Joe Kessler > Recent Status Updates

I love that the dramatic climax of this alternative-history fantasy novel about linguist wizards is turning out to be a general strike throughout Georgian-era London.

Oof. Shoutout to William & Mary... in the form of the school's racist treatment toward indigenous people in its earliest form. With a real quote from Lyon G. Tyler admitting how the College's students from nearby tribes were hostages to keep their families in line.

A bit far in to only now be getting an account of how the linguistic magic works, but I am, as expected, quite riveted by it.

There's a lot of self-made-man republican / libertarian bullshit in this narrative too. "Boo hoo, all governments are the same and are only around to interfere and tax us. I don't need any human community outside my family. I'm gonna die of dysentery at age 30 and like it."

This is like if The Mosquito Coast didn't realize it was a tragedy.

Again and again, women in this story are basically introduced just to fall immediately in love with one of the menfolk.

"You were brave. You were strong. You were good. You mattered."

brb, sobbing/screaming forever

First use of the n-word. I have a feeling it's not going to be the last.

I am sort of surprised that this was assigned reading for us in high school, given campaigns at the time targeting stuff like Huck Finn. And I lived in a pretty right-leaning school district. But maybe this book was seen as OK since its good guys are never the racist ones 🙄

Some backstory: This novel was assigned reading for me in 10th grade, almost two decades ago. I hated it then and have long considered it one of the worst books I've ever read in my life -- but it's also an award-winning title that's beloved in many circles. So now I'm gonna take another look.

(Chapter One's a little racist so far.)

"I may have interfered, but I haven't sunk so low as to give advice."

Both main characters are being ridiculous and I can't tell how much that's intentional on Agatha Christie's part.

Like, no, a teen doesn't get a say in who her mom dates / marries. But also, don't get engaged to a stranger you meet in the three weeks your child is on vacation??

This book (and the next one, I'm sure) has some interesting parallels to both the Battle of H*gwarts and the Ender's Shadow sequels. Too bad those authors are both raging bigots or else I could bring up those elements in the review I'm writing! Anyway, something in the air during that first decade of the millennium, I guess.

The last chapter mentions both that the story is set in 2013 and that the kid is 17. So yeah, definitely seems like just an error that an editor didn't catch, including those references to 2016.

It's weird that Jake keeps referring to "Rachel's mom" in his narration, rather than "Aunt Naomi."

And of course, someone just said, "There are other worlds than these."

Okay, here's a Dark Tower reference for you: "Long days and pleasant nights," which the hero says he learned from his father who read it in a book. Implication being that the DT series is fictional in this reality? (There was a reference to the Cujo movie earlier too, FWIW.)

This is way less Dark Tower-y than I wanted / expected it to be, but I'll be shocked if we don't get some Easter Eggs along those lines before the end.

Wait, hold up. Chapter 1 states clearly that the narrator was born in 1996. But in chapter 11, one of his high school teachers mentions the police killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, which happened in 2016.

I'm assuming that's an editing mistake, since it'd be in pretty poor taste as an intentional clue of a dishonest narrator and/or a world different than our own.

This was really far too much setup, but it's all cooking now.

Lmao, I can't believe that Han and Leia are going on their honeymoon on the same 'starcruiser' that the Star Wars hotel in Orlando is supposed to represent. Gotta get that Disney synergy in somehow, I guess.

So to recap: she's 20 years old and he's 35. When they meet at the beginning of the book, she's 14 and he's 29 (and already divorced). He's watched her grow up, but his POV now regularly includes thoughts like how her body oozes sexuality or how he wishes she were one of the prostitutes he visits in town. More than a little messed up! Especially if these characters do get together in the end as I'm assuming.

She's definitely one of the doctor's hybrid creatures, yeah? Or am I just letting memories of the Madman's Daughter trilogy lead me astray?

On a stylistic level, I don't like how whenever we switch between the two POVs, we get the end of the previous scene again from the new one's perspective. Too much repetition there, for no apparent payoff yet.

‪Finding this budding romance kinda problematic, which is getting to be a recurring issue with this author =/‬

Thank goodness. That idea was too goofy, so I'm glad it finally got disproven.

...She's gonna turn out to be the kidnapped baby herself, isn't she?

This is alright so far. But nothing has yet convinced me that the secondary protagonist cop character is remotely necessary to the story.

"Because the only way to truly satisfy people with money is to give them stuff for free. Frankly I think it's a con and that's how they keep their money. They've convinced people they're too good to spend it."

Author Michael Hughes is now spamming people to read his books on Twitter just like he used to do on here, and I'm putting him on blast for it. NOT TODAY, SATAN.

I'm declaring a moratorium on characters magically guessing other people's passwords.

On the other hand: despite the mention of a Jewish parent and occasional mention of other Jews and Muslims around, there's no real incorporation of that into the character or scant worldbuilding. "Holy" fire burns these witches -- why? If a Christian magic is visibly real, that should have implications for religious minorities.