What Are You Reading 4

[=Tamar]

I just read _Made Things_, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Not like Discworld, not funny, but very good. It has been described as faintly similar to The Borrowers, but the point of similarity is small beings in a big dangerous world. Tone is faintly similar to Truckers/ Diggers / Wings but again, not the same. Homunculi of various types, on their own, need to get more magic to create more of their kind.

 

[RathDarkblade]

I just started reading (and gone through the first chapter of) Ukraine: Forging a Nation by Yaroslav Hrytsak.

It isn't an easy read so far, but it helps that I've had a firm grounding in the Russian language and history (thanks to reading two histories of Russia).

I've no political axe to grind, by the way. I am merely curious and wish to know.

 

[RathDarkblade]

I gave up on the Ukraine book. It was far too difficult ... and I'm not one to easily give up on books, but it was depressing. God, it was depressing. It was so depressing I found myself skipping whole pages in self-defense.

I'm currently reading The Portable Door by Tom Holt. (Thank you, Dug, for the recommendation).

And ... it's fine. I mean, it's my first Tom Holt book. The book itself lurches between bouts of soul-crushing despair and soul-raising euphoria. I sometimes find myself wishing I could pick up the clottish main character, Paul Carpenter, and shake him by the lapels and point out that Sophie likes him too if he would stop being so self-absorbed and determined to be miserable. But it is what it is.

I just got as far as chapter 7, which means

Spoiler

that I found out that Tanner's mother is a goblin, and so is he.

But that hardly makes a difference to the plot.

What did you think of this book, hmm?

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

I like Tom holts books some of his earlier ones are my favourites, made me laugh, I like the newer ones as well portable door is the start of the newer series. He also wrote
Goatsong- his history series four all together I think?
The Walled Orchard about life in 5th century Greece

Not keen on these ones did not read just sample
Lucia in Wartime:1
Lucia Triumphant: 2

 

[RathDarkblade]

So here's my review, plus ... *** WARNING: RANT. (Sorry-not-sorry) ***

I finished reading "The Portable Door", and I'm surprised it became such a hit that it became a movie.

I mean, this book is based around Gilbert-and-Sullivan concepts, like:

1. The firm is called J. W. Wells (the eponymous sorcerer, from the G&S play);
2. The firm is even based in "Number Seventy, Simmery-Axe" (St Mary Axe);
3. The firm specialises in magic, and even uses love philtres (which is the MacGuffin in The Sorcerer);
4. At one point, we are told about Humphrey Wells' "sisters, and his cousins, and his aunts" (a well-known line from HMS Pinafore);
5. Etc., etc.

As a G&S person, this amused me, in spite of the protagonist being a gutless schmuck.

But then, near the end of the book, Holt actually tells me where he got the idea of John Wellington Wells from ... by having the protagonist read it out loud. From a book.

This annoyed me to no end, because it sounded like Holt didn't know what audience he was writing for.

If you're writing for G&S fans (and let's face it, there are lots of us) ... don't explain the joke. Let us figure it out for ourselves. It's much more fun.

And if you're not writing for G&S fans (and let's face it, there are even more of them) ... again, don't explain the joke. Let them figure it out -- if they can.

Figuring out what the author is referring to is one of the most fun things a reader can do. STP was a master at masking his references. This is why the L-Space website exists, for heaven's sake. And G&S plays are hardly obscure.

But nooooooo, Mr. Clever over here thought he had to tell us where he got the idea. We can figure it out. Google exists for a reason. And if we don't feel like asking google who John Wellington Wells is, that's fine. But please don't give it to us on a silver platter, with all the subtlety of a jackhammer. (I suspect Holt's publisher -- or agent? -- was behind that). Again, don't under-estimate your readers' intelligence.

Anyway, sorry to go on and on like this. But as a reader, it's one of my pet peeves. STP did this so well, and Holt so badly. So I'm sorry, but I'm going to give "The Portable Door" a D-minus because of that.
===============
On the positive side, I've read 20 chapters of "The Management Style of the Supreme Beings", and I'm enjoying it so far.