Manchester; Enchanted Inc

[raven]

I was in Manchester today to see amchau; it's been far too long, and we had a very nice day wandering the city and catching up. I ate pretty much my own weight in Chinese food. It was fab.

Of course this meant a couple of hours on trains, so I got through a book. Enchanted, Inc, by Shanna Swendsen - I got it in LibraryThing's Secret Santa last year, and it's sat on the shelf since Christmas. My quick blurb-and-first-page-skim assessment: generic chick-lit with fantasy elements. Small-town girl living in Manhattan discovers magic is real, etc., etc., paging Mr. Potter (who is now thirty years old, ye gods).

And that is what the book is about - but I confess myself utterly delighted, nevertheless. Oh, why, when it's written so badly - lots of telling you, showing you and then telling you again to be sure - and when the plot hangs together quite so loosely, and when it contains such atrocities as a fairy called Trixibelle and another one called Ariel and did I mention bad, bad writing I think I did.

But... the protagonist (whose name is Katie - I think these were called the Katie Chandler series in the US) is likeable enough to make you want to know what happens to her. Interestingly, she isn't special because she can do magic or whatever; it's because she can't, because she can see what's really there, a la Tiffany Aching. I liked it. The Bechdel test filters in and out, because of a lot of post-blind-date-dissection, but she and her flatmates talk about jobs and frogs and assorted other things. And the brooding hero - yes, there is one - is a sweet subversion of the usual trope. His name is Owen, and he is good-looking and powerful (magic as metaphor for sex, that's never been done) but also with intermittent social phobia, and scared of himself. It's surprisingly well done.

Also: there is a particular incident where I really started liking the novel, and that's where they're testing a mind-control spell. Now, I get impatient when this idea isn't handled well - I always thought Rowling missed a trick with the Imperius Curse; the fact it's taught to the class by Bartemious Crouch Junior is sort of glossed over in the books - and somehow the impact of what Willow does, in Buffy, doesn't really come across in season 6. I mean, I love "Tabula Rasa"! It's fab. But we don't get much of an aftermath of it - it all spirals into a "magic = addiction" metaphor that kind of loses the specificity of the offence.

I digress. Anyway, they're trying the mind-control spell, and not only does the text (and I'm noting, once again, that this is supposed to be a light and fluffy piece of nonsense) clearly if implicitly frame it as a rape or violation, I was impressed at the author's choice for this to happen to Owen, our brooding love interest, rather than any of the female characters. Hi, woman = default victim trope, nice not to see you.

The ensemble cast are quite charming - Merlin is in it, as is de rigeur in these sorts of books; but rather than being the grand enchanter type, he's a somewhat confused elderly British chap, who does not approve of Camelot - and in the end the BEST THING IN THE WORLD HAPPENS.

This is a spoiler, but it is just that amazing: in the end, they SAVE THE WORLD WITH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW. Draft responsibly, children! Those watertight clauses will RID THE WORLD OF EVIL!

...I am very happy. Er.

If that doesn't make you want to read it, I don't know what well.

...okay, possibly only I think this is the best thing ever. But STILL. You should all read it so I can eventually get on with nominating it for yuletide. It's the first of a series - inevitably - but as the other three books are all £13 each in the UK (paperbacks!), I think I will wait till I get to the US to get them, and then probably devour them all at once for comfort reading.

Comments

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

. . . . .

They save the world with INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW.

I neeeeeeeeeed these.

oh, and before you get over here and use your post to try to look them up and think we don't have them, it's swendson, not swandsen. I had a bad moment!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

THEY DO. It's AMAZING. That alone is worth the price of admission.

(Bah, typo. Fixing!)

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

I might have just ordered them. >_>

(which means, if you'd like to not buy them, I can loan them to you!)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Please bear in mind the BAD, BAD WRITING. But they are such fun otherwise, do enjoy them!

(And, omg, thank you, that is kind! I may well take you up on it if I don't end up buying them all anyway. :))

[tafkarfanfic.livejournal.com]

The author in question has some connection with Firefly fandom, IIRC! I seem to remember that was how I wound up stumbling onto the book.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

The dedication in it certainly seems to suggest so. :)

[purplerainbow.livejournal.com]

Manchester! You should have said!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I thought about it! But I was only there lunchtime to about four - I figured you were probably at work. :)

[purplerainbow.livejournal.com]

Ordinarily yes, but yesterday I happened to have the day off. You weren't to know that though so never mind!

[sriti.livejournal.com]

Saves the world with intellectual property law????? HOW????? Now I have to read this book! Or, you could just tell me...

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Seriously, it is faaaar too complicated to explain without the benefit of the 300-page novel! I recommend it, though. :)

[the-acrobat.livejournal.com]

Okay, yes. This review cracked me up. i think I may want to read that book.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*grins* Somehow I think you'll like it.

[fyrdrakken]

Ooh, I think this may have been already on my Amazon wishlist, due to someone else's rec a while back. A second recommendation pushes it up the list.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I hope you do like it! It's terrible, but so great. :)

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

Possibly because the last episode of Buffy I watched was Tabula Rasa (I've been making my boyfriend watch Buffy with me in order over the last year and a half; last week I finally got to show him Once More With Feeling, to my delight. He apparently ships Spike and Buffy now) and the immediate impact of Willow's mind-control magic is very fresh in my mind, I would say that it's made something of a big deal of; for Tara, at least, it's the thing that pushes her over the edge and makes her confront Willow properly for the first time. But you're right that after these few episodes it's lost in just a general "magic is bad" thing, lessening it somewhat.