November 11, 2005 at 7:14 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Children's Literature, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
The Tin Princess by Philip Pullman (Children’s Lit, Historical Fiction)
Of all three Sally Lockhart books that I’ve read (I skipped no. 3, The Tiger in the Well), this one is either my favourite or my least favourite. I’m having a hard time making up my mind.
I really enjoyed most of the book; but I wasn’t very fond of the ending.
[spoilers]
The sudden war was disturbing and a bit confusing for me; I’ve said before that Pullman isn’t afraid of death, and it’s true. In this book, I think he’s too willing to let characters die; he descends from authorial courage into ruthlessness, and it makes it seem like he doesn’t care about his characters as people. And if he doesn’t, why should I?
The death of Karl von Gaisner in particular bothered me. His name is merely mentioned in passing as being among those killed in the battle, and the book ends without any further references to him. It was a it shocking, especially since he was a fairly important character in the book. He was Jim’s closest friend in the country, and was the leader of Adelaide’s chief allies. He deserved better.
That said, The Tin Princess is exciting and fun right up until the climax. The mystery itself was absorbing, but the solution didn’t thrill me. The truth about Prince Leopold and his wife wasn’t what I had been expecting, and it was disappointing.
I also wasn’t fond of the romance between Adelaide and Jim. Perhaps I might have felt better about it if I’d seen some of Adelaide’s thoughts, but we never see anything of her feelings for Jim from her own perspective.
[/spoilers]
Still, Philip Pullman always tells wonderful stories, and this is one of his best.
Tags: Philip Pullman, Sally Lockhart
November 8, 2005 at 4:19 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Children's Literature, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman (Children’s Lit, Historical Fiction)
The Shadow in the North takes place six years after The Ruby in the Smoke. During that time, Sally Lockhart has been to Cambridge, although because she is a woman she wasn’t granted a degree. She has gone into a partnership with Webster Garland, Frederick’s uncle, and she has opened her own financial consulting business with the help of Mr. Temple. Aside from his work in the successful photography business of Garland & Lockhart, Frederick runs a detective agency with Jim Taylor.
Just as he did in The Ruby in the Smoke, Philip Pullman does a masterful job of capturing the tone of the period. He takes the events, attitudes and conditions of London in 1878 and produces a very Victorian mystery. Even Pullman’s criminals are villainous in the style of the period; even the most pedestrian thugs have a tinge of Victorian horror about them.
[spoilers]
Of the three Sally Lockhart books I’ve read so far, The Shadow in the North makes me care most about its characters. I was really rooting for the romance between Frederick and Sally. Frederick’s death was unexpected and tragic, and quite a likely thing to happen. Isabel as a suicide, unwilling to let herself be saved even though her resistance was likely to get Fred killed, didn’t surprise me at all.
[/spoilers]
Tags: Philip Pullman, Sally Lockhart
September 18, 2005 at 10:29 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Children's Literature, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
Curling up with a good book (or ten) when you’re sick, that is. On Wednesday I had a sore throat, marking the onset of my annual fall illness. Not for me winter flu, or spring and summer allergies. Friday was particularly miserable, shivering in the rain and on still-air-conditioned public transit, with a headache from the congestion in my head. Luckily, my cold has mostly passed. All that remains is a runny nose, lingering congestion that makes is difficult to breathe at night, and a bad cough which, if it follows my yearly precedent, will stay with me until Christmas.
I can only be glad that I don’t get sick more often than once a year. The stress of a bad cold on top of the usual scramble of the first week of classes is bad enough; being ill during exams would knock me flat. Luckily, I have plenty of great authors to help me while away a lazy Sunday.
I just finished reading Guy Gavriel Kay’s Sailing to Sarantium and its sequel, Lord of Emperors. They were very good. And incredibly…sad. I spent practically the whole second book in tears. Feeling sick and miserable might have something to do with that, but still. I’m definitely going to have to check out his other books.
Speaking of new favourite authors, I finally got around to reading some Lois McMaster Bujold. I enjoyed her first two books (Barrayar and Shards of Honor) so much that I’ve been reading everything else of hers that I can get my hands on.
The Miles Vorkosigan series is my favourite, but so far everything she’s written has been excellent. Ethan of Athos was a particularly pleasant surprise. From reading the summary on the back cover, I was rather expecting a relationship between Ethan and Elli Quinn. I was delighted to be proved wrong.
I finally finished Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, which I started reading nine years ago. By the time the third book, The Amber Spyglass came out, I had forgotten what happened in the two previous books and knew that I’d have to start again at the beginning. I’m glad I did, although I didn’t love the third book as much as I’d been expecting.
To tell the truth, I think Will and Lyra’s relationship disappointed me. I was hoping they would get together, but when they did, it just wasn’t…right, in some way I can’t define. I was pleased by the two angels being lovers. Very surprising, that. Or at least, I was surprised now. At age twelve, the nature of their relationship would no doubt have passed completely over my head.
I’m enjoying all my courses, so far. I haven’t had much reading yet, though, so…we’ll see.
Tags: Guy Gavriel Kay, His Dark Materials, Lois McMaster Bujold, Philip Pullman, Vorkosigan Saga
