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scripsi3. A book where you really wanted to be reading the "shadow" version of the book (as in, there are traces of a different book in the work and you would have much preferred to read that one)
The concept: a family saga taking place between the late 16th century to late 20th century, in Scandinavia (mainly) with magic.
The family, the Ice People have an evil forefather, who, according to the family legend, sold not only his soul to the devil but also the soul of one descendant in every generation so they would be cursed to become witches and warlocks and perform evil deeds. The real story is more complicated than that, but in short, the arc of the whole saga is the descendants' fight to break this curse. In the first book, the current warlock is, for the first time, not evil, and he manages to change the curse somewhat so that his descendants are not automatically born bad.
During the course of the series which ended up being 47 books, the individual books have a broad thematic scope. There are the ones that are close to social realism like the life in a small mining community in the early 19th century, of the hardship of a little boy who is kidnapped and forced to work in a mine in the 17th century. Some are crime novels or thrillers, several women found murdered and buried; the rumors say it’s a werewolf, but the solution is not supernatural at all, or the frantic search of patient zero when smallpox takes hold of a Norwegian town in the early 20th century. Some of them read more like adventure novels like when the willful heroine dresses up like a man to find her love, and some books are pretty much fantasy. There are also pure horror stories, like the vampire-like ghost who used her long hair to strangle the men she seduces or the absolutely horrifying story about a ferryman with a half face who drowns the people he ferries.
Romance is big too, and on the whole, the heroines are beautiful, but there are some notable exceptions with heroine’s who are plain, or even ugly, and it’s still made clear that they deserve- and get- happiness and love. There is also a lot of interesting history- you learn a lot about Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, and historical events are often woven into the plots.
The stories and plots in this series are actually pretty amazing, and many of the characters are really interesting. But, and this is a big but, the author, Margit Sandemo, just couldn’t write. A story that could have been epic is marred a stilted language, awkward conversation, and stereotypical descriptions. For example; every single man described as having sensuous lips, are villains. Every. Single. One. The sex scenes are very embarrassing. Oh, and at the end of the series, there is a super-cringe author insert. The author, who was Swedish-Norwegian wrote in Swedish but mixed in a lot of Norwegian words, and obviously, the books were never edited, making the language even poorer. They were obviously written very quickly- as the series were ongoing six books were published every year.
I really loved these books when I was in my early teens, but very quickly grew annoyed with everything I mentioned above. It’s so imaginative and interesting on the plot level, and then it all falls flat because it’s so poorly written. I would have loved to read it by someone who would write, who could construct dialogue, and who could steer away from the character cliches. As it is I think it could be a really good tv series.
It’s been translated into a number of languages, including English. I can only assume the translations are better as they are, presumably, only written in one language. The whole series is called the Legend of the Ice People. Not surprisingly the first books are the best, with more numánced character descriptions, and the magic kept on a more subtle level. I still have a very soft spot for the three first books, Spellbound and Witch-Hunt where the protagonist is a young woman, Silje, who meet and fall in love with a man from the Ice People. She is sweet, naive, and has a passion for painting, and there is also a parallel plotline about a young noblewoman who has a child born out of wedlock. The third book, Daughter of Darkness is about a young witch who the author actually dares to make completely amoral, which makes for a pretty interesting character study.
Cut for mention of rape. Also, worth noting apart from how badly written it is, there is also a lot of rape, (the first book, for example, contains two rape attempts). The author was very open about being raped more than once, and she is clearly working through them in her writing. They are always depicted as traumatic, and the rapist, with one notable exception, is always a villain. So the “best” I can say about that is that we thankfully don’t have romantics leads raping the heroine into loving him.
If you feel curious, you can read a few chapters of Spellbound on Google Docs here.
All the questions:
1. A book that haunts you
2. A book that was an interesting failure
3. A book where you really wanted to be reading the "shadow" version of the book (as in, there are traces of a different book in the work and you would have much preferred to read that one)
4. A book with a worldbuilding detail that has stuck with you
5. A book where you loved the premise but the execution left you cold
6. A book where you were dubious about the premise but loved the work
7. The most imaginative book you've seen lately
8. A book that feels like it was written just for you
9. A book that reminds you of someone
10. A book that belongs to a specific time in your mind, caught in amber
11. A book that came to you at exactly the right time
12. A book that came to you at the wrong time
13. A book with a premise you'd never seen before quite like that
14. A book balanced on a knife edge
15. A snuffed candle of a book
16. The one you'd take with you while you were being ferried on dark underground rivers
17. The one that taught you something about yourself
18. A book that went after its premise like an explosion
19. A book that started a pilgrimage
20. A frigid ice bath of a book
21. A book written into your psyche
22. A warm blanket of a book
23. A book that made you bleed
24. A book that asked a question you've never had an answer to
25. A book that answered a question you never asked
26. A book you recommend but cannot love
27. A book you love but cannot recommend
28. A book you adore that people are surprised by
29. A book that led you home
30. A book you detest that people are surprised by
The concept: a family saga taking place between the late 16th century to late 20th century, in Scandinavia (mainly) with magic.
The family, the Ice People have an evil forefather, who, according to the family legend, sold not only his soul to the devil but also the soul of one descendant in every generation so they would be cursed to become witches and warlocks and perform evil deeds. The real story is more complicated than that, but in short, the arc of the whole saga is the descendants' fight to break this curse. In the first book, the current warlock is, for the first time, not evil, and he manages to change the curse somewhat so that his descendants are not automatically born bad.
During the course of the series which ended up being 47 books, the individual books have a broad thematic scope. There are the ones that are close to social realism like the life in a small mining community in the early 19th century, of the hardship of a little boy who is kidnapped and forced to work in a mine in the 17th century. Some are crime novels or thrillers, several women found murdered and buried; the rumors say it’s a werewolf, but the solution is not supernatural at all, or the frantic search of patient zero when smallpox takes hold of a Norwegian town in the early 20th century. Some of them read more like adventure novels like when the willful heroine dresses up like a man to find her love, and some books are pretty much fantasy. There are also pure horror stories, like the vampire-like ghost who used her long hair to strangle the men she seduces or the absolutely horrifying story about a ferryman with a half face who drowns the people he ferries.
Romance is big too, and on the whole, the heroines are beautiful, but there are some notable exceptions with heroine’s who are plain, or even ugly, and it’s still made clear that they deserve- and get- happiness and love. There is also a lot of interesting history- you learn a lot about Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, and historical events are often woven into the plots.
The stories and plots in this series are actually pretty amazing, and many of the characters are really interesting. But, and this is a big but, the author, Margit Sandemo, just couldn’t write. A story that could have been epic is marred a stilted language, awkward conversation, and stereotypical descriptions. For example; every single man described as having sensuous lips, are villains. Every. Single. One. The sex scenes are very embarrassing. Oh, and at the end of the series, there is a super-cringe author insert. The author, who was Swedish-Norwegian wrote in Swedish but mixed in a lot of Norwegian words, and obviously, the books were never edited, making the language even poorer. They were obviously written very quickly- as the series were ongoing six books were published every year.
I really loved these books when I was in my early teens, but very quickly grew annoyed with everything I mentioned above. It’s so imaginative and interesting on the plot level, and then it all falls flat because it’s so poorly written. I would have loved to read it by someone who would write, who could construct dialogue, and who could steer away from the character cliches. As it is I think it could be a really good tv series.
It’s been translated into a number of languages, including English. I can only assume the translations are better as they are, presumably, only written in one language. The whole series is called the Legend of the Ice People. Not surprisingly the first books are the best, with more numánced character descriptions, and the magic kept on a more subtle level. I still have a very soft spot for the three first books, Spellbound and Witch-Hunt where the protagonist is a young woman, Silje, who meet and fall in love with a man from the Ice People. She is sweet, naive, and has a passion for painting, and there is also a parallel plotline about a young noblewoman who has a child born out of wedlock. The third book, Daughter of Darkness is about a young witch who the author actually dares to make completely amoral, which makes for a pretty interesting character study.
Cut for mention of rape. Also, worth noting apart from how badly written it is, there is also a lot of rape, (the first book, for example, contains two rape attempts). The author was very open about being raped more than once, and she is clearly working through them in her writing. They are always depicted as traumatic, and the rapist, with one notable exception, is always a villain. So the “best” I can say about that is that we thankfully don’t have romantics leads raping the heroine into loving him.
If you feel curious, you can read a few chapters of Spellbound on Google Docs here.
All the questions:
1. A book that haunts you
2. A book that was an interesting failure
3. A book where you really wanted to be reading the "shadow" version of the book (as in, there are traces of a different book in the work and you would have much preferred to read that one)
4. A book with a worldbuilding detail that has stuck with you
5. A book where you loved the premise but the execution left you cold
6. A book where you were dubious about the premise but loved the work
7. The most imaginative book you've seen lately
8. A book that feels like it was written just for you
9. A book that reminds you of someone
10. A book that belongs to a specific time in your mind, caught in amber
11. A book that came to you at exactly the right time
12. A book that came to you at the wrong time
13. A book with a premise you'd never seen before quite like that
14. A book balanced on a knife edge
15. A snuffed candle of a book
16. The one you'd take with you while you were being ferried on dark underground rivers
17. The one that taught you something about yourself
18. A book that went after its premise like an explosion
19. A book that started a pilgrimage
20. A frigid ice bath of a book
21. A book written into your psyche
22. A warm blanket of a book
23. A book that made you bleed
24. A book that asked a question you've never had an answer to
25. A book that answered a question you never asked
26. A book you recommend but cannot love
27. A book you love but cannot recommend
28. A book you adore that people are surprised by
29. A book that led you home
30. A book you detest that people are surprised by
no subject
Date: 2021-04-14 04:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-14 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-14 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-15 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-15 07:36 pm (UTC)My boss began noticing that it seemed the cover artist had been using different celebrities as reference for the Danish covers, so we even have a folder on the shop's computer with some of the celebrities we've spotted. To name a few: One of the Wilson brothers, Johnny Depp, an Australian tennis player and Margit Sandemo herself. ;)
I must say, though, that with those summaries I can understand why they were so popular as they were. We certainly had an audience for them in my shop. Perhaps I should leaf through one of them one day and see for myself. :)
no subject
Date: 2021-04-16 01:19 pm (UTC)Well, she does a rather cringey reader insert in the later books, so that's not so surprising.
I think you will be disappointed. if I hadn't read hem in my early teens, when I wasn't very discriminating, I would never have been able to go through them. Still, the plots ARE interesting. :)
no subject
Date: 2021-04-18 08:06 am (UTC)