InsaneJournal

Books, 2008
36. Miss Pym Disposes, by Josephine Tey

I liked this book very much. Next to The Franchise Affair, it might be my favorite Josephine Tey. This could be because it stars someone other than Alan Grant, whom I like, but I like Lucy Pym and Mary Innes and Beau Nash and Robert Blair and Marion Sharpe more.

Usually, though, murder mysteries begin with a murder and the rest of the book is taken up with trying to figure out whodunit. Miss Pym Disposes, however, doesn't get to the murder until 3/4 of the way in, and by then, if anyone has been paying attention, the reader not only knows exactly who is going to die, but also who killed her and why (and who was really at fault; I'll give you a hint: it's not the murdered. In fact, I'm fairly certain that the victim had something on the person whose fault it was, even if we never find out what it was. Otherwise, why would she have looked so smug?).

But even knowing all that, it's a lovely little book, and I'm probably going to want to read it again.

37. The Farthest Shore, by Ursula Le Guin

So this POV thing: supposedly, we're not supposed to switch POV in chapters. Or even in sections. But Le Guin does it all the time, and you know, it works just fine. I didn't have any trouble following what was going on. Is this one of those cases where you're supposed to know the rules and respect them before you break them?

As for the rest of the book, well. Um. The Sea People were interesting. And the Great Ones. And....

I had a huge feeling of deja vu reading this book. Everything felt like I had read it before, like it was redundant or repetitive or rehashed. And I'm know I've never read this book before, and I don't even like dragons, so I have no idea what's going on.

I wasn't interested, I wasn't compelled; mostly, it felt like I was reading a pastiche, and not in an interesting fanfiction-y kind of way. It totally sucked; and unlike with The Dark Is Rising series, I feel like a bad person for not liking these books. I think it's because two very good friends when I was a kid loved them -- Michael and Danny never forgave me for not wanting to read them. I have no idea why I wasn't interested then, but I have a feeling it was either the dragons (which I'm sure they tried to use as a selling point) or it was Ged. He's not that interesting to me.

If the book were really about Arren, rather than being about Ged from Arren's point of view, I might have liked it better. I think Arren is a fascinating character. In fact, if Le Guin would just write a few books about Arren and Tenar, I think I'd be thrilled.

38. The Singing Sands, by Josephine Tey

Finally, finally, an Alan Grant murder that I enjoyed. It's not that I didn't enjoy the other ones, it's just that -- I didn't enjoy them. Oh well. Of course, this one has sort of weird denoument, and that was unsatisfying, and I'd love to know more about Zoe (I have a total crush on Zoe). But I think the best part is all those times when Alan talks to himself, with correctly punctuated dialogue. That's awesome.