dhampyresa | Reading Wednesday

What did you finish reading

Die Upon A Kiss, by Barbara Hambly: Go ahead, break my heart, why don't you? Opera! Rose taking great pleasure in blowing shit up! Olympe! Peanuts! How badass is Jocelyn? And Drusilla has nerves of fucking steel, I wear, wow. Ben kissed Rose! Oh ben, what are we going to do with you? You could have asked. Shaw at the opera! (Also, I might be shipping Shaw/Hannibal, a little. I don't even know! I'm not complaining.) Things on fire! Pretty sure Ben is being trolled by his landlady, ngl. He's definitely getting trolled by Minou in places. I always get a thrill when characters from previous books show up in subsequent ones: Cora! Gervase! Having a life that involves being successful and not tortured! the Widow Redfern! Still not remarried! How many languages does Ben speak, seriously? i counted at least five: French, englih, spanish, Italian, Latin and at least a little German and Arabic. (Ayasha! She only appears in flashbacks, but she's so amazing; "A desert witch somehow masquerading as a Parisian dressmaker.") Othello being a great opera, but "all anyone will see is a black man kissing a white woman and killing her", ouch. Ben's stage-fright is adorable. Also Hannibal has a STRAD? Like, an actual Stradivarius, what.

What are you reading now

Wet Grave, by Barbara Hambly: The opening sentence has pirates. That is all. (Things I want from this book: More Rose! More Hannibal! More Rose + Hannibal! More Minou! More Olympe! More Marie Laveau! Also Kate the Gouger and Kentucky Williams, they're hilarious.)

The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff: I'm a couple of pages off from the end. I was very surprised by the pacing, honestly. They only cross the Wall at the halfway point. Marcus as a medicine-peddler is hilarious to me for some reason. They had a good plan to get the Eagle back, but I wonder if there's any truth to the Eagle's wings being detachable?

Hannibal's Odyssey, by William Mahaney: Hey publishers! When having a book that refers to colour-coded maps, it would be nice if said maps were not printed in black-and-white.

What are you reading next

All the Benjamin January book, still and Indexing by Seanan Mcguire, on

umadoshi 's reccomendation.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hey publishers! When having a book that refers to colour-coded maps, it would be nice if said maps were not printed in black-and-white.

...oh, dear.

I know right? So far it's not maps I would have understood much about anyway (I don't know shit about geology), but still.

This is such a fantastic book. I love Rose making explosions! And learning how to pick locks! And dressed as Athena at a Mardi Gras party! I love the peanut resolution. I love how Ben gets really caught up in his Othello theory, and then the mystery turns out to have nothing to do with that (though he probably would have been right if it had been performed, unfortunately). I love that Hannibal has literally been tied up in burning buildings for two books in a row. And Ben and Rose kiss, yay! I am pretty sure Rose did not mind Ben kissing her. :D And Ayasha! She is so wonderful. I wish Rose or Hannibal could have met her. The Widow Redfern is one of my favorite minor characters in these books. I love that Hannibal has a Stradivarius; it seems so like him to own nothing but one INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE AND RARE thing.

I LOVE THE LANGUAGE SKILLS IN THESE BOOKS. Ben also speaks at least a little ancient Greek, and Rose has a similar number of languages (I'm not sure if she knows German or Italian, but she definitely has the others). Hannibal has all of Ben's, plus at least Gaelic as well, and I wouldn't be surprised if someday he turns out to know Hebrew or Persian or some other random language as well.

Rose as Athena was pretty much perfect, down to the glasses making her look like an owl. No wonder Hannibal ran away to Mexico! No more burning buildings for him! (Somehow, I don't see that plan working out too well.) She didn't mind, but you would have thought that it would have occured to Ben that given her history she might have reacted badly if he didn't ask. All the minor characters are great, ngl.

You're right, it's perfectly Hannibal.

They're all so smart omg. Hannibal probably does know several random languages.

Yeah, I am very sad that there is no Hannibal is 'Wet Grave'. But I do like his relationship with Consuela.

I keep trying to decide what other languages Hannibal might have. Like, it's probably too early for a Western European to have Russian or an Asian or African language, but there are still so many possibilities!

Ah, so it is Consuela, I wasn't totally sure.

Remember that time Hannibal was stuck in a Cairo jail and learned Coptic? I get the feeling Hannibal's been around the place a bit, he probably picked up more than one language while in dire straits.

Yup, it's her (though I have a secret theory about why Hannibal isn't in this book, but it involves spoilers, so I will wait until you've finished it).

Ha, yes, exactly! I am sure he has several stories of that type.

I am even more motivated to finish it now. Secret theories!

They had a good plan to get the Eagle back, but I wonder if there's any truth to the Eagle's wings being detachable?

IIRC Sutcliff based the plot of the story on the fact that there was a wingless Eagle dug up in Calleva/Silchester. (I have misplaced the site with the pictures, but it looks kind of... hilariously chickeny.) At the time she (and possibly current consensus) thought that it was a legionary standard, but I think now they think it isn't. So basically, uh, I don't know if they ordinarily have detachable wings, but the one she based the story on did. All I know about the actual standards is that they're small enough to hide in your clothing -- I vaguely recall reading it in Suetonius' Life of Caesar. I think that was the book.

Also if you think Marcus' disguise is hilarious you owe it to yourself to watch the 1977 BBC miniseries adaptation of the book, which has his stupid oculist hat in all its stupid glory, for approximately half of the series.

The book's introduction did mention that, but I thought that just meant they'd been hacked off (to remove the power of Rome? Idk).

That sounds hilarious, thank you!

Reading Wednesday

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