Review: Mrs. Darcy versus the Aliens

A while ago (too long ago, in fact), I received a review copy of Mrs. Darcy versus the Aliens, Jonathan Pinnock's alien homage to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

Reader, I read it, and loved it.

I confess I have never been on the classic-novels-morphing-into-contemporary-schtick literary bandwagon. Such romps are not generally to my taste. But if they all demonstrate the wit and good humor of this sweet little novel, I'm surely missing something.

Jane Austen's Regency England is plagued by mysterious deaths and disappearances. Nasty, tentacled creatures emerge from dark places and people are routinely probed by (ew!) and implanted with the creatures. The occurrences aren't yet common--only a select few like the ostensibly wicked Mr. Wickham  know that aliens are bent on taking over the planet. Mrs. Darcy (formerly Elizabeth Bennet) has been married to her beloved Fitzwilliam Darcy for a year, but has yet to produce an heir for him. Darcy is his priggish self, and Mrs. Darcy likes to have sex with him when his shirt is soaking wet. (A delicious nod to Colin Firth's sexy, sodden, star turn in the 1995 miniseries version of the story.) But Mr. Wickham and his fellow warriors are convinced that Mrs. Darcy's involvement is crucial to the defeat of the aliens.

I would go on, but the plot is beside the point.

One of the true pleasures of the book is the fascinating way author Jonathan Pinnock weaves references to Austen's work together with nods to popular culture. It's obvious that he knows her work very well (or at least well enough to successfully riff on it), and has affection for his characters.

Jane Austen herself makes a brief appearance as a writer of bestselling zombie fiction. There are boots in the novel called Bonham-Carters. Elizabeth's clueless sister, Jane, and Jane's husband, Bingley, who are charmingly dim in Pride and Prejudice, are just too plain stupid to live. Best of all, the characters you really love to hate in Austen's novel, are the most loathsome characters in Pinnock's novel. (Yes, Mr. Collins is ever a toad.) I would love to go on and clue you in further to Pinnock's various alternate histories and random, diverting silliness, but you really should get your own copy. Honestly, I was left still laughing when I finished this novel, and I don't have one grumpy thing to say about it.

We all need something light and slimy from time to time. How refreshing!



**You can read reviews on Amazon UK. There is limited availability in the US.

No Bad Press

I'm home from the road for a day or two. I've been terribly remiss and will post more about the tour and catch up on some things later today. But I just had to pop in and mention that Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts was reviewed in the New York Times Book Review today!

I'll say right up front that it's what my dearly departed old grandpa would call a "stinker." The book is apparently emblematic of the decline of western civilization as a whole or something. Whatever. (Not sure why it was reviewed by the mystery/crime person, given that it's horror. Then again, they don't even review horror much unless it's by the big names....) I cried, then pouted, then got a little angry. I'm mostly over it now. The cool thing is that it's a badge of honor that I get to wear forever--I was reviewed in the NYT! Far more famous writers than I survived thrashings there, so I feel like I'm in good company.

This is my blog, so I get to riposte with whatever in the heck I want. As with Isabella Moon, I continue to polarize reviewers utterly. Here's the link to the lovely Publisher's Weekly Review as well as (and this gives me great pleasure because it's one of those *gasp* online review sites of the sort that many journalists look down upon) a rather more thoughtful description and evaluation of the novel by Michael Leonard at curledup.com.

More later.