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eyreguide's review against another edition
4.0
I'm a big fan of Mark Gatiss from his work for Doctor Who and Sherlock. I love his style and that indefinable something about his personality. He's just so adorable. So delving into this audiobook, read by the author, was inevitable. And this book delivers in everything I was expecting from a novel by Mr. Gatiss. It's sharply witty, a touch macabre and grotesque, and a thorough romp. The absurd names he gives his characters is already a hint that this story is just a fun ride that should not be taken too seriously. It starts off a little rambly, as the reader gets to experience a few days in the life of Lucifer Box as he does a little research into his assignment and has to deal with the consequences of his very active social life. But when circumstances snowball and the need to solve the mystery of the missing agent becomes urgent, the story picks up it's pace.
With the twists and turns of the plot, the story also becomes more bizarre and less believable. Lucifer gets into some ridiculous scrapes, and the eventual resolution plays on all the tropes of the maniacal uber-villain. The resolution does come at you fast, with about a dozen things happening at once which made for a very compelling listen. It's a light and fun story with broad, comical characterizations, a charmingly egotistical dandy as narrator and multiple plot threads that are resolved neatly in the end.
With the twists and turns of the plot, the story also becomes more bizarre and less believable. Lucifer gets into some ridiculous scrapes, and the eventual resolution plays on all the tropes of the maniacal uber-villain. The resolution does come at you fast, with about a dozen things happening at once which made for a very compelling listen. It's a light and fun story with broad, comical characterizations, a charmingly egotistical dandy as narrator and multiple plot threads that are resolved neatly in the end.
rita_reads_cda's review against another edition
Though I’m a big fan of his writing for television programs, this book is just not very good. My mind wandered too much while reading. Moving on
michidoc's review against another edition
4.0
Good, funny but very intricate story. Mark is always a genius, and Lucifer... you cannot love and hate him at the same time! But I think I expected more, or better: I expected something else!
sil_the_lobster's review against another edition
4.0
This was wicked fun to read. It’s actually utterly silly and the story is ridiculous in so many ways, and yet I couldn’t put it down. Why? Because Mark Gatiss is a storyteller extraordinaire. I reveled in his beautifully carved, nay, woven sentences. His descriptions. His language. The twinkle in his eyes as he unfolds the amazing adventures of Lucifer Box, resident of 9 Downing Street, spy, appreciating both the male and the female sex.
'Well, what was I to do? For the well-bred gentleman there was surely only one recourse. I fucked him.'
Highly recommended if you love beautiful language. Must be willing to embrace the ridiculous, too.
I will re-read this one and believe me, I'm going to mark my favourite lines because there are loads and loads to love and to cherish. For now, the next installment, “The Devil in Amber”, sitting right next to me, waiting to be read.
'Well, what was I to do? For the well-bred gentleman there was surely only one recourse. I fucked him.'
Highly recommended if you love beautiful language. Must be willing to embrace the ridiculous, too.
I will re-read this one and believe me, I'm going to mark my favourite lines because there are loads and loads to love and to cherish. For now, the next installment, “The Devil in Amber”, sitting right next to me, waiting to be read.
kerry2046's review against another edition
4.75
Funny, intelligent, classy!!! Gatiss made Lucifer one of my favourite book characters in 21st century literature
saroz162's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted to like this book. I like many of the things Mark Gatiss likes: classic Doctor Who, '60s spy series, James Bond movies, P.G. Wodehouse, and most important to this review, British pulp fiction from ten years on either side of 1900. All of those influences are evident here - so evident, in fact, that I think it's fair to say Gatiss has written a pastiche. Whether it's a successful pastiche depends a lot on what you want from one. At this point in my life, however, if I want nostalgia, I don't really go looking for a pastiche; I just go back and read the original.
Unfortunately, that's most of what Gatiss has to offer. The best works to trigger that kind of pulp nostalgia have an extra layer of meaning, as in Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, which I think is yet another of Gatiss' inspirations. (In fairness, there was a lot of work inspired by the success of LoEG coming out in the early 2000s, when The Vesuvius Club was originally published.) Moore's work is imperfect and occasionally frustrating, but it's frustrating in a way that indicates literacy on the part of both author and audience: it not only acknowledges and celebrates the positive parts of earlier media, it comments on, criticizes, and satirizes the negative aspects. LoEG requires some active grappling, and it's likely to stick with you whether you enjoy it or not, because Moore is trying to say something about colonialist heroism, British national identity, literal versus figurative monstrosity, and so on. Gatiss' driving question appears to be, "What if I set an Avengers episode in 1910 - and what if it starred Oscar Wilde?"
It doesn't help that the Wildean protagonist, Lucifer Box, is a thoroughly smug, self-adoring libertine disdainful of anything below his level of perfection - and he's narrating the story, no less. His personality is so grating I found it nearly impossible to care about him, let alone want to keep reading. He's casually cruel to his servants and openly manipulates his lovers. I'm sure this is meant to be funny, but that almost makes it all worse.
Finally, it's hard to get over some of the tropes Gatiss allows himself to revel in about people who are different. While they would have been present in any genuine 1910 adventure, it feels bizarre to encounter these in a 2005 novel, especially one with a bisexual male protagonist written by an openly gay man. The secretly scheming Chinese opium seller? Check. The disabled person who sacrifices themselves so as not to slow the others down? Check. There's a revelation about one character's villainy toward the end of the book that I'm not sure would be publishable today - and if it was, Gatiss would be roundly pilloried by many of his fans. None of these tropes are commented on, scrutinized, or satirized in any way; they're just fodder for the pastiche (usually literally, as the characters Box isn't interested in going to bed with invariably end up dead).
I'm sorry to meet the book's disdain with my own. There are, in fairness, large chunks of the novel that are very readable, especially in the action-filled middle when Box has less time to sit around and make comments through his nose about everyone else. If I want most of the pleasures I could get from this book, though, I'll just put on some '60s television: The Wild Wild West, perhaps, or Emma Peel-era Avengers. "A Touch of Brimstone," anyone?
Unfortunately, that's most of what Gatiss has to offer. The best works to trigger that kind of pulp nostalgia have an extra layer of meaning, as in Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, which I think is yet another of Gatiss' inspirations. (In fairness, there was a lot of work inspired by the success of LoEG coming out in the early 2000s, when The Vesuvius Club was originally published.) Moore's work is imperfect and occasionally frustrating, but it's frustrating in a way that indicates literacy on the part of both author and audience: it not only acknowledges and celebrates the positive parts of earlier media, it comments on, criticizes, and satirizes the negative aspects. LoEG requires some active grappling, and it's likely to stick with you whether you enjoy it or not, because Moore is trying to say something about colonialist heroism, British national identity, literal versus figurative monstrosity, and so on. Gatiss' driving question appears to be, "What if I set an Avengers episode in 1910 - and what if it starred Oscar Wilde?"
It doesn't help that the Wildean protagonist, Lucifer Box, is a thoroughly smug, self-adoring libertine disdainful of anything below his level of perfection - and he's narrating the story, no less. His personality is so grating I found it nearly impossible to care about him, let alone want to keep reading. He's casually cruel to his servants and openly manipulates his lovers. I'm sure this is meant to be funny, but that almost makes it all worse.
Finally, it's hard to get over some of the tropes Gatiss allows himself to revel in about people who are different. While they would have been present in any genuine 1910 adventure, it feels bizarre to encounter these in a 2005 novel, especially one with a bisexual male protagonist written by an openly gay man. The secretly scheming Chinese opium seller? Check. The disabled person who sacrifices themselves so as not to slow the others down? Check. There's a revelation about one character's villainy toward the end of the book that I'm not sure would be publishable today - and if it was, Gatiss would be roundly pilloried by many of his fans. None of these tropes are commented on, scrutinized, or satirized in any way; they're just fodder for the pastiche (usually literally, as the characters Box isn't interested in going to bed with invariably end up dead).
I'm sorry to meet the book's disdain with my own. There are, in fairness, large chunks of the novel that are very readable, especially in the action-filled middle when Box has less time to sit around and make comments through his nose about everyone else. If I want most of the pleasures I could get from this book, though, I'll just put on some '60s television: The Wild Wild West, perhaps, or Emma Peel-era Avengers. "A Touch of Brimstone," anyone?
a_morsereads's review against another edition
3.0
Quick, fluffy and cartoonish read. It's fun and light, the main character's voice is heavily turn-of-the-century which makes it a unique read from other novels out there. It's a high flying "caper."
lesbrary's review against another edition
2.0
Although I liked the Wildean main character and style, the racism and transmisogyny soured it.