I stayed up until 03:00 after seeing Dessa last night

[starlady]

If only staying up until 03:00 was in any way related to seeing Dessa other than, I got home at 00:15 and had too much energy to go to sleep. Oh, self.

What I'm reading
The Secret Service by Wendy Walker. I've seen this book described as Regency before, which is weird because most of the material culture details (oh, is this book detailed! the prose is wonderful) are very clearly 19thC to my jaundiced historian's eye, as are some of the politics; that said, all of this is of questionable relevance since it is very clearly an alternate world. So far it reminds me, oddly enough, of Ted Chiang, if Ted Chiang's fiction were not predominantly written from the viewpoint of very privileged men. But I am still in the first chapter, so we shall see if the impression holds. In any case, if you like Susanna Clarke or the decorative arts, you should try to track down this book. (Why hasn't she published an e-book?!)

What I just read
I did polish off Cast in Ruin this weekend. I always forget how much I enjoy the Cast books until I read another one, and happily my delay in reading Ruin means that I have Peril and, in short order, Sorrow awaiting me. I really enjoy these books--I enjoy the worldbuilding, I enjoy the overarching plot, I enjoy that in these books Sagara lets herself do some things that aren't possible in the West books. I enjoy that Kaylin is sarcastic and scarred but consciously coming to terms with who she is and who she has to become and how she wants to change. I also enjoy the very slow-building romance-that's-not-quite-a-romance.

I also just read This symmetry is not without meaning by aesc and pearl_o. It's the latest entry in their so-called Tough Little Baby Telepath series, and all of the fics in this series are just amazingly well-written and amazingly good. It's an XMFC AU in which Charles and Erik are a police consultant and a detective, respectively, both very damaged and learning to work through that and to be with each other. (There is an age difference of about 12-15 years, NB.) If any of these things sound like they appeal, I can't recommend it highly enough.

What I'll read next
I expect The Secret Service will take me a few days. If it continues to remind me of Ted Chiang I will likely pick up Celestial Matters by Richard Garfinkle next, as I suspect it will push similar buttons. Then probably either Filter House, River of Smoke, or Out.

I started another tumblr
This one is for my book reviews, and it is, imaginatively enough, electrareads. It is a mirror of my book review posts with cover photos added and it will be current from July 15. I am also re-posting selected older reviews that are some of my personal favorites, such as today's post on Twilight Robbery.

Comments

[raincitygirl]

I ate up the first installment of Tough Little Baby Telepath with a metaphorical spoon. Off to devour the rest. Thanks for the link!

[thistleingrey]

I think Secret Service gets tagged as Regencylike due to the mannered aspects. Also, did you mean Victorian? The English Regency was 1811-20, which is C19. </confused>

[starlady]

This may be a historian thing? Or maybe just me being wrong? I think of "the Regency period" as starting in 1790 (also partly because some of Austen's books were actually first drafted in the 1790s). And I tend to think of things that are "19thC" as post-1815, because that is the end/start date of the long 18th and 19thCs, respectively. In any case, the material culture thus far definitely reads as post-1820 to me.

[starlady]

You're welcome! :D

[ambyr]

Thank you for reminding me to buy the latest Dessa CD! I'm still bummed I missed her on tour.

[thistleingrey]

Mm, fair. I know about the long eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but they aren't my first point of reference for calendar-based centuries.

If I'm the person who conveyed "Regency" re: Secret Service, I did mean the literary subgenre foremost, not the short era (and if I wasn't, that's how I would interpret/rationalize someone's use). More confusion. :) "Regency" for C20/21 novels can go right up to the 1860s, it seems, which is a good thirty years into Victoria's reign. (Granted, such novels are not very tight in terms of historical fidelity anyway.)

Agreed re: feel of material culture in the book.

[qian]

And I tend to think of things that are "19thC" as post-1815, because that is the end/start date of the long 18th and 19thCs, respectively.

Interesting! I had the same thought as thistleingrey. For the literary genre at least I think of the Regency as starting from 1790s till 1837.

[starlady]

I should say, I don't read romance novels (literally I have read one Heyer), but that totally makes sense. Like I said, I could be wrong! But specifically for this book, the material culture thus far feels later than what I think of as "Regency."