Reviews: Death of a Gossip, Death of a Hussy, Death of an Outsider, Death of a Prankster by M.C. Beaton

This is the final chapter in the Hamish Macbeth saga (for me anyway). Three of my four remaining M. C. Beaton books have been mooched so I've read them all to get it all over and done with.

What is there to say that I haven't already said before?

Well, one thing that reading these four books together highlighted was another common character in the Beaton books - a young, generally insecure female character who inevitably:

• is not the killer
  
• is jealous of/dislikes Priscilla because of her cool, blond, capable ways (and sometimes also because of her relationship to Hamish)
  
• develops a crush on Hamish
  
• also gets involved with (and in some cases sleeps with) some unsuitable *other* character (a cad), often expecting that they will get married, despite the fact they have known each of ther for but days (dude!)

I find this character irritating in the extreme.

On a positive note, one book I actually didn't mind was Death of an Outsider, which differs from the other Hamish books in a couple of ways. For a start, Hamish in not in Loch Dubh but has been seconded to another village becuse the bobby there has gone on holiday. Hamish actually has a relationship with someone other than Priscilla! And, although he is wet enough to think having slept with her on three occasions really does mean he has to ask her to marry him, she is not so wet to believe this (therefore differing from the irritating female as described above, although to be fair she is deluded about her art and only leaves hamish cos she's going back to her husband). This is also one of the first books in the series and so the storyline (the murder) was used in the TV show and I have vivid memories of one particular scene when the murder was discovered. Awww... memories.

Anyway, anyone who's interested in a hot pink hussy should get in touch ASAP, as that's all I got left now.

(PS: If you've read 'Death of a Gossip', you've pretty much read 'Death of a Glutton'. And vice versa. The End :-)

Review: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

I was really surprised when this booked ended, as there's a couple of pages of author's notes at the back and so I was expecting a couple more pages of denouement, but there wasn't.

It just stopped.

By this, I mean things are not neatly tied up at the end - we get to a certain point and that's it. There's nothing wrong with this technique, per se, but I did feel that the whole final section of the story is a bit aimless. The drive of the first sections has gone, and perhaps this reflects that Kavalier and Clay have lost their youthful drive as well.

Still there's lots of great things about this story (even if it does peter out at the end). Prague! A city that I have visited and so those early sections when Joe is still in the city, before getting to New York, held special resonance for me. Joe's battle against his guilt at him having escaped Prague, whilst the rest of his family suffer in Terezin was also very moving. Comics! (which is just as well, given they're a huge part of the story :-). I've never really read comics, but I do draw so the descriptions of Joe's art was particularly interesting. I also loved the descriptions of subtext in the comics as well - firstly as a means for fighting Hitler in WW2 and then, to a lesser extent, dealing with issues of sexuality (I'd say more but it might ruin the story. Even saying this is probably too much!). FINALLY, I really love books that deal in alternate histories. I know technically all stories are alternate histories cos, you know, it never happened. However, by alternate history here I mean those stories that are so wide reaching that real events (WW2, the history of comic books) are absorbed and changed seamlessly so you don't know which bits are real and which bits aren't. 'Kavalier and Clay' does this exceptionally well (complete with footnotes), particularly for the comics (and I'd love to know which bits are true and which are not).

In saying all this I haven't even mentioned the strands of the story involved with magic, Houdini, and the rather unexpected - but perfectly natural at the time - section set in Antarctica. I'm also still wondering about the significance of what happens to the Golem in the end (i have theories). In summary, a fat book but an easy read. I'd definitely seek out other works by Michael Chabon based on this one.

Reviews: Death of a Glutton, Death of a Cad, Death of a Snob by M.C. Beaton

Mooching has been very slow (non-existant) recently and I had though that perhaps nobody was interested in acquiring my unwanted Hamish books. However, with three mooches this week, I'm now wondering if the recent restructure of the site has helped. Like before, I've given the mooched a final read. They only take an hour each so it's an easy task and I thought I'd review them altogether because, frankly, they're all the same book anyway - just with slightly different settings and characters. Reading three in quick succession has reinforced a couple of things:

1. Most of characters in the books are caricatures. Hamish and Priscilla aren't, as well as most of the locals and the lesser police. However, the party of suspects in each book are usually pretty one-dimensional and this is exacerbated for any character that the reader is supposed to dislike, which routinely includes the murder victim, Blair the inspector from Strathbane (and Hamish's nemesis), and Priscilla's father Colonel Halliburton-Smythe. Those characters are *boring*.
   
   
2. The main interest in each book is Hamish/Priscilla love affair. It's the one part of the story that develops with each book, although there's still a lot of repetition. In one book (Death of a Cad) they've actually altered the 'teaser' text inside the front cover from the passage it's lifted from to imply that something more is going on between them than really is.
   
   
3. Part of the charm of the series was the fact that the locals were characters in their own right - TV John, Rory and Esme, Lachlan McCrae and Lachie Junior. None of these people exist in the books and the books are poorer for it.

I read these three out of order, which doesn't really matter, but since then I've found a list on the internet and discovered they're still being written!!!!! I had thought that the eight I owned was it, but instead it looks like these were just the ones put out before the TV series and that M. C. Beaton will be putting out her twenty fourth in the series next year. I am both deeply fascinated and repelled.

I kinda want to get the other 16 to see whether the TV series had any impact on the later books, and also to see what happens to Hamish and Priscilla. On the other hand, I do think it would be more sensible to just mooch the books I have and close the chapter. They are excellent books for mooching, small and light and in very good condition.

Review: Death of a Perfect Wife by M.C. Beaton

I loved Hamish Macbeth. What with the show's general quirkiness and Robert Carlyle's smouldering smoulderingness, what was there not to love??

So perhaps it was not much a surprise that, when entering the ABC shop with a $25 in gift vouchers and finding the whole series reduced to $2 each, I bought the set of books upon which the TV series was based (well at least 8 of them). Unfortunately, the books did not grab me. At all. Apart from Hamish, many of the other characters are not there, or are greatly altered. Alex exists as the rather proper Priscilla Halburton-Smythe and there's no Isobel to speak of. Priscilla's father is a very one dimensional foe who disapproves of Priscilla's friendship with Hamish. Hamish's superior Blair is much the same - blustering and stupid and boring. Hamish is a ginger!!!

(Actually I don't care about that, I'm upset because he's so wet when it comes to Priscilla! And he's not Robert Carlyle...)

Worst of all, the books are so very very twee.

I read them all, but then they languished on my shelf for the better part of 10 years. I was unwilling to read them, but also unwilling to break up the set by bookcrossing them. However, I realised on the weekend that they're all in excellent condition and therefore very moochable. I put em all up and 'Death of a Perfect Wife' was mooched yesterday. I reread it that evening just to check.

Unfortunately it hadn't improved with age, but at least it was a quick read.

Review: Seven Ancient Wonders by Matthew Reilly

I've been interested in reading a Matthew Reilly ever since he came to fame as a self publisher made good. I'd probably preferred to read 'Ice Station' or 'Contest' - one of his first works, rather than 'Seven Ancient Wonders', which is rather a later book. However, someone lent me SAW and there you are.

I wasn't expecting much from the book - I though it would be something on par with 'The DaVinci Code' by Dan Brown (which, by the way, is referenced a couple of times in the book). But!! zOMG! It's MUCH MUCH WORSE than the DaVinci Code. IT's AWFUL. So awful, in fact, that even after a couple of pages I was seriously contemplating whether to continue or not. (In the end I did - partly cos I didn't think reading the book would take that long and the novelty value of the awfulness was... novel).

If it was just a very Hollywood storyline, I probably wouldn't be so scandalised by the awfulness. What really got me was the writing. The sentences. Are not complete.

In fact. Often the end of the sentence.
Is on a completely new line.
There are italics. And diagrams! Many diagrams.
Presumably because written description would have been incomprehensible....

The few redeeming features were that the token female commando girl did not turn into a love interest for Captain Jack West (uber hero with high tech mechanical arm and amazing ability to Not Die, when he really should have). And Reilly's conception of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was very cool.

But other than that... zOMG!!

Review: Black Sheep by Ben Peek

This is not a happy book, but I think it is realistic - not because of the events it portrays but the way it portrays them. For most of the part we see only what Isaao Dazai sees and he creeps to understanding very slowly; the ending is largely unresolved. But - Yo! Dystopian! When was it ever gonna be happy? On the surface 'Black Sheep' is a story about racial segregation, with each city split into three - asian (where most of the action happens), african and caucasian. However in Asian Sydney, caucasians and africans are so remote that they might as well be aliens. Thus segregation occurs on a much finer scale - Asian Tokyo versus Asian Sydney[1]. I think this probably illustrates that people will always look to find differences between each other, no matter how alike they apparently are. In 'Black Sheep' the only people who are truly the same are the 'Assimilated', bleached of all colour and self will.

The government's (and UN's) role in controlling the cities and enforcing the 'No Multiculturalism' rules remains shadowy, but is very reminiscent of George Orwells '1984'. The faceless 'Segregators'[2] are not quite as omniscient the Thought Police, but they are in pursuit of thoughtcrime. It is not apparent if those in real control believe their own propaganda, or if they are using it to forward their own interests. One of the things I noted was that, even in this extreme society, the passage of time showed it becoming even more extreme. Things can always get worse...

Isaao Desai, a history teacher, is ambivilent about his home city, Asian Tokyo, and even more so about his adopted city Asian Sydney. He's a pawn in lots of games. The government uses him to test out new entrapment laws, his wife uses him to assuage her own guilt, while Peek uses him to explore the rights of the individual versus the benefit to society. Initially I found Issao a bit whiny and lacking in charm (possibly a little unsympathetic of me). However, ultimately I did care what happened to him and I am left worried that he'll get home ok.

In summary: well written and prose flows nicely[3]. It's not as accomplished as 26 Lies/One Truth but, given 26 Lies is the more recent book, that's probably a good thing.

[1]It's not clear if Australia as a nation or nationalism still exists. While there's mention of Australian languages, there's no mention of any of the other Australian capitals, suggesting that each city has become it's own separate enclave. Or perhaps Peek is Sydney-centric...

[2] I don't know that Peek would be very happy if he knew that every time I read 'Segregators', I thought 'Dementors'. The urge did lessen as I got further into the book :-)

[3]I have one of the special not-formatted-quite-ezactly-right versions of the book. Knowing this, I found no difficulties in reading the text or following the story. If I didn't I might have been a bit more 'wtf??', but I'd have probably just attributed it to Art.

Book I Released That Were Caught in the Wild

Possible incomplete, although I'm surprised how many there actually are!!

January 2004: The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
September 2004: The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
July 2005: The Seeds of Time by John Wyndham
September 2006: What Not to Wear by Trinny and Susannah
April 2007: Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction by Sue Townsend
September 2007: The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe