This book took me almost two weeks to read. It's The Moon and the Sun by Vonda McIntyre. I've met her, briefly, at a party for Clarion West students. Vy really liked it and recommended it to me.
I didn't really get into it until page 330 of 458. It won a bunch of awards and I still nearly didn't finish it. It's about an alternate history where sea dwelling humanoids interact with [primarily] French nobility. It's the story of a woman at court and her interactions with the rich, powerful, and bitchy.
What I liked about it
- it did a really good job of capturing the arrogance of the extremely powerful
- I liked the bits with the portrait of the king
What I didn't like about it
there's a lot of blood in this book; other people who've read the book who I say this to are surprised that
I think that
- menstruation anxiety chapter
- ghastly blood-letting scene
- farcical hunt of stampeding animals into batteries of gunfire
I was bothered by that
- I'm not bothered by bloody movies
- is there anybody in this book who isn't secretly the bastard offspring of someone important?
- a protagonist who spends most of the story powerless and suffering is not my trip
- too long by half; I'd have cut the subplot with Haleed, if I had edited it
It's not a bad book. It's just not a book for me. People who might enjoy it include
- women, as all the ones I know who've read it loved it
- 7th Sea players of Montaigne characters
- fans of lushly described settings
- creatures of the sea who are wondering why no one thinks they are real
