SPOILERS for The Nutmeg of Consolation; here's the non-spoiler post if you got here by mistake.
That's twice now that Stephen has dodged a serious emotional problem by getting sick at the end of the book. His conflict with Jack over Padeen was genuinely interesting, with deep-held convinctions on both sides and their friendship on the line; and what happens? He gets poisoned by a platypus and voilà, Padeen's on the ship. Unless there are serious repercussions in the next book (which I doubt somehow, because Jack's not like that), it's an authorial cheat. I could kind of rationalize Diana realizing that she loved Stephen after all when he fell down those stairs, you know, with a life really without Stephen flashing before her eyes: but this is a deus ex machina, and those are rarely a good idea these days.
(I suspect, by the way, that this is the kind of thing that annoys me far more than anyone else. Oh well; eventually I'll feel like listening to the next one.)
- categories: books » historical » Aubrey-Maturin
- all posts about Patrick O'Brian (32 total)
Comments:
#1 :: Sherwood wrote on May 20, 2007 at 10:13 PM:
#2 :: Kate wrote on May 20, 2007 at 10:24 PM:
Good. I just wish there was some way to have signaled that in this one, so I didn't go stomping off muttering for so long . . .
#3 :: David Tate wrote on September 11, 2007 at 11:57 AM:
So... did you ever go back to the series? Or are you still getting over the ending of The Nutmeg of Consolation?
For what it's worth, I thought the next book (Clarissa Oakes, or The Truelove for the American trade) was superb.
#4 :: Kate wrote on September 12, 2007 at 7:09 AM:
I've just been either in the mood for different stuff or trying to learn Japanese.
I'm coming up on needing something else right now, though, and I may well go back, because Patrick Tull is _so_ comforting and I have a cold.
#5 :: David Tate wrote on September 12, 2007 at 10:09 AM:
Sorry to hear about your cold; travel does that to me too. Hope you feel better soon.
"Comforting" is not a term I would apply to Clarissa Oakes, wonderful as Mr. Tull's readings are. I do look forward to your comments and observations, though.
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Nothing is easy or forgotten in the next--in fact, there are worse repercussions.