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Dead Men's Boots is the third in the Felix Castor series by Mike Carey and continues in the trend of improvement. There's lots of really good character development, one of the most interesting peripheral characters gets a more central role, and we get all the way through the climactic battle without a 20-page exposition dump. It seems Carey can't do without his pages of explanation, though, since the hero confronts the major bad guy after the battle and said bad guy insists that he reveal how he worked the mystery out before the final resolution. Castor restricts himself to only 15 pages, but apparently old habits die hard. Still, a very entertaining addition to the series.
Sadly, with Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver has stepped down from the pedestal on which I had raised her. It's still a good book, very well written in her wonderful immersive style, but there are other aspects that make it by far my least favourite of her books so far. For one thing, it could have done with a more eagle-eyed editor - two places, thousands of miles apart and visited by the protagonist in different decades, are described with the same detail of pig-shaped plant pots. Presumably, this was a detail Kingsolver really liked but forgot she had used it earlier on. Also, a character describes a Pueblo Indian tradition and then says something that completely contradicts it two pages later. More problematic for me is the sledge hammer with which the environmental message is delivered (which didn't bother me at all in Prodigal Summer), and lastly the cop-out conclusion that having children is the solution to all woes. This latter point always annoys me in stories - obviously, I feel differently about this than a lot of people, but I really think that having a child is unlikely to make you happy if you weren't happy with yourself beforehand. It's still Kingsolver, but not as I knew it.
Sadly, with Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver has stepped down from the pedestal on which I had raised her. It's still a good book, very well written in her wonderful immersive style, but there are other aspects that make it by far my least favourite of her books so far. For one thing, it could have done with a more eagle-eyed editor - two places, thousands of miles apart and visited by the protagonist in different decades, are described with the same detail of pig-shaped plant pots. Presumably, this was a detail Kingsolver really liked but forgot she had used it earlier on. Also, a character describes a Pueblo Indian tradition and then says something that completely contradicts it two pages later. More problematic for me is the sledge hammer with which the environmental message is delivered (which didn't bother me at all in Prodigal Summer), and lastly the cop-out conclusion that having children is the solution to all woes. This latter point always annoys me in stories - obviously, I feel differently about this than a lot of people, but I really think that having a child is unlikely to make you happy if you weren't happy with yourself beforehand. It's still Kingsolver, but not as I knew it.
