Cynthia Sally Haggard's Blog: Cynthia Sally's Blog, page 29

THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE (Thursday Murder Club #2) by Richard Osman, narrated by Lesley Manville

Like many readers, I thought this book was better than the first one. That is because Richard Osman has learned to make things LESS complicated for his readers by cutting out the vast number of characters that populated Volume One of this series. Instead we have our favorites – bossy Elizabeth, unassuming Joyce, dignified Ibrahim and Red Ron (the former Union Leader). In addition, we have the cop duo of Chris & Donna. And then there is Bogdan, Polish handyman & chess player extraordinaire, who got away with murder (literally) in Volume One. So that’s seven main characters to deal with, plus a novel that was much more focused and well-paced.

Because this novel was much better crafted, I was able to sit back and enjoy the humor that was laugh-out-loud funny. Plus this novel does something that I really love, that is give me the opportunity to watch really clever people think (Bogdan & Elizabeth) which I relished.

So this time, I give this piece an unequivocal Five Stars! You won’t be disappointed. Perfect for curling up by the fire with the cat, a mug of steaming hot chocolate, and a cookie.

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Everyone,

I thought you might like to know I’m running TWO Book Funnel Promos Starting Today!

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George R. R. Martin’s A DANCE WITH DRAGONS (A SONG OF ICE & FIRE #5)

I’d like to start my review by mentioning all the positive things about this series, which keeps me reading. GRRM has created compelling characters in Sansa, Arya, Jon Snow, Jaime Lannister, Tyrion Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen, and I’m dying to know what happens to them, and how they come out of this novel. So every time I’m reading something about them I’m happy.

I’m not so happy with this novel as a piece of writing. The problem is that the structure of the story has become slack, and we have a situation with multiple characters and multiple plot-lines, which necessitates long waits between each point of view character to find out what happens next. For example, poor Sansa Stark finally left the Eyrie with her uncle-by-marriage Petyr Baelish at the end of A FEAST FOR CROWS, but no-where is she to be seen in A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. So I’m still wondering what happened to her. Instead, the plot has become bogged down in too many minor characters and their dealings, and so the momentum of the story has crawled to a halt.

What made J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series so successful, was that each book was structured around a year at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, like A FEAST FOR CROWS has lost its structure, so one reads and reads with no real sense of where this story is going to end up. And so the arc of tension is either sagging, or absent.

I hope that GRRM will do a couple of things with the last two books in the series:

Ditch the prologues. I have no idea why ADWD started with Varamyr as it seemed to have little bearing on what followed. The opening would have been much stronger if we had been plunged into the scene where Tyrion is on a boat escaping Westeros, just after killing his father at the end of Book Three.Edit out the minor characters, and make the book lean and mean by just focusing on the lives of the main characters that we have grown to know and love.

I would love a scene in which Tyrion meets Daenerys, especially as their encounter in ADWD was such a cop-out. I want to see Tyrion confront his sister and brother. I want to see who ends up on the Iron Throne. And I want to find out what happens to Bran, Arya and Sansa. Do they ever see each other again? As far as I’m concerned, I would be happy NOT having to wade through stuff about another unscrupulous sellsword, or about Theon Greyjoy and his family, or about the Dornes. Frankly, I’m no longer interested. Three stars.

A FEAST FOR CROWS (SONG OF ICE & FIRE #4) by George R. R. Martin

I can see why people have problems with this volume of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, titled A FEAST FOR CROWS. We spend a great deal of time in the company of Brienne, Maid of Tarth as she wanders through Westeros looking for Sansa Stark, only to be told she was on the wrong trail. At the end of the book, she comes to a sad, unsurprisingly grisly end, and it all seems so pointless.

The other figure who casts a long shadow over this novel is the beautiful but cruel Cersei. As she is not a sympathetic character, and she gets increasingly paranoid throughout this book, and there is no resolution to her situation, I can see why people would get impatient.

It is true, that I found myself wondering, two-thirds of the way through, when this novel was going to come to some kind of resolution. And it didn’t, which was disappointing. But strangely enough, I did manage to read most every word, which is unusual for me as I am the most impatient person on the planet. So what kept me going?

I think the people who really kept me going throughout this volume were the Stark sisters, which is strange as we don’t hear much from them. But whenever they appeared, the volume came to life. That might explain why I stuck with Brienne through thick and thin, as she was looking for Sansa Stark, and I kept expecting them to meet up.

Otherwise, I have to agree with others who have said this needed a stronger editorial hand. In particular, I found the prologue to this piece as well as the prologue to A DANCE WITH DRAGONS (which I have just read) really unhelpful, and actually a turn-off to the book I’m about to read. In my opinion they give you hooks that are not really hooks, as they don’t seem to have much to do with the main characters. I hope that in his next volume THE WINDS OF WINTER, GRRM will do something about that. Four stars.

A STORM OF SWORDS (A SONG OF ICE & FIRE #3) by George R. R. Martin

In A STORM OF SWORDS George Martin shows how ruthless a truly great author has to be, for in this volume we come across the infamous Red Wedding. Those of you who have seen the HBO series or read the book, know what I mean. For the rest of you, I will say no more so as not to spoil the experience.

The saga continues, with King Robb battling to save the North, with Jon Snow returning from his stint of spying amongst the Wildings with his heart torn, with KIng Stannis in the grip of an evil sorceress, with Queen Daenerys learning her craft of Queenship as this 14-year-old begins to show the makings of a truly great monarch, and with cruel King Joffrey growing even crueler, so that even his Lannister relatives (apart from his doting mother) become uneasy.

There are many wonderful moments as new characters are introduced. How I loved Lord Tywin Lannister, the cold patriarch of the family. He is so typical of a high-born medieval lord. How I loved meeting Lady Margaery and her family, especially her lively grandmother. These ladies seem so sweet, but they are cunning and ruthless in their ways too. My favorite part of the novel is the way in which Lady Margaery’s grandmother, Lady Olenna, outwits Cersei and saves the day…for her grand-daughter at least.

But you will have to read this volume to see what I mean. Five stars.

George R. R. Martin’s A CLASH OF KINGS (A SONG OF ICE & FIRE #2)

The King is dead and chaos reigns. Sitting on the Iron Throne is the vicious boy-king Joffrey, ruled over by his ambitious, ruthless, amoral and disquietingly beautiful mother Queen Cersei. But many do not accept the boy-kings rule, and six other rulers rise to claim their place, including the Stark heir Robb.

This volume opens with the flight of Princess Arya Stark, pretending to be the boy ‘Arry, and ends with…but that would spoil the suspense, so I won’t tell you that.

As I mentioned in my last review, there are echoes of the Wars of the Roses in these volumes. Joffrey is as vicious as Edouard of Lancaster, the heir to the Lancaster cause and son of the ruthless and arrogant Queen Marguerite of Anjou. Who his father was, was something that no-one was really sure of (as in Joffrey’s case), but the betting was that it was Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset rather than King Henry VI.

What is so wonderful about this book is the accrual of detail that makes the lives of these characters so real, and by extension the world of that long-vanished past of the 15th-century real as well. Most second novels are extremely disappointing. This is just as wonderful as the first. Five stars.

A GAME OF THRONES (SONG OF ICE & FIRE #1) by George R. R. Martin

I came to A GAME OF THRONES because I read (and write) historical novels set during the Wars of the Roses, so I wanted to see what this writer of epic fantasy would do to the material. I was pleasantly surprised to find that George R. R. Martin (I’ll refer to him as GRRM) didn’t slavishly follow the historical events, making this a refreshing read.

Yes, I got that the Starks stand in for the Yorks (I guess Cateleyn is based on Lady Cecylee Neville, Duchess of York), and that the Lannisters stand in for the Lancasters. But everything has been mixed up, so that Robert Baratheon, who most resembles King Edward IV, is married to his greatest enemy Marguerite of Anjou (the Lancastrian Queen). Or perhaps Cersei Lannister is based upon his actual wife Elisabeth Woodville? Which makes Jaime Lannister what? Sir Anthony Woodville?

Anyway, you get the idea. It’s not easy to fit the actual history to this story, which gives GRRM a lot more freedom to develop his characters how he pleases.

For a book with the requisite plot twists and turns, it was a pleasant surprise to read such wonderfully poetic prose. Here is an example of what I mean. We are in Catelyn Stark’s head as she rides with her son and his army to cross the river at Riverrun:

“They crossed at evenfall as a horned moon floated upon the river. The double column wound its way though the gate of the eastern twin like a great steel snake, slithering across the courtyard into the keep and over the bridge, to issue forth once more from the second castle on the west bank. Catelyn rode at the head of the serpent, with her son and her uncle…”

Look at all those strong verbs: “crossed,” “floated,” “wound,” “slithering,” “issue forth,” “rode.” And how poetic the language is, with “evenfall” and “horned moon.” It is just enough to give a whiff of the Middle Ages without overdoing it. This long book, which I believe is about 700 pages (my iPad doesn’t tell me), kept me royally entertained for a week. If you have a boring plane journey ahead of you and this sort of thing grabs your attention, get it for your iPad. Five stars.

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Warmly, Cynthia

HOUSE OF GUCCI MOVIE RELEASED TODAY!

From L to R: Maurizio Gucci played by Adam Driver, Patrizia Reggiani played by Lady Gaga, Aldo Gucci played by Al Pacino in the upcoming movie HOUSE OF GUCCI (based upon Ms. Forden’s book) to be released 24 November 2021.

What an amazing story! Who could resist a tale about Murder, Madness, Glamour & Greed?

The following is a review of the original book by Sara Gay Forden narrated by Fajer Al-Kaisi.

This volume was not solely focused on the murder of Maurizio Gucci. Instead, it provided a sweeping view of the history of the House of Gucci, starting in 1921 when Guccio Gucci founded the original shop in Florence. Author Sara Gay Forden takes us through four generations, starting with Guccio, then his eldest son Aldo Gucci (a marketing genius,) onto Aldo’s nephew Maurizio Gucci (whose total lack of understanding about the value of money brought the company to its knees,) and finally the story of what happened after Maurizio’s murder when outsiders took control, and the various events that led to the House of Gucci becoming the global phenomenon it is today.

The beginning was both amusing and fascinating as we took in the magnificent characters that populated the Gucci family.   But (and there is a but) this story was not handled as well as it could have been. Granted, it gave a perceptive and astute look at the various people who took charge of the company.  But the prose was terrible, cluttered with an over-abundance of adjectives, unnecessary repetitions, and distracting descriptions (“he had piercing blue eyes” we are told of one minor character.) This was not helped by the monotone delivery of the narrator.

As the novel wound on, progressing from the Operatic drama of an Italian family business, to a story of corporate takeovers and hostile bids (not so interesting) the problems grew. Which is a great pity.

I give this volume 5 stars for a truly fascinating story and 1 star for terrible prose.

THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman, narrated by Lesley Manville

This volume was recommended to me by my sister, who absolutely adored it. I didn’t have quite the same reaction.

Like many readers, I loved the beginning. How could you not when this story involves four people in their seventies, including bossy Elizabeth (a former spy), charming Joyce who fancies every man she meets (a former nurse), quiet, dignified Ibrahim (a former psychotherapist) and Ron, who is loud, sometimes obnoxious, but always interesting. It will come as no surprise to anyone that Ron was a former Union Organizer and Rabble Rouser, whose claim to fame was that his picture always appeared in newspapers alongside headlines such as TALKS FAIL AT LAST MOMENT!

However, this is a debut novel, and by the time the first hundred pages had swept by, it showed. For starters, there were so many happenings that were so similar. I lost count of the number of people who visited the convent’s graveyard in the dead of night, shovel in hand, to bury a lover one had inadvertently murdered, or a beloved wife’s ashes that one could not bear to part with, or a bona-fide murder. There must have been five or six happenings of this nature (that was one busy graveyard) it was surprising that the various characters didn’t trip over one another. The original finding of a dead body ON TOP of a nun’s coffin, was thus never solved. Due to all this activity, I was never sure whose body it was.

Convent Cemetery (St. Joseph’s, Hokah MN)

And then the characters. Like most beginning authors, Richard Osman populated his novel with way too many. (In an interview included in the audio version, he rather endearingly remarked that he thought his novel should be complicated. WRONG! As any seasoned author knows, it is your job as an author to make things crystal clear for the reader. Even if the character is confused, you NEVER want your reader to be confused!)

So when we got to the end of the novel and learned who had killed Peter, I was not in the least bit interested, principally because I couldn’t remember who Peter was, and why his murder was important.

I give 1 star for confusing the reader and 5 stars, for the four wonderful main characters.

Rating: 3 out of 5.