The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
May. 3rd, 2020 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaI liked it! And honestly I can see why fans of the book weren't happy with the show. I still really like the show, and wish it had gotten another season, but they are two very different canons, and now I really want a series more faithful to the book.
+ I think the biggest thing I miss in show from the books is just the scope of Checque and Myfanwy's role in it. I really liked how much more depth and detail, and just how much bigger and more complex the world and Checquy felt in the book. The full Court of the book with the Bishops and Chevaliers, the more expanded understanding of what the Rooks do. The Retainers and the Pawns and Barghests, the entourages and bodyguards. The history of Checquy, and the different buildings it worked from. The more extensive dangers they had to deal with. The scope of what their jobs entailed. Just - there was so much more in the books and I really enjoyed it.
+ I loved Myfanwy’s powers in the book more. I loved how fascinated and interested in exploring them new!Myfanwy was, that she wasn't afraid of them. How they were used throughout the book were interesting. I loved her slowly gaining a new reputation over the course of the book based on her use of them.
+ I honestly loved old!Myfanwy. She was amazing. We really got to know her via her letters and what we got was someone who was a deeply interesting contradiction that I wanted to see more of. She was clearly someone damaged but who was a lot stronger than even she realised. You see it every time in the flashback/letters - her calm and easy control during the Argentinian ambassador and dragon incidents, in the way she infiltrated Camp Caius. She knew what to do and she did it, and despite her timidity when dealing one-on-one with people when she needed to she had a take charge attitude and was all competence. Everything we see in new!Myfanwy was always there in old!Myfanwy already. Also I really love old!Myfanwy as this super administrative genius. I'm honestly really sad that we didn't get to see any of this in the tv show.
+ The extent that old!Myfanwy went to help future amnesia her was really damn impressive. Her extensive plan to help new!Myfanwy start a new life to the extent of her planning to temporarily cripple Checquy was amazing. I also loved the casual, almost throw away, reveal that she was gathering blackmail material during the Conrad section. I loved her extensive notes and letters in case new!Myf wanted to stay and how much work she put into trying to solve who would betray her.
+ I'm so sad this subplot wasn't in the show. Old Myfanwy sneaking onto the second Estate would have been amazing to see. I loved her using her power to prevent the guard from knowing she was there.
+ I loved that old!Myfanwy's over-preparedness played a major part in saving Myfanwy's life at the end.
+ I liked new Myfanwy too. I thought she handled this weird-ass situation she found herself in really well and I liked her attitude and sense of humour. Her going off on Graaf Gerd made me lol.
+ I liked that Myfanwy's prophecies of doom came from multiple sources. The duck was a great little touch (poor duck).
+ I loved Shantay and her quick friendship with Myfanwy. She was so much fun as a character and I don't understand why the show wrote her out. I loved how they immediately got along, and Shantay following her into the house in Bath. There were two exchanges that I really enjoyed:
I loved their exchange before entering the house in Bath - Myfanwy refusing to let her come because imagine the repercussions of a Croatoan Bishop being injured on a Checquy op, Shantay pointing out in response that Myf would be dead so it wouldn't be her problem and Myf responding "Well, then, as long it causes me no inconvenience."
I also loved their exchange after Shantay knocked Pawn Goblet out - Myfanwy 'admiringly' telling her 'I wish I could grow my own accessories', Shantay returning with 'I wish I could get men to shut the hell up. You want to trade for awhile?", and Myfanwy responding with: "Tempting but I've only just figured out how to make people sweat profusely, and I still want to play with it." "Fair enough."
+ I liked the humour in the book. Lots of little moments and exchanges that amused me. Like:
“I shall see if there’s anyone interesting asleep in America.”
“That seems rather like a contradiction in terms, ma’am.”
LOL
+ I liked Chevalier Eckhart and wished we'd seen more of him. I was also intrigued with Aldrich. Ingrid and her relationship with Myfanwy was lovely.
+ Gestalt were definitely a much more interesting and dynamic character in the show but the reveal about the baby/fifth body and thus potential immortality was creepily great.
+ I loved Myfanwy keeping a gun under her couch cushion during her meeting with Bronwyn. That was a great little reveal.
+ This Bronwyn, eh. I prefer the show version of a Resistance fighter who is determined to save her sister to the extent that she's devoted her life to it, is willing to go to extremes and is kind of messed up.
+ There was definitely a very noticeable contrast between show Checquy being emphasised by Farrier as being a family vs book Myfanwy stating straight out that they aren't a family. I liked that change in direction in the show but there wasn't enough shown whereas in the book I really got the sense of deeper relationships that I liked (like Myf and Ingrid) despite what Myf had to say. I like the idea at the end that she might be actively trying to redirect Checquy into being more like a family.
+ I liked the Gestalt play-by-play on the raid scene and I wish something like that had been in the show.
+ I do prefer the show using King/Queen vs book Lord/Lady. I get the in-universe reasoning for why it was changed but if you're going with the chess metaphor go all the way and gloss over the issues.
+ There was a little too much monologuing exposition dump at the end from Conrad and Graaf to fill in the blanks of bad guys plans.
+ I was not a fan of how much death there was among the Retainers and Pawns. They were basically red shirts and considering how few powered people there apparently are the number of pawns we saw killed over the course of the book should have been an unsustainable number.
+ I get why the background information and personal letters were dispersed throughout the narrative but it doesn't make sense to me that Myfanwy wouldn't have read all of them immediately, and in fact that she didn't make that effort was weird considering. In her position I would have been spending all my free time reading them.
+ I like the idea of the binder of info and how thorough Old!Myf was it also seems like a huge security risk carrying it around. Plus with all that info you'd think that Old!Myf would have added more about her personal relationships with everyone else, so I was glad when Myfanwy herself had this same annoyance when the Americans came to meet her. That's definitely an oversight. Especially with the Court and her personal Retainers it would have been good to add in some notes about how well they got on, for example.
+ The Croatoan was interesting. I loved the reveal that it was Martha Washington who did the majority of negotiating their inclusion into the new American government. I'm curious about the rest of the world - wouldn't Canada have it's own version of Checque especially considering it's much closer ties to Britain? What about Australia, various other colonies, India?
+ I'm a little surprised that Myfanwy didn't even consider offering her help to Clovis in routing out Grafter moles after he laid out how difficult and time intensive it was going to be to do. Not making the offer sure, but not even considering how her powers could make it so much easier?
+ There were a couple times when I was reading where I found myself going 'yup, this was written by a guy'. Just descriptions of women or the way Myfanwy thinks about other women, or like her maintaining a bikini wax for example that I found annoying.
This makes me wish I could rewatch the series again.
+ I think the biggest thing I miss in show from the books is just the scope of Checque and Myfanwy's role in it. I really liked how much more depth and detail, and just how much bigger and more complex the world and Checquy felt in the book. The full Court of the book with the Bishops and Chevaliers, the more expanded understanding of what the Rooks do. The Retainers and the Pawns and Barghests, the entourages and bodyguards. The history of Checquy, and the different buildings it worked from. The more extensive dangers they had to deal with. The scope of what their jobs entailed. Just - there was so much more in the books and I really enjoyed it.
+ I loved Myfanwy’s powers in the book more. I loved how fascinated and interested in exploring them new!Myfanwy was, that she wasn't afraid of them. How they were used throughout the book were interesting. I loved her slowly gaining a new reputation over the course of the book based on her use of them.
+ I honestly loved old!Myfanwy. She was amazing. We really got to know her via her letters and what we got was someone who was a deeply interesting contradiction that I wanted to see more of. She was clearly someone damaged but who was a lot stronger than even she realised. You see it every time in the flashback/letters - her calm and easy control during the Argentinian ambassador and dragon incidents, in the way she infiltrated Camp Caius. She knew what to do and she did it, and despite her timidity when dealing one-on-one with people when she needed to she had a take charge attitude and was all competence. Everything we see in new!Myfanwy was always there in old!Myfanwy already. Also I really love old!Myfanwy as this super administrative genius. I'm honestly really sad that we didn't get to see any of this in the tv show.
+ The extent that old!Myfanwy went to help future amnesia her was really damn impressive. Her extensive plan to help new!Myfanwy start a new life to the extent of her planning to temporarily cripple Checquy was amazing. I also loved the casual, almost throw away, reveal that she was gathering blackmail material during the Conrad section. I loved her extensive notes and letters in case new!Myf wanted to stay and how much work she put into trying to solve who would betray her.
+ I'm so sad this subplot wasn't in the show. Old Myfanwy sneaking onto the second Estate would have been amazing to see. I loved her using her power to prevent the guard from knowing she was there.
+ I loved that old!Myfanwy's over-preparedness played a major part in saving Myfanwy's life at the end.
+ I liked new Myfanwy too. I thought she handled this weird-ass situation she found herself in really well and I liked her attitude and sense of humour. Her going off on Graaf Gerd made me lol.
+ I liked that Myfanwy's prophecies of doom came from multiple sources. The duck was a great little touch (poor duck).
+ I loved Shantay and her quick friendship with Myfanwy. She was so much fun as a character and I don't understand why the show wrote her out. I loved how they immediately got along, and Shantay following her into the house in Bath. There were two exchanges that I really enjoyed:
I loved their exchange before entering the house in Bath - Myfanwy refusing to let her come because imagine the repercussions of a Croatoan Bishop being injured on a Checquy op, Shantay pointing out in response that Myf would be dead so it wouldn't be her problem and Myf responding "Well, then, as long it causes me no inconvenience."
I also loved their exchange after Shantay knocked Pawn Goblet out - Myfanwy 'admiringly' telling her 'I wish I could grow my own accessories', Shantay returning with 'I wish I could get men to shut the hell up. You want to trade for awhile?", and Myfanwy responding with: "Tempting but I've only just figured out how to make people sweat profusely, and I still want to play with it." "Fair enough."
+ I liked the humour in the book. Lots of little moments and exchanges that amused me. Like:
“I shall see if there’s anyone interesting asleep in America.”
“That seems rather like a contradiction in terms, ma’am.”
LOL
+ I liked Chevalier Eckhart and wished we'd seen more of him. I was also intrigued with Aldrich. Ingrid and her relationship with Myfanwy was lovely.
+ Gestalt were definitely a much more interesting and dynamic character in the show but the reveal about the baby/fifth body and thus potential immortality was creepily great.
+ I loved Myfanwy keeping a gun under her couch cushion during her meeting with Bronwyn. That was a great little reveal.
+ This Bronwyn, eh. I prefer the show version of a Resistance fighter who is determined to save her sister to the extent that she's devoted her life to it, is willing to go to extremes and is kind of messed up.
+ There was definitely a very noticeable contrast between show Checquy being emphasised by Farrier as being a family vs book Myfanwy stating straight out that they aren't a family. I liked that change in direction in the show but there wasn't enough shown whereas in the book I really got the sense of deeper relationships that I liked (like Myf and Ingrid) despite what Myf had to say. I like the idea at the end that she might be actively trying to redirect Checquy into being more like a family.
+ I liked the Gestalt play-by-play on the raid scene and I wish something like that had been in the show.
+ I do prefer the show using King/Queen vs book Lord/Lady. I get the in-universe reasoning for why it was changed but if you're going with the chess metaphor go all the way and gloss over the issues.
+ There was a little too much monologuing exposition dump at the end from Conrad and Graaf to fill in the blanks of bad guys plans.
+ I was not a fan of how much death there was among the Retainers and Pawns. They were basically red shirts and considering how few powered people there apparently are the number of pawns we saw killed over the course of the book should have been an unsustainable number.
+ I get why the background information and personal letters were dispersed throughout the narrative but it doesn't make sense to me that Myfanwy wouldn't have read all of them immediately, and in fact that she didn't make that effort was weird considering. In her position I would have been spending all my free time reading them.
+ I like the idea of the binder of info and how thorough Old!Myf was it also seems like a huge security risk carrying it around. Plus with all that info you'd think that Old!Myf would have added more about her personal relationships with everyone else, so I was glad when Myfanwy herself had this same annoyance when the Americans came to meet her. That's definitely an oversight. Especially with the Court and her personal Retainers it would have been good to add in some notes about how well they got on, for example.
+ The Croatoan was interesting. I loved the reveal that it was Martha Washington who did the majority of negotiating their inclusion into the new American government. I'm curious about the rest of the world - wouldn't Canada have it's own version of Checque especially considering it's much closer ties to Britain? What about Australia, various other colonies, India?
+ I'm a little surprised that Myfanwy didn't even consider offering her help to Clovis in routing out Grafter moles after he laid out how difficult and time intensive it was going to be to do. Not making the offer sure, but not even considering how her powers could make it so much easier?
+ There were a couple times when I was reading where I found myself going 'yup, this was written by a guy'. Just descriptions of women or the way Myfanwy thinks about other women, or like her maintaining a bikini wax for example that I found annoying.
This makes me wish I could rewatch the series again.
