Recent reading
Jul. 9th, 2023 10:12 pmI have been to a botanical survey camp and then at the family summer place for a week. Am having a lovely summer so far!
Leeward by Katie Daysh (2023)
Arrgh, this will be a mixed review. Let's take the positive first: I definitely enjoyed the characters, the story structure, and the plot elements. This is an Age of Sail m/m romance set during the Napoleonic Wars which is very slow burn--in fact, it takes a while to even thaw, as the captain and his first lieutenant are at odds from the start, and only gradually learn to trust and understand each other. The romance is subordinate to the plot, which is about Captain Nightingale trying to overcome his trauma, chasing a ship of mutineers, and being tangled up in the machinations of powerful men. All the same, the romance has a satisfying build-up and resolution, with a beautiful scene of love-making at the end (and I'm not using that as a euphemism for sex). (ETA: And I forgot the protagonist's platonic marriage with his wife--they have a lovely relationship!)![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sanguinity thought this book might have had its origins in Bush/Hornblower slash, but I'm not so sure--I didn't see many similarities in the characters besides it being a captain/lieutenant pairing, with the captain not being in the best of mental health.
I did not, however, much like the writing on the sentence level--it was just generally lack-luster to me, and my favorite fanfiction writers have better prose. And there were two things which distracted me every time they turned up, which was often. One is the casual use of first names: for example, a captain might give an order to an officer using the officer's first name, in front of the hands. And at a court-martial, the verdict is announced to the defendant using the defendant's first name! The second is the overuse of 'shall' as opposed to 'will'. Now, it's very possible that this usage might vary by dialect, and I can't judge that. But it's otherwise written in standard English, and sentences like 'Shall you be all right?' and 'He shall be at the dinner tonight' (not said as an order, just information to a third person that the guy is voluntarily attending) are jarring to me, at least. Is this just me? I am not quite a native speaker, so it's possible my feeling for this is off.
Some statistics: the proportion of shall to will in 'Leeward' is 72% shall and 28% will.
'Pride & Prejudice' has 28% shall to 72% will.
'Hornblower and the Hotspur' by Forester (1962) has 26% shall to 74% will.
'The Heiress' by Molly Greely (2021) has 14% shall to 86% will.
These are three books set in the same time period, but written at different times. The last one is in first person, though, so I should probably have used another example, but it's late and I want to finish this post. Even without checking, I am willing to bet that a non-historical novel written today doesn't have much non-contracted 'shall', and in any case, you can't tell them apart in contractions. My theory is that the author (with some reason) is using 'shall', especially in dialogue, because it sounds old-fashioned, but is overcompensating. The prose does not otherwise have much historical flavor, though.
Leeward by Katie Daysh (2023)
Arrgh, this will be a mixed review. Let's take the positive first: I definitely enjoyed the characters, the story structure, and the plot elements. This is an Age of Sail m/m romance set during the Napoleonic Wars which is very slow burn--in fact, it takes a while to even thaw, as the captain and his first lieutenant are at odds from the start, and only gradually learn to trust and understand each other. The romance is subordinate to the plot, which is about Captain Nightingale trying to overcome his trauma, chasing a ship of mutineers, and being tangled up in the machinations of powerful men. All the same, the romance has a satisfying build-up and resolution, with a beautiful scene of love-making at the end (and I'm not using that as a euphemism for sex). (ETA: And I forgot the protagonist's platonic marriage with his wife--they have a lovely relationship!)
sanguinity thought this book might have had its origins in Bush/Hornblower slash, but I'm not so sure--I didn't see many similarities in the characters besides it being a captain/lieutenant pairing, with the captain not being in the best of mental health. I did not, however, much like the writing on the sentence level--it was just generally lack-luster to me, and my favorite fanfiction writers have better prose. And there were two things which distracted me every time they turned up, which was often. One is the casual use of first names: for example, a captain might give an order to an officer using the officer's first name, in front of the hands. And at a court-martial, the verdict is announced to the defendant using the defendant's first name! The second is the overuse of 'shall' as opposed to 'will'. Now, it's very possible that this usage might vary by dialect, and I can't judge that. But it's otherwise written in standard English, and sentences like 'Shall you be all right?' and 'He shall be at the dinner tonight' (not said as an order, just information to a third person that the guy is voluntarily attending) are jarring to me, at least. Is this just me? I am not quite a native speaker, so it's possible my feeling for this is off.
Some statistics: the proportion of shall to will in 'Leeward' is 72% shall and 28% will.
'Pride & Prejudice' has 28% shall to 72% will.
'Hornblower and the Hotspur' by Forester (1962) has 26% shall to 74% will.
'The Heiress' by Molly Greely (2021) has 14% shall to 86% will.
These are three books set in the same time period, but written at different times. The last one is in first person, though, so I should probably have used another example, but it's late and I want to finish this post. Even without checking, I am willing to bet that a non-historical novel written today doesn't have much non-contracted 'shall', and in any case, you can't tell them apart in contractions. My theory is that the author (with some reason) is using 'shall', especially in dialogue, because it sounds old-fashioned, but is overcompensating. The prose does not otherwise have much historical flavor, though.
