betty reviewed The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines (Princess Series, #1)
Review of 'The Stepsister Scheme' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I wanted to like this book. Hines is one of a few authors whose internet presence doesn't come across as an egotistical gasbag, and you cannot imagine how this predisposes me to liking him. But this book!
First, obviously, lots of people do like this book, since it has sequels, and his editors presumably know their business, but I could not. I made it through the first two chapters only by mentally writing increasingly hysterical editorial directions to Hines, at which point I gave up. This book's problem for me was that it is composed of the characters from familiar fairy-tale stories, post-story, coming together and fighting crime. (Or something. I dunno, I gave up on the second chapter.) This requires the book to have a coherent world in which these characters can co-exist, and to flesh out the fairy-tale characters who exist in their original forms mostly as cyphers. …
I wanted to like this book. Hines is one of a few authors whose internet presence doesn't come across as an egotistical gasbag, and you cannot imagine how this predisposes me to liking him. But this book!
First, obviously, lots of people do like this book, since it has sequels, and his editors presumably know their business, but I could not. I made it through the first two chapters only by mentally writing increasingly hysterical editorial directions to Hines, at which point I gave up. This book's problem for me was that it is composed of the characters from familiar fairy-tale stories, post-story, coming together and fighting crime. (Or something. I dunno, I gave up on the second chapter.) This requires the book to have a coherent world in which these characters can co-exist, and to flesh out the fairy-tale characters who exist in their original forms mostly as cyphers.
In this book, this is done by having each fairy-tale princess tell how she came to be where she is, post-fairy-tale, and the result is massively un-engaging. Since the reader is already (presumably) familiar with the shape of their fairy-tales, a lot of it seems like a retread, and the variations do not, to me, justify the words spent, especially when the exercise is repeated three times. It is a solid chunk of exposition that although it was traumatizing to the character, is so familiar as to be boring to the reader. It reads like having someone tell me about their RPG character and her exploits, and keep in mind, I find RPGs a less interesting use of my time than cleaning the rain-gutter.
Again, obviously, this book is liked by enough people that the publishers bought a sequel! Possibly I am simply the wrong audience. Possibly people who like RPGs will like this book?
