This is an early Vonnegut novel which brought him a Hugo nomination and more attention from the community. It is full of ideas that Vonnegut would return to in later works. I liked it, because Vonnegut will always be enjoyable to me, but Sirens felt a little too jam-packed with ideas that are better explored in later work.
I’m a big fan of Gail Simone in general and of her Red Sonja comics run in particular, so of course I wanted to check this out.
Lots of what I love about Simone’s writing is in here. Strong characters from across the spectrum. Horror twined into adventure. Fun plot twists. Great stuff.
But, honestly, it took a while to get moving. The first half or so of the book is more disconnected than I was expecting. There’s a lot happening, but not all of the stakes are connecting for me. A couple times characters are saying “I know this is a mistake, but I…” I know people do that, but it felt a little more like a flag that we were doing this for strict plot reasons.
Eventually, the gears all mesh and the plot becomes propulsive with character-driven beats that make sense and have impact. By the end I was cheering for the good guys and hissing the villains enthusiastically.
Recommended. If it feels slow, stick with it.
This is the first Sherlock Holmes novella. I’d never read it and decided to fill that hole. It was not entirely what I expected.
I’ve read a bunch of the Holmes short stories and maybe The Hound of the Baskervilles, but by them the formula of a Holmes mystery had gelled into an efficient puzzle and Holmes delivery system. Scarlet is still feeling things out in ways that surprised me.
First, there is the introduction of Watson and Holmes, which was quite fun. I know a bunch of the details but it was fun to see how Conan Doyle established all these. And then we get sucked into a Holmes mystery and watch Holmes do Holmes things. It’s great. Easy to see how this character hooked people and why there’s a whole canon around him.
And then we take a turn to an entirely different setting to kind of show the reader the circumstances that Holmes has deduced. I was quite surprised. More than that, I can see why this style of mystery execution wasn’t for Holmes. Conan Doyle writes it well enough, but I spent the whole section – about half the novella – wanting to get back to Holmes.
It makes for an interesting artifact more than a thrilling read. Still worth a look, probably.
Recommended.
I came to this through the 99 Percent Invisible podcast. The podcast read it and discussed it with a variety of guests. I heard one episode and decided I should read the book before I listened to more of them. This was a good idea.
The Power Broker is the story of Robert Moses, the person behind basically all of the urban improvements in New York City and environs from the 30’s to the early 70’s. To tell that story, Robert Caro starts with a traditional biography. But to make that make sense he has to take lengthy side trips into the larger than life characters in New York City and New York State politics. And the ways that skilled politicians can manipulate the law to create and consolidate power. And how they gather the human and media capital to enact those laws. And how that process changes someone. And how the results of those actions can change the largest city in the world, not always for the best.
It sounds like a lot. It is a lot. The thing is, it is never dull. Whether Caro is explaining how Moses manipulates public authorities to generate self-perpetuating funding for his projects immune from conventional governmental authority or painting a picture of an out-to-pasture ex-Governor of New York wandering the New York Zoo at night, he has your attention. Caro’s ability to make the mundane dramatic is remarkable.
The Power Broker is also a lot in terms of sheer word count. It’s a tome, 1500 pages or so (I read an e-book). I won’t say it flew by, but it’s a trip worth taking.
I came away much richer for having read this. I learned things about New York’s specific history, a lot about bare-knuckle politics in general, and about the effects of those politics on people.
A must.