I believe this is longer than expected (holy shit yes - cut)
I have a half-written review of Robin McKinley's Spindle's End. It's sitting on Dox' harddrive. Unfortunately, Dox is at home (maybe I should look at Googledocs again), and I'm at the office. An office where there is basically nothing to do, because my busy lawyer is on vacation all week. Periodically he calls and asks if the office has blown up.
So I sit, on office combustion watch, while my brain bears a strong resemblance to a slug. Heat plus health problems does not equal an alert mind. But even I can't play Final Fantasy Tactics A2 constantly, so, some short things I've been meaning to mention.
1. Conrad's Fate is much better the second time around than the first. I had some vague memories of there being some plot hole that was niggling me at the end, but my memory was clearly exagerating things. The actual problem seemed to be that the wee chapter epilogue is written in such a way that it makes it /feel/ as though something rather large was left unaddressed that should have been dealt with in that six (?) year gap - Conrad's odd ability to photography other realities. Obviously the ability isn't revealed until the end, and it's presumably dealt with during Conrad's later education, which is really post the relevant time frame of the novel. Might have caused less irritation if the epilogue had been left off entirely. Ideally, the issue would be resolved by another novel proper set during that time frame, giving Jones a chance to explore whatever new ideas might have been involved in Conrad and his magic. The effect of the epilogue is that it seems like it closes the doors on any possible sequel, which may also explain my sense of irritation when the book first came out.
2. Conrad's Fate mentions, quite off-hand, that a person can only live in another world for X number of years. It's not a plothole, but I can see that rule causing a rather large problem after the events of Charmed Life.
3. The ending of Year of the Griffen is just as awkward as I remembered it. I'd been hoping to find some undercurrent of satire to the massive pairing up of almost-everyone at the end, without success. Especially with the griffens, it just feels like Jones wrote a novel between this and Dark Lord of Derkholm and forgot to tell anyone. Leaving a character to a rather unpleasant fate simply because he was ignorant and arrogant (more through a fault of the system than any particular wickedness of his own) also left me feeling uncomfortable. A lot of Jones novels have a dark undercurrent, a feeling that in the end, even happily ever after isn't unconditionally happy, but this feels more like pointlessly attacking a straw man character and then having everyone feel very pleased about it in the end.
4. The Silver Pigs won't be getting a review, because I think I read it in entirely the wrong mental state. I don't read mystery novels very often, and there's a very real difference between the pacing and feel of a mystery novel that tends to throw me off. It's not something I find makes for easy reading, so reading it in an under-the-weather state probably wasn't the best idea. I enjoyed it - although I thought the UST could have remained UST for a good deal longer (say several books longer) and the villain seemed painfully obvious. I just honestly didn't have enough of a brain at the time to form intelligent comments, let alone a coherent review.
5. I'm putting off the reading of Five Hundred Years After and the China Meville until I have a brain again. It's a shame - I'm really looking forward to both books. But I'll feed it Wodehouse and Crusie and Bidulka in the interim (all easily readable for their own special snowflake reasons).
6. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2: Grimoires of the Rift or whatever the fuck. The one where Vaan shows up and he has a shirt, eventually, I'm told. Bought it. Enjoying it. It goes well with the fact that I have no brain. All the reviews which commented on the fact that there is no plot to speak of were not exagerating, but, honestly, that may not be a bad thing. Sometimes Squeenix makes a good story, and sometimes it seems like they graft an unwieldly mess of a plot onto something that would be quite enjoyable if people would just /stop talking/, God. Plus, you get to oppress religious minorities, be shot at by adorable moogles with pistols, and solve a fetch quest by having your character eat unknown mushrooms.
7. There is a guest cat in the apartment right now and hopefully he will continue to exist and be in the apartment until his human comes back from Comic-Con. He is not a very outgoing cat and he has a heart condition. When I woke up this morning, I was convinced he was dead and invisible. I looked under the bed, with lamp and stick, and did not find him. I checked the hiding place in the cat tree, the cat tunnel, and even lifted up the couch. I checked behind the dressers and behind the desk. There was no cat to be found until I gave up, had a shower, and came out to find him sitting on the floor and meowing. He'd also pooed on the floor. Hopefully when I go home today, he'll have magically become adjusted to the new apartment, the other two cats, and will be eating, drinking, and shitting in the damn litter box.
8. It is inhumanly hot and muggy in my apartment - possibly moreso than it is outside. Some weather pixies should really consider fixing that.
9. I am considering the merits of takeout, just so I don't have to do the dishes.
Portions of the above may or may not be relevant to your interests.
So I sit, on office combustion watch, while my brain bears a strong resemblance to a slug. Heat plus health problems does not equal an alert mind. But even I can't play Final Fantasy Tactics A2 constantly, so, some short things I've been meaning to mention.
1. Conrad's Fate is much better the second time around than the first. I had some vague memories of there being some plot hole that was niggling me at the end, but my memory was clearly exagerating things. The actual problem seemed to be that the wee chapter epilogue is written in such a way that it makes it /feel/ as though something rather large was left unaddressed that should have been dealt with in that six (?) year gap - Conrad's odd ability to photography other realities. Obviously the ability isn't revealed until the end, and it's presumably dealt with during Conrad's later education, which is really post the relevant time frame of the novel. Might have caused less irritation if the epilogue had been left off entirely. Ideally, the issue would be resolved by another novel proper set during that time frame, giving Jones a chance to explore whatever new ideas might have been involved in Conrad and his magic. The effect of the epilogue is that it seems like it closes the doors on any possible sequel, which may also explain my sense of irritation when the book first came out.
2. Conrad's Fate mentions, quite off-hand, that a person can only live in another world for X number of years. It's not a plothole, but I can see that rule causing a rather large problem after the events of Charmed Life.
3. The ending of Year of the Griffen is just as awkward as I remembered it. I'd been hoping to find some undercurrent of satire to the massive pairing up of almost-everyone at the end, without success. Especially with the griffens, it just feels like Jones wrote a novel between this and Dark Lord of Derkholm and forgot to tell anyone. Leaving a character to a rather unpleasant fate simply because he was ignorant and arrogant (more through a fault of the system than any particular wickedness of his own) also left me feeling uncomfortable. A lot of Jones novels have a dark undercurrent, a feeling that in the end, even happily ever after isn't unconditionally happy, but this feels more like pointlessly attacking a straw man character and then having everyone feel very pleased about it in the end.
4. The Silver Pigs won't be getting a review, because I think I read it in entirely the wrong mental state. I don't read mystery novels very often, and there's a very real difference between the pacing and feel of a mystery novel that tends to throw me off. It's not something I find makes for easy reading, so reading it in an under-the-weather state probably wasn't the best idea. I enjoyed it - although I thought the UST could have remained UST for a good deal longer (say several books longer) and the villain seemed painfully obvious. I just honestly didn't have enough of a brain at the time to form intelligent comments, let alone a coherent review.
5. I'm putting off the reading of Five Hundred Years After and the China Meville until I have a brain again. It's a shame - I'm really looking forward to both books. But I'll feed it Wodehouse and Crusie and Bidulka in the interim (all easily readable for their own special snowflake reasons).
6. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2: Grimoires of the Rift or whatever the fuck. The one where Vaan shows up and he has a shirt, eventually, I'm told. Bought it. Enjoying it. It goes well with the fact that I have no brain. All the reviews which commented on the fact that there is no plot to speak of were not exagerating, but, honestly, that may not be a bad thing. Sometimes Squeenix makes a good story, and sometimes it seems like they graft an unwieldly mess of a plot onto something that would be quite enjoyable if people would just /stop talking/, God. Plus, you get to oppress religious minorities, be shot at by adorable moogles with pistols, and solve a fetch quest by having your character eat unknown mushrooms.
7. There is a guest cat in the apartment right now and hopefully he will continue to exist and be in the apartment until his human comes back from Comic-Con. He is not a very outgoing cat and he has a heart condition. When I woke up this morning, I was convinced he was dead and invisible. I looked under the bed, with lamp and stick, and did not find him. I checked the hiding place in the cat tree, the cat tunnel, and even lifted up the couch. I checked behind the dressers and behind the desk. There was no cat to be found until I gave up, had a shower, and came out to find him sitting on the floor and meowing. He'd also pooed on the floor. Hopefully when I go home today, he'll have magically become adjusted to the new apartment, the other two cats, and will be eating, drinking, and shitting in the damn litter box.
8. It is inhumanly hot and muggy in my apartment - possibly moreso than it is outside. Some weather pixies should really consider fixing that.
9. I am considering the merits of takeout, just so I don't have to do the dishes.
Portions of the above may or may not be relevant to your interests.