Reading Wednesday

[dhampyresa]

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.

Comments

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

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.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

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!

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

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.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

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.

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

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