The killed a tree for this? Book rant
Oct. 29th, 2005 01:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieI tried to read Mary Gentle's "A Sundial in the Grave," largely because on the back it said "in the tradition of Alexandre Dumas and Dorothy Dunnett."
Well, unless Dumas and Dunnett were obsessed with graphic and pointless instances of heterosexual anal sex and some weird humiliation sex games and had protagonists that weren't likeable OR too bright, then I am afraid it's false advertising. Of course, I could have been reading wrong Dumas or Dunnett? Right? Right????
The author also tries to be clever and do a AS Byatt "Possession" trick of this being a real manuscript found somewhere. Uh-huh. Nothing can save this wreck of a book, which has one of my least favorite cliches ever: girl crossdresses as a boy and the man is aroused but straight because his body or subconscious recognizes she's a chick.
Setting the book in 1610 does not make it like Dumas. Giving a hero a shady past makes it nothing like Dunnett (this man and Lymond? Separate universes). Making the hero 25 years older than the heroine does not Heyer's "These Old Shades" make, which is the vibe the author was going for the most, as she even mentioned Heyer in her intro. Leonie is brave and lovable and fun. Avon is ruthless and charming and clever and haughty. Neither of the two "heroes" of this sorry tale are anything of the sort. Makes it nothing but tripe, if the book is this particular one.
Spare me.
Well, unless Dumas and Dunnett were obsessed with graphic and pointless instances of heterosexual anal sex and some weird humiliation sex games and had protagonists that weren't likeable OR too bright, then I am afraid it's false advertising. Of course, I could have been reading wrong Dumas or Dunnett? Right? Right????
The author also tries to be clever and do a AS Byatt "Possession" trick of this being a real manuscript found somewhere. Uh-huh. Nothing can save this wreck of a book, which has one of my least favorite cliches ever: girl crossdresses as a boy and the man is aroused but straight because his body or subconscious recognizes she's a chick.
Setting the book in 1610 does not make it like Dumas. Giving a hero a shady past makes it nothing like Dunnett (this man and Lymond? Separate universes). Making the hero 25 years older than the heroine does not Heyer's "These Old Shades" make, which is the vibe the author was going for the most, as she even mentioned Heyer in her intro. Leonie is brave and lovable and fun. Avon is ruthless and charming and clever and haughty. Neither of the two "heroes" of this sorry tale are anything of the sort. Makes it nothing but tripe, if the book is this particular one.
Spare me.
