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juushikaTitle: Silver in the Wood (The Greenhollow Duology Book 1)
Author: Emily Tesh
Published: Tor, 2019
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 110
Total Page Count: 368,885
Text Number: 1352
Read Because: this review by pythionice, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A folklorist meets the ancient keeper of the wood. This has an lovely atmosphere—woodsy, old, and magical, with the sort of intuitive logic and bittersweet rewards that really sell me on this kind of magic. Unfortunately the second half reveals that the endearingly naïve folklorist was actually a magic researcher/hunter who was in the know the entire time, introducing an urban fantasy vibe which is more routine and less evocative. Still this is very likeable reading—aesthetic, cozy, escapist, queer, just pleasant. I'll pick up the sequel and keep an eye on Tesh's career.
Title: Drowned Country (The Greenhollow Duology Book 2)
Author: Emily Tesh
Published: Tor, 2020
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 175
Total Page Count: 369,060
Text Number: 1353
Read Because: reading the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Two years later, now estranged from Finch, Silver is called in on the case of a missing young woman. The first book begins with great magic and atmosphere, and then becomes more concrete and urban fantasy-influenced as it progresses, to its detriment; this does the opposite, moving from a concrete initial case into a less linear narrative and a larger, stranger sort of magic—so I liked it more as it went on and it leaves me with a positive final impression. And the general pleasantness of these books, magical and atmospheric and cozy and quaint and comforting and queer, is a joy in itself.
But I don't like the ending. I don't in general like that both books in the duology depict the edges of the central relationship—its courtship in the first book; the aftermath of separation/a gradual reconciliation here—because these states make for good tension but don't allow for a fully-realized, lived relationship. And it's a difficult relationship to fully realize for all the reasons Silver fears: Otherness, eternity, loss. So this book provides an escape from that predicament (one that contradicts final character beats in the first book, but that's neither here nor there because the idea that Silver "chose" the wood while Finch was only stuck there ignores Silver's enthusiastic ignorance and centuries' worth of Finch's character growth & so it all should be forgotten)—but I don't want an escape: I want the bittersweet weight that sells this sort of magic, making it feel vast and difficult and beautiful. This is perfectly fine; likeable, as I said, and if the humor and UF vibes don't work for me then that mostly speaks to my personal tastes. Maybe it's enough for something quaint and cozy to be perfectly fine. But I wish it were more.
Author: Emily Tesh
Published: Tor, 2019
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 110
Total Page Count: 368,885
Text Number: 1352
Read Because: this review by pythionice, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A folklorist meets the ancient keeper of the wood. This has an lovely atmosphere—woodsy, old, and magical, with the sort of intuitive logic and bittersweet rewards that really sell me on this kind of magic. Unfortunately the second half reveals that the endearingly naïve folklorist was actually a magic researcher/hunter who was in the know the entire time, introducing an urban fantasy vibe which is more routine and less evocative. Still this is very likeable reading—aesthetic, cozy, escapist, queer, just pleasant. I'll pick up the sequel and keep an eye on Tesh's career.
Title: Drowned Country (The Greenhollow Duology Book 2)
Author: Emily Tesh
Published: Tor, 2020
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 175
Total Page Count: 369,060
Text Number: 1353
Read Because: reading the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Two years later, now estranged from Finch, Silver is called in on the case of a missing young woman. The first book begins with great magic and atmosphere, and then becomes more concrete and urban fantasy-influenced as it progresses, to its detriment; this does the opposite, moving from a concrete initial case into a less linear narrative and a larger, stranger sort of magic—so I liked it more as it went on and it leaves me with a positive final impression. And the general pleasantness of these books, magical and atmospheric and cozy and quaint and comforting and queer, is a joy in itself.
But I don't like the ending. I don't in general like that both books in the duology depict the edges of the central relationship—its courtship in the first book; the aftermath of separation/a gradual reconciliation here—because these states make for good tension but don't allow for a fully-realized, lived relationship. And it's a difficult relationship to fully realize for all the reasons Silver fears: Otherness, eternity, loss. So this book provides an escape from that predicament (one that contradicts final character beats in the first book, but that's neither here nor there because the idea that Silver "chose" the wood while Finch was only stuck there ignores Silver's enthusiastic ignorance and centuries' worth of Finch's character growth & so it all should be forgotten)—but I don't want an escape: I want the bittersweet weight that sells this sort of magic, making it feel vast and difficult and beautiful. This is perfectly fine; likeable, as I said, and if the humor and UF vibes don't work for me then that mostly speaks to my personal tastes. Maybe it's enough for something quaint and cozy to be perfectly fine. But I wish it were more.
