Blind_Mapmaker reviewed The house of Daniel by Harry Turtledove
Review of 'The house of Daniel' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
3.75 If you read Turtledove you probably think you're used to slow books. Think again! There's slow and there's The House of Daniel. If you're interested in reading this, think of it as a travellogue in the Depression-Era (slightly) magic-using western US. Some spoilers follow:
The magic is interesting and low-fantasy, but it is way back in the background. The creatures all fit in sensibly, but only one main character has a tiny bit of defensive Bible-based magic. Everything else just goes on quite a bit removed from the PoV character - unless you count the relatively tame creature attacks.
What's a bit more of a problem is that basically all the action happens in the first twenty-five pages of the book. The one twist is utterly, utterly predictable and the even the promised big events take up maybe ten pages in the middle if you're feeling generous. The rest …
3.75 If you read Turtledove you probably think you're used to slow books. Think again! There's slow and there's The House of Daniel. If you're interested in reading this, think of it as a travellogue in the Depression-Era (slightly) magic-using western US. Some spoilers follow:
The magic is interesting and low-fantasy, but it is way back in the background. The creatures all fit in sensibly, but only one main character has a tiny bit of defensive Bible-based magic. Everything else just goes on quite a bit removed from the PoV character - unless you count the relatively tame creature attacks.
What's a bit more of a problem is that basically all the action happens in the first twenty-five pages of the book. The one twist is utterly, utterly predictable and the even the promised big events take up maybe ten pages in the middle if you're feeling generous. The rest are descriptions of places, ordinary conversations and a whole lot of baseball.
As a European I'm still kind of hazy of the rules of baseball, even after reading this, though I haqve to say I learned a lot from Turtledove here. It sounds relatively interesting for a sportsball thing, but reading about it was not the most interesting thing ever. I liked the countryside descriptions better than the hundred or so ballpark descriptions.
Having said that, I enjoyed the book, because it accurately captures the feeling of life during Depression - even if it's set in an alternate universe and the main character is not at all typical - him being a travelling "baseball bum" by his own admission. It might just be because I have enough excitement during the Pandemic, but I really liked the fact that mostly nothing much happened.
Be advised not to read this with the expectation that the other shoe is going to drop very soon. It won't. And it probably helps a lot if you really like semi-pro baseball. Also this is the first Turtledove I read with only a single PoV character. That was a novelty right there. Oh, and this is what results when Peter S. Beagle and Harry Turtledove get together for dinner and talk about sports, which is also cute.