Author Topic: Authors or Books?  (Read 221 times)

Offline Winterlight

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Re: Authors or Books?
« on: February 07, 2019, 07:22:13 pm »
I liked Laurence Gonzales' Deep Survival, and have read his other books which branch off that, but also his book on Flight 232 which crashed in Sioux City, IA, in 1989. However, I tried his novel and didn't get into it.

This is me with Tom Holland (the historian, not to be confused with the much younger actor). I've enjoyed his books on Greco-Roman history, so when I discovered he had a novel (or two) to his name I was down for trying one. It was...not good.

I felt the same about Alison Weir's historical novels. The Jane Grey one was OK, but the rest ranged from meh to "should sue for libel."

How interesting! I'm a big Alison Weir fan although so far I've only read her non-fiction. I have a couple of the royal novels to try. The last non-fiction book I read by her was Henry VIII, and it included a section at the back where she was pretty hard on film adaptations that took liberties with history, especially stuff like costumes and sets but also larger behavior. (I rented one that she really praised, and it was so incredibly boring and stilted that I couldn't finish it. Apparently the costumes were great, though!) So it would be quite surprising to me if she was THAT inaccurate herself when it came time to do a novel! It must be very freeing, though, because I feel like her non-fiction is quite scrupulous, with all the footnotes and details and primary documents.

Though, I already have a quibble, because someone was promoting her "Henry VIII wives" series as "the first time any one author has written a book about each wife" and I'm like, "Um, Jean Plaidy, anyone?" Since she wrote a book about pretty much EVERY British royal.

She wrote Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the most interesting queens ever, as a sex-crazed bimbo. It was ridiculous. And really, really dull.
If wisdom’s ways you wisely seek,
Five things observe with care,
To whom you speak,
Of whom you speak,
And how, and when, and where.
Caroline Lake Ingalls