FF Friday

Laundry maid Roz is dismissed from her place for indecent acts with another girl. This reminded me strongly of the plight of one of the minor characters in Tipping the Velvet, but it's a very different sort of book. I love Tipping the Velvet - I loved this, too - but, beyond this detail and the obvious meticulous historical research, these books aren't particularly similar. In fact, as Roz finds new employment (half time laundry maid and later lady's maid; half time dressmaker's apprentice) and gets to know more people, it becomes much more of a story of 'mismatched group of teens being mildly disobedient and saving the day', and a thoroughly enjoyable one. One of those teens is Celeste, daughter of the dressmaker, who has a talent for charms and a concern for making them work better. This becomes very significant as the titular floodtide approaches...

I read the first three Alpennia books (fantasy in a Ruritanian setting) in one go a couple of years ago, and loved them, so I'm coming in as an existing fan of the series. This one sees a distinct and deliberate change of tone - the use of a first person narrator rather than third person enforces more of a focus on one single plotline, and the point of view character is working class, as opposed to the middle and upper class characters that previous books have centred on. As a result, there's less of the intrigue and politics, and more of the day to day struggle to survive. Which is not to say it's a bleak book. It isn't. It's a lot of fun, and Roz's life is shown to be full of potential. It's just that we're always aware of how fragile the safety net is.

Floodtide is intended to work as a standalone within the wider Alpennia series. I can't say what it would be like to read this as one's introduction to Alpennia, and one of the joys of it for me was recognising and/or seeing more of characters and incidents from earlier books, and getting a more nuanced view of the themes introduced there. (And one of the minor frustrations was waiting for Roz to catch on to something that I learned several books ago!) I don't know how easy it would be to work out how the fantasy elements work from this one alone, but the plot certainly stands on its own merits, and the cast make an engaging ensemble.

I would say that Floodtide refers to some significant plot points from the first three books as if they're common knowledge, so if you think the series as a whole sounds like your sort of thing and you really don't like spoilers I would recommend starting from the beginning.