Rediscovery: Tea with the Black Dragon by R.A. MacAvoy

[james_davis_nicoll]

Same river, different shore: Tea with the Black Dragon by R.A. MacAvoy

Comments

[bolindbergh]

s/Mary/Martha/g

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Why the hell do I make fewer mistakes while heavily medicated?

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

The same reason my friends bowl more accurately after one or two beers.

[(Anonymous)]

I recall this one fondly, though in retrospect your criticisms made sense. The sequel ("Twisting the Rope") is more problematical (or at least more obviously problematical to me) in that it features a handicapped child as a supernatural threat to all those nearby.

[celestialweasel.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you're right, but the main thing I remember thinking about it is 'she clearly wants to write police procedurals but can only sell a fantasy as her first published novel was a fantasy'.
IIRC she said as much on a con panel around the time.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Not PI novels? Because I was reminded of the Parker novels, especially the stir up mud, see who shoots at us detection method used.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I once passionately defended the fact the protagonist in a cosy only solved the murder because the killer cornered her and explained all before their ineffective but incriminating attempt to kill the protagonist. The reason I thought this made sense was because the protagonist had no interest in solving the first murder, and was not trying to solve the first murder. The killer just had terrible judgement.

[celestialweasel.livejournal.com]

You could be right, I forget, will have to reread it.

[celestialweasel.livejournal.com]

Thinking about it, I am pretty sure that on the con panel she said she wanted to write police procedurals.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Mayland = Hawk and Martha = a horrifying melange of Spenser and Susan. I guess that makes Liz Paul.

[(Anonymous)]

"Martha = a horrifying melange of Spenser and Susan"

ObSimpsons: "That's going to replace the whale in my nightmares"

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

When I re-read this a year or two ago, the things you mention very much stuck out to me, but it still worked enough for me to have enjoyed re-reading it, unlike some things I could mention but won't.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

i bet i would have read it 1000% more sympathetically if I had it immediately after a Kylie Chan.

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

Well, there's your problem right there.

Who dislikes you enough to make you read a Kylie Chan book?

[jsburbidge.livejournal.com]

ObNitpick: if you're going to go all Heraclitus, shouldn't it be same shore, different river?

[carloshasanax.livejournal.com]

I can see how this might have been charming at one time. It's a peculiar form of Orientalism: the fantastic Asian is basically an imaginary friend from a book. You wouldn't need to change very much to turn it into Tea with the Brass Djinni. The Celtic twee does weirdly offset the worst, because it's clear that this is an essentialist universe for everyone.

(I'm just going to throw Whiskey with the Pasty Leprechaun out there.)

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I was going today the bit where Long lets an innocent cat get killed in his place might not go over well with modern audiences but then I remembered he gets more upset over that than the mook he kills.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

Well, neither is a member of his original species...

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

Does the Mystic Asian overlap with the Magical Negro? Does one segue into the other, or are they separate phenomena?

[carloshasanax.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of a structuralist. I think, although they arise from different sources, they fill the same structural need.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

Interesting to hear, that's my sense as well.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

May I quote this elsewhere?

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

Please do!

[avitzur.livejournal.com]

I remember this one very fondly, having been a young computer programmer working where it was set along El Camino Real in Silicon Valley in the 80s when I read it. It's still on my bookshelf, but perhaps I'd best leave it a fond memory.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

The heist suffers from such computer crimes being routine now.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

As I recall, it was somewhat unusual at the time for the mother to be more clueful than the daughter.

[(Anonymous)]

One more objectionable bit comes to mind - Mayland bullies the immigrant Hispanic janitors at the computer company he's trespassing at, in order to get them to let him in the room he needs to get to.

[awesomeaud.livejournal.com]

Actually, Fred does.

[(Anonymous)]

That's right - I had gotten confused, but since the bullying involves using computer jargon really fast to confuse someone with limited English, it makes more sense for Fred to have been the one that did that (since Fred is the computer guy, not Mayland).

[awesomeaud.livejournal.com]

Mayland offers to translate, but Fred says that he wants them confused.

[straussmonster.livejournal.com]

I never read this one, although my sister did and loved it, back when.

I do remember reading, about 5-6 years ago, Damiano and Damiano's Lute and really enjoying its evocation of plague-era southern France. I think. It's been a while. I should re-read it since I know a lot more about medieval magic now.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

Oh I remember liking those!

Hm, the omnibus edition is a penny on Amazon...

[straussmonster.livejournal.com]

It's been a while, but I remember getting the impression that the research there into the magic of the period was quite solid. I'll have to go and take another look, I think I have the omni edition as well.

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

It seems like most other readers of this book assume that Mayland is telling the truth about his past. When I read it, I doubted him.