Reading roundup

[hamsterwoman]

I appear to be emerging from a dry spell of (book) reading that lasted from March to about May -- the vacation helped, and, actually, I should've taken more than just the two books with me, as by the last third of our vacation I was reduced to reading the Encyclopedia Britannica -- the only text MIL had in English that was not some kind of romance

Comments

[axmxz]

Ooh, I loved that Jewish lady in "Gone"! Although overall, I agree, the book wasn't anythign to write home about. Poorly paced and sort of too lumped towards the end. Nothing like his more medically-flavored stories. In general, he's way better at writing semi-medical mysteries and psych mysteries than just plain crimes.

[axmxz]

One thing that always makes me giggle about the Delaware series is that he allows time to march onward, but his chronology is getting more and more strained as time goes on. His boys are getting seriously geriatric.

[hamsterwoman]

You're right on the pacing -- the time felt... mis-managed, somehow -- where the revelations fell, and all that "extra" stuff at the end. I guess, yeah, the psych element in the latter books is barely present -- there's no longer any reason Alex *should* be involved -- he's just hanging out with Milo, plain and simple..

His boys are getting seriously geriatric.

Heh, yes! :) Although only Milo shows it. Alex's Johnny-Depp-like genes Mary-Sue powers something-or-other keeps him fit and pretty for the ladies...

[axmxz]

Right! And the ladies themselves are already *way* past "Balzac's age". =X-D

At some point he might want to simply fudge the chronology. Have Milo be a serviceman in the Gulf War or whatever. Have everyone forget that they've been around since ages immemorial. He's currently trying to branch out into other characters - Petra, Sharavi, whatever - but dude, we all love Alex and Milo best. :))

[hamsterwoman]

And the ladies themselves are already *way* past "Balzac's age".

Yeah... though Alex's mysterious anti-aging powers seem to extend to them as well. (Perhaps that's why they all clamour for him as they do...)

At some point he might want to simply fudge the chronology.

Hmm, true... All he'd have to do, really, is stop referring to previously established time markers, or do it vaguely enough that it's not clear which war Milo was around for, etc. That way they can all persist in a Neverland sort of state. (I wonder, actually, if he hasn't started doing so already...)

I like Petra well enough, and the novels with her as protagonist (Twisted, was it?) are OK, and I wouldn't mind seeing Sharavi again, actually, as a supporting player -- but, of course, they lack the emotional center that the Alex/Milo partnership is, which is, of course, the main reason to read the books... :D