Entry tags:
Odds Against (Dick Francis)
Posting, posting ... You know, I still haven't given up on answering the December meme questions! (This is, however, EXACTLY why I always add a caveat that I may not get around to it.) One of the things I've been doing this year is severely cutting back on my Internet time ... which is, to my surprise, has turned out to be both a) easier, and b) more beneficial than I thought it was going to be. I've been super productive this month! On the other hand, I do want to get back into posting more.
What I have been doing is reading a lot. In lieu of Internet or TV, my main form of recreation this year has been reading, and I've probably read more books so far this year than in the entire previous year, which is a surprisingly nice feeling. I used to be a book-a-day bibliophile, but over the last few years, I've kind of drifted away; I've ended up doing other things (wasting time on Tumblr, say, or mainlining whole seasons of TV shows) as my "turn off my brain and let my mental wheels spin" activity. Not that I stopped reading (my idea of reading "not much" is probably some people's idea of reading a lot) but it wasn't something I did all the time. Truth be told, most of my fiction reading was fanfic the last couple of years.
But this year I've been reading a bunch, in part because I need more recreational activities that involve getting away from the computer (and also, I'm trying to go to bed earlier, so shutting down the computer and taking a book to bed is one way of achieving that). The most recent thing on the "done read" pile is one that![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelmanija recommended -- Odds Against, the first of Dick Francis's Sid Halley books -- and I thoroughly loved it. I vaguely recall reading several of Francis's novels back when I was a teenager, but I was a little disconcerted to realize that I'd never actually caught on that he's British. Within the first few pages of this book I got one of those slightly unnerving perspective shifts when you realize that you've been remembering something wrong all those years, because I had somehow come away from my teen years with the idea that his books were mostly set in US horse racing and they're ... really obviously not.
Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot. I love the action/suspense/mystery genres in general, but a lot of the older generation(s) of genre fiction come with a sort of background level of misogyny that is distracting -- not necessarily a dealbreaker, but frustrating in an otherwise well-written book -- so I was pleasantly surprised to find that was refreshingly absent here, at least to my eyes. Also, I liked the book's handling of disability and just really liked the characters, generally. (Okay, the book does have a very textual S&M EQUALS EVIL thematic element which is kind of annoying. But otherwise it was a whole lot more ... well ... I dunno what I'm going for here -- enlightened? Emotionally deeper? Something, anyway, that I don't generally expect from 1960s thrillers.)
I vaguely remember that the rec came with some kind of caveat about the rest of the series, but unfortunately I can't remember now if it was "the rest of the books are not that great, so don't get your hopes up" or "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T READ THE REST OF THE SERIES". However, the library has several more of them, so I think I might be making a trip over there soon.
One aspect of the book that turned out to be an unexpected delight is the entire subplot involving Zanna Martin, a physically disfigured secretary Sid initially approaches to get information about the bad guy; subsequently the two of them make a mutual pact to stop hiding their disabilities -- her face, his hand. I was ENTIRELY expecting her to die and was very pleasantly surprised she, instead, walked away confidently at the end. I wouldn't have minded seeing her become a series love interest, but was also just as happy that ultimately it wasn't about sex or romance, but just a sort of mutual friendship and healing. And as much as I would've liked her as a recurring love interest, I liked just as much that she didn't end up falling for Sid simply because he was the first man who saw past her damaged face and the defenses she'd built up around it.
Also ... Charles. Charles and Sid. I suppose it is no surprise to anyone that odd-couple friendships are my jam, especially ones that involve a sort of smartest-person-in-the-room mutual camaraderie; basically, I love it when fictional smart people recognize and appreciate other smart people, all the more so if it's a little unexpected. I was sad he disappeared from most of the last half of the book (and did I miss something, or did the missing meteor rock and in fact the entire quartz-collecting subplot turn out to have no bearing on the main plot whatsoever?), but I hope he's in the other ones.
What I have been doing is reading a lot. In lieu of Internet or TV, my main form of recreation this year has been reading, and I've probably read more books so far this year than in the entire previous year, which is a surprisingly nice feeling. I used to be a book-a-day bibliophile, but over the last few years, I've kind of drifted away; I've ended up doing other things (wasting time on Tumblr, say, or mainlining whole seasons of TV shows) as my "turn off my brain and let my mental wheels spin" activity. Not that I stopped reading (my idea of reading "not much" is probably some people's idea of reading a lot) but it wasn't something I did all the time. Truth be told, most of my fiction reading was fanfic the last couple of years.
But this year I've been reading a bunch, in part because I need more recreational activities that involve getting away from the computer (and also, I'm trying to go to bed earlier, so shutting down the computer and taking a book to bed is one way of achieving that). The most recent thing on the "done read" pile is one that
rachelmanija recommended -- Odds Against, the first of Dick Francis's Sid Halley books -- and I thoroughly loved it. I vaguely recall reading several of Francis's novels back when I was a teenager, but I was a little disconcerted to realize that I'd never actually caught on that he's British. Within the first few pages of this book I got one of those slightly unnerving perspective shifts when you realize that you've been remembering something wrong all those years, because I had somehow come away from my teen years with the idea that his books were mostly set in US horse racing and they're ... really obviously not.Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot. I love the action/suspense/mystery genres in general, but a lot of the older generation(s) of genre fiction come with a sort of background level of misogyny that is distracting -- not necessarily a dealbreaker, but frustrating in an otherwise well-written book -- so I was pleasantly surprised to find that was refreshingly absent here, at least to my eyes. Also, I liked the book's handling of disability and just really liked the characters, generally. (Okay, the book does have a very textual S&M EQUALS EVIL thematic element which is kind of annoying. But otherwise it was a whole lot more ... well ... I dunno what I'm going for here -- enlightened? Emotionally deeper? Something, anyway, that I don't generally expect from 1960s thrillers.)
I vaguely remember that the rec came with some kind of caveat about the rest of the series, but unfortunately I can't remember now if it was "the rest of the books are not that great, so don't get your hopes up" or "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T READ THE REST OF THE SERIES". However, the library has several more of them, so I think I might be making a trip over there soon.
One aspect of the book that turned out to be an unexpected delight is the entire subplot involving Zanna Martin, a physically disfigured secretary Sid initially approaches to get information about the bad guy; subsequently the two of them make a mutual pact to stop hiding their disabilities -- her face, his hand. I was ENTIRELY expecting her to die and was very pleasantly surprised she, instead, walked away confidently at the end. I wouldn't have minded seeing her become a series love interest, but was also just as happy that ultimately it wasn't about sex or romance, but just a sort of mutual friendship and healing. And as much as I would've liked her as a recurring love interest, I liked just as much that she didn't end up falling for Sid simply because he was the first man who saw past her damaged face and the defenses she'd built up around it.
Also ... Charles. Charles and Sid. I suppose it is no surprise to anyone that odd-couple friendships are my jam, especially ones that involve a sort of smartest-person-in-the-room mutual camaraderie; basically, I love it when fictional smart people recognize and appreciate other smart people, all the more so if it's a little unexpected. I was sad he disappeared from most of the last half of the book (and did I miss something, or did the missing meteor rock and in fact the entire quartz-collecting subplot turn out to have no bearing on the main plot whatsoever?), but I hope he's in the other ones.
no subject
no subject
Totally sounds like my kind of thing, and I'm not even joking. XD
The LJ commenters said the second is pretty good and they go downhill from there. It looks like the library has all of them except, for some reason, the first (I had to get it off Amazon, but that's okay, I like it enough to keep it anyway), so I guess I know what I'll be doing the rest of the week.
no subject
I agree with the others on the rest of the Halley books. However, Francis wrote a lot of books with other heroes which are also great.
The S&M = evil thing doesn't appear in other books that I recall; I would say that his of-the-times-ness shows at times, but he was in general ahead of his time and also compassionate and empathetic; he might buy into stereotypes or misconceptions, but they're not cruel stereotypes and there are real people beneath them.
Isn't Zanna Martin great? I loved the explicit point that Sid changed her life as much as she changed him, to the point where he became the person she would fondly remember but didn't need. It was ironic and bittersweet, but so satisfyingly metafictional: he's an important minor character in her story, just as she is in his.
The quartz collecting is just a plot element, yes; it doesn't have more significance than that's what Charles uses to lure in the villain. (Wasn't the dinner party scene amazing?)
no subject
I'll definitely be picking up more Francis books. I read a number of them as a teenager, but never really clicked with them in a way that made them stand out from any of the other (many, many) suspense/mystery/thriller books I was reading at the time. They hold up just as well as they did then, though, if not better, which is more than I can say for some of the authors I liked more at the time!
ETA: And I also wanted to add that I really appreciate the rec! I think that you had other posts about Francis too ... I'll have to go back and read 'em.
no subject
no subject
no subject
Also, if you want a lesson in how to write first person, no one compares.
Steer away from anything 'co-written' with his son Felix; those are all just parleying on the popularity of his name. Apparently he really co-wrote with his wife and everything after she passed lacks the heart that marked the books up to then.
no subject
no subject
no subject