(no subject)
OMG. Miriam totally checked out O Jerusalem for me. My time of Laurie King deprivation is at an end! At last, there will be snark! And notquite!sex! And in conclusion, cousins. Permit me to fangirl for a moment:
So, I was introduced to Laurie R. King's murder mysteries when I was (I think) in eighth grade. The first series I read, the Mary Russell books, continues to be one of the few series of murder mysteries that I actually like-- I actually originally picked up The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell, purely on the similarity of the names.
However, let me make a few things clear to you: for one thing, Mary Russell is one of the biggest, most awesome Mary Sues ever. She speaks at least seven languages to some extent-- at some point in the second book, she conjugates verbs in her head-- I think she works her way through Latin, Greek, French, and Spanish; she also speaks Hebrew, Arabic, and Hindi. Russell is incredibly intelligent, and manages to get accepted to Oxford at age sixteen, where she studies Theology and Chemistry. She has long blonde hair, is horribly myopic... and is the apprentice of none other than Sherlock Holmes.
"But Sarah!" you say. "You quit reading Mercedes Lackey books when she Sued! Why are these books different?" (unless you're l_c_h_a_n, in which case you say "but you don't read yuri!", to which I respond by asking if it was really that, er, un-obvious?)
Well, for one thing, these books are full of SNARK. Russell meets Holmes by nearly tripping over him while wandering about the countryside, and they procede to spend the next few pages yelling at eachother-- Russell is 15, and studying for entrance exams, and Holmes is retired, in his fifties. The secondary characters are wonderful-- Ali and Mahmoud Hazr, who appear in O Jerusalem and Justice Hall in very different guises, are incredible. And, as is necessary since these books are set in the early parts of the 20th century, they are ACCURATE. I love these books dearly-- to be sure, there are some that I like more than others (Justice Hall, A Monsterous Regiment of Women, and The Beekeeper's Apprentice are my favourites; I loved O Jerusalem, The Game, and A Letter of Mary, as well as the most recent book, whose name I cannot recall. My least favourite is The Moor, although I loved the opening chapter.)
The books are presented as a sort of memoir, so make sure to read the "editor's note" at the beginning of The Beekeeper's Apprentice, because it's really nifty.
Anyway, the books are, in order:
The Beekeeper's Apprentice
A Monsterous Regiment of Women
A Letter of Mary
The Moor
O Jerusalem
Justice Hall
The Game
Locked Doors
Go and read!
Anyway, I'm going to go and read. And totally not sleep, because dude, BOOK.
-S
So, I was introduced to Laurie R. King's murder mysteries when I was (I think) in eighth grade. The first series I read, the Mary Russell books, continues to be one of the few series of murder mysteries that I actually like-- I actually originally picked up The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell, purely on the similarity of the names.
However, let me make a few things clear to you: for one thing, Mary Russell is one of the biggest, most awesome Mary Sues ever. She speaks at least seven languages to some extent-- at some point in the second book, she conjugates verbs in her head-- I think she works her way through Latin, Greek, French, and Spanish; she also speaks Hebrew, Arabic, and Hindi. Russell is incredibly intelligent, and manages to get accepted to Oxford at age sixteen, where she studies Theology and Chemistry. She has long blonde hair, is horribly myopic... and is the apprentice of none other than Sherlock Holmes.
"But Sarah!" you say. "You quit reading Mercedes Lackey books when she Sued! Why are these books different?" (unless you're l_c_h_a_n, in which case you say "but you don't read yuri!", to which I respond by asking if it was really that, er, un-obvious?)
Well, for one thing, these books are full of SNARK. Russell meets Holmes by nearly tripping over him while wandering about the countryside, and they procede to spend the next few pages yelling at eachother-- Russell is 15, and studying for entrance exams, and Holmes is retired, in his fifties. The secondary characters are wonderful-- Ali and Mahmoud Hazr, who appear in O Jerusalem and Justice Hall in very different guises, are incredible. And, as is necessary since these books are set in the early parts of the 20th century, they are ACCURATE. I love these books dearly-- to be sure, there are some that I like more than others (Justice Hall, A Monsterous Regiment of Women, and The Beekeeper's Apprentice are my favourites; I loved O Jerusalem, The Game, and A Letter of Mary, as well as the most recent book, whose name I cannot recall. My least favourite is The Moor, although I loved the opening chapter.)
The books are presented as a sort of memoir, so make sure to read the "editor's note" at the beginning of The Beekeeper's Apprentice, because it's really nifty.
Anyway, the books are, in order:
The Beekeeper's Apprentice
A Monsterous Regiment of Women
A Letter of Mary
The Moor
O Jerusalem
Justice Hall
The Game
Locked Doors
Go and read!
Anyway, I'm going to go and read. And totally not sleep, because dude, BOOK.
-S