Home again
Kathy's mother invited me out for the second, non-cruise week of their vacation in Florida as an early birthday present, so I have been gone for a bit. We drove up to St. Augustine and Savannah, just in time for the cold front pushed down by the storms in the northeast. Savannah and St. Augustine are beautiful and full of interesting history, but we only had three days to look at them, two of which were quite chilly. I'd really like to go back some day when it's warmer and we have more leisure to look around. I managed to lose my favorite knit cap while we were there, and then I left my jacket on the plane when we came home. Sigh. I put in a lost and found form with the airline, so hopefully they'll find it.
I managed to get all the furniture shipped to my brother and my cousin before I left, and the stuff going to my brother was delivered today. There was a message on my phone when we got home today saying that the table going to my cousin was on its way, so Linda, if you're reading this, expect it soon!
The cats are all fine, and tomorrow I can go pick up Bo (we got home too late to get him today.) Thursday I go back to work, and we have an appointment to do Mom's 2017 taxes.
I finally got around to reading the Queen's Thief books, which I like a great deal. They've got engaging characters, thoughtful worldbuilding, and a lot of juicy political intrigue. I think they're advertised as YA novels, and the first one might qualify, but the rest of the series tackles some very dark and adult situations, and they're smart books. The one thing that kind of bugged me was the way Gen and Attolia ended up together. I was semi-spoiled for a lot of things in the series, so I knew they ended up married, and I was expecting a political marriage after which they'd have to work together and gradually overcome the HUGE issues they have (I mean, anyone who thinks Buffy and Spike have a problematic romance? Compared to Gen and Attolia they are the most functional relationship on the planet.) But instead, we're told out of the blue that Gen's in love with Attolia and has been for ages, and it didn't really work for me. The author does this thing in each book where she drops clues and then does a Big Reveal. Most of the time it works well. In the first book, I picked up all the clues and was not at all surprised by the reveal. In the second and third books, I picked up most of the clues, and most of the ones I didn't pick up were obvious in retrospect, so I felt that the author was playing fair. But in this one case, I think the authorial secretiveness worked against the story. While it was apparent that Gen was fascinated/obsessed by Attolia, the romantic love aspect just... didn't come through for me, so the resolution felt a bit forced and unnatural. Knowing that Gen loved her would have made certain things that happen earlier in the book even more emotionally intense, and they were pretty damn intense as it is.
Still, once they're together, they make exactly the sort of omnicompetent power couple I love to read about, so I'm not going to complain too much. I'm just starting Thick As Thieves, which I have heard described as "not enough Gen," but I like it so far. Gen is great fun, but like Lymond and Miles Vorkosigan, I suspect that his author needs a break from him after awhile.
Rants Talk to me
I managed to get all the furniture shipped to my brother and my cousin before I left, and the stuff going to my brother was delivered today. There was a message on my phone when we got home today saying that the table going to my cousin was on its way, so Linda, if you're reading this, expect it soon!
The cats are all fine, and tomorrow I can go pick up Bo (we got home too late to get him today.) Thursday I go back to work, and we have an appointment to do Mom's 2017 taxes.
I finally got around to reading the Queen's Thief books, which I like a great deal. They've got engaging characters, thoughtful worldbuilding, and a lot of juicy political intrigue. I think they're advertised as YA novels, and the first one might qualify, but the rest of the series tackles some very dark and adult situations, and they're smart books. The one thing that kind of bugged me was the way Gen and Attolia ended up together. I was semi-spoiled for a lot of things in the series, so I knew they ended up married, and I was expecting a political marriage after which they'd have to work together and gradually overcome the HUGE issues they have (I mean, anyone who thinks Buffy and Spike have a problematic romance? Compared to Gen and Attolia they are the most functional relationship on the planet.) But instead, we're told out of the blue that Gen's in love with Attolia and has been for ages, and it didn't really work for me. The author does this thing in each book where she drops clues and then does a Big Reveal. Most of the time it works well. In the first book, I picked up all the clues and was not at all surprised by the reveal. In the second and third books, I picked up most of the clues, and most of the ones I didn't pick up were obvious in retrospect, so I felt that the author was playing fair. But in this one case, I think the authorial secretiveness worked against the story. While it was apparent that Gen was fascinated/obsessed by Attolia, the romantic love aspect just... didn't come through for me, so the resolution felt a bit forced and unnatural. Knowing that Gen loved her would have made certain things that happen earlier in the book even more emotionally intense, and they were pretty damn intense as it is.
Still, once they're together, they make exactly the sort of omnicompetent power couple I love to read about, so I'm not going to complain too much. I'm just starting Thick As Thieves, which I have heard described as "not enough Gen," but I like it so far. Gen is great fun, but like Lymond and Miles Vorkosigan, I suspect that his author needs a break from him after awhile.
Rants Talk to me