May Reads, 2024

[sunlit_stone]

Finished Books

The Wizard's Butler, by Nathan Lowell. I believe it's self-published. The Amazon blurb is:

"He thinks he's a wizard," they said.

For five grand a month and a million dollar chaser, Roger Mulligan didn't care how crazy the old geezer was. All he had to do was keep Joseph Perry Shackleford alive and keep him from squandering the estate for a year.

They didn't tell him about the pixies.

I read it because of Eleanor Konik's recommendation (I subscribed to her newsletter back when it was an Obsidian thing and kept it up even after I found Obsidian wasn't for me, because there were often interesting links and resources). I was going through my old emails, and I found this:

That said, I actually started reading Nathan Lowell because of a totally different book, which I loved way more than it felt like I should have. Based on the cover you might be forgiven for thinking that the Wizard's Butler is a really campy gay romance, but it is in fact just the story of an former army medic who winds up working for an old rich guy as a butler and discovering that he does in fact really enjoy figuring out how to properly do laundry. There’s some magic (but the protagonist is just a mundane guy who never particularly has to use any violent skills), and ostensibly there’s an antagonist in the form of the rich guy’s money-grasping relatives, but the main focus really is on stuff the protagonist realizing the best person to help him learn how to do his new job is his mom, and going home for Thanksgiving to ask for cooking tips.

Sounds boring when I put it like that, but I skimmed almost nothing, and I normally skim lots of fluff paragraphs in fantasy novels.

This doesn't in fact sound boring to me, and I was quite curious, so I bought and read it. I wasn't, exactly, bored, but I was pretty disappointed. Neither the characters nor the story were at all as deep as I would have preferred. I liked the earlier parts, where Roger Mulligan (monsieur army medic) was doing at least some emotional adjustment, and figuring out how to butler,¹ but the emotional adjustment felt over with pretty quickly. After that he was still working in improving his butlering, but to me at least the text didn't really make me feel his investment in it. I believed it; I just didn't feel it.

(Also, point of order, while I suppose you could say the best person to help him do his job is his mom, his best resource is a giant magical guidebook someone gives him. I did enjoy the scenes with his parents, but there was much less parental interaction than I'd imagined.)

There's also the issue of the money-grubbing relative. The relative in question is a niece; she is trying to have him declared incompetent. Now, though Shackleford doesn't in fact have dementia, he has a magic amulet which is eating his memories and often makes him forget when he is and what's going on, etc. On top of this, every time he sees her and he isn't having an amulet episode, he is actively pretending to be in much worse condition than he is, both physical and mental. I don't think she actually has his best interests at heart, but if he actually were as he was presenting himself to her, he would not in fact be in any condition to manage his affairs.

On top of this... There's one moment, in the grip of the amulet, where he asks after his sister/his niece's mother, long since dead:

Roger knocked twice and opened the door. “Ms. Patching, sir.”

“Who?” Shackleford rolled out from behind his table.

“Ms. Patching, sir. Your niece.” He stepped out of the doorway and Naomi walked in.

“My niece is twelve years old. Who is this woman, Perkins?”

Shackleford asked, peering at Naomi above his glasses. “Uncle, it’s me. Naomi,” she said, glancing at Roger with a satisfied gleam in her eyes. “Don’t you remember me?”

Shackleford paused, sitting more upright in his wheelchair. “Naomi? My gracious. Is it you?”

“Yes, Uncle.” She swept across the room to kneel beside his chair and take one of his hands in both of hers. “Yes, it’s me.” He stared at her for several long moments. “You look like your mother. How is she?”

Naomi swallowed hard and blinked several times. “She’s ... she’s well, Uncle. She misses you.” > Shackleford nodded. “I miss her, too.” He looked up at Roger. “Perkins, put a note on my calendar. We’ll go by the house and visit her. Next week?” He looked at Naomi. “Would that be acceptable?”

“I’m sure she’d like that, Uncle.” Shackleford nodded, more a tremble than a full nod. “Yes, then that’s what we’ll do.” He looked at Naomi again. “What brings you to an old man’s side, my dear?”

“I had a premonition that you might be lonely, Uncle. It’s been just ages since I’ve seen you.”

“Well, I’m happy to see you. Would you care for a cup of tea?” He looked at Mulligan. “Perkins, tea and some of those shortbread cookies.”

“No, Uncle. That’s not necessary.” Naomi drew his attention back to her. “Please. I can only stay a few moments. I just wanted to check up on you. Make sure you were doing well.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. “Perkins can just pop down to the kitchen—”

“I’m sure, Uncle,” she said. She released his hand and stood, leaning over to kiss his balding pate. “You just rest and take it easy.”

The old man nodded. “If you’re sure. It would only take a moment.”

“I’m sure, Uncle,” she said again. “I have an appointment to show a house in the neighborhood in a few minutes.”

He smiled up at her and nodded. “Well, don’t let me hold up commerce, my dear. I hope they love it.”

“I’m sure they will, Uncle.” She patted his shoulder. “You rest now.”

Shackleford nodded. “Yes. I think I’ll take a nap. That sounds rather good. I didn’t get a good night’s sleep, did I?”

“Probably not, Uncle.” She turned and smiled at Roger on her way out the door.

“I’ll be right back, sir,” Roger said.

Shackleford waved a hand and spun the chair around. “I’d still like a cup of tea.”

“I’ll get it, sir.”

“Thank you, Perkins.”

(Perkins being the name of the previous butler.)

I mean the next section is

Roger caught up with her on the stairs.

“His geriatrics specialist didn’t see that side of him, I wager,” she said with the kind of smirk that Roger longed to slap off her face.

But she does end the section with "Keep him safe. You hear me?" to Roger, and I think she means it.

But I bring this scene up in particular because she finds out at the trial that Shackleford's been faking it. She does not, obviously, find out that there were any amnesia episodes.

I think if someone said to me what Shackleford says in this scene to Naomi—as a trick—I would hate them for it.

Disclaimer that my own take on this might be biased by my own grandparents' ongoing decline. If I discovered that they were somehow faking it, and it would have to be one hell of a scam to manage... In many ways I'd be overcome with joy and relief, but I would also be very very angry.

¹(Though I could have done without the early description of the money-grubbing niece focusing so closely on her visual appeal, sigh. Though I'm not 100% sure but I think it might be the first and last time that happens in the book, which is a bit interesting especially because it happens very early. Not sure if it's marking her out as the bad guy, or a first-draft marker, or Oh Got To Put It In There Not To Scare Off The Straight Guys... come to think of it maybe it is meant to signal that it's not going to be a gay romance. Pah.)

Thus Was Adonis Murdered, Hilary Tamar #1, by Sarah Caudwell At first I found this very, very funny. There are still some sections that make me laugh to remember, like:

On my first day in London I made an early start. Reaching the Public Record Office not much after ten, I soon secured the papers needed for my re- search and settled in my place. I be- came, as is the way of the scholar, so deeply absorbed as to lose all consciousness of my surroundings of the passage of time. When at last I came to myself, it was almost eleven and I was quite exhausted: I knew I could not prudently continue without refreshment.

If, at eleven o'clock on a weekday morning, you leave the Public Record Office [...]

But I found the resolution of the murder mystery not only deeply stupid—especially disappointing since there was a lesser mystery resolved very cleverly—but classist and homophobic. It helped some when I realized it was published in the early 1980s, but blech. It certainly made me less inclined to seek out the next book.

On the other hand, and what I pretty embarrassingly hadn't noticed until the endnote—Professor Tamar's gender is never actually specified! I spend the entire book assuming they were a guy, which 😬😬😬 @ self. Whenever I do get around to reading the next one, I suspect paying attention to that ambiguity will make it a more interesting experience.

The Game of Kings, Lymond Chronicles #1, by Dorothy Dunnett I read this, finally! It's been on my reading list for ages, as something enjoyed by lots of other people with taste similar to mine. Somewhat to my surprise, I didn't love it? In a sense much weaker than 'I didn't love it' usually takes: I did actually like it, I'm glad I read it, but I was expecting it to grab me in a way it did not. I think Lymond is just—a bit too perfectly shaped to be the thing he is. To me the most blorbo-activating character was actually Richard, his brother, and my favourite part was the part near the end where (spoiler) Evpuneq ahefrf uvz naq gurl erpbapvyr.

Percentage Reads

The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness, 39 -> 40%

The Iliad, trans. Caroline Alexander, 39 -> 46%

Facing the Moon: Poems of Li Bai and Du Fu, 41 -> 58%

Pro Git, 49 -> 78%

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

And it's such a strong failure, the failure of everything he's been working on in his life up till now..

Yes, a very profound failure -- such an excellent place to start from!

I do like Adelis a lot, and Nikys (though I was very annoyed by how much she vanished as a character after marrying Penric--seriously, again? It makes me think ironically of Kareen's reluctance to marry Mark for that very reason... I'm not sure what to make of it. It's not as if Bujold can't write a heterosexual romance where we get a good sense of character and involvement from both members, because look at Aral and Cordelia...

Yeah... I like Nikys also, and like you find it weird that she just sort of becomes Penric's wife and mother of his children as soon as they're married -- it's weird! Not weird in the general context of fiction, but weird given LMB specifically and Cordelia and Ista (and, as you say, the acknowledgement with Kareen). I guess maybe the difference is that mothering of young children *is* pretty consuming? (and it kind of is), and that just happens to be the phase with Nikys at the moment of the story?

and Adelis' fiancé and her servant whom she's in love with/who loves her, though I can't remember either of their names right now--

Tanar and Bosha! I also love them both, especially Bosha, and the year I caught up on Penric through that novella, I was prompting for the lot of them in Yuletide (in an Adelis-centric fic), which did not happen, but I did get a wonderful Adelis-contracts-a-wild-demon story, so that was still an excellent Yuletide :D

I really liked the adventure featuring them and Adelis/Nikys' mother, and then I was annoyed by the extent to which the resolution was just Penric calling down his higher authority, both magical and spiritual..

Yes! Loved that book (and meeting Nikys's/their half-brother), but, yeah, I've gotten a bit tired of the way everything seems to end with Penric ex machina these days :P

(Have never read the Sharing Knife books, because mostly I've heard less positive things about them, but I suppose at some point, when I've run out of other LMB completely and there's no new work forthcoming, I will probably give them a shot...)

but I have no objection to contemporary politics when they actually make sense with the story. (Actually, when they make sense with the story, it's kind of more awkward when they aren't there, honestly.)

Yeah, I'm fine with this too! Like, I think Rivers of London blends the real world social issues well with the magical worldbuilding and that's one of the things I love about it -- admittedly easier to do in urban fantasy police procedural than in secondary world. (Looking up my Children of Blood and Bone write-up reminded me of a series that I think does real-world-relevant themes and commentary BRILLIANTLY in a secondary setting, though -- N.K.Jemisin's The Broken Earth books -- which are an amazing, once-in-a-generation sort of achievement, I think, but it CAN be done!)

But so often the worlds people want to use just don't work with the actual stories they seem to want to tell, or at least with the commentary they want their stories to offer...

Yeah, this is the part I object to. And if the world doesn't support the story, then the story falls flat and the world feels fake, too, so it's a lose-lose (at least for me, but I admit I'm particularly sensitive to this kind of stuff in fiction).

But for example--okay, another of my incredible Harry Potter pet peeves is the Traditional English Wizarding Culture Is Pagan trope. The Statute of Secrecy happened in SIXTEEN-EIGHTY-NINE. If wizards were integrated with the Muggle world before that, then Traditional English Wizarding Culture would have been predominantly CHRISTIAN.

That is a good point I never really stopped to consider, but of course that's right! (I do have lower expectations for fanfic worldbuilding -- not that I haven't encountered incredible worldbuilding in fic, I absolutely have, but I don't EXPECT it. Plus, I'm not sure how good JKR was about that herself -- I feel like her worldbuilding tends to be a bit fast and loose, seeing as how she was writing for children early on and has a tendency to go for humor over deep historical underpinnings. Which I don't really mind in HP.)

(Hermione is also Jewish, in a way I think is done really naturally.)

Oh, interesting! I don't think I've run into a Jewish Hermione in fic before :) (but also I did not read a lot of Hermione-centric fic, outside of OT3, even when I was reading HP fic regularly, which I haven't done in about 10 years probably...)

Fair warning the author doesn't much like Ron,

I do appreciate the warning! It sounds like that's treated well, though, so I will probably still take a peek at least :) (I found the HP stuff/the series you mentioned under the "basketofnovas" pseud. My days of reading 100-200k HP fanfic are almost certainly past, but is there a shorter one you'd recommend? With or without Ron in it :)

I think I've read the Children of Blood and Bone but I can't remember the Red, White, and Royal Blue one--I'm curious either way!

Heh, Children of Blood and Bone is the one with the chart -- the only time I was mad enough at a book to make charts, and RWaRB is here :)

[sunlit_stone]

weird given LMB specifically and Cordelia and Ista (and, as you say, the acknowledgement with Kareen) I admit it makes me think of the situation with Ekaterin too--granted she didn't disappear quite as thoroughly as Nikys, but we really do see much less of her--we don't get her perspective again at all until I think, what was it, Flowers of Vashnoi? And even in Diplomatic Immunity, when she makes stuff happen after Miles goes under, we only hear about it second-hand and we don't really get any of the details, or how it felt from her perspective. It's odd!

Tanar and Bosha!! Yes, they're great :D I'm glad you got a good Yuletide fic! (And Penric ex machina is exactly the problem...)

As to Sharing Knife, I did once start the first one, I felt like the characters were well-realized but I was also going 'meh' at yet another age-gap romance... as you say, one of these I will probably actually give it a serious shot :P I know there are people who like them quite a lot, even if I think most of her previous fans were less interested.

Oh yeah Rivers of London does it really well--and I think it's no accident that it is so grounded in the real actual world of London... and The Broken Earth is AMAZING, I need to read the last one but I know it's going to knock the stuffing out of me...

I do have lower expectations for fanfic worldbuilding hah, yes, that's fair :P And you're right about JK Rowling too. Also looking back I just want to clarify--a Wizarding society composed entirely of Christians would also be weird and ahistorical (and worrying). But--in part I'm just annoyed by the ahistoricism because, like, I care about that kind of thing, and in part because...mmm, I feel like there's an unfortunate tendency to write the purebloods/the pureblood faction as, to some extent, an oppressed minority, and I feel like that writing out--what would have had to be a historical connection to the actual roots of power in British society, helps hide how bananas that is.

I think I've seen Jewish Hermione a few times--I think it's done here in away which fits very well into canon, and is basically canon-compliant, so for example she is not herself deeply religious, but has specifically failed to mention being Jewish because of concerns about wizarding antisemitism, because of the world's conservatism and indeed the general attitude about Jews historically and at the time of the Statute...

In terms of fics to recommend--for the modern generation, I really enjoyed of all my demon spirits, which features Ginny writing in a (non-possessed) diary after the events of her first year--I think it's done really well, it captures some of why Ginny actually liked Tom in a way that doesn't just make her seem foolish, as well of course as her hurt and betrayal, and it feels--I don't know, nicely a bit clumsy or twelve-years-old-ish. It's quite short, only 1.7K. If you want something a bit longer, there's a couple works featuring the previous generation: break your heart and give you mine, 11.2K, which features--well, I'll just give you the fic's summary: "In 1968, Andromeda's plans to elope with Ted Tonks are derailed when she gets caught leaving the Hogwarts Express and is forced to go home for Easter with her family. As a result, Bellatrix takes over their plans to subvert the family, and Andromeda sees an entirely new side of her sister." That one's an AU; if you want something more canon-compliant, there's all time is unredeemable, 5.2K, which features how Bellatrix becomes involved with Voldemort in the first place... "It's the summer of 1968, and Andromeda didn't come home from her seventh year at Hogwarts. The elder Blacks think Bellatrix knows where she is. Eight year old Sirius, afraid for his cousin's life, seeks intervention from a higher authority." (I should say that the author's takes on Bellatrix are also very different from fandom-standard, though I find them quite compelling, and appreciate the essay they wrote about it...) Anyway, I'll stop recommending stuff here before I get through their entire bibliography XP But I hope you find one you like!

Thank you for the links! Oooh, yes, I had read your knockoff Zukos one before, I remember it but I'd forgotten about the chart, which is excellent XD I am deeply entertained by the amount of AtLA, and by the plot split between AtLA, PotC, Hunger Games, YA Cliche, and Nonsense... (nobody ever talks about supplies... I wail). And RWaRB--I definitely take your point about the differing points of divergence (insert thinky-face emoji here). You're right, having a different background would help, and would definitely make it feel less like it was trying to be about the real world, as opposed to using it as set dressing lol. (And yeah, being the son of the president is a pretty ridiculously privileged position! It's a bit much to cast him as the commoner-trope, I agree.)