[LMB] OT: Dick Francis/aggravating author errors.

[sylvus tarn]

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louann at millerdome.com wrote:
>> 
> The man is 87. (Born 1920.) I'd say he's entitled to take it a bit easier.
> 

The gossip making the rounds I'd heard was that that yes, there was
indeed a steep decline after his wife died, which is why I haven't
picked up anything recently.  But _Shattered_ was the one that ended my
love affair---I've noticed the jumping-aroundedness of his various
artists and craftsmen's pursuits/puzzles, but always forgiven that
before, just for his *having* so many cool artists in his books (_In the
Frame_ and _To the Hilt_ featuring painters; my fave Francis _Reflex_ a
photographer, plus of course the supporting character Pross in
_Straight_ who made gorgeous jeweled thingies closest to what I'd
consider my own medium).

However, he jumped the shark with the villain getting spattered by an
unannealed object exploding.  Sure, they crack, and glass under
sufficient stress *will* explode (happens all the time when heating rods
up too fast) but generally, pieces not promptly stuck into the annealing
kiln just crack.  It was all because Francis wanted this eye-popping
resolution at the end of the book, and it was *fake*.

I also just had a really hard time imagining shop assistants who stuck
with this guy (a glassblower, if that isn't already obvious) without a
passion for glass.  The main character has these half-assed assistants
who just don't really seem to *care* about glass, or even if they do
can't seem to develop any real technique past a certain basic level.  In
my experience, the wages for that kind of job just aren't there for
anyone who isn't aiming to live and breathe for it.  And, as I said, the
guy is doing some sort of necklace recreation that looked like pate de
verre, or even lampwork, that didn't seem to have much to do with
furnace glass.

I will say I enjoyed the section where the protagonist tries to
translates his feelings for a lover into glass.  That sort of thing has
never happened to me, but the feelings came across well---the piece, not
so much---mebbe Francis needed to watch his source a few more times in
action.

In the mildly irritating category, in _Straight_ somebody goes ahead and
reorders something like blue lace agate beads & some kind of chips right
when they ran out---really low-demand items---instead of waiting until
they had enough of a list to make it worthwhile to call up their
supplier.  No one calls for blue-lace agate unless some big customer
wants 50 strands of the stuff pronto (which they never do, of course.)

Black onyx, of course, is another story.  We used to get that in 500
strand lots.

sylvus tarn
http://rejiquar.com





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