I'm about halfway through Tiger Eye now, and while I do like it, it seems to have more of a, hrm, it has the same "we were meant to be together" element but it's not quite as graceful within the storyline as Shadow Touch, where it makes sense by the events. (If you want to know what I normally think of any storyline where two charactesr are fated!by!destiny! to be together, go read Mal's Monsters to see what I think of that.)
Tiger Eye shows some strong elements that are signs of a solid writer -- her secondary characters are fully-fleshed; they're not just chattering in the background while the main protags show off. Those background relationships have eddies and undercurrents that give the protags a bouyancy (err, sp?) at points when the fantastical elements of the main protags might take the storyline down. There's not quite as much of secondary characters-with-history in the sequel, but that's not a flaw.
In fact, I think flaws are what make Shadow Touch, not in the sense of a book's flaws, but in the sense of protag-flaws. That list I read essentially boiled down to: you cannot, in romance, make characters irredeemible, and to romance readers, this translates to giving either male or female protag a history or acts that go strongly against a rather conservative grain. There are certain things that, if done by a woman, would be considered so unfeminine; if done by a man, equally unmasculine. Liu ignores all of them, recognizing that maybe sometimes what makes a person truly human is that shit happens and it doesn't make you any iota less you, or even less masculine or feminine. It's a far more balanced book than even much sff I've read, in that context.
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Date: 11 Jan 2007 01:29 pm (UTC)Tiger Eye shows some strong elements that are signs of a solid writer -- her secondary characters are fully-fleshed; they're not just chattering in the background while the main protags show off. Those background relationships have eddies and undercurrents that give the protags a bouyancy (err, sp?) at points when the fantastical elements of the main protags might take the storyline down. There's not quite as much of secondary characters-with-history in the sequel, but that's not a flaw.
In fact, I think flaws are what make Shadow Touch, not in the sense of a book's flaws, but in the sense of protag-flaws. That list I read essentially boiled down to: you cannot, in romance, make characters irredeemible, and to romance readers, this translates to giving either male or female protag a history or acts that go strongly against a rather conservative grain. There are certain things that, if done by a woman, would be considered so unfeminine; if done by a man, equally unmasculine. Liu ignores all of them, recognizing that maybe sometimes what makes a person truly human is that shit happens and it doesn't make you any iota less you, or even less masculine or feminine. It's a far more balanced book than even much sff I've read, in that context.
But the covers still suck frickin' rocks.