T.A.G. You’re Seen is the first audio book in a new series by new to me author A.G. Carothers and narrated by Gomez Pugh. Overall, it was an interesting premise…T.A.G. stands for ‘The Assassins’ Guild’ and I think the name says it all as to what they’re all about. ‘T.A.G. You’re Seen’ is a story that leans a bit more towards the humorous side than other books of it’s ilk.

Before I get into what did or didn’t work about the actual story, I just want to take a few words to say that while this was a new to me author, I’ve very familiar with the narrator. I’ve listened to approximately 10 audio books by this narrator and while I’ve enjoyed them all to varying degrees. I found that Mr. Pugh showed a broader scope and diversity with his voices in this story than has sometimes been heard in previous narrations…so overall when it comes to the audio aspect of this story…a very solid 4 stars for this.

After having botched his latest assignment, Mr. W is having a bit of recovery time by way of an ‘easy’ assignment. His most recent mark is Jacob Peters, an apparently innocent English professor who lives in a small mountain town. Only it doesn’t take long before Mr. W decides something is amiss and he’s determined to get to the bottom of things.

‘T.A.G. You’re Seen’ was not quite the story that I expected and truthfully it’s left me in a bit of a quandary as to whether I loved it or hated it…ok, maybe hates a bit of a strong word. I liked the overall premise and there were a lot of details that I enjoyed like the mystery of Jacob Peters, I honestly wasn’t expecting this.

I was also more than a little amused by some of the ‘tortures’ Yoshi used during the course of this story… it turns out that plastic wrap is useful for more than keeping food fresh, who knew? Certainly not I and apparently torture by music infomercial is a thing…while the idea maybe a new concept to me, I can see the merit, having lived through the days of K-tel records.

For the most part the characters offered potential…although I think I would have liked it if they’d had a little more consistency and depth to them…especially Yoshi, I just found that his character vacillated between being an assassin and…well, a twelve year old who’s decided that his penis is his favorite toy…sorry, but Yoshi just seemed a bit to consumed with this part of his anatomy given the circumstances of his life…maybe, not the brain that he should have been using for important life choices.

I did however like Conner or as Yoshi called him ‘Connie’. Connie was the brother of Yoshi’s heart and they had a very close bond that I found to be quite sweet and endearing especially given that they’ve been raised to be bad ass assassins and unfortunately the other thing that I really enjoyed was as how the plot played out, which I honestly don’t want to say more about since I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone who hasn’t read it.

The thing that just didn’t work for me, and please note this is entirely a matter of personal reading likes and/or dislikes was in regards to the sex…even though BDSM and/or breathe play aren’t my thing, when used in a story and done right it can be hot but at the same time when it comes to things like ‘watersports’ and ‘humiliation’…not my thing and never going to be hot for me no matter how well written the scene is but  I knew going into this that, I would encounter scenes involving these predilections and as we all know forewarned is forearmed. So feel free to assume that this did factor into my rating but only marginally…let’s say .25 to .5 of a star.

At the end of things, I came away with bit more that I liked and/or was curious about than things that truly bothered or just didn’t work for me, so for me the juries still out as the whether or not I’ll be continuing with this series but I’m certainly going to be checking out the next book before I make a firm decision one way or the other.

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An audio book of ‘T.A.G. You’re Seen’ was graciously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Hmmm, are we talking "series" as in "including trilogies and quartets" here, or does it have to be more than that number?  Also, what about works that were intended as one (very long) book but are traditionally broken up into several parts that are published separately (like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings) and books originally published in several self-contained parts but now frequently combined into one omnibus volume (like Stephen King's Green Mile)?

Anyway, starting with the beasts that nobody can legitimately dispute are series and moving on from there, based on the assumption that it's "yes" to all of the above:

MULTI-BOOK SERIES ( >5 INDIVIDUAL ENTRIES)
Terry Pratchett: Discworld
J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter
C.S. Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia
Sheri S. Tepper: The True Game (all nine books, including the Mavin Manyshaped trilogy and the Jinian / End of the Game trilogy)

TRILOGIES / QUARTETS / MULTI-PART OMNIBUS VOLUMES
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
T.H. White: The Once and Future King
Tad Williams: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn
Mary Stewart: Merlin Trilogy
Stephen King: The Green Mile

JUMPED THE SHARK
Anne Rice: The Vampire Chronicles

Unsurprisingly, almost all of my favorite supernaturally-tinged series are fantasy -- and I read both Green Mile and the Vampire Chronicles for pretty much everything but their horror contents.  That said, Rice jumped the shark for me when she insisted on using Lestat (of all characters) as a vehicle for exploring her rapidly altering expressions of faith ... shortly before going BBA and thus earning herself a place on my no-go list once and for all.  I still like the first books in the series, though, especially the first two.

Klientem merlin.pl jestem od 2001 roku. Używam czasu teraźniejszego, ale pisząc to zdanie zastanawiałem się, czy nie użyć jednak czasu przeszłego....

Sklep Merlin wprowadza nowy regulamin i zapowiada nowe usługi

Czas przeszły byłby uzasadniony dlatego, że od sześciu lat nic w tym sklepie nie kupiłem. Wynikało to m.in. z faktu, że ogólnie przestałem kupować papierowe książki a sklep przestał oferować e-booki. Choć ostatecznym argumentem za robieniem zakupów w innych sklepach, były w sumie kłopoty finansowe firmy oraz zmiany właścicieli. To wyraźnie odbijało się negatywnie na poziomie obsługi klientów, w tym mnie. Na przykład w 2014 roku otrzymałem z Merlina list, ofertę obniżki 35%. Gdy zrobiłem zakupy z wykorzystaniem załączonego kodu, naliczony mi rabat wyniósł ostatecznie 20%. Napisałem wtedy m.in. do BOKu Merlina:

„Czuję się oszukany Waszą propozycją 35% rabatu, który nie został ostatecznie przyznany oraz zlekceważony Waszymi wyjaśnieniami. Proszę o anulowanie zamówienia. Zakupów dokonałem w innym sklepie.”

Jak się zapewne domyślacie, wtedy zrezygnowałem na dobre z zakupów w Merlinie. Konta wtedy jednak nie skasowałem, więc trafił wczoraj do mnie list z informacją o zmianie regulaminu.

Merlin w czasie przeszłym

Merlin, w rozesłanym właśnie liście, zapowiada nowe usługi. Ciekawe, czy pomoże mu to w odbudowaniu dawnej pozycji. Sklep był kiedyś bardzo silną marką na polskim rynku internetowym. Próbował też nadążać za zmianami. Przejawem tego był m.in. projekt wprowadzenia w 2013 roku na rynek własnego czytnika e-booków „Merbook”, połączonego z firmowym sklepem. Internety obiegły wtedy głównie pompatyczne zapowiedzi. Pracownicy sklepu, zagadywani na ten temat na Targach Książki w Krakowie, udzielali mglistych odpowiedzi. Racjonalnie próbował się wtedy temu przyjrzeć m.in. Świat Czytników. Niestety, na zapowiedziach się skończyło.

Promocja projektu "Merbook" (źródło: nowymarketing.pl) 

Kolejne nadzieje na dotrzymanie kroku konkurentom, wzbudziła informacja o połączeniu Merlina oraz cdp.pl. Przy okazji krakowskich Targów Książki pytałem nawet przedstawicieli sklepu o plany związane z rynkiem cyfrowych publikacji. Otrzymałem wtedy informację, że sprzedaż e-booków w merlin.pl ruszy wiosną 2018 roku. Minął rok, e-booków w Merlinie brak. Znowu więc na zapowiedzi się skończyło.

Co nowego w Melinie?

Teraz w liście skierowanym do klientów Merlina, otrzymałem informację, że może nastąpić jednak jakaś realna zmiana. Firma napisała m.in.: „Wprowadzamy zmiany również po to, aby dostosować zapisy dokumentu do nowych usług, które planujemy wdrożyć w niedalekiej przyszłości”.

E-booki są co prawda w katalogu merlin.pl, ale oznaczone są jako niedostępne (źródło: merlin.pl)

Ciekawe, co czeka klientów Merlina 14 III 2019 r., kiedy wejdzie w życie nowy regulamin. Zastanawiam się, co w dobie cyfryzacji może być wspomnianymi „nowymi usługami” w sklepie? Spodziewałbym się powrotu do sprzedaży e-booków, ponieważ nic innego w tym duchu nie widzę w regulaminie. Natomiast sekcja dotyczące e-booków znajduje się w nowym regulaminie sklepu. Chyba trzeba jeszcze parę dni poczekać na wyjaśnienie „tajemniczego” zapisu. Wkrótce przekonamy się, czy zmiany tym razem będą realne. Sklep na razie nie odpowiedział na moje pytanie skierowane w tej sprawie do BOKu.

[Aktualizacja 17 III 2019 r.]

Nie otrzymałem ze sklepu odpowiedzi na temat ew. nowych usług. Nic nowego nie pojawiło się na stronie merlin.pl po wejściu w życie nowego regulaminu. Na zapowiadaną "niedaleką przyszłość" przyjdzie więc klientom Merlina jeszcze chwilę poczekać...

Merlin's Shakespeare sounded like something right up my alley. Unfortunately, I couldn't get into it. Beth as the main character is obsessed with Shakespeare's work and of lately also has some magical powers after a rather wonderful production of A Midsummer's Night Dream. She is then cornered by Merlin who asks her to travel back in order to track down a lost play.

Like I said, these are all things I like. I like time travel, I like Shakespeare, I really do, but I found Beth so annoying. Her obsession is unhealthy and it is weird it is supported by the adults. She acts like a small child, making it feel like it was written for a very young audience, although at the same time there is quite some death and cruelty along the way.

The whole reason for looking for the supposedly lost play was rather thin and the story jumped around a lot, focusing then on these and then on those characters. The characters from the plays were in my opinion the most interesting aspects of the story, only their dialogue was often very cranky (not like Shakespeare at all) and also the rules with which they lived and acted were unclear to me.

I wanted to like it, but it was not for me. For someone who doesn't know Shakespeare, it might be a nice introduction into the subject.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Before I go into why I loved this book, I should make clear that I have not read the entire correspondence that is contained in this book - this is a 1230-page volume!

I have mostly browsed correspondence and opened the book at random to read whatever letter such method revealed to me. However, there were letters that were of particular interest to me and that caused me to pick up the book in the first place, such as Wilde's correspondence to Lord Queensberry and the letters relating to his trial and imprisonment.

What I have found with this wonderful book is that:

- Wilde was a humorous and warm correspondent. There are several letters in this collection that were to unidentified correspondents who seemed to be members of the reading or theatre-going public, who just decided to write to him. Wilde evidently did not know these people, and yet, he still answered the letters in manner that felt engaged with whatever it was that the senders had asked him. 

- Wilde had a LOT of social engagements and used them negotiate advances on plays and writings. At least, much of the correspondence seems about that - not just for himself but also for other writers, actors, and producers.

- The letters to Bosie's mother show a genuine, deep concern of Wilde's over Alfred's well-being. The both may have been toxic for each other (Wilde and Bosie, I mean), but from the letters to Bosie's mother, it appears Wilde did seek help when he feared Bosie to be in danger of harming himself. (The book doesn't contain the answers to his letters, so I do not know whether Bosie's mother acknowledged Wilde's concerns.)

- Letter to Bosie that Wilde wrote from Reading Gaol which is commonly published as De Profundis is contained in this volume also, and it was extraordinary to see the letter in the context of the other correspondence of the same time, in which Wilde mostly tried to settle his affairs, asking for debts to be paid following the trial. For whatever image we may have of Wilde as the flamboyant bon vivant, he was serious about settling debts and not owing people dues. 

Of course, Wilde's imprisonment didn't just deprive him of his freedom, he also lost most of his contacts and some of his business partners took advantage of Wilde not being able to pursue them for fraud or theft or not-paying his royalties. He was thoroughly stripped of his civil liberties and his rights. 

And this is where the book was really hard to read. It really shows the change from Wilde being a student, to becoming famous, to falling from grace, to being utterly dependent on the few friends that stayed loyal to him. At the end, there were only two of them. Two.

Here are some of the more harrowing passages from the letters to Reginald Turner about Wilde's prison stay:

"17 May 1897 

 

[...] I cannot tell you how good and dear it was of you in my eyes. Other people came forward with promises of large sums of money [...] every one of them has backed out.

   You, dear Reggie, simply and quietly and thoughtfully go and get me a beautiful and

useful thing. You make no noise beforehand: you blow no lying trumpets like Frank Harris: you don't pose as the generous friend: you simply do a sweet kind action, unostentatiously, and you are the only one who has really helped me on my going out. I can't tell you how touched I am: I shall never forget.

 The person who has sent me money to pay for my food and expenses on going out is my dear sweet wife, and you have bought me my travelling bag: and now I want yourself; I want you, if you can, to be ready to meet me when I go out, at Mortimer, a place six miles from here. 

I am ill, and unnerved. Already the American interviewer and the English journalist have arrived in Reading: the Governor of the Prison has just shown me a letter from an American interviewer stating that he will be here with a carriage on Wednesday morning for me, and offering any sum I like if I will breakfast with him! Is it not appalling?

I who am maimed, ill, altered in appearance so that no one can hardly recognise me, broken-hearted, ruined, disgraced - a leper, and a pariah to men - I am to be gibbeted for the pleasure of the public of two worlds!"

Wilde also brought home some of the less apparent issues of the criminal justice system of his day:

"27 May 1897 [to the editor of the Daily Chronicle]

 

Sir, I learn with great regret, through the columns of your paper, that the warder Martin, of Reading Prison, has been dismissed by the Prison Commissioners for having given some sweet biscuits to a little hungry child. 

 

I saw the three children myself on the Monday preceding my release. They had just been convicted, and were standing in a row in the central hall in their prison dress, carrying their sheets under their arms previous to their being sent to the cells allotted to them. I happened to be passing along one of the galleries on my way to the reception room, where I was to have an interview with a friend. They were quite small children, the youngest - the one to whom the warder gave the biscuits - being a tiny little chap, for whom they had evidently been unable to find clothes small enough to fit. I had, of course, seen many children in prison during the two years during which I was myself confined. Wandsworth Prison especially contained always a large number of children. But the little child I saw on the afternoon of Monday the 17th, at Reading, was tinier than any of them. I need not say how utterly distressed I was to see these children at Reading, for I knew the treatment in store for them. The cruelty that is practised by day and night on children in English prisons is incredible, except to those that have witnessed it and are aware of the brutality of the system."

Wilde does not provide any graphic details of the cruelty he experienced, but the change in his outlook on life is very visible. He was a broken man on his release.

The last letter in the collection is a letter to Frank Harris in which Wilde begs him to send the money that Harris owes Wilde so he can settle his doctor's bill, and the Epilogue included in this - I have to say it again - magnificent compilation includes the letters between Wilde's last two friends - Reginald Turner and Robert Ross - who both cared for Wilde in his last days as he was dying from meningitis. 

Simply heart-breaking stuff.

Lastly, I would like make another note about what drew me to this book in the first place - the book was a collaboration between Rupert Hart-Davis and Merlin Holland. 

Hart-Davis had previously compiled the first ever major collection of Wilde's letters in 1962, and continued to collect material and letters which he then published in 1985. It is the collaboration with Merlin Holland that, I suspect, adds another level of depth to this particular edition - together with a further 300 letters which Holland was able to add  from Wilde's family estate. For those not in the know, Merlin Holland is Wilde's grand-son.