Sale! and The Gallows Thief
Jan. 16th, 2007 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
erastesI'm getting some nice news recently, and perhaps it's Karma. OK it will never bring mother back, but it renews her faith in me and gives me more heart to carry on and make her (hopefully) more proud.
I heard from Alyson today, and they've accepted "The Bird" for their baseball erotica anthology, "FASTBALLS" I'm very happy about that, as I was a little unsure that it was good enough. *beams*
The Gallows Thief - Bernard Cornwell.
I really enjoyed this. I was expecting to, as I always enjoy Cornwell, I ate my way through Sharpe like a ravening beast. Cornwell always impresses me with his detail, just enough - not enough to preach - but enough to bring the place to life. The prologue was a hanging scene outside Newgate and he put my Newgate research to shame, as he wrote of details (like leg irons and the names of the condemned cells and Association room) that I never discovered. He must use books - and not rely on the internet! The whole hanging scene was shocking, but wonderfully detailed, and we aren't (like Dan Brown) preached to by the narrator, or with a clumsy device like "Lord Alexander knew that the gallows were built outside the Debtor Door blahblah, " but relies on observation of the participants and information imparted by turnkeys and hangman, Ordinary and Keeper. A good balance, but the man has had a lot of practice, and he's good at his job.
The protag, Rider Sandman (great name!) was probably more like I imagined Lord John Grey to be like, and how I'd like John to be, with a more distinct personality even from the first time we meet him. Honourable to a fault, but - it has to be said - not as bright as he could be - and that's good! Because otherwise he'd be a Stu and that wouldn't do. It takes the others around him to make connections in the mystery that he misses.
The whole Gallows Thief concept was a great angle to take, and I particularly liked the way that Sandman lived in a criminal nest, and there were some great characters.
If I have any small quibbles, then I'd say that the ending was far too sudden - I got the feeling that he was fed up and just ended it - OR he had planned to do more of Sandman, which I'd have very much liked to see - this was written in 2000 so I don't know whether he means to do more, a Gallows Thief series would be great, even though that's not how it ended. I couldn't help that he'd sent so much time setting up a set of really memorable characters and then just have them melt away.
What made me laugh, though, was that Rider's "subject" ie. the chap he was trying to save from Newgate, was a "blond delicate sodomite." Hee hee. It wasn't Ambrose, but it could have been. I wasn't expecting any slash in this book so was delighted to find some, as Corday (the sodomite) had a very obvious boyfriend in the prison.
I have to say that Sharp also got a mention, although not by name, but it was very obviously him.
All in all, highly enjoyable.
I'm reading "The Remedy" now by Michelle Lovric, of which I know nothing, the blurb and the cover pulled me in, and so far - although it's nicely written, I'm not terribly interested as there is nearly all Tell and no Showing. And yes! Finally I appreciate the difference.
I heard from Alyson today, and they've accepted "The Bird" for their baseball erotica anthology, "FASTBALLS" I'm very happy about that, as I was a little unsure that it was good enough. *beams*
The Gallows Thief - Bernard Cornwell.
I really enjoyed this. I was expecting to, as I always enjoy Cornwell, I ate my way through Sharpe like a ravening beast. Cornwell always impresses me with his detail, just enough - not enough to preach - but enough to bring the place to life. The prologue was a hanging scene outside Newgate and he put my Newgate research to shame, as he wrote of details (like leg irons and the names of the condemned cells and Association room) that I never discovered. He must use books - and not rely on the internet! The whole hanging scene was shocking, but wonderfully detailed, and we aren't (like Dan Brown) preached to by the narrator, or with a clumsy device like "Lord Alexander knew that the gallows were built outside the Debtor Door blahblah, " but relies on observation of the participants and information imparted by turnkeys and hangman, Ordinary and Keeper. A good balance, but the man has had a lot of practice, and he's good at his job.
The protag, Rider Sandman (great name!) was probably more like I imagined Lord John Grey to be like, and how I'd like John to be, with a more distinct personality even from the first time we meet him. Honourable to a fault, but - it has to be said - not as bright as he could be - and that's good! Because otherwise he'd be a Stu and that wouldn't do. It takes the others around him to make connections in the mystery that he misses.
The whole Gallows Thief concept was a great angle to take, and I particularly liked the way that Sandman lived in a criminal nest, and there were some great characters.
If I have any small quibbles, then I'd say that the ending was far too sudden - I got the feeling that he was fed up and just ended it - OR he had planned to do more of Sandman, which I'd have very much liked to see - this was written in 2000 so I don't know whether he means to do more, a Gallows Thief series would be great, even though that's not how it ended. I couldn't help that he'd sent so much time setting up a set of really memorable characters and then just have them melt away.
What made me laugh, though, was that Rider's "subject" ie. the chap he was trying to save from Newgate, was a "blond delicate sodomite." Hee hee. It wasn't Ambrose, but it could have been. I wasn't expecting any slash in this book so was delighted to find some, as Corday (the sodomite) had a very obvious boyfriend in the prison.
I have to say that Sharp also got a mention, although not by name, but it was very obviously him.
All in all, highly enjoyable.
I'm reading "The Remedy" now by Michelle Lovric, of which I know nothing, the blurb and the cover pulled me in, and so far - although it's nicely written, I'm not terribly interested as there is nearly all Tell and no Showing. And yes! Finally I appreciate the difference.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 02:57 pm (UTC)Are you insane?? More than good enough. Congratulations, hon!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 03:58 pm (UTC)xxx
no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 03:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 03:59 pm (UTC)xxx
no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 10:35 pm (UTC)xxx
no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 05:57 pm (UTC)I'm not terribly interested as there is nearly all Tell and no Showing. And yes! Finally I appreciate the difference.
I've reached the point as a reader that I'm not interested in any novel-length fiction which doesn't open up in some kind of "now" with characters doing something. I put down Isabel Allende's Zorro, as it's almost all Telling, with no close point-of-view. Later, I realized it was a gimmick to conceal the narrator, whose identity we don't learn until the epilogue. Good golly, Isabel, that was the story I wanted to hear!
This may explain the appeal of first-person narrators for me. I like being told a story, but I like being in the now of forward action.
Again, congrats on the sale!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 10:37 pm (UTC)Thank you!
xxx
no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 11:56 pm (UTC)Then it may depend on the mood of the reader. I'll keep that in mind.
"Blond Delicate Sodomite"
Date: 2007-01-16 09:12 pm (UTC)Re: "Blond Delicate Sodomite"
Date: 2007-01-16 10:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-17 06:16 am (UTC)