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.
that did not bother me at all Rath,they are not crime whodunits
