Read this one because it happened to be the volume I was able to get my hands on. Will definitely be reading volumes one & three if I manage to find tRead this one because it happened to be the volume I was able to get my hands on. Will definitely be reading volumes one & three if I manage to find them. I found this addictive, actually, more than any fiction I’ve read in quite a while. I love how Sayers’s brain works, and she has (in her trenchantly funny phrasing but mostly her passionate commitment to intellectual integrity and a Christian worldview that is integrated with every aspect of life) blessed me very much, as I’ve gotten to know her over the past half-decade or so.
How much I wish one could have friendships across time as easily as across counties or even oceans!
especial highlights: -her absolutely savage response to the teetotaller's letter (not that I support being rude to teetotallers--they have their convictions for a reason, and some of my family believes that way! but it was so, so funny) -her reluctant but (at bottom) charitable correspondence with the militant atheist who was like "how can an intelligent person like you actually believe all this rot about miracles and Christ's divinity and whatnot??", including when she complained to C. S. Lewis, Screwtape-style, about it in a separate letter -her conclusions about the actual (quite limited) value of higher education (similar to my own--and apparently we also share the belief that if we said it out loud all the intelligent people would pillory us!) -her absolutely ferocious belief in the importance of vocation -as man is both Vir and Homo, so woman is also both Femina and Homo--NOT JUST FEMINA!!!!!! (obviously society has come a long way since the 1940s but her point remains so valid to so much of the discourse I hear on women vs men) -glimpses of WW2 through the eyes of someone just kinda, casually living through it (the historian in me is very pleased)...more
This was more my thing than the Miss Sharp books (though I did enjoy the first two of those). Probably because risky cons are my favorite, especially This was more my thing than the Miss Sharp books (though I did enjoy the first two of those). Probably because risky cons are my favorite, especially when murder mysteries and charming-but-dangerous strangers are involved. And of course there are the Victorianisms, the humor, and the deft grasp of human nature. Vasily is so dramatic, what's not to love. Also Molly employing the whole sweet-helpless-female routine was delightfully relatable, even up to and including her annoyance when some people cease to fall for it because she's used it too effectively one too many times.
It's basically Leverage but in fantasy 1890s Austria. Literally what is not to love??!?...more
Anybody who doesn’t like cliches just doesn’t know what Mr. Wodehouse can do with one, that’s all.
Delightful, of course. I stayed up late reading it. Anybody who doesn’t like cliches just doesn’t know what Mr. Wodehouse can do with one, that’s all.
Delightful, of course. I stayed up late reading it. Cannot but love Ginger and Gladys. Cannot but love Sally, in fact—she’s flippant and sharp and also deeply kind. Jill the Reckless is still my favorite, but this comes close....more
one of the essential qualities of a western is that it properly conveys a sense of the land: the bigness, the beauty, the relationship ofI am in LOVE.
one of the essential qualities of a western is that it properly conveys a sense of the land: the bigness, the beauty, the relationship of the characters to it. if your western doesn't engender hot debates over whether not Main Character x The Land is a toxic romance, you're doing it wrong, in other words.
besides that, it's the gorgeous, restrained prose for me (wry, poetic, and brutally honest by turns), the sensory detail that surrounds you with the mountain canyon walls and the voices of wolf and storm and the suffocating loneliness of the walls Rosa Jean has built. it's especially the portrayal of loneliness and grief. I read this for the first time maybe a year ago, and it is one of the very, very few books I've read that shows what this is like. i didn't know if it would be as cathartic or healing or potent a second time through, but it absolutely was.
seriously, just...gorgeous. elisabeth grace foley has become one of my new favorite authors....more
I enjoyed this quite a bit, but I found it really hard to relate to Lena. Or to...enter into her emotions (idk), because it's not as if you can't connI enjoyed this quite a bit, but I found it really hard to relate to Lena. Or to...enter into her emotions (idk), because it's not as if you can't connect with and love characters you don't relate to at all. Maybe it was her passiveness in certain areas where I just...wouldn't be passive, myself. I really don't know!
Other than that, like I said, a lovely blend of Western and murder mystery (I grew up on Louis L'Amour, and Silver Canyon was the first of his books I ever read, so this is a combination that feels very homey to me), with this author's usual breathtakingly restrained-yet-beautiful prose and sense of place....more
seraphs, weavers of cloth, weapons of legend, Baldwin the Leper King, MARTA FLIPPING BESSARION
i really like political intrigue, right up until i reallseraphs, weavers of cloth, weapons of legend, Baldwin the Leper King, MARTA FLIPPING BESSARION
i really like political intrigue, right up until i really don’t. this almost crossed that line for me but retrieved itself. probably because it is such a bright story, which definitely has something to do with the protagonist. (also the acknowledgment that it’s not the strength of evil, but rather the cowardice of those in the middle, that delays and weakens the triumph of good) I would DIE for Marta Bessarion, your honor. I also love Lord Balian and Maria Comnena, and I really hope they come back in future instalments!
so far this series is literally everything i’ve ever wanted from historical fantasy AND Christian fiction, all in one package. it’s wild...more
this is really so good, and it would be really so much even better if N. D. Wilson (or his editor) could have overcome that most alluring, seductive, this is really so good, and it would be really so much even better if N. D. Wilson (or his editor) could have overcome that most alluring, seductive, story-deadening self-indulgence to which so many unwary writers fall prey: the dreaded Villain POV Scenes.
the amount that I hate these, and the amount they drag a story down, is really just testament to how good this is, ’cause still I say: this is really so good.
Fairy bureaucrats. Uncle Frank. Christenings, awakenings, homecomings. Character growth that’s so slow and painful and therefore so satisfying.
(I forgive the multiple unnecessary side-character POVs, which I also think badly drag down the story’s momentum, only because the moment when Uncle Frank comes through the crumbling temple wall, looks around, takes a breath, and knows where he is is ~everything~.)
(Also I had forgotten Ron and Nella. Love. “In my wife’s dream, no one caught you when you fell.�)...more
FINALLY. Finally I am done with all the King Arthur books I owned and haven’t read. And I honestly probably will not be picking up another one for quiFINALLY. Finally I am done with all the King Arthur books I owned and haven’t read. And I honestly probably will not be picking up another one for quite some time. I am quite cured, at least for the time being, of wishing to finish Malory or read Geoffrey of Monmouth. (Now, Chretien de Troyes, who can say. Bonkers medieval ballads are a weakness of mine.)
It’s a weird, slow process realizing that stuff you grew up on isn’t really your thing. You thought it was your thing for so long, because you grew up on it, but really it’s just that you grew up on it, and after a certain number of iterations you just become deeply tired of it all. Such have I come to realize is my relationship to Arthurian legend.
The third star here is because I think Tennyson nails the concluding act. It may not be my precise thing, but there’s always something satisfying about watching a thematically cohesive tragedy come to its deftly appointed climax. And I think the best way to tell the story is, in fact, to fully Christianize the morality, with Arthur the blameless betrayed and Guinevere and Lancelot the repentant (or recalcitrant) betrayers. So kudos to Tennyson for getting that (and doing it so well).
The second star is just because the poetry, man. Tennyson has this ability, always, to absolutely enwrap the senses. (I considered taking off a star for all the unwarranted Gawain hate—what did Gawain ever do to Tennyson??!—but decided I am not that petty.)
My favorite Malory adaptation (and a detective novel to boot!) is still Phyllis Ann Karr’s The Idylls of the Queen....more
that is reasonably true, if robin hood is also the most overpowered sorcerer ever.
fun, but i don’t think i this was sold to me as “korean robin hood.�
that is reasonably true, if robin hood is also the most overpowered sorcerer ever.
fun, but i don’t think i was in the right mood for this today, alas. i did love the sequence where he saved his wife from the monsters in the mountains, and would watch the heck out of an adaptation of that...more
Gary D. Schmidt is proof of that truth that very few young writers like overmuch to hear: a superimposed structure, by which you MUST abide in your stGary D. Schmidt is proof of that truth that very few young writers like overmuch to hear: a superimposed structure, by which you MUST abide in your storytelling, is actually very very good for your storytelling. The way the labors correlate to Hercules’s real life isn’t perfect, but it’s good.
The writing, also, would be gimmicky if it was bad, but since it’s good it’s genius. (How other people feel about The Book Thief, I guess.)
I like that Hercules likes Simon & Garfunkel (since his mom did, but still), and will therefore halfway forgive him for his horrendous opinions on Vivaldi (which most kids don’t actually share, in my experience), and I like that Viola’s idea of being hip is liking Simon & Garfunkel in addition to long-dead classical composers (it’s me, guys, I’m Viola).
The Cape Cod setting is also so vivid and atmospheric in a way I don’t remember from Schmidt’s other books. The theme of roots and loving the home you have is also stronger here. It’s good. This hasn’t toppled Okay for Now, for me, as the definitive Best Gary D. Schmidt Book Ever, but it’s its own thing, and in a really good way....more
Delightful, as you might expect. I’m not a huge fan of the ending twist that basically sets up the aftermath of this series to diverge into alternate Delightful, as you might expect. I’m not a huge fan of the ending twist that basically sets up the aftermath of this series to diverge into alternate history—that’s not a form of historical fantasy I can wrap my head around or bring myself to like—but I am such a fan of Edith & Co. and of gentle wit, compassionate prose, and every kind of dragon your heart could desire! (I am also a huge fan of Tallantire and Crispin, and I say firmly that there should have been much more of them. But you can’t do everything with a book.)...more
Didn’t quite have that 4-stars spark, but I very much enjoyed this and it put me in the mood for Christmas decorating. (Now if only I had time for ChrDidn’t quite have that 4-stars spark, but I very much enjoyed this and it put me in the mood for Christmas decorating. (Now if only I had time for Christmas decorating)...more
(wavered a little between 3 and 4 stars, but went with 4 because the parts that are good are, like the little girl in the poem, very very good)
(rating(wavered a little between 3 and 4 stars, but went with 4 because the parts that are good are, like the little girl in the poem, very very good)
(rating based, as they always are, on my personal enjoyment, not on like. my opinion of the objective quality. i don’t know enough to have one of those, frankly.)...more
this is the most i've enjoyed a sabatini book since i first read scaramouche, i think. sabatini is just a ton of fun.this is the most i've enjoyed a sabatini book since i first read scaramouche, i think. sabatini is just a ton of fun....more
at this point i think we all know i'm trash for anything w. r. gingell writesat this point i think we all know i'm trash for anything w. r. gingell writes...more
My favorite of the series so far! Alllll the literary references (the Red-Headed League one, in particular, had me squealing) -- and mad scientists --My favorite of the series so far! Alllll the literary references (the Red-Headed League one, in particular, had me squealing) -- and mad scientists -- and danger in the London streets (and a description of the historical Lady Battersea's house that made me want to just kinda...melt into a print being and swim in those paragraphs for eternity) -- and the dignity of man -- and MORE ADORABLE DRAGONS -- and Edith being a clergyman's daughter world without end amen --
( -- and John Tallantire and Crispin, my precious boys -- )
-- and clever-but-subtextually-rich light banter (oh how I love clever but subtextually rich light banter). I particularly loved one exchange with Janushek:
"Don't lose heart yet. We might win," I said. "Farley's weakness is that he believes might makes right." "And yours is that you believe right makes might," Janushek retorted, "when sometimes all it makes is martyrs."...more
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