Wednesday Reading Meme, busy week edition
Aug. 9th, 2017 08:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missroseroseWhat I've just finished reading
I hang my head here in shame, because between work, social engagements, and various minor disasters, I got almost no reading done this week. Clearly I deserve the chastisement of Meg Giry - Shame! Shame! Shame!
What I'm currently reading
Blood of Ambrose, by James Enge. Admittedly, I'm still barely a quarter in, but something about this story isn't quite gelling for me. It's proceeded logically enough; we've had a coup, and a tyrant-in-waiting seize power, and a trial-by-combat, and a group of feared magicians trading on their fearsome family reputation scrambling frantically to...actually, that might be it. I'm really unclear on the endgame here. It looks like they're trying to rescue the twelve-year-old king from his tyrant-uncle's grip, but what comes after that? Exile? Retaking the throne somehow? There's been some mention of a second, deserted city, and a slightly clunky bit of exposition on the young king's part talking about how he's always kind of wanted to run off there, so I'm assuming that's where we're headed next, but there's been no real discussion of plans, which makes me feel like I've missed something. And it feels slightly inconsistent - the Ambrosii are supposed to be fearsome mages, an archetype whose strength is in planning (one of my favorite sayings - 90% of magic is simply knowing one extra fact); seeing them scramble to react to an unexpected situation is interesting, but I think it would work better if we'd spent some time establishing their power and reputation before turning everything topsy-turvy on them.
Death on the Nile, by Agatha Christie. Yup, the charming-wealthy-independent heiress bit it - but not before falling in love and getting married to her best friend's fiancé, rendering her somewhat less sympathetic. To her credit, she doesn't give up all her agency - there's a scene where her financial agent wants her to sign papers, and she insists on carefully reading them before doing so, much to his discomfiture. (Presumably this was only included to give another person a motive for murder, but given that this is 1930s literature, I'll take what I can get.) The setting this time is a tour boat, which gives the entire affair a nicely claustrophobic hothouse atmosphere, a la The Cat's Meow; and since nearly all the characters are English (or American), the background racism has stuck to a fairly low level, thankfully. Now to watch Inspector Poirot unravel the tangled threads of this homicide...
What I plan to read next
I'll probably finish the Poirot omnibus, which means Appointment With Death is on the list. I also have a new KJ Charles romance (and the start of a new, paranormal romance series!) on my Kindle that I'm torn between devouring and saving for a special occasion...although at this rate, it'll probably be a special occasion before I get to it, haha.
I hang my head here in shame, because between work, social engagements, and various minor disasters, I got almost no reading done this week. Clearly I deserve the chastisement of Meg Giry - Shame! Shame! Shame!
What I'm currently reading
Blood of Ambrose, by James Enge. Admittedly, I'm still barely a quarter in, but something about this story isn't quite gelling for me. It's proceeded logically enough; we've had a coup, and a tyrant-in-waiting seize power, and a trial-by-combat, and a group of feared magicians trading on their fearsome family reputation scrambling frantically to...actually, that might be it. I'm really unclear on the endgame here. It looks like they're trying to rescue the twelve-year-old king from his tyrant-uncle's grip, but what comes after that? Exile? Retaking the throne somehow? There's been some mention of a second, deserted city, and a slightly clunky bit of exposition on the young king's part talking about how he's always kind of wanted to run off there, so I'm assuming that's where we're headed next, but there's been no real discussion of plans, which makes me feel like I've missed something. And it feels slightly inconsistent - the Ambrosii are supposed to be fearsome mages, an archetype whose strength is in planning (one of my favorite sayings - 90% of magic is simply knowing one extra fact); seeing them scramble to react to an unexpected situation is interesting, but I think it would work better if we'd spent some time establishing their power and reputation before turning everything topsy-turvy on them.
Death on the Nile, by Agatha Christie. Yup, the charming-wealthy-independent heiress bit it - but not before falling in love and getting married to her best friend's fiancé, rendering her somewhat less sympathetic. To her credit, she doesn't give up all her agency - there's a scene where her financial agent wants her to sign papers, and she insists on carefully reading them before doing so, much to his discomfiture. (Presumably this was only included to give another person a motive for murder, but given that this is 1930s literature, I'll take what I can get.) The setting this time is a tour boat, which gives the entire affair a nicely claustrophobic hothouse atmosphere, a la The Cat's Meow; and since nearly all the characters are English (or American), the background racism has stuck to a fairly low level, thankfully. Now to watch Inspector Poirot unravel the tangled threads of this homicide...
What I plan to read next
I'll probably finish the Poirot omnibus, which means Appointment With Death is on the list. I also have a new KJ Charles romance (and the start of a new, paranormal romance series!) on my Kindle that I'm torn between devouring and saving for a special occasion...although at this rate, it'll probably be a special occasion before I get to it, haha.
