Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

This topic is about
Some Kind of Fairy Tale
Book Discussions
>
Some Kind Of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce
date
newest »


In some ways its quite gentle although there is some menace there beneath the surface. I find myself really drawn in and engaged with Joyce's writing in this book, its not showy, its not gimmicky, its just very graceful.
And the plot at the start anyway kept me turning pages, who is the girl at the door? Is she their daughter/ sister? What happened to her? If she is the long lost girl how will everyone reconnect with her?
I'm going to take the negative view on this one, but with a slightly schizophrenic bent. I didn't like it, but I can see that perhaps it might have merit for others. But I'm a literary troglodyte.
I found the first half incredibly boring. "Some Kind of Fairy Tale" didn't provide me with my minimum daily requirement of any of the major food groups: excitement, sense of wonder, interesting new ideas, charm or humor. I need my ray guns, swords, magic spells, spaceships, time machines or fangs. All I got was angst.
I'm just a bad person: I didn't care about Peter, Richie, Dell, Mary, Jack, Zoe & their problems. I barely cared about Tara (who seemed far too content to be disbelieved, and insufficiently desperate to convince.)
The second half was slightly more interesting. Mrs Larwood is my kind of character, because old people rule. So even though the ending seemed too predictable, I updated my rating to a 1.8 on the G33Z3R scale.
I found the first half incredibly boring. "Some Kind of Fairy Tale" didn't provide me with my minimum daily requirement of any of the major food groups: excitement, sense of wonder, interesting new ideas, charm or humor. I need my ray guns, swords, magic spells, spaceships, time machines or fangs. All I got was angst.
I'm just a bad person: I didn't care about Peter, Richie, Dell, Mary, Jack, Zoe & their problems. I barely cared about Tara (who seemed far too content to be disbelieved, and insufficiently desperate to convince.)
The second half was slightly more interesting. Mrs Larwood is my kind of character, because old people rule. So even though the ending seemed too predictable, I updated my rating to a 1.8 on the G33Z3R scale.

Dont want to say anything spoilery this early on in the discussions but for me there was plenty of action and excitement for me. But then I am not the type of person who is looking for densely plotted narratives.
The book is about how a range of characters respond to a possible fairy abduction and how they reconnect with their loved one who returns. For me it was compelling and engaging.
It is very English and I was not too clear when I nominated it what non-brits would make of it.
Writer and Critic reviewed it in their podcast here
I've just finished this. I started it well in advance of the date because I'm normally a really slow reader, but actually this is such an easy read that I had no problem getting through it.
Like you, G33z3r, I found some of it boring (though not as boring as you did, I think). This is not a magical story, it's a largely mundane story (in both senses of 'mundane' - written in a prosaic way, and limited to our everyday world) about the effect of an experience, which may or may not be magical, on the person to whom it happens and, even more, on the people around them. The tension in the story comes from our not knowing whether Tara, the abductee, really had the experience she claims to have had, or whether it is (to use the technical term) a confabulation. I think that particular tension is quite well handled, and it was that that kept me reading. I can't say I cared about what happened to the characters, but I did want to know whether Tara's experience was real.
In the end, though, I felt dissatisfied. The reason for this is as follows (and here I'm going to have to go into spoilers - I suggest no-one reads this until after they've finished the book, because I'm going to talk about something that happens on the very last page). (view spoiler)
In the end, I think this is a moderately entertaining read, but if you want a book that has a genuine magical or fantastic feel, this probably isn't it.
Like you, G33z3r, I found some of it boring (though not as boring as you did, I think). This is not a magical story, it's a largely mundane story (in both senses of 'mundane' - written in a prosaic way, and limited to our everyday world) about the effect of an experience, which may or may not be magical, on the person to whom it happens and, even more, on the people around them. The tension in the story comes from our not knowing whether Tara, the abductee, really had the experience she claims to have had, or whether it is (to use the technical term) a confabulation. I think that particular tension is quite well handled, and it was that that kept me reading. I can't say I cared about what happened to the characters, but I did want to know whether Tara's experience was real.
In the end, though, I felt dissatisfied. The reason for this is as follows (and here I'm going to have to go into spoilers - I suggest no-one reads this until after they've finished the book, because I'm going to talk about something that happens on the very last page). (view spoiler)
In the end, I think this is a moderately entertaining read, but if you want a book that has a genuine magical or fantastic feel, this probably isn't it.

I read Fairy Tale over a month ago because I hadn't quite figured out how the discussion schedule worked here. So some details are fuzzing. I do recall being warm toward the tale, but not hot. It got a 3 from me. The meat of the story is Tara and her identity. Is it really her? Is she a changeling? But I didn't find this mystery particularly mysterious. I'd made up my mind about her identity early on and nothing convinced me to change my mind. I did enjoy the description of the visited world and it's inhabitants. They were intriguing and I could have gone for more of that.
Chris wrote: " This is not a magical story, it's a largely mundane story (in both senses of 'mundane' ..."
Yes, I think "mundane" pretty much sums up this book's failure to entertain me.
(view spoiler)
Chris wrote: "I think this is a moderately entertaining read, but if you want a book that has a genuine magical or fantastic feel, this probably isn't it."
Yup, for me it wasn't.
Yes, I think "mundane" pretty much sums up this book's failure to entertain me.
(view spoiler)
Chris wrote: "I think this is a moderately entertaining read, but if you want a book that has a genuine magical or fantastic feel, this probably isn't it."
Yup, for me it wasn't.
One odd thing about the book is the persistent uncertainty about its genre. If Tara's experience is real, it's fantasy. If not, it's mainstream. I don't think I've ever encountered that in a book before.

Since I feel the topic of the book makes it a more character driven book, I should care what happened to them. Yet, somehow I was still interested in reading through even though I didn't.
Don't know if I'm making any sense or just contradicting myself here, but there ya go.

Have you ever read The Stolen Child by Donohue? Now there's a twisted little changeling story that sticks with you. I was actually hoping that Some Sort of Fairy Tale would be comparable, but no.
Chris wrote: "One odd thing about the book is the persistent uncertainty about its genre. If Tara's experience is real, it's fantasy. If not, it's mainstream. I don't think I've ever encountered that in a book before."
I've run into this occasionally, most usually in a story narrated by a character whose credibility is ambiguous at best. (There's also the "mysterious stranger" version.)
One example that is firmly in the Fantasy genre is 2011's Hugo and Nebula Award winning Among Others. It's told entirely from the PoV of Mori, a teenager who (at least according to her) sees and speaks with fairies, and later in the book sees a ghost. Occasionally the fairies ask her to help them perform magic (apparently they need mortal assistance to work magic outside their own realm.) And occasionally Mori asks the fairies to help her do some magic she wants. But the results of the magic is always very ordinary in appearance. For example, at the very start of Among Others, Mori says the fairies asked her to destroy a factory that was polluting their favorite woods by dropping a magic flower in a nearby pond. She does, and nothing happens. But the next day, the company that owns the factory decides to close it down. The faerie magic, or coincidence?
In that case, though, Mori is a pretty convincing narrator, and the novel is peppered with SF/F references, and no one would ever consider it mainstream. (I'd already thought of it in connection with Some Kind of Fairy Tale, because Among Others is another fantasy story where very little actually happens; but in that case, I loved it for the charm and humor of its narration.)
For an example of an ambiguous mainstream (litcrap) story that no one ever thinks of as Fantasy, see The Turn of the Screw (ghosts or no ghosts?)
I've run into this occasionally, most usually in a story narrated by a character whose credibility is ambiguous at best. (There's also the "mysterious stranger" version.)
One example that is firmly in the Fantasy genre is 2011's Hugo and Nebula Award winning Among Others. It's told entirely from the PoV of Mori, a teenager who (at least according to her) sees and speaks with fairies, and later in the book sees a ghost. Occasionally the fairies ask her to help them perform magic (apparently they need mortal assistance to work magic outside their own realm.) And occasionally Mori asks the fairies to help her do some magic she wants. But the results of the magic is always very ordinary in appearance. For example, at the very start of Among Others, Mori says the fairies asked her to destroy a factory that was polluting their favorite woods by dropping a magic flower in a nearby pond. She does, and nothing happens. But the next day, the company that owns the factory decides to close it down. The faerie magic, or coincidence?
In that case, though, Mori is a pretty convincing narrator, and the novel is peppered with SF/F references, and no one would ever consider it mainstream. (I'd already thought of it in connection with Some Kind of Fairy Tale, because Among Others is another fantasy story where very little actually happens; but in that case, I loved it for the charm and humor of its narration.)
For an example of an ambiguous mainstream (litcrap) story that no one ever thinks of as Fantasy, see The Turn of the Screw (ghosts or no ghosts?)

Chris wrote: "Here's another thing about Some Kind Of Fairy Tale that made me feel dissatisfied: (view spoiler) "
SPOILERS ahead.
(view spoiler)
SPOILERS ahead.
(view spoiler)
G33z3r, yes, I spotted the parallel. It didn't improve my impression of the book.
This is a book that is based on a really promising idea. Personally I think the idea was largely wasted.
This is a book that is based on a really promising idea. Personally I think the idea was largely wasted.

I personally liked the balance about where it was. I did enjoy Silent Land more but that book would have been impossible to discuss without spoilers upon spoilers.
What did people think of Joyce's depiction of Fairyland? I thought this was handled differently than I have seen in other books and it felt credible, real and strange. Not a place i would want to go to though.

Take literary fiction - Books must avoid or minimise all genre tropes and probably not neatly fit into any genre (romance, sf, crime fiction etc), it must be well written and written in a "literary way" as opposed to writing that focusses on getting readers excited/scared/amazed/ turning pages. In addition whilst there can be some action the action tends to be in the background and minimised. In addition to this it requires work generally to be self contained within itself and unlikely to lead to a sequel. Key characters MUST undertake a sort of growth or change throughout the book. It need not be upbeat and probably cannot be 100% upbeat.
Now SF/ fantasy can be action oriented, can be "quiet" like some kind of fairy tale, it can be epic in scope, taking many books to fulfill the story archs, it can be entirely plot driven or character driven. It can blend and merge elements from other genres such as crime as well.
Writing can be literary, mainstream, experimental...anything. It can be mega upbeat or downbeat.
What all this means is just because someone likes fantasy does not mean they will like many types of books that fall within the genre.
I get bored reading long winded action sequences and sometimes just skip till their resolution, other people do the opposite.
For me this book is an interesting exploration of fairy land and of being changed and not fitting in anywhere.
Although I only gave this 4 stars I keep thinking of upgrading it to 5 as it has stuck long with me and I can see myself rereading it.
it can be literary in terms of writing or it can be more experimental, and many other styles and types.

The book was a quick read. I didn't dislike the book, but I wasn't that impressed. I didn't find Tara to be a likable character and I didn't really identify with any of the other characters, so I was a bit indifferent to how the story played out. I think Jack's little side story was the most entertaining bit of the book.
The fantasy world was lacking. I guess I need more adventure in my stories and less lake sex.

I have so many questions, I wonder if anyone would still be interested in discussing the book?
I really enjoyed the book, the pacing and atmosphere mainly, I was gripped until the end and it has stayed vividly in my head for days. There’s a few points I’m not sure about and I would love to discuss with other people who have read it, I unfortunately do not have many readers around me.. I’ve put down points below as they are all very spoilery!
(view spoiler)
Books mentioned in this topic
Some Kind of Fairy Tale (other topics)Among Others (other topics)
The Turn of the Screw (other topics)
Some Kind of Fairy Tale (other topics)
So, let's pack a picnic basket and go for a walk in the woods, shall we?