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books2018-05-08 01:16 am
archangelbeth) wrote in books2018-05-08 01:16 am
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A Festival of Skeletons by RJ Astruc
(adapted from https://archangelbeth.dreamwidth.org/1248095.html)
Sadly, out of print from Crossed Genres (crossedgenres.com), but you might be able to dig it up somewhere.
Overall, I liked it. Crossed Genre's theme is, well, crossing genres. In this case, I opine that the cross is between extremely well-done Pratchett fantasy, and sex and serial killers. The Pratchettian voice -- and it's not a fanfic, though the city of Kamphor would shake hands with Ankh-Morpork like a pair of particularly slovenly sisters -- is so eerily perfect that the first mention of People Having Sex, in something like those words (e.g., it's not Made Much Of, but it's far more on-screen than, say, Vimes becoming a father), was... very jarring, at first. I had to remind myself that no, this was not Pratchettian, and didn't have to follow those rules. The serial killer aspect was also rather darker than one would expect to find in, say, a Guardsmen book.
On the other hand, if one can handle those aspects... Well. HERE BE POSSIBLE SPOILERS.
~~~
The main protagonist is Mr. Sink, who is a small, pointy-nosed man who wears women's clothing exclusively. He is also the owner and operator of a morgue, and has a magic Gift which allows him to A) tell when people are about to die, and how, and B) allows him to track down criminals in a way that would definitely be a spoiler. When you know when people are about to die, you can show up very promptly to offer your mortuary services. His cross-dressing, I should note, was not entirely voluntary when first he started, but by this time he's rather gotten to like it.
He employs Vona, a female merkind (something like an anthropomorphic puffer-fish that goes through multiple life-stages, growing limbs every now and then; Vona will not be humanoid forever), and Joshua, an attractive-enough young man who is... Well, it's pretty easy to figure out what he is. He's the main leader of the Fifteen Steps group, whose Steps start each chapter, and I figure no one is going to believe for long that the Fifteen Steppers are recovering alcoholics.
Then there's Percy, a rather plump, 17-year-old kitchen servant who is... Well, let's hop over to Bujold's Five Gods universe. Percy is what you'd get if the Bastard were inclined to favor someone who has a terribly misogynistic view of the world, and who uses his supernatural gift of gab to have sex with -- and sponge off of -- any woman he wants. Fortunately, he eventually has a bit of an epiphany about exactly how his "charisma" works, which means that one doesn't want to strangle him too much. However, when I hit Chapter 2, I was faintly sorry I'd bought the book already; fortunately, I kept reading.
He and Vona are the romance plot thread. Well, a primary one, anyway. There's kind of a secondary one... BUT.
There are various other people, of course: the overly biased police deputy who is taking information from Sink's rival morgue-owner, the rival, the rival's sister, the other Fifteen Steppers (who, despite very few speaking parts, are pretty well-drawn as individuals), a necromancer and his necromantic cronies, and hordes of shuffling zombies. (Including a zombie mosquito!) The ending has enough stuff wrapped up to count as somewhat bittersweet at worst, and hopeful at best. Also, zombies.
~~~
The editing is very good. (I'm unable to turn off my copy-editing brain; it usually doesn't bug me when reading for enjoyment, but I will notice errors.) I recall no more than maybe 5 typos: one time when Sink's name was swapped for someone else, a few missing commas (maybe 3?), and a quotation-mark that fled the end of a sentence to lose itself who-knows-where. For a whole book, that's pretty darn good, small press or large. It uses UK spelling and punctuation (including quotation marks), not US ones, but that's unlikely to be a deal-breaker for anyone, I'd hope.
For fans of Pratchett who don't mind the occasional on-screen, fairly understated sexual encounter, and some graphicish gore and deaths, I'd say: grab this book if you can find it for a reasonable price.
For people who aren't sure, but have tracked down a copy, sample first. Chapter 2 includes a scene that pretty well indicates the level of sexual "explicitness" where such scenes become necessary for plot (and none are gratuitous), and there's probably some hints at the more bloody encounters in later chapters. (It's probably a sad commentary on the state of the American entertainment industry that the violence scenes "jar" less than the sexual ones did. *sigh*) If you didn't check the spoilerish comments, I repeat: when I hit Chapter 2, I briefly regretted buying the book, because Percy starts as a jerk and it's just a leetle hard to tell whether the surrounding explanatory text is Percy's worldview or the author telling us what the world is like. Percy gets better, and it becomes more obvious that the text in question is Percyassumptions. On the other hand, if you don't want to give the mysogynistic character arc a go? Honestly, that's fine, and skipping is 100% reasonable.
If you hate Pratchett (you strange person, you!), you might want to sample to see if the sex and violence are enough to make up for the rest of the style, but you'll probably wind up avoiding the book after all. C'est la vie.
(Sorry the review isn't brought more into line -- just realized it's 1:30 in the morning and I gotta run to bed!)
Sadly, out of print from Crossed Genres (crossedgenres.com), but you might be able to dig it up somewhere.
Overall, I liked it. Crossed Genre's theme is, well, crossing genres. In this case, I opine that the cross is between extremely well-done Pratchett fantasy, and sex and serial killers. The Pratchettian voice -- and it's not a fanfic, though the city of Kamphor would shake hands with Ankh-Morpork like a pair of particularly slovenly sisters -- is so eerily perfect that the first mention of People Having Sex, in something like those words (e.g., it's not Made Much Of, but it's far more on-screen than, say, Vimes becoming a father), was... very jarring, at first. I had to remind myself that no, this was not Pratchettian, and didn't have to follow those rules. The serial killer aspect was also rather darker than one would expect to find in, say, a Guardsmen book.
On the other hand, if one can handle those aspects... Well. HERE BE POSSIBLE SPOILERS.
~~~
The main protagonist is Mr. Sink, who is a small, pointy-nosed man who wears women's clothing exclusively. He is also the owner and operator of a morgue, and has a magic Gift which allows him to A) tell when people are about to die, and how, and B) allows him to track down criminals in a way that would definitely be a spoiler. When you know when people are about to die, you can show up very promptly to offer your mortuary services. His cross-dressing, I should note, was not entirely voluntary when first he started, but by this time he's rather gotten to like it.
He employs Vona, a female merkind (something like an anthropomorphic puffer-fish that goes through multiple life-stages, growing limbs every now and then; Vona will not be humanoid forever), and Joshua, an attractive-enough young man who is... Well, it's pretty easy to figure out what he is. He's the main leader of the Fifteen Steps group, whose Steps start each chapter, and I figure no one is going to believe for long that the Fifteen Steppers are recovering alcoholics.
Then there's Percy, a rather plump, 17-year-old kitchen servant who is... Well, let's hop over to Bujold's Five Gods universe. Percy is what you'd get if the Bastard were inclined to favor someone who has a terribly misogynistic view of the world, and who uses his supernatural gift of gab to have sex with -- and sponge off of -- any woman he wants. Fortunately, he eventually has a bit of an epiphany about exactly how his "charisma" works, which means that one doesn't want to strangle him too much. However, when I hit Chapter 2, I was faintly sorry I'd bought the book already; fortunately, I kept reading.
He and Vona are the romance plot thread. Well, a primary one, anyway. There's kind of a secondary one... BUT.
There are various other people, of course: the overly biased police deputy who is taking information from Sink's rival morgue-owner, the rival, the rival's sister, the other Fifteen Steppers (who, despite very few speaking parts, are pretty well-drawn as individuals), a necromancer and his necromantic cronies, and hordes of shuffling zombies. (Including a zombie mosquito!) The ending has enough stuff wrapped up to count as somewhat bittersweet at worst, and hopeful at best. Also, zombies.
~~~
The editing is very good. (I'm unable to turn off my copy-editing brain; it usually doesn't bug me when reading for enjoyment, but I will notice errors.) I recall no more than maybe 5 typos: one time when Sink's name was swapped for someone else, a few missing commas (maybe 3?), and a quotation-mark that fled the end of a sentence to lose itself who-knows-where. For a whole book, that's pretty darn good, small press or large. It uses UK spelling and punctuation (including quotation marks), not US ones, but that's unlikely to be a deal-breaker for anyone, I'd hope.
For fans of Pratchett who don't mind the occasional on-screen, fairly understated sexual encounter, and some graphicish gore and deaths, I'd say: grab this book if you can find it for a reasonable price.
For people who aren't sure, but have tracked down a copy, sample first. Chapter 2 includes a scene that pretty well indicates the level of sexual "explicitness" where such scenes become necessary for plot (and none are gratuitous), and there's probably some hints at the more bloody encounters in later chapters. (It's probably a sad commentary on the state of the American entertainment industry that the violence scenes "jar" less than the sexual ones did. *sigh*) If you didn't check the spoilerish comments, I repeat: when I hit Chapter 2, I briefly regretted buying the book, because Percy starts as a jerk and it's just a leetle hard to tell whether the surrounding explanatory text is Percy's worldview or the author telling us what the world is like. Percy gets better, and it becomes more obvious that the text in question is Percyassumptions. On the other hand, if you don't want to give the mysogynistic character arc a go? Honestly, that's fine, and skipping is 100% reasonable.
If you hate Pratchett (you strange person, you!), you might want to sample to see if the sex and violence are enough to make up for the rest of the style, but you'll probably wind up avoiding the book after all. C'est la vie.
(Sorry the review isn't brought more into line -- just realized it's 1:30 in the morning and I gotta run to bed!)