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2011 Books 26-28
Apr. 27th, 2011 07:48 pm26) The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig: the latest in the Pink Carnation series, and the inevitable Christmas themed entry, was quite enjoyable. Willig does a wonderful job making you like the foppish male lead, Reginald 'Turnip' Fitzhugh, who had previously appeared as a foil to the intelligent, often debonair men of the previous books. Turnip is, quite bluntly, a dolt. But he's an amiable, kind, caring dolt, willing to play his part for King and country, and prone to both gloriously rambling sentences and self deprecating humor. The obstacles holding him apart from the female lead, Arabella, are less 'romance novel confusions' but actual issues of class and status between a 30 thousand a year gentleman and a boarding school teacher. Willig completes her move away from classic romance novel status in this book in that there is nary a hint of sex in it (OK, a little hanky in the form of longing glances and some kisses, but definitely no panky). I stand by my hypothesis that this is her preferred mode, and that the sex scenes in the earlier entries were there just to cater to the genre rules. (P.S,: don't read it for the mystery, as it's not that mysterious....)
27) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahme-Smith: An audiobook, this is something I would have put down otherwise, as the joke got old quickly. I'm glad I stuck with it to the end, as the ending essay on the nature of Gothic novels in Austen's time - how current authors would take older works and graft on more spooky bits claiming it was a new novel - compared to the book you just finished. That information was worth more than the text, which serves mostly as an object lesson in how not to build the world for Mech & Matrimony.
28) Zero History by William Gibson: this took a little bit to get into, but I blame my life more than the author. it was definitely good, filled with lots of lovely Gobsonian prose and grand ideas, and better than Spook Country, but like its predecessor it suffers from not being as good as Pattern Recognition. (A not uncommon pattern in Gibson's non-trilogies, in my opinion.) Still, recommended.
27) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahme-Smith: An audiobook, this is something I would have put down otherwise, as the joke got old quickly. I'm glad I stuck with it to the end, as the ending essay on the nature of Gothic novels in Austen's time - how current authors would take older works and graft on more spooky bits claiming it was a new novel - compared to the book you just finished. That information was worth more than the text, which serves mostly as an object lesson in how not to build the world for Mech & Matrimony.
28) Zero History by William Gibson: this took a little bit to get into, but I blame my life more than the author. it was definitely good, filled with lots of lovely Gobsonian prose and grand ideas, and better than Spook Country, but like its predecessor it suffers from not being as good as Pattern Recognition. (A not uncommon pattern in Gibson's non-trilogies, in my opinion.) Still, recommended.
