Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Not so much

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you may have picked up that I like Elizabeth Peters. When I heard that she was writing another Vicky Bliss book, obviously I had to read it.

The Laughter of Dead Kings is the final book for the series--and written only 14 YEARS AFTER the last book in the series, which to my mind, felt like a series finale.

What can I say about Laughter? It was okay--by far not my favorite of Peters' work--and just didn't capture my fancy. The series has spanned years and years; the first book technically in the series was written in the '60s. But this newest book just felt too rooted in the modern era. Cell phones, texts and email abounded. While that's obviously accurate, it's just not what I want from a book by Peters. She does note this incongruity in the introduction but whatever, I still didn't like it.

The plot is similar to any other Vicky Bliss plot; however, characters from all the books are brought back. And at the end, Peters inserts herself, which was mildly amusing.

Basically, I have to admit I skim read it. Oh well, c'est la vie. On a positive note, I made absolutely delicious scones tonight, which is going to brighten up my morning.

Rating: 5.5/10

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yep, agree that it felt like the end of the Vicky Bliss series. I still think that Night Train to Memphis is the best Vicky book.

Being a diehard Amelia Peabody fan, I liked how she finally explained the link between the two series, though I'm guessing new readers would probably not get it.

Li