This is good, probably - and yet I only liked parts of it. It’s a hodgepodge of tones and characters and satire and points of view, and it’s not especThis is good, probably - and yet I only liked parts of it. It’s a hodgepodge of tones and characters and satire and points of view, and it’s not especially consistent. It’s got a little of that glibness I don’t like from Pratchett, and it’s got a heavy-handed message (there’s a gonne and it’s the most dangerous weapon in the world! What could it be?), and the ending makes it feel like a solution in search of a problem: how can we keep Vimes in his current job, without which this universe might very well implode?
(That conviction, Vimes as linchpin, makes the entire world flimsier in retrospect.)
There are parts I really like, but they stand out because the rest of the book feels pat and convenient and mediocre. That said, this isn’t mediocre, and even its glibness works:
Individuals aren’t naturally paid-up members of the human race, except biologically. They need to be bounced around by the Brownian motion of society, which is a mechanism by which human beings constantly remind one another that they are… well… human beings.
And I love what I have to assume is the Shakespeare reference here:
“I appear… to be losing a lot of blood,” said Lord Vetinari.
“Who would have thought you had it in you,” said Vimes…”
And It was important to ensure that rumors of his death were greatly exaggerated.
There are probably more of these I didn’t catch, but I didn’t care all that much. And I still haven’t figured out why Carrot is a king, though once again - didn’t care all that much. This book isn’t that great at making me care....more
I like Laura Griffin a lot, but this series is so insubstantial. The stories are too short; the first one gets around that by being spread over two voI like Laura Griffin a lot, but this series is so insubstantial. The stories are too short; the first one gets around that by being spread over two volumes (not a fan! Just tell the story in one volume!) but the subsequent two are over right after they begin.
Griffin usually writes about stereotypes, but she makes them work because she has the space to write about multiple interactions, and each one builds a little more humanity, a little more individuality. Here she has no space. Each story has to turn on a dime, so her formula never moves beyond formula. This story’s a combination of Beyond Limits and the attitudes of whatever Ryan’s book is called, and it’s too familiar to be effective.
Merged review:
I like Laura Griffin a lot, but this series is so insubstantial. The stories are too short; the first one gets around that by being spread over two volumes (not a fan! Just tell the story in one volume!) but the subsequent two are over right after they begin.
Griffin usually writes about stereotypes, but she makes them work because she has the space to write about multiple interactions, and each one builds a little more humanity, a little more individuality. Here she has no space. Each story has to turn on a dime, so her formula never moves beyond formula. This story’s a combination of Beyond Limits and the attitudes of whatever Ryan’s book is called, and it’s too familiar to be effective....more
This book is another example of the reasons I thought I didn’t like Terry Pratchett: it’s an extended joke that I didn’t find very funny, with charactThis book is another example of the reasons I thought I didn’t like Terry Pratchett: it’s an extended joke that I didn’t find very funny, with characters built around the joke, no real plot, and a haphazard resolution. I vaguely remember reading a few Pratchetts like this years ago, and my reaction is the same: what’s the point? It’s hard to believe that the same writer wrote Night Watch....more
So, this isn't a complete story. I really like what's here, but it's not much. I wanted more. Much more. This book introduces a bunch of storylines - So, this isn't a complete story. I really like what's here, but it's not much. I wanted more. Much more. This book introduces a bunch of storylines - (view spoiler)[Chris being released from prison, gang activity, two murders - (hide spoiler)] and then it just finishes, with no actual resolution. I feel like I read the first ten chapters of a book - really decent chapters, but the next fifteen just aren't there.
Merged review:
So, this isn't a complete story. I really like what's here, but it's not much. I wanted more. Much more. This book introduces a bunch of storylines - (view spoiler)[Chris being released from prison, gang activity, two murders - (hide spoiler)] and then it just finishes, with no actual resolution. I feel like I read the first ten chapters of a book - really decent chapters, but the next fifteen just aren't there....more
I think, objectively, this is good - probably very good - but it didn’t hold together well for me, certainly not as well as Night Watch. It’s overly sI think, objectively, this is good - probably very good - but it didn’t hold together well for me, certainly not as well as Night Watch. It’s overly self-aware, for one (and that’s a tone I never appreciate) and it’s disjointed, too (maybe that’s all the point-of-view jumps). The metaphors are blunt and obvious, the humor is glib and obvious, the moments of profundity are not particularly profound and - well - they’re obvious, too. I kept coming across lines which I knew I was supposed to find sharp and funny, and yet I didn’t find them sharp or funny… There’s one page about policing which I think is great - probably because it creates such deliberate contrasts - and another point when Vimes is going in circles and starts suspecting (view spoiler)[the wallpaper (hide spoiler)] that is really effective, too.
But the ending is rushed and mixed with slapstick, and none of it feels especially meaningful, especially when it’s capped with this:
“The thought occurs, sir, that if Commander Vimes did not exist you would have had to invent him.”
That’s how this book feels to me: too convenient to be true.
Somewhere, buried beneath the conspiracies and literal lightning, there might be a thoughtful book about the realities of policing. But it’s hard to tell....more
Is the beginning a little over the top? Maybe. But it’s balanced out; I love a structure which tells you how a This is fantastic. It’s - wow, really.
Is the beginning a little over the top? Maybe. But it’s balanced out; I love a structure which tells you how a book will end right in the beginning, with details that will become poignant later - when it’s done right. It’s done right here.
And this manages to be great story and great satire (I think the satire is better because this is first a great story) and it manages to make fun of everything in hilarious, cutting ways - and then in the end it’s not especially funny anymore, but it’s so moving that you wonder how something so glib and casual and ridiculous can approach such profundity…
I loved this. And there’s so much that’s quotable here:
“I can’t believe what I saw. I thought he was a thug. And he is a thug. You can see his muscles thinking for him. But he overrules them moment by moment! I think I saw a genius at work, but…”
“What?”
“He’s just a sergeant, Madam.”
The writing is sharp, but the humor - by my count, Pratchett is mocking militarism, and ranking systems, and assumptions. In fact he’s addressing entire systems and the choices they encourage. In the space of three sentences.
That’s not to say Pratchett isn’t insightful in paragraphs, because he is -
There were plotters, there was no doubt about it. Some had been ordinary people who’d had enough. Some were young people with no money who objected to the fact that the world was run by old people who were rich. Some were in it to get girls. And some had been idiots as mad as Swing, with a view of the world just as rigid and unreal, who were on the side of what they called “The People.” Vimes had spent his life on the streets and had met decent men, and fools, and people who’d steal a penny from a blind beggar, and people who performed silent miracles or desperate crimes every day behind the grubby windows of little houses, but he’d never met The People.
People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case. They found that The People tended not to be grateful or appreciative or forward-thinking or obedient. The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were even distrustful of cleverness. And so, the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn’t that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people.
As soon as you saw people as things to be measured, they didn’t measure up.
I might buy this book for these paragraphs. I read them twice. The incredible thing about them - aside for what they say, which is one of those timely and timeless pieces of writing - is that they fit into this story. They don’t read as tonally mismatched. This book isn’t slapstick, even though it’s glib, and it creates a character who can be this wise, and -
I didn’t expect this, is all.
I did note the times Pratchett made fun of the USA - “I regret that I have only one life to lay down for Whalebone Lane!” - I laughed and cringed at the same time - and right after he does this, Vimes hits the horrific realization of the thinness of the veneer of civilization - and then of course things explode. And it works. All of it hangs together.
I haven’t read much satire, but this has got to be up there, even for people who have. This is so good.
PS: I wrote all this without mentioning the time travel, which is odd, because normally that would be the most important part to me. Anyway, the time travel is fine. It could be thought through better, and it suffers from the overall glibness (let’s add some comic monks, so we can gloss over the finer details!), but it works. Which is impressive and surprising....more
So simple, and yet just enough of a twist on a classic ballet story - here, a family full of talented people who need to make space for each other - tSo simple, and yet just enough of a twist on a classic ballet story - here, a family full of talented people who need to make space for each other - to be compelling. It’s got a little bit of that ballet “magic” (though it is a bit undercut in how it takes that sparkle for granted) and it’s fun that, Streatfeild-like, everyone is talented to an extent.
This might work better with more grief, less money, and more failure, but wouldn’t they all?...more
Oooooooooh. This was atmospheric and believable and good. This also has a cliffhanger (a great one!) and I’m not upset! That’s how well done this is. Oooooooooh. This was atmospheric and believable and good. This also has a cliffhanger (a great one!) and I’m not upset! That’s how well done this is.
Which is not to say it’s perfect: there’s some sloppy writing - unnecessary descriptions - drawn-out exposition positioned as expertise - awkward endearments - and the historical sections are written in a deliberately stilted way. (Even though it’s deliberate, it’s still stilted.)
Unnecessary descriptions:
Now Sonya pushed up to circle the room, and her legs in running-Saturday-errands cropped jeans ate up the floor. She gestured with her wineglass with one hand, shoved the other through her hair.
And dragged out the tie that held her maple-syrup-brown hair out of its long, straight tail.
No one needs this; it contributes nothing; an editor should have sliced it out. Also, the “now” coupled with the past tense bugs me.
The woman who answered wore a tie-dyed sweatshirt over black leggings. She had a dish towel over one shoulder, and her sunny blond hair was scooped back in a tail.
Does anybody “scoop hair back in a tail”? Does anybody talk like this except Nora Roberts? The awkwardness is almost distinctive.
One more example:
“I can’t say for absolute, but I believe I did absolutely.”
This got a loud WHERE IS YOUR EDITOR. WHO LET THAT THROUGH.
Drawn-out exposition: Sonya and Cleo both explain things in long paragraphs that never read right. It’s used to describe the house and even their work, and I think it’s too exposition-heavy to work as character development (or as dialogue).
Awkward endearments: “cutie” isn’t that cute, and “Son” as a nickname for Sonya always looks wrong.
But now that I got my quibbles out of the way, here’s what I loved. First, the way the paranormal elements built - the way the people she meets are upfront that the house is haunted but Sonya refuses to believe them, the way her dad’s paintings tie in, the dreams, the process of discovering (view spoiler)[the different ghosts (hide spoiler)], even the little paragraphs from a more omniscient point of view - those unfolded so well.
And the paranormal elements fit so well in this remote setting, and I love the way it isn’t too remote. But there’s a great family and small-town feel, and the process of moving to a new place is captured well, and the career elements work. There’s a good balance of everyday and paranormal. Does Sonya have enough of a past life (friends, professional contacts, people she leaves behind)? Is it silly that everyone becomes a client? Are some parts overdrawn (cough Bree cough)? Is all the artistry floating around too perfect? Do I understand how Sonya can justify the expense of hiring a photographer to pitch a job she might not get, when she’s so concerned about building her business?
And yet these details fit together. They’re integrated well enough to feel real. They create an incredible sense of place and pacing and momentum. The mystery barely progresses and yet it’s so strong and exciting! I can pick out pieces that don’t work, but everything else does.
I can’t wait to come back to this world. I can’t wait to reread this....more
This is good, but it’s not especially polished, so it doesn’t hang together well.
The interesting: the plot follows the classic pattern, but the main This is good, but it’s not especially polished, so it doesn’t hang together well.
The interesting: the plot follows the classic pattern, but the main conflict is invented. Its premise is fantastic and so its resolution is impossible to predict, and that means that, even with conventional plotting, the pacing is affected. Also, the resolution feels fabricated, though Roberts tries to get around that by tying it into the protagonist’s strength. It’s bizarre, and I don’t know if it works, but it is interesting.
The bland: I mean, Tyler. (His kid is fun, though.)
The bad: the writing comes too close to that chopped-sentence Roberts tic - I skipped the murderer’s perspective, which I always do in these books - the characters (with the partial exception of the main family) are cardboard cutouts: wonderful neighbor, best friend, caring local sheriff, band members, snooty rich relatives (who barely appear). There are no annoyances or petty differences, only misunderstandings smoothed over by communication - and one big bad. Of course there’s a happily-ever-after at the end: except for one random evil character and total chance, they’re all living the dream.
Has Roberts ever written a book about people living in poverty, or even about people worried about money in any capacity, without ending it with success and outright wealth? I’d like to see how she handles that. Then again, these are supposed to be wish fulfillment…
(One day I will figure out how writing the perspective of the murderer fits in with the wish fulfillment. Is it supposed to be gritty and realistic? Because honestly: no thanks.)...more
This series is still good. I liked this book a lot, even if it does use the word “beyond” as a modifier too many times, and even if Jarvis still preteThis series is still good. I liked this book a lot, even if it does use the word “beyond” as a modifier too many times, and even if Jarvis still pretends to be menacing too often to have any real effect.
(Is Victoria possibly more menacing than Jarvis? Do I love that Hero still calls her “Cousin Victoria”? Does the menace come only from Hero’s interpretation of their conversation? Is the long arc progressing much too slowly? Yes, and yes, and yes, and yes.)
This does a good job of showing what could be hiding underneath the rocks kicked up by a murder investigation, and it ties those societal things into red herrings very well. ...more
It’s been a long time since I last read this - I remembered the story, of course, but not a lot of details. The writing stands out: it’s not simple atIt’s been a long time since I last read this - I remembered the story, of course, but not a lot of details. The writing stands out: it’s not simple at all. The vocabulary isn’t childish, the characters are distinct but somehow avoid caricature, and the poverty is stark. The inevitable happy ending even feels earned.
This is the gauzy, wistful stuff of childhood fantasy. Five stars for nostalgia; I can’t be too objective....more
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