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In Other Lands
It's "YA fantasy gothic romance", apparently. I have no bloody clue where no less than two of the people writing blurbs found the 'gothic'. The romance does very much not play the narrative role you expect from something defined within the genre, and the fantasy is... somewhat the same, honestly. It is, however, written for teens, so... one out of four?
This isn't a problem with the novel as such, but with the way people are trying to sell it. You should definitely give it a try if the description below appeals to you, because I enjoyed it a lot. The "a lot" because of admittedly dumb spoilery reasons I'll detail under the cut. Overall, it is funny and occasionally touching and I liked all of the main cast.
The best summary I can give is probably this fine illustration, greeting you as you turn the page to the first chapter:
In more detail: Neglected British child goes to ~magical school~, keeps on being somewhat of an outsider there and spends his days with genius girl who is also somewhat of an outsider, and part of every summer holiday with the cheerful family of a boy who is very much a part of the establishment.
Or: Blaming the victim is always wrong but even slightly-shorter-than-average-for-his-age Elliot Schafer knows that he'd have an easier time if he wasn't compulsed to sass popular kids who taller and stronger than him. And at least he's not beat up in diplomacy classes in The Border Camp of The Otherlands, where he elected to stay because of the hot elf babe Serene-Heart-In-The-Chaos-Of-Battle. Unfortunately, Serene has attached herself to Luke Sunborn, who is tall and strong and popular and Elliot is most certainly not his friend, don't be disgusting.
Yes the core of the plot is inescapably Potter, but that's about as far as the similarities go. The standard fantasy plot of "ending a war and saving the world" is nominally there, but takes a definite backseat to Elliots social and romantic going-ons. Elliot, Serene and Luke are about as far removed from Harry, Hermione and Ron as you get. Elliot is bookish but otherwise unremarkable, Serene is a culturally out-of-sync warrior. Luke is... an inversion of Ron Weasly, mostly: the kind and polite and introverted and unconsciously popular kid who excells at everything concerning sports and martial arts, descending from one of the most revered families in the land. Also, there's this thing about Elliot worshipping the ground on which Serene walks so loudly and so out of character for him that no-one thinks he means it. There's his on-going, one-sided contempt of everything that is Luke Sunborn. The dynamics are so different that you'd be hard-pressed to get Hogwarts flashbacks except for the few reminders that Elliot's dad is a dick.
The illustration hints at the tone. In Other Lands follows Elliot through ages thirteen to seventeen, for his education in ~magical school~. Since Elliot is a precocious bookworm full of salt and vinegar, his narrative is a running line of snark about most everything - that is, when he's not lapsing exceedingly poetic about Serene's virtues. Four years are crammed into fourhundredandsome pages, and it's hardly a surprise that the fantasy keystones of "worldbuilding" and "political plot" take a definite backseat here. More than anything, this is a novel about growing up and becoming a better person, and I - at least - certainly think that shit is more entertaining if it comes through mermaid fanboying and casual elvish sexism ("A woman's experience of blood and pain is, naturally, what makes womenkind particularly suited for the battlefield. Whereas men are the softer sex, squeamish about blood in the main. I know it's the same for human men, Luke was extremely disinclined to discuss my first experience of a woman's menses.")
There's a plotline about a theatre club setting up the Romeo and Juliet of The Otherlands. For god's sake.
Yes, this is essentially a high school AU set in Narnia. It was not terribly surprising, when googled, that this started out as an "online novel". And wouldn't you know it: On the author's webpage, the commentaries she'd made to her work as she initially published it was links to good ole' eljay.
I have to talk about that, of course. Because I definitely suspect that part of the reason I enjoyed this book so much, was that there are elements of this book that definitely read like fanfic. Less so than The Captive Prince, for what it's worth.
SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT.
In Other Lands started out as the "backstory", so to speak, to a short story published in an anthology. I immensly suspect that this novel came about on readers' request for the prequel to said short story, and that at least the initial online readers then knew the outcome of Elliot's romantic adventures as surely as if the AO3 tags were on top of each chapter.
And as I was reading, I kinda saw it coming. Three pages in, and Elliot casually lets us know that among his previous crushes was confused hero worship of some "Simon". Halfway in, Luke has come out of the closet, Elliot has been hit on by another boy, and then had a brief summer romance with an older boy back home who doesn't stop being kind of stupid even though Elliot is giving him the chance. And Serene, Elliot's first, true love, has proven incapable of moving beyond the cultural prejudices of her kind.
So Luke "likes guys. Romantically.", Elliot is "dating people named Jason as well as people named Myra", Luke is Elliot's friends even if Elliout loudly denounces such a notion but secretly, when he is alone late at night, can admit that Luke really is a nice guy who looks good when he takes off his shirt. That setup alone of course begs the quesiton of when it is going to happen, and how much?
There was always the option of keeping it to some amount of Elliot considering it, then going "nah", and then having him end up with Serene after all. There was the option of having Luke really end up with his well-established and often mentioned crush on someone else, and Elliot coming to terms with his abandonment issues without snogging someone. Having the sidekick be the gay guy is hardly a new way to score representation points.
But no, this novel went "wingfic, slow burn, friends to lovers", and all my dreams came true. (I'm not particularly into wingfic but it definitely went there and that was fine with me). That tag set, together with the "magical high school AU", was probably was keyed me onto the "oh, fic". Fantasy, as I know the genre, tends to be focused on plot and worldbuilding, assuming the readers are there for, you know, the fantasy. In Other Lands is focused on relationships with plot being strictly nominal and worldbuilding being very bare-bones. Like fanfic, which we read not because we're really interested in the mermaids and the harpies and the 'verse where Myra rocks a 'stache, but because we want to read a multichapter Elliot/Luke where one of them has wings. And also Golden being a prissy maiden, because he'd totally be, come on.
And just because I apparently am genetically wired to moan about whatever is the wholesome queer representation of the month: Elliot and Luke's friendship-gone-romance is a gazillion times more enteratining to read about than Simon Spier and his anon tumblr penpal.
This isn't a problem with the novel as such, but with the way people are trying to sell it. You should definitely give it a try if the description below appeals to you, because I enjoyed it a lot. The "a lot" because of admittedly dumb spoilery reasons I'll detail under the cut. Overall, it is funny and occasionally touching and I liked all of the main cast.
The best summary I can give is probably this fine illustration, greeting you as you turn the page to the first chapter:
In more detail: Neglected British child goes to ~magical school~, keeps on being somewhat of an outsider there and spends his days with genius girl who is also somewhat of an outsider, and part of every summer holiday with the cheerful family of a boy who is very much a part of the establishment.
Or: Blaming the victim is always wrong but even slightly-shorter-than-average-for-his-age Elliot Schafer knows that he'd have an easier time if he wasn't compulsed to sass popular kids who taller and stronger than him. And at least he's not beat up in diplomacy classes in The Border Camp of The Otherlands, where he elected to stay because of the hot elf babe Serene-Heart-In-The-Chaos-Of-Battle. Unfortunately, Serene has attached herself to Luke Sunborn, who is tall and strong and popular and Elliot is most certainly not his friend, don't be disgusting.
Yes the core of the plot is inescapably Potter, but that's about as far as the similarities go. The standard fantasy plot of "ending a war and saving the world" is nominally there, but takes a definite backseat to Elliots social and romantic going-ons. Elliot, Serene and Luke are about as far removed from Harry, Hermione and Ron as you get. Elliot is bookish but otherwise unremarkable, Serene is a culturally out-of-sync warrior. Luke is... an inversion of Ron Weasly, mostly: the kind and polite and introverted and unconsciously popular kid who excells at everything concerning sports and martial arts, descending from one of the most revered families in the land. Also, there's this thing about Elliot worshipping the ground on which Serene walks so loudly and so out of character for him that no-one thinks he means it. There's his on-going, one-sided contempt of everything that is Luke Sunborn. The dynamics are so different that you'd be hard-pressed to get Hogwarts flashbacks except for the few reminders that Elliot's dad is a dick.
The illustration hints at the tone. In Other Lands follows Elliot through ages thirteen to seventeen, for his education in ~magical school~. Since Elliot is a precocious bookworm full of salt and vinegar, his narrative is a running line of snark about most everything - that is, when he's not lapsing exceedingly poetic about Serene's virtues. Four years are crammed into fourhundredandsome pages, and it's hardly a surprise that the fantasy keystones of "worldbuilding" and "political plot" take a definite backseat here. More than anything, this is a novel about growing up and becoming a better person, and I - at least - certainly think that shit is more entertaining if it comes through mermaid fanboying and casual elvish sexism ("A woman's experience of blood and pain is, naturally, what makes womenkind particularly suited for the battlefield. Whereas men are the softer sex, squeamish about blood in the main. I know it's the same for human men, Luke was extremely disinclined to discuss my first experience of a woman's menses.")
There's a plotline about a theatre club setting up the Romeo and Juliet of The Otherlands. For god's sake.
Yes, this is essentially a high school AU set in Narnia. It was not terribly surprising, when googled, that this started out as an "online novel". And wouldn't you know it: On the author's webpage, the commentaries she'd made to her work as she initially published it was links to good ole' eljay.
I have to talk about that, of course. Because I definitely suspect that part of the reason I enjoyed this book so much, was that there are elements of this book that definitely read like fanfic. Less so than The Captive Prince, for what it's worth.
SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT.
In Other Lands started out as the "backstory", so to speak, to a short story published in an anthology. I immensly suspect that this novel came about on readers' request for the prequel to said short story, and that at least the initial online readers then knew the outcome of Elliot's romantic adventures as surely as if the AO3 tags were on top of each chapter.
And as I was reading, I kinda saw it coming. Three pages in, and Elliot casually lets us know that among his previous crushes was confused hero worship of some "Simon". Halfway in, Luke has come out of the closet, Elliot has been hit on by another boy, and then had a brief summer romance with an older boy back home who doesn't stop being kind of stupid even though Elliot is giving him the chance. And Serene, Elliot's first, true love, has proven incapable of moving beyond the cultural prejudices of her kind.
So Luke "likes guys. Romantically.", Elliot is "dating people named Jason as well as people named Myra", Luke is Elliot's friends even if Elliout loudly denounces such a notion but secretly, when he is alone late at night, can admit that Luke really is a nice guy who looks good when he takes off his shirt. That setup alone of course begs the quesiton of when it is going to happen, and how much?
There was always the option of keeping it to some amount of Elliot considering it, then going "nah", and then having him end up with Serene after all. There was the option of having Luke really end up with his well-established and often mentioned crush on someone else, and Elliot coming to terms with his abandonment issues without snogging someone. Having the sidekick be the gay guy is hardly a new way to score representation points.
But no, this novel went "wingfic, slow burn, friends to lovers", and all my dreams came true. (I'm not particularly into wingfic but it definitely went there and that was fine with me). That tag set, together with the "magical high school AU", was probably was keyed me onto the "oh, fic". Fantasy, as I know the genre, tends to be focused on plot and worldbuilding, assuming the readers are there for, you know, the fantasy. In Other Lands is focused on relationships with plot being strictly nominal and worldbuilding being very bare-bones. Like fanfic, which we read not because we're really interested in the mermaids and the harpies and the 'verse where Myra rocks a 'stache, but because we want to read a multichapter Elliot/Luke where one of them has wings. And also Golden being a prissy maiden, because he'd totally be, come on.
And just because I apparently am genetically wired to moan about whatever is the wholesome queer representation of the month: Elliot and Luke's friendship-gone-romance is a gazillion times more enteratining to read about than Simon Spier and his anon tumblr penpal.