In which there are the SOE, sexy muttonchops, superheroing, and fictional spying
- SOE memorial, featuring a bust of Violette Szabo, Albert Embankment, in front of Lambeth Palace, London. There are, of course, other earlier SOE memorials.
- Reading, books 2015, 138.
136. The Countess Conspiracy, Brothers Sinister v.3, by Courtney Milan, is another well-written volume in the series. This one was set amongst the mid-Victorian (USian romance novel style) upper crust but with an unusual career-woman/science OTP subplot. Although the story is rly all about angst, sex, and angsty sex, which was fine but I personally would happily have swapped at least half of that for more of the protag's mother and niece. (4/5 someone nudge me when the first "Worth" series book is scheduled)
Aside: I wonder if any mainstream "historical" romance novel set in Victorian England features a hero with sexy sexy muttonchops or an oh so desirable patriarchal beard? "She ran her fingers through his bushy sidewhiskers in an ecstasy of passion...."
137. Family Album, Astro City vol.3, by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson, is more of the same for this series - what happens outside the face-punching part of superheroing - and still good. (4/5)
138. Velvet vol.1, Before the Living End, by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting (the Winter Soldier creative team), is a spy thriller graphic novel set in the 1970s, with flashbacks as far as 1949, starring a forty-something woman who is a cross between Miss Moneypenny and Modesty Blaise. True to its genre, nothing about the characters or plot will be resolved until the series ends [at unscheduled future point] so until then it's all glamourised violence with convoluted motivations. I tend to find spy thrillers an uninteresting genre because, like romance, I know how the story is expected to end so the only variables are minor variations in the subplots and whether or not I care about any of the characters. My particular problem with spy thrillers is that, even in the most traditional examples of the genre, there's only ever going to be a maximum of one character whom I as a reader can afford to care about, and we're often expected to care about their fate more because of some assumed political sympathy than because we care about them as people - which is, alas, reasonable in a genre in which the protagonist is almost always a professional multiple murderer or worse. I did care slightly about Velvet but not necessarily enough to buy volume 2. (4/5)
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- Reading, books 2015, 138.
136. The Countess Conspiracy, Brothers Sinister v.3, by Courtney Milan, is another well-written volume in the series. This one was set amongst the mid-Victorian (USian romance novel style) upper crust but with an unusual career-woman/science OTP subplot. Although the story is rly all about angst, sex, and angsty sex, which was fine but I personally would happily have swapped at least half of that for more of the protag's mother and niece. (4/5 someone nudge me when the first "Worth" series book is scheduled)
Aside: I wonder if any mainstream "historical" romance novel set in Victorian England features a hero with sexy sexy muttonchops or an oh so desirable patriarchal beard? "She ran her fingers through his bushy sidewhiskers in an ecstasy of passion...."
137. Family Album, Astro City vol.3, by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson, is more of the same for this series - what happens outside the face-punching part of superheroing - and still good. (4/5)
138. Velvet vol.1, Before the Living End, by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting (the Winter Soldier creative team), is a spy thriller graphic novel set in the 1970s, with flashbacks as far as 1949, starring a forty-something woman who is a cross between Miss Moneypenny and Modesty Blaise. True to its genre, nothing about the characters or plot will be resolved until the series ends [at unscheduled future point] so until then it's all glamourised violence with convoluted motivations. I tend to find spy thrillers an uninteresting genre because, like romance, I know how the story is expected to end so the only variables are minor variations in the subplots and whether or not I care about any of the characters. My particular problem with spy thrillers is that, even in the most traditional examples of the genre, there's only ever going to be a maximum of one character whom I as a reader can afford to care about, and we're often expected to care about their fate more because of some assumed political sympathy than because we care about them as people - which is, alas, reasonable in a genre in which the protagonist is almost always a professional multiple murderer or worse. I did care slightly about Velvet but not necessarily enough to buy volume 2. (4/5)
This entry was originally posted at http://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/556573.html and has
comments Please comment there using OpenID.