Tidying up January book reviews.
Feb. 6th, 2013 01:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyphomandraThree more after these ones, and a summary post (she said optimistically).
Rowan Speedwell, Finding Zach. I mentioned this earlier – as a reminder, it’s the one with the careful character interactions and the background of one of the leads being kidnapped by South American paramilitaries and turned into the kidnappers’ dog-hyphen-sex slave. There are nice moments in here, but the reading experience is more than a little frustrating because there are so many bits in it that could have – and should have – been rethought down the line (why David is a tech genius in his teens, what on earth she’s doing with Brian (who veers from rival hookup to antagonistic journalist sympathetic listener, and then ends up with a spin-off novella), why the paramilitaries but no other threats or assassination attempts ever, etc). And plotwise, the events thunk obviously into place – about 75% of the way through the book we suddenly break pov to be with Brian, and it was so obviously the “ahah! The dramatic twist just when Our Heroes feel they are safe” that I was kind of offended.
I’m also not sure about the skipped over two years of daily therapy (Zach’s parents are very rich). I think it is necessary (otherwise Zach is really too damaged and David isn’t there), but I actually wanted to see a bit more of the one step forward, one step back, sideways a bit that this was likely to have involved.
Against this are the character moments (I actually liked the bit where Zach is arguing with his father and when things start heading downhill he barks at him), and the developing relationship with David, but, hmm, I’m not sure it’s enough. I would like to see what she does with older characters and might try her historical, but I’m not strongly drawn there at the moment. It did make me think fondly of Sol’s Broken Jade, which is my favourite ever rehabilitation of broken-sex-slave story, and manages to give everyone involved their own depth and agendas (and in Duo’s case, multiple conflicting agendas).
L.A. Witt, Conduct Unbecoming. Petty officer Eric Randall is sent to Okinawa and hooks up with Shane Connelly, also military. Solid, detailed background (the author’s lived in Okinawa, her husband’s army), and rather too low-key for me, unfortunately – the big problem here is that Shane’s an officer and Eric’s enlisted, and so their relationship is forbidden. There’s a background of both of them having kids and ex-wives (Eric’s teenage daughter comes out to visit, Shane’s kids are younger and his relationship with his ex-wife far less amiable, but this also gets sorted out, and there’s quite a lot of sightseeing and rather nice local background.
I really did need more tension on this one. There is a very nice bit where Eric has to walk one of his juniors through handling a case rather than do it himself and risk ruining the whole thing by his relationship with Shane, but otherwise it’s all very, very understated. They break up for a bit, they get stealthily back together, Eric decides to go for his commission and lo, the happy ending. I don’t want all my US army m/m romances to be agonising meditations on DADT, but surely there must be some other source of tension possible – there’s an annoying guy who shoves people in bars, but what about interactions between the base and the locals? (sexual assault certainly has strong RL precedent, although something less unpleasant would also work).
Josephine Myles, Barging In. This had a wobbly start and then got a lot better. Dan Taylor is a cheerful and openly gay travel writer who never settles down, who takes a job for the Observer writing up a narrowboat holiday and meets Robin, a posh type hiding out on his own boat from a family who don’t understand him and a painful experience with an ex. Liked the setting, liked the supporting characters, was a bit iffy about Robin until I realised he was actually mid-20s rather than late 30s and could possibly be excused a bit of sulking, and there’s also a cat. Not wild about Robin’s mum and his friend Mel both being the supportive heterosexual cheering section types (you know, the ones who go, “obviously he’s in love with you!” at key moments), but Robin’s mum does have more layers to her, and the plot development with Dan not swimming had one really good twist out of it (and one that wasn’t quite so developed – I am not convinced learning to swim in a Spanish gay resort pool is going to equip you for English waterways). I think I actually picked the other barging one from the one that Orannia recommended, so will give that another go. And yes, so much better at being English than that terrible Rentboy.
Rowan Speedwell, Finding Zach. I mentioned this earlier – as a reminder, it’s the one with the careful character interactions and the background of one of the leads being kidnapped by South American paramilitaries and turned into the kidnappers’ dog-hyphen-sex slave. There are nice moments in here, but the reading experience is more than a little frustrating because there are so many bits in it that could have – and should have – been rethought down the line (why David is a tech genius in his teens, what on earth she’s doing with Brian (who veers from rival hookup to antagonistic journalist sympathetic listener, and then ends up with a spin-off novella), why the paramilitaries but no other threats or assassination attempts ever, etc). And plotwise, the events thunk obviously into place – about 75% of the way through the book we suddenly break pov to be with Brian, and it was so obviously the “ahah! The dramatic twist just when Our Heroes feel they are safe” that I was kind of offended.
I’m also not sure about the skipped over two years of daily therapy (Zach’s parents are very rich). I think it is necessary (otherwise Zach is really too damaged and David isn’t there), but I actually wanted to see a bit more of the one step forward, one step back, sideways a bit that this was likely to have involved.
Against this are the character moments (I actually liked the bit where Zach is arguing with his father and when things start heading downhill he barks at him), and the developing relationship with David, but, hmm, I’m not sure it’s enough. I would like to see what she does with older characters and might try her historical, but I’m not strongly drawn there at the moment. It did make me think fondly of Sol’s Broken Jade, which is my favourite ever rehabilitation of broken-sex-slave story, and manages to give everyone involved their own depth and agendas (and in Duo’s case, multiple conflicting agendas).
L.A. Witt, Conduct Unbecoming. Petty officer Eric Randall is sent to Okinawa and hooks up with Shane Connelly, also military. Solid, detailed background (the author’s lived in Okinawa, her husband’s army), and rather too low-key for me, unfortunately – the big problem here is that Shane’s an officer and Eric’s enlisted, and so their relationship is forbidden. There’s a background of both of them having kids and ex-wives (Eric’s teenage daughter comes out to visit, Shane’s kids are younger and his relationship with his ex-wife far less amiable, but this also gets sorted out, and there’s quite a lot of sightseeing and rather nice local background.
I really did need more tension on this one. There is a very nice bit where Eric has to walk one of his juniors through handling a case rather than do it himself and risk ruining the whole thing by his relationship with Shane, but otherwise it’s all very, very understated. They break up for a bit, they get stealthily back together, Eric decides to go for his commission and lo, the happy ending. I don’t want all my US army m/m romances to be agonising meditations on DADT, but surely there must be some other source of tension possible – there’s an annoying guy who shoves people in bars, but what about interactions between the base and the locals? (sexual assault certainly has strong RL precedent, although something less unpleasant would also work).
Josephine Myles, Barging In. This had a wobbly start and then got a lot better. Dan Taylor is a cheerful and openly gay travel writer who never settles down, who takes a job for the Observer writing up a narrowboat holiday and meets Robin, a posh type hiding out on his own boat from a family who don’t understand him and a painful experience with an ex. Liked the setting, liked the supporting characters, was a bit iffy about Robin until I realised he was actually mid-20s rather than late 30s and could possibly be excused a bit of sulking, and there’s also a cat. Not wild about Robin’s mum and his friend Mel both being the supportive heterosexual cheering section types (you know, the ones who go, “obviously he’s in love with you!” at key moments), but Robin’s mum does have more layers to her, and the plot development with Dan not swimming had one really good twist out of it (and one that wasn’t quite so developed – I am not convinced learning to swim in a Spanish gay resort pool is going to equip you for English waterways). I think I actually picked the other barging one from the one that Orannia recommended, so will give that another go. And yes, so much better at being English than that terrible Rentboy.
