Category: Fantasy Page 31 of 34

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Indexing by Seanan McGuire
Series: Indexing, #1.11

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Episode 11: Scarlet Flowers
I’m honestly not sure what to say about this, practically every reaction I had was so spoiler-y I don’t think I can say anything substantive about it.

Everything about this episode was totally different from what I expected. There were a few scenes with a peaceful, homey, family feeling. Seeing these characters enjoying those moments makes you believe they’d go through all they’re going through for each other. There was the bonus of an unexpected appearance of as long-lost family member.

And then the strange events of the last few paragraphs that led to the cliff-hanger? Really whet my appetite for whatever’s next. Again, nothing here was what I thought I’d see in Episode 11. But it totally worked.

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Indexing by Seanan McGuire
Series: Indexing, #1.10

Episode 10: Not Sincere
Huh. I’d expected something different for this episode, but I shouldn’t have. I’d expected Henry and her team to go for the Big Bad like gangbusters, that this would be the beginning of a big 2.5 episode face-off. But stories don’t work that way (even when the Narratives have a power unto themselves like in this world), McGuire needed to move some pieces around here and get things set up for the upcoming showdown.

That’s not to say there wasn’t plenty of movement forward in this episode, it just happened while she was moving pieces around — which makes it much more palatable.

I’ve gotta say, The Little Mermaid manifestations described here are pretty bad in general. But this one in particular was pretty disturbing. That poor guy. And I don’t even want to know what’s going to become of his victim (okay, that’s nonsense, that’s Priority One for me next episode).

Watching Henry deal with a. the way Jeff and the others are treating her now as she deals with her new status is pretty interesting, although I have to wonder why she seems to not understand why they think she’d change — she has been in this field for awhile, no? and b. the way the Narrative can possibly affect her now, how she has to retreat from a situation, leaving the others to handle it so she doesn’t succumb to its power was a nice twist.

The conversation between her and Jeff afterwards was just icing on the cake.

I’m digging this series more and more, and will be sad to see the end here in a couple of episodes.

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Indexing by Seanan McGuire
Series: Indexing, #1.9

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Episode 9: Whiteout
Wait? That’s it? It’s over?

Sort of a let-down, honestly, after Episodes 7 and 8. But it makes sense, the story and the characters need a break to regroup, to refocus, to make sure that they (and the readers) grasp what’s going on. The pieces are moved around a bit and the stage is set for 2 chapters of rockin’ action, and I’m betting 1, or maybe half of one for dénouement.

And really, my initial reaction wasn’t fair — there was a fair bit of action, it just wasn’t as dazzling. The choice that Henry makes to save her team — and to allow them to move on and stop Mother Goose — is just as dramatic as anything that happened earlier, it just didn’t look that way. The realizations that she comes to as result of that choice, about the nature of the Narrative are really what everything’s been driving toward and will likely prove to be the key to stopping the tumult the agency finds itself in the midst of.

This episode was all Henry’s, and we didn’t get enough of Sloane, Andy or Jeff. We didn’t need a lot Demi time here, particularly when McGuire got as much mileage out of her brief appearance as she did.

Not the most obviously good episode of this serial, but a solid one, and a necessary one. Bring on the action in 10!

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Indexing by Seanan McGuire
Series: Indexing, #1.8

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Episode 8: Empty Nest
Hey, diddle diddle! That was something! I spent most of this episode leaning forward on the edge of my seat (surely, I’m not the only one who subconsciously believes that helps them read tense/exciting parts of books faster, am I?). Sure, I was way ahead of Henry on picking up that Very Significant Clue, but the important thing is that she grabbed hold of it eventually and ran with it. Killer episode.

From the shell-shocked reaction of the team to the events in the last episode (unlike the rest, this one picks up right from the end of the previous installment), through the bureaucratic kerfuffle that kicks up from it to Henry’s clue pickup straight through to . . . well, the end — this was Indexing firing on all cylinders.

It struck me that at this point McGuire’s developed her world enough that she can say something like this:

Birdie Hubbard lived in exactly the sort of house that you would expect a woman named “Birdie Hubbard” to live in, especially if that woman existed in a world where fairy tales were real and had teeth.

and the reader doesn’t need the 3 sentences that follow to know what kind of place the characters are at (not that McGuire was guilty of over-kill in providing them). We also are at the point where we can understand Sloane’s reaction (“somewhere midway between horrified and impressed”) to the presence of garden gnomes in Hubbard’s lawn.

Such a fun read, don’t know how she’s going to top it next week, but I’m sure she will.

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Indexing by Seanan McGuire
Series: Indexing, #1.7

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Episode 7: Bread Crumbs
Well, didn’t see any of that coming. Wow. Well, not totally true — I’d figured something a lot like what happened with Demi at the end of the episode was coming. But McGuire’s been leading us to that for awhile now, so that’s not a knock on her ability to surprise the reader. Given how many different things happened in this episode, that’s still a really good ratio.

More stuff — little things, episodic things, character things, overarching plot things, comic things, curious things, puzzling things — happened in this episode than any other. The pacing was far different, too — there was an urgency to everything that unfolded that matched what was going on for the characters. The team split up to deal with several narrative events — their night was chaotic, messy, and terrible — and the writing matched that. I read this a few days ago, and more than any single plot point, that feeling sticks with me.

Not that the plot points have faded — this is one of those bits of writing that burns itself into your brain for awhile. Every character is well-served, even the constantly under-utilized Andy. He gets more ink — and action — here than in the first six episodes combined. We learn a lot about him along the way — and while Jeff is featured as much as he usually is, we learn as much about him as Andy.

This is an episode where the changes to the narrative are front and center, on display for Henry’s team to see as clearly as it is for the reader — and the rest of the Agency. Not just the potentially earth-shattering events are lived through, but paradigm-shifting realizations are reached. The road for these five just got a lot bumpier ahead.

In the midst of this heaviness, McGuire puts a well-placed bit of comedy (possibly two, depending how you take the latter). Henry and Sloane are working to keep a Peter Pan from attempting to launch himself off a roof and discover that he really can’t fly. I wondered if instead of trying to stop him, what if they made him think a lot of happy thoughts — would that have actually permitted him to fly? In a world where a Snow White manifestation can actually talk to birds, I wouldn’t have thought so. But maybe. With time running out and their normal efforts failing, Sloane does the smartest, most inventive thing I’ve seen anyone in this book do to help this boy grow up. I laughed out loud as I realized what she was up to, and kept it up through her execution. I’m still not sure why Henry was so against it.

I’m more invested in this story than I’ve been at any point since I started reading it, and cannot wait for Episode 8.

Indexing by Seanan McGuire
Series: Indexing, #1.6

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Episode 6: Fox’s Tongue
Again, I’ll just say that without more grounding in the normal way the narrative works in this world it’s hard to get too invested in/fully understand the way it’s working differently now. If McGuire’d asked me, I’d have told her to give us an episode or two of the status quo before Henry has to toss caution to the wind and recruit Demi. But the status is not quo — and McGuire didn’t ask me, so who cares? (frankly, as long as I get my regular Toby Daye fixes, I really don’t care how the rest of her stuff comes out, even this one, which I’m generally positive about.)

This particular case is interesting enough on its face — but once you go behind the surface, this could get really, really ugly. The plot twists and turns in these few pages are very engaging, just the kind of thing to really draw in the reader.

The character moments for Henry and Sloane are likely the best in this series — Henry seems capable and useful — something I’ve not really seen from her — particularly when she dips into her Snow White-ness for the sake of the investigation. And Sloane grappling with her (true?) self was very effective. I was less impressed with the use of Demi here — her being overly honest and complete with her reports was a good, rookie touch. But where’s the training, why weren’t her teammates on top of that thing — she needs to be trained, not only in the written words and procedures, but in the unwritten policies of her team. They’ve really dropped the ball with her.

McGuire really seems to be pointing at someone as the Big Bad of the series — I’m not sure I want to go where she appears to be leading — it’s almost too easy that way. Then again, sometimes the subtle approach isn’t the best. I guess I’ll see over the next 6 installments.

Whoops, behind again. Further than I thought, too. I knew I needed to read/talk about Episode 6, but I hadn’t realized that Episode 5 wasn’t up yet — I’d have sworn I posted it last month. Maybe I did. Maybe Internet Termites came along and ate it, leaving the rest of this blog.

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Indexing by Seanan McGuire
Series: Indexing, #1.5

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Episode 5: Cruel Sister
I thought I had things figured out — at least for the next 2-3 episodes, I thought she’d take the memetic incursion from the last episode and put it to work, and that this would last for a few episodes, if not turning into the Big Bad for the 12 as a whole.

What a relief to be wrong — the way that McGuire took things instead — a good, honest heart-to-heart rather than repeated covert assassination attempts might be smaller on the Drama Meter, but it ranks pretty high on my satisfactory use of characters meter. Characters — particularly those who work in close quarters together — need to talk more and combat less (not that I have a problem with good fight scenes, etc. — it’s just when they’re necessary and/or unavoidable, not the result of sit-com type misunderstandings and circumstances)

The cases that Henry and her team (aka, Henry and People Who Serve a Purpose) have been dealing with lately, the narrative isn’t acting like they expect/have been lead to believe is necessary. That’s definitely the situation this time, which for some reason appeals to me more than the others. Maybe it’s the way that this one veered from the norm, maybe it’s because I’m getting a better and better idea what the norm is supposed to be. Or maybe I just have a thing for people poisoning their families.

I hope it’s not the latter.

I’m thinking we could use more development of each idea in this episode (and in retrospect, the previous episodes, too) — it felt really rushed. Almost too rushed to keep going with. I don’t think each of these is a book-length idea (but it might be), but they need more space than they’re currently getting, at least 2x the words.

Still, a good read, with a lot of tantalizing possibilities for the next episodes. I need to just stop trying to guess what’s going to happen and just enjoy the ride. Don’t see that happening, but that’s what I should do.