Date: 2010-11-13 06:58 pm (UTC)
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
From: [personal profile] cerusee
Penhallow is another one in the vein of Civil Contract (which, according to the essay I read in my copy, was written during a period when everything in Heyer's life had absolutely gone to hell, and she couldn't muster the frothy fun fantasy that characterizes most of her books). Except Penhallow is a murder mystery, not a romance, and it's quite depressing. I liked it, though. Although I'm glad most of her books aren't like that, it proved that she could do something besides fluff when she wanted to--she presumably just didn't want to, most of the time.

I think of Heyer the same way I think of Stout--most of their work is unashamedly genre formula, without much depth. What makes them worth reading is the excellence with which they execute their own personal formulas; they both have style and flair and an ear for dialogue and prose. (And, as I've commented before, I appreciate the variety of character types in Heyer's protagonists. She uses tropes across a reasonably broad spectrum--it's not all cookie-cutter characters in every book. How often do you see a romance novel male protagonist like Freddie? In most books--and in most of Heyer's books, too, I should add--he'd never be more than a supporting character.)
This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting

If you are unable to use this captcha for any reason, please contact us by email at support@dreamwidth.org

December 2018

S M T W T F S
      1
2345 678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     

Style Credit

Page generated Jun. 15th, 2025 06:57 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Most Popular Tags

Creative Commons



The contents of this blog and all comments I make are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License. I hope that name is long enough. I could add some stuff. It could also be a Bring Me A Sandwich License.

If you desire to thank me for the pretend internet magnanimity I show by sharing my important and serious thoughts with you, I accept pretend internet dollars (Bitcoins): 19BqFnAHNpSq8N2A1pafEGSqLv4B6ScstB