Two unrelated things.

[dira]

1) From BLDGBLOG, a post entitled "Nakatomi Space", which starts by describing Die Hard as "one of the best architectural films of the past 25 years" and just keeps getting more fascinating and awesome from there, including diagnosing in architectural terms just where the Die Hard sequels went wrong. Man, now I really want to see the architecturally appropriate versions....

2) I just finished reading Mary Gentle's Ash: A Secret History (in its undivided 1100-page glory-or-something), and ... has anyone else read this? Could someone please come help me figure out what I think of it in the comments? I'm pretty sure I liked the ending, I think I just wish it had gotten there about four hundred pages faster.


This entry is crossposted at http://dsudis.livejournal.com/543676.html.

Comments

[dira]

Well, like I said - and as has been reinforced by people over on the LJ version of this post - I think it really needed a good hard editing. In addition to being longer than strictly necessary and tending to armor/weaponry porn and a more general "I RESEARCHED THIS AND NOW YOU WILL READ ALL ABOUT IT" it, uh, wavers between past and present tense. Within sentences, at times.

Also, I am not sure how much you know about the framing premise of the book--it alleges to be a translation of near-contemporary chronicles of 15th century events, interspersed with notes from the translator and his editor as the translation goes on, but a) makes free use of anachronistic phrasing to convey the equivalent mood and b) is unlike no contemporary document of which I am aware in that it consists of a tight third person POV narrative from its hero's perspective. I do not presume to know whether those characteristics might bother you, but I feel sure you would be ... aware of them.

That said, it has a fistful of cool ideas and several characters I quite like and a story arc that what I think are some genuinely interesting and unusual things. And, yeah, I'm pretty sure I like the way it ended. But I spent what seemed like a lot of time dutifully reading 40 pages at lunchtime and then putting it down and having no particular impulse to pick it up again until the next day's lunchtime.