soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2016-04-27 09:51 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2016-04-27 09:51 pm
The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren
I was disappointed by this book. I'd heard great things about it! But apparently it is not for me.
It starts strong, with the close relationship between the brothers, and by page 15 I was crying. (uh, warning: this book begins with the childhood deaths of two boys, one by injury and one from chronic illness.)
But then they magically go to the land of Nangiyala after death. And it's like they completely forget about their prior life - for example their mother is never mentioned again, despite her seeming to be a positive presence in their life. Being dead is great! No more worries about real life.
And once they're in Nangiyala the book was just your standard boring un-nuanced boys' adventure story, with an evil tyrant who must be defeated and all.
And then the end of the book happens. The older of the two brothers has been injured in battle with a dragon, and so the two of them kill themselves to move on to the land of Nangilima, which is even better than Nangiyala. The end. WHAT THE FUCK.
Mostly I'm just left with endless questions about how this afterlife situation even WORKS. You can die in the afterlife, which is not really that much different than real life except there are dragons and things, and move on to an after-after-life? I guess? This makes no sense! Explain more please! Is there an after-after-after-life if you die in Nangilima? What happens if Nangilima turns out to also not be the paragon of perfection that was promised, the way that Nangiyala turned out to have its downsides? Why be concerned about your current life, and about death, if death another better version of life? Why didn't everyone in the oppressed Nangiyala just kill themselves to escape to Nangilima, if death is really not that big a deal, and you're already dead anyway? And so on.
But the book mostly cares about the adventure story, which is not that great as adventure stories go.
Also the characterization is PRETTY one-note. Especially the older brother, Jonathan, who is perfect and beautiful and brave and caring and wonderful and never makes mistakes and never even considers doing anything that's less than perfect. I did like that Hubert didn't turn out to be the traitor, but that was, like, the only vaguely nuanced piece of character work in the book.
Also this is another of those stories that's about a disabled main character who gets magically cured. (I mean Karl gets cured by having DIED in the first chapter of the book but still. He then gets to go on all his adventures with a healthy body.)
So yeah. All in all I was expecting better things of this book, given how amazing Ronia the Robber's Daughter is. It's too bad.
It starts strong, with the close relationship between the brothers, and by page 15 I was crying. (uh, warning: this book begins with the childhood deaths of two boys, one by injury and one from chronic illness.)
But then they magically go to the land of Nangiyala after death. And it's like they completely forget about their prior life - for example their mother is never mentioned again, despite her seeming to be a positive presence in their life. Being dead is great! No more worries about real life.
And once they're in Nangiyala the book was just your standard boring un-nuanced boys' adventure story, with an evil tyrant who must be defeated and all.
And then the end of the book happens. The older of the two brothers has been injured in battle with a dragon, and so the two of them kill themselves to move on to the land of Nangilima, which is even better than Nangiyala. The end. WHAT THE FUCK.
Mostly I'm just left with endless questions about how this afterlife situation even WORKS. You can die in the afterlife, which is not really that much different than real life except there are dragons and things, and move on to an after-after-life? I guess? This makes no sense! Explain more please! Is there an after-after-after-life if you die in Nangilima? What happens if Nangilima turns out to also not be the paragon of perfection that was promised, the way that Nangiyala turned out to have its downsides? Why be concerned about your current life, and about death, if death another better version of life? Why didn't everyone in the oppressed Nangiyala just kill themselves to escape to Nangilima, if death is really not that big a deal, and you're already dead anyway? And so on.
But the book mostly cares about the adventure story, which is not that great as adventure stories go.
Also the characterization is PRETTY one-note. Especially the older brother, Jonathan, who is perfect and beautiful and brave and caring and wonderful and never makes mistakes and never even considers doing anything that's less than perfect. I did like that Hubert didn't turn out to be the traitor, but that was, like, the only vaguely nuanced piece of character work in the book.
Also this is another of those stories that's about a disabled main character who gets magically cured. (I mean Karl gets cured by having DIED in the first chapter of the book but still. He then gets to go on all his adventures with a healthy body.)
So yeah. All in all I was expecting better things of this book, given how amazing Ronia the Robber's Daughter is. It's too bad.