Book report
More small book reviews...
First up, Widow's Web by Jennifer Estep. This is the seventh book in the Elemental Assassin series which started out looking like a single plot arc but is now clearly ongoing. Our heroine, the magic-wielding, semi-retired assassin Gin, starts out in a pretty comfortable place. She's in a healthy relationship, most of her hatchets are buried (generally in people's skulls), and she only occasionally has to kill wanna bes trying to make a name for themselves. Things go downhill fast, though, when she's hired by her boyfriend's severely estranged childhood friend... which rapidly embroils her with the long missing cause of that estrangement, boyfriend's first love. Bodies will fall! Scenery will be chewed! Familiar characters will get cameos! All in all, it's not a bad series, but it's not one of the great stories.
Next up is Steel's Edge by Ilona Andrews. In a sense this is book four of a series, but each novel has different point of view characters and a self-contained story. Of course, each character is directly linked to the others by blood or romance, so everything interesting happening in the world is tied to this extended family chain. The Edge series is nominally about the blended interface between the Broken (tech-not-magic Earth) and the Weird (Earth's magic-not-tech twin).
Most of this book is set in the Weird and seen through the eyes of Charlotte. A powerful healer, she ran away to the Edge after her marriage collapsed. When slavers on the trail of an abolitionist agent wreck her new life, she sets out to seek revenge. While she lacks any combat or survival training, she embraces the forbidden inverse of her natural magic, using her healing talents to cause injury, disease, and death. She joins forces with the abolitionist, Richard, to tear apart the slaver organization no matter the cost. The plot is solid and well-written, and most of the conflicts are compelling. The only big failing is the inevitable romance which seems to happen because it's inevitable and is only delayed because otherwise perceptive people in their 30s are apparently as romantically clueless as teenagers.
Which brings us to Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers. This is nominally a sequel to The Stress of Her Regard, but I barely remember that book and didn't find myself too disadvantaged in reading this one. Set in 19th Century London, the story follows two families. Christina Rossetti and her siblings attract the attention of their uncle ("uncle"?), a vampiric creature that grants its victims artistic creativity even as it slowly drains their lives and violently denies them other romantic connections. Meanwhile, John Crawford is approached by former prostitute Adelaide McKee who reveals that they have a child together who is being targeted by the same vampire.
The mythology is very Tim Powers. Despite using terms like vampire and nephilim, he has crafted his own creatures with their own habits and characteristics. The mechanics of the supernatural are strange, somewhat ill explained, and deliberately obscure. Historical figures are frequently name dropped - probably more than I noticed - but the story doesn't really require you to recognize them or know their history. Despite some similarities, I'm not sure if it's supposed to be the same universe that would ultimately produce Declare or Last Call (both of which are better books).
Ultimately, I enjoyed reading it while still finding parts of it confusing. Perhaps a history buff would have gotten more out of it than I did.
Book seven of Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series, The Atlantis Complex was a bit disappointing. Teenage genius (and former arch-criminal) Artemis Fowl has decided he wants to save the world from climate change. He's also developed severe OCD and fierce paranoia. When he presents his master plan to his fairy allies, they quickly realize he is suffering from a textbook case of Atlantis Complex. This is a supernatural affliction that isn't normally a problem for humans, but Artemis's tampering with magic has apparently made him vulnerable. The presentation is attacked by a returning fairy space probe which then begins digging down toward the actual Atlantis, a prison for the fairies' worst criminals.
The book wasn't well paced, and it took a long time to find its groove. Artemis's mental problems were delivered with a sledgehammer where some subtlety might have made things more interesting. A new villain was introduced, and he ultimately proved somewhat compelling. Injecting his backstory took too much time, though, and kept making me think I'd missed a book in the series somewhere. All the usual friends and allies played a role, and we got to know Butler's sister Juliet better. Overall, I wouldn't recommend it unless you're already a Fowl fan and insist on completeness.
Last up for this post is The Maze Runner by James Dashner. This one's clearly a young adult novel, not that that's a bad thing. Thomas is a young man who wakes up in an elevator which eventually delivers him to the Glade, a large open area surrounded by high walls. In the Glade are dozens of other boys ranging from around 12 to around 20. All of them, Thomas included, know only their first names. Each arrived via the elevator, generally one a month. Gaps in the walls lead to a large, monster-infested maze which rearranges itself each night. The boys have a reasonably structured society that tries to slot newcomers into whatever roles they show an aptitude for, and Thomas is seen as just the latest new citizen. Their stable existence is about to change, though. The day after Thomas's arrival, the elevator delivers another newcomer: a teenage girl bearing a note warning that there will be no more people or supplies. Things begin to degenerate quickly, and the people of the Glade have to solve the mystery of their imprisonment - or die.
I picked this one up on a lark after flipping through it at one of the kid's book fairs. I found it surprisingly interesting, and some (not all) of the characters were quite good. It's worth reading if you're looking for something quick, but it's also very much book one of a trilogy. Very few of the book's questions are answered by the end.
Okay, that's enough blather for one day (particularly since I should be working).
This brings my total for the year to seven.
This entry was originally posted at http://squidminion.dreamwidth.org/364278.html.
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First up, Widow's Web by Jennifer Estep. This is the seventh book in the Elemental Assassin series which started out looking like a single plot arc but is now clearly ongoing. Our heroine, the magic-wielding, semi-retired assassin Gin, starts out in a pretty comfortable place. She's in a healthy relationship, most of her hatchets are buried (generally in people's skulls), and she only occasionally has to kill wanna bes trying to make a name for themselves. Things go downhill fast, though, when she's hired by her boyfriend's severely estranged childhood friend... which rapidly embroils her with the long missing cause of that estrangement, boyfriend's first love. Bodies will fall! Scenery will be chewed! Familiar characters will get cameos! All in all, it's not a bad series, but it's not one of the great stories.
Next up is Steel's Edge by Ilona Andrews. In a sense this is book four of a series, but each novel has different point of view characters and a self-contained story. Of course, each character is directly linked to the others by blood or romance, so everything interesting happening in the world is tied to this extended family chain. The Edge series is nominally about the blended interface between the Broken (tech-not-magic Earth) and the Weird (Earth's magic-not-tech twin).
Most of this book is set in the Weird and seen through the eyes of Charlotte. A powerful healer, she ran away to the Edge after her marriage collapsed. When slavers on the trail of an abolitionist agent wreck her new life, she sets out to seek revenge. While she lacks any combat or survival training, she embraces the forbidden inverse of her natural magic, using her healing talents to cause injury, disease, and death. She joins forces with the abolitionist, Richard, to tear apart the slaver organization no matter the cost. The plot is solid and well-written, and most of the conflicts are compelling. The only big failing is the inevitable romance which seems to happen because it's inevitable and is only delayed because otherwise perceptive people in their 30s are apparently as romantically clueless as teenagers.
Which brings us to Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers. This is nominally a sequel to The Stress of Her Regard, but I barely remember that book and didn't find myself too disadvantaged in reading this one. Set in 19th Century London, the story follows two families. Christina Rossetti and her siblings attract the attention of their uncle ("uncle"?), a vampiric creature that grants its victims artistic creativity even as it slowly drains their lives and violently denies them other romantic connections. Meanwhile, John Crawford is approached by former prostitute Adelaide McKee who reveals that they have a child together who is being targeted by the same vampire.
The mythology is very Tim Powers. Despite using terms like vampire and nephilim, he has crafted his own creatures with their own habits and characteristics. The mechanics of the supernatural are strange, somewhat ill explained, and deliberately obscure. Historical figures are frequently name dropped - probably more than I noticed - but the story doesn't really require you to recognize them or know their history. Despite some similarities, I'm not sure if it's supposed to be the same universe that would ultimately produce Declare or Last Call (both of which are better books).
Ultimately, I enjoyed reading it while still finding parts of it confusing. Perhaps a history buff would have gotten more out of it than I did.
Book seven of Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series, The Atlantis Complex was a bit disappointing. Teenage genius (and former arch-criminal) Artemis Fowl has decided he wants to save the world from climate change. He's also developed severe OCD and fierce paranoia. When he presents his master plan to his fairy allies, they quickly realize he is suffering from a textbook case of Atlantis Complex. This is a supernatural affliction that isn't normally a problem for humans, but Artemis's tampering with magic has apparently made him vulnerable. The presentation is attacked by a returning fairy space probe which then begins digging down toward the actual Atlantis, a prison for the fairies' worst criminals.
The book wasn't well paced, and it took a long time to find its groove. Artemis's mental problems were delivered with a sledgehammer where some subtlety might have made things more interesting. A new villain was introduced, and he ultimately proved somewhat compelling. Injecting his backstory took too much time, though, and kept making me think I'd missed a book in the series somewhere. All the usual friends and allies played a role, and we got to know Butler's sister Juliet better. Overall, I wouldn't recommend it unless you're already a Fowl fan and insist on completeness.
Last up for this post is The Maze Runner by James Dashner. This one's clearly a young adult novel, not that that's a bad thing. Thomas is a young man who wakes up in an elevator which eventually delivers him to the Glade, a large open area surrounded by high walls. In the Glade are dozens of other boys ranging from around 12 to around 20. All of them, Thomas included, know only their first names. Each arrived via the elevator, generally one a month. Gaps in the walls lead to a large, monster-infested maze which rearranges itself each night. The boys have a reasonably structured society that tries to slot newcomers into whatever roles they show an aptitude for, and Thomas is seen as just the latest new citizen. Their stable existence is about to change, though. The day after Thomas's arrival, the elevator delivers another newcomer: a teenage girl bearing a note warning that there will be no more people or supplies. Things begin to degenerate quickly, and the people of the Glade have to solve the mystery of their imprisonment - or die.
I picked this one up on a lark after flipping through it at one of the kid's book fairs. I found it surprisingly interesting, and some (not all) of the characters were quite good. It's worth reading if you're looking for something quick, but it's also very much book one of a trilogy. Very few of the book's questions are answered by the end.
Okay, that's enough blather for one day (particularly since I should be working).
This brings my total for the year to seven.
This entry was originally posted at http://squidminion.dreamwidth.org/364278.html.
There are
comments there. You could add one via OpenID.
Or you can comment here if you'd rather; it's okay.