Photos and books

[mrissa]

timprov has been taking a bunch of cool photos (and blogging them at komododaikon), and we have walls with nothing hanging on them. We're beginning to think that these two facts may combine in a pleasing way at some point. Here are the two I definitely want prints of at the moment: both related to water. Go, look, enjoy.

Books read, early June:

Joan Aiken, Dangerous Games. This one didn't strike me as well as the last, I think because it felt more like more of the same than any of the previous ones have. I have another on my library pile.

Libba Bray, The Sweet Far Thing. Ohhhhhh dear. Okay, look. I am not opposed to long stories. I read the Baroque Cycle! And liked it! at least in several ways. But this was not 800 pages worth of story. It was 400 or 500 pages of story crammed into 800 pages. Smack in the middle, one of the characters makes a disparaging comment about authors who go on and on and can't just tell you what they mean, and I thought, you know, you think you're being funny, but no. If the first book in this series had been written this way -- never take one scene to do what you can do in five! -- I don't think I'd have continued with it. The ending was okay, I guess. I had been hoping for something more.

Jim Butcher, White Night. Definitely well into the part of this series where it's no longer stand-alone. The climax felt kind of over the top to me, but one doesn't read the Dresden Files for under the top. Shifting alliances good.

Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons Dangereuses. This was such trashy good fun. Read classics, kids! They are juicy! Except the tacked-on "and then everybody suffered horribly horribly horribly for their sins" ending; you can skip that part.

Peter Dickinson, Play Dead and The Last Houseparty. The latter of these was more like the Dickinson mysteries I'd read before: heavy on the flashback, from decades or more away. It was fine but not outstanding in that regard; I'd recommend The Yellow Room Conspiracy or Death of a Unicorn above The Last Houseparty if you're looking for that type of Dickinson. Or papersky's Farthing for some other aspects of it. Play Dead was something different: the mystery was solved within a year of its occurrence! Not just in the same decade but in the same year! So that was novel. I liked the main character. I found her companionable.

Edward Eager, The Time Garden. I had forgotten the connection to another of his books in this one. I remembered that I liked it as a kid, and I like it now, too.

Alan Garner, The Owl Service. I'm not sure what I expected, but this definitely wasn't it. Weird book. Not in a bad way, just dated. I really liked the paper owls. Also can someone write me a fantasy spy novel featuring owls?

William Goldman, The Silent Gondoliers. This is also not what I expected at all. It was shorter, slighter, less overtly fantastical, immensely more straightforward. It was a charming little book, but I don't think I ever got over the jolt to my expectations. I will have to give it another think next time I read it, when I know what it is. Also, now will somebody please write me a very thick overtly fantastical novel with silent secretive gondoliers in it?

Allegra Goodman, Intuition. To continue with a theme: not what I expected. This one wasn't even in the same category and genre as I'd expected: I thought it would be YA fantasy, and it was adult mainstream. Fiction about scientists, not science fiction. Mostly pretty good that way. I really felt pulled into characters on more than one side of the central issue of the book, so hating one of the major characters didn't harm my reading of it, because I liked so many of the rest. I did feel that the bit where the concern was dragged outside the scientific community was a bit much. It just strained my disbelief a bit. Felt like it was done that way because Goodman wasn't trusting the inherent drama of the situation. But in all, I'd definitely recommend it to people who like fiction about science and the subculture that it works inside. (I finally did figure out why I felt it was likely to be YA fantasy: the cover of the paperback was drastically different from the cover of the library hardcover. It had pink in it. I ask you.) Also can somebody write me a YA fantasy about John Donne and a young girl studying biology?

Maureen Johnson, Devilish. This one was sort of structurally messy, and it felt like it was written by and for someone who had seen too many of the romantic comedies of the last three decades. But it did not actually feature Meg Ryan or anyone who could have been cast as Meg Ryan, and that saved it and pushed it into the realm of light fun.

I don't have any book-writing requests from this one. Sorry to break the chain.

Diana Wynne Jones, Power of Three. I am a really hard sell on stories that center around human development harming small creatures the humans don't even know are there, because I read the NIMH books and saw the movie when I was very small. It's odd, because when I started reading DWJ, I wasn't reading the cover flaps, I was just checking to make sure the thing I picked up wasn't a later book in a series I hadn't started yet, and then I was just reading whichever one came to hand next. But it seems like I got to a lot of the really awesome stuff early and have been filling in with the lesser works since. I have another on the pile; we'll see if that continues.

Rebecca Pawel, Death of a Nationalist. Soho Crime wins again. I do not have a strong sense of what mystery covers are trying to convey, mostly, except that Soho Crime's entire line is trying to convey, "YOU MUST BUY ME NOW, YES, YOU, MARISSA K. LINGEN OF EAGAN, MINNESOTA, MUST BUY ME NOW NOW NOW." So far this is absolutely correct. Well, nearly correct: I must borrow them from the library at the very least. I mean, sure, Colin Cotterill will bring the average up with me for anyone who publishes him; Colin Cotterill is awesome. (Go. Read.) But I've now read a couple that weren't by Cotterill, and they really seem to be doing a great job with that crucial sales demographic, mrissas and people like them. This one is a murder mystery set during the Spanish Civil War of the '30s. It's not nearly as outstanding as the Cotterills (Go! Read!), but I really liked the details of the setting. At the end of the book WWII had broken out, and I am not eager to find out what the detective is up to next so much as I'm eager to find out what she does with that particular setting for a mystery novel. The sequel went on my library list -- but so did a lot of the Soho Crime backlist by other authors, because it's looking like their priorities may intersect with mine pleasantly.

Mary Renault, The King Must Die. Okay, so. This was my first Mary Renault. I spent most of the time wanting to kick Theseus sharply in the shins. Those of you who read Mary Renault: is this typical? Am I going to want to kill all her protags? Or is it just Theseus who's Obnoxious Sue?

Ruth Rendell, Going Wrong and Wolf to the Slaughter. The former was really pretty creepy -- filled with creepy people, in fact, not just the immediate and obvious one. Very well-done if you want to read a suspense novel where it's the personalities, not so much the physical actions, that creep you out. The latter is the second in the Inspector Wexford series, very late 1960s. Not in a bad way. I will keep on with those.

Comments

[brooksmoses]

Ooh, pretty pictures indeed! I very quickly added komododaikon to my reading list.

Undone!

[papersky.livejournal.com]

The fantasy novel with owls, spies and secretive gondoliers was shaping up nicely until you got to Donne and biology.

Re: Undone!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, leave out the biology and John Donne, by all means! I meant them for three separate books anyway.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Oh, and there are a couple of other Dickinsons where the mystery is solved in the same year. The one that comes to mind first is A Summer in the Twenties, which you probably won't be able to find, but there's also King and Joker.

Re: Undone!

[papersky.livejournal.com]

The water still held a little of the light the sky had given up already. As Giovanna poled her customers towards the central channel of the Bridge of St Cryptodon, wings swept over her head. "An owl!" the lady said, startled, and the gentleman laughed and patted her hand. "A white owl is good luck, they say," he said, and it was clear from his tone what kind of luck he expected the evening to bring him. Giovanna knew better, but said nothing. She ducked her head and brought the gondola neatly through the arch. She wondered who at St Cryptodons the great owl sought, and who in the forest kingdoms had sent it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I just got King and Joker today.

Re: Undone!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes. Like that.

[crimini.livejournal.com]

Lovely photos! And they will make great art for your walls!

[pameladean]

The Theseus books are not typical of other Renault, in my opinion.

I think the best of her historicals is probably The Mask of Apollo. It's about the theater (and philosophy, and kingship) and has the most amazing ending, as well as huge amounts of lovely, lovely detail, practically the same as worldbuilding since I gather that she had to make a lot of it up. I also really love the Alexander books (Fire from Heaven and The Persian Boy; I've never reread Funeral Games). But the Alexander books feel like guilty pleasures to me. Of the contemporary romances, The Charioteer is totally brilliant.

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

This is what I wanted to know. Thanks.

White Night

[mackatlaw.livejournal.com]

Over the top, but I thought it worked. You make a good observation! It was an incredible duel, a massive pitched battle with nearly all the characters, and then a psychic suicide and an aborted romance. I like it when authors aim high.

I would loan you "Small Favor," the newest Jim Butcher, but my brother has it, and he's now in Texas... Have you read his Codex Alera series and if so, any recommendations?

Also, have you read the Abhorsen trilogy? Perhaps I could loan you that. It's a YA series about a good-aligned Necromancer who must put the kingdom back together... It's spooky without being horror, and fairly inventive.

Mack

The Abhorsen Trilogy

[mackatlaw.livejournal.com]

http://www.abhorsentrilogy.com/abhorsen.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabriel (warning, this link has spoilers in the plot summmary)

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Also, now will somebody please write me a very thick overtly fantastical novel with silent secretive gondoliers in it?

It's 30k in, if I can figure out what the hell the actual plot is.

Hear that, book? Mris wants your plot!

Re: White Night

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've read the Abhorsen trilogy. We have Small Favor (markgritter is reading it first -- it was his birthday present), and while I appreciate the offer, I really prefer not to have to keep track of returning borrowed books by mail.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

*is spoiled*

Why don't I have a "spoiled" or "smug" icon? This seems like an oversight.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

I think it's cause they all qualify.

Re: White Night

[mackatlaw.livejournal.com]

I understand your borrowing policy. :)

Have you blurbed/reviwed the Abhorsen series anywhere on your journal before? I'd be interested in knowing what you thought.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

I feel a "smug" or "spoiled" icon should feature pie.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We now have a project.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Arright, you!

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

We do!

*starts hunting photogenic pie*

[redbird]

I just asked my library for the Pawel, the Goodman, and one by Colin Cotterill.

Re: White Night

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Sadly, the webzine where I reviewed Lirael and did an interview with Nix is now defunct.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I started with Thirty-Three Teeth, the second in the Cotterill series, but I think that reading them in order does actually provide some benefit: by Disco for the Departed, there are things about the characters' interactions that have built interestingly.

[fitzcamel.livejournal.com]

Something from Waitress?

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Mary Renault, The King Must Die. Okay, so. This was my first Mary Renault. I spent most of the time wanting to kick Theseus sharply in the shins. Those of you who read Mary Renault: is this typical? Am I going to want to kill all her protags? Or is it just Theseus who's Obnoxious Sue?

I wonder how much of this is a function of maturity. _The King Must Die_ is the first Renault I read. I read it when I was 15, when a teacher hinted I might like it, and I fell head over heels in love with Theseus. He was so much more *sensible* than anybody I knew! An awful lot of her books have characters I want to kick in the shins, as an adult (just not necessarily the protagonist. And it doesn't destroy the rest of the book.) I agree with Pamela that _The Mask of Apollo_ is more likely to be to your taste than _The King Must Die_. I suspect the characters in _The Charioteer_ would annoy you more than you want to cope with, and there's not so much lovely world-building detail to compensate.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

I was going to get some real pie, photograph it, and then eat it. :D

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the additional information; that's very helpful.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

Aha! This is helpful: I read Charioteer and Persian Boy, then King Must Die and stopped. It seems I haven't necessarily gone off her after all, if there's that much of a difference in quality.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Lasthenia.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I was working on a radio adaptation of Charioteer when she died. She'd been silent for a while, then I had a letter saying, more or less, "sorry not to have been in touch, I've been in bed with pneumonia - which made me pine for my old nursing days, when it was kill or cure, rather than dragging on for weeks - but I'm feeling better and back at my desk. Now, where were we...?" - and I was just forming a reply when my father phoned to let me know she'd died.

I've been thinking it might be time for a re-read - and, yes, pretty much your order of preference for me too, please.

[pameladean]

Oh yes, I love it madly. And all done with such a light touch. And Niko is so funny, too, and the whole narrative voice so true-seeming and sly. And the structure of the whole thing, good Lord.

P.

[pameladean]

Oh dear, I wish I had a teleporter and could send you mine. My cravings for Renault come on very strongly when they come.

I was thinking about what you said about the ending's at least implying the dissing our our boy Aristotle. He's dissed the same way in [another novel it would be a spoiler to name], really -- a very sympathetic character whose personal experience made him more narrow-minded than he needed to be to be the best teacher that he could. He's not, of course, sympathetic at all to the bedazzled Niko. (I love how easily Niko is bedazzled. It's very sweet.)

P.

[pameladean]

Moi, meet another person who loved The Mask of Apollo. 8-)

P.

[pameladean]

Oh, my gosh. How I'd love to hear that. Because the_red_shoes is right, it would make a dynamite radio play. The dialogue is splendid and the action largely interior, though there are a few scenes I'd wonder how one would do. How would you do that amazing interior monologue of Laurie's when Sandy walks into the ward?

Yikes, sorry, don't mind me.

P.

[pameladean]

I hated that first biography that you mention with a passion. I don't think he even knows how to read fiction. His research and personal knowledge might be okay, but he gets things SO WRONG in her books.

I am haplessly fond of the contemporary romances and have read them over and over. They are almost all flawed in one way or another, aside from The Charioteer, which is a work of genius, in my opinion. But they are still by Mary Renault, and they have such characters and such details of daily life and such incredibly complicated emotional situations delineated so clearly that I can't stop reading them. She's always writing about people whose romantic instincts just don't follow the conventions and who are constrained by the need for secrecy, for any of a number of very different reasons.

P.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Aristotle's pupil was certainly more successful than Plato's.

But human experiments are not repeatable, as is a point at the end of The Mask of Apollo.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Oh, the boardwalk picture is _fabulous._ I strongly suspect the boardwalk itself is also fabulous. But the picture, I am certain about.

(The paperback cover of Intuition foxed me, too. I knew what the book was about by the time I saw it, so it wasn't too bad a jar, but there was definitely some questioning of what I knew.)