Today's prompt is for favorite horror reads; that not being much of my thing (outside, perhaps, the gothic classics and anything more edifying or funny rather than scary), I think I'm going to leave that prompt to Char, Bark's Books (aka Bark at the Ghouls), and the site's other horror fans.  Instead, I'm going to catch up on the prompt from the day before yesterday -- I'm really, really excited about the new squares.

 

This is going to be another multiple-post reply ... because come on, these covers are just too beautiful not to give them a space of their own!

 

                                           

 

Growing Royal Blue Roses that last a year doesn't need to be a high-support task with hit-or-miss achievement. We talked with Melinda Myers, a cultivating master and affirmed arborist who has composed more than 20 planting books, for a couple of tips on growing a vivid rose garden and getting a charge out of it a seemingly endless amount of time.

Choose a Sunny Spot

Pick an area for the garden that gets immediate daylight. "Roses grow best in full sun," Myers says that. "Morning sun rays is the best choice on the off chance that you don't have a place that gets sun throughout the day." To get morning sun (in the northern half of the globe), plant the blooms along the south or east side of the grass or house. Abstain from planting the garden in low spots in the yard where water pools. Standing water can prompt ailment, parasites and root decay.

 

Test the Soil First

You'll discover a great deal of appeal about adding lime or different fixings to your dirt to enhance developing conditions, yet a portion of these medicines can influence the pH of the dirt and lead to issues, as well. "Lime should just be utilized to enhance acidic soil. Continuously take a dirt test first to abstain from making issues that can take a long time to fix," Myers cautions. "The equivalent runs with sulfur. Sulfur can help bring down pH in antacid soils. However, an excess of can hurt your plants."

Myers encourages nursery workers to have their dirt tried before planting roses. Test packs are accessible at home and garden habitats for about $16. However, you'll get increasingly precise outcomes utilizing a unit and getting the outcomes from your nearby agribusiness expansion focus. Locate your nearby augmentation here. The drawback is that you'll need to sit tight half a month for the results, so test the dirt ASAP, or when the ground defrosts.

 

Prep The Soil

Other than any lime or sulfur, you'll additionally need to include around two crawls of peat greenery or fertilizer to your garden soil. "Burrow down something like 12 inches, which is where the feeder attaches will be," Myers says. "On the off chance that you burrow two scoop spades profound to turn over the dirt and blend in the peat greenery, that is around 12 inches, which is preferred for the plant over going shallower. Make sure to revise the whole garden bed and not simply the openings where you'll be planting the roses. So uncover and add peat greenery to the entire Royal Blue Roses that last a year garden. Else, you make an in-ground holder that can restrict root development and seepage. The peat greenery will enhance waste in earth soils and help hold dampness in sandy soils, Myers says, giving a strong establishment to the plants.

 

Buy Roses for Your "Hardiness Zone"

 The country are divided into Different parts of hardiness zones to ID the plants that are most likely to Distinctive parts of the nation are isolated into strength zones to ID the plants that are well on the way to thrive there. The zones depend on all things considered yearly winter temperatures. Nearby home and garden focuses can reveal to you which roses are destined to do well in your general vicinity. Myers likewise prescribes choosing sorts of roses that are low support, solid, and impervious to malady—home and garden focuses can prompt you on this. Indeed, even tenderfoot nursery workers or the individuals who have attempted to develop roses in the past can have accomplishment with these roses. "There are bunches of good roses for whatever dimension of work you need to put into them," Myers says. "The uplifting news is developing Royal Blue Roses that last a year  doesn't need to be a great deal of work."

 

Plant

Bare root Royal Blue Roses that last a year, which are delivered and sold without being planted in soil, ought to be absorbed a basin of water before they're planted. "Splash them medium-term or for multi-day to hydrate the roses and begin them taking up dampness," Myers says. Exposed root roses are typically less expensive to buy than pruned roses, which arrive in a holder with soil and are prepared to be planted when they're sold.

 

Memorial Day Weekend -- Labor Day 2018

 

The Books:

Fiction

Eric Ambler: The Mask of Dimitrios (new / print) ****

Phyllis Bottome: The Lifeline (new / ebook-to-printed-PDF) ***1/2

John le Carré: The Tailor of Panama (revisited on audio, narrated by the author) ****1/2

Agatha Christie: N or M? (revisited on audio, narrated by Samantha Bond) ***

Agatha Christie: They Came to Baghdad (new / audio, narrated by Emilia Fox) ***1/2

Paulo Coelho: The Spy (new / English print version + German audio, narrated by Luise Helm and Sven Görtz) ***1/2

Len Deighton: Berlin Game (new / audio, narrated by James Lailey) ****

David Downing: Zoo Station (new / print) ****

Alan Furst: Night Soldiers (new / audio, narrated by George Guidall) ****1/2

Graham Greene: Our Man in Havana (audio, narrated by Jeremy Northam) ****1/2

Graham Greene: The Captain and the Enemy (audio, narrated by Kenneth Branagh) ***1/2

Rosalie Knecht: Who Is Vera Kelly? (new / audio, narrated by Elisabeth Rodgers) ***1/2

Helen MacInnes: Above Suspicion (new / print) ****1/2

Francine Mathews: The Cutout (new / audio, narrated by Trini Alvarado) **1/2

Valerie Plame Wilson, Sarah Lovett: Blowback (new / audio, narrated by Negin Farsad) ***

Jane Thynne: Black Roses (new / audio, narrated by Julie Teal) ****

Patricia Wentworth: The Traveller Returns (new / print) ****

Kate Westbrook: Guardian Angel (new / audio, narrated by Eleanor Bron) ***1/2

 

 

Emmuska Orczy: Adventures of The Scarlet Pimpernel

The Scarlet Pimpernel (revisited on audio, narrated by Stephen Crossly) ****1/2

I Will Repay (new / audio, narrated by Johanna Ward) ****

 

 

John Le Carré: George Smiley Cycle

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (revisited on audio, narrated by the author) *****

The Looking Glass War (new / audio, narrated by Michael Jayston) ***1/2

Smiley's People (revisited on audio, narrated by Michael Jayston) *****

 

 

Stella Rimington: Liz Carlyle Series

Secret Asset (new / audio, narrated by Rosalyn Landor) ****

Illegal Action (new / audio, narrated by Emma Fielding) ****

 

 

Ian Fleming: James Bond Series

Quantum of Solace (short story only; new / audio, narrated by David Rintoul) *1/2

Dr. No (new / audio, narrated by Rufus Sewell) ***

 

 

Nonfiction

Stella Rimington: Open Secret: The Autobiography of the Former Director-General of MI5 (new / print edition) ****

Peter Finn & Petra Couvée: The Zhivago Affair (new / audio, narrated by Simon Vance) **1/2

Valerie Plame Wilson: Fair Game: How a Top CIA Agent Was Betrayed by Her Own Government  (new / audio, narrated by the author) ****

 

 

 

 

Mission Assessment:

Loads of fun; thanks to Moonlight Reader Madness and Wanda for coming up with the idea!  In addition to advancing my "Women Writers" project because of a certain focus on the Women of Intelligence, I've discovered several new writers and series to take a closer look at, reconnected with some "old familiars", got to take a trip down memory lane to Cold War-era Berlin, got to travel the world and back in history -- from revolutionary France to WWII era (plus pre- and post-WWII) Iraq, Turkey, the Balkans, Russia, Spain, France, Britain, Austria, and Germany, and post-WWII as well as more recent Latin America and the Caribbean -- and I've seen some of my literary prejudices pleasantly upended (looking at you, Dame Agatha and They Came to Baghdad); even if others were, however, unfortunately confirmed (looking at you, Mr. Fleming).

 

Side note: My personal library now needs a new, separate "espionage" shelf: Lumping in spy books with mysteries, thrillers, and other suspense fiction clearly won't do any longer ... they've just grown too numerous for that sort of approach.  Ah, well.  A serious reorganization is overdue anyway -- I've only got to find the time for it ...

 

 

The Hits:

* Emmuska Orczy's Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel.  The first book was a revisit, but I finally got around to reading book 2, which -- though not chiefly focused on Sir Percy and much more overtly a romance than book 1 -- confirms why this whole series has a loyal following to this day.  And of course, it gets kicked onto yet another level once Sir Percy makes his appearance.  I'm sort of familiar with some of the later entries in the series, but I'm now going to make a concerted effort to read the whole thing in order.

 

* John le Carré's Smiley Cycle and Tailor of Panama.  This was largely a revisit, too, but I just can't help it -- nobody writes spy fiction like Mr. Cornwell.  Even Stella Rimington, the ex-"K" (head of MI5) herself, acknowledges that he gets it right ... and although he does have the odd duds, when he hits the spot, he's second to none.

 

* Stella Rimington's autobiography and Liz Carlyle series.  Speaking of "K" (also likely the inspiration for Judi Dench's "M" in the Bond movies), even though her autobiography is necessarily short on detail as far as actual secret service operations and policy are concerned, it gives great insights not only into her personal history but also into the actual work done by MI5 (and to a lesser extent, MI6, and secret service organizations in general), particularly in the final four decades of the 20th century.  Moreover, like le Carré, she has very successfully capitalized on her experience and translated it to fiction.  Rimington can write -- both fiction and nonfiction -- and her autobiography and fictional series nicely complement each other in providing an even greater understanding of "the business of spying" in days past and present.  (In the first Liz Carlyle book, At Risk, which I read -- and liked -- a few years ago, she was maybe still in the final stage of finding her voice, but both Secret Asset and Illegal Action, Liz Carlyle books 2 and 3, are fine examples of mature writing that clearly draw on Rimington's personal experience.)

 

* Helen MacInnes: Where has this author been in my life until now?  Once more thank you to Moonlight for bringing her to my attention.  I immensely enjoyed the one book by her that I read during the Summer of Spies -- Above Suspicion -- and have already ordered several more (the three Colin Grant books plus Accident in Place).  Great historical and political insight and characters that you can easily (and very much want to) empathize with, all built into a suspenseful narrative arc -- what more can you possibly ask for?

 

* Len Deighton: Between his Berlin Game and le Carré's Smiley books, man, what a trip down memory lane to Cold War Berlin.  And Deighton, like le Carré, gets it exactly right, down to individual Berlin locations and settings (I was tempted to compile a post just on those at one point), life style, attitudes, you name it.  Another author I'm definitely going to follow up on in the future.

 

* The group read of Agatha Christie's They Came to Baghdad. What a fun group read that turned out to be!  I'm not the biggest fan of Christie's spy fiction (most of it -- especially the books where she actually "means it" -- range between somewhat unrealistic and completely over-the-top-and-out-there preposterous), but if, like here and in The Secret Adversary (as well as some of the stories in Partners in Crime), she decides to poke fun at the genre, she can be very entertaining indeed.  At one point I thought the plot of They Came to Baghdad was going to veer off in the same direction as that of Destination Unknown, which has to be one of her worst books ever, albeit not counting those she wrote in the last years of her life, but fortunately my fears were unfounded.  If only she'd written more spy books like this one!

 

* Patricia Wentworth's The Traveller Returns.  Speaking of Golden Age mystery novelists trying their hands at spy fiction, I'm tempted to point to Ms. Wentworth's contribution to the genre and tell the rest of them -- the whole lot, from Christie to Marsh, Allingham and beyond: "See: This is how you do it!"  For the first half or so, the book looks like a simple variation on the Martin Guerre theme, which I confess is not one of my favorites, but just when I thought I was going to be somewhat underwhelmed, the spy element kicked in and we were off to a whole lot of fun.  So, many thanks to Tigus for yet another great "Miss Silver" recommendation!

 

* Jane Thynne's Clara Vine series.  A huge shout-out to Mike Finn for mentioning this -- yet another series I have every intention to follow up on after having read the first book (Black Roses).  Extremely well-researched and well-written; easily on par with David Downing's much more acclaimed Zoo Station (which is likewise chiefly set in Nazi-era Berlin).  Now if only they'd picked an audio narrator who had actually put some effort into finding out how to pronounce the multiple German words and place names figuring in the story ...

 

* The Carribbean and Latin American setting.  I confess I'm not particularly drawn to Greene's African fiction and only a minority of those books of his set in England, but I have a soft spot for his fiction set in the Carribbean and in Latin America.  In part, surely, that's because I have a penchant for that part of the world anyway, but those particular books by Greene also have more of a pull on me topically -- I suppose I'm just more interested in reading about the morality and choices associated with politics and the economy (read: corruption) than with the morality of purely personal choices (read: religion) ... at least where it comes to Greene's writing.  (It certainly also helps that the particular Carribbean branch of this easily lends itself to satire -- it's not a coincidence that le Carré's Tailor of Panama covers large parts of the same ground as Our Man in Havana, and from a very similar writerly perspective, too.) -- Rosalie Knecht's Who Is Vera Kelly? provided for an interesting and well-written additional side light in its focus on Argentina and the Malvinas / Falklands, from the point of view of a heroine who is coming to terms with her personal history at the same time as she is trying to decipher what is happening in the country where she has been sent. (Another shout-out to Mike Finn for finding this one.)

 

* The Bond Connection.  By which I don't mean Fleming's books themselves, but those books (all written by women) unearthed by BrokenTune -- one more shout-out! -- as tangentially related to Ian Fleming and his super-spy, all of which turned out vastly more engaging and entertaining than Fleming's own: Phyllis Bottome's The Lifeline, the book that is said to have inspired the creation of James Bond's character (and which incidentally bears a certain superficial topical likeness to Helen MacInnes's Above Suspicion, in likewise featuring its English protagonist's involvement with an underground resistance network in Nazi-occupied Austria), and Kate Westbrook's Moneypenny Diaries, which intelligently use both Ian Fleming's real biography and the plots of some of his James Bond novels for a series of three spinoffs interweaving a look back from present-day England to what might have happened if Jane Moneypenny had been more than M's faithful secretary ... and eternally, fruitlessly infatuated with Bond.

 

* The "Eastern Theatre".  Since most spy fiction (well, at least most spy fiction published in English or German) focuses on what, post-WWII, would be considered a Western perspective, I made a certain point to also include books -- albeit written by Western writers -- set in pre-WWII Russia, the Balkans, and Turkey (in addition to Christie's They Came to Baghdad, that is).  Although I am familiar with the general interwar history of those countries (and areas), Eric Ambler's Mask of Dimitrios and Alan Furst's Night Soldiers filled a lot of gaps, and I also liked the fact that both of them deliberately chose organizations other than a Western intelligence service as their focal point.  Plus, both of them include extended sections in Paris / France (as well as Civil War Spain, in Night Soldiers) -- the city of cities when it comes to WWII intrigue (with the possible exception of Lisbon).

 

* Valerie Plame Wilson: Fair Game.  The subtitle of Plame Wilson's memoir ("How a Top CIA Agent Was Betrayed by Her Own Government") sounds more than a bit sensationalist, but in fact, in the current crazy political climate her experience seems more on point than ever and serves as a healthy reminder that the power structures currently at play didn't fall from the sky in January 2017: at their core, they were already in place in the early 2000s, and it's certainly not a coincidence that one of the first persons to be pardoned post-2016 was Scooter Libby.

 

The Misses:

* Ian Fleming.  Not that this one was unexpected; the early Bond movies alone (and in particular), for however great liberties they may be taking with the plotlines, make it clear that the books are bound to brim with casual and not-so-casual sexism and racism.  Both of these are innately written into Bond's character.  Fleming was a talented writer; I'd just wish he'd employed his talents somewhat differently.

 

Peter Finn & Petra Couvée: The Zhivago Affair. Oh, I had so much higher hopes for this one.  A look at how the CIA used Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago in their subversive activities in Russia in the 1960s and 1970s and at the American and Russian inforwars of the day -- what's not to like, right?  Except that ... the vast majority of this book actually consists in a biography of Boris Pasternak and an extended work history of Dr. Zhivago, with a detailed analysis how Pasternak drew on his personal life experience (and the real life people in his life) in creating the novel.  Only in the second half of The Zhivago Affair do we even get to the CIA's involvement (the actual story how the manuscript was smuggled into the West occupies a mere few pages of the preface) -- and even there, while the Russian-American infowars are covered in some detail, the better part of the focus still seems to be on Pasternak himself, and on how the Russian government treated him as a result of the publication.  Also, while the authors do seem to have had access to (and cite in the annex) certain previously unpublished sources, the vast majority of the material they're using is not only not new, it's easily accessible in major libraries and online.  All in all NOT, therefore, the new and unprecedented focused analysis of the CIA's activities and the Cold War infowars promised in the book's subtitle ("The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book") and in its advertising. -- As a side note, my enjoyment might at least have been marginally enhanced if the audio narrator had been anyone other than Simon Vance.

 

Francine Matthews's The Cutout.  A fairly ludicrous plot, set in Germany and various Eastern European countries and written by an American author who seems to have spent her entire time in the region concerned among Americans.  The name-dropping of streets, tourist attractions and other random geographical features replaces the genuine building of atmosphere and setting, and "the locals'" actions, reactions and attitudes are built straight from cookie cutter cliché -- if Mattews ever had any in-depth conversations with anybody in the areas where she was posted as an agent, she obivously learned nothing at all from them (or she is completely unable to translate what she learned onto the page).  This is a shame, because her book (published in the early 2000s) actually has an interesting and timely premise: A Germany and Eastern Europe where the neonazis are on the rise.

 

Valerie Plame Wilson & Sarah Lovett: Blowback.  Plame Wilson shows in her autobiography that she clearly can write, but either (unlike Stella Rimington) she had trouble translating that ability into fiction writing or she was talked into some pretty nonsensical plot and character choices by her co-author Sarah Lovett (or by an editor).  I'd almost DNF'd by the time the book finally gained a sense of direction and of "self" -- and I was brought to thinking about quitting not least when I hit a big boo-boo that Plame Wilson, as an ex-CIA agent, really ought to know better. 

(There is a character clearly modelled on Stella Rimington, down to the fact that this character is the [fictional] director of MI5 ... only trouble is, this character gets involved, on the British side, with a CIA operation against a foreign government and on the ground in that foreign [Middle Eastern] country -- i.e., an operation that is neither within the remit of domestic intelligence in Britain nor in America, and which would therefore have to be handled by MI6 in the UK, not by MI5.  Since Rimington's autobiography was one of the books I'd just recently finished by the time I got to Blowback, this authorial snafu was impossible for me to miss, and it instantly made me question what other inaccuracies might be contained in Plame Wilson's & Lovett's book.)

(spoiler show)

  Still, Blowback did find its feet towards the end at least in terms of the thriller element, so I at least won't entirely rule out reading its sequel -- maybe it simply took Plame Wilson a while to translate her nonfiction writing skills to fiction.  I just hope I won't run into any more errors of the kind that she really should know better.

 

All in all, though, the number of my Summer of Spies "misses" is infinitesimally small compared to its many hits.  So I'm going to declare this project a rousing success and right on target!

 

 

When I read the summary for When the Black Roses Grow and realized that it had to do with the famous Salem Witch Trials or at least it was written about people living in Salem Village in 1692 and beyond who were accused of being a witch I knew I had to read it as I am fascinated with anything during that time period. When the Black Roses Grow grabbed me right from the beginning and still hasn’t let go. I truly and dearly loved reading it and would recommend it to anyone who just loves a good story or especially the Salem Witch Trials.

I loved all the characters and how well they handled anything that was thrown at them. Emmalynn Hawthorne was a very strong woman with a great big heart and would never do anything to hurt anyone or betray them but she would never grovel at anyone’s feet for her own life either. Emmalynn has been alone for a while now as her husband died from a fever and her very own mother was accused of being a witch.

Emmalynn’s life is about to take a turn for the good or is it? A new guy James comes into town and takes a liking to Emmalynn while at the same time she starts to have feelings for him. She tries to deny her feelings for this guy and at the same time she is telling him they cannot be together. At first he doesn’t quite understand what she is saying but when she explains to him that when a certain woman in the town finds out about them then it will be all over for the two of them. Emmalynn could find herself walking in the footsteps of her mother.

I can’t understand how anyone can be so evil as to accuse someone of something when they know the outcome for that person. All it took was for one person to get mad or upset at something someone said or did and it would mean that person’s life. How could they go to bed at night and shut their eyes with what they had done? Furthermore the people that you are taught to trust the most will back said person up. That is all it took to get rid of some person that you didn’t like or took something or someone from you that you thought belong to you.

James has somethings in his past that he would like to keep hidden for whatever reason. James is a very mysterious person. What is he hiding? Why is he hiding it? What did he do? Did he do anything? Who is this mysterious person? Will his love for Emmalynn be strong enough to save her? Can James convince the town folk that Emmalynn is innocent?

„The Thorn and the Sinking Stone“ ist der Debütroman der kanadischen Autorin CJ Dushinski. Wie schon „Red“ von Alyxandra Harvey bekam ich auch diesen Roman als ARC von Entangled Teen zur Verfügung gestellt. Als ich den Klappentext las, sprang mir sofort die grundsätzliche Ähnlichkeit mit Shakespeares „Romeo und Julia“ ins Auge. Sie ist ja auch schwer zu übersehen. Obwohl dieser Stoff schon zur Genüge wieder und wieder verarbeitet wurde, war ich wild entschlossen, mich nicht davon stören zu lassen. „Romeo und Julia“ ist schließlich die Mutter aller Liebesgeschichten – wunderschön und herrlich tragisch. Wieso also nicht mal einer modernen Adaption eine Chance geben?

 

Seit Jahrzehnten wird Rain City von Bandenkriegen beherrscht. Rivalisierende Gangs bestimmen die Stadt und wachen eifersüchtig über ihre Territorien. Immer wieder fordern die Fehden hohe Blutzölle. Die Feindschaft zwischen den Black Roses und den Two Daggers ist legendär und besteht schon so lange, dass niemand mehr sicher ist, wie sie entstand. Sebastian Leold und Valencia Hara wurden in diesen Krieg hinein geboren. Er, der Dagger; sie, die Black Rose. Nachdem sowohl Valencias als auch Sebastians Vater von der jeweils anderen Gang ermordet wurden, ist es für sie undenkbar, nicht in ihre Fußstapfen zu treten, um den Krieg weiterzuführen. Als sie sich das erste Mal im Kampf gegenüber stehen, sind sie jedoch nicht von Rachegelüsten überwältigt, sondern von einer überraschenden Erkenntnis: sie kennen sich bereits. Die Umstände bringen sie einander näher, als sie es sich je träumen ließen. Doch wie kann zwischen all dem Blutvergießen Platz für Liebe sein?

 

Für mich las sich „The Thorn and the Sinking Stone“ schwerfällig. Es konnte mich nicht richtig fesseln. Ich habe einige gute Ideen und Ansätze erkannt, doch in der Umsetzung war spürbar, dass es sich um einen Erstling handelt. Ich fand es unausgereift. CJ Dushinski hat zwar auf das altbekannte „Romeo und Julia“-Motiv zurückgegriffen, ihr Weltenaufbau ist dafür jedoch recht kompliziert. Vielleicht zu kompliziert, um alles unter einen Hut zu bringen. Die schwierige Liebesgeschichte, die Gangs, die Dystopie… Sie hat sich möglicherweise etwas viel aufgebürdet.
Zu Beginn dachte ich noch, dass es sich bei diesem Roman um Young Adult Urban Fantasy handelt. Valencia ist nämlich „Verflucht“ (Cursed). Sie kann für ein paar Sekunden in die Zukunft sehen und weiß so, wie sich die Menschen um sie herum verhalten werden. Ziemlich praktisch im Nahkampf. Dies ist jedoch keine magische Fähigkeit, sondern das Resultat einer genetischen Mutation. Dementsprechend ist „The Thorn and the Sinking Stone“ eher als YA Dystopie einzuordnen. Dafür spricht des Weiteren, dass sich die LeserInnen anscheinend in der Zukunft befinden; nach einem verheerenden Krieg, der die Welt in Trümmern zurückließ. Hier endet mein Wissen allerdings auch schon, denn mehr gibt Dushinski nicht preis. Sie streift die Hintergründe ihres Universums nur. Natürlich ist es möglich, dass sie bewusst Informationen zurückhielt, die sie in den nächsten Bänden der Serie offenbaren möchte; ich war damit allerdings unzufrieden. Es war einfach etwas sehr dürftig. Darüber hinaus sehe ich auch andere Punkte ihres Weltenaufbaus kritisch. Laut Dushinski wird Rain City von vier verfeindeten Gangs regiert. Ich bin nicht sicher, wie sie das anstellen, denn das nötige Kleingeld für dieses Ausmaß an Macht hat wohl keine dieser Banden. Ich denke, wenn überhaupt jemand diese Stadt kontrolliert, dann sind es die Watchmen, eine Art Polizei. Der lange Arm einer Regierung, die leider niemals zur Sprache kommt. Alle Gangmitglieder kuschen vor ihnen. Gehörte Rain City tatsächlich den Gangs, hätten sie das nicht nötig.
CJ Dushinski hat ihren Erstling abwechselnd aus Sebastians und Valencias Perspektive geschrieben. Trotz dessen bin ich der Meinung, dass es eigentlich nur eine Protagonistin gibt: Valencia. Sie nimmt in der Geschichte wesentlich mehr Raum ein. Ich empfand sie als omnipräsent, denn Sebastian denkt an kaum etwas anderes. Valencia hier, Valencia da, Valencia überall. Das hat mich genervt, vor allem, weil Valencia nicht die großartige Kriegerprinzessin ist, als die CJ Dushinski sie wohl gern sieht. Weder verhält sie sich wie eine Kriegerin, noch rettet sie sich je selbst aus einer Situation. Mit meiner Vorstellung einer Kick-Ass-Heldin hat sie nicht viel gemein. Sie handelt meist völlig unüberlegt und unlogisch und kann keinen Schritt tun, ohne in Schwierigkeiten zu geraten.
All diese Punkte störten mich, doch meinen Lesefluss hätten sie vermutlich nicht behindert. Die Tatsache, dass Dushinski actiongeladene Szenen eher kurz hielt und diverse Gespräche dafür unglaublich streckte, allerdings schon. Langatmig schlachtete sie jeden Dialog aus, sodass sogar ein Gespräch über Schuhe mehr als eine Seite einnahm. Es fiel mir deswegen schwer, dranzubleiben.

 

„The Thorn and the Sinking Stone“ ist kein Meisterwerk. Es ist das Werk einer kreativen Autorin, der es meines Erachtens nach noch an Erfahrung fehlt. Besonders in den Kampfszenen hatte ich den Eindruck, dass CJ Dushinski sich unwohl und unsicher fühlte beim Schreiben. Vielleicht flüchtete sie sich deswegen in die Dialoge. Ich denke nicht, dass ich die Serie Thorn and Dagger rund im Sebastian und Valencia weiter verfolgen werde. Ich bin einfach nicht sonderlich neugierig auf die nächsten Bände. Ich könnte mir aber vorstellen, es in ein paar Jahren noch einmal mit CJ Dushinski zu versuchen.
Wie so oft bei 2-Sterne-Bewertungen ist eine Empfehlung für „The Thorn and the Sinking Stone“ schwierig. Vielleicht würde es euch besser gefallen als mir, vielleicht nicht. Wenn ihr mit dem Gedanken spielt, es zu versuchen, würde ich euch raten, auf CJ Dushinskis Website vorbei zu schauen, um euch noch vor dem Lesen einen ersten Eindruck von Rain City zu verschaffen.