Oh, aye. You've not just found out, have you?

[hedda62]

A rather shitty weekend-plus of rhinovirus, migraine, and oh-oops-not-menopause-completely-yet have at least given me more reading time, so I can now say I've read every word of the Dalziel-Pascoe series. Alas, sort of. I mean, it's been fun, but this is it, and unlike with living authors, or authors who were at least living when I finished their books, I can't expect more (although that's not all he wrote, so I could read the stand-alones and the other short series too).

There's also the oddity of having read it so out of order - yeah, I did enter the Vorkosigan saga with Komarr and the Aubrey-Maturin books with The Letter of Marque, but then corrected my error quickly and started at the beginning. This time, not so much, and I'll need to wait a while before going through it all again in the right sequence. I ended up with Child's Play, which is probably best known to fans as "the one where Wield comes out," provoking the totally unflappable Dalziel to the response in the subject line (and "I'd have been worried else that I'd not mentioned it to you." Pascoe, the (relatively) sensitive liberal, is of course flabbergasted at the revelation). Other stuff happens too, naturally: murder and such.

So, overall, much worth the time invested: some of them are just pretty good, some are damned clever, some give me that feeling I recall from first venturing into O'Brian that I'm being ravished by someone with complete control over the language and a talent for distraction from any inadequacies that exist.

I'm also feeling a trifle Yorkshire-dominated, between Hill's books, "Downton Abbey," and the kid starting rehearsals (as assistant director) for "The Secret Garden" (the musical). Maybe a revisit to "All Creatures Great and Small" would be appropriate.

All caught up to US broadcast on "Downton," by the way, so 2.06 or "The war is over, hurrah, now we can devote ourselves fully to soap opera." I think any show where I greet the credits with crack-filled (yet entirely likely) predictions for the next episode has outlived its creative drama potential, but I'm still having fun with it, and we'll see how far they can push the melodrama; please do not spoil me.

And, oh shit, I have a lot of work to catch up on. Let's start with more caffeine.

Comments

[dhae_knight_1]

I love that line! :-D I love how nervous Wield is, how matter-of-fact Dalziel is, and how completely awkward poor Pascoe is.

I tried reading O'Brien, and got through the first two books before I surrendered (for now). I love them, but they (like Hill's) are bloody hard for a non-native to dechifer. I mean I love both of them for using language to add to the stories, but... It becomes something of a stumbling block when you have to sort of push through and hope all the weird words will make sense at some point, and many of them never do.

[hedda62]

I would have fallen in love with Andy Dalziel, if I hadn't already, for his reaction in that scene.

And I think there has to be a certain amount of just pushing through and ignoring the incomprehensible parts, although I admit I came to O'Brian with most of it comprehensible except the nautical bits. And for that one can just pretend to be Stephen Maturin. I have a harder time with books that are emotionally or narratively obscure, particularly if they revel in confusing you, which is why I had to start Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond books three times (and have never reread them, though I did love parts of them).

[dhae_knight_1]

The only set of books I've never finished was Lord of the Rings. I just can*not* get through the second half of Two Towers. It just gets so unendingly depressing when they're wandering through those bogs.

Last time I tried, I lost every trace of steam 20 pages before the end. I just couldn't persuade myself to read any further. That was the point where I decided I'm just not built to read Lord of the Rings... :-D

[hedda62]

It may be sacrilegious to suggest it, but I think it worked better in the movie when they could switch back and forth. I always preferred the Merry and Pippin bits.

[philomytha]

I'm sorry to hear you've had a rough weekend and I hope you're feeling better now.

I am an inveterate reader of series out of order. I can't actually think of a single long series I've read in its proper order, and I kind of like the unravelling-a-puzzle aspect, at least in a well-constructed series, where there's a reference to something in one book, and then later on you read the thing it's referring to and go 'aha!' I shall have to give the Dalziel books another try. I read one once years ago and didn't quite take to it, but it's probably worth finding another.

And oh, Downton Abbey. I think I gave up somewhere in series two - the costumes and sets were gorgeous, and there's Maggie Smith, but I hit my melodrama quota after a while. It's good fun, though.

[hedda62]

Maggie Smith makes a great deal worthwhile for me. And I can do melodrama if there are interesting guessing games involved.

The Reginald Hill books were great for that puzzle aspect. But I usually like watching things develop in their proper sequence.

So what order did you read the Vorkosigan books in, then? (As I said, I read Komarr first, which caused my book-pusher friends to exclaim that I'd met Miles when he was all settled and mature, which naturally I greeted with some disbelief.)

[philomytha]

Well, I started with your fic, which was very tantalising, and then I read ACC, and then I read Memory (which were the only ones the library had), and then I read Shards (and had the predictable reaction of 'OMG cute!young!Illyan') and I still hadn't met Admiral Naismith by this point, and then I think I read Cetaganda or possibly the short story collection, and so forth. Basically, the only time I read books in order is when I got hold of an omnibus edition (reading BiA and Mirror Dance in order was good, though). I read Komarr last, and I spent the longest time wondering when Miles was going to have seizures on the floor of Ekaterin's living room, because it was mentioned in ACC but it kept not happening in all the books... I think I actually read Diplomatic Immunity before I got hold of Komarr. It was impressive how little the books give away each other's key plot points, really. I couldn't escape knowing about stuff like Mark and Lord Auditor Vorkosigan and who ends up with who, but beyond that, the series really did work fine read that way.

[hedda62]

Wow. But I guess it did work! Komarr actually gave me a lot, I suppose - who Miles ends up with (or should, anyway) and the fact that he'd died, and his job and a bunch of hints of other stuff. And a sense that his mother wasn't to be trusted while shopping. :)