Finished last week?
Adams, ed., The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Not bad pastiche, by and large, aside from two Cthuluan and historically improbable offerings from Shadows Over Baker St. Shall keep.
Parker, Black Arrow. Never know how I feel about Akitadas. On the one hand, the closest to Gulik's Judge Dee mysteries one will come; on the other, a more dissimilar protagonist to Judge Dee you will never find. Akitada wibbles and feels incompetent and hesitates and suffers Imposter Syndrome; Dee never doubts the rightness of his position for a second. It seems I cherish Dee for his blinkered constipated Confucianism and miss it when it's gone.
Green, ed., Cosmopolitan Crimes. Foreign Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Surprisingly readable, given the period of composition (1890-1914). Aside from the notion and admiration of South Africa as a producer of strong and intelligent rich men, few queasy making moments. But Arsene Lupin is insupportable and needs to be strangled at birth, retroactively.
Reading now?
Still with Pandemonium and Parade. Tentatively started my last Akitada, The Convict's Sword.
Next?
Oh, if only ambition would return. Should I abandon Women and Wolves (which Goodreads either loves or loathes) or Vexed and Troubled Englishmen (which no one likes much and no one has reviewed) or The Decameron on the grounds that there's neither pleasure nor profit to be had from them? Should I start some of those doorstoppers I've had for years if not decades, and on the same principle discard them if not interested? The Borribles, The Pound Era, Tokyo: Year Zero (speaking of either loving or loathing- yikes.)
What I want, actually, is more intelligent Victorian steampunk. And The Ghost Bride is looking to be the closest I'll come to it, unless I can spring for Everfair.
