Reviewed by ladygrey on
Except it doesn't feel clever or inspired. It feels slightly heavy-handed. Mildly amusing. Kind of obvious. And then, yeah, overtly heavy-handed in the end.
Which isn't to say the characters aren't enjoyable. They all are, quite. And in the end that's the most important part of any book. Even Edward in the beginning is likable which makes his whole plot work so well. We are told quite often how clever Jane is and how brave she is and how fantastic she is and normally that's annoying at best. But here it works because she is likable and she is clever and mostly because there's a whole lot more to her than all that. G is quite a bit of fun. And the other supporting characters are interesting enough and likable enough to support the story and keep it moving forward and be entertaining.
The plot follows history enough that, if you know this period, you know by the second act where at least part of the story is going to end up. That doesn't make it any less fun to get there. The third act seemed rushed. I think I'd have trimmed the first to make room for it. Overall, it makes the nasty parts of history much more pleasant, which is... pleasant seems redundant but it fits.
And if you like allusions than this book is full of them. Twenty years later you can get away with all sorts of things. LadyHawk's plot hook. The Princess Bride's tone. And some of the dialog. More Shakespeare than you'd expect, or possibly not. All of it intentional (except maybe the LadyHawk part). I think it's supposed to be part of the charm and the fun. Did I mention the glibness? That, I think is meant to be a big part of the fun too. And it isn't that I didn't find it fun... but I didn't find it as fun as I was supposed to.
I found it mildly delightful and slightly uninspired. With pretty good characters.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 18 March, 2017: Finished reading
- 18 March, 2017: Reviewed