I agree that I was very surprised about Mir Aziz. I had envisioned him helping Avery and Blake in the next books! I thought the book was slow until about chapter 10. It was good, but it wasn’t a book that I felt I wanted to stay up to read just one more chapter.
@VeryHappy, I found the actual, physical twists and turns to be a stumbling block. That is, more than once, I had to ask myself, “Wait, where are they now?” I knew I really needed to get out a map and start tracking their journey, but I never quite got up the energy to do that.
I did like the “journey” structure; it’s a classic bildungsroman in that respect:
^ I think that’s what M.J. Carter was going for, but I’m not convinced that Avery matured all that much. At any rate, he didn’t show much depth in his choice of a wife, but maybe that was the fault of the writer (in creating such a thinly-drawn character in Helen) rather than the fault of Avery.
Re Mir Aziz, I never guessed he was the bad guy either. But once it was revealed, I was like “Duh!” (hits forehead). Of course, it’s the person you least expect. Classic.
@Mary13: In my library hard copy, there was a map on the endpaper that I found very helpful. If you listened to it rather than read it, I can see how that would have been a problem.
Very good point about the bildungsroman.
I thought his finally “getting the girl” was just a neat and tidy wrap up, to make everything for Avery work out well at the end.
^^^ Although Blake, with his reservations, makes you think twice about whether “getting the girl” will work out for Avery in the end. I tend to agree with Blake re more time, don’t rush.
Ditto @VeryHappy re the library hard copy with map on the endpapers.
I really liked Blake and Avery together, the contrasting personalities and the development of their relationship. I guess I will follow them to England (unless mathmom really says not to bother)!
^^^ Yeah, I requested the second book from the library today.
Spoiler alert!
That marriage does not turn out so well - as Blake predicts…
Alas, no map on the kindle version either. I may have to make a trip to the library tomorrow for…what’s that thing called?..Oh yeah, a book.
For what it’s worth: I feel Helen’s desire for Avery stems from his Man-of-the-Moment status. Had Avery returned without the acclaim, Helen would not have broken off her engagement. Helen operates on a “let the better man win” method of choosing a spouse. Blake understands this while Avery is too besotted to see it.
^ I agree. Hogwood tells Avery, “You are quite the hero!” – with “everyone from Poona to Benares” talking about his exploits. Helen marries him as a boost to her social status. I didn’t have a sense in either of her appearances in the novel that she had any real feeling for him.
She wasn’t fleshed out at all; she was just a prize.
IRCC (too lazy to go upstairs to find the book) she says some pretty racist things at the party. I was really disappointed that Avery married her. If it’s a Bildingsroman - he sure didn’t learn much on his journey!
I agree about Helen. I never thought she had real feelings for Avery. She just like that he was a hero.
Overall, I liked the book. I like historical fiction, so there was plenty to hold my interest. Parallels to present day (#10), It seems humans still have difficulty accepting cultures that are different from their own.
I just noticed I renamed Hogwood in an earlier post, calling him Holcombe. Hopefully you guys knew who I meant when I said I suspected him but not Mir Aziz.
*Makes me miss NJTM. She would have caught my error and called it to my attention within a post or two.
@ignatius I mistyped Black for Blake in a post on page one - with nary a peep. But I think it’s more a symptom of the book, the characters just aren’t that memorable.
I knew who you both were referring to, but I do agree that all those British blokes tended to blend together. I’m not talking about Blake and Avery–they were quite memorable–but about the supporting cast of stiff upper lip types from the British East India Company.
Quite a few were actual people --some more interesting historically than they came across in the book. For example:
and
Not to get too off-topic, but I thought that a good number of those “raised by wolves” stories were apocryphal. Since Sleeman was known to have added some creative embellishments to the Thuggee stories, I wonder if his imagination was also working overtime with the wolf children.
@mathmom, I’m laughing here because I don’t know what your acronym IRCC stands for and I tried looking it up, but only got International Record Collectors Club and Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
I found the passage you referred to and you’re right, Helen’s a piece of work:
As a sidenote – I like quilts very much. In NYC, there is a museum called the American Folk Art Museum, and it’s having an exhibit, called “War and Pieced,” of what they refer to as “soldiers’ quilts” – made by [mostly] British soldiers who served in India, starting in around 1840. I went to the exhibit about two weeks ago and walked around, thinking as I did that the quilts might have been made by Blake (not likely) or Avery or Frank.
IIRC = If I Remember Correctly
which is what I think @mathmom meant
@VeryHappy - Love the quilt exhibit link!
^ Lol, thanks. Acronyms are not my strong suit. I’ve had some hilariously confusing text exchanges with my shorthand-inclined children. 