A thought about Kate Elliott.

[snarp]

I'm halfway through Jaran and maybe thirty pages into Cold Magic right now*, and I think I've pinned down why Elliott's Crown of Stars manages to be so wrenching. It's because Elliott's base narrative, the one that comes to her organically, is one in which people respect each other, enemies treat each other fairly, most people are pretty okay, and pretty okay is probably good enough to keep the world sane. There are situations in Jaran which, in almost any other book, would be a source of constant tension between the protagonists, but Elliott sails past them or cuts them out, because the story she wants to tell there is about people who can get along and apologize when they hurt each other's feelings.

A lot of the conflicts in Crown of Stars are very basic fantasy-novel things - unsuitable heir to the throne, star-crossed romance, evil wizard enslaves a girl. There are writers who deal with this stuff very neatly, like laying cookies in a pan. For Elliott, though, it's viscerally wrong - people who love each other are hurting each other! They're acting stupid! I think she doesn't like it, and that comes through. It's unusually humane.


* Reading five books at a time is healthy. It means I'm... flexible.