Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Zilpha Keatley Snyder's Season of Ponies, which is about a girl who gets a magical medallion that summons a whole herd of pastel-colored ponies. It's sweet, although rather slight. (And speaking of Zilpha Keatley Snyder, I was sorry to learn that she died last week.)

I also read Maureen Johnson’s The Madness Underneath, the not-nearly-so-satisfying sequel to The Name of the Star. It suffers from middle book syndrome: it’s clearly meant to set up the story that will finish in book three, and therefore ends quite inconclusively, and right in the middle of the process of Rory’s life falling to pieces. I really do not like reading about character’s lives falling to pieces, particular when one of the components of falling to pieces is “I am going to fail all my exams AND THEN I WILL HAVE NO FUTURE.” It hits a little too close to home.

But my feelings may change once the third book comes out: it may redeem this one. We’ll see!

What I’m Reading Now

Marion Polk Angellotti’s The Firefly of France, a tale derring do and espionage written and set during World War I. So far Angellotti hasn’t introduced any imaginary countries, but the story nonetheless has a sort of Ruritanian feel: full of dashing chivalry and high spirits. It’s very much at odds with the current interpretation of World War I as a grim morass. I already knew, intellectually, that the World War I naysayers were very much a minority in America, but reading the literature of the period has really driven home just how much enthusiasm and excitement many people felt about the war.

Also C. S. Lewis’s The Allegory of Love. I find Lewis an interesting writer because of how much he grows over his career, not just as a writer but as a person: I find his later work much more generous than his earlier work.

The Allegory of Love is an earlier work. Possibly this is why it has not yet convinced me to give medieval allegorical poetry a try.

What I Plan to Read Next

Charles Finch has a Charles Lenox novella out on Kindle, The East End Murder! I am so excited about this.

I also have Joan Aiken’s Midnight is a Place, because her work was mentioned on Andrea K. Host’s post about women writing SFF, and I couldn't resist its grim Dickensian promise.

Comments

[minutia-r.livejournal.com]

I am excited for you to read Joan Aiken! Joan Aiken is great.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I've heard The Wolves of Willoughby Chase series is good, but I'm a little intimidated by it's length. Have you read it?

[hedgebird.livejournal.com]

I've retained no distinct impression of Midnight is a Place but the Wolves series (to which it's vaguely connected) is delightfully weird. It doesn't really need to be read in order or entirety if you decide to give it a try.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Do you have a thought about which book I should start with?

[hedgebird.livejournal.com]

Sorry, this got long: You're safe picking up whichever catches your fancy (except perhaps the last two, which IIRC were left unfinished at her death), but I'd say read 'em more or less in chronological order – they're good from the get-go – WITH the understanding that the series shifts protagonists and to some extent genre from book to book. If one isn't working for you, you can skip it without prejudice to the rest.

The original focus of the series is the Dickensian parody about plucky orphans vs. Hanoverian conspirators and tends to feature Mad Science! but minimal outright fantasy: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Black Hearts in Battersea, Nightbirds on Nantucket, The Cuckoo Tree, Dido and Pa. But the middle, Dido's Bizarre Adventures section of the timeline, and the four late books after the Hanoverian arc wraps up, are more independent of this (very loose) series arc, and include more stuff like immortal cannibal queens, mass telepathy, and the Loch Ness monster.

Protagonist jumps, usually to a previously supporting character:

Bonnie and Sylvia: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase

Simon: Black Hearts in Battersea, Dido and Pa, Midwinter Nightingale

Dido Twite: Nightbirds on Nantucket, The Stolen Lake, Limbo Lodge/Dangerous Games, The Cuckoo Tree, Dido and Pa, Midwinter Nightingale, The Witch of Clatteringshaws

Owen: The Whispering Mountain (not usually counted in the Wolves series but it complements The Cuckoo Tree)

Is Twite: Is/Is Underground (where you revisit Blastburn from Midnight is a Place), Cold Shoulder Road

It's been too long for me to give a definite opinion on the relative quality of each book, but for what it's worth, my old favourites were Black Hearts in Battersea, Dido and Pa, and Is.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I have a to-read list the length of my arm, so I may not get to the rest of them for a while, but this will be immensely helpful when I do.

[minutia-r.livejournal.com]

I have and it is! And another thing is that each book is fairly self-contained; you don't need to read all of them in order to get a complete story. And if you start with one of the later books in the series, while there are certainly things that would have made more sense if you'd read the earlier books, you can still have a satisfying reading experience.