AW SF/F June Book Study: The Rook

Before I say anything else, if you haven't seen the book trailer for this book you MUST see it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByWvG3KfOmo

No real spoilers, and the person in the trailer isn't any particular character in the book, the snippet just gives an excellent sense of the worldbuilding. THIS IS HOW TO DO BOOK TRAILERS. I think I've watched it at least seven times.

And if you haven't read the book yet and want to know a little bit more spoiler-light stuff about what it's about, here's my blog post recommending it. (I'm going to white out the big spoilers here too even though I know it's a spoiler space.)

Now:

HOW MUCH DO I LOVE THIS BOOK LET ME COUNT THE WAYS!!!!!

1. Wildly creative and witty -- some of the random creativity made me think of Douglas Adams, and I was constantly entertained by the author's new inventions of powers and people.

2. Speaking of Douglas Adams, I can't tell if Belgium was a shout-out or not, or maybe SFF authors just all have a pact to dump on poor Belgium. "We're thinking about arresting anyone who even knows the capital of Belgium." *snerk*

3. The dragon! Ah hahahaha!!

4. The DUCK! OH MY GOSH THE DUCK.

5. The gender-equality of the cast, and the diversity of women, none of whom are defined by their "femaleness" but instead are all just characters who happen to be women and who go around drivin' the plot just as much as the men do. (And none of whom come off as "men with boobs" or women the author is trying too hard to make "strong female characters" -- instead they are all strong characters who happen to be female.)

6. The framing device of the letters -- Thomas felt like a whole, separate character and a whole separate heroine by the end of the book, and I loved her just as much as I loved Myfanwy.

7. Myfanwy's (and Thomas's) bureaucratic superpower! I love stuff like that. ("Best temp in Chiswick!", right?)

8. For me it was the perfect blend of "upbeat happy place book" and just enough intensity and tearjerking moments for me to feel invested and fall completely and totally in love with the world and want the book to continue forEVER and EVER. (And speaking of tearjerking, *sob* Gubbins!)

9. I did not see the twist at the end coming (who Gestalt's fifth body was). Soooo coooool and SO CREEPY.

10. I want to know more about the Lord and Lady -- they ended up being more minor characters than I expected, especially Farrier, and I feel like there's still a lot of mystery to them. Maybe in the next book . . .

11. The chess metaphors TOTALLY tickled me.

12. Shantay is officially one of my favorite book characters of all time. "And the minibar in my hotel room was mysteriously emptied." "By arcane forces beyond the understanding of normal human beings?" "No, it was me."

13. "My Great Super Secret Plan is to reduce myself to a human heart, and mail it to you, and then regenerate into my whole self, just in time to COMPLETELY MISS THE ENTIRE PLOT." *giggles incessantly*

14. All in all, I just did not want this book to end. It's a pretty lengthy novel, and I was enjoying it so much I definitely wasn't just reading it to see what happened -- I was reading it because I loved reading it. I want the sequel!

If I have one little niggle about this book, it's that I felt like the end confrontation -- the one with Bishop Grantchester -- felt a little anticlimactic, and a little too "Let me explain all the evil things I did and why I did them." But that's a small complaint. And I like all the little things that turned out to be important -- his constant questioning about the decor in the residence, and his son, and his prior reorganization of the Checquy's finances . . .

Anyway, yeah, I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!

This was one of the 5% of books that I start, but put down and have no desire to ever finish.

The major plot-device hooked me in to buy a copy, but I thought it was poorly executed, and it ultimately didn't work for me. Myfanwy wrote veritable tomes to herself, and the novel dropped so frequently into these lengthy literary sidebars that I lost interest in the plot.

I'm going to get the ebook tonight

Introversion said:

This was one of the 5% of books that I start, but put down and have no desire to ever finish.

The major plot-device hooked me in to buy a copy, but I thought it was poorly executed, and it ultimately didn't work for me. Myfanwy wrote veritable tomes to herself, and the novel dropped so frequently into these lengthy literary sidebars that I lost interest in the plot.

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Really? Interesting -- that was one of my favorite parts! I guess different strokes and all, makes the world go round.

The plot of what happened to Thomas becomes its own story, incidentally, and ends up dovetailing with Myfanwy's story and they both come to a head at once. I got equally engaged in both storylines by the end. But, uh, obviously this book was right up my alley.

slhuang said:

Really? Interesting -- that was one of my favorite parts! I guess different strokes and all, makes the world go round.

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Yeah, I guess I found the letters to be too lengthy and too frequent an interruption of the story.

I also thought the letters written in too conversational a tone; like she was chatting on a cellphone to a friend. If it were me, I'd just write the facts necessary to, you know, stay alive?

Oh well, not my cup of tea, but it's plain from the reviews on Amazon that many people liked it.

I finished but I will post most my thoughts later. I'd give it four stars. Overall very ebtertaining and it kept me reading. The letters became increasingly irritanting as an interuption to the action. Like a commercial for side plots or something. The initial letter infodumps really worked overall (some grew a bit unfocused), so I was disappointed by the later letters.

There was something right after the 50% mark (look, ebooks are changing how I note where I am in a novel! And my version had page numbers too!) that I liked and wanted to comment on...

Sai said:

But I liked Thomas's voice and didn't mind the conversational tone or how much detail she put in them. As a journaler I can relate. Also this is a woman who will soon effectively cease to exist. It made sense to me that she was trying to leave behind as much of herself as she could.

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Me too! It felt to me in the later letters like she was clinging so hard, trying not to say goodbye.

My only real complaint is that near the end I thought things got bogged down. In the scene where Myfanway confronts the traitor, he just goes on and on, giving a blow-by-blow account of something that didn't really need it.

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Yeah, this was the only bit I wish had been done better. Totally agree with you on that.

Also, I know it was only a page or so, but the flashback to the leaders of the grafter's backstory seemed out of place and just weirdly dropped in there.

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I didn't mind that bit so much, I think because I got a kick out of the heart-mailing and because I found the idea that he'd missed the entire plot by accident to be just hilarious. But I do see your point.

Sai said:

One thing I like about that plotline is that with all the slight, snide remarks other characters make ("Who would send Myfanway Thomas their heart?") it is heavily implied that she hooks up with the grafter guy. I find that both squicky and adorable.

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What, WHAT?

::feels very unobservant::

Sai said:

And then at the end of the next chapter, her housekeeper finds a business card (in the pocket of a heavily stained men's business shirt) that says 'Call me if you fancy that drink.' This is also right after Shantay says that all Myfanwy needs now is a boyfriend.

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I thought that was the man's shirt that she borrowed after she left the club, met with the first Grafter, got covered in slime, and jumped in the pool (IIRC?) -- and then the guy came out on the balcony and she asked him for a shirt, right? I thought this was *that* shirt and that Random Balcony Man had stuck his business card in before giving it to her because he thought she was cute. Hmm . . .

Sai said:

Ahhh, no, that's it. That makes perfect sense, though I still kind of like my mistaken read of it (oh well. Maybe in the sequel).

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Heh, I kind of liked your read of it, too! Wow, that would certainly make for an interesting romance . . .

I read this book. I dropped it in the toilet.

By mistake! I fumbled while traveling through the bathroom. I wouldn't have done it on purpose, because this book is great.

There's lots of humor and hardly any jokes fell flat. I was skeptical with the whole secret organization thing but it actually succeeded at suspending my disbelief -- maybe because it didn't try that hard and played it for laughs? I felt the contrast between Thomas and Myfanwy was well executed, though I did find it hard to swallow how easily Myfanwy wings it through her days. That and the overlong italics sections (mainly because reading lots of italics gets tiresome) are my two complaints. I can't get into much more detail because I read it quite a while ago, but I have fond memories and it is absolutely worth reading.

PS - The water was clean. The book was salvaged. Happy ending.