Green by Jay Lake review

Bought and paid for, Green is taken from home at a very young age to be molded into something that she would never have imagined.  She does not know her name, she does not know where she came from – all she knows is that her life is no longer her own.

Jay Lake has a wonderful way with characters.  In his stand-alone novel, Green, the reader sees fully realized characters in a world where women are seen as either chattel or fearsome lawkeepers.  The story is told by the main character, remembering how she got to where she is and catching up to her present near the end of the book.  The first third of the story centers on Green’s unusual upbringing.  Taught all that a fine lady might need to know only by women, she is held as a prisoner for nine years.  Nine years full of completely focused education and no interaction with men, other than the slightly sympathetic man who was the one who brought her in.  The second third of the book is the story of a completely different education – how to kill.  Then, the reader finally gets to the meat of the story in the last third.  The denouement closes the story with a difficult battle between nascent gods and those who want to steal their power.

I am not against a great deal of exposition in a book, and yet, while reading the first two-thirds of this book, I felt as if I were slogging through heavy snow drifts, trying to reach the warm fire over the mountain.  Of course, the details of Green’s education and her need to know more about herself and where she came from are important to the story.  However, I personally would have preferred a little less exposition here and more plot.

Green’s story is both sad and interesting but for me, her choices seemed to always feel wrong – life was living her instead of her living her life.  When she chooses to put herself in a comparable position to the one she left, it felt as if someone else did the choosing for her.  Green struggles against containment and yet places herself into a nearly identical situation.  The contrast between the two main cities the story is set in was engaging, and yet the story of the godlings, I felt, could have been enhanced.

In the end, I enjoyed the story even though I felt that it could have been so much more.  It seemed to me that there were three different stories – Green’s path to discovery of herself, the plight of the sleeping gods, and the two differing types of government in contrast.  My feeling was that any of these three would have made a terrific story but they were all sidelined by the exposition on Green’s education.  In other words, the plot seemed to take a back seat to Green’s learning how to cook and notice differences with a glance and how to tell what fabrics you are touching without seeing.  While these were interesting, I would have preferred that they be background information – supporting the plot instead of supplanting it.

Hardcover June, 2009.

About amberdrake

I'm a 40 year old desk jockey who amuses herself with lots and lots of reading. My favorite things in books are dragons, steampunk, wizards, comedy, and lots of action!