Trick of the Light by Rob Thurman
Sep. 19th, 2009 11:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gategrrlI'm going to stick this under a cut because, as the author said in her LJ, do NOT read the final 75 or so pages before the rest of the book. So, therefore, to respect the spoiler wishes of those who might read this later and don't want to stumble upon the revelations, don't read further. Trick of the Light: A Trickster Novel (Trixa)
Trick of the Light is an urban fantasy, but it's not in the paranormal romance vein. Thurman, thankfully, doesn't pile unneeded sex within her pages and keeps the sex appeal to where the characters need to use it FURTHER THE PLOT.
What I liked: I really like the set-up to TotL. It has many story possibilities. It has a female main character. Well, sort of yes, and sort of no. I'll get to that.
What I didn't like upon further reflection: Unfortunately, a lot more than I expected. Thurman is a talented, competent writer, but she tends to fall in love with her complexly drawn male characters and side-line her female protagonist. Part of the problem here is that TotL is a set-up for the rest of the series, so you never get a full bead on Trixa, the main character, until she spills all the plot beans toward the end: that's why Thurman warns her faithful readers to NOT read ahead. Trixa, the protagonist, is practically the only female in the novel. With one exception, ALL her contacts are with male characters. All of her supporting characters are male. There are long explanations for why demons and angels generally choose to take male shapes: its the default with few exceptions, apparently.
Zeke and Griffin, guys who are now in their midtwenties, are more interesting and have a more interesting backstory than Trixa herself. There's a huge, terrific irony about them, and their abilities as empath/telepaths that Thurman (via Trixa) cannot seem to stop waxing poetic about. It's pounded into the reader's head how *wonderful* and how *much* she loves these guys. It's as if Trixa and Thurman don't trust the reader to get it how important these two guys are to Trixa.
Leo, her mysterious bartender (Trixa owns a bar in Las Vegas) dates women that Trixa doesn't like. She calls them bimbos and brainless, and other derogatory things, while she herself sleeps with him on ocassion and she admits they have an open relationship. I don't have a problem with open relationships: I do have a problem with what I am starting to perceive as a persistent misogyny on the part of the writer. And yes, the writer is a woman.
Trixa mentions her family and her mother in particular several times throughout the book, but the reader only learns that Mother is canny, smart, and doesn't think entirely too well of Trixa. She has mother issues. (okay, who doesn't: but now I'm waiting for the next or the following book after that to detail how Trixa's problems are now her mother's fault...although I think Thurman is too good a writer to fall into that trap, considering this book, I can't be entirely too sure). Okay, Trixa herself is a wise-ass talking, quipping woman. She emphasizes herself how small and lightweight she is compared to all the males she finds herself around, and it's said several times how exotic looking she is and how curly and unruly her hair is, etc etc etc.
There's a big, I dunno. World-building problem? Trixa admits near the end of the book (SPOILER HERE PEOPLE, MAJOY MAJOR SPOILER YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED) that although she is a being below a god, yet above demons, with no mention of angels there, she is completely, thoroughly FEMALE, no doubt about it, all the way, she is female even though she can become anything, any shape. And she has a Mother. And yet, the demons and angels never appear in anything but male guise. Trixa muses on this, but it really, truly honestly comes across as the author reasoning out an excuse why females other than Trixa don't seem to exist in this universe. With the exception of her mother and perhaps some unmentioned female pagan gods, etc. It's that I can't quite wrap my head around. Why is there this strange dichotomy? Is there some sort of criticism going on about Christianity, where the angels and demons prefer male form is because Christians were only able to imagine them as male? It's hard to tell. I'm not Christian, and I'm not Pagan, so I have no dog in this fight.
This next one isn't entirely an *objection*, but... near the end of the book, the second to last scene, has Trixa's two young male posse members admit to having FINALLY gotten around to having sex. That they are now having sex doesn't bother me. It's that two pages follow (I might be exaggurating, but not by too much) wherein Trixa goes on and on about how she KNEW, she just KNEW that these two boys would be getting together and why, at great length. And to top it off, while the admission is made by the one who has no brain-to-mouth filter, I had a creepy feeling that, while the character is indeed filterless, he was taken advantage of...it was a "fan service" or perhaps "writer's service" moment where the entire bar hears the confession. Kinda popped me out of the book. Yes, it was within character and it was kinda-sorta funny. It was played for comedy and for Trixa to have the smug satisfaction of *knowing* before they did. It was fucking obnoxious.
I'll probably be revising this review. It's my first impression coming away from it and thinking about it for a couple of days. I love Thurman's Cal Leandros books. I'm not so sure about this series.
Conclusion: If you're a Thurman fan who loves her complex, angsty guys and want to live a little more in another area of the Cal Leandros universe, this is for you, totally and completely. Other wise...I recommend with some reservations.
SPOILERS in the COMMENTS
Trick of the Light is an urban fantasy, but it's not in the paranormal romance vein. Thurman, thankfully, doesn't pile unneeded sex within her pages and keeps the sex appeal to where the characters need to use it FURTHER THE PLOT.
What I liked: I really like the set-up to TotL. It has many story possibilities. It has a female main character. Well, sort of yes, and sort of no. I'll get to that.
What I didn't like upon further reflection: Unfortunately, a lot more than I expected. Thurman is a talented, competent writer, but she tends to fall in love with her complexly drawn male characters and side-line her female protagonist. Part of the problem here is that TotL is a set-up for the rest of the series, so you never get a full bead on Trixa, the main character, until she spills all the plot beans toward the end: that's why Thurman warns her faithful readers to NOT read ahead. Trixa, the protagonist, is practically the only female in the novel. With one exception, ALL her contacts are with male characters. All of her supporting characters are male. There are long explanations for why demons and angels generally choose to take male shapes: its the default with few exceptions, apparently.
Zeke and Griffin, guys who are now in their midtwenties, are more interesting and have a more interesting backstory than Trixa herself. There's a huge, terrific irony about them, and their abilities as empath/telepaths that Thurman (via Trixa) cannot seem to stop waxing poetic about. It's pounded into the reader's head how *wonderful* and how *much* she loves these guys. It's as if Trixa and Thurman don't trust the reader to get it how important these two guys are to Trixa.
Leo, her mysterious bartender (Trixa owns a bar in Las Vegas) dates women that Trixa doesn't like. She calls them bimbos and brainless, and other derogatory things, while she herself sleeps with him on ocassion and she admits they have an open relationship. I don't have a problem with open relationships: I do have a problem with what I am starting to perceive as a persistent misogyny on the part of the writer. And yes, the writer is a woman.
Trixa mentions her family and her mother in particular several times throughout the book, but the reader only learns that Mother is canny, smart, and doesn't think entirely too well of Trixa. She has mother issues. (okay, who doesn't: but now I'm waiting for the next or the following book after that to detail how Trixa's problems are now her mother's fault...although I think Thurman is too good a writer to fall into that trap, considering this book, I can't be entirely too sure). Okay, Trixa herself is a wise-ass talking, quipping woman. She emphasizes herself how small and lightweight she is compared to all the males she finds herself around, and it's said several times how exotic looking she is and how curly and unruly her hair is, etc etc etc.
There's a big, I dunno. World-building problem? Trixa admits near the end of the book (SPOILER HERE PEOPLE, MAJOY MAJOR SPOILER YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED) that although she is a being below a god, yet above demons, with no mention of angels there, she is completely, thoroughly FEMALE, no doubt about it, all the way, she is female even though she can become anything, any shape. And she has a Mother. And yet, the demons and angels never appear in anything but male guise. Trixa muses on this, but it really, truly honestly comes across as the author reasoning out an excuse why females other than Trixa don't seem to exist in this universe. With the exception of her mother and perhaps some unmentioned female pagan gods, etc. It's that I can't quite wrap my head around. Why is there this strange dichotomy? Is there some sort of criticism going on about Christianity, where the angels and demons prefer male form is because Christians were only able to imagine them as male? It's hard to tell. I'm not Christian, and I'm not Pagan, so I have no dog in this fight.
This next one isn't entirely an *objection*, but... near the end of the book, the second to last scene, has Trixa's two young male posse members admit to having FINALLY gotten around to having sex. That they are now having sex doesn't bother me. It's that two pages follow (I might be exaggurating, but not by too much) wherein Trixa goes on and on about how she KNEW, she just KNEW that these two boys would be getting together and why, at great length. And to top it off, while the admission is made by the one who has no brain-to-mouth filter, I had a creepy feeling that, while the character is indeed filterless, he was taken advantage of...it was a "fan service" or perhaps "writer's service" moment where the entire bar hears the confession. Kinda popped me out of the book. Yes, it was within character and it was kinda-sorta funny. It was played for comedy and for Trixa to have the smug satisfaction of *knowing* before they did. It was fucking obnoxious.
I'll probably be revising this review. It's my first impression coming away from it and thinking about it for a couple of days. I love Thurman's Cal Leandros books. I'm not so sure about this series.
Conclusion: If you're a Thurman fan who loves her complex, angsty guys and want to live a little more in another area of the Cal Leandros universe, this is for you, totally and completely. Other wise...I recommend with some reservations.
SPOILERS in the COMMENTS
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Spoilers mentioned
Date: 2009-09-19 08:28 pm (UTC)ETA: You know, I still don't get what the major surprise is. She's female. I get it; it sounds like that has already been expounded on at length. Shapeshifter is the the big surprise?
Anyway, thanks for the review! I read her Leandros books out of habit now so I wasn't going to buy this unless it got great reviews.
Re: Spoilers mentioned
Date: 2009-09-19 10:08 pm (UTC)Re: Spoilers mentioned
Date: 2009-09-19 10:43 pm (UTC)I wouldn't call Trixa a Mary Sue, exactly. She feels more like a character that Thurman is trying to get into, and get into her head, and is doing a okay job of it. I've no idea if she's used to dealing with female characters. But Trixa is so close to perfect, and has only one main thing she blames herself for, that once that is solved, I really don't know what else the character is good for. And she's the main character in the series!
no subject
Date: 2009-12-27 02:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-27 04:03 am (UTC)And the only reason I'm keeping it on my bookshelf (I think I still have it...) is to have it in case I get the second book...which I'm not sure I'll be buying, because if I'm reluctant to buy Jim Hine's second Princess book with a homicidal Little Mermaid, I doubt I'm going to buy a book by a writer who is so diametrically opposed to female characters, you know?
no subject
Date: 2009-12-27 05:13 am (UTC)Cute icon!
no subject
Date: 2009-12-27 05:30 am (UTC)It's a huge reason why I think she has such a hard time staying with her female protagonist in her new series.
Unfortunately, she wrote an entry on her Rob Thurman LJ that she was actually having a tough time focusing on writing Trixa, because she was so into writing about the two guys. After reading that, I defriended her (not that she'd friended me back). When your secondary male characters are more interesting than you main female character, you've got a problem. This is also why I've defriended from a few other writer's LJs and blogs. I'm finding that I'm simply not interested in many of them aside from their books. And I don't want to start disliking their books because of an ugly streak I see, or hear about, from their blogs.
Didn't mean to run on like that.
PS: I like the Nightlife books, too, even though they get a little too dark for my taste, and claustrophobic being inside Cal's mind all the time. It's clearly Thurman's strong suit, writing about two guys. But IMO, she struck out with this current novel.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 08:51 am (UTC)Didn't mean to run on like that.
Feel free! I'm sorry it took me so long to reply. *g*
I think I approach writers' blogs a little differently. I actually follow many writers that I do not (or did not in the past) read. *g* I don't know why. For writers like Rob Thurman and Rachel Caine, I followed them for a long time before starting to read their books. I read the first Weather Warden book by Rachel Caine and, well, I didn't like it (for much the same reason as not really liking Trick of the Light), but I still follow her on LJ, because I think she's interesting. I did not enjoy her writing style, but I enjoy her blog.
I don't recall that particular comment by Rob Thurman, but I probably would have taken it as more of a writing problem. But then again, I don't know... I like the Nightlife books, but don't love them. I don't think they're particularly well written, but I'd also rate them quite a bit higher than that Weather Warden book that I read. *g*
I'm not sure what I'd consider well written nowadays, though. *g* I'm currently reading New York by Edward Rutherford (historical fiction) and I think it's kind of atrocious, though not awful enough to stop reading. I used to love historical fiction (like Michener) when I was a teen and in my early 20s, so now I wonder if I was just too young to notice that the books sucked, or if maybe it's just this one book and not the entire genre. heh I've even read other books by Edward Rutherford in the past and liked them.
Sometimes I wonder if fanfic just ruined reading for me forever. If fanfic was good, it was sooooo good. And if it really sucked, at least it was about characters I already loved and sometimes even the suckiest fanfic was exactly what I wanted. I don't really enjoy reading fanfic anymore either, though, because I only ever got into it when I was completely obsessed and passionate about a particular character. I never read random fanfic because the stories were good and, once I'd explored a fandom and the fanfic enough, usually settled on what I liked and only cared to read that and nothing else. To me, that was the entire point of fanfic--to get more of what I liked about a show.
Now I still read, but I read a lot of non-fiction. I'm trying to rediscover my love for fiction and literature, but it seems like everything only mildly interests me nowadays and/or it's just so badly written--or maybe I just notice it more now after being exposed to the smart fandom people who will pick apart story structure of books, stories, shows, movies.