Book review, poll

[brigdh]

I just finished Freedom & Necessity, by Steven Brust and Emma Bull, and it is a fantastic book. It's an epistolary novel, set in England in 1849, and is full of secret political movements and spies and murder and philosophy and so many other wonderful things. There's a tiny bit of magic, but it's never clear if it's real or simply the characters being superstitious, so I wouldn't call it fantasy; it's just an excellent historical novel.

I adored the characters; they were intelligence and competence and highly skilled at being witty and clever to hide anything they're really feeling. And of course they're really feeling a lot, because this book certainly provides the angst. My favorite was Susan, who was so brisk and independent, but very funny about it. If I was living in the time period, I'd want to dress as a man and go hang out in pubs at Oxford to get secret information, and be friends with Fredrich Engels (I loved that he was a character in the book), and so on. I kept changing my mind about James, but by the end I just wanted to pet him, poor boy.

I've read several epistolary novels recently, and it's a form that really appeals to me. I love seeing how the different characters describe each other and themselves, the ways they view events, even how they speak. And there's always something fascinating in trying to guess how much of the truth they're telling, and how much they're leaving out. It makes me wish I had an excuse to write long letters to people, even though I know it'd only be fun until something serious happened, and then I'd be terribly thankful for the speed of phones and email. Still, it seems like such a neat thing to do, and then I might actually get mail. I love mail!

Ah, James's gets his hand broken in the climax! I have a weird thing about characters getting their hands destroyed; I imprinted on a book I read when I was little that had a musician's fingers deliberately broken so that she could never play an instrument again. It just seems so spiteful and cruel. I think I hate seeing a character lose their hands more than if they'd died.


Now tell me what to read next clearly it should be one of the giant pile of books I need to read for classes, but, you know, other than that.

[Poll #868692]

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

So glad you liked it! I thought you would.

James and Susan are one of my very favorite couples.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I liked it a lot!

They are so sweet together. I really loved how their relationship developed.

[aoyagi.livejournal.com]

Read Crime and Punishement and then tell me if it's worth reading! :P

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee. Well, I read The Brothers Karamazov by him last year, and it was seriously excellent; one of the best "classic" novels I've ever read.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

Dude, Angel With the Sword. Then you can write me Altair/Tom fanfic, whee! *G*

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ooo, fanfiction possibilites. Tempting!

[veleda-k.livejournal.com]

I'm reading Crime and Punishment right now, but I've stalled because I'm not wild about it. It has more to do with my personal preferences than the quality of the book though. Many of the characters hit my pet peeves for people in real life, so I get irritated. Now I'm all tempted to pick it up again

Terry Pratchett is always a good bet.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ah, I know what you mean; I always get annoyed when that happens to me, too.

True, he is.

[lost-romanov.livejournal.com]

i'm glad you like freedom and necessity.

i vote c&p next, because i'll be spending all day today reading it.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

It was very good.

Ha, what a coincedence! Just for fun, or is it an obligation?

[lost-romanov.livejournal.com]

both. i have to write a paper on it at some point, but i chose it because i wanted to read it. and, now that i am officially a fourth of the way through it, i have to say: READ IT. i'm having trouble putting it down to go to class and stuff.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee. That was the way I felt about The Brothers Karamzov when I read it. Dostoevsky is an insanely good writer, which is usually not at all what you expect from classic Russian literture (or maybe that's just my bias, since I wasn't impressed by Tolstoy).

[lost-romanov.livejournal.com]

i read anna k and was bored, but c&p is now officially one of my Favorite Books Ever. dostoevsky is, as you said, an insanely good writer and the redemption of the main character is just too beautiful. so good.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I've started it now, and have really been liking it, but you make me look forward to the end.