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Apr. 16th, 2007 08:10 pmOoh, I just finished Sally Gardner's I, Coriander. It was great!
First of all, externals. Take the cover. I saw this in my local indie just before moving last summer, and was very impressed, but we were moving abroad and I couldn't be buying books then. The German cover (the copy I read) is equally enticing. Possibly it's the same as the British one; I notice more and more that the German translations carry the English cover. Second, according to the book jacket, the author is dyslexic and didn't learn to read until she was 14. She's got a well-developed control over the written word--lovely prose, at least in translation! (and yes, you can tell, even in translation). Moreover the book won the Smarties Prize in England.
The book itself: It's a historical fantasy portal story that takes place in Cromwell England (mid-1600s, if you can't remember your British history). Everyone's Puritan (or pretending to be so Cromwell's men don't arrest them for heresy and treason). Coriander is the daughter of a trader and a real fairy princess, only you don't realize that at first. Gardner does a wonderful job making everything believeable, and when the portal finally shows up, it works. (There is some argument how well the time shifts work out, but they didn't particularly bother me). I've discussed portal stories on Verla Kay's website before, basically, the problem with portals might be that they are often written as frame stories, and could just as easily be left out and the story allowed to take place in just one world. The story on both sides of the portal in this book is the same story, and the events of each world are inextricably linked. It works very well.
Anyhow, the worst happens, and Coriander's mother dies, and in an attempt to not get arrested, her father's friends persuade him to marry a Puritan widow. But he still ends up having to flee, leaving Coriander in the care of her new stepmother and a frightening Puritan preacher named Arise Fell. Lest anyone think this is a slur against Puritans, it doesn't take long before you realize that these people aren't just straightlaced religious folk, but evil hypocrites. The fact that Coriander's stepsister befriends Coriander, and both girls are at the mercy of these abusive adults is both a break from the traditional ugly stepsister model, and realistic when you think how the child of an abusive parent might end up (cowering and wanting a friend). Things are bad and go to worse--and then Coriander discovers her mother's world. Only there are bad people there, too, and they are connected to bad things in our world. And the only way to help her mother's country and the most interesting prince there is to brave her evil stepmother and reclaim something important that belonged to her fairy mother.
The book wasn't overloaded with description, and yet Gardner did a nice job portraying the time period with just the right words. In a way it reminded me a bit of Elizabeth Marie Pope's The Perilous Gard, in that the 17th-century characters felt contemporary against the older-feeling fairy-tale alternate world. Also, I loved the scene at the very end, when the whole city of London went to celebrate the king's coronation. I really felt like I was there.
The only caution I might add is that younger children who read YA might find this a bit too much. The stepmother and the preacher are violent people, and in their witch hunts there are perhaps more details on their violence than a preadolescent might feel comfortable with. (Voldemort kills people with a blast of green light, and then they die, unmarked, but these villains are reminiscent of our friendly Grimm brothers.)
So, anyone else read this? (Elizabeth, care to weigh in?)
First of all, externals. Take the cover. I saw this in my local indie just before moving last summer, and was very impressed, but we were moving abroad and I couldn't be buying books then. The German cover (the copy I read) is equally enticing. Possibly it's the same as the British one; I notice more and more that the German translations carry the English cover. Second, according to the book jacket, the author is dyslexic and didn't learn to read until she was 14. She's got a well-developed control over the written word--lovely prose, at least in translation! (and yes, you can tell, even in translation). Moreover the book won the Smarties Prize in England.
The book itself: It's a historical fantasy portal story that takes place in Cromwell England (mid-1600s, if you can't remember your British history). Everyone's Puritan (or pretending to be so Cromwell's men don't arrest them for heresy and treason). Coriander is the daughter of a trader and a real fairy princess, only you don't realize that at first. Gardner does a wonderful job making everything believeable, and when the portal finally shows up, it works. (There is some argument how well the time shifts work out, but they didn't particularly bother me). I've discussed portal stories on Verla Kay's website before, basically, the problem with portals might be that they are often written as frame stories, and could just as easily be left out and the story allowed to take place in just one world. The story on both sides of the portal in this book is the same story, and the events of each world are inextricably linked. It works very well.
Anyhow, the worst happens, and Coriander's mother dies, and in an attempt to not get arrested, her father's friends persuade him to marry a Puritan widow. But he still ends up having to flee, leaving Coriander in the care of her new stepmother and a frightening Puritan preacher named Arise Fell. Lest anyone think this is a slur against Puritans, it doesn't take long before you realize that these people aren't just straightlaced religious folk, but evil hypocrites. The fact that Coriander's stepsister befriends Coriander, and both girls are at the mercy of these abusive adults is both a break from the traditional ugly stepsister model, and realistic when you think how the child of an abusive parent might end up (cowering and wanting a friend). Things are bad and go to worse--and then Coriander discovers her mother's world. Only there are bad people there, too, and they are connected to bad things in our world. And the only way to help her mother's country and the most interesting prince there is to brave her evil stepmother and reclaim something important that belonged to her fairy mother.
The book wasn't overloaded with description, and yet Gardner did a nice job portraying the time period with just the right words. In a way it reminded me a bit of Elizabeth Marie Pope's The Perilous Gard, in that the 17th-century characters felt contemporary against the older-feeling fairy-tale alternate world. Also, I loved the scene at the very end, when the whole city of London went to celebrate the king's coronation. I really felt like I was there.
The only caution I might add is that younger children who read YA might find this a bit too much. The stepmother and the preacher are violent people, and in their witch hunts there are perhaps more details on their violence than a preadolescent might feel comfortable with. (Voldemort kills people with a blast of green light, and then they die, unmarked, but these villains are reminiscent of our friendly Grimm brothers.)
So, anyone else read this? (Elizabeth, care to weigh in?)
