So I read it.
Aug. 6th, 2011 11:45 am![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
euniceI finally finished "Rebels and Traitors" (by Lindsey Davis). It was the most dreadful book I've read in a very long time. I pride myself that I have only once given up on a book, so I ploughed my way through it. I should have got a medal for doing so.
The real action, the interaction, as it were, between the two main characters Gideon and Juliana, happens at around page 562, of a book that is 742 pages long. So much for being taught to begin with the action. That isn't the worse thing though. The worse thing is that Ms David Mary Sue's it; or given that her main character (you'd think!) is male, it's Barry Sue-ed. Gideon just happens to be in the forefront of the main events: the arrest of Charles I, the escort of the executioner and deaths of very important people. Another character is part of the plot to assassinate Cromwell. (It doesn't make any difference to the plot for me to give that away.) For heaven's sake woman! That would be fine if Gideon were a real person, but he's entirely fictional. You do not have fictional characters in at major events in history. Not when they're not just being bystanders and witnesses, but are actually taking part.
I cannot believe that Century and Arrow Books accepted this, let alone actually wasted paper and ink and published it. Well, my copy is off to Oxfam on monday. Hopefully, if someone else is daft enough to want to read it, the cost of it will go entirely to charity and not to the publishers or Miss Davis. she doesn't deserve it, not for this. I'm ashamed for her, I really am. And I hope she give up trying to be a Serious Historical Author and goes back to writing what she's really good at: Falco.
The real action, the interaction, as it were, between the two main characters Gideon and Juliana, happens at around page 562, of a book that is 742 pages long. So much for being taught to begin with the action. That isn't the worse thing though. The worse thing is that Ms David Mary Sue's it; or given that her main character (you'd think!) is male, it's Barry Sue-ed. Gideon just happens to be in the forefront of the main events: the arrest of Charles I, the escort of the executioner and deaths of very important people. Another character is part of the plot to assassinate Cromwell. (It doesn't make any difference to the plot for me to give that away.) For heaven's sake woman! That would be fine if Gideon were a real person, but he's entirely fictional. You do not have fictional characters in at major events in history. Not when they're not just being bystanders and witnesses, but are actually taking part.
I cannot believe that Century and Arrow Books accepted this, let alone actually wasted paper and ink and published it. Well, my copy is off to Oxfam on monday. Hopefully, if someone else is daft enough to want to read it, the cost of it will go entirely to charity and not to the publishers or Miss Davis. she doesn't deserve it, not for this. I'm ashamed for her, I really am. And I hope she give up trying to be a Serious Historical Author and goes back to writing what she's really good at: Falco.
