C'mon, spring, you can do it

[altivo]

Enough, already. Plunging down into single digits again tonight. March is almost here, time for an end to this nonsense.

Finished Barking by Tom Holt. This is a very amusing book, which of course is the intent. Almost as funny as Terry Pratchett in places. If you'd have asked me whether I could read a "lawyer" novel from beginning to end, I'd have told you no. Of course, it's about as serious about being legal fiction as Charlaine Harris or Christopher Moore are about being dark fantasy. Very British, full of allusions to other well-known British fiction. Protagonist says his boss has the management style of Lord Voldemort, for instance, or remarks that a competing law office is "furnished in Early Mordor with a late Dalek influence." Main character Duncan Harris is a mediocre solicitor specializing in wills, probates, and related issues. An old school chum offers him a better position with his own firm, Ferris and Loop. The name should be a giveaway. Duncan is reluctant at first because he felt overwhelmed by Luke Ferris in school, but after he is fired from his position he accepts the offer. Of course, Ferris and Loop turn out to be a team of werewolves. The pack that runs together stays together.

Their chief competitors and enemies are all females, the firm known as Crosswoods. And... they're all vampires. You can see where this is heading, but there's more. All three firms keep passing around a very wealthy client, heiress to a huge estate that has proved difficult to settle. Bowden Allshapes, as we quickly learn, is in fact not dead at all but rather undead. Yep, zombies too. It's silly, it's funny, and had only one weak point in my opinion. The ending was too predictable and conventional. Still worth reading, though.

Comments

[quickcasey.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a good read. Available in bookstores, or online?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Bookstores. Mine came from the library. It's a Science Fiction Book Club alternate selection, too.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

"Late Dalek" style would be interesting, though I think I'd prefer Early TARDIS or at least something a bit earlier than is being shown now.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

Yes... coral isn't for everyone, particularly the environmentally minded and those who don't have a spare meeeelyon years to let their interior decoration grow.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen anything since the Sylvester McCoy days, so I have no idea what perversions have been introduced recently. However, I'm rather partial to Tom Baker's TARDIS, or, lacking that, Jon Pertwee's highly erratic version.

Seems to me they've regenerated him so many times now that they're going to have to create some deus ex machina in order to continue much longer.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

That's true. I understand Time Lords only have thirteen 'lives', and David Tennant (pun intended?) is the Tenth Doctor. They announced the eleventh recently. He's even younger!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I think that's right. Twelve regenerations, which amounts to thirteen lives when you count the initial one. The Master achieved a thirteenth regeneration by stealing a body from another living being (Nyssa's father, wasn't it?) but that would be a pretty nefarious method for the Doctor to use.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

Here are some photos from the set. It's supposed to be an organic, coralline feel.

(Quotations from the new actor. Funny-depressing.)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Coral? Actually, it looks more than a little octupoid to me. Like folded tentacles with suckers on them. Not nice at all.

There was an episode (well, a whole series of them) back in the Tom Baker days that involved a sort of hostile Atlantean underwater race that used biotechnology to create genetically modified tools that were living things. These photos remind me of that.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

*a female vampire stamps your request for warm weather: DENIED*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh, but I know what to do with vampires. Courtesy of Luke Ferris. You make doughnuts filled with garlic and sneak them into their break room. Bingo, unconscious vampires lying all over the floor. Some even have convulsions.