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Continuing on with Dick Francis ...
... I decided to reread the Sid Halley books. Already read: Odds Against (1965), Whip Hand (1979), Come to Grief (1995), and I'm currently reading Under Orders, (2006).
Honestly ... some authors truly reward rereading in order. It turns out that the Sid Halley series - as much as I enjoy Francis's craftsmanship on an individual book level - does not. I do truly enjoy the books as individual books! But it's very obvious that Francis is a standalone thriller writer and not a series writer. Aside from major side characters such as Sid's father-in-law and ex-wife, not a single recurring character returns between books, which makes for the weird episodic-TV experience of every book featuring the appearance of dearly beloved friends and mentors from Sid's former racing world that we've never heard of before. It's not striking the first time, but by book 4 when all of Sid's old beloved friends come out of nowhere, it starts to feel odd. There's also a particularly jarring recurring theme, which reading four Halley books back to back makes it impossible not to notice, of reporters and newspapers and the press being singularly vile, despicable, and run by terrible people who are only interested in destroying others. (I actually *have* encountered this in Francis before, but wouldn't have noticed it as a theme without being hammered by back-to-back instances of it. Most of my working life involved working for newspapers, so obviously I'm a bit "yes, but REALLY" about it all, but it's also interesting that as much of Francis's fiction is about delicately drawn portraits of a particular industry, he has absolutely no care or consideration for the press at all, whereas I think it's an interesting world with many diverse and well-intentioned people in it, rather than Francis's portrayal of malicious gossip-mongers and ambulance-chasers ...)
Anyway, I did enjoy these, though my enjoyment is flagging by the fourth. It's strange following the same character across 40 years(!!) of changing society and technology, in which he ages only a few years. The stigma attached to Sid's background as a window washer's bastard feels relevant in 1965 but considerably less so when he's more or less the same age in 2006. I almost wish Francis had chosen to keep Sid and Charles in the 1970s rather than updating them with computers and cell phones. It was really fascinating watching technology change so rapidly across the years, though, from 1965 to car phones to cell phones, from a pre-computer world to computerized gambling.
I have to give a special shout-out for the sheer lunatic hilarity and delight of the balloon sequence in the second book. It's not entirely like anything else I can remember reading in his books, it's more like the farcical madcap slapstick that I associate with very different authors (it made me think specifically of some of Mark Helprin's Weird Shit when I was reading it, like the catapult in Winter's Tale), but it is actually grounded enough in specific details of ballooning that it doesn't feel too over the top. It does feel a bit as if it intruded on this book from a completely different book, especially since the balloonist vanishes afterwards and is never heard of again, but I enjoyed it.
I don't seem to have many specific comments on these, but feel free to spoil in the comments; I'd be interested in talking about them!
Honestly ... some authors truly reward rereading in order. It turns out that the Sid Halley series - as much as I enjoy Francis's craftsmanship on an individual book level - does not. I do truly enjoy the books as individual books! But it's very obvious that Francis is a standalone thriller writer and not a series writer. Aside from major side characters such as Sid's father-in-law and ex-wife, not a single recurring character returns between books, which makes for the weird episodic-TV experience of every book featuring the appearance of dearly beloved friends and mentors from Sid's former racing world that we've never heard of before. It's not striking the first time, but by book 4 when all of Sid's old beloved friends come out of nowhere, it starts to feel odd. There's also a particularly jarring recurring theme, which reading four Halley books back to back makes it impossible not to notice, of reporters and newspapers and the press being singularly vile, despicable, and run by terrible people who are only interested in destroying others. (I actually *have* encountered this in Francis before, but wouldn't have noticed it as a theme without being hammered by back-to-back instances of it. Most of my working life involved working for newspapers, so obviously I'm a bit "yes, but REALLY" about it all, but it's also interesting that as much of Francis's fiction is about delicately drawn portraits of a particular industry, he has absolutely no care or consideration for the press at all, whereas I think it's an interesting world with many diverse and well-intentioned people in it, rather than Francis's portrayal of malicious gossip-mongers and ambulance-chasers ...)
Anyway, I did enjoy these, though my enjoyment is flagging by the fourth. It's strange following the same character across 40 years(!!) of changing society and technology, in which he ages only a few years. The stigma attached to Sid's background as a window washer's bastard feels relevant in 1965 but considerably less so when he's more or less the same age in 2006. I almost wish Francis had chosen to keep Sid and Charles in the 1970s rather than updating them with computers and cell phones. It was really fascinating watching technology change so rapidly across the years, though, from 1965 to car phones to cell phones, from a pre-computer world to computerized gambling.
I have to give a special shout-out for the sheer lunatic hilarity and delight of the balloon sequence in the second book. It's not entirely like anything else I can remember reading in his books, it's more like the farcical madcap slapstick that I associate with very different authors (it made me think specifically of some of Mark Helprin's Weird Shit when I was reading it, like the catapult in Winter's Tale), but it is actually grounded enough in specific details of ballooning that it doesn't feel too over the top. It does feel a bit as if it intruded on this book from a completely different book, especially since the balloonist vanishes afterwards and is never heard of again, but I enjoyed it.
I don't seem to have many specific comments on these, but feel free to spoil in the comments; I'd be interested in talking about them!
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Yes! I feel very fondly toward the balloonist, too.
I only ever read the first two Sid Halley books. I keep meaning to track down The Racing Game (1979–80), seeing that it was directly responsible for the writing of Whip Hand.
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Yes! Mike Gwilym's performance was apparently so definitive for Francis that it sparked the idea of returning to the character, which he had not done before.
and evidently it is completely unavailable here; even sources that stream it are region-locked. All I could find on Youtube were a few clips.
. . . The DVDs are in my local library system, currently listed as "In Transit," which could mean anything from "in transit" to "several weeks to months after requesting this item, you will find out it was stolen three years ago." They were released by Acorn Media in 2008. I don't know your local DVD situation, but it means the series at least exists in Region 1, which is a change from the last time I looked.
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I mean, this makes sense if you're dealing with the British tabloid press...
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I vaguely recall the first time I read one of the Halley books that I was impressed by the thoughtfulness Francis employed in how Sid works through his feelings about his disability, and the use of a prosthetic limb with more than just cosmetic function.