Recent reading

[aelfgyfu_mead]

I read three non-work-related, fiction books since I last posted! I try not to spoil them in my reviews, but there may be spoilers in comments. (I'm happy to discuss them with anyone who has read them-or even anyone who hasn't!-but one might alert to spoilers in your comment title.)

Comments

[a_phoenixdragon]

*hugs*

[lukadreaming]

I have a kind of mixed relationship with Connie Willis. I liked The Doomsday Book a lot and periodically wonder about re-reading it, but pull back because I'm not sure it would stand up to it. The central idea in Passage was stunning and bits of it soared, but the whole thing needed editing with a pick-axe. She never sees a running gag that she doesn't work into the ground!

I've tried a couple of the others but the ones reliant on a better knowledge of American history than I have didn't work for me.

And I have been warned off Blackout, which I think is her latest, because of the myriad cultural howlers she makes. The Doomsday Book was pretty annoying (she needs Brit-checking very badly!) but I'm told Blackout is one error after another. I should probably read and make my own mind up, but not when I have mountains of other books to read!

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Ah! You mentioned at least once a well-known American writer who committed huge bloopers in her books set in England, and I kept meaning to ask who it was and forgetting. That's too bad about Blackout-especially since Brilliant Husband already received the first volume as a gift (at my suggestion, though I wasn't the giver).

I loved Doomsday Book; it remains my favorite of hers. I liked Passage despite its problems (and some basic disagreements with it), but I agree about the editing!

I'm somewhat hardened to cultural errors. As a medievalist who enjoys historical novels, I have put up with a fair amount. I enjoyed Ellis Peters's Brother Cadfael series, but in one of them, the resolution of the mystery hinged on a point that was completely factually wrong. Any graduate student (and many advanced undergrads) in history or medieval studies should have caught that mistake. There was also a very simple fix for it.

We're also far less likely to notice errors in Blackout than you are!

[lukadreaming]

I couldn't remember if I'd whined before about it on your LJ *g*. My guess is that she doesn't have a UK distribution deal for most (or maybe all) of her books, so probably isn't fussed, which I find more than a tad depressing. In the days of Amazon, it doesn't matter where your publisher is!

lil_shepherd did a very thorough demolition of Blackout a while ago, which persuaded me to steer clear. Apparently even the front cover pic is inaccurate.

As a matter of interest, what were your disagreements with Passage?

Spoilers for Passage

[aelfgyfu_mead]

For one thing, I thought Joanna Lander went pretty far off the deep end! She made herself a test subject because she was running short of subjects. That bothered me a lot; I had trouble believing a smart medical researcher would go that far. I was intrigued by the ideas about what a dying brain does, but as far as the (brief) depiction of what happens after death, I wasn't so impressed.

Then again, I've been reading rather more spectacular versions of the afterlife for many years now, so Willis had stiff competition in that category! I've taught Dante's Inferno more than once. (I'm afraid I do find it more interesting than the other two parts, though I feel I ought to be more interested in Paradiso.) Bede reports a couple of near-death experiences among the Anglo-Saxons in his Ecclesiastical History. My favorite is the brother who, after a visit to hell (not here a place of flames), frequent goes to stand out in a freezing river. When asked whether it isn't awfully uncomfortable, he simply replies, "I have known it colder