(no subject)

[winterbadger]

27/50: The King's Gold by Arturo Perez Reverte.A piquaresque novel, another in his series about the lives of several Spanish soldiers of fortune in the 17th century. Like the others that I've read, it is long on flowery description and period detail and short on plot and character development. Returning to Spain from campaigning in the Low Countries (the events of a previous novel), the characters are contracted to undertake a mission. They undertake the mission. There are one or two fights, but everything is so straightforward (even the sudden twists of fate and the dastardly betrayals are telegraphed well in advance--not just to the reader but to the characters themselves) that you can only read these for the historical colour and the evocative setting, not for the story. There's poetry interespersed which may be moving and aesthetically pleasing in Spanish but which in English is just rather bland. Reading a novel by APR after reading Patrick O'Brian (or other authors likeMary Renault, Dorothy Dunnett, or Judith Merkle Riley) is like reaching for a big, thick, filled tart and ending up with a macaroon instead. It tastes good, but it's not very filling.

Still in progress:

Widdershins by Charles de Lint
Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West by T. R. Reid
Three Men and A Maid by P. G. Wodehouse
Hostile Skies: A Combat History of the American Air Service in World War I by James J. Hudson
Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard: A Journey Through the Inside-Out Worlds of Iran and Afghanistan by Nicholas Jubber
Understanding China by John Bryan Starr
The Sultan's Seal by Jenny White
The Williamite Wars in Ireland, 1688-1691 by John Childs
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 by Thomas Desjardins
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
Theoretical Criminology by George B. Vold et al.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I read his book, The Fencing Master, and found it charming. Very slow paced, with each chapter a detailed tapestry stitched in vivid colors. It was quite unlike anything else I'd ever read. Though I suppose Five Black Ships comes closest -- though not very close. Perhaps it's a Spanish style?