soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2015-02-09 08:41 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2015-02-09 08:41 pm
Palace of Stone, by Shannon Hale
Why hello there book obviously inspired by the French Revolution. A good book! It's a sequel to Princess Academy, which I absolutely adored, and though I didn't love this book quite as much, it is still good-hearted and generally thoughtful, which is nice.
My main quibble is that the overarching theme of the book is finding a third option when you are presented with two extremes - and in the case of the attempted revolution in Asland as a result of the poor treatment of the lower classes, the reason Miri was able to find a third option is because the king and queen and the legislative body turned out to be mostly decent people who just had to have things explained to them. And. Like. I'm pretty sure that is not the case in most situations where a rich upper class walks all over the lower classes? So I'm glad things worked out so well for Miri and Asland, but I think it is rather over-simplified and optimistic.
Also I gotta say. The book presented Miri with three main conflicts: revolution vs her friendship with the prince's fiance, living in the city vs living in her home village, her childhood sweetheart vs her new crush. And for the first two, she finds a solution for making both work instead of having to choose. So it feels oddly unbalanced that that wasn't also the solution for the romance plotline!
My main quibble is that the overarching theme of the book is finding a third option when you are presented with two extremes - and in the case of the attempted revolution in Asland as a result of the poor treatment of the lower classes, the reason Miri was able to find a third option is because the king and queen and the legislative body turned out to be mostly decent people who just had to have things explained to them. And. Like. I'm pretty sure that is not the case in most situations where a rich upper class walks all over the lower classes? So I'm glad things worked out so well for Miri and Asland, but I think it is rather over-simplified and optimistic.
Also I gotta say. The book presented Miri with three main conflicts: revolution vs her friendship with the prince's fiance, living in the city vs living in her home village, her childhood sweetheart vs her new crush. And for the first two, she finds a solution for making both work instead of having to choose. So it feels oddly unbalanced that that wasn't also the solution for the romance plotline!