And since I have the house and computer to myself, I think I will try to get started on getting caught up with the books I have read in the past couple of months. And thereafter, I will try to type up things as I read them...
The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever by Julia Quinn
This is a Regency romance set in England in the 1810's...Miranda Cheever is only ten years old in 1810, when she falls in love with her best friend's older brother. The years are not good to Viscount Turner. He falls deeply in love and marries a woman who is not kind to him (to say the least). By the time Miranda is old enough to try to engage his affections and romantic interest, Turner is an angry and embittered widower. It takes everything Miranda has to redeem Turner, and not only capture him, but to eventually turn him into a thoughtful mate.
While I have enjoyed many of Julia Quinn's books, I am not so sure about this one. Turner was a little too bitter and nasty for me to even understand why a woman would want him, even if she has had a crush on him for years. I also did not find his redemption completely believable. I think she made him into too much of a jerk...in a romance you have to root for the hero and heroine to get together, and in this book, I was hoping Miranda would find a nice man (any nice man) to hook up with other than Turner.
A Lady of Expectations by Stephanie Laurens
A Regency romance, set in England. Jack Lester (newly and secretly financially enriched) is looking for a wife. She has to be beautiful, kind, and be a good conversationalist. She also has to overlook Jack's supposed poverty, and want him for himself. When Jack meets Sophie Winterton, he knows that she is exactly the perfect mate for him. But there is one catch - Sophie believes that Jack is poor, and refuses to marry him so that he can go out and catch an heiress. Sweet and cute story about a man who loves a woman who perhaps loves him a little too much.
Sleeping With the Fishes by Mary Janice Davidson
Fred is a mermaid who has a degree in marine biology and works at the huge New England Aquarium in Boston. She is also hilariously cranky. When a pollution problem presents itself in Boston Harbor, she becomes involved in finding the source of the pollution, helped by a gorgeous human marine biologist, and a gorgeous merman prince. I am getting increasingly weary of love triangles in paranormal fiction, and was pretty happy that this triangle was not what it first appeared to be!
The Green Brain by Frank Herbert
This is a science fiction novella first published in 1966, one year after the classic Dune. One of the big themes of Dune is, of course, ecology. In The Green Brain, Herbert explores ecology in another setting - the jungles of a future Brazil, on Earth. In this future Brazil, the humans are trying to eliminate all insects in an effort to decrease disease and increase food production (they will keep some bees around to pollinate the crops). Needless to say, this is an ecological disaster in the making. And the bugs find a rather unique way to fight back - they develop a group brain that is every bit as bright (or brighter) than the humans. But the Green Brain does not want to fight a war with humans - it wants to find a way to communicate with them, and get them to stop the destruction of the ecosystem that all life depends upon.
Herbert has some really interesting ideas here, but the short length of the work prevents him from fully developing them. He also does not fully develop the three main characters (a Brazilian who fights the bugs on the front line, a beautiful Irish entomologist who also acts as a seductive spy, and a Chinese scientist who helped eliminate insects in China with very bad results). I was particularly puzzled on what the Chinese man's motivations were, as he knew what happened in China was a disaster, yet still pushing for the destruction of insects in Brazil.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment