Note to self

[tamaranth]

Dear Me

Now that you have finished redistributing your spicy lentil and tomato soup from bowl to person, you can stop reading the author's blog and start reading the actual book, which you have had for hours now.

I am starting The Mirador* (by Sarah Monette). I may be some time.

Love, Me

*having been made extremely happy (not that they are 'happy' books) by Melusine and The Virtu, the first of which I was reviewing when The Mirador arrived -- see book blog for details -- and having read the first four chapters of The Mirador online, surreptitiously, at werk yesterday. Is what interweb is for. Yes.

Comments

[avirr.livejournal.com]

Your review makes me want to go back to Melusine, which I'd lost interest in before they even met. I'm having a hard time with plot-heavy books these days.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

I would strongly recommend going back to Melusine. I won't say you can ignore the plot, but my first read of the novel was very much character-oriented (and second read is turning into 'how does Plot reveal Character?', which is damned good practice.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I shall look forward to hearing your views on it. I've avoided her books so far as I sometimes can't face 'literature', but they do look interesting.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

literature? shurely shome mishtake am intrigued by your definition. On the one hand they're bloody well-written and mazy and prosy and enviable: on the other hand, they are Genre.
On the third hand [mutation can be fun] they are fabulous, in several senses.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Ah, but the fan literati approve of them, so they must be Too Hard for the likes of me. (I am far too easily put down sometimes... Must work on that.)

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

ewww, Fans. Especially Fan Literati. (Unless I am one, in which case eeek!)Nah, they are fun and swashbuckling and Dead Good. (And yes, you must work on not being put down / off / aside. Though it is perversely encouraging to find this trait in someone I regard as much more accomplished than myself.)

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! Her books are excellent (as is her blog). I am saving The Mirador for when I need cheering up in a "delve into wonderful world" kind of way. I was thinking the other day, that she is exactly the sort of author you used to find for me.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I'd go for The Mirador as a cheering-up book, though it's considerably more cheerful than parts of The Virtu. But yes, the series (and especially The Mirador) reminds me very much of fantasy of manners and why I adore it -- though it feels rather deeper than some FoM.

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Fantasy of Manners. What a useful phrase. Chris and I were trying to find a way to describe this sort of book and came up with "political fantasy", which would hopefully be the deeper end of the spectrum.