Where She Turns Out To Be a Princess

Graustark: The Story of a Love Behind a Throne by Deceased George Barr McCutcheon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was pretty much just fun to read.

I got here via "The Prisoner of Zenda." When I read that and it turned out to be quite a bit of fun, I learned a little about this whole genre, now called Ruritanian romance. That's an adventure/romance (romance in both senses--action novel and love story) that takes place in an invented country or principality in Europe, often with an American MC. Graustark was the next series that sounded likely after Zenda. Turned out to be a good choice.

This is clearly the a product of late 1890's, early 1900's popular literature, something I never had the LEAST interest in growing up in the 60's and 70's. I skipped even touching books that looked like this. But now, older me kinda likes it. It's no longer old in a dusty way, but is quaintly old. We might smile at the somewhat silly "manly American in Europe" trope, but it feels reasonable in this context. The occasional bit of melodramatic dialogue--well, maybe more than just a bit--reads like a charming relic of the time. It's like watching an old B&W movie where characters make long, improbable speeches, all with a mid-Atlantic accent, and you consider being critical of it all, maybe a little cynical and superior, but the characters are compelling, the story is entertaining, and you have to admit to yourself that you want to see what happens.

That's this book.

A handsome, rich, impulsive young American befriends a young foreign traveler on the train and does her a bit of service when she almost gets left behind at a station. They become friends, though he learns little about her. He does learn enough, though, to later try to visit her in her (invented for the novel) little nation of Graustark. Eventually, he learns she's a princess, and they're very old-fashioned there, even for the late 1890's. He disrupts a plot against her, gets framed for a murder, and sneaks a kiss from her even though he's reminded again and again that they have no future. He has to decide if he'll let her sacrifice half her nation to a neighboring principality or allow himself to be convicted of a crime he didn't commit...

It's another surprisingly entertaining book hiding in the memory hole of history. It's probably too dated for regular readers of, say, historical romance, but I found it charming, and I think others might, too. Recommended for the right kind of readers.

View all my reviews

Where the Heroes Punch Above Their Weight

The Shattered Skies by John Birmingham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved the first book in this trilogy, and the second is just as good. Maybe better.

This is a very rich, well imagined universe that is profoundly real in the best science fiction way possible. It is weird and complex and beautiful and ugly, filled with extrapolations from the present that sure seem possible.

The story is a space opera staple, with star-traveling empires competing for survival in an all-out war, but like the best novels it's told from the perspective of about a half-dozen really engaging, well-developed characters with unique voices. They're all brilliant in their own ways, and hilarious, and super fun to follow.

The bad guys, who are clearly fascist and terrifying, are not entirely wrong, and the good guys, who emerge from somewhat freer societies that also include horrible slavers and noblemen and oligarchs who are crushing the common people, are obviously pretty horrible. There's hope, and there are many people fighting for better lives for people, but there's a lot that's pretty bleak. And I feel like this could represent exactly where we'll be someday--where the rich have infinite lifetimes and the poor are completely shackled by their superior tech.

This book ends with a nice conclusion, as did the first book, but it's the larger arc that brings me back, and I'm bummed that the final part was supposed to be out already and still isn't schedule a year later. I can wait, I guess, but I'm ready for it.

In many ways, this has a fantasy feel, with action and stakes like maybe Joe Abercrombie or someone like that, blended with a bunch of John Scalzi dialogue and humor. Highly recommended.

View all my reviews

Where Hellboy Faces Angels and Demons

Hellboy: On Earth as it is in Hell by Brian Hodge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hellboy is usually very entertaining, in almost any incarnation. (Perfect word for him, actually.) The movies. The graphic novels. The books. Hellboy is such a good character, and he somehow makes creepy and scary stuff less so. When the bad guy from hell is on our side, things are gonna work out, right? I'm not a horror fan, but I am a Hellboy fan. And this is a good one.

The author is a writer. He has his own stuff he does. But he got hired to write this, and in situations like that, writing in someone else's universe, the prose and the pacing and the tone can be kinda... average. No shade to any writer who's done that work. Good on them for being published ever in any way. But this is much better than that. I stopped several times to look up once more who wrote this and what else he had out there, because I just liked the sound of it. Things meant to be descriptive were nicely descriptive. Things meant to be emotional actually were emotional. Things meant to be witty were actually witty. Not just suggested, not just in the ballpark, but well done.

It's not that the story is that much better. It's basically pulp fiction, and that's fine, because that's why you pick it up. But there's a lot that's done with the characters--again, in every incarnation--that is interesting and touching and worthwhile, which is cool. And the writing is surprisingly excellent.

I'll give a typical example.

There's a scene where Hellboy goes to talk to a Father Simon about the implications of the events in the story, trying to sort them out, maybe get some advice, and it's a very nice, quiet, helpful scene, useful for both pacing and tone, but it's also a nice buddy kind of moment. And it's smart. In a way, it's simultaneously subversive of religion while also making a case for it.

Hellboy was quite certain that the whole creed, Anglican and Roman and Protestant alike, could collapse tomorrow and it wouldn't make a bit of difference to Father Simon. He would go on as though nothing had changed. He'd put on his collar when appropriate, he'd say Mass for whoever straggled into the pews, he'd sit for hours at a deathbed. He'd sing--rarely on key--and he would pray. Like always. It was who and what he was. My religion is kindness, the Dalai Lama had said, and Father Simon probably could've said it too.

I think that's pretty great. And that's just how the whole book sounds. Solid.

So I don't often give a book in a universe like this a 5 star rating, since even a four means it's a good book, but I feel like a 5 is called for. And lots of other readers agree.

Okay, I don't mean to oversell. The scope is still just the normal Hellboy tale. It's not life-changing. But in terms of quality, it's as good as you could want in the genre. If you like this series or genre, and if you want to show other people that you can find high quality in this type of book, you won't go wrong holding this one up and showing it to them.

Lots of scary demons and angels in this. We go to Rome and the Mediterranean and places not quite in any world. Scary stuff and secret stuff from history and modern mystery with guns. You know the drill. It's good.

Recommended.

View all my reviews

Where the Duke Fixes What He Broke

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of my favorites.

I always prefer a happy ending. (Still planning my unauthorized happy-ending version of Othello, which no one is asking for but I really want.) And this is a comedy where things work out. (Sorry for the spoilers. But you've had 400 years.) But I like it for the themes as well, the ideas behind the story, because they're a little subversive in the best kind of way.

Angelo, left in charge while the duke is away, really intends to be morally upright. He thinks he is justified in having Claudio put to death for sex outside marriage, for sleeping with Juliet (not that one). But before the end of the play, he is plotting to sleep with Claudio's pretty sister. Not just that, he's willing to extort her, promising to save her brother, even while planning to kill Claudio anyway. This is one of those mote-in-my-eye-a-beam-in-yours situations, where "justice" is only visited on the powerless.

In the backstory, Angelo has broken off an engagement with a good woman because her family lost their money. He's not condemned for this, because even though it's pretty bad it's not illegal. He's a letter-of-the-law guy. He wants justice, not mercy, though in the end it's mercy that saves him.

Angelo gets forgiven in the end a bit too easily, IMO, but that's a convention in these kinds of plays, and it's also modeling the idea that everyone's a sinner, a screwup, and deserves some mercy. He marries the woman he left, who still wants him, somehow, and isn't put to death for all the stuff he did. (Mercy can also be a bit chaotic and unreliable. Not sure if that's meant to be a theme, but it's in there.) But from all this we can learn that it doesn't pay to try to crack down too hard on private sexual morality; that's doomed to fail. Not just that--the play suggests that outside forces (church and state both, perhaps?) imposing morality in a legalistic way is wrong from the start.

We also see the duke showing bad judgment throughout the play, and it allows the reader or viewer to question the supposed wisdom of our rulers. He trusts unreliable people like Angelo, putting the people of his realm at risk, and his switch from lenient to severe does no one any good. He helps orchestrate a happy ending, yes, but a lot is in disarray, people are harmed by it, and the fault is his. He is very angry with Lucio for slandering him, making that seem bigger than Angelo's extortion of sexual favors, showing how those in power exaggerate harm done to them and minimize harms done to regular people, even when they're supposedly good guys like this duke. Did he even think about why he'd had a guy like Barnardine in jail for so long? Pretty casual, Duke. Do better.

I read this somewhat recently, but this time I read it out of the No Fear edition. As always, the play is more comprehensible and more enjoyable as a result. (I end up reading almost all of it twice, but that's okay.) The play is well worth reading (and seeing), and if you do read it, definitely get the No Fear version.

View all my reviews

Where I Liked the History but Not the Novel

FLOR DE LIS Y EL LEON, LA: LOS REYES MALDITOS VI by Maurice Druon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[I read this--very slowly--in Spanish. My review will be in English. Someday I'll risk writing in Spanish.]

There's a lot to like in this book, and I can see why a lot of readers give it a better rating than I do. I would give this, as a source of historical information, a 4 or 5. But as a novel to read for pleasure, I can only manage a 3.

This series of books tells a part of the history of France (and England) and it may well be that you get a whole story if you read them all. I only happened to find this one book, and so I read it as a standalone, and IMO it doesn't work like that. TBH, I suspect the whole series is kinda the same, even read as a whole, but just on a larger scale. It's a history, not a novel. It's about a whole nation, so there's no one character here who has a main conflict driving the series. Maybe you can devise a way to look at it where that is true--make the throne of France the main character, or maybe the Spirit of France, and think of her as a person searching for stability for the nation, and she's played by many actors over time. But that's pretty esoteric.

If you want a novel, a normal novel, which I did, where the plot revolves around a character who tries to achieve some goal, then the closest you come is Robert of Artois attempting to recover his lands and titles. However, his story gets less and less attention and finally runs out about 80% of the way through. It's a poor fit, and as a novel I found it disappointing.

It's easy to see how this influenced George R.R Martin and his Game of Thrones. It's not just the setting and the violence, though those are quite similar. It's also the arc of the story, the way the person you like and cheer for might just die. The good guys might win for a bit, then the bad guys do. Then they're all bad guys. Just like in the books, nothing is guaranteed, and the ending might not be what you want. It just is.

Anyway, it doesn't work for me as a novel. But I think it's well written and clearly has a lot of fans. IMO, the easiest way to view this work is as a vivid representation of history, maybe even a companion to a course in French history. In that guise, this is very useful, very entertaining, and vibrant with detail. There's no normal arc to the plot, but that's okay because history doesn't have a plot. There is sound and fury in abundance, but there's no significance, and you just have to shrug and let it go its way. Stuff happens. People die. The throne is passed on. Pretenders fail. It's a bummer because that's what really happened.

So don't do what I did, reading a piece in the middle. Maybe read the whole set, beginning to end. Or read this as you watch movies or take a class about the time period covered (the 14th century, pretty much). Or start with a different mindset. I think more than anything, it's a nice companion to learning.

That's my take. My 3 stars puts me in the minority, so it's just one opinion.

View all my reviews

Where I Find Some Great New (to me) Poets

One Hundred Poems from the Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a very nice collection, nicely translated and annotated. I enjoyed it a lot.

Tu Fu, with more than thirty poems in this collection, gets more coverage than any of the other poets, but with only two exceptions we get a good number of examples from every poet here. I like it that way, getting five or ten or more poems from the same poet. This gives the reader a chance to form an opinion of them, get a better idea of what they're like, and maybe follow up by finding collections devoted to each one. (That's what I intend to do, anyway.) Some collections like this have lots of poets with only one or two poems each, and I find that less interesting than the way it is here.

The topics and themes of the selections are pretty universal and generally comprehensible to someone not deeply familiar with culture-bound ideas. You don't need to know much about Chinese culture 1000 years ago to make sense of them or enjoy them. There are some helpful notes at the back (which I realized too late) but they aren't essential. I like it that way--just poetry up front, with background information at the back of the book. It's a nicer esthetic, IMO.

I liked the translations, and for probably half of them I liked the formatting as well. I had just an occasional "I wouldn't have done it that way" thought about how to arrange the lines on the page, but it wasn't enough to take me out of the poetry. In general, I found this a pleasure to read, and I think most readers will feel the same.

Recommended. I already hunted up the second volume, and I'm looking forward to it.

View all my reviews

Where the Crime Gets Solved on Its Own

Paragon Walk by Anne Perry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Third book in the series. I liked it, but I wanted it to be better. Almost gave it a 3--3.5 is probably the closest score, the way I see it. But it costs nothing to round it up.

The series so far has followed this pattern: there's a crime (murder or murders) on a somewhat exclusive street that is connected in some way to the main character, Charlotte. (In the first novel, she marries the police detective, Mr. Pitt, and after that they work out murder mysteries together. Sort of.) Pitt interviews people on the street, getting alibis for the upper class people nearby as well as their servants. There's an expectation that the criminal lives among them, in one of six or seven or eight homes all close to one another. And that turns out to be true.

I was hoping that, by this third story, the inspector would be more impressive. He just asks questions and waits for something to come up. There is very little Sherlockian about him. Charlotte gets more involved, gathering intel in a sneaky way, usually, but she still doesn't get far. It still doesn't feel like they're actively solving mysteries, and that's why I am reluctant to give a more favorable review or rating. It feels like they're just hanging out long enough for the killer (or whatever) to reveal himself or herself.

That said, it's a fun read, in its way. There are terrible events, obviously, but it has a sort of novel-of-manners feel that is familiar and enjoyable. It's almost more than I can do to keep a bunch of minor characters straight, but that's exactly how these novels are, just like in Agatha Christie or any other mystery writer of that sort. It's meant to read like a puzzle, and the reader is responsible for keeping stuff straight. I'm still working on that.

I wrote and deleted a whole paragraph discussing my feelings about the way SA was treated in this book, and I'm gonna skip that. Let me just say that the tone is not as good as it could be, even when considering the Victorian setting and the era when the author was writing.

The story move pretty quickly and the ending was both interesting and satisfying. It's a good mystery and a decent thriller.

Generally recommended for mystery readers, with the obvious exceptions.

View all my reviews