being my thoughts on 100 Cupboards

[bonny_kate]

Recently, Nim mentioned reading the trilogy 100 Cupboards, and raved a bit about it. So, being the curious sort of person that I am, I promptly borrowed all three books from the library (100 Cupboards, Dandelion Fire, and The Chestnut King). I am afraid, Nim dear, that they were not quite my cup of tea. It wasn't that they were horrible, or any such, but I found them not at all what I was expecting, and rather underwhelming. *here follow minor spoilers, although nothing beyond what you can gather from the dust jackets* The concept is quite brilliant, and I am always in favor of cupboards that lead to other worlds, or bits of other worlds, but the story itself began quite slowly in the first book. I spent most of the first book waiting for something to happen. I did like the letters from the faeren, although when they actually showed up in the second book I found them unimpressive. I was bored about halfway through the third book, and only finished it because I'd already read two and a half books and I wanted to see how it turned out. There was much skimming, and I found the end somewhat unsatisfactory, not to mention that I was distracted by all the discussion of imperial soldiers in red uniforms as "red-shirts." Hah.

Also, where was all the violence that Nim talked about? Maybe I'm just too used to Joss Whedon, but while there was some fighting, I didn't find any of it particularly violent. Or creepy.



One of the weaknesses of the series, in my opinion, was that Henry's second sight is not explained very well. There is a long literary tradition of second sight, as well as the seventh son of a seventh son being somehow more powerful. 100 Cupboards takes both of these ideas, but never sufficiently explains the concept of second sight (it also does not explain why being the seventh son of a seventh son would be more powerful*, nor does it attempt to, but one can scarcely fault it for that). The second sight allows Henry to see through illusions, including those of the faeries and Nimiane. This is clear enough. However, Henry is able to see much more than that. He is able to see invisible things, such as wind, or the evil magic linking him to Nimiane, and this is still fairly straightforward. However, Henry is also able to see the "soul" of something. Dandelions appear as fire. Trees are suddenly more complicated. But what would it mean to see the soul of a tree? How is seeing the soul of a tree different than truly seeing the tree? I do not think the series has a robust enough definition of what a soul is to claim that Henry can see a soul. It isn't that I disagree with the books' definition of what a soul is; I find that it seems too fuzzy on what a soul is for something that claims very much to be about seeing a soul (it is also explained as being the "poem" of the object, which is even less helpful).

The other weakness was the ending of the Chestnut King. While it works out very neatly for Fat Frank to become the next Chestnut King, it is unsatisfying. Technically, it is within his promise to be the next Chestnut King for Henry to turn over his rule to Fat Frank, but it feels like cheating. The finale is based on Henry's sacrifice, on his willingness to give up his life in the service of the faeren in exchange for the salvation of his family and world, and then he finds a loophole where he doesn't have to give it up after all. I'm not sure, either, that Fat Frank will make a good sort of king. Henry is used to responsibility and leadership, and is able to make hard decisions. Fat Frank may have such capacity, but he has not shown doing it (he does how a willingness to break faeren laws where necessary, when he tells Henry to throw the knife, and he is loyal to both the green man and the queen, but his loyalty to the queen makes his role as the Chestnut King less plausible). Loopholes are hard to pull off without leaving the reader feeling cheated, and this is more a loophole than a twist.

And finally, I don't think it is particularly a weakness, but many of the things I wanted to know were never explained. What is the green man, and what is his relation to the faeren, and how did it come about? Why did Nudd as the Chestnut King seek to change the nature of the faeren, and how did he accomplish this? What was written in Henry's grandfather's journal? What are the significance of the other two artifacts used to make the cupboards? Why did Henry only ever explore about ten of the cupboards? (If I had magic cupboards, I would want to find out where they all went, and properly explore them.)

All that to say, it wasn't my cup of tea, and if I want Young Adult fantasy fluff, I'll stick with Diana Wynne Jones or Harry Potter next time.


*being such a fan of the medievals as I am, I would suggest that it has to do with the number seven itself, which the medievals were rather fond of (as well as three and nine, of course)

Comments

[nimlotbradamant.livejournal.com]

Ah well. I do have to say that I've been a fan of ND Wilson for a while--I read some of his short stories and quite liked them. I was also disappointed by 100 Cupboards when I first read it, but found it vastly improved on a slower re-read. This is because Wilson uses rich words--you have to read slowly to grasp all the connotations. There are allusions and ideas lurking below the surface which I missed the first time round. Nothing big; the words are just rich with meaning.

Like you, I think Wilson dropped the ball on some plot details. I also would definitely have liked to see more of the cupboards, and found the faeren unimpressive. But when I think about it, what really made the books for me was Henry's character. I loved watching Henry's journey from someone that annoyed me to someone really awesome.

[bonny-kathryn.livejournal.com]

I wasn't particularly impressed by his writing ability. *shrug*