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What is it about pubs and not opening windows? I'm almost at the point of saying I won't go to pub gigs at all. I swear I've still got a nicotine buzz this morning from the second-hand smoke. Certainly my eyes ache and my lungs feel heavy. Ecccchhhhh. ( Comedy )
Rereading Point of Dreams, by Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett. I'd forgotten how much I love this- I'll read Point of Hopes next. Philip and Nico are great, and I really like their friendships and old relationships; all the characters are well drawn. The mystery plots are fun to reread and spot the clues, rather than being boring as soon as you know whodunnit. I think it's the society and the city that make me really love these, though, as opposed to just thinking they're good. The books feel really grounded, really solid; all the stuff that you pick up about the society is interesting, and it seems like it would actually work properly, there are enough different jobs to really keep everything running; and the city is just- yummy. It's sort of a couple of hundred years before steampunk settings, a 17th/early 18th century Amsterdam or Brussels-ish place, and I don't know if it's that the details they put in are exactly the ones that I notice in a real place, but I get more of a sense of the physicality of the setting from these than from almost any fantasy books. I think Scott on her own is a good writer (I don't think I've read Barnett's solo stuff) but these are triffic.
Rereading Point of Dreams, by Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett. I'd forgotten how much I love this- I'll read Point of Hopes next. Philip and Nico are great, and I really like their friendships and old relationships; all the characters are well drawn. The mystery plots are fun to reread and spot the clues, rather than being boring as soon as you know whodunnit. I think it's the society and the city that make me really love these, though, as opposed to just thinking they're good. The books feel really grounded, really solid; all the stuff that you pick up about the society is interesting, and it seems like it would actually work properly, there are enough different jobs to really keep everything running; and the city is just- yummy. It's sort of a couple of hundred years before steampunk settings, a 17th/early 18th century Amsterdam or Brussels-ish place, and I don't know if it's that the details they put in are exactly the ones that I notice in a real place, but I get more of a sense of the physicality of the setting from these than from almost any fantasy books. I think Scott on her own is a good writer (I don't think I've read Barnett's solo stuff) but these are triffic.
