What a disappointment!
The preamble reads: 27/9 by 24/21across, 25down by 11/7across, 3/15 by 23/32, and 13 by co-authors 12/26 down and 2/30 are all works of fiction with no further definition in the clues. All other clues are normal.
It took us a while to tumble to the fact that the titles were not real books by real authors. The first one we sorted out was “Road Narrows by Elaine Closure”. We were puzzled by this as we pronounce Elaine as E – Lane rather than A – Lane. Anyway, we slowly picked away at the solutions but when we guessed it was “Past It by Anne Tiq”, we were not that happy. We couldn’t find ‘Tiq’ as a word in Chambers online or in our old Collins dictionary. If it had been ‘TEAK’ we would have been satisfied.
We are really sorry Paul but we didn’t enjoy this Genius. Unfortunately we missed last month’s so we were looking forward to solving and blogging this month’s puzzle. Never mind – we are now looking forward to July’s puzzle!
Thematic clues and solutions are shaded green below
Across
8 Loose women aim to go far beyond Xanadu in the end (6)
UNMOOR
Last letters or ‘in the end’ of womeN aiM tO gO faR after U (the last letter of ‘Xanadu’)
9 See 27
10 That’s cute on you, I agree (4)
YEAH
AH (that’s cute) on YE (you)
11 Born name, not a married name ultimately (3)
NEE
NamE without ‘a’ and ‘m’ (married) + E (last or ‘ultimate’ letter in ‘name’)
12, 26down School run coming up after short period (5,4)
TERRY FIDE
EDIFY (school) R (run) reversed or ‘coming up’ after TERm (period) without the last letter or ‘short’ – a homophone of TERRIFIED (‘afraid’ – 13down)
14 Considerable weight added to a doctrinal ruling (5)
FATWA
FAT (considerable) W (weight) ‘added to’ A
16 Key fine in fact, the door closes (5)
ENTER
Last letters or ‘closes’ of finE iN facT thE dooR
17 See 1
19 Ruminators, I’m sorry to say, stealing hat from behind (7)
ALPACAS
ALAS (‘I’m sorry to say’) round or ‘stealing’ CAP (hat) reversed or ‘from behind’
21 See 24
22 Boring line on semicircle (3)
DRY
RY (railway – ‘line’) on D (semicircle – the shape of the letter)
23,32 Rob following last of ancestors, ageless traditions passed on (5,6)
SHERI TRIFLE
RIFLE (rob) following S (last letter of ‘ancestors’) HERITage (‘traditions passed on’) without ‘age’ – a homophone of SHERRY TRIFLE – which might make ‘gran get tipsy’ – 3d / 15d
25 Man’s arm(5)
PIECE
Double definition – the ‘man’ as in chess
26 Having guzzled last of butter, womanly figure’s deserted physicist (5)
FERMI
R (last letter of ‘butter’) in or ‘guzzled by’ FEMInine (womanly) with ‘nine’ (figure) missing or ‘deserted’
28 Chest mysterious, not opening (3)
ARK
dARK (mysterious) without the first letter or ‘opening’
29 Among gangsters, a felony is all right (4)
SAFE
Hidden or ‘among’ gangsterS A FElony
31 Pull bird, abandoning the first pigeon (7)
DRAGOON
DRAG (pull) lOON (bird) witohut or ‘abandoning’ the first letter
32 See 23
Down
1,17across Perfect question about fiction finally clear (4,3)
ANNE TIQ
AI (first class – ‘perfect’) Q (question) round N (last or ‘final’ letter of ‘fiction’) NET (clear) – a homophone of ANTIQUE (‘past it’ – 25down)
2,30 Very small bottle containing base, but not oxygen (6,4)
SOPHIA FULL
SO (very) PHIAL (small bottle) round or ‘containing’ FoUL (base) without the ‘o’ (oxygen) – a homophone of SO FEARFUL (‘afraid’ – 13down)
3,15 Farm building is sty with piglet on the outside (4,4,5)
GRAN GETS TIPSY
GRANGE (farm) + an anagram of IS STY and P T (first and last letters or ‘outside’ of ‘piglet’) – anagrind is ‘building’
4 Drink possibly as a joke, did you say? (6)
INGEST
A homophone (‘did you say?’) of IN JEST (as a joke)
5 Composition ending in disaster, a riot breaks out in the midst of tomfoolery (8)
ORATORIO
R (last or ‘end’ letter of ‘disaster’) + an anagram of A RIOT (anagrind is ‘breaks out’) in O O (middle letters of ‘tomfoolery’)
6 Hammer up or hammer down (4)
POUR
An anagram of UP OR – anagrind is ‘hammer’
7 Yes, pendulum slowing evidently starts to wind up clock (4)
ESPY
First letters or ‘starts’ of Yes Pendulum Slowing Evidently reversed or ‘wound up’
13 A tailless fish eaten by tailless dog (6)
AFRAID
A RAy (fish) witohut the last letter or ‘tail’ in or ‘eaten by’ FIDo (dog) also ‘tailless’
15 See 3
17 Brownish colour for all to see in stick (5)
TAUPE
U (universal – ‘for all to see’) in TAPE (stick)
18 Verbal signals in lines (6)
QUEUES
A homophone (‘verbal’) of CUES (signals)
20 Love child pocketing small gold receptacle at the dentist’s (8)
CUSPIDOR
CUPID (‘love child’) round or ‘pocketing’ S (small) + OR (gold)
21 CD lacking with this old band (8)
CRICKETS
C + RICKETS (disease caused by a lack of vitamin D – ‘D lacking’) – Buddy Holly’s backing band
24,21across One’s all jittery with ice on river (6,7)
ELAINE CLOSURE
An anagram of ONES ALL and ICE (anagrind is ‘jittery’) + URE (river) – a play on LANE CLOSURE (‘road narrows’ – 27 / 9)
25 Where church is for desire? (4,2)
PAST IT
To suggest where CH (church) is in ‘itch’ (desire) you could say it is ‘PAST IT’
26 See 12
27,9 Around back of field, horse darts (4,7)
ROAD NARROWS
D (last letter or ‘back’ of ‘field’) with ROAN (horse) around + ARROWS (darts)
30 See 2
I agree wholeheartedly that this was a poor puzzle. This is actually the second such example of this type of puzzle by Paul in under a year. I think it makes for poor clues and stupid answers.
More to the point an Alpaca is not a ruminant. To quote wikipedia on the subject: “Alpacas are not ruminants, pseudo-ruminants, or modified ruminants”. So they feel pretty strongly on the subject. Also Chambers [supposedly the dictionary to be used] does not have ruminator as an alternative to ruminant. Collins does as an afterthought.
Alpacas are actually part of the camel family and therefore are a species of South American camelid.
Paul’s puzzles are increasingly unattractive as normal puzzles and worse as Genius puzzles.
21 down was the only clue that I liked.
I cannot thank Paul, but do thank Bertandjoyce for their trouble to blog this.
Thanks bertandjoyce for putting up with it. When I cracked the first one I sussed it was a retread from his last G and abandoned it.
I dont think his other puzzles have been bad but he could do better than this with a G puzzle.
We are glad that we weren’t alone.
We have just checked wiki about alpacas. In Paul’s defence, alpacas do ‘ruminate’ – chew the cud – so it looks as if they could be called ruminators. We looked up camel as well in Chambers and it is defined as one of two large ruminant mammals.
We are now very confused, specially after reading the same part in wiki as Gordon@1.
Not just me then.
Paul, in his various guises, has been one of my favourite setters for years and still is. I haven’t noticed any drop in the quality of his daily puzzles since he started to become so much more prolific. I agree with Pee Dee’s comment on his blog of a recent Paul puzzle: His puzzles are always entertaining and have the extra dimension that I’m never quite sure what to expect. The clues might be serious or flippant, hard or easy, traditional or outrageously libertarian.
I didn’t much enjoy the first Genius with this theme. The fictional authors’ names were contrived and implausible (e.g. Going-Nowhere), but as a one-off I suppose it was a novel (pun intended) idea. To have a second one so soon, with more far-fetched “names”, really is going too far. I finished this because I enjoy Paul’s clueing, but unless others come here with passionate defences of the puzzle, I hope that we won’t see any more like this.
Thanks all.
No passionate defence here (Paul’s “sounds like” clues are never a favourite), but I liked 21 and 25d and overall did find it quite satisfying to complete (the dodgy TIQ was helpfully supported by the giveaway QUEUES).
The reference in the Wikipedia article leads you to an article on the taxonomic (and legal) classification of camelids. It is very clear that in this sense they are not ruminants. But as they do ruminate, they are ruminants. So not all ruminants are ruminants – that’s one to chew over.
Very chewy! When I was completely stuck, I asked a friend if he could make sense of the ones I hadn’t got. He solved them cold, but didn’t give me any further information, but did thereby give me hope and also made me realise I’d omitted to note that 1,17ac/25 was one of the themed pairs. I went on to finish it, but had to have the parsing of PAST IT, which I’d biffed, explained. Also, I never worked out what bird is ?OON, perhaps because ‘loon’ is American for ‘diver’ (and probably should have been so indicated?).
Favourite clue was for POUR, because of the deceptive symmetry.
As an aside I would advise anyone not to Google ‘Gran gets Tipsy’ unless you are extremely broad minded!
Joining in the disapproving chorus if only to try to make sure that we never get another one like it.
These made-up and undefined titles and names do make for a very hard solve. When the end result makes you smile (as with the authors of ‘AFRAID’) then it can seem worth the effort, but ELAINE CLOSURES was a bit feeble, and ANNE TIQ was worse – we didn’t get this: I thought of ANNE TIC or TIK but couldn’t make it work, and of course we couldn’t get 18d either, though I concede this was fair enough.
But on balance, I’d have to join the calls for ‘no more please’, unless they’re a lot funnier….
Couldn’t agree more with these comments. Usually love the challenge of a G which lasts me several bedtime sessions but this had all the charm of cold porridge. A step too far in several directions for me. Very disappointing especially since we only get one a month.
In Paul’s defence, had I got the twist I would probably have found it an easier solve than real book titles. (In a Genius, they would of course be rather obscure books and authors.) I probably should have realised when I failed to google any books called “road narrows”.
And the rubric is literally true; the titles and authors are the works of fiction referred to.
…and more of the same from me. I didn’t particularly enjoy the recent one of these and so to discover this was more of the same (only with more dubious thematic items) was a big disappointment. I failed to finish so thanks to the bloggers for explaining where I went wrong.
I have never tried a Genius puzzle before, and I tried this one only because a friend indicated (even before he had finished it himself) that it was a challenging one with an interesting theme.
It was indeed a challenge, but I didn’t really warm to the theme at all, with its contrived book titles and authors. I got the theme from PAST IT and ANNE TIQ. I guessed POUR from what I thought might be (and turned out to be) the wordplay, failing to cotton on to the meaning of ‘hammer down’, and I left UNMOOR and GRAN GETS TIPSY incomplete at the end. I liked CRICKETS.
Thanks to Bertandjoyce for their dedication in blogging this unusual puzzle.
The first Genius I’ve managed to complete, and it doesn’t meet expected standards! Oh well, say lar vee.
Hi Grantinfreo @15
You should not feel bad about that. I don’t think anyone is criticizing the difficulty of the puzzle, just the lack of any satisfaction with the style chosen. In terms of difficulty I would put this at about average, but it is difficult to really judge as some of the clues are necessarily strained.
Keep going.
Gordon
As soon as I realised what was going on with the themesters, I gave up. I didn’t enjoy the first one, and had no intention of trying to finish another. I blame the editor.
Awful. I thought I’d look for some entertainment during lockdown. Big Paul fan, usually. He’s allowed off days, and on this day he was really off. Hoping for Paul Prize tomorrow.