Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Marked
***** Marked by P. C. & Kristin Cast. Contemporary fantasy.
This is the first book in the House of Night series from this mother/daughter team. I'm a big fan of P. C. Cast's books, so I was very curious to see how her young adult series co-written with her daughter turned out.
I loved it.
Zoey Redbird is a typical 16-year-old (assuming there is such a thing!) until she's "marked" by a Tracker. This means she's a fledgling vampyre and has to go to the House of Night, a boarding school for those destined to become vampyres or die in the process.
Once there, she stands out because her mark is different, and she apparently has stronger powers than others her age... which doesn't exactly endear her to her peers.
The Casts have written a fresh take on vampires--impressive, given the vast number of vampire books out there. The characters are well-drawn and sympathetic, and the story pulled me in and kept me turning pages way past my bedtime.
I'm pretty sure the second book in the series, Betrayed, is in my TBR pile. I'm looking forward to it.
Disclaimer: I haven't read Twilight, though it is in my TBR pile, so I can't directly argue with the Amazon reviewers who said Marked was a not-as-good clone of Twilight. I seriously doubt that's the case, though. Meyer doesn't have a monopoly on vampires, vampire romance, or teen angst.
Categories: Books, 5stars, ContemporaryFantasy, YA
Labels: 5 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy, YA
Monday, September 21, 2009
Small Favor
*****+ Small Favor by Jim Butcher. Contemporary fantasy. Re-read.
This is the 10th book in the Dresden Files series, and, amazingly, it's even better yet than the last one.
Harry owes Queen Mab (yes, that Queen Mab) a favor, and it puts him, reluctantly, on the same side as John Marcone. Which is even more exciting since Jim just finished writing a novella featuring John Marcone--on the order of Backup.
There are some seriously scary bad guys--the Fallen are back and badder than ever. And we get to know Marcone's right- and left- hands, Hendricks and Gard, a little better. There are some interesting developments in the ongoing series story, and some very intriguing hints about what will happen next.
And, as in every last one of Jim Butcher's books, there's exciting readable action, humor, and there's a point to absolutely everything. Jim said once that every detail in his books means something because he's too lazy to write anything unnecessary. As anyone in the beta asylum can tell you, "lazy" is not in the man's vocabulary.
I can't recommend this series highly enough.
Categories: books, 5+stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 5+ stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Glass Houses
****½ Glass Houses by Rachel Caine. Contemporary fantasy.
This is the first book in the Morganville Vampire series.
Claire Danvers is a 16-year-old college freshman in Morganville, a town run by vampires. She'd fought with her parents to be allowed to go to college away from home, so she's not going to let a little thing like a vicious, violent clique in her dorm get to her.
So she moves into a house off-campus with some very interesting roommates.
I bought this because I've thoroughly enjoyed the other books I've read by Rachel Caine--most notably, her Weather Wardens series. While this is quite different--it's aimed at a young adult audience, for one thing, while the Weather Wardens is decidedly not--it's still just as entertaining.
The clique did bother me, though I've seen the same sort of thing often enough to ignore it, mostly. It's Hollywood's version of high school and college, where the bullying is much more overt than in any school I've ever experienced (including my own and the several different schools my kids attended). But maybe people get more vicious when they live in a vampire town.
Claire is an engaging character, who struck just the right note for me. She's very smart--as evidenced by the fact that she's in college at 16--and she acts like it. She behaves exactly as I'd think a 16-year-old college freshman would act. She figures things out quickly, and comes up with intelligent solutions, but she also has a bit of the naivete you'd expect from a 16-year-old. The other characters are likewise well-developed and people I wouldn't mind spending a few more books with.
And the vampires.... These are interesting vampires. They're kind of like politicians. Very sneaky and full of hidden agendas. And just as dangerous.
I've read the second book since, and I have the third in my TBR mountain.
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Moon Called
****½ Moon Called by Patricia Briggs. Contemporary fantasy.
*sigh* Just what I need--a new contemporary fantasy series to fall in love with. True, I gave up on LKH, but eliminating two series while adding... how many more?... isn't helping to reduce Mount TBR any. Still, this one's worth adding to the must-buy list, at least so far.
Mercedes (Mercy) Thompson is an auto mechanic and occasionally a coyote. She lives next door to the local werewolf Alpha, and instead of paying protection money to the vampires (she can't afford it), she fixes their cars.
When a teenage werewolf shows up on her doorstep asking for work with some bad guys hot on his heels, Mercy is drawn into a complex and dangerous web involving werewolf politics, experimental drugs, silver bullets, and kidnapping.
The world Briggs has developed here is thorough, reminiscent of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files (though with a flavor of its own). There aren't just werewolves--there are also vampires and various other creatures from various mythologies. I always like that, because it seems to make sense to me that if one legend is true, others should be true as well.
Mercy is a unique heroine in my experience, particularly for a fantasy series. She has her strengths--shapeshifting into a coyote, extra speed, and enhanced senses, as well as martial arts training--but she also knows her own weaknesses, and it doesn't threaten her self-image to step aside when she needs to.
The bad guy's ultimate motive in this one was a little convoluted and hard to believe--or perhaps it was just not as well-explained as I'd have liked. Still, there were great details, and interesting special effects.
I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series, and have put it on my to-buy list.
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Monday, January 05, 2009
Turn Coat
*****+ Turn Coat by Jim Butcher. Contemporary fantasy.
This is the 11th full-length novel in the Dresden Files series about Harry Dresden, the only wizard in the Chicago phone book.
Turn Coat opens with Warden Morgan on Harry's doorstep, seriously injured and asking for Harry's help. Seems the uptight, by-the-book Warden who's been hounding Harry for much of his life has been accused of killing a member of the wizards' senior council. So it's up to Harry--with a little help from his friends--to find the traitor who framed Morgan and not only save Morgan's life but Harry's own as well.
That's about as far as the blurb on B&N's website goes, so I feel pretty safe saying that much.
I also feel pretty safe saying that, true to form, Jim has once again outdone himself and ratcheted up the stakes and the emotional intensity yet another notch. Of course, I laughed aloud several times--pick up any Dresden Files book and open to a random page: at a minimum, you'll find one quip that'll make you smile, and Turn Coat is no exception. I also found myself in tears at a few points. Part of Jim's genius is knowing just how far to wring the reader's emotions, and when we need to laugh.
The characters are very real, and Jim does a masterful job of including only the recurring characters necessary to the plot, which means that we don't see all of them in each book, but those we do see are developed more fully. We get to know a great deal more about Morgan, of course, and also about a few other characters we hadn't known very well before.
There are also the various denizens of the supernatural world, inventive and frightening, yet with a firm basis in folklore and the logic of the series universe.
No discussion of one of Jim's books would be complete without me raving about the action scenes, which are, hands-down, the most vivid and easy to follow that I've ever read. Lacking a Y chromosome, I have trouble following most authors' action scenes. Not these.
For me, though, the real star of Turn Coat is the emotional effect on Harry. I'm getting a little concerned. We're not even halfway through the series (20 case files and then an apocalyptic trilogy, for 23 books total), and if they keep getting more intense....
Turn Coat is due out April 7, which gives you time to catch up on the series if you haven't read the previous 10 books and 6 stories (8, if you count the two short-shorts on the website). A complete list is here. Although there's enough background information that a newcomer to the series wouldn't get lost, I heartily recommend reading the series in order. There's at least one clue that could have been figured out from information in previous books (though I didn't figure it out myself until after the fact), and of course the ongoing and changing interpersonal relationships through the series make more sense when read in order.
Categories: books, 5+stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 5+ stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Saturday, November 08, 2008
A Fistful of Charms
****½ A Fistful of Charms by Kim Harrison. Contemporary fantasy.
This is the fourth book in the Rachel Morgan series. For some reason, I read it out of order. I hadn't read the third book yet, though I have since. It didn't interfere with my enjoyment much, though the basic premise for the plot made me realize I'd missed something: Rachel's estranged from both her pixie partner Jenks and her boyfriend Nick.
Jenks is reunited with Rachel when his son Jax needs rescuing in Michigan, where he's with Nick, who's apparently stolen an artifact that could shift the balance of power between the various supernatural races in favor of the Weres. To let Jenks be of more help (and safer, in the cold), Rachel transforms him into human size, which adds an interesting and humorous twist.
I do wish I'd read it in order, but there were enough clues that I wasn't lost. My big thing with books lately is emotion, and A Fistful of Charms has plenty. There are a lot of mixed feelings between Rachel and Jenks, and different ones between Rachel and Nick. And the situation with Rachel's vampire roommate Ivy gets even more intense.
I very much enjoy this series, with its variety of supernatural types and the vivid, unusual characters. I have the next book in my TBR pile, though since I'm a little behind, I'm waiting on the paperback to buy the sixth book.
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Undead and Unreturnable
**** Undead and Unreturnable by MaryJanice Davidson. Contemporary fantasy.
I'm not sure why I missed this one. It's the 4th book in MJD's Queen Betsy series, but I'd already read the 5th: Undead and Unpopular (#25). Oh, well. It's not like there are huge developments between books... or at least this particular book didn't have a huge development that reading its sequel first spoiled for me.
Betsy, queen of the vampires, is preparing for her wedding to Eric Sinclair... sort of. She keeps postponing the date, though she swears it isn't cold feet. She's just busy. Her stepmother is allowing her to babysit Baby Jon, because he's colicky and Betsy is the only one he'll be quiet for. She's also the only one willing to babysit the colicky baby.
And those pesky ghosts just won't leave her alone, so Betsy has to find the Driveway Killer.
There are some interesting developments--a problem that nearly breaks up Betsy and Sinclair, and a traumatic situation involving Laura, Betsy's daughter-of-the-devil sister. And there are a couple of characters who seem poised for future developments.
Mostly, it's a fitting episode in the series--a fun, quick read with MJD's trademark snark. If you like the series, you'll like this. If you don't, this won't change your mind.
Categories: Books, 4stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 4 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Swimming Without a Net
**** Swimming Without a Net by MaryJanice Davidson. Contemporary fantasy.
This is the second book in the series about Fred the mermaid. In the first, Sleeping with the Fishes, we meet Fred, who's, fittingly, a marine biologist; her boss Dr. Barb, her best friend Jonas who has a thing for Dr. Barb; and Fred's two beaus: mer-man prince Artur, and wealthy fellow marine biologist Thomas.
It's been a year, and Fred hasn't seen either Artur or Thomas. Then she gets a summons from the mermaid King Mekkam to go to the Caymans and attend the Pelagic--a gathering of all the mer-folk--where they'll be deciding whether to remain hidden or to reveal themselves to humans.
Fred brings Jonas along for moral support, and when she arrives, she discovers that both Artur and Thomas (with a specially built underwater RV) are there--mermaid etiquette demands that Artur provide his rival with an equal opportunity to woo Fred.
We get to meet more merfolk and see humanity through their eyes, which was well-done, I thought. Different factions of the merfolk have different opinions of humanity, so it was a more balanced view than one usually gets from non-humans in fantasy novels, but the opposing viewpoints were still convincingly outsider opinions.
We also get to see more of the mermaid society and how it works, and again it's convincingly different from human society, taking into account the merfolk's differences, such as telepathy.
And Fred finally learns about her bio-dad, as she calls him, and that was also well explained and fit well with the overall plot.
Fred, too, seems to have come into her own in this book--her voice is clearer and less like Queen Betsy's.
The only problem is that it wasn't much of a plot. Lots of worldbuilding, but there could definitely have been a few more examples of the pros and cons of revealing themselves, and maybe a few more concrete examples of why Fred's having trouble choosing between Artur and Thomas.
There is, by the way, some resolution of the triangle at the end, but there's also a hint that it's still not going to go smoothly.
I'm looking forward to the next book, Fish out of Water, in November.
Categories: Books, 4stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 4 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Many Bloody Returns
Many Bloody Returns. contemporary fantasy.
- ****½ "Dracula Night" by Charlaine Harris.
I'm not a fan of the Sookie Stackhouse series (see here for why), so this story was a pleasant surprise. Vampire Eric goes all out preparing a big party for Dracula's birthday, in hopes that Dracula himself will show up--think Linus and the Great Pumpkin.
It was funny, and even a little poignant, and Sookie wasn't nearly as annoying as I usually find her. - **½ "The Mournful Cry of Owls" by Christopher Golden.
On a girl's sixteenth birthday, she becomes... whatever it is that she becomes. Vampire-ish.
Much ado about the usual teenage impatience with her mother's warnings, lots of descriptions of scenery and navel-gazing, which might have been atmospheric if the story hadn't gone on so long and if something actually happened. - *** "I Was a Teenage Vampire" by Bill Crider.
A girl wants a real live vampire at her 18th birthday party and coerces her brother into inviting one.
There really wasn't anything special, interesting, or funny about this one. Ordinary and forgettable. - **** "Twilight" by Kelley Armstrong.
Vampire Cassandra isn't convinced that another year of life is worth having to kill once more.
The dilemma was interesting, and Cassandra's emotions were clear, as were those of her friend who's trying to help her. But the rules are either contradictory or not that well explained, and there's a little too much back-and-forth indecision. - ***** "It's My Birthday, Too" by Jim Butcher.
This is probably the funniest of the Dresden Files short stories, and my favorite by a slim margin (they're all worth 5 stars).
It's Thomas's birthday, and wizard Harry Dresden wants to give him a present. Harry tracks Thomas down in a mall where he's playing a LARP, and pretending to be a straight vampire (he is a straight vampire). All hell breaks loose, and there's action, and Harry being clever and inventive, and some very cool magic effects, as well as an assortment of supernatural types.
There's not a slow or boring spot in this story, and we get everything from Harry's solicitude over his apprentice to his introduction to role-playing games to his very kick-ass magical combat skills. Oh, hell. Just read the story. It's great. - **** "Grave-Robbed" by P. N. Elrod.
Vampire P. I. Jack Fleming investigates a phony medium who's preying on a wealthy widow.
This story was entertaining, as far as it went. I enjoyed how he exposed the medium, but it was a little too simplistic and drawn-out, and there was a little too much extraneous backstory. - ****½ "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life" by Rachel Caine.
In Morganville, your 18th birthday means you have to sign with one of the vampires in town for protection, or you're prey. It's Eve Rosser's 18th birthday, and she doesn't want to sign.
Even though I hadn't read any of Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampires series yet (I have, in the meantime--I'm really behind on reviews), I wasn't lost, and was, instead, intrigued by the town and the premise. The story was exciting, and the characters were interesting and sympathetic. - ***½ "The Witch and the Wicked" by Jeanne C. Stein.
Witch Sophie caters a birthday party for a vampire, only to have the guest of honor immolated by his birthday cake. Then she comes up with the clever idea of using a little of his dust in a youth-preserving face cream.
This was amusing and clever, but it felt like a description of a premise--more like a prologue to the real story. - ***** "Blood Wrapped" by Tanya Huff.
Vampire Henry and wizard Tony are on the case of a kidnapped child, and while they're at it, Henry's trying to decide what to give Vicki for her 40th birthday.
The mystery was cleverly solved in this one, through the use of actual deduction, which I appreciated. The relationship between the characters was entertaining, and the running thread of Vicki's birthday was both humorous and sentimental.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story, and it reminded me that I have a couple books from this series in my TBR pile. - ***½ "The Wish" by Carolyn Haines.
This is a rather depressing story about a woman who's survived many things that should have killed her--including suicide attempts--but now that she is about to die, she turns to a vampire instead.
It is deeply emotional, and you can really feel for the woman, but it's just too depressing for me to really enjoy it. - *** "Fire and Ice and Linguini for Two" by Tate Hallaway.
A vampire and a witch who's possessed by a goddess are going out for the vampire's birthday on Christmas day. Their car breaks down and they get picked up by a demon.
There's a lot of obscure mythology thrown into this story, and I suppose if you're into mythology enough to recognize all the players, you'd enjoy it. For me, though, it was just gratuitous, and felt more like reading a chapter from the middle of the 5th book in a series: too many unfamiliar and unexplained characters, and not enough happening in the story to make it interesting in spite of that. - **** "Vampire Hours" by Elaine Viets.
A plastic surgeon's menopausal wife discovers he's cheating on her, decides to divorce him, and finds some unusual allies in vampires.
This was a fun revenge kind of story--my only problem was that I had trouble relating to Katherine's cheerful bloodthirstiness (in the violence-sense, not the drinking-blood-sense). - ***½ "How Stella Got Her Grave Back" by Toni L. P. Kelner.
Vampire Stella visits her grave on her birthday, only to find someone else buried in it. So she and fellow vampire Mike set out to find out who the body is, and then to solve its murder.
This was a laid-back story, very heavy on the dialogue. Most of the story is Mark and Stella chatting, only occasionally about things having to do with the case. I assume if you were familiar with the characters, you might enjoy this. I wasn't, so a lot of it just felt like boring filler to me.
Categories: Books, 5stars, 4.5stars, 4stars, 3.5stars, 3stars, 2.5stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 2.5 stars, 3 stars, 3.5 stars, 4 stars, 4.5 stars, 5 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Monday, May 05, 2008
Touch the Dark
**** Touch the Dark by Karen Chance. Contemporary fantasy.
Cassandra Palmer is a clairvoyant who can speak to the dead (or is that a clairvoyant who can see the future? I can never remember the definitions of various psychic classifications, and online dictionaries appear to be just as confused as I am). Anyway, she can see the future and speak to the dead, and she was raised by a vampire after the death of her parents.
She's been on the run for three years, never getting too close to anyone for fear of putting them in danger. But when she sees her obituary on her computer, and knows it's time to run again, she forgets her own rule and waits to warn her roommate Tomas, and they're attacked by vampires, Tomas turns out to be more than he seemed, and she ends up before the vampire Senate, where various supernatural groups are vying for control over her.
I have mixed feelings about Touch the Dark. On plus side, there's a lot of politics and intrigue, and I always love that sort of thing. Give me a good conspiracy over a physical fight any day. And there's a plethora of supernatural types, which keeps things interesting.
On the negative side, there was a plot thread about a required/ritual sex act that felt forced and a little bit juvenile/squicky. Aside: there's just something about the way certain sex scenes are written that feels dirty, and not in a good way, while another author could write the same characters doing the same things, and it would be sexy or hot. It always makes me think the author's uncomfortable with the scene and that discomfort gets passed on to the reader. Maybe it's just me.
Worse was the frequent interruption of the plot for backstory. Every time I'd get caught up in the action, there'd be a long pause for a history lesson. It made it too hard to really become immersed in the story, and too easy to put the book down for a break.
I haven't decided yet if I'll read the second book. I did enjoy the premise, but I'm not sure if it's different enough from all the other paranormal series out there to bother with, and while I understand that Touch the Dark is a first book, series don't always improve with time. If you've read the second book, I'd love to hear what you thought of it, to help me make my decision.
Categories: Books, 4stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 4 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding
My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding, P. N. Elrod, ed. Contemporary fantasy.
- *** "Spellbound" by L. A. Banks.
Literally, the Hatfields and the McCoys. Present day, throw in some magic and a Romeo/Juliet romance between Odelia Hatfield and Jefferson McCoy. The pair fall in love in college, and the old men of both families are vehemently against their wedding. The grandmothers are on their side, though.
Some of the pranks that get played are pretty funny, but most of the adults acted like children, and I didn't really care about the characters.
- ***** "Something Borrowed" by Jim Butcher.
Billy and Georgia's wedding. If you've read the Dresden Files, they're first introduced in Fool Moon. They're werewolves. Because they fought against her in Summer Knight, Jenny Greenteeth is out to get them, and has kidnapped Georgia. Can Harry save both Georgia and Billy and step in for Billy's injured best man? Without insulting Georgia's stepmother? Well, no--that last is a bit beyond him.
Okay, I'm shutting up before I give away the entire story. It's a lot of fun, a nice visit with some favorite characters--the Alphas, Harry and Bob, of course, and Murphy. And there's even some sweet stuff in there about the power of true love's kiss.
- ****½ "Dead Man's Chest" by Rachel Caine.
Ordinary Cecilia Welles is about to marry romance-cover-model Ian Taylor after a whirlwind 2-month courtship, and he has a surprise for her: the wedding/honeymoon is on a pirate ship. But the ship is just a wee bit more authentic than expected, the pirate captain Lockhart has a big secret, and Ian has another surprise in store for her--murder.
I had a little trouble believing in the romance, but it was a wonderful story, and I loved the twists and turns.
- ****½ "All Shook Up" by P. N. Elrod.
Caterer Frankie Foster meets "Elvis" (Tribute Artist Elvis) at a wedding she's catering for Santiago and Trinidad. Her grandmother has joined her, because she's a huge fan of Elvis, and Gramma's thrilled. Frankie isn't, though. She can read people, and she knows that Santiago and Trinidad are all wrong for each other. But this "Elvis" is uncanny in his likeness, and there's just something about him...
I've never been an Elvis fan, though I've started developing an appreciation for him as I've gotten older. But even so, this story made me understand and believe the appeal. The touch of magic was wonderfully subtle, and had a romantic sweetness to it that's hard to pull off without being sappy--Elrod succeeded. If I were an Elvis fan, I'd have given this one 5 stars, too.
- ***½ "The Wedding of Wylda Serene" by Esther M. Friesner.
Sweet, spoiled, innocent, pampered Wylda Serene is getting married, and she wants to have her wedding at The Club. Things tend to go wrong--badly, supernaturally, wrong--with events at The Club, and everyone's trying to convince her to change her mind, but Wylda stands her ground. And the result is pretty chaotic.
I have to say, I really do not understand some of the raves this story got. It's first person, and pretty darn anonymous until near the end--maybe it belongs in a series, and I'd have recognized the narrator if I'd read the series, but it was a bit disconcerting to find that the narrator was male, after reading nearly the entire story thinking it was female. But that's actually fairly minor. My biggest complaint is the meandering style. It starts with the narrator's sister's wedding, and then Wylda Serene's birth, and childhood, and tells about things that happened at The Club--not in a nice tidy order, either, but with little bits here and there interspersed with the narrator's personal philosophies. The actual story was maybe 3 pages. What I did distill out of the jumble was clever and amusing, but I'm not remotely tempted to try this author again.
- ****½ "Charmed by the Moon" by Lori Handeland.
Werewolf hunter Jessie McQuade is about to marry professor Will Cadotte, despite her reservations about the whole idea of marriage, when she discovers a love charm. Now she's really got cold feet--how can she tell if they're really in love, or if it's just the charm? And where did the charm come from?
This is a very sweet story about the nature of true love. It's saved from becoming saccharine by the realistic and appealing characters. I particularly enjoyed Jessie's revelations about Will's feelings for her.
- **** "Tacky" by Charlaine Harris.
There's a truce between the vampires and the werewolves, but that doesn't mean that everyone's happy about the upcoming wedding between vampire Taffy and werewolf Don, including Taffy's maid of honor, Dahlia. But Dahlia's determined to make sure things go well, including security, in which she's aided by Don's best man, Todd.
This is a cute story about wedding traditions and the respective vampire and werewolf societies all filtered through Dahlia's concern for making sure everything's appropriate--that is, not "tacky." It's a cotton-candy read: fun, but not very filling.
- ****½ "A Hard Day's Night-Searcher" by Sherrilyn Kenyon.
Jeff, the squire of Dark Hunter Rafael Santiago, has written a thinly-veiled story about the Dark Hunters, and now the council has sent straight-arrow squire Celena to collect him. Rafael hides his squire, and makes a deal with Celena: if he can't make her break one of the squires' rules in a week, he'll turn Jeff over to her. Otherwise, she lets Jeff go free. Of course, the deal's not entirely for Jeff's sake: Rafael's been interested in Celena for a long time.
Again, I'm surprised at the reviews on this one--a lot of people seemed disappointed in it. Maybe it's because, while I've read several of Kenyon's books, I don't follow the series very closely, and so I didn't have expectations for it. Celena's almost fanatical devotion to duty is well-explained and she's painfully torn between duty and desire. There's a nice balance here between levity and emotional intensity.
- **** "...Or Forever Hold Your Peace" by Susan Krinard.
In a Victorian England, where supernatural Talents are the norm, a strange man appears at the wedding of Lady Emma and Lord Edward, objects to the wedding, then falls dead. The next day, Lady Emma disappears. Lady Olivia Dowling and Christopher "Kit" Meredith investigate a case that's complicated by the various supernatural talents of those involved.
This was an interesting paranormal mystery with plenty of twists and a sweet love story, but it tended to get bogged down in explanations of the world and its magics that were too complex for a story of this length. I was expecting it to be part of a series, and it is, sort of. There's one more story with Olivia and Kit solving a mystery in the anthology Murder by Magic. I admit I was disappointed--this pair and this world would make a very appealing mystery series.
Categories: Books, 3stars, 3.5stars, 4stars, 4.5stars, 5stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 3 stars, 3.5 stars, 4 stars, 4.5 stars, 5 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Minerva Wakes
****½ Minerva Wakes by Holly Lisle. Contemporary fantasy.
I first discovered Holly Lisle through her romantic suspense--I loved Midnight Rain (#2) and Last Girl Dancing (#24), and have been slowly collecting her backlist ever since.
Minerva and Darryl Kiakras are like a lot of us: they're married, with kids, and they've grown up. They've done what we pretty much expect to do when we grow up and become parents: put away their dreams (Minerva's of being a painter and Darryl's of being a playwright), and started taking life seriously.
But then they start seeing things that aren't--can't--be there, and their children disappear, and it turns out that their dreams are more important than they'd realized. There's a world linked to ours that depends on those dreams, and to get their children back, Minerva and Darryl have to reawaken their dreams and rebuild their partnership.
The premise is almost too sweet--giving up your dreams is A Bad Thing--but it's redeemed by the sheer exuberance of the story. Minerva in particular is a real, believable character, a woman who's very familiar. The story is action-filled and suspenseful, but it's lightened by a healthy dose of humor--much of it in the form of the dragon Birkwelch.
Minerva Wakes would make a fabulous movie--particularly the scenes where Minerva is stuck in the alternate world and she and Darryl are trying to work together to rescue the kids and escape.
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Friday, December 28, 2007
Windfall
***** Windfall by Rachel Caine. Contemporary fantasy.
This is the 4th book in Caine's Weather Warden series. I really wish I'd written about it sooner (I read it a month ago), because now I've lost all but my most general impressions. Still, I loved it, and that generally means I'll just gush anyway.
Joanne's no longer working as a weather warden--instead, she has a job as a weather girl on TV. Not the glamorous one, either--she's the one who has to dress up in goofy costumes and get drenched with water. The weather's going wacky, and Joanne's the number one suspect, but it can't be her, because she's losing her powers because her lover/friend/Djinn David is becoming an Ifrit and feeding off her powers. And if that's not enough, there's a cop stalking her because of events in the previous book.
This is such a well-written series. Instead of using the more standard monster-of-the-week format, Caine's continually reinventing the series, and taking Joanne in unpredictable directions. The developments in Windfall, particularly with David, are both surprising and intensely emotional.
Kudos, too, to Caine for keeping a nice balance of sensuality in this series without tipping it over into other genres.
I buy the books in this series as soon as they're released, with the result that I have two waiting in my TBR pile. I'm going to have to dig for Firestorm--it's making me nuts wondering what'll happen next.
Categories: Books, 5stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 5 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Past Redemption
****½ Past Redemption by Savannah Russe. Contemporary fantasy.
This is the second book of the Darkwing Chronicles, about vampire spy Daphne Urban.
This time, the Darkwings' mission involves a new drug, susto, that's exclusive, expensive...and deadly. The investigation is complicated by Daphne's love life: Darius, the ex-boyfriend who'd been a vampire hunter until she'd turned him to save his life, keeps popping up, wavering between love and loathing. He says he loves her, but who's that woman he's hanging around with? And Fitz, the nice guy she's just met, may very well be part of the drug ring. As if all that weren't enough, there's been a sudden influx of vampire hunters.
The series seems to hit its stride with Past Redemption. The person and the mystery plots mesh nicely, and we're getting to know the players a little better. There's an intriguing side-mystery about new Darkwing member Bubba's pre-vampire identity, and the team is starting to work together as a unit rather than as separate individuals.
Darius's hot and cold reactions could become tiresome, but they don't. It's clear that he's having real difficulties adjusting to becoming what until recently he'd hunted and killed, but it's also clear that that's not the whole story, and that he's hiding something.
One small quibble is that Daphne, like so many other heroines in this subgenre (contemporary fantasy/chick lit/suspense? there are relationships, but regardless what the spine says, this isn't romance) is fashion-obsessed. Unlike the others, however, Daphne at least doesn't tout the same handful of designer names that make me think the rest of them all share the same closet.
I thoroughly enjoyed this, and I have Beneath the Skin and In the Blood on my to-buy list.
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Friday, December 07, 2007
A Rumor of Gems
**½ A Rumor of Gems by Ellen Steiber. Fantasy.
I bought this as a bargain book from Amazon during one of my periodic quests to find new authors. It had great reviews.
Heroine Lucinda lives in a world like ours, except that gods are real and all the various gemstone lore is literally true. Her boss and friend Tyrone dresses up like one of those gods, incurring the god's wrath, and endangering his life. She meets Sebastian, a shapeshifter, who enlists Eros's aid in seducing her.
Meanwhile, there's Alasdair, who has such an affinity for gemstones that they follow him around and are always falling out of his pockets, etc. He's there because something evil is loose in the world and he's trying to stop it. It's already affected the young boy Michael, and Alasdair is trying to rescue him.
Oh, yes. In addition to gemstone magic, gods, and shapeshifters, there's also a bit of time travel.
I'd complain about stuffing so many disparate fantasy elements into one story, but I've seen it done elsewhere to good effect, and I was intrigued by the various concepts, though I'd really have liked there to be some sort of connection between them. The gemstones had nothing to do with the gods, which had nothing to do with shapeshifters, which had nothing to do with time travel. It was almost like a few separate stories mashed together.
Unfortunately, and this is a problem with a lot of fantasy novels, the worldbuilding took the form of long discourses, mostly in this case about the properties of various gemstones. I got the disconcerting feeling that I was in a gemstone infomercial, because every time I'd start getting involved in the story, it would stop and I'd get another lecture on another gemstone.
Even the time period seemed confused. I know from the book jacket that it's supposed to be a contemporary fantasy, but the feel of the story is more like a swords-and-sorcery kind of fantasy, except that characters do have a few modern conveniences like telephones. They don't seem to have cars, though. And when Lucinda goes into the past, there's almost no difference at all. Certainly, nobody notices anything unusual about her.
But even that I could have tolerated if I'd liked the characters. Lucinda is distinctly unlikeable. She's a bitchy, promiscuous man-hater. Promiscuity I can handle, but not when it's as mean-spirited as it was with Lucinda. Also, if you look around here, you know I read plenty of erotica and sex-scene-filled romances. But Lucinda was just crude.
Worst of all, though, was that there was no change. She learns some things, but nothing that changes her. She warms up to one or two individuals, but that's not even close to being the same thing as learning not to be such a bitch in general.
And what really, really made me want to throw the book against the wall, especially because I kept reading until the end hoping it wasn't true, is the book's message of intolerance, bitterness, unforgivingness. This is a bit of a spoiler, but I'm going to include it anyway, because I think it's a good point to know ahead of time: ****spoiler**** Lucinda never forgives Sebastian for going to Eros, even though he apologizes and admits it was a mistake and it's understandable why he did it. So let's add hypocrisy to the book's message, because Lucinda's character requires a lot of forgiveness from the people around her. ****
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Categories: Books, 2.5stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 2.5 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
**** Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling. Contemporary fantasy/YA. re-read.
This was my morning read with the boys. We've been doing this on school mornings for probably 8 years: while the kids eat breakfast, I read aloud to them. It started because the younger ones just wouldn't eat much, and I didn't want them to go off to school hungry (my kids are all skinny like I was as a kid--oh, how things change *sigh*). Now it's just something we all enjoy, even though the youngest is a teenager now.
Anyway. Harry Potter. It didn't improve for me on the re-read--in fact, I liked it better the first time through. And while the boys enjoyed it, they also got quite bored through the middle. Some mornings, we only read a handful of pages because they kept getting so distracted and going off on tangents. Contrast that with our current read, Guards! Guards!, and the difference is very noticeable. Instead of making silly comments and talking about unrelated topics, they're quiet, except for a laugh now and again. I think they were even more upset than I was with how the deaths were treated.
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Categories: Books, 4stars, ContemporaryFantasy, YA
Labels: 4 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy, YA
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Anansi Boys
***** Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Contemporary fantasy.
Anansi Boys is the story of Fat Charlie Nancy, who's not fat, but his father gave him the nickname and it stuck. His father has been the bane of his existence--always embarrassing, always a womanizer. And then he dies, and even his death is embarrassing, but Charlie returns to Florida for the funeral, thinking the torment is over.
Then he finds out that his father was Anansi, the spider god, and that he himself has a brother, Spider, who inherited his father's powers; and when Spider moves in with him, Charlie realizes it's only just beginning.
In true Gaiman fashion, the story is full of humor, fantastical things made real, and an abundance of twists and turns such that you give up trying to figure out where he's going to take you next and just hang on for the ride. There's even a wonderfully romantic, if slightly skewed, love story. It's the same universe as American Gods, where the gods are real and live among humans, though it's not really a sequel, and the two books can be read separately. And it's a coming-of-age-story of sorts, in that Charlie and Spider both grow up emotionally.
I can't think of anything else to say that hasn't been said already, and much more coherently--I'm rendered speechless by extreme fangirlishness. Great book. I knew it would be.
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Categories: Books, 5stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 5 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Dime Store Magic
***** Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong. Contemporary fantasy.
This is the third book in the "Women of the Otherworld" series. Following events in the previous book, Stolen, witch Paige Winterbourne has her hands full as guardian to a super-powerful thirteen-year-old, Savannah, and head of a coven that's more interested in safety and secrecy than anything else.
When we first met Paige in Stolen, she was young, arrogant, and hot-headed. She's only a year older here, but her responsibilities have matured her. Which is a good thing: Savannah is arrogant and hot-headed enough for both of them.
But then Leah, the half-demon who killed Paige's mother, shows up with a custody suit on behalf of a sorcerer claiming to be Savannah's father. Sorcerers and witches are ancient enemies, and when Paige tries to counter the suit by bringing in a human lawyer, the sorcerer's cabal proceeds to destroy her life.
Since the witches in the coven won't help, Paige is forced to accept the help of a sorcerer/lawyer who's heir to another cabal, Lucas Cortez.
There's so much going on here, I've barely scratched the surface. It's definitely a page-turner. The villains are clever, and Paige and Lucas have to be clever in return--it's not an easy or easily predicted victory.
And we learn more about the Otherworld as well--in particular, about the witches and the sorcerers and the difference between their spells, and the source of their enmity.
I could feel Paige's frustration with the coven, and enjoyed how as the story progressed, she had all her support taken away from her, a bit at a time. Nothing like stripping away a heroine's support to show what she's really made of.
Lucas is a fascinating character as well, and I'm looking forward to learning more about him in the next book, which is on my TBB (to be bought) list.
...more
Categories: Books, 5stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 5 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Stolen
***** Stolen by Kelley Armstrong. Contemporary fantasy.
I read Bitten five years ago and loved it. And I'd intended to look for this one when it came out, but that was before I started keeping a calendar list of what's coming out when, and I ended up forgetting about it. Argh.
Elena Michaels is the only female werewolf. Her job for the pack is to help keep the werewolves' secrecy by investigating anything online that might indicate a mutt (non-pack werewolf) getting himself noticed.
She's following a lead when she agrees to meet with Ruth and Paige Winterbourne, aunt and niece, who are selling proof that werewolves exist. When she meets them, she finds out that not only do they have proof--they know all about her, personally, and that they'd placed the ad specifically in order to meet her. The women explain that they are witches and they wanted to meet her to invite the pack to a meeting of representatives of supernatural races, convening to discuss the disappearance of supernaturals of all sorts, kidnapped by billionaire Ty Winsloe.
Elena is disbelieving, but when a stalker in fatigues who seems to know she's a wolf tries to grab her, she's a little more willing to listen. So she, the alpha Jeremy, and Clay, her lover, attend the meeting along with the witches, a vampire, a shaman, and a half-demon.
Then she's, well, Stolen--abducted after the meeting when her vehicle gets separated from the one carrying Clay and Jeremy. She's taken to an underground facility with cells housing other supernaturals who are being experimented on. Think Season 4 of Buffy, and The Initiative (which, by the way, is mentioned, making me laugh).
That's why the scientists and doctors are there, anyway. Winsloe just wants his own extreme LARP.
Stolen opens up the series by introducing other supernatural races. Witches are pretty much what you'd expect, but vampires are a little different from what I've seen elsewhere, and the half-demons, who have a variety of powers depending on their demon parentage, are quite unusual.
There's a lot of worldbuilding in this story, and the plot facilitates that--first by Ruth and Paige explaining things to a disbelieving Elena, and then by the experiments and observations of Winsloe's scientific team.
Even though the story is told from Elena's first person POV, the various characters are all unique and well-developed, including the villains, who aren't just cardboard cut-outs of Evil, and are all the more chilling because of that.
The suspense kept me turning pages, and I particularly appreciated that Armstrong skipped the cliche of the stupid villains--that most of the ways Elena tried to escape had been anticipated and prevented, and that she kept having to stretch her ingenuity.
There is, of course, less of the werewolf pack and Elena's relationship with Clay--that was done superbly in Bitten, and kudos to Armstrong again for not simply rehashing the first book. There's a bit, though, enough to keep fans happy.
I'm glad I finally remembered to get this. The third book is already in my TBR pile.
...more
Categories: Books, 5stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 5 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Living Dead in Dallas
***½ Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris. Contemporary fantasy.
I read the first book of this popular series several years ago, but was underwhelmed. Dagny read it too, and loved it. So I bought her the second book, and then when she was finished, I stuck it in my TBR pile, figuring I'd give the series a second chance.
Sookie Stackhouse is a telepathic cocktail waitress. There's a lot going on in this book. Her friend and coworker is murdered; she's sent to Dallas to help solve the disappearance of a vampire (by telepathically reading the human witnesses); she's attacked by a maenad with a message for the local vampire boss; she's imprisoned by a group of anti-vampire fanatics; befriends some shapeshifters; and attends a kinky sex party.
The politics of the various preternatural communities was interesting, and I enjoyed the intrigue and solving the mysteries, but there was just too much unrelated stuff going on. I'd have liked it better if the various threads connected more, or if a couple of them were saved for the next book.
More than that, though, is that I wasn't really involved in the story--it was interesting, from a distance. That's it: I was as interested in the book itself as I would have been if someone had simply related the plot to me. In other words, I didn't connect with the characters.
Some of that is because of the character of Sookie herself. I don't like her. She seems kind of dumb, and proud of being dumb, and in addition to that, she's self-pitying. On top of that, she's opinionated and bossy.
But so many people whose taste I usually share absolutely love this series, so it drives me nuts trying to figure out why it doesn't grab me. Even those things about her character that bug me aren't a problem with other characters--I love Stephanie Plum, and she's ditzy; Harry Dresden dropped out of high school, and we all know how I feel about him; I love countless characters who are opinionated and bossy, and quite a few who aren't happy about their supernatural gifts. So it's not just those details. All I can come up with is her voice--not a very satisfactory answer.
But at least I gave the series another shot. I won't be looking for the next book--I've got too much in the TBR pile and on the must-buy list as it is.
...more
Categories: Books, 3.5stars, ContemporaryFantasy
Labels: 3.5 stars, books, ContemporaryFantasy
