Weekend Reads #88: Mourning My Favorite Character…for no good reason

Weekend Reads is a weekly post in which I discuss a variety of topics and mention the books I plan to read on the weekend.

This weekend’s topic:

I want Fitz back!

**Quick note: Spoilers below for Robin Hobb’s Farseer trilogy, Liveship Traders trilogy, and Tawney Man trilogy. DO NOT spoil me for anything that comes after those books. Thanks!

Do you mourn your books? Do you lament stories you’ve completed? Do you grieve for plots that have petered to an end, never to flow forth in a story again? Do you pine for the moments you spent with characters you love and for the wondrous events you read, emotions you felt, epic friendships that seemed as if they’d last forever, love so true that nothing would come between them, and quests so grand and heroic that you had to pause a moment and take a breath when reading about them?

I can’t remember if I’ve ever mourned the end of a book. I know I have regretted completing some books and have longed for stories I’ve completed or can no longer remember, but I can’t recall reading of a happy ending and feeling grieved that a character’s story has come to an end. But so it feels to me now. Fitz got a happy ending to his story. I am happy for him. Really, I am. But I’m sad. So sad. Because the end of Fool’s Fate has a ring of finality to it. I get the impression that this is the end of Fitz’s story. No longer will the story follow his adventures. As the Fool said, their time has ended. Never again, it seems, will I read from Fitz’s perspective, or hear his voice speak out from Hobb’s tales.

I might me wrong — it’s highly likely that I am — and all this sadness and melancholic feelings are all for naught because two more series filled with hefty books follow this one and the last is called Fitz and the Fool. It’s obvious that there’re more adventures to be had in this world with other characters mentioned in the three series I’ve completed. But still I get a bitter taste at the end of Fool’s Fate as if the story could stop here and everyone lives happily ever after. I get the impression that no longer will I be privy to the thoughts of one of my favorite characters and that makes me sad. It makes me grieve. It makes me nostalgic for the books that set me on this path and makes me long to return to them. I guess it’s usually at this time in a series that I’d turn back and reread the earlier books instead of continuing and facing the finality of an ending that promises no future books.

So that’s where I stand now, curious to know what happens next yet yearning to revisit Fitz and the Fool when I first met them and just stay there instead of moving on. Fitz and the Fool wouldn’t approve of my dawdling. They would encourage me to push on and face the end with as brave a face as I can muster. Who knows what the next series might bring. I might enjoy those adventures more than the ones I’ve read. Yet still I am sad and so I pause wondering and reminiscing about the first time I read about these characters.

…

Emily from Embuhlee liest and I have been reading Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings series for some time now. I can’t recall how long, but we happened to be reading the first two books in the Farseer trilogy around the same time and decided to jump into the third book — Assassin’s Quest — together. We’ve buddy-read the series since then, and we recently completed the Tawney Man trilogy, which, as you’ve read above, has left me feeling a bit sad that the story might no longer focus on my two favorite characters.

Emily has assured me many times that this is not true and we will most likely revisit Fitz and the Fool in the last trilogy of the series since it’s named for them and there’s a huge picture of Fitz on the cover, but the irrational side of my brain has taken over and for now I’m stuck thinking that Fitz is content and the Fool is off spreading the word of his journeys so they’ve both retired from the story.

If not for this buddy-read, I’m pretty sure I’d stop reading the series here. I’m notorious for not completing series and I think this is the reason why: I get to a point where I don’t want to let go of the characters or see them or the plot change or learn that the story will end. I just want it to continue in the way it is at the moment I stopped reading. That must be why because that’s how I feel right now.

But we will continue, Emily and I. After all, I am curious to see what becomes of the dragons.

What I’m currently reading:

 

Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus

I’m on the last third of the book, speeding to the end though I took a break to complete two other books. I love the writing in this and love that the characters have more depth than in the movie.

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

In the midst of reading a bunch of other stuff, I forgot about this. But I’m back on it now and hopefully I’ll be able to complete it before it’s due back at the library.

What are you reading this weekend? And let me know if you too mourn your favorite characters.

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I Heart Characters! #3: Wicked Witch Flying

I Heart Characters! is a weekly meme hosted by Dani at Perspective of a Writer to share our love of great characters. Each week Dani will assign a topic/type of character that we must find examples of in the various media we consume (books, TV shows, movies, comics, podcasts, etc.).

Bulking the topics in a single post works best for me, so this post will include the first two topics for June.

Last week’s topic:

Wicked witch

A witch, or one who simply acts like one… a fantasy villain or a contemporary bully… if she’s b*tchy then she’s part of the group!

the white witch

“How to Love a Jamaican” by Alexia Arthurs

When I posted to my personal Facebook account that I was reading this book and it was making me feel nostalgic and a bit sad, I was met with pity, concern, and ridicule.

I didn’t state what the book is about, so my friends and family thought I was talking about my love life. I felt the need to post a clarifying statement to explain that this is a book short stories about growing up in Jamaica and leaving the country to live in the U.S.; about being a Jamaican in a foreign country – the U.S.; about romance, yes, but also families and other relationships; about being a Black woman in the U.S. and about being a Black lesbian. It’s about these and much more, but these themes are at the forefront of the stories and most resonated strongly with me.

Genre:

Contemporary; literary

Pubbed:

July 24, 2018 (I received an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.)

What’s on Your Nightstand: May 2018

What’s on Your Nightstand is a monthly meme hosted by 5 Minutes for Books on the last Tuesday of every month that summarizes what you’ve read for the month, what you’re currently reading, and what you plan to read next. For my posts, I also include articles, music, art, TV shows, and whatever else I did in the month.

I’m so late with this post. May was a busy month and some of that busyness bled over into June. I attended a variety of events, like Free Comic Book Day (see my haul post here) and an embassy open-house event held in Washington, D.C., annually (it was great!), and did a bit of traveling with family, which was more exhausting than I expected. I also found a pop-up used bookstore that I’ve fallen in love with because it had a few books in stock that I didn’t expect to see, like old editions of Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness series and T.A. Barron’s Merlin series. I was tempted to get the Tamora Pierce books, but was reminded that I don’t have any space for them at home. 😦

Though the month was hectic, I managed to complete a few books, but found it hard to catch up on articles and such, and there were some really good pieces this month. But here’s what I got to:

Marvel-A-thon TBR

It’s June and I happen to have some extra reading time to spare, so I was beyond excited when I saw Lauren share her TBR for the Marvel-a-thon readathon, I got excited and decided to join in. It’s exactly what I needed.

I love readathons like this. I think them so creative! The Marvel-a-thon was created by Jamieson of Jamishelves. It’s a month-long readathon (June 1 to July 1) based on the Marvel cinematic universe. Here are the details as posted by Jamieson:

This readathon is focused around Marvel movies in the cinematic universe, each of the movies have been split into their phases and there is one challenge per movie.

The goal is to read a book for EVERY SINGLE MOVIE (that’s 21 movies, by the way). Everyone starts in Phase One, and you can’t move on to the next phase until you’ve completed all the challenges. Here is the game board:

Visit Jamieson’s post for more details on the rules. By the way, we are allowed to skip 2 categories per phase. I’ll indicate below the ones I might skip. Since this is a lot of books to read, and since it doesn’t seem to be a big deal whether we read a book or comic book, I’ve mostly chosen comic books so I can hit all the categories. I’ve also thrown in a few rereads for series I want to complete.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Book Tag

I was beyond excited when I saw this book tag over on the Sassy Book Geek. I’m a fan of Avatar: the Last Airbender and often rewatch the series to immerse myself in the world and revisit the characters. It was such a great show, and I wish the original had continued. Since it didn’t, I’ve taken to collecting the comics in the huge hardcover bind-ups because the creators and artists share their thoughts about the creative process alongside the comics, which I think is pretty cool and hope will give me more insight into the story and characters.

Avatar Korra was nice too, but nothing can beat the original. I love that both kids and adults can watch and gain much from it. The story imparts lessons without forcing it on viewers and it didn’t take itself too seriously.

By the way, if you’re interested in hearing how the idea for this show came about and the creative process behind it, I highly recommend this episode of the Nick Animation Podcast, which features an interview with Avatar: the Last Airbender creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino.

Oh! And this tag was created by booktuber A Clockwork Reader. Okay, let’s start! 😀

Water

Katara and Sokka: Best sibling relationship

I love these two, especially Sokka. He’s my favorite character. 😀 And Katara is such a kind-hearted badass. 😉

“Sky in the Deep” by Adrienne Young

Hey now! Here’s another read that I was surprised to enjoy. I loved the beginning but then the story took a turn that made me worry that I wouldn’t like it. But by the end, I thought it was good.

Genre:

Fantasy; historical

Pubbed:

April 2018

Goodreads summary:

Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield — her brother, fighting with the enemy — the brother she watched die five years ago.

Faced with her brother’s betrayal, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family.