Daily Archives: May 28, 2008

The Virtu (Sarah Monette)

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The VirtuSarah Monette Labyrinthine. Sorry, I just had to. As a single word to describe this book, it’s irresistible and perhaps inevitable. And not in terms of the obscure thaumaturgical theory and the calendar system, although that’s intricate in itself, but in terms of Felix and Mildmay, and this endless, twisted, complex little dance they do. They’re hopelessly interlocked to each other by love and blood and history, and to link it to the baseline metaphor, it’s like they’re both running around the same labyrinth trying to get out but neither of them willing to go through the heart. Backing […]

The Skewed Throne (Joshua Palmatier)

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The Skewed ThroneJoshua Palmatier I don’t know if this was intentional or not (I suspect it wasn’t, but I’m always ready to give the benefit of the doubt), but much of this book sounded as if it was written by a fourteen-year-old, not just narrated. It’s just little things that sort of stick out, like, "Eyes hardening, I turned back to the mouth of the narrow." I mean, you just don’t say things like ‘eyes hardening’ when you’re talking about yourself in first person. It’s the show-not-tell thing, most basic rule in the book. Same thing comes up in multiple […]