tigertoy

Today's book review is Freedom and Necessity by Steven Brust and Emma Bull.

This is a book I never would have tackled if not for the authors, and I'm not sure it was entirely worth it even so.  At 444 pages, it's not as long as some things I've read, but the language, style, and complexity of the plot make it quite a difficult slog.  It's set in middle 19th Century England, and cast as a series of letters between the characters, written (of course) in the style of the time.  And despite the suggestion in the cover blurb that it's a fantasy, and a few little hints here and there, it's pretty much completely an ordinary-world story of political intrigue and family politics of the worst sort.

All of the above makes it sound like a terrible, boring waste of time, and it's quite a credit to the authors that they did hold my interest in both the characters and the plot.  It was an interesting and enjoyable story, despite being quite a gruelling slog.  (It took me two weeks to read the thing, two weeks when I was otherwise occupied with a dreadful cold which left me with no energy to do anything but read, and I was putting in quite a bit of time on the project.)  It might, in fact, not have been as interesting if it had been shorter and lighter reading, though I still would have preferred it that way.  Brust and Bull do an amazing job of writing a novel I wouldn't want to read, and in the end it comes out a pretty good book.  To someone for whom the story and style are a treat rather than an ordeal, it should be a fantastic book, but I'm afraid I will have to give it a 7 out of 10.

Today's book review is The Lord of Castle Black by Steven Brust.

( The series moves along )

On the whole, if you're familiar with Brust's books, and in particular with the Phoenix Guards series, you know what you're getting. If you're not familiar with Brust, don't start with this book! I'm going to give my experience reading it a 7 out of 10, which is probably a lower rating than the book deserves, but it had the misfortune of my choosing to read it at a bad time.