A Rambling Review of Rosemary and Rue

[vincentursus]

Today I finished reading 'Rosemary and Rue' by seanan_mcguire.

To give a quick review, it was a good book and I recommend it.



That over with, I shall now begin the longer rambling version.

I bought 'Rosemary and Rue' on the strength of 'Stars Fall Home.' Which I bought on the strength of 'Flowers for Barry Ween.'

The back of my copy of 'Rosemary and Review' has the following blurb:
"...one of the most successful blends of mystery and fantasy I've ever read--like Raymond Chandler by way of Pamela Dean." - T.A. Pratt, author of 'Dead Reign'

Now despite the fact that Raymond Chandler is the only one of those three authors that I'm familiar with that is a pretty good description of the atmosphere achieved in 'Rosemary and Rue.' The story is a very much a mystery in the Chandlerian tradition, almost literally following Chandler's maxim “When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.” Our long suffering protagonist, though undoubtedly intelligent, tough and talented, finds her skills challenged to keep body and soul together, let alone acquire success and fortune. However instead of forgettable thugs and back-alley bars fey beings and mystical places are what our heroine, a changeling herself, has to deal with.

Being unfamiliar with Pamela Dean I would point to 'The Summer People by John Walter Biles as an example of the kind of fantasy millieu that the mystery is set in.

As an aside I think I've heard of Pamela Dean though I'm not certain. Pratt is unfamiliar. I do have a book called 'Dead Reign' on my shelf, but it's a role playing game book and Pratt is not one of the three authors it lists.

Now one of the acid tests of any story is how sympathetic the antagonist is. Now, some black-clad fellow gleefully violating the Evil Overlord list can be entertaining, but it is not the stuff of well-crafted dramatic conflict.

Now, Seanan McGuire's antagonist has a motivation I find it easy to be sympathetic to. In addition the antagonist's identity is not telegraphed in advance. A red herring is thrown out early on to help muddy the waters. The eventual revealing of the antagonist is foreshadowed just enough that the denouement does not come overly abruptly.

All-in-all a good piece of work.

Comments

[tapratt.livejournal.com]

My Dead Reign bears no relation to the roleplaying game -- I wonder if they took their title from William Cullen Bryant's poem "Thanatopsis" too? (My book is part of a sort-of-urban-fantasy series I did.) As for Pamela Dean, I recommend her novel Tam Lin.

[vincentursus.livejournal.com]

Could be. Thank you for the recommendation.