Diana Gabaldon

[petronia]

Lord John and the Private Matter: sororial unit went through a Diana Gabaldon period years ago. She gave me the impression that it was sort of... Fushigi Yuugi in 18th-century Scotland, you know? And that I'd really rather not. XD; T. gave me this secondhand, though - it's a spinoff series from the main one, but I read it as a standalone historical murder mystery and it's enjoyable as such, no deathpasta prose (even though Gabaldon's obviously one of those writers to whom story lengths under 50,000 words are faintly unnatural). Sororial unit said she should very much hope so, the woman's written like ten of them. If only most authors of brick-like best-selling romances can be said to have improved their prose as they went along. XD;

I liked the protagonist-investigator quite a bit and spent most of the book wishing-more-than-hoping that he would find a proper boyfriend as was feeling sorry for him. But Gabaldon is also quite obviously one of those het shoujo writers who like gay characters and make them sympathetic but never give them real Action, like they can have random assignations or tragically dead lovers or pine after the very straight hero but well. Fushigi Yuugi, like I said. I figure I'll read the sequel and if he still doesn't have a boyfriend I'll make one up for him.

Comments

[marej.livejournal.com]

I figure I'll read the sequel and if he still doesn't have a boyfriend I'll make one up for him.

This, in a nutshell, is a huge part why i love you so. :D

[meril.livejournal.com]

I've read all the Lord John books (but none of the others) and iirc, the other two books are both set before this book. So, yes, you are exactly right but at least you get to see them. (And one of the books is a collection of novellas, to boot.)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I don't see how anyone could read this and feel otherwise frankly! (Mind you, if dude had been straight 1- he definitely would have had a love interest and 2- I would've thought it was unprofessional if not downright stupid of him to get involved with someone who was a person of interest in the murder investigation. So actually it's just more realistic this way. XD;)