some snippets and short reviews

Some short things I've said about various books etc. in various places recently, not necessarily edited.

From mail to Nineweaving:

( on P.L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins, and her other interests )

From mail to Sovay:

( on Naomi Mitchison's Under the Fairy Hill )

From a different email to Sovay:

You'd like Frances Hardinge's Fly-By-Night-- it reminds me of the revolutionary bits of the Dalemark books. Also has a perfectly lovely homicidal goose. And a con man who is a believable con man (and whose first name is Eponymous), and a bit in which someone has to shout, with serious intent, "Follow that coffeehouse!" And everyone in it is complex and has an agenda, and no one is perfectly good or bad, and the protagonist occasionally makes really stupid political decisions because she is twelve years old, which is very refreshing to see because usually in this sort of book being twelve does not hinder a clever person much, and here she just hasn't got the experience. And all of the incredibly serious political issues are worked out in action scenes that one suddenly realizes are on a sheerly logistical level perfectly ridiculous, but the emotional weight is still there. A nice trick.

And from a different different email:

( on Anne Ursu's Cronus Chronicles )

So apparently I review things in email to my girlfriend a lot:

( on the movie A Dangerous Method )

some snippets and short reviews

Some short things I've said about various books etc. in various places recently, not necessarily edited.

From mail to nineweaving:

( on P.L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins, and her other interests )

From mail to sovay:

( on Naomi Mitchison's Under the Fairy Hill )

From a different email to sovay:

You'd like Frances Hardinge's Fly-By-Night-- it reminds me of the revolutionary bits of the Dalemark books. Also has a perfectly lovely homicidal goose. And a con man who is a believable con man (and whose first name is Eponymous), and a bit in which someone has to shout, with serious intent, "Follow that coffeehouse!" And everyone in it is complex and has an agenda, and no one is perfectly good or bad, and the protagonist occasionally makes really stupid political decisions because she is twelve years old, which is very refreshing to see because usually in this sort of book being twelve does not hinder a clever person much, and here she just hasn't got the experience. And all of the incredibly serious political issues are worked out in action scenes that one suddenly realizes are on a sheerly logistical level perfectly ridiculous, but the emotional weight is still there. A nice trick.

And from a different different email:

( on Anne Ursu's Cronus Chronicles )

So apparently I review things in email to my girlfriend a lot:

( on the movie A Dangerous Method )

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