Brothers in Arms
Just finished Brothers in Arms and AHHHHHHH IT'S SO GOOD. An incomplete (due to So Many Things) and disordered (due to excited flailing) list of things I love about this book:
-- that LMB is the kind of writer who uses words like wight and swive in a sci-fi novel
-- that Himbo Cousin Ivan is the hostage! Himbo Cousin Ivan makes an excellent damsel tied to the railroad tracks. so good.
-- Duv Galeni coping with grief through nigh-superhuman violence (I wanna see him again asap)
-- the fact that one of Miles' most far-fetched lies yet turns out to be an actual far-fetched plot that is occurring
-- the fact that said far-fetched lie throws otherwise perceptive people off the scent of the actual plot (Miles losing at winning again, womp womp)
-- Miles and Mark reading one another for filth over and over again from grand plans to the minutest gestures and both being salty about it for different reasons
-- the part where Miles manically recites all of Richard III to thwart truth drugs (choice of play is on the nose annnd I love it sooo much... also it's a minor miracle that this is Miles' first go with fast penta)
-- Miles' continued preference for tall stronk women (well done, short king.)
-- Elli Quinn's "Gods, I've fallen in love with a man who thinks he's an onion."
-- Elli Quinn's summary refusal of Miles' proposal of marriage
-- Elli Quinn's enthusiastic consent immediately thereafter to be Miles' Bodyguard with Benefits
-- Elli Quinn's saving evvverybody's asses and possibly averting millions of deaths by being extremely competent at what was supposed to be a mundane task, that Miles forgot he even told her to do
-- Elli Quinn's whole deal tbh
-- the fact that even though Cordelia is physically worlds away she is present in this book in a Deep Spiritual Sense: "My mother's theology actually... persons before principles."
-- "Yeah, invisible, like air. If it disappeared you'd hardly miss it. Till the next time you came to inhale." (!!!!!!!!!)
-- "He yields to logic. My mother is one of the few people I know who has almost completely conquered the will to be stupid."
-- "MILES, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH YOUR BABY BROTHER??" (I neeeeeeed to see Cordelia and Mark meet! aaaaghghgh)
-- the fact that Commodore Tung spends the entire novel in Brazil eating Mu Shu pork, having amorous adventures, and presumably drinking fancy little drinks with umbrellas in them