Review: Bee Sting Cake

Bee Sting Cake by Victoria Goddard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So it turns out that the lack of protagonism from the main character in the first book, which I was so scathing about, was part of his character arc - at least, it is now if it wasn't before. At just over 60% through this one, the worm turns and he decides to stop reacting and start initiating. Not before time.

It runs straight on from the first book, which I read three years ago and didn't remember all that well, and also has a lot of backstory from the author's other books in this setting, which I haven't read at all. So the first half, or a little more than half, is pretty dense with references to other books, character backstory, setup, and pipe-laying, and didn't grip me particularly strongly. It definitely picks up in the second half, though, with a dragon, riddles, noble titles, hypocrisy, a race, a baking contest, highwaymen, and the breaking of a curse.

The tone of these books is uneven; some parts - mostly the early parts - are the most languid slice-of-life cosy fantasy you can imagine (set against a background of epic, tragic apocalyptic fantasy that's happened as recently as the previous generation), but high magic and deep plots and desperate heroics take place in the latter parts of them.

The editing is a bit uneven too, with a number of sentences that got partly revised but not fully, and so don't make grammatical sense. An example with two issues in it: "He reached out to the off-set spatula and running his finger down the edge to the collect the cream." There are typos, too, and misplaced apostrophes ("Mrs. Ingleside's sister" where it should be "Inglesides'", since the S is part of the name; "in each others' company" instead of "each other's company"), and the homonym error "dowsing" for "dousing". There are about an average number of these problems; I've seen far worse.

The worldbuilding, too, veers from deep and elaborately thought through to the inclusion of such this-worldly things as haiku and the ace of spades. And I didn't always find the protagonist's few competent actions particularly plausible.

Still, there are some good lines: "You don't expect people to be wicked on purpose, somehow. By accident or mischance, yes, but on purpose?" (establishing the book's noblebright credentials right there), and "The heart of culture is taking the time to do the unnecessary in the most picturesque manner possible." And Jemis Greenwing, the protagonist, is at least a protagonist for the last 40% of the book, and is likeable throughout (if sometimes self-pitying), and his friends are likeable too.

Overall, though, it's too uneven and not quite fully cooked enough to get a high rating from me, and just makes it to the lowest tier of my annual recommendation list.

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