Aargh

[flemmings]

Speaking of unlikable people: an e-book hold came in and I clicked on it because Miss Silver and her romantic young things and Inspector Littlejohn and the Isle of Man were getting a bit boring bicycle-reading-wise. But turns out Saint Death's Daughter is a 750 page thumper with two more people waiting to read it, so I must beaver away at it,  because also I will forget who is who and why if I leave it. And pace the blurb, there are no warm fuzzies to be had with so far, just a lot of bloodthirsty types being bloody and mass-murdery. Not as rebarbative as Gideon the Ninth (which I bounced off of so hard I gave myself concussion), actually almost reminiscent of Flora Segunda and her Mama General, but still. Although the necromancer heroine is the nicest character around, and almost sweet with her revivified mouse skeletons.

Finally did a little gardening, mostly cleaning twigs and detritus from the front path. Still have balance problems when wearing shoes, though the spasming back doesn't help. Should probably book a massage some time. But weather remains unchancy: rained most of yesterday as coolth moved in,  was supposed to rain today as heat returned, is supposed to rain tonight,  nado nado.

Comments

[chomiji]

I DNFed that book. It was like the author thought they were being as tart and pointed as Tamsyn Muir and as weird but cozy as T. Kingfisher, but actually they were just bring tedious and annoying. Tee hee hee, I'm so edgy! To me, anyway.

About halfway through, it suddenly shifts, and things get more tolerable. But I was already too soured on the experience to finish.

It's like they had an idea for a book, but then realized that the idea needed more backstory. But they really didn't want to write the backstory and so imitated people whose writing they liked to put the plot into motion and take up space.

Really, I'm becoming allergic to anything pitched as cozy unless it's by an author I already trust. People were raving about The House Witch by Delemhach, and I hated it.

[flemmings]

Nearly half way through and I'm still not seeing the cozy. Also I didn't find Muir either sharp or pointed: tedious, tiresome, and a hot mess, more like. That may be why I prefer Cooney.

[chomiji]

I remember vividly how much you disliked Gideon! But De gustibus non est disputandum remains as true in our time as it was for the Romans.

I'm bemused that you say you "prefer Cooney" to any degree, because the comments above seem to be, at best, damning with faint praise?

[flemmings]

Not really my intention. There were a number of unpleasant people at the start of the book, some of whom got their comeuppance eventually. Unpleasantly, but serve them right. Unlike Muir, the unpleasant people are neither the protagonist(s) nor the viewpoint character, and the magic system is intriguing on its own.