Reading roundup and Sherlock series 3
(I'm not sure yet if I'll start cross-posting from DW for real, but I'm giving it another shot with the public posts, for now). \
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21. Becky Albertalli, The Upside of Unrequited -- Not as cute as Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda but still pretty darn cute, and I read the whole thing in one day, or little more than that. This is a book that's loosely connected to Simon and set slightly after -- the summer after Simon's school year. The protagonist, Molly, is the cousin of Abby Suso from Simon, and Abby herself features as a secondary character (via phone/text, mostly), with Simon and Nick having brief cameo appearances, as well as Martin's brother.
This book made me think of Fangirl a bit, because the protagonist is the less-outgoing twin sister, although, unlike Cath and Wren, Molly and Cassie have a happy if somewhat unorthodox home life -- they are the daughters of Nadine and Patty (their biological father is a sperm donor whom they don't know, but he's a father they share with younger brother (toddler) Xav, who is biologically Nadine's son, while Cassie and Molly are biologically Patty's. Got all that?). Patty is Jewish and bisexual, Nadine is Black and lesbian (she's Abby's aunt, so that's the connection), and while I didn't find the family dynamic quite as fun as in Simon, it was still a highlight of the book, especially Nadine's approach to parenting Xav ("Dude, no. Banana's gone. You're SOL."). And the book ends with Patty and Nadine getting married, following the 2015 Supreme Court decision, with the girls helping plan the wedding, and it's totally adorable. Also unlike Cath, Molly is actually taking meds for her anxiety issues. I actually can't think of too many YA books I've read where the protagonist was taking meds and it was not a whole big thing/source of angst but something that was present consistently as part of her routine, like brushing her teeth. Molly taking Zoloft comes up several times, but just in the context of going about her day, and also not mixing it with alcohol. It's very natural and matter-of-fact, and hopefully destigmatizing for any teens in that position -- the first book, I think, where it really was the equivalent of a character wearing glasses: it's present in the background, and creates certain limitations, but it's not a Big Deal and says nothing about the character as a character.
I think reading the two Albertalli books essentially back to back may have made me like this one a little less, because it felt a little formulaic. Spoilers from here! There's the protagonist's zany family, including a SJW-esque sister who calls out the problematic characters and remarks. In Simon, this was the sister in college, which I thought made a lot of sense, and here it's Cassie, the twin, which worked less well for me -- I think it just felt more artificial to have a member of the peer group be the designated "You're problematic!" person -- she is not wrong, but it just made her feel kind of tedious, though it's by no means her ONLY characterization. Another thing I relized as I thought more about why I liked the Simon family more is that the parents are much less fallible here, and therefore feel less real. They are still interesting and I still liked them, but they didn't feel nearly as human as Simon's awkwardly joking dad and pscyhologist mom. I understand why, too -- there are really not so very many two-mom families out there, and you want to show them being functional and happy. But at the same time that ended up shunting the fallibility onto extended family characters -- Nadine's homophobic sister, who nevertheless shows up to the wedding, as awkward as it is for her, Patty's well-meaning but meddling mother, who keeps telling Molly she needs to lose weight (because of her own issues with weight when she was young) and is surprised to learn that she can't call Mina, Cassie's Korean-American girlfried, "Oriental". Really, one of my favorite family moments was when the aforementioned girlfriend comes to dinner and the moms serve Korean food, and Molly can't figure out for herself whether that's sweet or "if we're wading into Grandma Betty territory" -- because that moment felt real. (My other favorite family moment was: "Your bastard children are very happy for you." "Oh my God! We won't be bastards anymore." "Aww, you guys will always be our bastards.") On a different note, I also felt like, after the emails in Simon, Alberatlli felt like she had to have another "modern teen communications" gimmick in this book, and chose texting, which works both less believably and more awkwardly than email. The descriptions of emoji and three dots blinking got pretty old, and I didn't believe most of the text messages as text-messages, either. (I fully expect book 3, which she's said will be from Leah's POV, to feature Tumblr asks as the gimmick or something :P) And there's a Dramatic Teenage Drinking Reveal, which is apparently a hobbyhorse of Albertalli's, and even Cool Parents are Not Okay with teen drinking.
But while some things felt a bit like an unnecessary retread, I did, of course, appreciate the other things that his book was doing similarly to Simon -- addressing race and the way people make assumptions about it, bisexuality explicitly being a thing (also pansexuality, and how it's definitely not synonymous with having a lot of sex -- as Mina says she's pansexual but is in her first serious relationship; and asexuality is also explicitly mentioned), and cute dorky teens. I also really appreciate Albertalli including so many Jewish characters in her books, and the different kinds of Jews she includes. In Simon, Nick was Jewish, with his ancestors coming from Russia. Here, Molly, Cassie and Patty are Jewish, as is Patty's mother, of course, and so is Molly's love interest. But they're low key Jews -- Reed's parents have tattoos (this is a point of discussion between Reed and Molly, actually), Molly's family eats bacon.
One thing this book does (unfortunately) do, which I thought Simon steered refreshingly clear of was a Misunderstanding-Based Love Triangle. In Simon, there was the confusion as to who Blue really was, but any whiff of triangle-ness was associated with that, i.e. Simon convincing himself that Blue had to be Cal, or being afraid/confused that he was Martin. Here, there's the whole Will-Molly-Reed-Olivia thing, which is full of misunderstandings and is just so unnecessary. Like, literally, I have no idea what any of it adds to the actual book -- nothing that I found of value, at any rate. And yet it takes up so much space, and so much unnecessary awkwardness. I mean, I guess I appreciate slivers of revelations associated with the characters -- that a guy can be friendly/flirty without being interested, that a guy can be friends with a douche while being pretty decent himself, that someone who's dated the same guy since she was 13 is happy being single -- but all of them could've been made just fine without the love triangle nonsense. (I guess this bothered me more than I realized while I was reading the book...)
I did like Molly, with her online stalking skillz ("I feel like a creeper. I always seem to know more about people than they know about me.") and love of the internet ("I think the way I feel aout the internet is the way some people feel about the ocean. I'ts so huge and unknowable, but also totally predictable.") and overly active imagination and sense of humour, and Reed was very sweet (although a little too perfect, I thought). And I enjoyed the atmosphere of making gentle, fond fun of their DC suburb ("This [baby onesie]is very Takoma Park. It' sundyed cotton, gender neutral, printed with a picture of vegetables." "I think there are some swaddling blankets, too. [...] Organic hemp. [...] So I guess there are parents who like to roll their babies up like blunts." and "entire floats dedicated to composting" in the town parade.
Definitely looking forward to book 3, the Leah book, which will presumably return to the characters I like best (Simon et al) and give some happy resolution to the one character who I felt did not get a HEA in Simon.
22. Jordan L. Hawk, Undertow (Whyborne & Griffin novella, #8.5) -- the Miss Parkhurst/Persephone we've all been waiting for, set in Widdershins during the events of Fallow. It was cute, and I was surprised by Spoilers! a) Maggie being rather un-tentative about the f/f thing and b) the xeno aspects being, like, the opposite of a problem for her apparently, with the hair-tendrils and all. The thing with the squid was quite amusing, and I liked Persephone using "cuttlefish" as a term of endearment (because of Maggie's tendency to blush). I was surprised that, considering how unfazed Maggie is by the notion of a non-heterosexual relationship for herself, that she is 100% clueless about Griffin being more than Whyborne's friend/landlord. Though, I suppose that given her longstanding crush on Whyborne, that might just be wishful thinking/denial. Mr Quinn and the librarians were amusing as always (brandishing dictionaries in battle), and the mask made from the bones of a god was nicely creepy (as was the connection back to Stormhaven).
Randomly, I find it interesting that Persephone is apparently a Kinsey 6, like Whyborne, while both of their partners are bisexual to some degree.
Also, I do wonder if Persephone will give Niles a summoning stone now, having decided it would be better to have a way to get in touch with him, or at least that it was stupid not to give him one.
23. Nora Sakavic, The Foxhole Court
24. Nora Sakavic, The Raven King (All for the Game, #1-2) -- so, did this start out as a mafia AU hockey RPF fic or something? (Apparently not; it started out as a comic when the author was 13-14 years old, and, like. It shows. I don't mean it in a disparaging way, necessarily, but there's a very... how do I put this? -- fanficcy and juvenile disregard for realism and common sense in favor of steering the story towards maximum drama.) Anyway, it is absolutely ridiculous, and yet oddly compelling at times, like a soap opera, I guess. There's just enough likeable characters for me, and they are all entertwined solidly enough, that it kept me reading while simultaneously rolling my eyes as hard as I possibly could. (But really, so ridiculous! Like, every time I actually felt emotionally affected by something, the level of trauma and/or drama would be ratcheted up to even more ridiculous levels, totally spoiling the moment. And I think people's motivations are not "what would actually make sense" but "what would ratchet up the drama and/or allow the plot to continue".)
Anyway. Nicky was the first character I actually liked, and he continued to be sweet and adorable throughout (well, minus the time he kissed a drugged-against-his-will Neil who had previously refused his advances, but he apologizes afterwards? and was definitely not sober himself). I grew to like the gruff but caring Coach (a cliche, but a well done one, and less ridiculous than the kids), and Matt, who is kind of the normal one, despite a "my father's wild parties got me addicted to drugs" backstory. The others never really gelled for me beyond a collection of trauma and chilches, but Dan, the team captain who worked as a stripper to put herself through school, has some nice moments, too. Andrew is intriguing, but he never felt like an actual character while on his meds, except in the moments during games (when he was off them and still sober). Aaron just felt like "the other one" of the set of twins, even once he started doing things on his own, and Kevin is the most ridiculous of the lot and never made any sense to me. (I read later that an earlier version of the story had him involved with Neil and Andrew, and it seems like some motivations/aesthetics from that are left over, but the current plot is no longer supported by them, and the overall result was just weird.) And the Ravens, starting with Riko, are just so cartoonishly ridiculous, and Neil's interlude there is as over-the-top teenage-fic edgy as it is pointless.
One thing that repeatedly threw me out of the story was the way Neil kept thinking of his teammates as "the other man" this and "the other man" that, and, like. They are 18-19-22 at most! They are children XD I mean, not in their own POV, maybe, but I don't know too many college students who think of themselves as man/woman, either.
Another thought that bugged me out of proportion -- Exy becoming as entrenched as it did after being invented by two randos 30 years ago. Little League? Dedicated stadiums? Olympic teams? I mean, I realize that's not the point -- the authorwanted a big-time sport with the freedom to make up all the rules, and suspension of disbelief and all that -- nor is this the least believable thing about this series -- but it kept throwing me out of the story.
I will reserve further comments for when I finish book 3 (I'm taking a bit of a break for another totally ridiculous book; K keeps sending them to me, what can I do XD), as I went and spoiled myself for a bunch of stuff -- but wanted to post these now because I didn't want to mess with my numbers.
25. Yoon Ha Lee, Ninefox Gambit -- I'd read YHL's short work in a few anthologies here and there, and I originally got all excited about the concept of mathy SFF, but the stories never worked for me -- I couldn't really see the point, and I felt like I was missing whatever was qualifying them for the "best of" anthologies. But when my flist started reading Ninefox Gambit, it sounded really interesting -- mil-SF (by an author who is a fan of the Vorkosigan Saga), math that seemed to be actually fundamental to the worldbuilding, wordbuilding that sounded pretty intriguing, and I have an oddly specific narrative kink for people being possessed by dead generals, as a matter of fact (which I discovered reading Kushiel's Scion) -- there's just a combination of fish-out-of-water (for the spirit character having to cope with a new world), mentoring, and body-swap shenanigans that makes it really interesting to me, I guess. Anyway, so the premise sounded really up my alley, and I'm happy to report that the book worked for me quite well. I didn't LOVE it -- the setting is too grim and the body count too high for it to be a book that I truly love, which is a problem The Fifth Season had as well -- but I was very pleasantly surprised by how well the writing clicked with me, and how deep and clever the worldbuilding was, and I'm eager to continue with the series.
For added fun,
cyanshadow and I read the last third of it in synch, and you can find our real-time discussion here, so I probably have a bit less to say about the book in this write-up than I would have if I hadn't been talking about it for several days already, but we'll see:
I think my favorite part of the book, more even than Jedao, ended up being the sort of composite portrait of the military of the hexarchate -- Spoilers! the heroes and willing martyrs (like Kel Nerevor, who volunteers as hostage, which includes undergoing a mindwipe), unwilling martyrs who are caught in the crossfire, unwilling UNmartyrs, like the Captain who wanted to volunteer to stay behind with her friend's company and is forced to retreat by orders backed by formation instinct, the commanders who order but mourn the necessary losses, the harried colonels and rank-and-file soldiers doing their jobs as best they can, the gifted administrators and aides, the occasional colorful psychopath. They are people that, for the most part, you meet in snippets (which generally end with their deaths), or through other people's preoccuppied and incidental point of view, but I was very pleased by the degree of humanity and dignity granted to almost all of them. I'm easy for soldiers, so maybe that's part of it, but I thought the whole "war movie" cast of characters was very well done, and with a lot of nice balance -- it never felt bloated or manipulative or boring. And I liked the way the servitors were eventually enfolded in this community, asked to volunteer, if they would, and apparently accepted as fellow soldiers by the human Kel.
I did like Jedao, too, though, and especially his relationship with Cheris -- so much so that spoiler! I don't really know what's going to take the place of that lynchpin for me given that this relationship is irretrievably altered by the end, and Cheris-with-Jedao's-memories is not Jedao, or even Jedao-in-Cheris. I really enjoyed their conversations and arguments and teaching moments, Jedao trying to train her and take care of her and manipulate her, apologizing for "ruining" her luck stone for her, and thanking her for leaving the light on for him, and all the little moments. The body dysphoria thing was another neat aspect, and I liked the way it manifested itself, subtly on the edges -- Cheris's accent sliding into Jedao's drawl, his reflexes screwing around with her dueling.
The pacing of the reveal of Jedao's motivations and all the flashbacks loaded at the end shouldn't have worked, normally, but here they really did, and I liked the cascade of out-of-chronology shards, interspersed with Cheris assimilating the knowledge and choosing to go on. As Cyan and I discussed, I don't know that I actually buy the logic of Jedao's plan (if it can be called a plan -- it really seems to be just sort of setting himself up for infinite opportunities to tactic his way to toppling the hexarchate -- or the lucky stroke of being thrown at and/or suborning someone as mathematically gifted as Cheris, or a group of rebels he can throw in with), but I can certainly admire its ambition and dedication to it.
I felt less for Cheris as a person, but just because she was less intriguingly mysterious and just very busy doing her earnest and dutiful best -- I like and respect characters like that, but I don't tend to fall for them, and that was par for the course. I was amused by her thing for soap operas, and her habit of talking math at servitors. One thing where I especially liked the way it was handled was when it came to Cheris's sexuality/attraction to women -- it was both totally not what this book was about and never felt like it was bieng thrust on stage just to check off a diversity box AND it was something I constantly felt and believed in Cheris's POV, the way she noticed the physical appearance of women much more than men -- and in a very particular way -- and the way she was pretty clearly crushing on Nerevor (before authorizing her going off to torture and death, poor things) -- in a suppressed, sublimated way, I mean, since it's taboo for Kel to "fraternize". (There are other non-straight pairings briefly mentioned throughout -- also not being the point -- and Jedao, for one, seems pretty happily bisexual in the flashbacks. Back when he was happily anything, that is.)
Other than them, I liked Colonel Ragath (ex-historian, and also Four from the bidding), and found the Nirai captain with the threshold winnowers interesting.
The worldbuilding is...
egelantier said "overwhelming" and that's a good word for it. There is A LOT of it, and the POVs are very tight -- nothing is explained that would not need explanation to a citizen of the hexarchate, and mostly nothing that would not need to be explained to a soldier, either. I happen to like in media res worldbuilding, so this worked for me, aesthetically, but I did spend a lot of time just sort of... riding the wave of worldbuilding without necessarily understanding what was going on (things do start to gel after a while. Mostly.) It's well done, I think, and there's a lot of attention paid to things that I personally find interesting -- the intersection of home and high languages, naming traditions, cultural traditions (Kel and gloves for instance, ungloving only for suicide missions), superstitions. I love things like the fact that Cheris's name means "Twenty-Three" because in her parents' (heretical, presumably) tradition, children are named after the saints whose days they're born on, but in the hexarchate calendar there are no saints, so she's just named after the day of the month. And all the terminology and slang are really neat -- "black cradle" is such a great word for the the thing in which Jedao is stored between "recalls" (nothing more is explained about it, for extra creepiness), and slang terms like "crashhawk" (for a formation-breaking Kel) and "hawkfucker" (what Cheris more genteely thinks of as "fraternizer"), all the ship classes being "moths" (cindermoth, voidmoth, etc.), weapons names (neglect cannon, genial gun, kaleidoscope bomb, amputation gun *shudder*, threshold winnowers), all that really add to the feel of the setting. Oh, and I really loved the variety and oddness of the ship names, too: Sincere Greeting, Spiders and Scars, Unenclosed by FearWith all of this, The hexarchate really felt alien and vast, with cultures layered on top of conquered/reformed cultures.
The castes were interesting, too, because I'm a sucker of Planet of Hats type things -- although, to be honest, I never did figure out how the castes work. They seem to be occupation based rather than born into, but there also seems to be a lot of overlap, maybe? They kept reminding me of Dragaeran houses, anyway, what with the Dragon-like Kel (The warrior caste), the decidedly Yendi-esque Shuous (intelligence officers and assassins, and generally people who enjoy mindfuckery for fun and profit), the Hawk-like Nirai (mathematicians and engineers), and so on -- the animal totems contribute to this, of course, although they don't match up. The Vidona (who I don't think we've met yet) are the inquisitors, and that's... an interesting addition.
Looking back over the places I marked, I can see the foreshadowing/setup of a lot of things later revealed about Jedao: hims saying "I am your gun" to Kujen when he's coming to take stock at the beginning (the same phrase with which he made his deal with him before the black cradle), asking Cheris to put the math in graphical form for him ("Interesting. Math wasn't his strong suit?") -- and I noticed also that the one time Jedao got angry at her and she really pushed through was when she was trying to account for servitors in the formation -- which I assume means he couldn't follow her math (and was probably getting frustrated with that, too, on top of feeling like she was wasting time while people were dying).
Quotes:
"The servitors considered themselves lucky that the Nirai hexarch, who had grown up before machine sentience was achieved, found it difficult to think of humans as people, let alone machines."
"Jedao snapped. 'If I'd meant to kill myself at Hellspin Fortress, I would have put a bullet in my head. My aim isn't that bad.'"
"Niaad wished the corporal would stop philosophizing and give a fucking order already."
"'Have more confidence,' Weniat said. This had the opposite of the desired effect."
"Cheris had asked what the riots were about. Ragath had given her a jaundiced look then said, 'The generalized unfairness of life.'"
"'It can drive people crazy if it's not calibrated correctly,' Kujen said. 'I don't mean sociopath values of crazy. [...] I know what I am. I'm talking aout useless raving values of crazy.'"
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Sherlock season 3 -- I put it off for ages because my flist didn't seem to be enjoying it nearly as much as the first two seasons, but then I rewatched the first two seasons with the rodents (well, rewatch for me, first time through for them), and L kept wanting to go on to season 3, because HER friends liked it a lot, so I went ahead and bought the DVD. And it was actually not bad!
I don't think I ever watched the mini-episode/teaser back in the day, either, but that one was also fun.
Spoilers from here!
3x01, "The Empty Hearse" -- I knew from fannish osmosis that they never revealed how the thing with Sherlock being alive was actually done, just different ideas, but it was still fun to see. My favorite, as well as L's, was what L termed as "the Tumblr version" -- the one where Sherlock and Moriarty are colluding at it, and end up snogging in the end. The reunion with John I was not spoiled for, but also liked. Sherlock pulling off something like dressing up as a waiter for no reason other than to show off for John, putting him on the spot in a public place (and obliviously interrupting the proposal) was a very Sherlock thing, and "Well, the short version... not dead," and we laughed at all the instances of John going for him, with much justification. Oh, and the intercut scenes where Mrs Hudson is talking to Sherlock with quick cuts to John putting on his examination gloves, middle finger first, and "Fu.." "...Cough". *is twelve* Everybody hating John's mustache (and him shaving it off after Sherlock kept asking him about it) was also a lot of fun. The Sherlock and Mycroft moments worked less well for me -- I mean, they were fine, but I usually like Mycroft more than this. Although the " Both of us thought you were an idio" line was pretty great. And meeting Sherlock's parents was neat, too. I found the ending kind of meh, though, because I found it hard to believe Sherlock wouldn't know how to defuse a bomb (this isn't like the solar system, it would be actually useful!), and also, even for Sherlock this is an asshole trick to pull on poor John. So the ending kind of soured me on the episode, a bit, though I did still like it overall. But L declared it her new favorite one.
We all really liked Mary. She looks kind of like a badass Hobbit, and a good match for John (and also made me think of Lesley May from RoL). And I don't remember what it was about the episode, but spoilers for episode 3 at one point L said, "Is Mary a secret agent or something?" and repeated it again in episode 2. I didn't say anything, but I really wonder what tipped her off! /spoilers for ep 3
3x02, "The Sign of Three" -- OK, this is a bit more slapsticky than I really need my Sherlock to be, but I liked it better than the first one anyway. Sherlock and John's stag night with graduated cylinders was pretty funny, as was drunk!Sherlock. Sherlock's speech was by turns poignant and hilarious (and occasionally sounded like he was planning on marrying John and Mary, too, which neither John nor Mary seemed to be objecting to overmuch), and I especially liked the part where he manages to move the audience to tears and is then very puzzled by this: "What’s wrong? What happened? Why are you all doing that? John? Did I do it wrong?" We liked Sherlock's interactions with Archie, the kid who likes looking at grisly pictures, and the bridesmaid (Janine?) who uses his deduction skills to analyze single men at the wedding. At the end, L was saying plaintively, "I ship ALL of them! Is that allowed?" and I was kind of there with her -- John and Mary are adorable! John and Sherlock are great as always (though I do like them platonic just as much if not more than Johnlock), Mary and Sherlock have a great understanding, and the whole triad is the cutest -- I loved the scene where they are all "plotting" to take the third person out to make them feel better -- John is asking Sherlock to take him away from the wedding planning, Mary is asking Sherlock to take John out for a bit, and John and Mary have code to get away to scheme to take Sherlock out for a walk because he's obsessed with the wedding thing. Mary's two separate thumbs ups were the best! And of course there's the pregnancy reveal.
Other good lines that made me laugh:
Mrs. Hudson: Your mother has a lot to answer for.
Sherlock: Hmm, I know. I have a list. Mycroft has a file.
Lestrade finally getting to take some revenge on the boys:
John (hungover): Can you whisper?
Lestrade: (loudly) Not really!
3x03, His Last Vow -- OK, not as much of a fan of this episode, although there were definitely parts of it I liked, and I apparently have a whole lot to say about it. It felt too long and scattered and IDK. The mind palace scenes when Sherlock was dying went on waaay too long for my taste, and I didn't appreciate either the dream palace!Moriarty nor the return (apparently?) of the real article, although Sherlock's plane being turned back and Mycroft's "I hope you've learned your lesson" was wonderful, of course.
I did mostly like Magnussen as a villain, or at least more than I'd liked Moriarty, and L agrees with me. (And she once again correctly predicted a line of his, as she'd done with Mycroft and Moriarty and Sherlock before. Clearly she should be writing for this show.) I like his sort of mild-mannered bespectacled appearance and quiet way of speaking, but was less a fan of his getting into people's space physically, marking his territory (what even was that, ugh), and so on. I get the contrast they're going for, but I just... it is possible to have villains who do not express their villainy by licking things, OK.
I knew what happened with Mary -- that she was ex-CIA, and that she shot Sherlock to save his life (or whatever). L was unspoiled, although as I'd mentioned in episode 1, and also in episode 2, she wondered if Mary was some kind of spy or something -- she picked up on exactly the things Sherlock later called out, which left me very impressed. Anyway, about ten seconds after Mary shot Sherlock, L said, in a slightly bemused tone, "Mary is kind of awesome." And, honestly, I concur. A lot of my flist seemed to dislike Mary after this episode -- which I can totally understand, she shot Sherlock and lied to John the whole time! -- but I found myself still totally rooting for her and John, and was very happy when they reconciled at Christmas and John had that sweet little speech abut Mary Watson being enough of a name for him. Aww, Hobbits!
Christmas at the Holmses was quite lovely in general, especially Mycroft, complaining that his mother is calling him "Mikey", "Am I happy, too? I haven't checked.", bantering with Sherlock, and the two of them hiding their cigarettes and Sherlock blaming Mycroft. I do like the boys' mother; still trying to figure out Mr Holmes. (And I had no idea until I checked Wiki that the people playing Sherlock's parents are Cumberbatch's actual parents. Ha!)
Another thing I really enjoyed, contrary to my expectations, was the thing with Janine. I liked her and Sherlock at the wedding in the previous episode, but her sashaying around his flat half-naked was definitely O.o-inducing (John's face was the BEST thing! XD), and I liked the way it ended, with her making a tidy sum and coming to gloat and cutting off Sherlock's morphine. I would've liked them to have been friends, too.
Janine: Sherlock Holmes, you are a back-stabbin', heartless, manipulative bastard.
Sherlock: And you, as it turns out, are a grasping, opportunistic, publicity-hungry, tabloid whore.
Janine: So, we're good, then?
Sherlock: Yeah, of course. Where's the cottage? [which she is buying with tabloid proceeds]
Janine: Sussex Downs.
Sherlock Holmes: Mm, nice.
Janine: It's gorgeous. There's beehives, but I'm getting rid of those. [Heh.]
I had to go back to the climax to try to figure out for myself whether it makes sense to me. So presumably Sherlock realized, or at least started to strongly suspect, that Magnussen's "archives" wee all in his head when he took his spectacles and they were just plain glass. But in order to get close to Magnussen to actually shoot him (thereby effectively destroying the archives), he had to pretend to the plan to swap Mycroft's laptop so that Magnussen would think he was actually planning to frame him with the GPS tracker. But why did he wait so long to shoot Magnussen once he WAS there? He was waiting for Mycroft and witnesses to show up, so presumably Mycroft et al actually had to hear for themselves that there were no physical archives? That's the only way that makes sense. And that way he's only guilty of murder but not exposed for treason or compromising security or whatever. Still, as far as resolutions go, that did not work particularly well for me. (And I'm not really convinced that shooting Sherlock, even with surgical precision, was the most reasonable thing for Mary to do -- unless she thought that Sherlock almost dying was the way to distract the public from what he and John were doing in Magnussen's office in the first place, but that seems kind of a stretch.)
But I did enjoy the scenes of the fallout, Sherlock and John shaking hands good-bye, and Sherlock trying to convince John to name their daughter after him; that was cute, and the line about being gone for six months, by Mycroft's estimate, which are never wrong, was nice and poignant, even though I knew he wasn't really heading off to die.
I'm huh about kid!Sherlock making an appearance, especially with tears running down his face at the end. I guess that, and the dog, will come up in season 4, from what I know of season 4.
And, aww, so Molly's engagement is off? Presumably because Tom was not a psychopath and she does have a type? (Speaking of which, I laughed so hard at John's "Is every person I know a psychopath?" And there was a neat line about an addict looking for a fix, which Sherlock turned around on John, with his danger fixation. And speaking of which, Mary's "I'll keep him in trouble" as she was saying good-bye to Sherlock was also very cute, as was her and John's "You can't come, you're pregnant!"/"You can't go, I'm pregnant!" exchange.. L's favorite exchange, which I also liked, was this:
Sherlock: Did you bring your gun as I suggested?
John: Why would I bring my gun to your parents' house for Christmas dinner?
Sherlock: Is it in your coat?
John: Yes.
Unsold on Billy Wiggins for now, although he had a number of amusing scenes with both John ("I'm a doctor. I know how to sprain people..") and Mary ("Keeps me off the streets, dunnit?" "Well...no.")
*
And a fanfic rec for Rivers of London: Routine Maintenance (Varvara/Nightingale, Explicit (fuck or die), 10k) -- So, I was intrigued but also a bit dismayed by the premise, because while I LOVE Varvara's crush on Nightingale, I have a really hard time imagining a scenario where the two of them actually get together in any form. But this one is brilliant, and really plausible, and Nightingale is perfectly in character, and Varvara is glorious, and there's also Molly being Molly. It is really, really good.
This entry was originally posted at http://hamsterwoman.dreamwidth.org/1047386.html. Comment wherever you prefer (I prefer LJ).
*
21. Becky Albertalli, The Upside of Unrequited -- Not as cute as Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda but still pretty darn cute, and I read the whole thing in one day, or little more than that. This is a book that's loosely connected to Simon and set slightly after -- the summer after Simon's school year. The protagonist, Molly, is the cousin of Abby Suso from Simon, and Abby herself features as a secondary character (via phone/text, mostly), with Simon and Nick having brief cameo appearances, as well as Martin's brother.
This book made me think of Fangirl a bit, because the protagonist is the less-outgoing twin sister, although, unlike Cath and Wren, Molly and Cassie have a happy if somewhat unorthodox home life -- they are the daughters of Nadine and Patty (their biological father is a sperm donor whom they don't know, but he's a father they share with younger brother (toddler) Xav, who is biologically Nadine's son, while Cassie and Molly are biologically Patty's. Got all that?). Patty is Jewish and bisexual, Nadine is Black and lesbian (she's Abby's aunt, so that's the connection), and while I didn't find the family dynamic quite as fun as in Simon, it was still a highlight of the book, especially Nadine's approach to parenting Xav ("Dude, no. Banana's gone. You're SOL."). And the book ends with Patty and Nadine getting married, following the 2015 Supreme Court decision, with the girls helping plan the wedding, and it's totally adorable. Also unlike Cath, Molly is actually taking meds for her anxiety issues. I actually can't think of too many YA books I've read where the protagonist was taking meds and it was not a whole big thing/source of angst but something that was present consistently as part of her routine, like brushing her teeth. Molly taking Zoloft comes up several times, but just in the context of going about her day, and also not mixing it with alcohol. It's very natural and matter-of-fact, and hopefully destigmatizing for any teens in that position -- the first book, I think, where it really was the equivalent of a character wearing glasses: it's present in the background, and creates certain limitations, but it's not a Big Deal and says nothing about the character as a character.
I think reading the two Albertalli books essentially back to back may have made me like this one a little less, because it felt a little formulaic. Spoilers from here! There's the protagonist's zany family, including a SJW-esque sister who calls out the problematic characters and remarks. In Simon, this was the sister in college, which I thought made a lot of sense, and here it's Cassie, the twin, which worked less well for me -- I think it just felt more artificial to have a member of the peer group be the designated "You're problematic!" person -- she is not wrong, but it just made her feel kind of tedious, though it's by no means her ONLY characterization. Another thing I relized as I thought more about why I liked the Simon family more is that the parents are much less fallible here, and therefore feel less real. They are still interesting and I still liked them, but they didn't feel nearly as human as Simon's awkwardly joking dad and pscyhologist mom. I understand why, too -- there are really not so very many two-mom families out there, and you want to show them being functional and happy. But at the same time that ended up shunting the fallibility onto extended family characters -- Nadine's homophobic sister, who nevertheless shows up to the wedding, as awkward as it is for her, Patty's well-meaning but meddling mother, who keeps telling Molly she needs to lose weight (because of her own issues with weight when she was young) and is surprised to learn that she can't call Mina, Cassie's Korean-American girlfried, "Oriental". Really, one of my favorite family moments was when the aforementioned girlfriend comes to dinner and the moms serve Korean food, and Molly can't figure out for herself whether that's sweet or "if we're wading into Grandma Betty territory" -- because that moment felt real. (My other favorite family moment was: "Your bastard children are very happy for you." "Oh my God! We won't be bastards anymore." "Aww, you guys will always be our bastards.") On a different note, I also felt like, after the emails in Simon, Alberatlli felt like she had to have another "modern teen communications" gimmick in this book, and chose texting, which works both less believably and more awkwardly than email. The descriptions of emoji and three dots blinking got pretty old, and I didn't believe most of the text messages as text-messages, either. (I fully expect book 3, which she's said will be from Leah's POV, to feature Tumblr asks as the gimmick or something :P) And there's a Dramatic Teenage Drinking Reveal, which is apparently a hobbyhorse of Albertalli's, and even Cool Parents are Not Okay with teen drinking.
But while some things felt a bit like an unnecessary retread, I did, of course, appreciate the other things that his book was doing similarly to Simon -- addressing race and the way people make assumptions about it, bisexuality explicitly being a thing (also pansexuality, and how it's definitely not synonymous with having a lot of sex -- as Mina says she's pansexual but is in her first serious relationship; and asexuality is also explicitly mentioned), and cute dorky teens. I also really appreciate Albertalli including so many Jewish characters in her books, and the different kinds of Jews she includes. In Simon, Nick was Jewish, with his ancestors coming from Russia. Here, Molly, Cassie and Patty are Jewish, as is Patty's mother, of course, and so is Molly's love interest. But they're low key Jews -- Reed's parents have tattoos (this is a point of discussion between Reed and Molly, actually), Molly's family eats bacon.
One thing this book does (unfortunately) do, which I thought Simon steered refreshingly clear of was a Misunderstanding-Based Love Triangle. In Simon, there was the confusion as to who Blue really was, but any whiff of triangle-ness was associated with that, i.e. Simon convincing himself that Blue had to be Cal, or being afraid/confused that he was Martin. Here, there's the whole Will-Molly-Reed-Olivia thing, which is full of misunderstandings and is just so unnecessary. Like, literally, I have no idea what any of it adds to the actual book -- nothing that I found of value, at any rate. And yet it takes up so much space, and so much unnecessary awkwardness. I mean, I guess I appreciate slivers of revelations associated with the characters -- that a guy can be friendly/flirty without being interested, that a guy can be friends with a douche while being pretty decent himself, that someone who's dated the same guy since she was 13 is happy being single -- but all of them could've been made just fine without the love triangle nonsense. (I guess this bothered me more than I realized while I was reading the book...)
I did like Molly, with her online stalking skillz ("I feel like a creeper. I always seem to know more about people than they know about me.") and love of the internet ("I think the way I feel aout the internet is the way some people feel about the ocean. I'ts so huge and unknowable, but also totally predictable.") and overly active imagination and sense of humour, and Reed was very sweet (although a little too perfect, I thought). And I enjoyed the atmosphere of making gentle, fond fun of their DC suburb ("This [baby onesie]is very Takoma Park. It' sundyed cotton, gender neutral, printed with a picture of vegetables." "I think there are some swaddling blankets, too. [...] Organic hemp. [...] So I guess there are parents who like to roll their babies up like blunts." and "entire floats dedicated to composting" in the town parade.
Definitely looking forward to book 3, the Leah book, which will presumably return to the characters I like best (Simon et al) and give some happy resolution to the one character who I felt did not get a HEA in Simon.
22. Jordan L. Hawk, Undertow (Whyborne & Griffin novella, #8.5) -- the Miss Parkhurst/Persephone we've all been waiting for, set in Widdershins during the events of Fallow. It was cute, and I was surprised by Spoilers! a) Maggie being rather un-tentative about the f/f thing and b) the xeno aspects being, like, the opposite of a problem for her apparently, with the hair-tendrils and all. The thing with the squid was quite amusing, and I liked Persephone using "cuttlefish" as a term of endearment (because of Maggie's tendency to blush). I was surprised that, considering how unfazed Maggie is by the notion of a non-heterosexual relationship for herself, that she is 100% clueless about Griffin being more than Whyborne's friend/landlord. Though, I suppose that given her longstanding crush on Whyborne, that might just be wishful thinking/denial. Mr Quinn and the librarians were amusing as always (brandishing dictionaries in battle), and the mask made from the bones of a god was nicely creepy (as was the connection back to Stormhaven).
Randomly, I find it interesting that Persephone is apparently a Kinsey 6, like Whyborne, while both of their partners are bisexual to some degree.
Also, I do wonder if Persephone will give Niles a summoning stone now, having decided it would be better to have a way to get in touch with him, or at least that it was stupid not to give him one.
23. Nora Sakavic, The Foxhole Court
24. Nora Sakavic, The Raven King (All for the Game, #1-2) -- so, did this start out as a mafia AU hockey RPF fic or something? (Apparently not; it started out as a comic when the author was 13-14 years old, and, like. It shows. I don't mean it in a disparaging way, necessarily, but there's a very... how do I put this? -- fanficcy and juvenile disregard for realism and common sense in favor of steering the story towards maximum drama.) Anyway, it is absolutely ridiculous, and yet oddly compelling at times, like a soap opera, I guess. There's just enough likeable characters for me, and they are all entertwined solidly enough, that it kept me reading while simultaneously rolling my eyes as hard as I possibly could. (But really, so ridiculous! Like, every time I actually felt emotionally affected by something, the level of trauma and/or drama would be ratcheted up to even more ridiculous levels, totally spoiling the moment. And I think people's motivations are not "what would actually make sense" but "what would ratchet up the drama and/or allow the plot to continue".)
Anyway. Nicky was the first character I actually liked, and he continued to be sweet and adorable throughout (well, minus the time he kissed a drugged-against-his-will Neil who had previously refused his advances, but he apologizes afterwards? and was definitely not sober himself). I grew to like the gruff but caring Coach (a cliche, but a well done one, and less ridiculous than the kids), and Matt, who is kind of the normal one, despite a "my father's wild parties got me addicted to drugs" backstory. The others never really gelled for me beyond a collection of trauma and chilches, but Dan, the team captain who worked as a stripper to put herself through school, has some nice moments, too. Andrew is intriguing, but he never felt like an actual character while on his meds, except in the moments during games (when he was off them and still sober). Aaron just felt like "the other one" of the set of twins, even once he started doing things on his own, and Kevin is the most ridiculous of the lot and never made any sense to me. (I read later that an earlier version of the story had him involved with Neil and Andrew, and it seems like some motivations/aesthetics from that are left over, but the current plot is no longer supported by them, and the overall result was just weird.) And the Ravens, starting with Riko, are just so cartoonishly ridiculous, and Neil's interlude there is as over-the-top teenage-fic edgy as it is pointless.
One thing that repeatedly threw me out of the story was the way Neil kept thinking of his teammates as "the other man" this and "the other man" that, and, like. They are 18-19-22 at most! They are children XD I mean, not in their own POV, maybe, but I don't know too many college students who think of themselves as man/woman, either.
Another thought that bugged me out of proportion -- Exy becoming as entrenched as it did after being invented by two randos 30 years ago. Little League? Dedicated stadiums? Olympic teams? I mean, I realize that's not the point -- the authorwanted a big-time sport with the freedom to make up all the rules, and suspension of disbelief and all that -- nor is this the least believable thing about this series -- but it kept throwing me out of the story.
I will reserve further comments for when I finish book 3 (I'm taking a bit of a break for another totally ridiculous book; K keeps sending them to me, what can I do XD), as I went and spoiled myself for a bunch of stuff -- but wanted to post these now because I didn't want to mess with my numbers.
25. Yoon Ha Lee, Ninefox Gambit -- I'd read YHL's short work in a few anthologies here and there, and I originally got all excited about the concept of mathy SFF, but the stories never worked for me -- I couldn't really see the point, and I felt like I was missing whatever was qualifying them for the "best of" anthologies. But when my flist started reading Ninefox Gambit, it sounded really interesting -- mil-SF (by an author who is a fan of the Vorkosigan Saga), math that seemed to be actually fundamental to the worldbuilding, wordbuilding that sounded pretty intriguing, and I have an oddly specific narrative kink for people being possessed by dead generals, as a matter of fact (which I discovered reading Kushiel's Scion) -- there's just a combination of fish-out-of-water (for the spirit character having to cope with a new world), mentoring, and body-swap shenanigans that makes it really interesting to me, I guess. Anyway, so the premise sounded really up my alley, and I'm happy to report that the book worked for me quite well. I didn't LOVE it -- the setting is too grim and the body count too high for it to be a book that I truly love, which is a problem The Fifth Season had as well -- but I was very pleasantly surprised by how well the writing clicked with me, and how deep and clever the worldbuilding was, and I'm eager to continue with the series.
For added fun,
cyanshadow and I read the last third of it in synch, and you can find our real-time discussion here, so I probably have a bit less to say about the book in this write-up than I would have if I hadn't been talking about it for several days already, but we'll see:
I think my favorite part of the book, more even than Jedao, ended up being the sort of composite portrait of the military of the hexarchate -- Spoilers! the heroes and willing martyrs (like Kel Nerevor, who volunteers as hostage, which includes undergoing a mindwipe), unwilling martyrs who are caught in the crossfire, unwilling UNmartyrs, like the Captain who wanted to volunteer to stay behind with her friend's company and is forced to retreat by orders backed by formation instinct, the commanders who order but mourn the necessary losses, the harried colonels and rank-and-file soldiers doing their jobs as best they can, the gifted administrators and aides, the occasional colorful psychopath. They are people that, for the most part, you meet in snippets (which generally end with their deaths), or through other people's preoccuppied and incidental point of view, but I was very pleased by the degree of humanity and dignity granted to almost all of them. I'm easy for soldiers, so maybe that's part of it, but I thought the whole "war movie" cast of characters was very well done, and with a lot of nice balance -- it never felt bloated or manipulative or boring. And I liked the way the servitors were eventually enfolded in this community, asked to volunteer, if they would, and apparently accepted as fellow soldiers by the human Kel.
I did like Jedao, too, though, and especially his relationship with Cheris -- so much so that spoiler! I don't really know what's going to take the place of that lynchpin for me given that this relationship is irretrievably altered by the end, and Cheris-with-Jedao's-memories is not Jedao, or even Jedao-in-Cheris. I really enjoyed their conversations and arguments and teaching moments, Jedao trying to train her and take care of her and manipulate her, apologizing for "ruining" her luck stone for her, and thanking her for leaving the light on for him, and all the little moments. The body dysphoria thing was another neat aspect, and I liked the way it manifested itself, subtly on the edges -- Cheris's accent sliding into Jedao's drawl, his reflexes screwing around with her dueling.
The pacing of the reveal of Jedao's motivations and all the flashbacks loaded at the end shouldn't have worked, normally, but here they really did, and I liked the cascade of out-of-chronology shards, interspersed with Cheris assimilating the knowledge and choosing to go on. As Cyan and I discussed, I don't know that I actually buy the logic of Jedao's plan (if it can be called a plan -- it really seems to be just sort of setting himself up for infinite opportunities to tactic his way to toppling the hexarchate -- or the lucky stroke of being thrown at and/or suborning someone as mathematically gifted as Cheris, or a group of rebels he can throw in with), but I can certainly admire its ambition and dedication to it.
I felt less for Cheris as a person, but just because she was less intriguingly mysterious and just very busy doing her earnest and dutiful best -- I like and respect characters like that, but I don't tend to fall for them, and that was par for the course. I was amused by her thing for soap operas, and her habit of talking math at servitors. One thing where I especially liked the way it was handled was when it came to Cheris's sexuality/attraction to women -- it was both totally not what this book was about and never felt like it was bieng thrust on stage just to check off a diversity box AND it was something I constantly felt and believed in Cheris's POV, the way she noticed the physical appearance of women much more than men -- and in a very particular way -- and the way she was pretty clearly crushing on Nerevor (before authorizing her going off to torture and death, poor things) -- in a suppressed, sublimated way, I mean, since it's taboo for Kel to "fraternize". (There are other non-straight pairings briefly mentioned throughout -- also not being the point -- and Jedao, for one, seems pretty happily bisexual in the flashbacks. Back when he was happily anything, that is.)
Other than them, I liked Colonel Ragath (ex-historian, and also Four from the bidding), and found the Nirai captain with the threshold winnowers interesting.
The worldbuilding is...
egelantier said "overwhelming" and that's a good word for it. There is A LOT of it, and the POVs are very tight -- nothing is explained that would not need explanation to a citizen of the hexarchate, and mostly nothing that would not need to be explained to a soldier, either. I happen to like in media res worldbuilding, so this worked for me, aesthetically, but I did spend a lot of time just sort of... riding the wave of worldbuilding without necessarily understanding what was going on (things do start to gel after a while. Mostly.) It's well done, I think, and there's a lot of attention paid to things that I personally find interesting -- the intersection of home and high languages, naming traditions, cultural traditions (Kel and gloves for instance, ungloving only for suicide missions), superstitions. I love things like the fact that Cheris's name means "Twenty-Three" because in her parents' (heretical, presumably) tradition, children are named after the saints whose days they're born on, but in the hexarchate calendar there are no saints, so she's just named after the day of the month. And all the terminology and slang are really neat -- "black cradle" is such a great word for the the thing in which Jedao is stored between "recalls" (nothing more is explained about it, for extra creepiness), and slang terms like "crashhawk" (for a formation-breaking Kel) and "hawkfucker" (what Cheris more genteely thinks of as "fraternizer"), all the ship classes being "moths" (cindermoth, voidmoth, etc.), weapons names (neglect cannon, genial gun, kaleidoscope bomb, amputation gun *shudder*, threshold winnowers), all that really add to the feel of the setting. Oh, and I really loved the variety and oddness of the ship names, too: Sincere Greeting, Spiders and Scars, Unenclosed by FearWith all of this, The hexarchate really felt alien and vast, with cultures layered on top of conquered/reformed cultures.
The castes were interesting, too, because I'm a sucker of Planet of Hats type things -- although, to be honest, I never did figure out how the castes work. They seem to be occupation based rather than born into, but there also seems to be a lot of overlap, maybe? They kept reminding me of Dragaeran houses, anyway, what with the Dragon-like Kel (The warrior caste), the decidedly Yendi-esque Shuous (intelligence officers and assassins, and generally people who enjoy mindfuckery for fun and profit), the Hawk-like Nirai (mathematicians and engineers), and so on -- the animal totems contribute to this, of course, although they don't match up. The Vidona (who I don't think we've met yet) are the inquisitors, and that's... an interesting addition.
Looking back over the places I marked, I can see the foreshadowing/setup of a lot of things later revealed about Jedao: hims saying "I am your gun" to Kujen when he's coming to take stock at the beginning (the same phrase with which he made his deal with him before the black cradle), asking Cheris to put the math in graphical form for him ("Interesting. Math wasn't his strong suit?") -- and I noticed also that the one time Jedao got angry at her and she really pushed through was when she was trying to account for servitors in the formation -- which I assume means he couldn't follow her math (and was probably getting frustrated with that, too, on top of feeling like she was wasting time while people were dying).
Quotes:
"The servitors considered themselves lucky that the Nirai hexarch, who had grown up before machine sentience was achieved, found it difficult to think of humans as people, let alone machines."
"Jedao snapped. 'If I'd meant to kill myself at Hellspin Fortress, I would have put a bullet in my head. My aim isn't that bad.'"
"Niaad wished the corporal would stop philosophizing and give a fucking order already."
"'Have more confidence,' Weniat said. This had the opposite of the desired effect."
"Cheris had asked what the riots were about. Ragath had given her a jaundiced look then said, 'The generalized unfairness of life.'"
"'It can drive people crazy if it's not calibrated correctly,' Kujen said. 'I don't mean sociopath values of crazy. [...] I know what I am. I'm talking aout useless raving values of crazy.'"
*
Sherlock season 3 -- I put it off for ages because my flist didn't seem to be enjoying it nearly as much as the first two seasons, but then I rewatched the first two seasons with the rodents (well, rewatch for me, first time through for them), and L kept wanting to go on to season 3, because HER friends liked it a lot, so I went ahead and bought the DVD. And it was actually not bad!
I don't think I ever watched the mini-episode/teaser back in the day, either, but that one was also fun.
Spoilers from here!
3x01, "The Empty Hearse" -- I knew from fannish osmosis that they never revealed how the thing with Sherlock being alive was actually done, just different ideas, but it was still fun to see. My favorite, as well as L's, was what L termed as "the Tumblr version" -- the one where Sherlock and Moriarty are colluding at it, and end up snogging in the end. The reunion with John I was not spoiled for, but also liked. Sherlock pulling off something like dressing up as a waiter for no reason other than to show off for John, putting him on the spot in a public place (and obliviously interrupting the proposal) was a very Sherlock thing, and "Well, the short version... not dead," and we laughed at all the instances of John going for him, with much justification. Oh, and the intercut scenes where Mrs Hudson is talking to Sherlock with quick cuts to John putting on his examination gloves, middle finger first, and "Fu.." "...Cough". *is twelve* Everybody hating John's mustache (and him shaving it off after Sherlock kept asking him about it) was also a lot of fun. The Sherlock and Mycroft moments worked less well for me -- I mean, they were fine, but I usually like Mycroft more than this. Although the " Both of us thought you were an idio" line was pretty great. And meeting Sherlock's parents was neat, too. I found the ending kind of meh, though, because I found it hard to believe Sherlock wouldn't know how to defuse a bomb (this isn't like the solar system, it would be actually useful!), and also, even for Sherlock this is an asshole trick to pull on poor John. So the ending kind of soured me on the episode, a bit, though I did still like it overall. But L declared it her new favorite one.
We all really liked Mary. She looks kind of like a badass Hobbit, and a good match for John (and also made me think of Lesley May from RoL). And I don't remember what it was about the episode, but spoilers for episode 3 at one point L said, "Is Mary a secret agent or something?" and repeated it again in episode 2. I didn't say anything, but I really wonder what tipped her off! /spoilers for ep 3
3x02, "The Sign of Three" -- OK, this is a bit more slapsticky than I really need my Sherlock to be, but I liked it better than the first one anyway. Sherlock and John's stag night with graduated cylinders was pretty funny, as was drunk!Sherlock. Sherlock's speech was by turns poignant and hilarious (and occasionally sounded like he was planning on marrying John and Mary, too, which neither John nor Mary seemed to be objecting to overmuch), and I especially liked the part where he manages to move the audience to tears and is then very puzzled by this: "What’s wrong? What happened? Why are you all doing that? John? Did I do it wrong?" We liked Sherlock's interactions with Archie, the kid who likes looking at grisly pictures, and the bridesmaid (Janine?) who uses his deduction skills to analyze single men at the wedding. At the end, L was saying plaintively, "I ship ALL of them! Is that allowed?" and I was kind of there with her -- John and Mary are adorable! John and Sherlock are great as always (though I do like them platonic just as much if not more than Johnlock), Mary and Sherlock have a great understanding, and the whole triad is the cutest -- I loved the scene where they are all "plotting" to take the third person out to make them feel better -- John is asking Sherlock to take him away from the wedding planning, Mary is asking Sherlock to take John out for a bit, and John and Mary have code to get away to scheme to take Sherlock out for a walk because he's obsessed with the wedding thing. Mary's two separate thumbs ups were the best! And of course there's the pregnancy reveal.
Other good lines that made me laugh:
Mrs. Hudson: Your mother has a lot to answer for.
Sherlock: Hmm, I know. I have a list. Mycroft has a file.
Lestrade finally getting to take some revenge on the boys:
John (hungover): Can you whisper?
Lestrade: (loudly) Not really!
3x03, His Last Vow -- OK, not as much of a fan of this episode, although there were definitely parts of it I liked, and I apparently have a whole lot to say about it. It felt too long and scattered and IDK. The mind palace scenes when Sherlock was dying went on waaay too long for my taste, and I didn't appreciate either the dream palace!Moriarty nor the return (apparently?) of the real article, although Sherlock's plane being turned back and Mycroft's "I hope you've learned your lesson" was wonderful, of course.
I did mostly like Magnussen as a villain, or at least more than I'd liked Moriarty, and L agrees with me. (And she once again correctly predicted a line of his, as she'd done with Mycroft and Moriarty and Sherlock before. Clearly she should be writing for this show.) I like his sort of mild-mannered bespectacled appearance and quiet way of speaking, but was less a fan of his getting into people's space physically, marking his territory (what even was that, ugh), and so on. I get the contrast they're going for, but I just... it is possible to have villains who do not express their villainy by licking things, OK.
I knew what happened with Mary -- that she was ex-CIA, and that she shot Sherlock to save his life (or whatever). L was unspoiled, although as I'd mentioned in episode 1, and also in episode 2, she wondered if Mary was some kind of spy or something -- she picked up on exactly the things Sherlock later called out, which left me very impressed. Anyway, about ten seconds after Mary shot Sherlock, L said, in a slightly bemused tone, "Mary is kind of awesome." And, honestly, I concur. A lot of my flist seemed to dislike Mary after this episode -- which I can totally understand, she shot Sherlock and lied to John the whole time! -- but I found myself still totally rooting for her and John, and was very happy when they reconciled at Christmas and John had that sweet little speech abut Mary Watson being enough of a name for him. Aww, Hobbits!
Christmas at the Holmses was quite lovely in general, especially Mycroft, complaining that his mother is calling him "Mikey", "Am I happy, too? I haven't checked.", bantering with Sherlock, and the two of them hiding their cigarettes and Sherlock blaming Mycroft. I do like the boys' mother; still trying to figure out Mr Holmes. (And I had no idea until I checked Wiki that the people playing Sherlock's parents are Cumberbatch's actual parents. Ha!)
Another thing I really enjoyed, contrary to my expectations, was the thing with Janine. I liked her and Sherlock at the wedding in the previous episode, but her sashaying around his flat half-naked was definitely O.o-inducing (John's face was the BEST thing! XD), and I liked the way it ended, with her making a tidy sum and coming to gloat and cutting off Sherlock's morphine. I would've liked them to have been friends, too.
Janine: Sherlock Holmes, you are a back-stabbin', heartless, manipulative bastard.
Sherlock: And you, as it turns out, are a grasping, opportunistic, publicity-hungry, tabloid whore.
Janine: So, we're good, then?
Sherlock: Yeah, of course. Where's the cottage? [which she is buying with tabloid proceeds]
Janine: Sussex Downs.
Sherlock Holmes: Mm, nice.
Janine: It's gorgeous. There's beehives, but I'm getting rid of those. [Heh.]
I had to go back to the climax to try to figure out for myself whether it makes sense to me. So presumably Sherlock realized, or at least started to strongly suspect, that Magnussen's "archives" wee all in his head when he took his spectacles and they were just plain glass. But in order to get close to Magnussen to actually shoot him (thereby effectively destroying the archives), he had to pretend to the plan to swap Mycroft's laptop so that Magnussen would think he was actually planning to frame him with the GPS tracker. But why did he wait so long to shoot Magnussen once he WAS there? He was waiting for Mycroft and witnesses to show up, so presumably Mycroft et al actually had to hear for themselves that there were no physical archives? That's the only way that makes sense. And that way he's only guilty of murder but not exposed for treason or compromising security or whatever. Still, as far as resolutions go, that did not work particularly well for me. (And I'm not really convinced that shooting Sherlock, even with surgical precision, was the most reasonable thing for Mary to do -- unless she thought that Sherlock almost dying was the way to distract the public from what he and John were doing in Magnussen's office in the first place, but that seems kind of a stretch.)
But I did enjoy the scenes of the fallout, Sherlock and John shaking hands good-bye, and Sherlock trying to convince John to name their daughter after him; that was cute, and the line about being gone for six months, by Mycroft's estimate, which are never wrong, was nice and poignant, even though I knew he wasn't really heading off to die.
I'm huh about kid!Sherlock making an appearance, especially with tears running down his face at the end. I guess that, and the dog, will come up in season 4, from what I know of season 4.
And, aww, so Molly's engagement is off? Presumably because Tom was not a psychopath and she does have a type? (Speaking of which, I laughed so hard at John's "Is every person I know a psychopath?" And there was a neat line about an addict looking for a fix, which Sherlock turned around on John, with his danger fixation. And speaking of which, Mary's "I'll keep him in trouble" as she was saying good-bye to Sherlock was also very cute, as was her and John's "You can't come, you're pregnant!"/"You can't go, I'm pregnant!" exchange.. L's favorite exchange, which I also liked, was this:
Sherlock: Did you bring your gun as I suggested?
John: Why would I bring my gun to your parents' house for Christmas dinner?
Sherlock: Is it in your coat?
John: Yes.
Unsold on Billy Wiggins for now, although he had a number of amusing scenes with both John ("I'm a doctor. I know how to sprain people..") and Mary ("Keeps me off the streets, dunnit?" "Well...no.")
*
And a fanfic rec for Rivers of London: Routine Maintenance (Varvara/Nightingale, Explicit (fuck or die), 10k) -- So, I was intrigued but also a bit dismayed by the premise, because while I LOVE Varvara's crush on Nightingale, I have a really hard time imagining a scenario where the two of them actually get together in any form. But this one is brilliant, and really plausible, and Nightingale is perfectly in character, and Varvara is glorious, and there's also Molly being Molly. It is really, really good.
This entry was originally posted at http://hamsterwoman.dreamwidth.org/1047386.html. Comment wherever you prefer (I prefer LJ).