Wild Rover No More
Dec. 31st, 2014 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amelia_petkovaOKAY, LET'S DO THIS. I finished reading Wild Rover No More and I have definite Thoughts.
The first thing I want to say is, THANK YOU L.A. MEYER FOR ENDING THIS ON A GOOD NOTE. I was massively disappointed by Boston Jacky, and so I intentionally borrowed this book from the library first instead of buying it because I was dreading how it would go. Thankfully, this one is much better than Boston Jacky (drugged courtroom hijinks in that book aside).
The only thing I didn't like: Jacky's phonetically-written, intentionally bad Russian accent was a slog to read but fortunately it didn't go on for too long. Was her "Russian" name a reference to Marvel and The Avengers? God, I hope not but I feel like it probably was. I like that Meyer has references to other people, events, and literary works scattered throughout the books, but those work best when they're period-relevant. In principal I think it's great that comics fandom has become more widespread and popular in movies and TV, but it's not my thing. I can't begin to tell you how much I DO NOT CARE about Marvel, DC, and superheroes in general.
I enjoyed the portion of the story with young Edgar Allan Poe, though when I looked up his real history I was a bit puzzled: his name in the story is Edgar Allan Polk, but in real life he was the son of actors Elizabeth Arnold Poe and David Poe Jr. After his mother died, he was taken in by John Allan. I did a quick read in the online Encyclopedia Britannica, and can't find any mention of anybody with the last name of Polk or a younger sister named Clementine. I understand that Meyer made it up but since most of the other historical figures who appear are in their real settings or have their real backgrounds, this one seemed kind of odd.
One of the best paragraphs in the novel: I am at the top of the back stairs when I hear her small voice saying, "You can't go up there now. Governess is shooting."
Jacky and Jaimy are reconciled, thank fuck, and Jacky justifiably gives him a hard time about the Hunchback nonsense in the last book. I did laugh when they were arguing by throwing the names of the other's romantic flings in each other's faces and Jaimy has at least twice as many as Jaimy. That's totally going to happen again in their future fights, even after they're married and have children.
MISTRESS PIMM HAS AN UNDERGROUND NETWORK OF HER FORMER STUDENTS! I LOVE YOU, MISTRESS PIMM! It's awesome on its own but is even better when you realize that it confirms her background of being a "fiery patriot" back in the day. I really want fic about young Miranda Pimm during the Revolutionary War era.
Other great things related to Mistress Pimm: I don't think the canon ever states when the Lawson Peabody opened, but it's clearly been in operation for a number of years by the time Jacky is enrolled in 1803. Almost all of Mistress Pimm's students come from prominent families and make prominent marriages after graduation. Wild Rover No More ends in late 1809. Can you imagine how extensive a network she must have by that point? She could probably rule the country if she wanted!
Related to that, Jacky mentions that the older woman from the Ladies Aid Society (not a Pimm's girl) is senile and thinks that Jacky is going to be married instead of being hanged, and is giving Jacky all sorts of outrageous advice for bedroom behavior. Inquiring minds want to know, just what did she say?
I love that the note at the end of Amy's journal fits into that fic I wrote last year about Amy's fan mail.
HARRY FLASHBY IS FINALLY DEAD AND GOOD FUCKING RIDDANCE!!!
Clarissa married Richard Allen. BRB, laughing forever. She'll probably ask Jacky to be godmother to one of her children, just to piss Jacky off.
I adore Amy's wedding plans at the end of the book, from her practicality of making sure that the barn is adequately supplied for Jacky and Jaimy's reunion, to planning the wedding dress because there's no way in hell Jacky's getting married in that Kingston dress in Amy's house. I do have to wonder if her plans to invite everyone they know to the wedding are wise, since Jacky needs to play dead long enough to escape from the reach of the U.S. government.
That leads me to my next observation: Where the hell are Mr. and Mrs. Trevelyne during all this? If I remember correctly, they drop out of sight after a brief mention in Rapture of the Deep (I think), when Jacky tells them that Randall plans on returning home from fighting in Germany. Their daughter is a world-famous and (potentially) notorious authoress, their son has joined the Marines but is shacked up at Dovecote with his long-term actress mistress, who he plans on marrying, and the parents are nowhere to be found. We never even learn of their reaction to Amy's literary career, and her novels are being published by the time Under the Jolly Roger opens! Have they just given up at this point? Do they live permanently in NYC because they simply can't stand the Boston/Dovecote hijinks anymore? Inquiring minds want to know!
I'm glad that this book was a good one, since L.A. Meyer has died and it's probably the last we'll see of Jacky unless his wife or whoever his literary executor is has more material that ends up published in the future. (Earlier this year Meyer commented on one of the threads on the Bloody Jack message boards--I can't remember which one it was right now--talking about a novel he'd written in the BJ universe that features Jacky traveling in time to California[?] during the Summer of Love. I still can't decide if he was trolling or not.)
The first thing I want to say is, THANK YOU L.A. MEYER FOR ENDING THIS ON A GOOD NOTE. I was massively disappointed by Boston Jacky, and so I intentionally borrowed this book from the library first instead of buying it because I was dreading how it would go. Thankfully, this one is much better than Boston Jacky (drugged courtroom hijinks in that book aside).
The only thing I didn't like: Jacky's phonetically-written, intentionally bad Russian accent was a slog to read but fortunately it didn't go on for too long. Was her "Russian" name a reference to Marvel and The Avengers? God, I hope not but I feel like it probably was. I like that Meyer has references to other people, events, and literary works scattered throughout the books, but those work best when they're period-relevant. In principal I think it's great that comics fandom has become more widespread and popular in movies and TV, but it's not my thing. I can't begin to tell you how much I DO NOT CARE about Marvel, DC, and superheroes in general.
I enjoyed the portion of the story with young Edgar Allan Poe, though when I looked up his real history I was a bit puzzled: his name in the story is Edgar Allan Polk, but in real life he was the son of actors Elizabeth Arnold Poe and David Poe Jr. After his mother died, he was taken in by John Allan. I did a quick read in the online Encyclopedia Britannica, and can't find any mention of anybody with the last name of Polk or a younger sister named Clementine. I understand that Meyer made it up but since most of the other historical figures who appear are in their real settings or have their real backgrounds, this one seemed kind of odd.
One of the best paragraphs in the novel: I am at the top of the back stairs when I hear her small voice saying, "You can't go up there now. Governess is shooting."
Jacky and Jaimy are reconciled, thank fuck, and Jacky justifiably gives him a hard time about the Hunchback nonsense in the last book. I did laugh when they were arguing by throwing the names of the other's romantic flings in each other's faces and Jaimy has at least twice as many as Jaimy. That's totally going to happen again in their future fights, even after they're married and have children.
MISTRESS PIMM HAS AN UNDERGROUND NETWORK OF HER FORMER STUDENTS! I LOVE YOU, MISTRESS PIMM! It's awesome on its own but is even better when you realize that it confirms her background of being a "fiery patriot" back in the day. I really want fic about young Miranda Pimm during the Revolutionary War era.
Other great things related to Mistress Pimm: I don't think the canon ever states when the Lawson Peabody opened, but it's clearly been in operation for a number of years by the time Jacky is enrolled in 1803. Almost all of Mistress Pimm's students come from prominent families and make prominent marriages after graduation. Wild Rover No More ends in late 1809. Can you imagine how extensive a network she must have by that point? She could probably rule the country if she wanted!
Related to that, Jacky mentions that the older woman from the Ladies Aid Society (not a Pimm's girl) is senile and thinks that Jacky is going to be married instead of being hanged, and is giving Jacky all sorts of outrageous advice for bedroom behavior. Inquiring minds want to know, just what did she say?
I love that the note at the end of Amy's journal fits into that fic I wrote last year about Amy's fan mail.
HARRY FLASHBY IS FINALLY DEAD AND GOOD FUCKING RIDDANCE!!!
Clarissa married Richard Allen. BRB, laughing forever. She'll probably ask Jacky to be godmother to one of her children, just to piss Jacky off.
I adore Amy's wedding plans at the end of the book, from her practicality of making sure that the barn is adequately supplied for Jacky and Jaimy's reunion, to planning the wedding dress because there's no way in hell Jacky's getting married in that Kingston dress in Amy's house. I do have to wonder if her plans to invite everyone they know to the wedding are wise, since Jacky needs to play dead long enough to escape from the reach of the U.S. government.
That leads me to my next observation: Where the hell are Mr. and Mrs. Trevelyne during all this? If I remember correctly, they drop out of sight after a brief mention in Rapture of the Deep (I think), when Jacky tells them that Randall plans on returning home from fighting in Germany. Their daughter is a world-famous and (potentially) notorious authoress, their son has joined the Marines but is shacked up at Dovecote with his long-term actress mistress, who he plans on marrying, and the parents are nowhere to be found. We never even learn of their reaction to Amy's literary career, and her novels are being published by the time Under the Jolly Roger opens! Have they just given up at this point? Do they live permanently in NYC because they simply can't stand the Boston/Dovecote hijinks anymore? Inquiring minds want to know!
I'm glad that this book was a good one, since L.A. Meyer has died and it's probably the last we'll see of Jacky unless his wife or whoever his literary executor is has more material that ends up published in the future. (Earlier this year Meyer commented on one of the threads on the Bloody Jack message boards--I can't remember which one it was right now--talking about a novel he'd written in the BJ universe that features Jacky traveling in time to California[?] during the Summer of Love. I still can't decide if he was trolling or not.)
