Author: katenepveu

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Gabaldon, Diana: (201) Lord John and the Private Matter

Lord John and the Private Matter is the latest novel by Diana Gabaldon, and set in the same world as her Outlander series. Lord John Grey is a secondary character in that series, and one of my favorites, so I was quite looking forward to this mystery, set off-stage during the Outlander series.

Unfortunately, this failed to live up to my expectations, for two reasons. First, I wasn’t impressed with it as a mystery. Obvious conclusions seemed not to be followed up, a key obfuscating detail appears to exist just to obfuscate, and overall I found it hard to follow and unengaging. Second, there’s very little development or growth of our protagonist—which I don’t think is an inevitable result of its interstitial nature, because there are hints at the end that some relationships might develop in the next book (apparently there are to be three). Here, John is worried and runs around trying to figure things out, and that’s about it. I really like his character when he appears in other books, but here, there just wasn’t enough tension on a personal level to draw me in.

Also, I know the title is appropriate on several levels, but I still don’t like it.

I hope my suspicions about the path of the second book are correct and we get a story about Lord John, not just a plot. This first one was rather a disappointment.

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Duane, Diane: (107) Wizard’s Holiday

Diane Duane’s Wizard’s Holiday is the most recent book in the Young Wizards series and the sequel to A Wizard Alone. The title is after “Busman’s Holiday,” and should give you a reasonable idea of the plot: Kit and Nita go on a wizardly exchange program to another planet for vacation but have adventures, and their exchange counterparts come stay with Dairine and also have adventures.

The first portion of the book is a welcome lighter look at being on holiday in a strange place, after the darker turns of the last two books. We also get to see more of our Earth wizards’ families, which I enjoyed. The second part doesn’t work as well; one plot thread doesn’t seem to be fully tied off, the other was somewhat disturbing to me, and the thematic attempts to tie the two together were a bit forced. The plot does get points for giving us a much different incarnation of The Lone Power than we’ve seen before, however.

This feels rather like an interlude book, something like A Wizard Abroad, but not as static—there is emotional progress from the last two books, after all. The interlude nature is enhanced by the very tantalizing hints about serious troubles afoot for the next book, Wizards at War (currently in progress). I am looking forward to it, though I greatly doubt that Duane will actually make good on the truth in the Lone Power’s taunts to Nita about getting other people to die for her. (Oh, and there had better be something more about the Ponch stuff in that book, or I shall be Most Annoyed.)

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Duane, Diane: (106) A Wizard Alone (re-read)

I re-read A Wizard Alone, by Diane Duane (prior booklog entry), on a warm fall afternoon as the dog romped in the backyard. I didn’t feel quite awake enough to read the new book (Wizard’s Holiday, in the next entry), but I was in the mood for that kind of thing, and decided to refresh my memory on the prior book.

Things I noticed on this re-read: we get more of Kit and Nita’s families, Kit’s in particular. I still want to know where the stuff with Ponch is going. This is a much shorter book than I’d remembered. And I still like it quite a bit.

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Bujold, Lois McMaster: (202) Paladin of Souls

I have semi-resolved to get caught up on the book log by New Year’s. It’ll be a good trick if I can pull it off, since I am a dozen entries behind.

In fact, I’m so behind that I was reading Lois McMaster Bujold’s Paladin of Souls back at the start of October. In a way, the very fact that this was first in the queue has added to the delay: I really liked it and want to do it justice, which I haven’t felt capable recently. However, I shall take my cue from the deities of the novel, who seek not perfection, and make an attempt.

Paladin is set in the same world as The Curse of Chalion, several years later, but is not a direct sequel. Its protagonist is a minor character from Chalion, Ista dy Chalion, an ex-saint who was embittered and broken by her divinely-directed attempt to break the titular curse. As Paladin opens, Ista resolves to go on a pilgrimage to escape from the prison of her life. Events, of course, overtake her—though not in the direction I thought when I finished the sample chapters online, which I really should have resisted reading. For that reason, I’m not sure how obvious the plot is; I didn’t spot it, but I was disoriented because of my expectations based on the sample chapters. I can say that it’s precisely paced (my favorite line, for instance, comes almost exactly halfway through). The story is obvious from the start: it’s the healing and rehabilitation of Ista.

The novel is told from Ista’s point of view, in the tight-third that Bujold does so well. The narration makes it retroactively clear just how much Chalion was the Daughter’s book, as Paladin is the Bastard’s; Paladin‘s drier, more cynical tone contrasts nicely with the more idealistic and romantic attitude in Chalion. (The Bastard also gets a lot more screen time than the Daughter did, which is a tricky thing to manage but works because He has so much personality.) The book explores some further ramifications of the world’s history and theology, beyond what we first learned in Chalion; I thought that the added layers to the story of dy Lutez worked particularly well.

The plot of Paladin is driven exclusively by women, two of which get a lot of screen time. One is Ista, of course, and I found her a refreshing change from Ekaterin, Bujold’s most recent female point-of-view character. (Don’t get me wrong, I like Ekaterin; but she’s so reserved that it’s rather fun to have a snarly outspoken protagonist.) Also, as pointed out in comments to a LiveJournal post filled with SPOILERS, Ista’s role in the book has very little to do with being a mother, which is again a nice change from Ekaterin and Cordelia both. The other major female character is more complex than I first expected, which I appreciated.

I found this a very satisfying, engaging book. There’s one bit of dialogue, clearly meant as an emotional climax, that inexplicably goes clunk in my head; but other than that, I’ve no other complaints. (I’ve seen other people comment that they thought the plot was predictable, but as I’ve said, I can’t speak to that.) I greatly enjoyed it and continue to offer up thanks that Bujold has not fallen prey to the Brain Eater.

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Gaiman, Neil: (112) Sandman: Endless Nights

The Sandman: Endless Nights, written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by diverse others, is a collection of tales set in the Sandman universe, one story for each Endless. (Illustrated in the standard comic sense, that is, rather than a prose story with illustrations as The Dream Hunters was.) It’s somewhat of a mixed bag, but no more so than any of the prior Sandman collections. (I read this back in September and am only getting around to writing it up now.)

The first story, “Death and Venice,” is one of the better in the collection. Illustrated by P. Craig Russell, it’s not as jaw-droppingly beautiful as “Ramadan,” but it’s nevertheless highly pleasant to look at, with a central story that’s interesting even though we know what the ending must, inevitably, be. I do find the framing story a touch jarring, but that may be personal taste.

“What I’ve Tasted of Desire,” illustrated by Milo Manara, is okay. The most notable thing about it (besides the prevalence of nudity) is that it’s narrated in first-person retrospective over panels that depict the action in progress. Otherwise it didn’t particularly interest me.

Dream’s story is titled “The Heart of a Star,” and is illustrated by Miguelanxo Prado. In the introduction, Gaiman says, “While it is true that I am someone who prefers mysteries to explanations, I found it pleasurable here to explain a number of things.” I wish he’d stuck to the mysteries; the explanations are more anti-climactic than illuminating, and some of them strike me as implausible (Delight seems awfully Delirium-like, for instance, and my, was that a fast change of heart or what?).

“Fifteen Portraits of Despair” was designed by Dave McKean, with art by Barron Storey. I actually liked this one; several of the portraits stayed with me, as though the hook on Despair’s ring had caught my heart, which was the point. Mileage does seem to vary widely on it.

Maybe I’m weird, but I really liked the Delirium story “Going Inside,” illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz. I found it charming and clever and sad, all at once. Saying more about it would spoil it.

The Destruction story, “On the Peninsula,” is illustrated by Glenn Fabry and gets an “ehhh.” It doesn’t add much to my understanding of any of the characters, or tell a compelling story—though I suppose to the extent that it’s about a woman who goes seeking Destruction and returns unscathed, it’s unexpected.

The last piece in the collection is about Destiny and is titled “Endless Nights.” Frank Quitely did the art, which is very pretty. You notice I haven’t called it a story, because it isn’t. It’s just telling us about Destiny, and not anything we didn’t know already, either. I have no idea what this is doing here.

Because this is positioned outside the main story arc, I instinctively view it in isolation, to its detriment. However, I don’t think the proportion of good stories is any worse than in other Sandman collections. I can’t recommend that casual readers buy it in hardcover, but I don’t regret buying and reading it.

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Robb, J.D.: (17.5) Remember When (with Nora Roberts)

Remember When was written by Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb.

Who are the same person.

More specifically, J.D. Robb is a pseudonym of Roberts, a very popular romance writer. The pseudonym was never that secret—I forget how exactly I came across the first when it was originally published, but it was in connection to Roberts—and recently the covers have stated that they’re by Roberts writing as Robb. Presumably this hardcover is just another marketing step.

Anyway, the concept is that Roberts wrote the first section. This is set in the present day and concerns the aftermath of a diamond heist; there’s been a falling-out among thieves, an insurance investigator is on the case, and luuuuv is in the air. The problem with the first half, besides that the two main characters fall in love really quickly, is that the reader knows that things aren’t going to be wrapped up fully: there has to be something left that leads Eve Dallas, J.D. Robb’s protagonist, to investigate a linked crime fifty-odd years later. And indeed, the loose thread is not entirely plausible.

It also suffers in comparison to the second half, at least to me, because the J.D. Robb books have well-established characters that I care much more about than the ones in the first half. Mind, the second half isn’t perfect; there’s an annoying little continuity error that makes the police characters look much stupider than they actually are. It’s a problem with the series overall, unfortunately, though it’s not entirely surprising considering how prolific Roberts/Robb is (two books a year as Robb, and at least two as Roberts, generally). Hey, guilty pleasure, you know the drill.

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Wrede, Patricia C.: Book of Enchantments

Patricia C. Wrede’s Book of Enchantments is a collection of short stories; I picked it up a while ago as before-bed re-reading. Neither of Wrede’s “adult” series is represented in this collection (the Lyra series and the alternate-Regency books), but there are several stories set in her popular Enchanted Forest YA universe (Dealing with Dragons, etc.). These are among the stronger (and sillier) stories in the collection, particularly “Utensile Strength”, which features The Frying Pan of Doom. Another enjoyably humorous story is “Rikiki and the Wizard,” a folktale written for the second Liavek shared-world anthology. Less successful, in my opinion, was “The Sword-Seller,” which was written for a Witch World anthology; to me, it lacks some subtle spark. Overall, the stories range from classic fairy-tale format to fantasy in modern settings. The best story by far is “Stronger than Time,” but it’s generally a strong collection and well worth picking up if you like any of Wrede’s work.

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Montgomery, L.M.: Pat of Silver Bush; Mistress Pat

After re-reading The Curse of Chalion, I only really felt like reading the new Bujold, but not having a copy, well, I settled for something undemanding like L.M. Montgomery’s Pat of Silver Bush and Mistress Pat. I was reminded of these by a flurry of discussion of Montgomery’s Emily books on various LiveJournals. These are about a girl who’s in love with a house. Mostly they’re just people living their lives and telling stories, in the way that Montgomery does well, but there are two things that drove me nuts. First, a major character speaks in a brogue that’s phonetically rendered, and I hate phonetic dialogue. Second, the ending is absolutely horrible. Montgomery clearly wrote herself into a corner, but that’s no excuse for smashing her way out in the way that most insults the characters and the reader. I was warned that Montgomery’s inability to plot was on fine display in these, but I still found the ending highly dreadful.

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Bujold, Lois McMaster: (201) The Curse of Chalion (no-content re-read)

I re-read Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion in preparation for the forthcoming book set in that world, Paladin of Souls. I have absolutely nothing to add to my review of it, except that I really like this book and can’t want the next one to come out. (My willpower was extremely weak and I read the online sample chapters. Bad idea.)

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Doyle, Debra, and James D. Macdonald: Circle of Magic series

When I got back from vacation, I didn’t feel like reading anything lengthy, so I picked up Debra Doyle and James Macdonald’s Circle of Magic series, six books that were recently re-published, some under different names:

  1. School of Wizardry
  2. Secret of the Tower (formerly Tournament and Tower)
  3. The Wizard’s Statute (formerly City by the Sea)
  4. Danger in the Palace (formerly The Prince’s Players)
  5. The Wizard’s Castle (formerly The Prisoners of Bell Castle)
  6. The High King’s Daughter

Reprinted in 2000-01 with new covers, the publisher was clearly hoping to capitalize on the popularity of the Harry Potter books: the protagonist is about fifteen for the bulk of the series, and the old covers (I have the third in an old edition) show him as a teen. The new ones, on the other hand, have a pre-adolescent boy on most of the covers. I like the old titles better, by and large, as less generic, but if it helped them sell, I shall not fuss.

[ Speaking of clearly hoping to capitalize on Harry Potter: I spotted a twenty-anniversary edition of Diane Duane’s So You Want To Be A Wizard that, well, take a look at this pastel cover for yourself. Fortunately the paperbacks’ covers have not been changed. ]

I don’t know the technical term for this format, but the physical books are slightly taller than a standard mass-market paperback and all about 140 pages. They’re clearly written for a fairly young audience, and after the first book, I was afraid that they were written at too young a level, as I found it rather predictable. I have faith in Doyle and Macdonald, however (and these each take me about twenty minutes to read), so I persevered, and I was rewarded: these do get more complex and interesting as they go. The series leans very heavily on conservation of characters—I think as many may re-appear, as only appear once—and this allows the authors to play with expectations and to show multiple sides of characters. It also helps tie the individual book-episodes together into more of a continuing story.

These were good solid storytelling, just as I expect from Doyle and Macdonald. If you know young Harry Potter fans, you could do worse than to give them these books.

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