Old favourites

[cyphomandra]

It's probably best not to dwell on how much it ended up raining on me during my run, but I am somewhat bitter that it didn't start until I was almost as far away from home as I could possibly be on that particular loop. Anyway. Two books by authors I've been reading for a long time, with some excellent and some more mixed results along the way (and also two very bizarre Blakes' Seven episodes by Lee, although I think DWJ's version would have been even more disturbing).

Piratica, Tanith Lee. Unfortunately I have massive Pirate Issues, which can be broadly summarised as thinking that pirates are basically muggers with boats, and not inherently cool or interesting (I have similar problems with the mafia and the yakuza, although usually without the boats). This makes it difficult for me to read books that start off from the assumption that their snappy dressing skills and ways with parrots are only a few of the things to love about these misunderstood and endearingly whimsical rascals. Fortunately, Piratica is a bit more complicated than that (for spoiler-related reasons) and, also, has a character (Felix) who not only shares most of my views but is the opportunity for Lee to do some rather nifty things with gender roles (there also appears to be a rather nicely done low-key same sex couple in the backing cast). I am still not convinced at the end and I am in fact somewhat twitchy about the thought of sequels, but I may give them a go. It's all very well done and if I liked pirates I think I would have liked it a lot.


House of Many Ways, Diana Wynne Jones. I liked it more than Conrad’s Fate and The Merlin Conspiracy, but it still felt strangely slight compared to the books of hers that I really love – at about page 250 I felt that the plot development so far should have us at around page 100. I think there’s a balance problem with having Sophie and Howl in this book but not as the main characters – it works with Chrestomanci in his series, but they are quite different personalities and Chrestomanci has more obligations to meet. I did like the characters, especially Waif. I also think I have now had one too many DWJ characters perform magic by saying things in an authoritative fashion (and now I have a massive urge to re-read Time of the Ghost, where magic is much messier); this really only works for me when it then turns round and bites them (Fire and Hemlock, Witch Week, The Magicians of Caprona… now I want to re-read even more of them).

Comments

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

I had much the same reaction to The Pinhoe Egg when I bought it as part of an omnibus edition with Conrad's Fate. I really enjoy DWJ's earlier Chrestomanci books, but her more recent work (especially Dark Lord of Derkholm, which I know other people loved, but left me completely cold) often strikes me as both glib and lacking in substance. I'm not sure if it's that the complexity and density of previous works is missing, or what, but it's disappointing.

[cyphomandra.livejournal.com]

Oh, definitely - I did quite like The Game, but I think its brevity made it come across better than her recent full-length novels. I've just been looking at a chronological list of her books, which is madly impressive when you look at what she's done (random sampling - 1975: Cart & Cwidder, Dogsbody, Eight Days of Luke; 1977: Charmed Life, Drowned Amnet, Power of Three; 1984: Archer's Goon, Fire & Hemlock), but the last one on there that I love is The Lives of Christopher Chant, and that was 1988. After that Hexwood and The Crown of Dalemark stand out to me as the best of the bunch, but I still have problems (often gender/relationship related) that stop me from loving them like her earlier stuff.