cyphomandra

A catch-up post, after spending much of the day arguing with my browser. I have some more in-depth posts coming about manga and books with swords, when I get to them, and I'm also on the last of Dorothy Dunnett's Dolly series, the finishing of which will probably leave me slightly bereft.

Key of Knowledge, Nora Roberts. I could point fingers (

pats_quinade!) but I actually read the first one a couple of years back and thought it had enough going for it to make me pick up the second one from the library returns shelf. Then again, I still pick up Mercedes Lackey in similar situations, and thus obviously have weak spots. Nora Roberts, Key of Knowledge. Basically, a pre-Raphaelite painting backstory, with warriors and Celtic goddesses and three lost souls locked in crystal boxes by an evil force with one of those names you get on daytime television. I haven't gone back to check my memories of the first one, but this was awful. The heroine hardly bothers to look for her key, being more taken with decorating her new bookshop (the three heroines set up a joint business called “Indulgences”) and having passionate sex with her old sweetheart, who is now a bestselling author (the excerpts given suggest he’s towards the slushier side of Dean Koontz). Sadly, interior decorating and engagement scenes (“You’re buying yourself a hell of a rock.”) are very far from being my thing. They’re also part of the appalling capitalistic excess of the whole novel, where wealth and possessions are liberally splashed around as rewards for good behaviour. All the men are fabulously wealthy, and although at least some of the women are supposed to be under financial constraints, you’d never know it from clothes/appearance/housing/behaviour etc…

There’s also a very odd shower sex scene where the guy steps into the shower to have his customary passionate sex with the heroine - and only ever takes off his shoes. I assume the copy editor had given up hope.

Odd One Out, Monica McInerney. The plain, unexciting member of an artistic over-the-top family spends some time house-sitting for her brother in Melbourne and discovers her true abilities. The blurb pitched this as having her brother leave her a treasure hunt of activities to get her involved in the city, which is why I picked it up (having fond memories of Elizabeth Enright's Spiderweb for Two) but this plot line peters out quickly and it's all pretty obvious.

Midnighters, Scott Westerfield. I think this has some good bits, and I like the tensions within the group a lot (and the giving and withholding information) a lot. The central concept and the thirteen-letter word thing does fall just a little too far on the side of gimmicky for me, but I'm prepared to reserve final judgement until I've read the next two. I did feel that this one held too much back for the later books in terms of plot as well; I like a little more than an introduction from first volumes in trilogies.

Assorted Herriots. Re-reads. Still good, still great examples of how to do a lot in a very little space. I skimmed half of his biography (by his son) in a bookstore recently and it was interesting looking at the contrast between an early draft and the published form; how his voice developed, and how he took elements from different cases/animals/people/places and made them into such coherent wholes.