An extremely brief review of The Archer's Heart

[nenena]

The Archer's Heart by Astrid Amara

On page 160, "Keshan" and "Jandu" use magical voodoo archery to stop a thunderstorm and burn down a forest at the request of a sickly fire-demon.

On page 162, the fire-demon rewards "Jandu" with a magical quiver of everlasting errors.

On page 164, "Keshan" and "Jandu" celebrate their victory by 69-ing each other.

That, right there, is everything that you need to know about this book.

Comments

[miss-breeziness.livejournal.com]

Hmm, sounds like the story of Arjuna, the fire god Agni, and Indra. (I've been reading Wikipedia entries.)

...Magical quiver full of everlasting errors? :)

[nenena.livejournal.com]

It is the exact same story, but with the names changed, the serial numbers filed off, and added gay porn.

[miss-breeziness.livejournal.com]

That is some seriously bad theft. :D

I've read the review on Amazon and the story sounds interesting - I'd say the whole thing is a more modernish retelling of the Mahabharata.

[nenena.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't call it "theft," not really. It's a re-imagining. The only thing I'm ambiguous about is the way that Amara never once acknowledges her source material. I think that's only okay to pull off if you can assume that your audience already knows the source material. I.E., neither Rent nor Moulin Rouge ever once explicitly acknowledged "La Boheme" as their source material, but they didn't have to, because anybody with any sort of interest in musical theater would have recognized that connection instantly.

The Archer's Heart is different, though, since it seems to be aimed at an audience unfamiliar with the source material. In that case, I'm still not sure how I feel about the non-acknowledgement of the Mahabharata. I already read one review of the book that seemed to assume that Amara had wholly created the world and characters on her own, and that's really not true. So. Er. I dunno about that.

[miss-breeziness.livejournal.com]

*Head is spinning at how much, seriously, I need to BE A BIGGER NERD. :D*

I spend too much time goofing off on the Net when I should be watching more anime and reading fanfiction...:D
Darn it, I'm a jack of all trades, master of none.

Ah, people do jump to the conclusion that "everyone knows what my background is, really", when it may not be so. You see it in political debates as well (and I hope I haven't come across that way in my own political posts). So I'll assume that the author of this book felt the same way.

[atelierjoh.livejournal.com]

I've heard of quick story development and progress, but that's... interesting, lol.

[miss-breeziness.livejournal.com]

Love your icon!

[goldenflames.livejournal.com]

But there's gay porn!

[nenena.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know. And it is GLORIOUS!

(Seriously, this book is my new favorite book ever!)

[goldenflames.livejournal.com]

For me, that book is the literary equivalent of this Ektabharat that I'm so hooked on... mindblowingly hot.

Lol! Serious Travesty here!

[dose-of-wisdom.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

I don't know if any of you here is Indian or Hindu, but if the hard-liners ever found out about this book, there would be a bounty on the author's head! Shit! Keshan and Jandu! That itself should earn Astrid the undying hatred of the fanatics! Not to mention the 69ing!

In any case, the author should at least have mentioned Mahabharat as the source! As is, few people know the story. In fact, most Indians too are woefully ignorant of the finer details!

Re: Lol! Serious Travesty here!

[nenena.livejournal.com]

I assume that the author was well aware of the risks when she wrote the book. ;)

If you're interested, there is some interesting discussion about the decision to not mention the Mahabharata in the comments here (http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2008/09/10/review-the-archers-heart-by-astrid-amara/).