DLS: Murder Must Advertise

Previous DLS posts: Concerning Lord Peter Wimsey, the Hon. Freddy Arbuthnot, Miss Katharine Alexandra Climpson, Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, Unnatural Death, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club 1, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club 2, Strong Poison, The Five Red Herrings, Have His Carcase 1, Have His Carcase 2, Have His Carcase 3, Have His Carcase 4, Have His Carcase 5, Have His Carcase 6, Have His Carcase 7.

Spoilers. But you know that already.

( 'And by the way,' said Mr. Hankin, arresting Miss Rossiter as she rose to go, 'there is a new copy-writer coming in today.' )

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WORKS CITED
Sayers, Dorothy L. Murder Must Advertise. 1933. New York: Perennial Library-Harper & Row, Publishers, 1986.

Swordspoint

Some while back, in a discussion on papersky's journal, I said that I couldn't read The Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman because I loved Swordspoint (its prequel, by Ellen Kushner alone) so much. I first read Swordspoint when I was about fifteen, and I got very heavily invested in the narrative and the characters, for a number of reasons which I'll get into further down.

Then, at Boskone, Papersky mentioned this to Ellen Kushner, and there was apparently some good conversation stemming off it. So, at WisCon, when I was getting Ellen to sign Swordspoint--after we'd gotten the usual tangle about no-I-am-not-Elise's-sister straightened out--I said, I'm the friend of Papersky who can't read The Fall of the Kings.

Much to my alarm, Ellen lit up like a thousand-candle chandelier and demanded that I stick around and tell her why. And I tried, but I was on the spot, and trying to think about too many things at once, and suffering second-day-of-WisCon brain, and in fangirl mode instead of litcrit mode, and frankly I think I muffed it.

Karmic debt--I had set as my goal not making a fool out of myself in front of Ursula K. Le Guin, and I hadn't made a fool out of myself in front of Ursula K. Le Guin, but clearly I had a backlog of mortification to work off. That's fine, and the mortification, I should make clear, was only me thinking, I could be saying this better. Why are these stupid words coming out of my mouth? Ellen was perfectly sympathetic and supportive of my very badly expressed reasons.

So I'm going to give it another shot.

( These are the reasons I love Swordspoint so much that I haven't been able to read The Fall of the Kings. )

Garth Nix's Abhorsen Trilogy

Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen

( spoilers )