Have His Carcase stars Edward Petherbridge as Peter Wimsey. The production is notable, for me, for the excellence of the sexual tension portrayed by Petherbridge and Harriet Walter, who plays Harriet Vane. Some of it arises from the book, most importantly their big fight, which can be summed up as "saving a woman from the gallows can put a big damper of your hopes of getting matrimonially laid." That scene in this adaptation is splendidly acted, especially by Petherbridge, who ranges from hurt to rage to a dreadful, sad weariness in less than five minutes. For that scene alone, this DVD is worth it.
There is demonstration of how Peter feels about Harriet which is mostly skimmed over or ignored in the novel; in the television adaptation, you see him touch her, more than once, but always in circumscribed ways. They dance in the novel, but the actors show desperation in the way Harriet pulls away from Peter before the dance is concluded. A lighthearted discussion of marriage proposals becomes less lighthearted, and Peter's joking hand on Harriet's knee attains new significance. In the final scene, Peter takes Harriet's hand and kisses her wrist, between glove and sleeve, a deeply sensual gesture that shows us all we need to know.
I think about how that kind of body language could be applied to prose; do those scenes affect me so deeply because I already had a visceral knowledge of the novels, or would they stand on their own? And would they be so meaningful if they'd been written out? Are there some things that really only work in the visual medium?
There are the usual minor changes to the novel. The only one that really disappointed me was riding the horse down the beach--Bunter replaces Peter, which may have been a matter of the actors' riding ability, or simply that the available stuntman had dark hair. So far as guest casting goes, Jeremy Sinden as Henry Weldon is wonderfully odious!
Book: Have His Carcase
DVD: Have His Carcase
Tomorrow's the launch of The Moonlight Mistress
!
and 
. Phil and Kaja Foglio's 
was full of improbable gadgets. I prefer the tv show, not the later movie...though the movie might have sparked new interest, so who knows?
by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. 
by Tim Powers.
by Michael Swanwick.
by Rudy Rucker. 
by Ginn Hale is a much newer book that has some wonderful imagery and ideas, and includes a delicious male/male romance. I read this book wanting more of it, and still want more of it.
was the most traditional. The heroine's teenage brother, Stephen, has recently learned he's heir to an earldom. He and his sisters must enter aristocratic society, for which they are woefully unprepared. The hero, Elliott, is to be Stephen's guide, and since he needs to marry anyway, decides he will marry Stephen's oldest sister. The oldest sister carries a torch for another man, so the widowed middle sister, Vanessa, proposes that she should be the bride. The two marry fairly promptly and the story goes on from there.
uses avoidance of scandal as the motive for marriage. The youngest sister, Katherine, was attracted to the hero, Jasper, but unbeknownst to her, he had drunkenly wagered that he could seduce her. He almost succeeds, but then his conscience stops him; he takes blame on himself and the matter is hushed up. However, three years later, they meet again, and he is attempting to court her when the scandal is revived and they are forced into marriage. This one features a mixture of plot elements: a burgeoning ambiguous attraction before the marriage combined with revelations of character that happen afterwards.
features the oldest sister, Margaret. In book two, the man with whom she'd been in love married someone else. In this book, he's widowed and back in England. Meanwhile, the scandalous hero, Duncan, has just over two weeks to marry for monetary reasons that also relate to the scandal in which he was involved years before. Again, Balogh combines elements of circumstantial forces (inconvenient lies, need for money, feelings of desperation) with courting; Margaret is attracted to Duncan, and demands to be courted, as both would like a "real" marriage to ensue. I still consider this book to be a Marriage of Convenience, because they are married long before the book is over, and numerous complications arise afterwards. To me, the essence of this plot is making something good out of circumstance, and this book definitely fits into that category. In some ways, it's similar to the second book but taken one step farther.
if you'd like a good overview of the many non-combat roles women played in Europe during World War One. The book focuses on Americans, but I still think it's a good starting point for general research, as it's very readable and has an excellent bibliography.
.
by Connie Willis, and though I don't aspire to anything so complex, I love the way she integrated time travel and scholarly study; Kage Baker's 
has time-traveling agents as well, whose motives are more economic. Regardless of what I choose, time travel and a major event like the Battle of Balaclava would make perfect sense. And those two ideas are already percolating rapidly in my brain.
