flemmings | (no subject)

Spent a chunk of last year reading random recs from here and there. Aaronovitch's I can usually trace to Aaronovitch: they have a certain genre similarity. Others came from the FFL, which is how I read Tim Powers, Michele Batchelor, and Hilary McKay. Usually I c&p the name into the Toronto Public Library system, note what branches near me have which copies, and go and get them. Occasionally none does and I have to put a hold. This will become more frequent now that winter has retired the bicycle.

The trouble is that I rarely note where I got a rec from, and Swiss-cheese-brained as I am, occasionally fail to remember that I've put a hold on at all. Thus I was surprised to discover that I'd ordered a copy of Deception by Eleanor Cooney and Daniel Altieri, of whom I remember not a thing. It's set in Tang China, it has Judge Dee (must be the why of it) and it concerns the Always-Evil Empress (empresses being always-evil by definition) Wu. Who, the blurb says, deposed Confucianists and promoted Buddhists; and that's a bad idea, because IIRC the histories are written by Confucianists. So I'm thinking 'hostile tradition, here we come' and wondering if I want to read this thumping great door-stopper at all.

ETA: the wiki article on Wu Zetian contains the lovely line that she was responsible for 'the "Wordless Stella" at the Qianling Mausoleum.' Someone's autocorrect was too quick on the draw.

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You never know, it might be worthwhile. And it'd be a shame not to try it, at least.

Judge Dee is a great inducement, I admit.

I really think it's time that we get a proper treatment of empress wu in a novel, because if one reads history she's really quite an amazing character.

The amazing comes through in the wiki entries, but the weight of traditional disapproval is overwhelming.