Caturday

Book review: The Janus Affair

The Janus Affair by Philippa Ballantine and Tee Morris


My rating: 5 of 5 stars




I have quickly become a huge fan of The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris. I first heard about the series through SpecFicNZ.org – I followed a link to the first story in the Tales from the Archives podcast series that supplements the books, loved it, and pre-ordered book 1, Phoenix Rising.

Oh, how I enjoyed Phoenix Rising. The LOLing, and the squeeing, and the re-reading of favourite scenes. I’ve spent the last year dying to get my hands on book 2, The Janus Affair. When I finally had a chance to read it the other day, I read it all in one gulp, staying up until 3.30am on a work night to finish it – 3.30!

The Janus Affair is somewhat different in tone from Phoenix Rising – now that we are familiar with the world, the scope opens out and more characters are drawn in. We get a better sense of the day-to-day life at the Ministry, and for agents Books and Braun. Stakes are raised, secrets are revealed faster than I was expecting, and Ballantine and Morris demonstrate that they are brave enough to put their characters through the metaphorical meat grinder.

There are a few little plot niggles that caught my attention – dropped plot threads (the children!), improbable leaps of logic, and mis-matches between spoken words and thoughts (unless certain characters were lying about certain things). But these problems did not hinder my enjoyment of the book. It is so much fun to read, I was able (despite being a pedant) to overlook those problems for the sake of the story.

What I most enjoyed about the book is that the authors have proven that they are not going to make the same mistake that TV police procedural writers often do – you know, that mistake where they seem to think that the “will they, won’t they?” question is the only possible tension that could be added to a budding romance storyline. Instead, Ballantine and Morris have gathered a whole collection of other tensions not directly related to that question and thrown them into the mix. I can see the complexity these myriad tensions create paying off well in the long run, and coming together to form a most satisfying and iconic relationship arc.

If you are a fan of steampunk, historical fiction, X-Files, spy stories, romance, explosions or, most particularly, all of the above, then I’ll wager that you will love this series as much as I do.


View all my reviews

Random photo: Tekapo and alps

Lake Tekapo and the Southern Alps – October 2011

Christchurch City Centre

I went in to the Christchurch CBD today to run an errand. I bussed into the temporary bus terminal, and then walked a few blocks.

It was . . . weird.

When I first got there I thought 'Damn! I should have brought my camera!' But as I walked, I realised that I didn't need it after all. There's not much point in taking pictures of empty lots.

The part of town that you can walk through is the part of town that, apart from insurance issues, has been cleared already. On one block along Colombo Street there is nothing at all standing on one side of the road. I couldn't remember what used to be there. On the other side of the road, two buildings of about twelve are left.

To the north of where I was is the extant Red Zone. Partially deconstructed high-rises are draped in shielding cloth, keeping debris from falling too far from the buildings. Cranes rear into the air, like witches fingers or the legs of dead insects. You can hear the deconstruction – booms, and bangs, and things falling. The noises echo through the crumbling canyons of the city.

And then you walk into a shop, and inside everything is as it was, and you forget for a few minutes about the graveyard around you.

Florence has a TARDIS, and has read my book already

I haven't been keeping up with modern popular music. I tend to listen either to old classics (I've been listening to a lot of Link Wray recently), or I listen to current indie music (Amanda Palmer, Tom Dickins, Zoe Keating, SJ Tucker, etc.). So I hope you'll forgive me for only just discovering Florence + the Machine. Well, actually, I remember coming across their song 'Dog Days Are Over' the other year, but I wasn't all that fond of it, and I didn't look up any of their other music. Well, it seems that I like everything else they've done, so foolish me.

Today I found this:



You know how sometimes you find a song, or a book, or a painting, and it speaks directly to something that is in your own mind? If you are a creative person, you may have even experienced finding someone else's creation speaking to one of your own. That's my experience of this song. It reminds me of my own WIP, Symmetry Breaking. I don't know what Florence Welch was thinking of when she wrote it, but in the lyrics I hear echoes of my own story. Goodness, Florence Welch even looks like my protagonist.

That's one of the things I love most about art: that each person who comes across a piece of art experiences it in their own way, and finds their own meaning. It's the closest thing we have to telepathy.

Random photo: Brisbane by night

Brisbane by night – March 2011

Why am I posting photos not words? Because I am sick. Why I am sick? Because I'm on holiday. It happens every time.

Random photo: Rarotonga sunset

Sunset in Rarotonga – August 2011