No Rest for the Murder Monday
Aug. 1st, 2016 01:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
evelyn_bArchived from Livejournal
What I've Finished Reading
I keep meaning to say something about The Automatic Detective, the robot detective story by A. Lee Martinez. I liked it well enough, but not as much as the other Martinez book I read, the breezy comedy about devouring eldritch gods Chasing the Moon. To be fair, CTM was pretty close to perfect tonally, and there's still a lot to like about The Automatic Detective. The narrator is a robot created to conquer the world, who suffered a free-will glitch in his programming, and is now trying to make good by driving a taxi and solving crime. His difficulties and calculations for negotiating the fleshly world are a perfect fit for Chandler-style narration. At the same time, the worldbuilding was a little cluttered for me - people are constantly explaining things about Empire City to the reader and each other, which also suits the narration but which gets to be a bit much after a while. Even though (because?) nearly all the seemingly extraneous details end up being part of the plot, it was a little more wall-to-wall wackiness than I could appreciate. I think it made the plot seem a little stringier than it actually was. I struggled to follow the action sometimes. I smiled when Mack Megaton's scientist ally gives him a hat, because every detective needs a hat, but not all of her genre cheerleading quite worked for me (that one didn't either, exactly, but I can't not smile at jokes about detectives and their hats). Definitely worth a try if you like robots and detectives, or A. Lee Martinez.
What I'm Reading Now
Does Men at Arms count? I'm going to say it does. Night Watch Captain Samuel Vimes is detective to the bone, even if he inhabits a world where detectives haven't been invented yet. I think this one is a little slower to start than Guards! Guards! but only by a fraction, and Carrot is there, so it's not like my time is being wasted. Carrot has been promoted, and has some new recruits to look after from Ankh-Morpork's "ethnic" populations: a (non-adopted) dwarf, a troll, and a werewolf who is trying to hide her werewolf status but keeps getting not-very-effectively blackmailed about it by a talking dog. The talking dog is a lot funnier than you might guess just from the words "talking dog."
Also, Vimes is engaged! to Sybil Ramkin, the hearty dragon breeder from Guards! Guards!, who is also the richest woman in Ankh-Morpork. I approve of this union 1000%, but unfortunately it means Vimes is going to be socially obligated to talk to a bunch of rich people other than Sybil, and rich people, as explored in this text, are the worst. And what's this about him retiring to lead a life of leisure? Vimes is not a man of leisure; he's a damn detective, damn it! Surely they can talk this over and figure out a solution to this obvious oversight. I mean, Pratchett wouldn't set up "Vimes is going to retire from the Watch and smoke cigars all day in a Stately Home, ha ha oh well," and then actually go through with it, would he? This seems unlikely. Your city needs you, Captain Vimes! This bottle of Bearhugger's also needs you, but NOT NEARLY AS MUCH. :(
Meanwhile, someone's gone and invented firearms, a scenario that never ends well. And my recurring favorites DEATH and Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler are back, but that's not exactly part of the plot summary.
Also reading: N or M? by Agatha Christie:
Tommy and Tuppence are all grown up with grown children of their own, and naturally now that there's another war on they want to go out and get tied up by enemy agents and saboteurs like before! It isn't fair that no one wants middle-aged people for intelligence work; they have loads of experience blundering into people's secret meetings and finding coded messages stuck to the bottom of their shoes and all that, and besides, they're adorable; doesn't that count for anything these days? Clearly it should!
It's Christie espionage, which is a poor limping second to Christie murder, and sprinkled with the same kind of awkward political lecturing as The Secret Adversary, but on the other hand, 1) Tommy and Tuppence make everything better, and 2) even awkward espionage Christie is still a joy to read, like a cold glass of lemonade on a hot day.
Tommy has finally managed to score a TOP SECRET assignment doing observation at a hotel, on the obviously appalling condition that he go alone and keep the nature of his work a secret from Tuppence. He agrees, and goes to the hotel in disguise, where he finds Tuppence waiting for him in the sitting room. She's arrived ahead of him, having already discovered the location and formulated her own disguise, because of course she has. <3
What I Plan to Read Next
I'm not sure! haven't gotten much further in The Keeper of Lost Causes and might shelve it for the rest of the week and grab something else for my last out-of-town trip of the summer - I haven't decided yet. Something, probably. If The Monkey's Mask gets here by Wednesday then I will have hardboiled blank verse to keep me company, but it looks like it might not.
What I've Finished Reading
I keep meaning to say something about The Automatic Detective, the robot detective story by A. Lee Martinez. I liked it well enough, but not as much as the other Martinez book I read, the breezy comedy about devouring eldritch gods Chasing the Moon. To be fair, CTM was pretty close to perfect tonally, and there's still a lot to like about The Automatic Detective. The narrator is a robot created to conquer the world, who suffered a free-will glitch in his programming, and is now trying to make good by driving a taxi and solving crime. His difficulties and calculations for negotiating the fleshly world are a perfect fit for Chandler-style narration. At the same time, the worldbuilding was a little cluttered for me - people are constantly explaining things about Empire City to the reader and each other, which also suits the narration but which gets to be a bit much after a while. Even though (because?) nearly all the seemingly extraneous details end up being part of the plot, it was a little more wall-to-wall wackiness than I could appreciate. I think it made the plot seem a little stringier than it actually was. I struggled to follow the action sometimes. I smiled when Mack Megaton's scientist ally gives him a hat, because every detective needs a hat, but not all of her genre cheerleading quite worked for me (that one didn't either, exactly, but I can't not smile at jokes about detectives and their hats). Definitely worth a try if you like robots and detectives, or A. Lee Martinez.
What I'm Reading Now
Does Men at Arms count? I'm going to say it does. Night Watch Captain Samuel Vimes is detective to the bone, even if he inhabits a world where detectives haven't been invented yet. I think this one is a little slower to start than Guards! Guards! but only by a fraction, and Carrot is there, so it's not like my time is being wasted. Carrot has been promoted, and has some new recruits to look after from Ankh-Morpork's "ethnic" populations: a (non-adopted) dwarf, a troll, and a werewolf who is trying to hide her werewolf status but keeps getting not-very-effectively blackmailed about it by a talking dog. The talking dog is a lot funnier than you might guess just from the words "talking dog."
Also, Vimes is engaged! to Sybil Ramkin, the hearty dragon breeder from Guards! Guards!, who is also the richest woman in Ankh-Morpork. I approve of this union 1000%, but unfortunately it means Vimes is going to be socially obligated to talk to a bunch of rich people other than Sybil, and rich people, as explored in this text, are the worst. And what's this about him retiring to lead a life of leisure? Vimes is not a man of leisure; he's a damn detective, damn it! Surely they can talk this over and figure out a solution to this obvious oversight. I mean, Pratchett wouldn't set up "Vimes is going to retire from the Watch and smoke cigars all day in a Stately Home, ha ha oh well," and then actually go through with it, would he? This seems unlikely. Your city needs you, Captain Vimes! This bottle of Bearhugger's also needs you, but NOT NEARLY AS MUCH. :(
Meanwhile, someone's gone and invented firearms, a scenario that never ends well. And my recurring favorites DEATH and Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler are back, but that's not exactly part of the plot summary.
Also reading: N or M? by Agatha Christie:
"It's bad enough having a war," said Tuppence, "but not being allowed to do anything in it just puts the lid on."
Tommy and Tuppence are all grown up with grown children of their own, and naturally now that there's another war on they want to go out and get tied up by enemy agents and saboteurs like before! It isn't fair that no one wants middle-aged people for intelligence work; they have loads of experience blundering into people's secret meetings and finding coded messages stuck to the bottom of their shoes and all that, and besides, they're adorable; doesn't that count for anything these days? Clearly it should!
It's Christie espionage, which is a poor limping second to Christie murder, and sprinkled with the same kind of awkward political lecturing as The Secret Adversary, but on the other hand, 1) Tommy and Tuppence make everything better, and 2) even awkward espionage Christie is still a joy to read, like a cold glass of lemonade on a hot day.
Tommy has finally managed to score a TOP SECRET assignment doing observation at a hotel, on the obviously appalling condition that he go alone and keep the nature of his work a secret from Tuppence. He agrees, and goes to the hotel in disguise, where he finds Tuppence waiting for him in the sitting room. She's arrived ahead of him, having already discovered the location and formulated her own disguise, because of course she has. <3
What I Plan to Read Next
I'm not sure! haven't gotten much further in The Keeper of Lost Causes and might shelve it for the rest of the week and grab something else for my last out-of-town trip of the summer - I haven't decided yet. Something, probably. If The Monkey's Mask gets here by Wednesday then I will have hardboiled blank verse to keep me company, but it looks like it might not.
