The Five Hundred Kingdoms is a romantic fantasy series which turns traditional fairy tales on their heads. In this novel a Cinderella, whose Prince is entirely unsuitable for her, decides to hire herself out so that she at least gets paid for slaving away all day. Instead, thanks to some magical intervention, she becomes the apprentice of a Fairy Godmother. The story is warm, funny, feminist (that's not a bad word!), and incredibly sweet. Who needs a Prince when there are tragic endings to be subverted, and Tradition to be twisted? This is a fine example of the 'moral' tradition of fantasy stories, something I think we could all use a little more of.
To be completely fair, it wasn't perfect. There are a few needless repetitions of ideas and story background that probably should have been edited out, making me think 'Hey, I just read that x chapters ago!'. Some of the sentences suffer from an archaic structure, which seems to be a part of the overall fairy tale vibe but isn't consistent enough to blend in. Also, I read an e-book edition, and there were a number of glaring errors (like missing words) that ought to have been edited better. But, overall, it wasn't enough to really detract from my enjoyment of the story, so I'm willing to let it slide. More than let it slide, I'm really looking forward to reading the next six stories in the series and having to talk myself out of reading them all right now!
Interestingly, this novel solved my personal mystery of why sometimes, even though I'm thoroughly enjoying a novel, I don't breeze through it, usually stretching the last third of the novel out as long as I can. It's because, even though I know the Good Guys will 'win', I also know I'm not guaranteed a Happy Ending. Sometimes the good guys die in the process of saving the world, sometimes they have to sacrifice their own happiness for the benefit of others, but it's not always Happy. Because this series is romantic fantasy, the consequences are milder. Sure, there is darkness and peril (what good would the story be without that?!) but ultimately there is redemption for the deserving, and Happiness. I'm not gonna lie - I like Happy Endings, they make me... well, happy! If that means it sometimes takes me a little while longer to read a book that has a potentially tragic ending, I'm totally OK with that.
My reader's soul is feeling revived, mostly because I have loved four of the last five novels I've read so much, that I'm feeling strong enough to dip back into the Man Booker winner's list for my next read. I'm still skipping over "Sacred Hunger", "The Ghost Road" and "The God of small Things" (I'm not feeling quite that strong!) so I'm going to give Ian McEwan's "Amsterdam" a try. It's fairly short, and now that I've figured out how to read and knit at the same time, it may not even be too tedious!
Happy reading!
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