teach me, I know I'm not a hopeless case
This morning I waited 25 minutes for a bus I could actually board (and that was just barely and I had to stand most of the way, ugh), and therefore didn't make it to work until about 9:25, where I discovered that my computer wouldn't boot. After about 90 minutes of troubleshooting and updating drivers, the IT guy said it appeared to be video drivers being corrupt, so he replaced them and now things are working but ugh. Are we sure today isn't secretly Tuesday? Wednesdays are usually much kinder to me. Luckily, Boss1 is at an all day seminar and Boss2 is in Florida, so it was going to be a quiet day anyway.
*
The Wednesday reading meme:
What I'm currently reading:
Yesterday, I started The Devil You Know by Mike Carey, which is about a guy named Felix Castor, who is a freelance exorcist. I picked this up based on the fact that 1. Mike Carey wrote Lucifer (i.e., the spinoff of Sandman following Lucifer's adventures and if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it), which was a pretty fantastic read overall, and 2. it was recommended by a couple of people when I mentioned loving Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London books. Felix isn't as immediately charming or engaging as Peter Grant, the narrator/protagonist of Aaronovitch's series, but so far he's enjoyably sardonic, if a bit of a sad sack.
The books do have a similar premise - the supernatural has come back in modern day London and someone's got to handle it when things go wrong - but I would say they're technically different genres? Peter Grant is a cop - that's how he's introduced to us, and the people who populate his world are basically cops, criminals, (potential) criminals, and (potential) victims and witnesses. There's a procedural aspect to the books that I enjoy, with a focus on legwork that the police do to solve crimes and how Peter is or isn't good at certain parts of that. Otoh, The Devil You Know is a noir detective story - Felix doesn't have an organization with the might of the Metropolitan Police behind him. He's down on his luck because of something that went wrong in his past, he needs money, and to get it, he's just gotten mixed up in things that are way over his head and about to spin wildly out of control. Since I am a big fan of noir detective fiction, this is all right by me.
The other difference I've noticed so far is that even though Carey also lives in London, so far his depiction of the city doesn't have the same visceral realness that Aaronovitch's does. Like, I've never been to London, but I knew within the first couple of chapters that the guy writing Midnight Riot (aka, Rivers of London - a much better title, btw - in the UK version) had to live there (or had lived there once upon a time) and knew and loved the city in all its messy glory. So far, Carey's London doesn't feel quite as real or lived-in to me, but maybe that will come. He does write some snappy dialogue and can turn a phrase pretty well, so I have no complaints on that score and I'm enjoying the book so far.
What I just finished reading:
The Other Lands and The Sacred Band, Books 2 and 3 of the Acacia Trilogy by David Anthony Durham. Both books suffer from the same issues as the first one, i.e., plot drives the narrative, rather than character, and once again, the author chooses not to provide most of the emotional payoff (which is especially galling at the end of Book 3), and there is way more time spent with characters I don't really care about (the leaguemen, Rialus Neptos, Delivagu) instead of characters I do (Mena is still my favorite). Plus, there is an awful lot of handwavium and ass-pullium being deployed in the climatic scenes, and the character motivations are a little hard to believe sometimes.
I think if you like books where a lot of people plot against a lot of other people and there are a lot of battles and some pretty fine world-building, you might like this series. The plot is compelling and fairly propulsive once it gets going - I absolutely wanted to know what was going to happen next - but the multiple alternating character POV and the lack of real emotional engagement, plus the fumble on the dismount, means I didn't love it and I doubt it will stick with me.
What I plan to read next:
As always, I tend to not have any idea until I actually finish what I'm currently reading. I would have to procure the next Felix Castor if I like the one I'm reading now, and I might choose to put that off since I have a ton of other things to read. Otoh, I've never managed to show restraint where books are concerned, so it's possible that's what I'll read next, damage to my wallet be damned.
Plus whatever comics come out today.
*
Yesterday, I did the "what would you make me write for you" meme and the answers I got were all things I would like to write anyway: Suits fic featuring Jessica! Steve/Bucky nightswimming! and, most intriguingly, a crossover featuring Veronica Mars & Tim Drake, aka, ethically questionable lady detectives and the uptight vigilantes they team up with. If only for the part where Tim thinks he's got her fooled and she'll never connect him to Red Robin and then at the very end she reveals she's known since at least halfway through their time together, when she's like, "See you 'round, Robin." Because Veronica Mars is smarter than you! Well, maybe not smarter than Tim, but equally as smart, and much less hampered by rules. If only I could come up with a mystery worthy of them!
That's why I still haven't written the other VMars/DCU crossover where Veronica comes to Gotham on the trail of a missing girl and suspects Bruce Wayne is a serial killer. because it needs to be smart because it would have to baffle the World's Greatest Detective(s). And my writing brain just doesn't work that way. It's really annoying, because i can read most mysteries and spot the killer etc. pretty early on, but when it comes to writing one, I'm just completely at sea. Sigh.
*
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/544450.html.
people have commented there.
*
The Wednesday reading meme:
What I'm currently reading:
Yesterday, I started The Devil You Know by Mike Carey, which is about a guy named Felix Castor, who is a freelance exorcist. I picked this up based on the fact that 1. Mike Carey wrote Lucifer (i.e., the spinoff of Sandman following Lucifer's adventures and if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it), which was a pretty fantastic read overall, and 2. it was recommended by a couple of people when I mentioned loving Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London books. Felix isn't as immediately charming or engaging as Peter Grant, the narrator/protagonist of Aaronovitch's series, but so far he's enjoyably sardonic, if a bit of a sad sack.
The books do have a similar premise - the supernatural has come back in modern day London and someone's got to handle it when things go wrong - but I would say they're technically different genres? Peter Grant is a cop - that's how he's introduced to us, and the people who populate his world are basically cops, criminals, (potential) criminals, and (potential) victims and witnesses. There's a procedural aspect to the books that I enjoy, with a focus on legwork that the police do to solve crimes and how Peter is or isn't good at certain parts of that. Otoh, The Devil You Know is a noir detective story - Felix doesn't have an organization with the might of the Metropolitan Police behind him. He's down on his luck because of something that went wrong in his past, he needs money, and to get it, he's just gotten mixed up in things that are way over his head and about to spin wildly out of control. Since I am a big fan of noir detective fiction, this is all right by me.
The other difference I've noticed so far is that even though Carey also lives in London, so far his depiction of the city doesn't have the same visceral realness that Aaronovitch's does. Like, I've never been to London, but I knew within the first couple of chapters that the guy writing Midnight Riot (aka, Rivers of London - a much better title, btw - in the UK version) had to live there (or had lived there once upon a time) and knew and loved the city in all its messy glory. So far, Carey's London doesn't feel quite as real or lived-in to me, but maybe that will come. He does write some snappy dialogue and can turn a phrase pretty well, so I have no complaints on that score and I'm enjoying the book so far.
What I just finished reading:
The Other Lands and The Sacred Band, Books 2 and 3 of the Acacia Trilogy by David Anthony Durham. Both books suffer from the same issues as the first one, i.e., plot drives the narrative, rather than character, and once again, the author chooses not to provide most of the emotional payoff (which is especially galling at the end of Book 3), and there is way more time spent with characters I don't really care about (the leaguemen, Rialus Neptos, Delivagu) instead of characters I do (Mena is still my favorite). Plus, there is an awful lot of handwavium and ass-pullium being deployed in the climatic scenes, and the character motivations are a little hard to believe sometimes.
I think if you like books where a lot of people plot against a lot of other people and there are a lot of battles and some pretty fine world-building, you might like this series. The plot is compelling and fairly propulsive once it gets going - I absolutely wanted to know what was going to happen next - but the multiple alternating character POV and the lack of real emotional engagement, plus the fumble on the dismount, means I didn't love it and I doubt it will stick with me.
What I plan to read next:
As always, I tend to not have any idea until I actually finish what I'm currently reading. I would have to procure the next Felix Castor if I like the one I'm reading now, and I might choose to put that off since I have a ton of other things to read. Otoh, I've never managed to show restraint where books are concerned, so it's possible that's what I'll read next, damage to my wallet be damned.
Plus whatever comics come out today.
*
Yesterday, I did the "what would you make me write for you" meme and the answers I got were all things I would like to write anyway: Suits fic featuring Jessica! Steve/Bucky nightswimming! and, most intriguingly, a crossover featuring Veronica Mars & Tim Drake, aka, ethically questionable lady detectives and the uptight vigilantes they team up with. If only for the part where Tim thinks he's got her fooled and she'll never connect him to Red Robin and then at the very end she reveals she's known since at least halfway through their time together, when she's like, "See you 'round, Robin." Because Veronica Mars is smarter than you! Well, maybe not smarter than Tim, but equally as smart, and much less hampered by rules. If only I could come up with a mystery worthy of them!
That's why I still haven't written the other VMars/DCU crossover where Veronica comes to Gotham on the trail of a missing girl and suspects Bruce Wayne is a serial killer. because it needs to be smart because it would have to baffle the World's Greatest Detective(s). And my writing brain just doesn't work that way. It's really annoying, because i can read most mysteries and spot the killer etc. pretty early on, but when it comes to writing one, I'm just completely at sea. Sigh.
*
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/544450.html.
people have commented there.