Ghost spies and Germans
Feb. 18th, 2019 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bloodygranuaileFor my first non-YA fiction of the year... oh, god, it's mid-February already. This probably explains a lot about how I've been feeling lately, yikes.
Anyway. Trying again.
For the BSpec book club (whew, that's better), we decided on reading Mary Robinette Kowal's World War One spiritualist fantasy Ghost Talkers. I liked her Glamourist Histories books, and I also love me some World War One content, and who doesn't like wacky shit about spiritualism? And the best part is that as of right now it's a standalone, so I don't have to worry about getting hooked on another whole-ass series.
The premise, more specifically than "omg World War One and spiritualism," is thus: Our protagonist Ginger is an American heiress who is engaged to a British intelligence officer, and she is working on a very secret project for the British military called the Spirit Corps. The Spirit Corps is basically a bunch of mediums who gather intelligence by interviewing the ghosts of dead soldiers, who are trained on how to report in to the mediums at Le Havre before they go off to get shot at. Shortly into the plot it becomes clear that there is a spy in their midst who is leaking information about the Spirit Corps to the Germans, and also murdering people but making it look like an accident. Ginger, along with some other mediums and Ben, who has been murdered into becoming her Trust Ghost Sidekick a la Jemima Rooper in Hex, must now run around northern France trying to figure out who is the spy (or spies) while being alternately threatened and ignored by military dudes of assorted nationalities.
The way spiritualism is developed and applied in this book is a really big strength, which should be unsurprising if you've read the Glamourist History books. In this case, mediums can sense ghosts and people's auras, if they are touching them or projecting their soul out of their body enough to get it into their range. It's all described very physically -- the auras turn different colors and shapes like a light show, and the whole business of loosening up your soul and letting it outside of your skin sounds genuinely exhausting. But as a reader I found it very easy to acclimate to how this whole sixth sense was portrayed. It doesn't read as cartoonish in the book but would definitely make a great animated movie.
Kowal also has a great feel for witty banter, which makes her work always a delightful read even when she's dealing with heavier issues like the incredible pointless mustard-gas-ridden death toll of World War One. Also also, there is a brief celebrity cameo by one bookish young Lieutenant Tolkien, which might be the most obvious Easter egg in the history of fantasy Easter eggs but I still loved it. (I used to be a really big Lord of the Rings dork, OK?)
Anyway. It was fun, I liked it, World War One was a giant shitshow, and I will certainly read whatever Kowal comes out with next.
Anyway. Trying again.
For the BSpec book club (whew, that's better), we decided on reading Mary Robinette Kowal's World War One spiritualist fantasy Ghost Talkers. I liked her Glamourist Histories books, and I also love me some World War One content, and who doesn't like wacky shit about spiritualism? And the best part is that as of right now it's a standalone, so I don't have to worry about getting hooked on another whole-ass series.
The premise, more specifically than "omg World War One and spiritualism," is thus: Our protagonist Ginger is an American heiress who is engaged to a British intelligence officer, and she is working on a very secret project for the British military called the Spirit Corps. The Spirit Corps is basically a bunch of mediums who gather intelligence by interviewing the ghosts of dead soldiers, who are trained on how to report in to the mediums at Le Havre before they go off to get shot at. Shortly into the plot it becomes clear that there is a spy in their midst who is leaking information about the Spirit Corps to the Germans, and also murdering people but making it look like an accident. Ginger, along with some other mediums and Ben, who has been murdered into becoming her Trust Ghost Sidekick a la Jemima Rooper in Hex, must now run around northern France trying to figure out who is the spy (or spies) while being alternately threatened and ignored by military dudes of assorted nationalities.
The way spiritualism is developed and applied in this book is a really big strength, which should be unsurprising if you've read the Glamourist History books. In this case, mediums can sense ghosts and people's auras, if they are touching them or projecting their soul out of their body enough to get it into their range. It's all described very physically -- the auras turn different colors and shapes like a light show, and the whole business of loosening up your soul and letting it outside of your skin sounds genuinely exhausting. But as a reader I found it very easy to acclimate to how this whole sixth sense was portrayed. It doesn't read as cartoonish in the book but would definitely make a great animated movie.
Kowal also has a great feel for witty banter, which makes her work always a delightful read even when she's dealing with heavier issues like the incredible pointless mustard-gas-ridden death toll of World War One. Also also, there is a brief celebrity cameo by one bookish young Lieutenant Tolkien, which might be the most obvious Easter egg in the history of fantasy Easter eggs but I still loved it. (I used to be a really big Lord of the Rings dork, OK?)
Anyway. It was fun, I liked it, World War One was a giant shitshow, and I will certainly read whatever Kowal comes out with next.
