Sunshine

[magid]

Spoilers within.

Every time I reread it, I want more. It's such a great story that I don't want to leave, and there are lots of side questions I still want answered.

- What do Sunshine and Con do to hang out when not being hunted by Bo?
- When and how does Sunshine mention her new abilities to her biker-cook boyfriend?
- What about his background? How did he end up so calm and thoughtful?
- Does she ever mention Con to him?
- What is the deal with the Goddess of Pain?
- How can Con do what he does when he's such an old vampire? What choices did he make?
- What happened to the rest of the Blaises, especially Sunshine's grandmother and father?
- Does Sunshine work with Aimil and the others for SOF again?
- If she does, how does she get to a balance point for what she has/does with Con?
- And why o why are there no recipes at the back of the book?!
- Plus I'd love to read more about her landlady.

If I were inclined to fanfic, I'd be writing. Instead, I sit and hope for a sequel. Anything by Robin McKinley is worth reading, but this is a cut above the rest, and I want more!

Comments

[dancingdeer.livejournal.com]

I totally agree - there's so much left unanswered in this book.
Unfortunately, Robin *really* doesn't do sequels, so don't hold your breath.
I don't even *like* vampire books, but hey, Robin McKinley...

[magid.livejournal.com]

I haven't been holding my breath, but wishing really really strongly. And even with all these questions, it does feel like a reasonable story as it is, not designed to be the first of n books (which generally drives me nuts).

And I'm not one for vampire books as a genre, but yeah, this is so wonderful. Of course, how could I resist a baker protagonist? It's all about the food :-)

Tangent: I saw an episode of Dr. Who with a vampire (essentially; she used a straw, but the effect's the same), called a "plasmavore". It's interesting how the name change makes it all sf-able, rather than just horror.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Whew. When I first saw the subject line, it was all I could see of the post on the screen, and my thoughts were: "Person in eastern Mass. writing about sunshine, which must mean a post like, 'What is that SEARING BRIGHT OBJECT in the sky, I haven't seen that in MONTHS?!' " and then I was all depressed about moving back to That Kind of weather.

I think I like The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword better than Sunshine, which I haven't read recently enough to comment on otherwise.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, it is rainy and overcast here today (but wasn't yesterday, and isn't supposed to be tomorrow). Plus, weirdly warm (and no snow yet, either).

I think I've read both of those two, though it's possible I've read only one (depends on what was in the library when I first found her books and read all I could get my hands on). I liked them, but somehow didn't fall into them in the same way as Sunshine. I'm not sure whether I'd feel differently had I read The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword when I was younger (read: would have more nostalgia now for whatever I read into them then).

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

It's true, I first read those when I was younger - and there are parts of them that irritate me a little now in a way they didn't ~20 years ago. The fact that they are set in a different world than ours is part of what I enjoy about them, though, and Sunshine (as best I can recall) is pretty much our own world.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Sunshine starts out seeming to be in our world, but for me it unfolded as enough different (so many different human/magical crosses, etc) that it worked.

(Escapist in another way, I suppose. Sort of like some Charles de Lint stuff, also the most recent Guy Gavriel Kay book. I tend to like that sort of thing. If you're not as into that, well, it won't work as well for you ;-)

[dancingdeer.livejournal.com]

I admit to being a strong Robin McKinley fan - I own everything she's written, except for a few of the picture books. Beauty, her first book, I received new when I was in 4th grade. Given that, Beauty, and The Hero and the Crown, and The Blue Sword, are meant for children, or young adults, or something. Sunshine, as well as Deerskin and a few others of her latter books, are definitely written for adults.
I still think she left more open questions in Sunshine than in anything else. I was actually disappointed when it ended - I kept looking for more pages, because the story just wasn't *finished*. Most of her books have been fairly tale retellings, and fairy tales tend to have endings where everything's wrapped up. This definitely wasn't.
I *really* want to know what's up with the boyfriend. That's the strongest hanging question for me. All she ever did was hint.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I didn't read anything of hers until I was an adult, though an adult who definitely enjoys kid lit/YA fiction. I definitely found Deerskin disturbing, but then, that fairy tale is difficult too. Even so, as you say, fairy tales do come to fairly complete endings, which works even in novelized form.

I think some of why I liked Sunshine so much was that not only did I not know the path, I didn't know the ending. I think it's very cool to revisit the fairy tales, but in the end, I'm heading towards a known ending, with a broadly outlined travel path already.

For me, I agree that the boyfriend is the biggest area of questions (background? how to navigate future relationship?), but the second biggest is definitely the Goddess of Pain.

Absolutely.

[avivasedai.livejournal.com]

I own four by her: Sunshine, Deerskin, H&tC, Blue Sword. All but Sunshine are in the same world in a far span of time. I thought that was kind of cool, especially in Deerskin where you basically couldn't tell aside from intentional bits put in there. That's a neat touch, maybe only a little bit feeling like it's "cheating" somehow but easy to accept. Sunshine started out looking like straight fiction and then took a decided bend. I really liked that. I thought it was a fantastic way to draw people into an alternate reality. Sure, I can relate to a young woman, working in a family business, in the kitchen, boyfriend, supernatural... er, what? Very clever.

It's a damn shame there are no other pieces in this universe. Would it work to have her publishers seek out some other authors to do vignettes/short stories/novellas/anything in her world? That way she wouldn't have to revisit something she's finished but the rest of us could get some satisfaction! Yes, more of Yolande, her training and background and what she did during the war, her grandmother and what she thought of her son and d-i-l and abandoning her g'daughter, a pivotal point in Con's life (and undeath?), a few juicy bits of Mel (the boyfriend (and yes I did just spend 15 minutes reading RMcK FAQ and whatnot before reading the exerpt to find his name)... This would easily be bought by adoring fans.

She didn't say she was entirely done with it, but... well, she goes on my list with Robert Jordan (even moreso now) and Melanie Rawn of authors who just aren't likely to work in predictable manners. Start and/or finish another trilogy before this one is done? Sure! Get seriously ill and die on us before book 12? If you must. *sigh*

Re: Absolutely.

[(Anonymous)]

Get seriously ill and die on us before book 12? If you must. *sigh*

Remember: Friends don't let friends read Jordan.

*cackle*

[avivasedai.livejournal.com]

I started back in high school; there's no recourse for me but to finish the freakin' thing off. I try only to buy his stuff from the discount area these days, and I think I won't read this last one, or the very last one, until they're all out and cheap and I can spend about two months on the back-reading and finish it out in one fell swoop.

Re: Absolutely.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Somehow I can't picture McKinley authorizing shared universe stories. Not sure why, I just don't, even though I want all the stories you mention, and more.

To be fair, she mostly doesn't do multi-book series (with the resultant leaving people hanging), certainly not on the level of Robert Jordan!

[rethought.livejournal.com]

I read this just before I left the US. Simply couldn't put it down, though I thought the ending dragged a bit compared to the fast pace of the beginning.

I'm hopeless at writing (why am I doing a phd?), but it would be a fun sandbox to play in. :)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Writing fiction and nonfiction are not the same kinds of sandboxes...
(Which is to say, hopeless at writing fiction (like me) doesn't preclude an awesome dissertation :-)