Arkady Martine: Rose/House
Each element is pristine and sun-baked here, like the setting: reluctant detective on the murder case, wealthy aesthetic recluse, mundanely dystopian AI. And as spare translucent noir, I enjoyed it.
This is a book I wanted to read immediately when I found out it existed, because I very much liked Arkady Martines two earlier, totally different novels. Then I found the book actually didn't exist, or only kind of. It was printed but is out of print and the e-book is not available either, as the rights according to the publisher now have reverted to the author. There seems to be a new edition coming at the end of the year, but right now the only way to access the book legally seems to be to listen to the audio version through a streaming service which I'm not going to subscribe to, even if I was into audio books, or to learn French, which might prove even more time-consuming than waiting for the new edition. In the end I did find a way to access the book anyway, and I …
This is a book I wanted to read immediately when I found out it existed, because I very much liked Arkady Martines two earlier, totally different novels. Then I found the book actually didn't exist, or only kind of. It was printed but is out of print and the e-book is not available either, as the rights according to the publisher now have reverted to the author. There seems to be a new edition coming at the end of the year, but right now the only way to access the book legally seems to be to listen to the audio version through a streaming service which I'm not going to subscribe to, even if I was into audio books, or to learn French, which might prove even more time-consuming than waiting for the new edition. In the end I did find a way to access the book anyway, and I was not disappointed. The writing is exquisite as is the world building. However, the ending was somewhat unexpected and abrupt, I would have hoped there was more to tell. Who knows, maybe threre will be?
