dhampyresa (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dhampyresa) wrote2024-02-09 10:31 pm
dhampyresa) wrote2024-02-09 10:31 pm
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Read in 2023, part 3: French fiction books
Three books for part 3, heh.
L'Arpenteuse de rêves ("The dream strider"[1]), by Estelle Faye: The heroine has the power to walk into people's dreams and bring things out of them. Following a tragedy, she uses an illegal drug to never dream. Years later, an epidemic of killing dreams starts spreading through the city and she has to investigate if she wants to save her adopted little brother. This leads her to unravel secrets deep in the foundation of her city. I really liked that the central f&m relationship stays platonic throughout -- in fact the heroin gets a f/f romance. The worldbuilding was really interesting! The themes of exploitation of the working class and of the environment (and the parallels between) were not subtle but they were well-handled. The main character belongs to an ethnicity that is marginalised in ways very reminiscent of anti-Romani sentiment (I cannot speak to how well this was handled). I did like that the ending wasn't just "Yay we killed the bad guy now Class Warfare is over and our crops are watered" but a much more involved (if offscreen) process.
[1] I am SO ANNOYED I couldn't find an English word with the right connotations for "arpenteuse" -- "arpenter" means to roam with purpose.
Les Éblouis ("The dazzled"), by Aylin Manço: I should have DNF'd this book. It was so fucking boring and was clearing trying to Say Something but had nothing to say. I did like the descriptions of the tree and the mirror. Worst book I read in French this year.
Mers mortes ("Dead seas"), by Aurélie Wellenstein: This book is A WILD FUCKING RIDE and I loved every minute of it. Post climate apocalypse, an exorcist is kidnapped by sky pirates trying to stop the ghost tides by resurrecting the dead seas. It's a roadtrip over thousands of kilometers, from the south of France to Greenland and we get to see various ways in which people have adapted to the facts that (a) all seas and oceans and any other open air water has disappeared and (b) at intermittent intervals, the vengeful ghosts of sealife come into corporeal form to tear the souls out of people. Meanwhile, the PoV character gets to know the sky pirate crew -- and fall in love with the captain. It's m/m enemies to almost lovers and it is delightful! Speaking of which. This book has a love triangle over two and a half species and three different types of (un)life/death. We have: an alive human, a ghost dolphin and a half human half ghost shark guy (he's corproreal and he eats souls). Trust me when I say I never saw the resolution of said triangle coming, but it made perfect sense. (I wrote about this book before.)
I really recommend L'arpenteuse de rêves and Mers Mortes -- I've only read the one Estelle Faye so far, but Aurélie Wellenstein is my favourite SFF French author (I wrote about her La Mort du Temps before.)
L'Arpenteuse de rêves ("The dream strider"[1]), by Estelle Faye: The heroine has the power to walk into people's dreams and bring things out of them. Following a tragedy, she uses an illegal drug to never dream. Years later, an epidemic of killing dreams starts spreading through the city and she has to investigate if she wants to save her adopted little brother. This leads her to unravel secrets deep in the foundation of her city. I really liked that the central f&m relationship stays platonic throughout -- in fact the heroin gets a f/f romance. The worldbuilding was really interesting! The themes of exploitation of the working class and of the environment (and the parallels between) were not subtle but they were well-handled. The main character belongs to an ethnicity that is marginalised in ways very reminiscent of anti-Romani sentiment (I cannot speak to how well this was handled). I did like that the ending wasn't just "Yay we killed the bad guy now Class Warfare is over and our crops are watered" but a much more involved (if offscreen) process.
[1] I am SO ANNOYED I couldn't find an English word with the right connotations for "arpenteuse" -- "arpenter" means to roam with purpose.
Les Éblouis ("The dazzled"), by Aylin Manço: I should have DNF'd this book. It was so fucking boring and was clearing trying to Say Something but had nothing to say. I did like the descriptions of the tree and the mirror. Worst book I read in French this year.
Mers mortes ("Dead seas"), by Aurélie Wellenstein: This book is A WILD FUCKING RIDE and I loved every minute of it. Post climate apocalypse, an exorcist is kidnapped by sky pirates trying to stop the ghost tides by resurrecting the dead seas. It's a roadtrip over thousands of kilometers, from the south of France to Greenland and we get to see various ways in which people have adapted to the facts that (a) all seas and oceans and any other open air water has disappeared and (b) at intermittent intervals, the vengeful ghosts of sealife come into corporeal form to tear the souls out of people. Meanwhile, the PoV character gets to know the sky pirate crew -- and fall in love with the captain. It's m/m enemies to almost lovers and it is delightful! Speaking of which. This book has a love triangle over two and a half species and three different types of (un)life/death. We have: an alive human, a ghost dolphin and a half human half ghost shark guy (he's corproreal and he eats souls). Trust me when I say I never saw the resolution of said triangle coming, but it made perfect sense. (I wrote about this book before.)
I really recommend L'arpenteuse de rêves and Mers Mortes -- I've only read the one Estelle Faye so far, but Aurélie Wellenstein is my favourite SFF French author (I wrote about her La Mort du Temps before.)