I’m sure most if not all Gentle Readers are aware that Tor is doing all kinds of web-happy stuff on its site these days. I should probably have mentioned it before, since when their site was total crap I gave them enough shit about it. So. Gentle Reader, if you like specfic, go to the Tor site, and consider signing up, and being a cool kid.
One of the things they are doing is giving away digital copies of a bunch of novels, which—and this must be a trick of some kind—does not leave them with any fewer digital copies than they had before! Amazing! The future is now! Whoops, there it goes! The future is in the recent past! But there’s a new future! With fangs!
Er, where was I? Oh, yes, Tor. One of the novels they are giving away is Farthing, by Jo Walton. I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, there were some fairly clumsy word choices that busted up the feeling to an unfortunate degree. On the other, I was deeply enough into the book to be cross about having the mood broken by a bad sentence.
My main complaint, though, was about the ending. By two-thirds of the way through the book, it was obvious that the Culprit (or culprits, because it wasn’t obvious how big the conspiracy was) was among the Highest in the Land, and by the time we put a name to it, the murderer is Prime Minister. Since the tension in the book is mostly from the increasingly authoritarian government, the idea that the Culprits are going to allow themselves to be taken down by some policeman is preposterous. So for the last third or so, I’m increasingly worried, because either (a) Ms. Walton will betray the whole world she has created to force a happy ending that doesn’t fit, or (2) the bad guys will get away, failing to provide me with closure, redemption or entertainment value.
She chose the latter. I’m glad she did. I didn’t enjoy it, but the other way would have made me all cross. Which isn’t to say that I wasn’t all cross, because I was. No win.
It was, on the other hand, the first time that I read a whole novel off a computer screen. It took a long time, and I don’t think I’ll be doing it again real soon. On the other hand, it wasn’t a bad thing to have a book on the compter to look at whenever I’m stuck at the screen with some time off.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.