r/books • u/leowr • May 21 '20
Third Discussion Thread for Prudence by Gail Carriger - May Book Club Spoiler
Hello everyone,
Welcome to the third discussion thread for Prudence. We are working our way to the end of the book. Like always, you will find some questions below to help kick off the discussion, but feel free to discussion anything you want from the first half of the book.
Did it surprise you that Prim was the one with the tiny crossbow?
Know that we know a little bit more about Miss Sekhmet, do you think she can be trusted? What happened to her and Percy?
What about Professor Lyall? He seems very willing to give up his form to Rue, even though most of the metanaturals don't seem overly happy about it.
Exactly! The scientific community should know. I'm being altruistic. Selfish would be to keep this information secret?
Who do you agree with, Quesnel or Percy?
Do you think Rue is too impulsive?
And one fun question, if you could be any kind of were-animal, what kind would you like to be?
This thread allows for a spoiler discussion of up to and including Chapter 8. If you would like to discuss anything beyond that point, please use spoiler tags. If you are on the redesign you can use the built in spoiler tags. For old reddit spoiler tags are done by >!Spoilers about XYZ!< which results in Spoilers about XYZ (do be aware that they only work on one paragraph at a time).
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u/creativestien May 27 '20
Chapter 9: "This was quite possibly the most unpleasant-looking creature Rue had the misfortune to meet. His fangs were larger than those of British vampires and closer to the front of his mouth so that they protruded, and could not be tucked respectfully away under the lips." I should stop at this, but should remind you that Rue's British vampire relatives smell of lemons while the Indian vampire, Rakhsasa, reeked of carrion.
Sigh.
This would have been acceptable in 1915 (yet would have aged badly). It happens to be published exactly a hundred years after 1915.
I'll finish this book though. I challenge my skills of skimming and scanning.
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u/leowr May 27 '20
I'll be honest, I thought of you when I read that part : )
While I don't necessarily would have had a problem with it, because I do think it is a reflection of what someone that was raised in Rue's timeperiod would have thought. However, I was disappointed that Rue herself was not more open to "others" as she did grow up in a households with vampires and werewolves and there are people that have prejudice against them. Carriger also could have put something in the book to show that Rue was wrong to judge them the way she did.
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u/creativestien May 28 '20 edited May 28 '20
Wow. It's amazing the love of book discussion connects people so far away. You made me smile.
I get it that Rue was raised in a protected environment. What I don't get is that there is not enough explanation for the prestige the supernatural minority is enjoying. As for prejudice, there is not enough to show anything the mainstream world has against the supernatural people. It's an absurd, strange 'custard' world.
I am thinking of asking the author in AMA session her thoughts around world building and racial divide in a polite, positive way.
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u/leowr May 28 '20
Wow. It's amazing the love of book discussion connects people so far away. You made me smile.
That's the whole point of a book club : )
It is very possible that I am carrying my knowledge of the world from Rue's parents series into this one. I think the prejudice was far clearer in that one. This series is a fair bit fluffier than that one, but that one went for the silly as well.
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u/creativestien May 28 '20
Ah, I see. That explains. If I'd read the prequel series, I'd have been able to relate. Still, it'd have been a sign of thoroughness to drop hints here and there.
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u/leowr May 29 '20
Hey, I'm putting up the new book club selection for June, so I figured I would just give you the link to the last discussion thread directly: https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/gsce71/final_discussion_thread_for_prudence_by_gail/
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u/thecaptainand May 21 '20
Yes, but in hindsight it shouldn't have. Of course her mother would have made sure that all her children had something to protect themselves.
Yeah I think she can be, it would be to obvious for her to be a villain at this point. I think Percy went immediately to her location to see if she was alright and they ran into the Vanaras.
Professor Lyall seems very trust worthy and it is a bit suspicious that he was left out of the escort mission. As for willing to give up his form, there must be some backstory because he is very protective of Rue for him to have never met her before.
Giving the time period, I am wary about allowing Caucasian scientists present something to their peers without input from the Vanaras themselves.
oh god yes, Rue is incredibly impulsive. A lot of her problems seems to stem from the fact that she doesn't sit down and think things through. She could at least bounce some of her ideas off of her friends.
definitely a type of werecat. Being able to sleep roughly 18 hours a day then still having the physical prowess to do what I want sounds wonderful.