December 2022 Reading Thread

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One of my favourites. What did you think, Elentarri?
 
AE35Unit said:
Read Canterville Ghost last night, quite a fun little ghost story. A lot better than his Picture of Dorian Grey which I didn't get very far with!
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I finished it last night as well, it was fun but I got a bit lost in the expressions used, they were probably common 12 decades ago!

Example (leading the German): -
was a fair-haired, rather good-looking young man, who had qualified himself for American diplomacy by leading the German at the Newport Casino for three successive seasons, and even in London was well known as an excellent dancer. Gardenias and the peerage were his only weaknesses. Otherwise he was extremely sensible.
 
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Rodders said:
One of my favourites. What did you think, Elentarri?
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Not one of my favourites. Interesting concept and world-building. The pace is glacial. The writing style is exceptionally irritating. Reynolds head hops more frequently than a colony of hyperactive fleas in a dog pound! It's really annoying when he keeps interrupting interesting and atmospheric scenes by bouncing to some other character set and back every 1.5-3 pages. This occurred for other half the novel, until all characters ended up together. Then the story got more interesting. Reynolds also has this annoying habit of giving characters big plot reveals (repeatedly) but keeping the reader in the dark. I'm curious to know what happens in the rest of the series, but I'm not sure I want to inflict Reynolds particularly irritating writing style on myself.
 
Danny McG said:
I finished it last night as well, it was fun but I got a bit lost in the expressions used, they were probably common 12 decades ago!

Example (leading the German): -
was a fair-haired, rather good-looking young man, who had qualified himself for American diplomacy by leading the German at the Newport Casino for three successive seasons, and even in London was well known as an excellent dancer. Gardenias and the peerage were his only weaknesses. Otherwise he was extremely sensible.
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The Newport Casino was a fashionable place to go and be seen at (that's Rhode Island, Newport, not Newport in Wales!) -- Oscar Wilde apparently visited it -- and among its attractions was a ballroom. "The German" was a forerunner of the waltz, and though I'd have thought was passe by the 1880s, perhaps by then it was the name of another dance/waltz. So I'd parse the expression that the fair-haired chap was such a good dancer that he led off events among American high society in Newport.
 
I read Fonda Lee's Jade City. The premise is an interesting and unusual mix of urban fantasy and gangster story, all set in a small island nation that feels inspired by Hong Kong or Taiwan. The fantasy elements comes from magical jade that some of the characters can use to give themselves supernatural powers. These powers are mostly seen in the action scenes which do therefore read a bit differently to typical fight scenes (although it often feels a bit reminiscent of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn books). The plot moves at a good pace and there are a few unexpected twists along the way, although I thought the finale was a bit underwhelming. The characters do get some development through the book but I think one weakness is that I found it hard to care too much about what was happening to them. There is a lot of time spent on discussions of honour and nobility and what it means to be part of the clan, but it's difficult to see much nobility in trying to maintain the supremacy of what is essentially a criminal gang with delusions of grandeur.
 
The Judge said:
The Newport Casino was a fashionable place to go and be seen at (that's Rhode Island, Newport, not Newport in Wales!)
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I don't think Newport in Wales has ever been fashionable. It's got a groovy bridge though:

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Finished Wodehouse’s Ring for Jeeves. Super in many ways, it doesn’t quite hit the heights of Plum’s best work, in large part because he grounds it in the post-war 1950’s a little too clearly. Wodehouse should be timeless nonsense, not set in a specific time period to address social changes of that age. Social change is not what it’s all about. Very funny and well written mind you. Jeeves comes out with many literary quotes in this one.

I’m now about to crack open Ace Double G-597. I could start with either of the two short novels, but have opted to go with Ursula K. Le Guin’s Planet of Exile.

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JunkMonkey said:
I don't think Newport in Wales has ever been fashionable. It's got a groovy bridge though:

View attachment 97572
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I presently live just over the border, and have had the dubious fortune to visit Newport twice. A town where hope goes to die according to a friend from there. The bridge is similar to the the Transporter Bridge, in Middlesbrough.

Still reading City of Brass, but also side-reading Mistress of the Art of Death, by Ariana Franklin.
 
Besides starting MURDER AFTER CHRISTMAS by Rupert Latimer based on Martin Edwards' introduction, I've started Edwards' non-fiction, THE LIFE OF CRIME, the first wide-ranging history/assessment of the mystery genre and it's off-shoots (for example, spy fiction) since Julian Symon's 1970s BLOODY MURDER. At 622 pages of text (plus 100 pages of indexes, acknowledgments and bibliography) this may take awhile.
 
Finished Breakaway book 2 in the Cassandra Kresnov series. This remains one of the hardest books to categorize for me. As best as I could plug it in, it's a M.S.F. with a lot of Intelligence work, emphasis on hacking, by a "synthetic" human being with abilities which approach those of, say, Captain America crossed with Lisbeth -- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, with a dash of Honor Harrington tactics. At the same time, there's a whole lot of political theory and trying to answer the question: "What makes something/one human?"

It intrigues me on several levels. I love the political rumination. I love the questions about what makes a human. The action scenes are intricate and dangerous even to "Sandy" our hero, and pretty much believable.

For all of what I love about the book sometimes it seems that the author can't let go of something and get on with the story. These are not "info-dumps" because they deal with the philosophy of government, humanity, friendship, etc. but they interrupt the flow of the story in much the same way.

Avoid --- Not Recommended --- Flawed --- Okay --- Good --- Recommended --- Shouldn’t be Missed
 
I would almost certainly have joined everyone else in ignoring it and carrying on -- it was only because you mentioned it that I looked properly at it and considered it what it might mean!
 
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