Helliconia Spring, by Brian Aldiss. Science fiction classic with amazing worldbuilding, in a world where each season lasts for hundreds of years. Also relentlessly gross and grim, with characters who didn't engage me at all. Gave up.
Yet I feel strangely cheered that a brilliant man like Brian Aldiss can commit a sentence - not meant to be funny - like Something in his hollow belly went whang at the thought.
Even the best of us sometimes write "Something went whang."
Into the Night, by Suzanne Brockmann. I had somehow missed reading this installment of her Troubleshooters Navy SEALs series. Sadly, it was the worst one. Mike Muldoon has no personality - he's young, hot, likes older women, and... uh... that's basically it. White House staffer Joan DaCosta is incredibly annoying. There are stupid misunderstandings galore, plus yet another ridiculous romantic obstacle impossible to take seriously: Horrors! This completely perfect man is younger than me! Also, virtually nothing happens in the entire book.
The subplots were way more interesting, but the WWII one (which I liked a lot) had little page time, and the doomed romance between Mary Lou and the sweet Arab guy ended incredibly depressingly, with him probably dying of injuries sustained in the action climax and everyone falsely believing that he was a terrorist. I wonder if this is resolved in a later book, and I just don't remember it because I didn't have the context that would have made it seem relevant. (I remember what happened to Mary Lou; I mean what happened to Ibrahim Rahman.)
Yet I feel strangely cheered that a brilliant man like Brian Aldiss can commit a sentence - not meant to be funny - like Something in his hollow belly went whang at the thought.
Even the best of us sometimes write "Something went whang."
Into the Night, by Suzanne Brockmann. I had somehow missed reading this installment of her Troubleshooters Navy SEALs series. Sadly, it was the worst one. Mike Muldoon has no personality - he's young, hot, likes older women, and... uh... that's basically it. White House staffer Joan DaCosta is incredibly annoying. There are stupid misunderstandings galore, plus yet another ridiculous romantic obstacle impossible to take seriously: Horrors! This completely perfect man is younger than me! Also, virtually nothing happens in the entire book.
The subplots were way more interesting, but the WWII one (which I liked a lot) had little page time, and the doomed romance between Mary Lou and the sweet Arab guy ended incredibly depressingly, with him probably dying of injuries sustained in the action climax and everyone falsely believing that he was a terrorist. I wonder if this is resolved in a later book, and I just don't remember it because I didn't have the context that would have made it seem relevant. (I remember what happened to Mary Lou; I mean what happened to Ibrahim Rahman.)
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Presumably because it was a dark and stormy night?
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It totally is both gross and grim, though.
(Edited for grammar.)
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The pit creature: THE HIDDEN STAR OF THE BOOK
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I wouldn't say _Into the Night_ is the *worst*, because Mary Lou and Ibrahim, but I definitely don't like it.
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I should say that I discovered Brockmann and read like 7 books or hers in a row and had a blast and felt very positive about them. This was one of them, if not a standout read. I also think I remember what happened to Ibrahim but geez if I can find anything to confirm it.
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I feel very positive about the series as a whole. I think part of the issue with this one is that since I accidentally read it last, I was also comparing it to my favorites.
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I read the Tracy/Decker book, and I liked what she did there, but by that time my Brockmann high was on a downswing. Even if I thought she was doing something fairly nuanced with Decker's storyline over a number of books. (I was not one of those readers who wanted him paired with Sophia. At ALL. So I was a bit baffled by the resulting controversy.)
But I will always love Brockmann for being the first (that I'd read) who had a (part) Indian hero in Max Bhagat. They were pretty thin on the ground, if not nonexistent, at that point. At least in my experience. As a complete aside, I LOVE that Mills and Boon are delivering India-set romances now. So many changes…
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I know the answer! If you want to know before you start the book...
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---L.
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Whang!