Books (#SFWApro)

THIEF OF SHADOWS by Elizabeth Hoyt has a widowed noblewoman in Georgian England forced to Henry Higgins the somber head of an orphan asylum (so that he can pass in the same circles as his patrons) only to discovers that in addition to being Obnoxious and Irritating, he has a double life as the Harlequin Ghost, a masked mystery man fighting to protect London’s slum-children from predators. An enjoyable super-hero story of a sort, though Hoyt’s sex scenes aren’t as strong as Amy Rabe’s in Assassin’s Gambit.
DANCE IN THE RENAISSANCE: European Fashion, French Obsession by Margaret M. McGowan takes us back to the days when galliards, allemandes, voltas, ballets and branles were the rage at courts across Europe and graceful (or depending on the dance, high-energy) dancing could make a huge impact on your social status. McGowan gives an overview of the types of dances, why it’s hard to get into detail about what made Great Dancing (individual gestures, body language and energy could add a lot to the official style) and the incredible expense and effort that went into big court events (with the inevitable gasps of shock or rage at what monarchs would spend, even in war). Specialized but good within that range. A great resource if I write anything in this period, not least for showing that fashion, coolness and style are ideas that didn’t begin with my generation.
ASYLUM EARTH by Bruce Elliott is a 1960s SF novel set in the depressed future world of 1991. It starts of well as the protagonist’s experiments prove Magic Is Real (the Conjure Wife principle of figuring out the logic underlying all spells) after which he spends most of the book trying to convince people (including himself) he’s not imagining it, pondering his miserable life, then confronting the cosmic intelligences running the world, which does not go well. Very draggy and talky (I suspect Elliott was influenced by the New Wave SF of the era, but if so, he took the wrong lessons) and the ending, which would work in a short story, isn’t a good payoff here.