thoughtfulSo I read Chuck Wendig's Blackbirds. Which is being billed as urban fantasy, but which bears about as much resemblance to most urban fantasy as, say, Evil Dead bears to Saw. They're considered the same because the labels are too broad and too flawed, but they're very different creatures. And that? Is amazing.
Blackbirds is the story of Miriam Black, a girl who, by touching you, can bear witness to your death, whenever—and however—it might be destined to occur. Aneurism in five minutes or slow wasting away in fifty years, it don't matter. Death, like the honey badger, doesn't give a fuck, and Miriam, who can't control her powers, is trying her best not to give a fuck either. (Miriam is a lot like Rogue from the X-Men: embittered by a power she didn't ask for, trying to survive in a world that has every reason to shove her in front of the nearest semi.)
The story is simple: girl meets boy, girl foresees boy's death, girl is convinced that she can't change it, boy thinks girl is crazy, hilarity ensues. Only for "boy" read "trucker the size of a small mountain," and for "girl" read "psychopomp death-seer girl just trying to run the roads to her own extinction." I think Miriam would get along well with Rose Marshall; there's a lot about her world that feels like Rose's, but different, and in a wonderful way.
One of the fascinating things about this book is...well. Okay. So I was a really grumpy teenager, right? I felt alienated and lonely and like no one could possibly understand me except for my small group of like-minded friends. This turned into our "freaking the mundanes" phase, which not everyone goes through, but which I think most of us have at least seen. We used to sit on the community college quad at lunch (half my friends were students, the rest of us snuck over from the high school across the street) playing "Penis," where you just keep shouting "PENIS!" louder and louder until you crack up, so you can see the looks on people's faces.
Miriam is like that. Her life is one long game of Penis. She swears, she's inappropriately lewd (which is different from appropriately lewd, although she does that, too), she goes for the shock value, because she wants to keep people away. I think this book contained more instances of the word "fuck" than the unrated cut of Clerks. But here's the kicker:
Chuck Wendig isn't playing Penis with you.
He manages to write a protagonist who's all about the shock, but the book never feels like the author is trying to shock you. He's just telling you what happened. It's a travelogue of tragedy, and it's beautiful and terrible, and it couldn't have happened any other way.
Miriam is a damaged protagonist, and her story is a damaged story, and I loved it. It's like the bastard child of American Gods, Sparrow Hill Road, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and you should check it out if you like these things.
Really.
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May 18 2012, 15:13:24 UTC 5 years ago
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May 18 2012, 15:15:38 UTC 5 years ago
... And now I'm trying to explain to my co-workers why I'm choking and helplessly repeating "Oh my God!"
May 18 2012, 15:21:04 UTC 5 years ago
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May 18 2012, 15:24:59 UTC 5 years ago
May 18 2012, 15:31:23 UTC 5 years ago
That is the best description of shock-art I've ever seen. And feeds into exactly what I don't like about it. It's teenagers playing Penis. (I wasn't brave enough for it, but, I hung out with those people too.)
May 18 2012, 16:38:46 UTC 5 years ago
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May 18 2012, 15:44:32 UTC 5 years ago
With a blurb like that how could I possibly resist? Have you read the Stacia Kane Downside novels? Not the same I suspect but I like that the protagonist is all kinds of broken with out being too cliched for me anyway.
And while on the topics...I assume that you read the Enchantment Emporium books by Tanya Huff. I read right after you wrote and essay about gender norms and having characters of all types represented not as tokens but as just a part of the story and, natch, Tanya got it right on. It's the type of book I want my child to read because it so seamlessly presents so many options without a single iota of judgement. Well, unless you are a particularly nasty sorceror type. But that's different.
And now I will go quietly back to work.
May 18 2012, 16:39:21 UTC 5 years ago
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May 18 2012, 15:52:03 UTC 5 years ago
Though I was interested simply by the purely emotional response I have to the lyrics quoted at the beginning of the post
May 18 2012, 16:39:29 UTC 5 years ago
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May 18 2012, 15:54:55 UTC 5 years ago
http://www.robottradingcompany.com/subs
Also included in the subscription is a one-use coupon for 1/3rd off your shopping cart of individual ebooks from them.
Blackbird's sequel, Mockingbird, is expected out in September, so would be included as well.
http://angryrobotbooks.com/our-auth
I'll probably get one or the other subscription next week. I really shouldn't today; I noticed drivethrurpg's sale on most items in your wish list last night....
May 18 2012, 16:40:00 UTC 5 years ago
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May 19 2012, 01:33:39 UTC 5 years ago
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Blackbirds is fantastically violent though. Sparrow Hill spares you the bone crunching limb tearing visions of death, while Chuck doesn't.
Like you said, just because their 'urban Fantasy' doesn't mean their anything alike. But I LOVE THEM BOTH.
Also, Chuck is releasing Mockingbird in September. GET ON THE BANDWAGAON!
May 19 2012, 01:34:15 UTC 5 years ago
May 19 2012, 00:03:21 UTC 5 years ago
(American God-like -- if hopefully more internally consistent -- great! Perdido Street Station-like -- kill me now! less depressing.)
May 19 2012, 01:34:26 UTC 5 years ago
May 19 2012, 01:09:40 UTC 5 years ago
By the way, I didn't realize you were a Kevin Smith fan; are you following his conquest of the webs via Smodcast/S.I.R./S.I.T.?
May 19 2012, 01:34:49 UTC 5 years ago
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May 19 2012, 10:23:08 UTC 5 years ago
Oh, and on a totally different topic, I am living with a spousebeast who now routinely says "HAIL!" when I say I'm going to do something. And is making up holidays and festivals. I am pinning the blame for this on you. :)
May 22 2012, 15:01:46 UTC 5 years ago
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--Jesse Lee
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May 23 2012, 19:52:28 UTC 5 years ago Edited: May 23 2012, 19:54:20 UTC
Guess what game the 3rd period 8th graders tried to play during class on Monday? (huge grin)
They only got two rounds in, and I didn't even look up from my work on the desk, put on teacher-voice, and said, "STOP IT." (they totally DID)
Thank you SEanan! I got one-up on the kids because of you! (snoopy dance)
(and I am totally going to look up Blackbirds. I need to shake up my fiction-rut)
June 12 2012, 15:59:32 UTC 5 years ago
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