{"id":6216,"date":"2016-11-26T18:18:39","date_gmt":"2016-11-26T23:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=6216"},"modified":"2022-10-30T19:47:26","modified_gmt":"2022-10-30T23:47:26","slug":"valour-and-vanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6216","title":{"rendered":"Valour and Vanity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Valour and Vanity<\/a><\/em> (2014) Mary Robinette Kowal<\/a><\/p>\n

\"valour-and-vanity\"<\/a>Set in Alternate Regency Venice in 1817.<\/p>\n

After traveling with Melody, her new husband, and Jane’s parent’s for part of their wedding Tour…<\/p>\n

\u201cYou must not go!\u201d Mrs. Ellsworth came to a stop in front of them with a hand pressed to her bosom. \u201cCharles, tell them they must not.\u201d <\/p>\n

Jane\u2019s father cleared his throat. His thinning white hair fluttered under his hat and, in the morning light, seemed almost like mist. \u201cMy dear. Your mother wishes me to tell you that you must not go.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…Jane and Vincent are heading to Venice to see if they can find a glassblower to assist them in capturing glamour in glass.<\/p>\n

At first, I was delighted by this, because I felt that just dropping the glamour in glass story arc as both ridiculous and unrealistic. Especially as Vincent had the ear of both the Prince Regent and Wellington, if he needed them.<\/p>\n

Then, the book shifted into a pastiche of “The Italian Job” I got irritated. Irritated not because I dislike mysteries and thrillers, but because so many of the mystery and thriller bits were illogical.<\/p>\n

They also meet up with Lord Byron, whom Vincent went to school with, and whose reputation hasn’t quite reached the levels it would later. <\/p>\n

Vincent drew back into the cabin and whispered, \u201cWhen he gets out of the water, do not stare at his feet. The right is a club, and he loathes having attention drawn to it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Do not stare at his feet? The man was without clothing. Jane had no intention of watching him at all when he emerged from the canal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though he’s working to earn that later reputation.<\/p>\n

But mostly I was very annoyed by the “heist book”, from the ground up. That Vincent would not have seen the importance of capturing glamour in glass–especially the way it was used in the second book–and would have put off researching and and wouldn’t have bothered to share his ideas with anyone else. <\/p>\n

“(P)erhaps this is a technique that only one glamourist has ever known, and it is lost to history.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And that someone would have gone to all the effort they did for a passing note in a letter that the Vincents would be going to Venice to visit. Nope. The logic just didn’t hang together.
\n5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Tor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Valour and Vanity (2014) Mary Robinette Kowal Set in Alternate Regency Venice in 1817. After traveling with Melody, her new husband, and Jane’s parent’s for part of their wedding Tour… \u201cYou must not go!\u201d Mrs. Ellsworth came to a stop in front of them with a hand pressed to her bosom. \u201cCharles, tell them they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,30,2,48],"tags":[239,548],"class_list":["post-6216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alternate-history","category-british","category-fantasy","category-female","tag-mary-robinette-kowal","tag-regency"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1Cg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6199,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6199","url_meta":{"origin":6216,"position":0},"title":"Shades of Milk and Honey","author":"Michelle","date":"November 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Shades of Milk and Honey (2010) Mary Robinette Kowal Set in Alternate Regency England ~1814. 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But there is only so much he can take, so he escapes to his laboratory where he works on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"the-escapement-of-blackledge","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/The-Escapement-of-Blackledge.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6203,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6203","url_meta":{"origin":6216,"position":2},"title":"Glamour in Glass","author":"Michelle","date":"November 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Glamour in Glass (2012) Mary Robinette Kowal Set in alternate Regency England in 1815. Following their marriage, Jane and Vincent have come to the attention of the Prince Regent, and commissioned to create a Glamour for his ballroom, which makes them even more popular, so it is a surprise when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"glamour-in-glass","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Glamour-in-Glass.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2419,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2419","url_meta":{"origin":6216,"position":3},"title":"Shades of Milk and Honey","author":"Michelle","date":"June 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Shades of Milk and Honey (2010) Mary Robinette Kowal Oddly, Shades of Milk and Honey is in some ways a parallel to Under Heaven, only set in an alternate England instead of an alternate China. I also wish I had not read this immediately following Under Heaven--I should have read\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/shades-of-milk-and-honey.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6207,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6207","url_meta":{"origin":6216,"position":4},"title":"Without a Summer","author":"Michelle","date":"November 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Without a Summer (2013) Mary Robinette Kowal Set in Alternate Regency England in 1816, during the Year without a Summer. The third Glamourist History finds Jane and Vincent back in London, with a new commission and with Melody as a visitor, in the hopes she'll find a husband. 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