Finally read the second Tracy Grant mystery, Beneath a Silent Moon, starring Charles and Melanie Fraser. I think I preferred the first book, but I don't really remember it all that well. This one got a bit convoluted, and I, for one, have some problems sometimes with British books, particularly the Regency-era ones, because I get confused by the names - everyone has a first name, a last name, a title... It was fun enough, though, and good for a cold, snowy day when I stayed home and mostly just slept and ate stew. Not sure what is next on the list - strangely, I got NO books for Christmas, which has to be a first. Of course, I have literally shelves-full of books I've bought and books I've borrowed from the library, but nothing's jumping out at me. Which is maybe a good thing, since I REALLY need to clean my apartment today, rather than just sleep and read and eat...like, yesterday. It was magical, but time to get back to real life.
Oh - and was just picking up and found A Vengeful Longing, by R.N. Morris, on the coffee table, under a pile of magazines and other books (including Dick Minear's latest offering!!!) - I think I read it at the same time as the Chevalier book? Don't really remember now, but I think I finished it and then moved on to Perdido Street. In any case, I really enjoyed it. It's the second, I believe, in the "St. Petersburg Mystery" series, starring Dostoyevsky's detective from Crime and Punishment (so freaking amazing), Porfiry Petrovich. I remember I saw it on the outside bargain table at the Harvard Bookstore, and almost grabbed it, but then remembered I should really be spending my money on Christmas presents, so I held off until I could check Hollis, and sure enough, the library had it. I'm wondering now if they didn't have the earlier book (A Gentle Axe), because I don't know why I wouldn't have started with that one...
I don't think it mattered all that much, but there were several references to events that happened prior to the opening of the book, and I wasn't sure if they were meant to be a bit mysterious, or if I would have understood them if I had read the first book. In any case, I thought the writing was great: well-drawn, nuanced characters, that you get to know a little, but also stay at arm's length; wonderfully descriptive settings, with evocative details - the persistent flies buzzing throughout the story's hot, foetid summer were a great touch!
Showing posts with label China Mieville. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China Mieville. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Not-so-Christmas-y reading
Finished China Mieville's Perdido Street Station the morning of Christmas Eve (or maybe the night before
that - I forget, things got a little...confused....Thursday night (12/23) when I went out with E all night and morning). Mixed feelings. For starters, and coming from a conversation I had with M & N on Christmas Eve (whoo! both my brothers are home!), I definitely don't think the author phoned it it. This is a super-complex world Mieville has created, with a politics and environments and history all it's own - if anything, I got the impression while I was reading that we were only scratching the surface of this made-up world of Bas-Lag. I think the biggest problem for me was some of the steam-punk elements of imaginary science started zoning me out - I found myself skipping over the "mechanics" of a major plot development or two, because the physics and firewalls and blah-blah-blah don't interest me. And, to be fair, most likely don't interest me because I didn't get them. But maybe I didn't get them because I didn't try, so chicken/egg. I'm also not a very visual reader, I don't necessarily "see" characters and scenes in my mind, but I was having a really hard time picturing the main characters. Which in some ways is maybe a testament to Mieville's creativity (beetle heads, humanoid bodies?!) and also to my lack of imagination, but it was unsettling, and interrupted the flow of the narrative. Oddly, the scenery and setting I had no problem pulling up images of - although I think the city of the walking, talking cacti was totally pulled from the high rise towers in season one of the Wire!
Starting Christmas Eve, before bed, and finishing up today, before my post-work nap, I read the fourth (yes?) Sebastian St. Cyr mystery, Where Serpents Sleep, by C.S. Harris (a/k/a Candice Proctor, and C.S.
Graham {with her husband}, apparently). I ordered it from Amazon along with that Tracy Grant book, because I could never find either in the library or used - and it was actually cheaper from Amazon then it likely would have been used, which is just sad. And yet I still love the Harvard Bookstore basement, so oh well. I wasn't super excited to read this one, I just think they're decent time-killers, but I actually think this is my favorite so far, by far. In previous books we were introduced to Hero Jarvis, the daughter of the series' gray eminence, the power behind Prinny's throne, but here she's a real character, and she's a good one. Not a figure to go down in the annals of great literature, but better than the last female lead in this series. The best part is she is initially described as practical, smart, no-nonsense, not looking for a man, and not that pretty - and she's pretty much the same way at the end, even after the inevitable hints of a slowly developing romantic entanglement. I also give Harris credit for not jumping into the romance-y stuff. It looks like she's going to let it develop over time, and maybe another book or two, which is not the easy answer, but a more plausible one.
Don't think I read anything else (other than bridal magazines - yay, for R&M, and yay for being maid of honor!!!) since the last post. Merry Christmas!
that - I forget, things got a little...confused....Thursday night (12/23) when I went out with E all night and morning). Mixed feelings. For starters, and coming from a conversation I had with M & N on Christmas Eve (whoo! both my brothers are home!), I definitely don't think the author phoned it it. This is a super-complex world Mieville has created, with a politics and environments and history all it's own - if anything, I got the impression while I was reading that we were only scratching the surface of this made-up world of Bas-Lag. I think the biggest problem for me was some of the steam-punk elements of imaginary science started zoning me out - I found myself skipping over the "mechanics" of a major plot development or two, because the physics and firewalls and blah-blah-blah don't interest me. And, to be fair, most likely don't interest me because I didn't get them. But maybe I didn't get them because I didn't try, so chicken/egg. I'm also not a very visual reader, I don't necessarily "see" characters and scenes in my mind, but I was having a really hard time picturing the main characters. Which in some ways is maybe a testament to Mieville's creativity (beetle heads, humanoid bodies?!) and also to my lack of imagination, but it was unsettling, and interrupted the flow of the narrative. Oddly, the scenery and setting I had no problem pulling up images of - although I think the city of the walking, talking cacti was totally pulled from the high rise towers in season one of the Wire!
Starting Christmas Eve, before bed, and finishing up today, before my post-work nap, I read the fourth (yes?) Sebastian St. Cyr mystery, Where Serpents Sleep, by C.S. Harris (a/k/a Candice Proctor, and C.S.
Graham {with her husband}, apparently). I ordered it from Amazon along with that Tracy Grant book, because I could never find either in the library or used - and it was actually cheaper from Amazon then it likely would have been used, which is just sad. And yet I still love the Harvard Bookstore basement, so oh well. I wasn't super excited to read this one, I just think they're decent time-killers, but I actually think this is my favorite so far, by far. In previous books we were introduced to Hero Jarvis, the daughter of the series' gray eminence, the power behind Prinny's throne, but here she's a real character, and she's a good one. Not a figure to go down in the annals of great literature, but better than the last female lead in this series. The best part is she is initially described as practical, smart, no-nonsense, not looking for a man, and not that pretty - and she's pretty much the same way at the end, even after the inevitable hints of a slowly developing romantic entanglement. I also give Harris credit for not jumping into the romance-y stuff. It looks like she's going to let it develop over time, and maybe another book or two, which is not the easy answer, but a more plausible one.
Don't think I read anything else (other than bridal magazines - yay, for R&M, and yay for being maid of honor!!!) since the last post. Merry Christmas!
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