Sat, Feb 23, 2008
Bone Key
Posted to Media category
originally poseted Feb 19, 2008
Last week when I was running errands, I stopped at Border's and picked up a bunch of books by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear. I have only read one of the books so far because I have been spending most of my spare time in Elizabeth Bear's extensive livejournal archives, and in the Shadow Unit LiveJournals and forums.
The first Shadow Unit novella, "Breathe" by Emma Bull, is now available on their website. It's excellent.
The book, The Bone Key, by Sarah Monette, is also excellent. It is a collection of connected short stories somewhat in the mode of Lovecraft. The viewpoint character is a museum curator in the early 20th century, and Ms. Monette does an excellent job of getting inside the head of a New England geek. (I have a lot of experience being inside the head of a New England geek.)
The various supernatural hazards Booth encounters are subtly interconnected and nicely original, and the museum makes a wonderful setting for several of the adventures. As a former librarian, the description of spooky, dangerous library stacks where there are strange noises after dark and the lights are unreliable pushed a lot of my buttons.