false 1201711 0385660960 9780385660969 12 7 Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade (Lord John Grey, #2) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1201711.Lord_John_and_the_Brotherhood_of_the_Blade 3617 Diana Gabaldon 88877 8851 2 2 false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 04 11:30:13 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 20 20:07:47 -0700 2007
I like Lord John a great deal, but I don't like Lord John books very much. Partly this is just a book/reader mismatch. I don't enjoy mysteries, so I'm reading these particular mysteries for the character stuff and the historical-milieu stuff, which is like someone who doesn't like romance reading romantic-suspense books for the plot -- sure to be a disappointment.

But part of it is the books.

Lord John's infatuation with Jamie Fraser is beginning to call for intensive therapy. I didn't actually believe their confrontation in the stable late in the book -- sexual boasting is way out of character for Grey with anyone, let alone with Fraser -- but its inclusion suggests that Fraser unbalances someone's brain, either the character's or the author's.

Aside from the Fraser bits, the character stuff in this book is reasonably satisfying -- I liked seeing the development of Grey's relationships with his brother and his mother -- but the romantic plot and the historical milieu were both unrelentingly bleak and hopeless and depressing.

Significant parts of the mystery seem like a big mess; the involvement of the O'Higgins brothers, the really unnecessarily large number of people named Longstreet and people with the initial A, Grey asking Fraser to send some letters to help solve the mystery and then quite literally forgetting about them until reminded.

Gabaldon's sex scenes have improved since Outlander, which had one sex scene where I actually could not figure out what was going on. She had good sexual tension going here, and some nice moments. If I'd been her beta I would have advised her that when you use the "genteel generalities with a few details picked out" method, one guy musing on the precise shape of the other guy's cock is maybe not the best detail to pick out. ]]>