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Watchmaker of Filigree Street (1)
Going to try to get this out even though my brain is on fire and am having a spectacularly bad day; trying because I want something that isn't just... the bad day.
First: caveat that I am not the most detail-oriented reader on first pass through to begin with, and this was all consumed on a plane while nearly delirious with travel.
All in all, I loved it. I love the soul mate trope, though I come in biased because I got tipped off in my last post about the end-game, which kind of made it a bit rough to read through because I knew what was coming for Thaniel and Keita. But Pulley has a really delicate style that I really like to read, and I am super biased towards this particular combination of things: English government AND Japanese history? That's practically... my stuff in a nutshell.
I love their interactions and the weird nearly-magical realism. I love how many stupid amazing tropes got worked in there somehow: SURPRISE CHILD!!!! Language kinks! Competence kinks!
I am less in love with the mechanics of the second half of the book. Keita's insane future reading: okay, whatever. It's not the best described thing in the world, but there is plausibility in its fuzziness, much like the mechanic in The Bedlam Stacks: because Pulley doesn't make you squint at it too hard, it's easy to swallow.
The kind of let down is that Grace does stare at it very hard, and then jumps straight to a sort of really lame conclusion and set of actions. I like Grace from the first half of the book: we're almost engineered to empathise with her, this smart engineer/physicist who wants to be a modern woman in a world where that doesn't yet exist. I empathise with her situation and I am ALL FOR THEGREEN CARD MARRIAGE marriage of convenience between her and Thaniel, because fuck bureaucratic bullshit, right?
But that's the thing: Thaniel and Grace go from rational actors in a marriage of convenience to... Holy shit Grace is freaking out that Keita is going to TURN THANIEL INTO A CLOCKWORK ORANGE OH NO GET YOUR GRUBBY HANDS OFF MY HUSBAND.
W-what? I was almost expecting a content, if not happy, life together, all three of them, on the whatever aunt's estate while Thaniel banged away at the piano and Grace did her science and Keita made lots of small fiddly things. Instead there was a sort of deeply unsympathetic and jealous Grace - which, okay, I can sell that to myself as her protecting herself in the eyes of society in spite of how few fucks she was giving throughout. But I was sad to see her ignore Thaniel: his music, the things that make him happy, for her to assume that simply because Keita can pull a HELL OF A LOT OF STRINGS, that Keita's a monster, a thief.
Whatshisface - Matsumoto? can't remember, head hurts too much to check - sort of rescued Grace's storyline for me. I liked them at the beginning and I liked them at the end and I like that Keita chooses to run them over with a bolt and not a steam engine.
But yeah, the second part of the book felt sort of rushed and chapter twenty-eight or whatever it was that was Grace Runs Around Doing Shit To Make Shit Happen felt like a machination dropped in there so that SHIT HAPPENS, NOW MAKE CUDDLY FACE, THANIEL!!!
I still forgive it. Because I fucking love this book and, honestly, I just want to float on an ocean of Thaniel/Keita forever. But still.
One other thing: I need to grab my copy of Bedlam and re-read Watchemaker again, but I'm like... 90% sure Thaniel's gut instinct about Keita's age and oh no I'm going to die last is... wrong. I think Keita tramples over the treadmill of time however the hell he wants, and I don't think the years add up, because unless I am very, very wrong, Bedlam throws a spanner into Watchmaker's plausible straight-line chronology? Again, may be wrong.
One more other thing: it is weird reading Pulley's stuff as a Commonwealther who studied Japanese. It's not wrong, just weird. I've never sat down and translated Kuroda in my head even though I've known the literal meaning of 黒田 for forever. But she translates it Blackfield and suddenly it seems nearly English; the way she talks about words and 毛利 versus 森 is also so... so different from how I view things.
Also, did she throw in a THE BOMB THING HAD 森 ON IT when it should have been 毛利 and NO ONE FOLLOWS UP ON THAT? Not even Thaniel? Maybe I passed out on that reference while on the plane.
Uhh, so this isn't the best reaction post, but there'll be another which will probably just be filled with big heart-eyes over Thaniel and BABY KEITA and hey guys anyone want fic for this book, or have fic to recommend...
First: caveat that I am not the most detail-oriented reader on first pass through to begin with, and this was all consumed on a plane while nearly delirious with travel.
All in all, I loved it. I love the soul mate trope, though I come in biased because I got tipped off in my last post about the end-game, which kind of made it a bit rough to read through because I knew what was coming for Thaniel and Keita. But Pulley has a really delicate style that I really like to read, and I am super biased towards this particular combination of things: English government AND Japanese history? That's practically... my stuff in a nutshell.
I love their interactions and the weird nearly-magical realism. I love how many stupid amazing tropes got worked in there somehow: SURPRISE CHILD!!!! Language kinks! Competence kinks!
I am less in love with the mechanics of the second half of the book. Keita's insane future reading: okay, whatever. It's not the best described thing in the world, but there is plausibility in its fuzziness, much like the mechanic in The Bedlam Stacks: because Pulley doesn't make you squint at it too hard, it's easy to swallow.
The kind of let down is that Grace does stare at it very hard, and then jumps straight to a sort of really lame conclusion and set of actions. I like Grace from the first half of the book: we're almost engineered to empathise with her, this smart engineer/physicist who wants to be a modern woman in a world where that doesn't yet exist. I empathise with her situation and I am ALL FOR THE
But that's the thing: Thaniel and Grace go from rational actors in a marriage of convenience to... Holy shit Grace is freaking out that Keita is going to TURN THANIEL INTO A CLOCKWORK ORANGE OH NO GET YOUR GRUBBY HANDS OFF MY HUSBAND.
W-what? I was almost expecting a content, if not happy, life together, all three of them, on the whatever aunt's estate while Thaniel banged away at the piano and Grace did her science and Keita made lots of small fiddly things. Instead there was a sort of deeply unsympathetic and jealous Grace - which, okay, I can sell that to myself as her protecting herself in the eyes of society in spite of how few fucks she was giving throughout. But I was sad to see her ignore Thaniel: his music, the things that make him happy, for her to assume that simply because Keita can pull a HELL OF A LOT OF STRINGS, that Keita's a monster, a thief.
Whatshisface - Matsumoto? can't remember, head hurts too much to check - sort of rescued Grace's storyline for me. I liked them at the beginning and I liked them at the end and I like that Keita chooses to run them over with a bolt and not a steam engine.
But yeah, the second part of the book felt sort of rushed and chapter twenty-eight or whatever it was that was Grace Runs Around Doing Shit To Make Shit Happen felt like a machination dropped in there so that SHIT HAPPENS, NOW MAKE CUDDLY FACE, THANIEL!!!
I still forgive it. Because I fucking love this book and, honestly, I just want to float on an ocean of Thaniel/Keita forever. But still.
One other thing: I need to grab my copy of Bedlam and re-read Watchemaker again, but I'm like... 90% sure Thaniel's gut instinct about Keita's age and oh no I'm going to die last is... wrong. I think Keita tramples over the treadmill of time however the hell he wants, and I don't think the years add up, because unless I am very, very wrong, Bedlam throws a spanner into Watchmaker's plausible straight-line chronology? Again, may be wrong.
One more other thing: it is weird reading Pulley's stuff as a Commonwealther who studied Japanese. It's not wrong, just weird. I've never sat down and translated Kuroda in my head even though I've known the literal meaning of 黒田 for forever. But she translates it Blackfield and suddenly it seems nearly English; the way she talks about words and 毛利 versus 森 is also so... so different from how I view things.
Also, did she throw in a THE BOMB THING HAD 森 ON IT when it should have been 毛利 and NO ONE FOLLOWS UP ON THAT? Not even Thaniel? Maybe I passed out on that reference while on the plane.
Uhh, so this isn't the best reaction post, but there'll be another which will probably just be filled with big heart-eyes over Thaniel and BABY KEITA and hey guys anyone want fic for this book, or have fic to recommend...
no subject
Would read fic if you write it! This book doesn't push my personal buttons as much as it seems to push yours, but I did enjoy it a lot.
no subject
re: Grace, i was very taken aback with the direction it took in the second half of the book, but i think i found my peace with it more or less like this --- grace is her OWN PERSON. entitled to her own decisions, and mistakes. the fact that in the first half we're "almost conditioned to like her" -- and i think all readers do, from people i've talked to -- means we're so easy to project our modern sensibilities across her actions further down the line, sort of completing the picture by our idea of what grace is like in EVERY situation. which she isn't, and she can be her own kind of person and make mistakes that make us wince and kill off any and all chance of that cozy three-people arrangement, because she doesn't want to -- and doesn't have to -- accept the reality that Keita brings into the story. Something like that.
(also, I'm very fond of Matsumoto and support the ending where they get to have another marriage of convenience :D)
fyi i'm also midway through bedlam now and i just love pulley's gentle writing so much urghh.