard of it before that day, and having no recommendation beyond a blurb by Mary Robinette Kowal on the back cover. You’ll remember Ms. Kowal from the insanely awesome Shades of Milk and Honey. Yes, that one.
I haven’t read truly enjoyable first-person narrative in a while. I tend to have a hard time with it – the unreliable narrator issue, flashback scenes and narrowed focus put me off. [insert obvious question: but don’t I read a LOT of YA novels? And aren’t they KNOWN for first person?] Part of the reason I bought this book was that the first two pages were compelling, and Green’s voice was authentic. I felt the dust and the heat, I heard the bells. I could see the scene – almost be a part of it through Green’s eyes – in a way that I haven’t since my experience with the first chapter of Alex Bracken’s Brightly Woven. It had slight shadings of Memoirs of a Geisha, the tiniest of flavors from The Good Earth – mostly in a descriptive sense.
But even as Green succeeded as a first person account of a girl being raised as a courtesan and trained on the side as a fighter, it was uneven in other respects. The book captured a lot of the uncertainty of finding yourself, finding a goal to live for and a way to move forward that happens as a teenager. What it didn’t do was convince me that Green had any emotional connection to other characters (and I know she was meant to). Secondary characters were perforce slighted in stage time, and felt like flimsy paper stand-ins for real people.
The book also contained a lot of ‘mature content.’ Let me be clear: GREEN IS NOT A YA NOVEL. There’s sex, violence, violence AND sex, among other things. Regardless of the moral compass of each character and/or the specific reader, such content can work in a novel, or it can seem out of place and weird. In Green, it worked part of the time, and in other parts felt like a teenage boy’s favorite skeezy dream. I was unimpressed.
Let’s review: Green was really interesting. I read fantasy and science fiction a lot, and yet I haven’t read something like this in a long time, if ever. I read it the whole way through, even though I objected strongly to certain material, and felt that portions of the novel lagged. I contemplated it for days to find out why I reacted negatively sometimes, and why other pieces spoke to me so clearly. In the end, I’d dub it a book I ‘like,’ but not one that I will return to.
Recommended for: those who like their stories a with a touch of the exotic and a strong lashing of dark content, enthusiasts of god/goddess myths in literature, and fans of a strong first-person narrator in an epic fantasy tale.
August 11, 2011
Pros: vividly real world, mostly sympathetic protagonist
Cons: entirely character driven, unevenly paced
Green was bought from her father at a very young age and raised in another country to be a nobleman's wife. Trained to numerous arts: cooking, sewing, music and more, it's her dance lessons and the illicit classes of stealth, falling and climbing, and the mistress who teaches them, that offer her a taste of the freedom and choice she longs for. When the time comes for her to leave her training courtyard, she makes a choice that shows her that while you can choose your actions it is their consequences that decide your future.
The world building is fantastic, with the people of different continents having different skin tones, languages, cultures, food preferences, sexual preferences, etc.. The history was loosely done though I got the impression that this was because Green didn't know much of it and therefore it would have been out of place to add more, rather than because the author hadn't considered this aspect of his novel.
This is a book that will appeal to readers who enjoy character driven action like that of Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy and Piers Anthony's A Quest for Chameleon. And like the latter, the almost aimless wanderings and life of the protagonist have purpose, when seen from the end (though to a lesser extent than Quest).
The problem I have with character driven stories is that, as with real life, not everything that happens to a person is interesting. Plot driven stories typically skip over these periods quickly, but character driven stories can't, leading to pacing issues where some periods are fascinating (like Green's two periods of schooling), action packed (her time as an aspirant and the ending), and times that are boring (her return home). Indeed, Green has an almost anti-climax half way through the book, after which the protagonist wanders for some time.
While she's a mostly sympathetic character, as a child taken from her father, her inability to grow up and realize that, despite the circumstances of her youth, she was better off in her new home than her old one, annoyed me. Despite constant observations to the contrary she held to her mistaken belief that everyone else in the world got to choose their futures while only she had to face misfortune and a loss of freedom. She held to these beliefs even after she left her court prison and found that her own choices had trapped her. That being able to make decisions for her life wasn't the same as being free. She was someone who held to an ideal that didn't exist and refused to move on. She made uninformed decisions and wondered afterward why those decisions were wrong.
Ultimately, Green is an interesting protagonist but not interesting enough to hold attention for an entire novel.
Cons: entirely character driven, unevenly paced
Green was bought from her father at a very young age and raised in another country to be a nobleman's wife. Trained to numerous arts: cooking, sewing, music and more, it's her dance lessons and the illicit classes of stealth, falling and climbing, and the mistress who teaches them, that offer her a taste of the freedom and choice she longs for. When the time comes for her to leave her training courtyard, she makes a choice that shows her that while you can choose your actions it is their consequences that decide your future.
The world building is fantastic, with the people of different continents having different skin tones, languages, cultures, food preferences, sexual preferences, etc.. The history was loosely done though I got the impression that this was because Green didn't know much of it and therefore it would have been out of place to add more, rather than because the author hadn't considered this aspect of his novel.
This is a book that will appeal to readers who enjoy character driven action like that of Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy and Piers Anthony's A Quest for Chameleon. And like the latter, the almost aimless wanderings and life of the protagonist have purpose, when seen from the end (though to a lesser extent than Quest).
The problem I have with character driven stories is that, as with real life, not everything that happens to a person is interesting. Plot driven stories typically skip over these periods quickly, but character driven stories can't, leading to pacing issues where some periods are fascinating (like Green's two periods of schooling), action packed (her time as an aspirant and the ending), and times that are boring (her return home). Indeed, Green has an almost anti-climax half way through the book, after which the protagonist wanders for some time.
While she's a mostly sympathetic character, as a child taken from her father, her inability to grow up and realize that, despite the circumstances of her youth, she was better off in her new home than her old one, annoyed me. Despite constant observations to the contrary she held to her mistaken belief that everyone else in the world got to choose their futures while only she had to face misfortune and a loss of freedom. She held to these beliefs even after she left her court prison and found that her own choices had trapped her. That being able to make decisions for her life wasn't the same as being free. She was someone who held to an ideal that didn't exist and refused to move on. She made uninformed decisions and wondered afterward why those decisions were wrong.
Ultimately, Green is an interesting protagonist but not interesting enough to hold attention for an entire novel.
June 30, 2014
I decided to finally make my way through Jay Lake's Green series in honor of him, following his recent and extremely tragic passing. I met Jay several times, spoke with him, and am friends with good friends of his. I will try and discuss this as impartially as possible.
As with Jay's other novels and short stories, there are high points and low points. Fortunately, this novel contained all Jay's normal high points, but it also contained his normal low points. Green takes place in a creative world, full of interesting creatures and people, politics, religions. The main character, Green, generally reacts rationally, and is engaging and entertaining. The ancillary characters are unique, individualistic and fill their roles as important side pieces, taking their parts in the story, and not disappearing as just set pieces.
The prose in Green is the best of the books I've read from Jay. It's flowing, spectacular at times, very pleasant to read. His way with words might have been his highest point as an author, in my opinion, and he had a way of pulling you into his worlds. Unfortunately, his worlds seem to often feel extra weird just for the sake of being so. Much like [book:Mainspring), he creates a perfectly unique and interesting world, then puts an odd furry-style animal people race in. And, in Jay fashion, he makes the protagonist have frequent sex with said furries. A lot.
In fact, the hyper-sexualization is something that turns me off of Jay's work. Every story, every novel, every novella, they all contain an oppressive and obnoxious sexuality throughout the books. Characters are constantly having sex, being aroused, being described in ways that put excessive focus on their sexuality. There's constant intersexual and interrace encounters, which is great from the stance of equality and whatnot, but often feels forced a bit. Much like some of the scenes in Gaiman's American Gods, there seems to be an almost obsessive inclusion of genitalia descriptions or mentions. And in one particularly cringeworthy scene, an entire temple of women simultaneously begin explosively menstruating. Yeah, why?
But that said, it didn't ruin or overly mar what I found to be a lovely novel, unique and interesting, flowing and pretty. It's my favorite piece of literature from Jay yet, and it's motivated me to continue going through his library of books and stories.
As with Jay's other novels and short stories, there are high points and low points. Fortunately, this novel contained all Jay's normal high points, but it also contained his normal low points. Green takes place in a creative world, full of interesting creatures and people, politics, religions. The main character, Green, generally reacts rationally, and is engaging and entertaining. The ancillary characters are unique, individualistic and fill their roles as important side pieces, taking their parts in the story, and not disappearing as just set pieces.
The prose in Green is the best of the books I've read from Jay. It's flowing, spectacular at times, very pleasant to read. His way with words might have been his highest point as an author, in my opinion, and he had a way of pulling you into his worlds. Unfortunately, his worlds seem to often feel extra weird just for the sake of being so. Much like [book:Mainspring), he creates a perfectly unique and interesting world, then puts an odd furry-style animal people race in. And, in Jay fashion, he makes the protagonist have frequent sex with said furries. A lot.
In fact, the hyper-sexualization is something that turns me off of Jay's work. Every story, every novel, every novella, they all contain an oppressive and obnoxious sexuality throughout the books. Characters are constantly having sex, being aroused, being described in ways that put excessive focus on their sexuality. There's constant intersexual and interrace encounters, which is great from the stance of equality and whatnot, but often feels forced a bit. Much like some of the scenes in Gaiman's American Gods, there seems to be an almost obsessive inclusion of genitalia descriptions or mentions. And in one particularly cringeworthy scene, an entire temple of women simultaneously begin explosively menstruating. Yeah, why?
But that said, it didn't ruin or overly mar what I found to be a lovely novel, unique and interesting, flowing and pretty. It's my favorite piece of literature from Jay yet, and it's motivated me to continue going through his library of books and stories.
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