fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #6020 ]

⌈ Secret Post #6020 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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07. [SPOILERS for Good Omens season 2]

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08. [WARNING for discussion of sexual misconduct allegations]

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09. [WARNING for discussion of sexual assault]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #860.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik.

There's so much potential in Novik's writing, and she does some things really strongly, but at the end of the day the parts I find extremely dissatisfying win out over the parts I enjoy, leaving me with the strong desire to just bitch about all the stuff I didn't like. Which is annoying, because I don't have anybody I can do that with. I can do it on Good Reads, but what I crave is conversational bitching, not to just rant largely into the void for several paragraphs.

I feel this. I suspect that my issue with Novik is that the parts of her stories that she seems to find the most interesting (including characters, personality traits and plot points) are not the same ones that I do, so I come out appreciating the story but dissatisfied about it because we ignored the part I like to spend extra time on something I wasn't that interested in (at best).

Yes! This is exactly the issue for me, too. I don't think I've ever felt this at-odds with a writer's narrative choices before.

Like, she tends to favor particular character types that I don't overly enjoy--and so I end up spending the whole story waiting for the character(s) to grown, deepen, and improve in certain ways, and they basically just never do, because the author likes that they are the way they are--it's a feature for her not a bug.

I also feel like she really likes power fantasy stories. Which is fair enough! It's a popular and valid type of story. But personally I prefer my power fantasies to have a bit of a lighter touch, and be well-mixed with other elements. It actually really bugs the heck out of me when one single character does 98% of everything important in a story. And for all that Novik's stories talk a lot of talk about the power of friendship and all that, when you actually sit down and tally out what important things get done by whom, 95% of the important things typically get done by the main character--who is just so very powerful and gifted and special wow.

Also, how am I supposed to feel impressed or thrilled when the protagonist does yet another extraordinary, nobody-thinks-it's-possible thing, when the explanation for how she does it is basically just, "very power, such special, wow"? I feel like there's never enough concrete set-up (or actual firmly-established rules and limits of the universe) for the pay-off to actually be pay-off in most cases.

And the romance is. Just. "Wait, since when do they have a relationship at all? Oh they're making out now? Um...okay." :/

[ SECRET POST #6020 ]

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