I liked Deep Secret and I didn’t like it. I didn’t find it as funny as it appeared to think it was. And the conclusion of the plot didn’t pay off as much as crash. And after the end of the book there was another end of the book, not short either, that didn’t work for me at all.
On the other hand, I give Diana Wynne Jones credit for taking the teenage-misfit-is-actually-a-princess and flipping it around and backwards and around again. The misfit’s character is Emperor of several planets, but is also a crazy and paranoid jerk and a terrible Emperor. Her adoptive father is rather nice. The half-brother (or whatever, it didn’t seem important) discovers that the woman he thought was his mother is, in fact, his mother, but that she is a dishonest and bloodthirsty Royal Consort. the blood relation is important as a plot point because it’s her path to power, glory and wealth; she has to be stopped (and actually killed, which surprised me) from bringing the young Prince in hiding to the throne.
And there are a few lovely bits, particularly the ways that magic interacts with folklore, and the ways that the Magicians have manipulated our folklore to make that work. And some nice images and effects, such as the wavy glass in the windows of the old house and the poorly laid out modern hotel with seven right-angle turns in the hallways. So, you know, good in a lot of ways. And less good in others.
One question, for those Gentle Readers who have read the thing: Did you find the romance between the thirty-something male lead and the teenage female lead creepy? I sure did. Creepy in spades.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.
I don’t remember finding the romance creepy. I also don’t remember whatshisname, Rupert, being in his mid-thirties, or Maree being in her teens? She’s in vet school and he’s still somewhat young and inexperienced… I would have guessed 22 and late twenties, maybe? Anyways, I remember the romance as being convincing and, you know, romantic, that’s all.
Maree is an undergraduate; at the beginning of the book, she decides to change her major to get away from her ex-boyfriend. Of course, it’s not called a major, or undergraduate, because they are in England, but still. I suspect she’s actually meant to be 21 or 20, although to me it’s more like 19 and a very immature 19 at that. As for Rupert, again I don’t think she says, but he’s old enough to have a successful software company and a house, and he’s clearly been in the Magid business for a while. It hadn’t occurred to me that (as happens in England, I understand, more frequently than here) he may well have started in business at 19, and that he could well be in his late or even mid- twenties.
I also had a substantial sense from the first meeting (on the bridge) that he was ten years or more older than she was, but that may well have been from clues (their cars, their clothes, etc) that have other explanations. Hm.
Thanks,
-V.