Book Review: The Tempering of Men

To start off—OMG, thank you, melusinahp, for the adorable little panda! Really made my day, and now my profile is totally cute. <3

And now to the review: I finished The Tempering of Men by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear, the sequel to A Companion to Wolves (which I reviewed here) and the middle book in the trilogy (the third hasn’t been released yet).


I have to express my disappointment because while it was a good book, it wasn’t nearly as fun as the first one. First of all, I don’t think there was nearly as much explicit sex in the novel, maybe just two scenes total—which, considering how much sex there was in the first one, is quite the drop! Since I’m kind of in this series for the desperate bonding-heat sex scenes, not having much onscreen makes me rather sad.

The writers have also suddenly dropped Isolfr’s perspective and taken up three new ones: his two wolfjarls (Skaldwulf and Vethulf) and his friend/protégé, Brokkolfr (who is the brother of a female wolf, like Isolfr). This disappoints me because I adore Isolfr and being inside his head, with all his insecurities and contractions. And while I vaguely know Skaldwulf (who looks like a young Snape in my mind), the other two felt completely new to me.

Worse still, there was hardly any OT3 goodness between Skaldwulf, Vethulf, and Isolfr (and certainly none in the bedroom), largely because they were separated for much of the novel. It’s like the authors have set up this wonderful playground with all these cool elements but then won’t play in it yet. Perhaps they’re just setting up for the third book, but as a reader I found it frustrating.

This is not to say it’s a bad book; I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I did the first. The book serves mostly to answer the question: now that [mild spoiler if you haven’t read the first book:] the trolls are mostly wiped out, is there any point to having the wolfhealls?

In order to answer that question, the authors expand the universe in the form of world-building, and they do that very well: we learn more about the elf-like cave-dwelling svartalfar, as well as new human races in the forms of the Rheans (read: Roman Empire equilavent) and Brythoni (read: Britton equilavent) to counter the Scandinavian-equilavent wolfcarls. And we discover actual libraries! I was wondering how the cultures stored knowledge.

My favorite new character was Fargrimr, who is a “sworn-son,” i.e. a girl raised as a boy because his father had no male heirs; he takes the male pronouns, and it is understood that in everything but biology, he is a male. I was very impressed by the authors’ treatment of this transgender character and found him to be lots of fun with his confidence and wry sense of humor.

Despite my disappointment, though, I’m still desperate for the next installment. I just hope it will have more Isolfr and OT3-ness. :)

Review: Luther

Um, guys—that show the Sherlock writers were joking about, the show called…I guess Gregory? The one where it’s all about the exploits of DI Lestrade instead of Sherlock? That show already exists on the BBC, and it’s called Luther, starring Idris Elba as John Luther (and also featuring Paul McGann, whom I love from Horatio Hornblower—he was also the Eighth Doctor Who).

I mean, the Lestrade = Luther link isn’t perfect—Luther is a DCI (Detective Chief Inspector), so Lestrade would have to be promoted, and also his character would need to be a bit less funny and a bit more brooding and attracted to the dark side, but Luther totally has the on-again-off-again wife problem, the good instincts, and the ability to keep psychopathic murderers entertained (I guess Lestrade does this through Sherlock, but Luther does it on his own!).

Luther, then, functions as kind of a hybrid of the characteristics of Lestrade and Sherlock, and the recurring specter haunting the series is a version of a female Moriarty (the character of Alice Morgan, played by Ruth Wilson).



The show doesn’t completely work for me because, frankly, Luther is not quite as interesting to me as the psychopaths he attracts, whereas Sherlock himself is far more interesting than they are. But Luther is still one cool character, and his shadowy past and penchant for reckless bravery, borderline-torturing suspects, and suicidally putting his life at risk by visiting psychopaths in their homes to taunt them and gloat is very Sherlockian of him. Luther’s scenes where he visits serial killers and, for lack of a better word, flirts with them are the best part of the show. It’s easy to see why psychopaths like him: his quiet, world-weary confidence coupled with his brooding physical presence is so attractive. Oh, haha, and let’s not forget how Sherlockian Luther is while standing on the edge of rooftops talking about working for the devil! Or, for that matter, when investigating a taxi-driver-serial-killer plotline, book ciphers, and a version of the pill dilemma (except this time it’s dice).

But honestly, foundation of the series doesn’t really make sense because Luther should have been fired long ago, and it seems like everyone working with him knows it. No matter how brilliant he is, his conduct is very often dangerous and even criminal, particularly when he partially loses control of his emotions and violently lashes out. Sherlock gets away with this because he invented his own position in order to avoid working for the Yard; Luther, however, manages to stay on the force despite a growing list of very suspicious incidents that uncomfortably remind me of Dexter. And sure, a large part of the plot consists of his superiors angsting over this fact, but to me it seems pretty cut and dry. However, since this same argument can be made for House, M.D., I quickly got over my scruples on this point.

To continue the Sherlock comparisons (which I know is probably unfair, but I can’t help it with super-intelligent crime-solvers), unfortunately the writing here is not nearly as strong and the pace is rather slower. It seems like the camera crew didn’t get that memo, though, and scenes are often shot at snappy pace that sometimes doesn’t seem to match the dark mood. It’s also more intense than Sherlock in that we get more detail than I’d usually like about what, exactly, the serial killers are doing to their victims. And this world is a grim, humorless one without joy or hope. There are no “lighter” moments; I don’t think anybody in the entire series ever cracks a joke or even a genuine smile. Luther says there is love in the world, but if there is, it’s not on display here.

Where this series excels, though, is with the music (the song choices fit each scene perfectly) and especially characterization. It helps that the acting is superb, especially with Idris Elba and Ruth Wilson. Wilson would make a fantastic female Moriarty, if anybody is looking for casting ideas. I’d love to see her in a battle of wits against Rebecca Hall as a female Sherlock.

The character of the serial killer Alice Morgan is brilliant because she proves Sherlock’s requirement for all serial killers, that they want attention and glory, but at the same time she is more complicated than she first appears. She is aware that in order to be a successful killer (to never be caught), one has to do without that glory.

At first it seems that she’s a psychopath, as shown in a wonderful scene in which she says quite convincingly, “I’m sorry,” and then when it’s pointed out to her that she’s not really sorry, she immediately drops the act in a face-fall that is very like Sherlock or Moriarty. But throughout the series, she and Luther play a (great?) game where she helps him catch other serial killers while at the same time messing with his personal life. And in return he gives her the attention she craves but can’t get because she’d go to prison. And she eventually comes to realize, as Sherlock does, that she may actually harbor genuine feelings within herself.

I suppose Alice Morgan, then, is a mixture between Moriarty and Sherlock without Sherlock’s hyperactive energy: she’s maybe what Sherlock could have been under grimmer circumstances, or what Moriarty could have been if he were a woman and if Sherlock and Lestrade were fused into one person in the form of Luther.

In short: well worth following for the great acting, but it’s rather grim and not very much fun unless Luther and Alice are onscreen together.

Back to my Sherlock Holmes Adaptations Masterlist: (Taxi!)