Book round up time.
This is what I’ve been doing with my free time this month. You know, all those times when I should have
been out running or having a life. This
is the good, the mediocre and the ugly of the trash I’ve consumed. Well, this month, not so much of the
ugly. Which is a good thing for me, but
hard on the snark factor. It is what it
is.
The
Good:
A-
So, it's graded lower, but placed higher? How does that work? This is where things get unfair. Apples are not organs and they cannot be judged
against each other. So the A- given to
one book doesn’t necessarily trump the A of another. This is a solid book, and damn near
great. The trick is that it’s not quite brisk/fluff/easy
enough to be Urban Fantasy, but not good enough to be literature either. Since I think it tried for the later, I judge by literature
standards, but to be honest, it might get the same grade as UF because while I’m
all for liminal spaces and interstitial genre bending, it has to actually work
as both but succeed at the highest end.
The book has its challenges, and in places the plot stutters, sputters
and damn near goes out. At others, the
lyricism and theme take hits to keep the pace up. It tried to be both a little too hard. I love Valente’s work, and I think anyone
with a gram of patience and a curiosity about history will enjoy this. It’s different, and the take on real Russian events is
fascinating. Pick it up.
A-
This is a labor intensive act of love. There are threads of The Neverending
Story, Neverwhere,
Stranger
than Fiction, Supernatural,
and, maybe this one is just me, Labyrinth. And lots of other things too. But it’s a good weave. Despite some moments of “okay, stop that,
your readers know these tropes already” thatI just chalk it up to the writer being
Canadian. Or something. This makes a
good car book, as it’s broken into interconnected short stories that I can swallow
in the doctor’s office or waiting for a tire rotation. Some of them are creepy, some of them will
blow you out of the water. Some of them
are a little flat. Overall, I think it
requires a bit of effort to get the most out of this one. This is not a book you just open and it opens
itself to you. This is more an open
yourself to it and see what you can do with it type of book. Which can be either a good or bad thing. But this is the guy who gave me Objects
of Worship, and I love him lots. It
is a little friendlier to the uncommitted, and I think you should go and buy
it. Yes, right now. The internet is always open.
A
This is a series to root for. Each book gets progressively better, the
characters make choices that seem not just reasonable but well reasoned, and
the plot gets tighter and better executed with each outing. They grow, and their personal growth
interacts with both the plot and the other characters, which is like finding a
fricking virgin unicorn in Urban Fanstasy these days. This time we get a nice chunk of Ray’s back
story, and still manage to further the overarching plot of the 20 Palaces society being
maybe not the good guys so much as the only option guys. All the while moving the indivual plot forward and
never seeming like an info dump or the Voice of The Author. The book whips by, and it will keep you up to
till the finish without apology. These books are
hard core. No romance, no ponies, no
fairies, and a body count best measured in piles. Start at the beginning, because they don’t
make a lot of allowances for folks jumping into the boat midstream, (Why the
hell should they?) but go in with the understanding that it gets better. Loads better.
B+
It’s fun. But
be warned from the gate, buy the two together.
This is one story split in two books.
And the second is still hardcover only.
It’s not worth almost 30 dollars.
It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but that’s a lot of money for a couple of
hours of fluff. So I’ll just stick to
the 1st book. SoCal girl
journeys to Eastern Europe on a genealogy quest (which I persisted in reading as
“gynecology” with hilarious results) and meets up with adventure of a “Princess Diaries” type. Turns out she’s a lost princess, sorta. Upside? It’s pretty darn fun. Downside?
There’s a lot of “we’re over-educated superiority” to be wound around. Upside? The heroine actually does heroine
shaped things rather than really dumb ones.
Downside? I totally played “Name
the Novel this was Cribbed From” a ton. Hell,
the biggest one is Smith’s own Crown
Duel, a YA version of this written long ago. Yet I still like it. It’s totally worth the paperback price. Just wait to buy it until the sequel/second
half is also available in pocket or be prepared to shell out.
The
Mediocre:
C+
You know that old line about the definition of
insanity being repetition with the expectation of a variant outcome? Pretty sure that’s me and this author at this
point. A salesgirl at our now defunct
borders recommended the “Diesel” outshoot books to me, so I nabbed this one at
my used book hook-up. Does this book
suck down hours of your time with no reward but misery? No. But the heroine ends up covered in food. Sometimes I forgot her name wasn’t Stephanie. I came THEEis close to putting the book down
when a Certain Event straight from the Plum novels occured. BUT, it reads quickly, and
dialogue is brisk, so I read till the end. Sadly, however, the hijinxs . . . not so much fun. That’s where the real hit comes for me. The Plum books started out hilarious, the
kind of crazy where I’d laugh out loud.
I’d hoped that with fresh characters not tied into the same old loops, some
of that might come back. Nope. The plot, as it has with newer Plum books, is
silly and oddly lacking in either real danger or rational sense. Some weird things happen. Our leads roll with it while complaining
about their ineptitude and picking up wacky sidekicks. Offbeat characters take up way too much
time. The end is super abrupt and not
all that well thought out. The mystery is in no way, shape or even pro forma, mysterious. And the treasure
hunt plot line means she intends to write at least 8 of these. Goody. The only remaining question is just how insane am I prepared to be?
The
Ugly:
C-
Now, I’m the girl typically championing LESS icky
sex in books shelved in PNR, but for some reason, this one felt ½ assed because
it got squeamish about the icky sex. The
premise is that of an assassin sent by her vamp master (yes, literally) to kill
a healer. You do the romantic triangle math,
trust me, you’ll get it right. The twist
is that she’s been forced to drink her master’s orgasm inducing and highly
addictive blood. Yep, you read that
right. But the weird thing is that the
author tiptoes around the slavery, the pain/pleasure problem, and the dynamic
of the relationship any of which might have saved this from being more than
just a disturbing sidebar distraction.
The author lacked to balls to go all in, and in return got a result that’s
lackluster despite the brisk plot.
Warning: this is a heavier dose of religion than I will normally put up
with. The templars factor in and god gets
sort of a walk on role a few times.
Overall, it was interesting plot, plus tired plot tropes, plus cardboard
characters, plus whiplash plot switches only the CW could love, plus awkward sex(ish) scenes held all together with
bubblegum and a novena. Will I get the
next one? I will not.
A
note on Grading: on my Scale A=I might buy the hardback; B=pay trade cover
price; C=get it used or from the bargain bin; D=used if you’re in to self
flagellation; F=what, are you stupid?
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