March08 reads
What Ms.GoblinPants read this March
Georgette Heyer, No Wind of Blame. Wally Carter, his ward Mary, his wife Ermyntrude, and her daughter Vicky are an odd bunch. They are rich, thanks to Ermyntrude's first husband, but not very socially acceptable. That is, until Ermyntrude secures a Georgian Prince to stay for the weekend. During the visit, tempers flare and secrets come out--and at the end of it all, Wally Carter has been shot dead. Whodunit? The novel shifts focus, from detailed description of the 1930s country house lifestyle, told from Mary's POV to a slightly wacky mystery, seen by Vicky, Hugh and a Scotland Yard Inspector. I think I was prejudiced against this by two factors: Dorothy Sayers did this ten times better, and I didn't like the romance that ends the book. That said, this is a nice little whodunit with some well-observed moments and one (Hugh) very likeable character.
Elizabeth Aston, Mr. Darcy’s Daughters. This is the story of Mr.Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet's five daughters coming out into London society. It is badly cribbed from Pride and Prejudice, and not particularly believable. The author switches POV almost every paragraph, which negates any narrative tension and destroys any question of whether one love interest likes another. A badly stitched together attempt at a Regency romance.
Paula Volsky, The Grand Ellipse. Adventuress seeks to save her country from invasion. To do this, she needs the secret of Sentient Fire--and to get that, she needs to win the Grand Ellipse. This story is basically Around the World in 80 Days in an alternate WWII-era Europe . An enjoyable adventure with fairly interesting characters.
Jo Walton, The King’s Name. A fantastic sequel to The King's Peace. In my eyes, these two books are the first to rehabilitate King Arthur and his knights. The Victorians (I spit on their graves) twisted Arthurian myth into a high-strung, overwrought, completely-disconnected-from-reality farce. Walton brings the myth back to earth. The first book follows Sulien as she fights along side the High King Urdo. Years of battles, strategic marriages, and negotiation later, the island is united under his rule and his Peace. The disconnected tribes, villages and kingdoms of Tir Tinagri are finally recovering from the years of barbarism and regaining civilization--but as peace spreads, so too does discontent and distrust. Sulien and her allies must once more ride into battle to protect the Peace.
I had trouble keeping all the characters straight (they generally appear once or twice and then, a hundred pages later, I have to remember who they are once more), but the battles are well written, the characters finely wrought, and the overarching plot enthralling. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in medieval Europe or Arthurian tales.
Vivian Vande Velde, Heir Apparent. Giannine is accidentally trapped in a virtual reality fantasy game. To escape, she has to win the game before her brain melts. With time running out, endless choices to make, and no allies in game, how will she ever survive? VVV has a gift for amusing, sardonic looks at fantasy tropes Dragon's Bait, Companions of the Night, User Unfriendly). I think I'm just a little too old to properly enjoy this book.
Scott Westerfeld, Extras. After Tally Youngblood destroys the Pretties' society in Specials, the whole world has to figure out what to do with their newfound freedom. One city decides to use merits (earned by doing work for the society) and facerank (earned by number of people talking about you) to dole out the limited resources. Aya, a girl raised in this society, is obsessed with earning fame. Pursuing fame as an undercover reporter, she finds an underground cavern and an unbelievable secret.
Westerfield is playing off the YouTube and social sites phenomenoms, but aside from his clever twist on the concept there's not a lot to this book. The plot never gripped me and I never warmed to Aya.
Lyda Morehouse,Archangel Protocol. Trite pseudo-religion in a fairly well-thought-out (albeit cartoonish) cyberpunk future. Deirdre McMannus was kicked out of the force, excommunicated from Catholicism, and outcast from the LINK (an uber version of the internet) for her role in a Pope's assassination. Since then, she's been barely squeaking by as a freelance detective while trying to come to terms with her partner's betrayal and the loss of her normal life. Then in walks Michael Angelucci, a preternaturally handsome detective who wants her to investigate the phenomenom of angels in the LINK. It is immediately clear that Michael is a real angel--within a few pages of his introduction he has a showdown with his "older brother" "Morningstar". (Morningstar is a jumbled character who gets terrible, anvil-y lines. For instance, Deirdre asks, "Where the hell did you come from" and and he responds, "Exactly.") Deirdre is a well-rounded character with a detailed persona, but the other characters don't fare so well. Michael is a bare sketch of a romantic love interest, while the motivations of the various antagonists are never revealed. I figured out the entire plot (to which Deirdre remains drearily blind for hundreds of pages) within the first thirty pages--I spent the rest of the book shouting "oh come on" and chortling in disgust.
Ursula K LeGuin, The Dispossessed. Shevek is a brilliant physicist living on Anarres. His world is actually a moon populated with the anarchist rebels of Urras. Anarres is utopic in many ways, but stifling to free thought, so Shevek flees to Urras. There, he finds himself too swaddled in privileges.
My inarticulate summary doesn't give the slightest hint of how incredible this book is. Le Guin turns her thoughtful, earthy eye on each form of government and lifestyle in the 9 Known Worlds, from the utilitarian anarchists to the overly-controlled socialists to the authoritarian capitalists. Shevek is the physicist who travels between worlds and revolutionizes conceptions of time, yet Le Guin spends time on his family and friends, too, as though a fish geneticist's trouble with pregnancy is important to the story as well. This book is a study in revolution, hierarchies, war, the master's tools, clean thinking. I recommend it as highly as I am able.
Matthew Hughes, The Majestrum. Henghis Hapthorn is a detective on far-future Earth. His brain is shared with an alternate universe version of himself. It's surprisingly dull; so much so that I never bothered to finish. I don't even remember what the mystery was. I recommend reading Swanwick instead.
Allen Horstman, Victorian Divorce. Horstman traces the legal definitions and acceptable causes of divorce in England from Tudor to Victorian reigns. I was amazed to discover how expensive divorce was, and how many trials (three!) were initially required to get one. I was also surprised to find that divorce was not supposed to be a remedy to a bad marriage, but rather a punishment! No one was supposed to want a divorce--it was supposed to be forced upon you by overt adultery! That was another oddity: men had to prove adultery to get a divorce and women, when they were finally granted the ability, had to prove bigamous or incestuous adultery.
As fantastically intriguing as the history of divorce is, Horstman almost managed to ruin this book. He's a terrible writer. His paragraphs are made up of random sentences, few of which have anything to do with each other. One chapter had several pages copied word for word from a previous chapter!
Derek Parker, Nell Gwyn. Nell Gwyn, the most popular of Charles II's many mistresses, went from orange-seller to mother of dukes in just a few years. This biography is written with clarity and focus, but it is disappointingly short. There's not a lot of detail that can be crammed in under two hundred pages, and I came away from this book without knowing much more about Nell or her time than I did before.
Simon Winchester, Their Noble Lordships. Snarky study of 1970's nobility.
Georgette Heyer, No Wind of Blame. Wally Carter, his ward Mary, his wife Ermyntrude, and her daughter Vicky are an odd bunch. They are rich, thanks to Ermyntrude's first husband, but not very socially acceptable. That is, until Ermyntrude secures a Georgian Prince to stay for the weekend. During the visit, tempers flare and secrets come out--and at the end of it all, Wally Carter has been shot dead. Whodunit? The novel shifts focus, from detailed description of the 1930s country house lifestyle, told from Mary's POV to a slightly wacky mystery, seen by Vicky, Hugh and a Scotland Yard Inspector. I think I was prejudiced against this by two factors: Dorothy Sayers did this ten times better, and I didn't like the romance that ends the book. That said, this is a nice little whodunit with some well-observed moments and one (Hugh) very likeable character.
Elizabeth Aston, Mr. Darcy’s Daughters. This is the story of Mr.Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet's five daughters coming out into London society. It is badly cribbed from Pride and Prejudice, and not particularly believable. The author switches POV almost every paragraph, which negates any narrative tension and destroys any question of whether one love interest likes another. A badly stitched together attempt at a Regency romance.
Paula Volsky, The Grand Ellipse. Adventuress seeks to save her country from invasion. To do this, she needs the secret of Sentient Fire--and to get that, she needs to win the Grand Ellipse. This story is basically Around the World in 80 Days in an alternate WWII-era Europe . An enjoyable adventure with fairly interesting characters.
Jo Walton, The King’s Name. A fantastic sequel to The King's Peace. In my eyes, these two books are the first to rehabilitate King Arthur and his knights. The Victorians (I spit on their graves) twisted Arthurian myth into a high-strung, overwrought, completely-disconnected-from-reality farce. Walton brings the myth back to earth. The first book follows Sulien as she fights along side the High King Urdo. Years of battles, strategic marriages, and negotiation later, the island is united under his rule and his Peace. The disconnected tribes, villages and kingdoms of Tir Tinagri are finally recovering from the years of barbarism and regaining civilization--but as peace spreads, so too does discontent and distrust. Sulien and her allies must once more ride into battle to protect the Peace.
I had trouble keeping all the characters straight (they generally appear once or twice and then, a hundred pages later, I have to remember who they are once more), but the battles are well written, the characters finely wrought, and the overarching plot enthralling. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in medieval Europe or Arthurian tales.
Vivian Vande Velde, Heir Apparent. Giannine is accidentally trapped in a virtual reality fantasy game. To escape, she has to win the game before her brain melts. With time running out, endless choices to make, and no allies in game, how will she ever survive? VVV has a gift for amusing, sardonic looks at fantasy tropes Dragon's Bait, Companions of the Night, User Unfriendly). I think I'm just a little too old to properly enjoy this book.
Scott Westerfeld, Extras. After Tally Youngblood destroys the Pretties' society in Specials, the whole world has to figure out what to do with their newfound freedom. One city decides to use merits (earned by doing work for the society) and facerank (earned by number of people talking about you) to dole out the limited resources. Aya, a girl raised in this society, is obsessed with earning fame. Pursuing fame as an undercover reporter, she finds an underground cavern and an unbelievable secret.
Westerfield is playing off the YouTube and social sites phenomenoms, but aside from his clever twist on the concept there's not a lot to this book. The plot never gripped me and I never warmed to Aya.
Lyda Morehouse,Archangel Protocol. Trite pseudo-religion in a fairly well-thought-out (albeit cartoonish) cyberpunk future. Deirdre McMannus was kicked out of the force, excommunicated from Catholicism, and outcast from the LINK (an uber version of the internet) for her role in a Pope's assassination. Since then, she's been barely squeaking by as a freelance detective while trying to come to terms with her partner's betrayal and the loss of her normal life. Then in walks Michael Angelucci, a preternaturally handsome detective who wants her to investigate the phenomenom of angels in the LINK. It is immediately clear that Michael is a real angel--within a few pages of his introduction he has a showdown with his "older brother" "Morningstar". (Morningstar is a jumbled character who gets terrible, anvil-y lines. For instance, Deirdre asks, "Where the hell did you come from" and and he responds, "Exactly.") Deirdre is a well-rounded character with a detailed persona, but the other characters don't fare so well. Michael is a bare sketch of a romantic love interest, while the motivations of the various antagonists are never revealed. I figured out the entire plot (to which Deirdre remains drearily blind for hundreds of pages) within the first thirty pages--I spent the rest of the book shouting "oh come on" and chortling in disgust.
Ursula K LeGuin, The Dispossessed. Shevek is a brilliant physicist living on Anarres. His world is actually a moon populated with the anarchist rebels of Urras. Anarres is utopic in many ways, but stifling to free thought, so Shevek flees to Urras. There, he finds himself too swaddled in privileges.
My inarticulate summary doesn't give the slightest hint of how incredible this book is. Le Guin turns her thoughtful, earthy eye on each form of government and lifestyle in the 9 Known Worlds, from the utilitarian anarchists to the overly-controlled socialists to the authoritarian capitalists. Shevek is the physicist who travels between worlds and revolutionizes conceptions of time, yet Le Guin spends time on his family and friends, too, as though a fish geneticist's trouble with pregnancy is important to the story as well. This book is a study in revolution, hierarchies, war, the master's tools, clean thinking. I recommend it as highly as I am able.
Matthew Hughes, The Majestrum. Henghis Hapthorn is a detective on far-future Earth. His brain is shared with an alternate universe version of himself. It's surprisingly dull; so much so that I never bothered to finish. I don't even remember what the mystery was. I recommend reading Swanwick instead.
Allen Horstman, Victorian Divorce. Horstman traces the legal definitions and acceptable causes of divorce in England from Tudor to Victorian reigns. I was amazed to discover how expensive divorce was, and how many trials (three!) were initially required to get one. I was also surprised to find that divorce was not supposed to be a remedy to a bad marriage, but rather a punishment! No one was supposed to want a divorce--it was supposed to be forced upon you by overt adultery! That was another oddity: men had to prove adultery to get a divorce and women, when they were finally granted the ability, had to prove bigamous or incestuous adultery.
As fantastically intriguing as the history of divorce is, Horstman almost managed to ruin this book. He's a terrible writer. His paragraphs are made up of random sentences, few of which have anything to do with each other. One chapter had several pages copied word for word from a previous chapter!
Derek Parker, Nell Gwyn. Nell Gwyn, the most popular of Charles II's many mistresses, went from orange-seller to mother of dukes in just a few years. This biography is written with clarity and focus, but it is disappointingly short. There's not a lot of detail that can be crammed in under two hundred pages, and I came away from this book without knowing much more about Nell or her time than I did before.
Simon Winchester, Their Noble Lordships. Snarky study of 1970's nobility.