Donna Andrews double-header
May. 8th, 2006 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperTwo books into ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
donna_andrews's Turing Hopper series and one book into her Meg Langslows, so far I think I may actually like the writing in the latter better, despite my naturally geeky inclination to the Turings. Both series have in common her deft touch with the Funny, though I find so far that it's more solid in the Langslow series, and the writing has a bit more substance to it as well. I definitely recommend both series, though, for those who like their mysteries on the light and fluffy side.
Murder With Peacocks is the very first of the Meg Langslows, one of those "amateur sleuth" sorts of series. Meg is a blacksmith, of all things--which I think is possibly the coolest profession I've encountered thus far in any of the mysteries of this type. To go along with this profession, we are given a clear impression that Meg is not exactly of a dainty sort of build, of which I also approve. She's a Virginian by birth, who fled out of her hometown. This got her even more sympathy points from me, a Kentuckian by birth who did pretty much the same thing. So yeah, liking me some Meg.
Her love interest Michael was also enjoyably swoonable. Typically mind-bogglingly gorgeous and charismatic as well as intelligent and amusingly snarky, about what you'd expect out of a hero in a cozy mystery, but his lack of any real uniqueness of character wasn't a flaw in the slightest. It was easy to see why he and Meg clicked, and watching him throw himself without blinking into the wackiness of Meg's family was quite delightful. The recurring gag of most of the town being convinced he was gay while he kept trying to get a moment alone with Meg to prove otherwise got to be a bit much at times, especially given that Michael is an actor. On the other hand, given what I've experienced out of people in the South, it wasn't at all unrealistic, either. So! And I was absolutely feeling for the poor guy when towards the end he had to belt back some wine to work up his courage to get Meg alone and talk to her--only to discover yet another dead body. Muahahaha.
Which leads me into the real strength of this book--the actual plot and setting. Since I've also been reading Deborah Donnelly's Carnegie Kincaids, having Meg trying to plan out weddings for not one, not two, but three of her relations hit a bit of deja vu for me, especially when Michael observes to Meg that there are people who get paid good money for what she's doing for her family. Like Donnelly, though, Andrews has a great knack for taking what ought to be a pretty normal everyday situation and turning it on its ear with mischief, mayhem, and murder. The supporting cast here is fabulous; I especially like Meg's father, who for a switch winds up being the person driving most of the investigating, while Meg wants to do what any normal person would do and get the madness of the three back-to-back weddings out of her hair. Mrs. Fenniman is hysterical, and so are Mrs. Tranh and the cadre of little Vietnamese ladies who help out Michael at his mother's shop.
I also liked that the local law enforcement, once the string of Suspicious Incidents got underway, actually started launching investigations of their own--and bringing in FBI types as well. Who then were snuck into the weddings undercover as random assorted "cousins". This, too, was hysterical. Especially watching their various deadpan responses to being introduced to the actual guests. ^_^
All in all quite entertaining, and definitely enough to get me to come back for more.
I must admit that the second in the Turing Hopper series, Click Here for Murder, did not strike me as quite so fabulous as the first one. Many of the same reasons the concept of this series appealed to me were here as well, but the plot felt somewhat shakier and didn't hold together quite as well for me as the first time around. Let me get my objections out of the way first.
Online gaming and LARPing were a big part of the events of this book. As a longstanding MUSHer I was all about the comprehension of how addictive online gaming can be, so I had no trouble buying how many in the cast got sucked into checking out "Beyond Paranoia", the game around which the plot's central conflict revolved. On the other hand, I found it a bit much that all of the characters, including to a lesser degree Turing herself, got caught up with it. Tim doing so I could buy--he totally comes across as the sort of person who'd easily blow hours in an online game. Maude? Not so much.
Plus, once we got into the details of the LARP spinoff of the online game, I had a hard time really buying that the bad guys would be willing to commit actual crime, like breaking and entering, destruction of private property, and even assault for the sake of fulfilling game objectives. I realize that this objection doesn't mean much in the context of the underlying motives going on here, which led to Ray Santiago getting murdered in the first place--it's just that the idea of gamers getting so caught up in what they were doing that they'd be willing to do such things vexed me.
Meanwhile, I was kind of bummed that the plot thread of KingFischer absorbing all the data about Zack at the tail end of the last book seemed to have gotten dropped in this one! I was really looking forward to KF showing more effects from that, but in this story, he continued to mostly participate in the plot whenever Turing had a reason to ping him. I hope that'll change as the series progresses. It'd be nice to see him achieving the same level of sentience that Turing has--and heck, I just want to see if they're going to actually have themselves a virtual romance. I'm dying to see how Andrews would describe it.
Most importantly, I didn't quite buy into Nestor Garcia's position in the plot and exactly what was up with him. I may have missed something in my read through the story, perhaps--but I'm drawing a genuine blank as to what his overall motive was. And when you remember a lot more about the side details than you do about the motives of the actual villain, that doesn't speak well for the construction of the plot.
Now for what I liked about the book. Vexing as some of the behavior of the uber-gamers in the plot might have been, Andrews nevertheless did strike enough chords of realism with me in the description of the culture of "Beyond Paranoia" that yeah, it felt like familiar ground. So I have to give her props for that. I love how Turing and Maude have pretty much taken over the company, too. Their hiring an actor to put in periodic appearances as the company CEO is very giggleworthy.
The introduction of T2 as a plot wrinkle was pretty cool--and although it initially annoyed me a bit, it made total sense to me after I thought about it. Turing is young yet, and in the desperate rush to figure out how to download herself out of the UL systems into her robot and how to bring herself back again, I totally buy that she could have forgotten not to leave any part of herself behind on the robot. And this opens up a whole can of worms about the ethical ramifications of duplicating a sentient AI, too. I know this complication is coming back in a later book, so I'll be looking forward to seeing what happens with that.
So--not as cool as You've Got Murder, but still some goodness there, and I'll still be coming back for Access Denied!
donna_andrews's Turing Hopper series and one book into her Meg Langslows, so far I think I may actually like the writing in the latter better, despite my naturally geeky inclination to the Turings. Both series have in common her deft touch with the Funny, though I find so far that it's more solid in the Langslow series, and the writing has a bit more substance to it as well. I definitely recommend both series, though, for those who like their mysteries on the light and fluffy side.Murder With Peacocks is the very first of the Meg Langslows, one of those "amateur sleuth" sorts of series. Meg is a blacksmith, of all things--which I think is possibly the coolest profession I've encountered thus far in any of the mysteries of this type. To go along with this profession, we are given a clear impression that Meg is not exactly of a dainty sort of build, of which I also approve. She's a Virginian by birth, who fled out of her hometown. This got her even more sympathy points from me, a Kentuckian by birth who did pretty much the same thing. So yeah, liking me some Meg.
Her love interest Michael was also enjoyably swoonable. Typically mind-bogglingly gorgeous and charismatic as well as intelligent and amusingly snarky, about what you'd expect out of a hero in a cozy mystery, but his lack of any real uniqueness of character wasn't a flaw in the slightest. It was easy to see why he and Meg clicked, and watching him throw himself without blinking into the wackiness of Meg's family was quite delightful. The recurring gag of most of the town being convinced he was gay while he kept trying to get a moment alone with Meg to prove otherwise got to be a bit much at times, especially given that Michael is an actor. On the other hand, given what I've experienced out of people in the South, it wasn't at all unrealistic, either. So! And I was absolutely feeling for the poor guy when towards the end he had to belt back some wine to work up his courage to get Meg alone and talk to her--only to discover yet another dead body. Muahahaha.
Which leads me into the real strength of this book--the actual plot and setting. Since I've also been reading Deborah Donnelly's Carnegie Kincaids, having Meg trying to plan out weddings for not one, not two, but three of her relations hit a bit of deja vu for me, especially when Michael observes to Meg that there are people who get paid good money for what she's doing for her family. Like Donnelly, though, Andrews has a great knack for taking what ought to be a pretty normal everyday situation and turning it on its ear with mischief, mayhem, and murder. The supporting cast here is fabulous; I especially like Meg's father, who for a switch winds up being the person driving most of the investigating, while Meg wants to do what any normal person would do and get the madness of the three back-to-back weddings out of her hair. Mrs. Fenniman is hysterical, and so are Mrs. Tranh and the cadre of little Vietnamese ladies who help out Michael at his mother's shop.
I also liked that the local law enforcement, once the string of Suspicious Incidents got underway, actually started launching investigations of their own--and bringing in FBI types as well. Who then were snuck into the weddings undercover as random assorted "cousins". This, too, was hysterical. Especially watching their various deadpan responses to being introduced to the actual guests. ^_^
All in all quite entertaining, and definitely enough to get me to come back for more.
I must admit that the second in the Turing Hopper series, Click Here for Murder, did not strike me as quite so fabulous as the first one. Many of the same reasons the concept of this series appealed to me were here as well, but the plot felt somewhat shakier and didn't hold together quite as well for me as the first time around. Let me get my objections out of the way first.
Online gaming and LARPing were a big part of the events of this book. As a longstanding MUSHer I was all about the comprehension of how addictive online gaming can be, so I had no trouble buying how many in the cast got sucked into checking out "Beyond Paranoia", the game around which the plot's central conflict revolved. On the other hand, I found it a bit much that all of the characters, including to a lesser degree Turing herself, got caught up with it. Tim doing so I could buy--he totally comes across as the sort of person who'd easily blow hours in an online game. Maude? Not so much.
Plus, once we got into the details of the LARP spinoff of the online game, I had a hard time really buying that the bad guys would be willing to commit actual crime, like breaking and entering, destruction of private property, and even assault for the sake of fulfilling game objectives. I realize that this objection doesn't mean much in the context of the underlying motives going on here, which led to Ray Santiago getting murdered in the first place--it's just that the idea of gamers getting so caught up in what they were doing that they'd be willing to do such things vexed me.
Meanwhile, I was kind of bummed that the plot thread of KingFischer absorbing all the data about Zack at the tail end of the last book seemed to have gotten dropped in this one! I was really looking forward to KF showing more effects from that, but in this story, he continued to mostly participate in the plot whenever Turing had a reason to ping him. I hope that'll change as the series progresses. It'd be nice to see him achieving the same level of sentience that Turing has--and heck, I just want to see if they're going to actually have themselves a virtual romance. I'm dying to see how Andrews would describe it.
Most importantly, I didn't quite buy into Nestor Garcia's position in the plot and exactly what was up with him. I may have missed something in my read through the story, perhaps--but I'm drawing a genuine blank as to what his overall motive was. And when you remember a lot more about the side details than you do about the motives of the actual villain, that doesn't speak well for the construction of the plot.
Now for what I liked about the book. Vexing as some of the behavior of the uber-gamers in the plot might have been, Andrews nevertheless did strike enough chords of realism with me in the description of the culture of "Beyond Paranoia" that yeah, it felt like familiar ground. So I have to give her props for that. I love how Turing and Maude have pretty much taken over the company, too. Their hiring an actor to put in periodic appearances as the company CEO is very giggleworthy.
The introduction of T2 as a plot wrinkle was pretty cool--and although it initially annoyed me a bit, it made total sense to me after I thought about it. Turing is young yet, and in the desperate rush to figure out how to download herself out of the UL systems into her robot and how to bring herself back again, I totally buy that she could have forgotten not to leave any part of herself behind on the robot. And this opens up a whole can of worms about the ethical ramifications of duplicating a sentient AI, too. I know this complication is coming back in a later book, so I'll be looking forward to seeing what happens with that.
So--not as cool as You've Got Murder, but still some goodness there, and I'll still be coming back for Access Denied!