What Are You Reading 4

[RathDarkblade]

Almost halfway through Shinbone Shadowhunter, its Ok but no comparison to Terry's stories.

So not "the natural heir" after all, eh?

Then again, looking at the genre: of course not. It's a "medieval cosy mystery with comic fantasy humour" (Amazon). Whoever wrote that sounds like he didn't know which genre this book is supposed to be.

Whoever compared that to Terry in the SFRevu is barmy. Apples and oranges, mate.

It's also worth noting that this is a novella, so it would be slimmer by necessity. A comparison to "Eric" might be appropriate.

 

[Tonyblack]

Wait, what?

The crossing (IIRC) was supposed to take 10-12 days. And the coal bunker was on fire the whole time?

How did it not explode? How did nobody notice? Why did nobody put the fire out? Major health-and-safety SNAFU.

And I thought the other stuff (lack of boats, locked gates between decks, no-one on watch etc.) was bad.

Mind you, the other stuff was bad enough. "Captain's gone to bed, lads. We're all going to bed. No need to keep watch. Ahhh, it'll be fine. 'Night...!"

Meanwhile, a military-looking gentleman comes on board. "Stand back! It's Major L. Fenn Saftee to the rescue!"

It has been known that a coal bunker was on fire even before she set sail. The plan was to use that coal first to power the boilers. Recent theories have suggested that the fire may have weakened the hull, helping in the sinking. But this is, apparently controversial and there are articles that go some way to debunk it - however, there really was a coal fire in one of the bunkers.

 

[RathDarkblade]

It has been known that a coal bunker was on fire even before she set sail. The plan was to use that coal first to power the boilers.

Um, this raises even more questions. Does anyone know how long that bunker had been on fire? Or what caused the fire in the first place? (I think we can rule out spontaneous combustion). Maybe there was a saboteur on board, though that sounds fanciful.

Also, if the bunker was on fire, wouldn't some of the coal have been burned away? Why didn't they put the fire out to start with, and then bought more coal? That'd be the sensible thing, I'd have thought. But don't mind me; it's just my opinion, for what it's worth.

 

[Tonyblack]

That I don't know.

 

[RathDarkblade]

No worries. I was only thinking (yes, a dangerous thing to do).

It could be a possible set-up for historical fiction (obviously based on researched fact). *thinks* Maybe the setting could be the aftermath to the Titanic disaster, and the main character could be one of the insurance assessors. He would be digging into this, and get frustrated by the White Star Line (owned by J. P. Morgan) who refuse to give him all the facts. He'd start asking questions like the above, things would get dangerous for him, etc.

I'd pay to read that. Who said heroes have to be sword-swingers or spell-mumblers?