Gabriel’s Ghost by Linnea Sinclair – part 2!

Posted on February 7, 2008 by janicu

So after feeling alll unfulfilled and going on and on about how Gabriel's Ghost feels like it needs another book, I looked at the author's website to find – THERE IS A SEQUEL! Yes! The book is called Shades of Dark (apparently it was renamed from "Chasidah's Choice") and is coming out in July 2008. I feel all better now and take back what I said about book 1 being unfinished. Maybe I should look this stuff up huh. But seriously the book did not say there is a sequel! What would I do without the internet?

P.S. I was on Linnea Sinclair's website because.. I think her writing is like crack. Fun space opera crack.

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Gabriel’s Ghost by Linnea Sinclair

Posted on February 1, 2008 by janicu

Gabriel's Ghost

Linnea Sinclair

Oh my, look at this cover. Racy! I have another cover but vox gives me an error if I try to get it.

Since I'm on the space opera kick and my Borders is closing and there are sales, I went and bought about $50 worth of books there. My TBR is 129-ish. Don't judge me, I am weak. I will make it go below 100 some day. I say this and then I laugh a little.

Also – man I am depressed that this Borders is closing. I've been going there for 9 years. It's in walking distance. 😦 There's a Barnes and Noble that's a couple of blocks closer, but I still like the Borders better. If you live in Westchester, New York, the White Plains Borders has a 40% off sale now until it closes on Saturday (tomorrow). I could cry.

I picked this one up because I knew it was standalone plus I'd just read Finders Keepers by the same author. I guess this cover to the left conveys that this is both romance and science fiction with spaceships and stuff. Which it is – Chasidah Bergren was a Fleet Captain when she was courtmartialed for a crime she didn't commit, and sentenced to the prison planet Moabar, where life expectancy is very low. After two weeks, Gabriel Sullivan, a mercenary she's spent time trying to capture in the past, finds her and offers to help her escape the planet. Of course there are things she doesn't know, like why he tracked her down of all people, and what is he doing alive, because he was supposed to have died years ago. Larger things are happening and she is part of it. Much fun space opera action ensues.

When I read Gabriel's Ghost I was mentally comparing it with Finders Keepers, and it feels like it's a later novel. I just checked and that's true. I didn't see the repetition in phrases I was seeing in Finders Keepers, so that habit is gone. Also the romance is more complicated in this book, less predictable. Despite that, although the writing still pulled me in, I liked Gabriel's Ghost less than Finders Keepers. The first part of the book was very interesting, but then about halfway through, the story started to lag. I felt like the relationship should be all resolved by then and I' dlike to see it build from there, but it was just being dragged backward and having wrenches thrown in because Chaz Doesn't Really Know the Truth About Gabriel. She would find out something, freak out a bit, then got over it and become reasonable. But this keeps happening because Gabriel gave her the facts in little crumbs. I think the book could have been better if this didn't go on as long as it did. Plus, to add to this – the hints about Gabriel were all over the place. There were a couple of things I didn't guess that were minor, but if Chaz had figured the obvious this book would have been shorter in a good way because the story picks up towards the end and then – it ends! A couple of major parts were resolved, but.. certain other very large questions are not. IS there is another book? If there is, I would feel happier. They never really completely fix the issue that they are trying to fix. This book ends one battle but more are forthcoming. There are also major prejudice in certain characters which our heroes have to confront soon. I wondered how that was going to go. Plus, in the end, I wasn't completely convinced that there was proof Chaz wasn't being manipulated. I felt like that wasn't resolved as well as it could have been. More could have been said! So not a bad read but for me it was cut short.

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Links and TV series

Posted on February 1, 2008 by janicu

Twenty things you didn't know about Science Fiction from the Discover Magazine website.

and

Is everyone else watching the Complete Jane Austen on PBS? I've been watching for the past couple of weeks and enjoying myself, except I wish they were all longer. I want them to be ALL miniseries and not just an hour and a half. So far they've shown Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park. Next is Miss Austen Regrets, and then three weeks of Pride and Prejudice (the Colin Firth version of which I own on DVD and have watched like 5 times). The only one that's in more than one part, and long, and I've seen it! Oh well. Meanwhile, I'm amused PBS has a "The Men of Austen" page where viewers can vote on the men is the most suitable mate. OF COURSE Mr. Darcy is winning.

Also: I don't know if I've ranted about this before – but I was recommended the North and South miniseries (not the one about the Civil War, the one based on the book by Elizabeth Gaskell) at Lights, Camera, History! (a very nice blog by the way), and that series is fantastic. Go watch if you like Jane Austen movies.

AND I'm now watching Lark Rise to Candleford. Also recommended by Lights, Camera, History. It has Dawn French from the Vicar of Dibley in it. That is enough for me.

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Ann Aguirre Grimspace contest

Posted on January 30, 2008 by janicu

I usually don't enter the contests that ask you to post something to your blog, but the prizes for this one are pretty sweet, the book looks like something I would read (um.. I've been reading a lot of girls kicking butt in outer space books this month, could this be an addiction?), and the quiz is amusing so:

KICK-BUTT CONTEST! Answer five questions, earn chances to win fabulous prizes.

The official GRIMSPACE quiz*

Ever wondered what job you'd hold down on a star ship?
	Yes!
	Uhm, no… shifty look
	Banana Hammock!

I got "JUMPER" as my result. Which makes me look very exciting but I'm thinking – really I don't feel exciting: "Grimspace navigator? Dude, you're like interstellar royalty. You're charismatic and possess a forceful personality. You're used to having power and you don't hesitate to use it. You also love to take risks. If it has danger attached, you're first in line, and no, you're not wearing a safety helmet. You live for the thrills, don't care about life expectancy, and expect to go out with a bang. "

Anyone who knows me – does this look right? HA. I think not. Except for the powerful bit. That sounds right. 😛 And charismatic. Yeah.

Info on this contest and the prizes here.

ETA – Ahhh, stupid HTML.

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Endurance by S. L. Viehl

Posted on January 29, 2008 by janicu

Endurance (A Stardoc Novel)

S.L. Viehl

This is Stardoc book 3 (I seem to be on a space opera kick), and this time Cherijo Veil is under the control of slavers. As she usually does, Cherijo uses her skills as a surgeon to help everyone that needs medical attention, saving many lives and often making life harder for herself to do so.

I don't think this review is spoilerific but may allude to things that could be spoilers. So if you want to know NOTHING, don't keep reading, my vox doesn't have LJ cuts.

{possible spoilers below}

Cherijo's mental state seems different from books 1 and 2 – she believes she was betrayed, and this makes her very very grouchy throughout the book (at least to me). There was a fine line between defiance and stupidity and sometimes Cherijo crosses it, needlessly provoking the prison guards and not allowing people to protect her. Sometimes this was frustrating to read. Cherijo also the reason the people around her are enslaved, but she feels as if she's even with them for what they did. I think most of them didn't have much choice, so I thought Cherijo was seeing things a little bit too black and white. Of course, others see things in a similar black and white way and want Cherijo dead for what has happened. Cherijo does manage to convert some people but not others. The usual addictive high action drama occurs.

This was a overall an OK read for me, but I preferred book 1 out of all these so far and book 3 the least. The second half of the book was better than the first, but I don't understand why her friend Alunthri was added to the story. His being there seemed very forced in order to make Cherijo even angrier about her betrayal. I think her attitude of bullheaded defiance throughout the book, not really trusting or looking at things from other people's points of view was beginning to wear thin on me. Basically because she's brilliant she is always right (ha) - often naturally taking the role of a leader and hard to sway once her mind is made. It is even harder for others to get her to do what they say just to keep her alive. They are forced to great lengths to save her. I'd like to see how much her attitude changes in book 4. I hope she learns some lessons about trust instead of dragging out a tense situation. Meanwhile, one of the best parts of the book was when Cherijo goes deep into her subconscious, I think this is part of a much larger, very interesting story arc which I'd like to read more about. Another good thing in this book which is something it has in common with others – is the humanizing of the "bad guys" – not everyone is put into a tidy slot and there are facets to their personality – some of the slavers are terrible, while others turn out to be very honorable.

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GASP !!!!

Posted on January 28, 2008 by janicu

Via Dear Author – Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series is going to be made into comic book form?

"Dabel Brothers Publishing has signed bestselling paranormal fantasy writer Patricia Briggs to produce a new original comic series featuring her character Mercedes "Mercy" Thompson. The four-shot miniseries will be released in the second half of 2008, with a hardcover collection from Del Rey to follow in 2009.

The Mercedes Thompson series began in 2006 and currently consists of three novels. The comic will be a prequel to the comics titled Mercedes Thompson: Homecoming. " – from ICv2 News

Also – they're doing the same with Dresden Files? This is the first I heard of this. I think certain people I know may be interested in that.

ALSO – Book 4 of the Cast series by Michelle Sagara is supposedly in the works to come out this August-fallish? Will be called Cast in Fury. I'm really looking forward to it.

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Finders Keepers by Linnea Sinclair

Posted on January 24, 2008 by janicu

Finders Keepers

Linnea Sinclair

I'd kept seeing good reviews of Linnea Sinclair's books on different blogs so I went ahead and picked this up when I was in Arizona.

I think the cover is a big hint that this is a sci -fi. It is rather space opera, action-y with guns and spaceships and wars. But. It's also romance heavy, at least for a sci-fi book. My impression when I was reading this was – if you like sci-fi, AND you like romance, you'll like this. If you only like one genre and not the other, I'm not sure you'll enjoy yourself. This was shelved in the sci-fi/ fantasy section, but I'd call it more of a crossover book. I found it rather an addictive read myself. After the first chapter (which I thought started off slow in the first couple of pages), it got interesting.

Trilby Elliot is the captain of an OLD spaceship which she uses to transport cargo as part of her business as an independent freighter. The ship is a bucket of bolts and full of non-functioning parts barely kept together by Trilby and her robot Dezi. Trilby is constantly running out of cash and calculating how much she can repair with the money she gets on her next run. To keep costs down, she secretly uses an uninhabited planet that's far from the path of usual space traffic to make modifications to her ship. While she is there another spacecraft crashes to the surface and Trilby discovers an unconscious man thrown out of the wreckage. This man calls himself Rhis and says he is a leutienent in the Imperial forces who crashed on the planet after escaping enemy 'Sko. Chases, gunfights, political intruige, romance, undercover work and alien encounters follow.

This was good for a fun read though I did notice some nits:

Dezi reminded me a lot of C-3PO.. I guess I didn't care too much about this, but it could be annoying to others.
I noticed that the author repeated certain things a few times -certain phrases were repeated in the same area of text. Some examples: Trilby thinking how certain Zafharian traits must be in the water, Rhis thinking of Trilby as a air sprite, and all the times Trilby kept turning around and bumping straight into Rhis's chest (what was up with this?). It started to jar me when I kept seeing things repeated, especially phrases.
The romance was predictable. I think the setting and the rest of what was going on is what made it interesting here.
There is the Zafharians, the 'Sko and the Conclave, but all of these factions have other nicknames which Trilby uses in practically the first 3 pages. It took me a little while not to be confused and realize Zafharians = the Imperials = the Empire and also figure out the other names used when referring to The Conclave and the 'Sko.
I never did get exactly ALL of the plot of what was going on with the bad guys and their plans at the end of this book. It felt a little sparse on the details or maybe I missed something obvious. I got most of it, but.. I still have a couple of but.. what would they gain by doing it that way?

Anyway, besides those nits, I have to say, I was glued. It was a fun way to pass an afternoon and I'd gladly read another one by this author.

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Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs

Posted on January 21, 2008 by janicu

Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson Series, Book 3)

Patricia Briggs

Ah, another butt shot cover. I liked this one.

This is book 3 of the Mercedes Thompson series. Mercy, a VW mechanic who can shapeshift into a coyote, can't help sticking her nose into things when her friends are in danger, even when they tell her to back off. Book 1 was Mercy helping werewolves, book 2 was helping the vampires, and in book 3 she's involved with the fae. This time the problem is that her mentor Zee is being charged with murder. Mercy feels she must prove his innocence to save his life, even though he tells her get her ass lost.

Lazy bullet time:

There is a resolution to the love triangle Mercy is involved in since book 1. I was pleased with it. It felt like her decision was inevitable but I liked how her choice was explained.
I think you can probably read this book out of order, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's a lot better knowing what happened in books 1 and 2.
I was really looking forward to this book, and I think a lot of people loved the story, but I didn't feel the same way at the end of this one as the others. I don't think the end made me feel "satisfied", but this isn't the fault of the writing. I'm going to try to say this without spoilers. Basically - I found myself being chilled by what I was reading. It went past my personal comfort zone, which shows that the writing is good, but I don't think I want to reread it. At all. Meanwhile I would reread books 1 and 2. So basically, this was a different kind of book to me – more visceral, less escapist. I could go into why and blah but that would spoil so that's all I have to say.
So good book, not sure if i could handle it again. I'm fragile.
I love this protagonist.
Wonder what book 4 is going to be like? I thought there were 7 of these books coming out, and since this book seems like it concludes, I can't tell if we are going to keep hearing from Mercy (I hope we do), or if we're going to get a book from another POV. I wonder if we're going to revist the vamps because Mercy was a little nervous about them finding things out after book 2?

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Holidays Are Hell by Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Marjorie M. Liu, and Vicki Pettersson

Posted on January 19, 2008 by janicu

Holidays Are Hell

Kim Harrison

I reviewed the first of these anthologies, Dates from Hell over here. This is the second one which is in the same vein as the first – urban fantasy, some paranormal romance going on, with an added holiday theme.

For the most part I liked this anthology better than the first one. I think it was all on the "good!" side except for one story.

"Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel" by Kim Harrison. In Dates from Hell we got a story about Ivy set before she meets Rachel, and in this story, we get a story about a young teen-aged Rachel before she ever joins Inderland Security. I thought this was well done because you don't have to have read the Rachel Morgan books to understand the world (much less confusing than the story in Dates from Hell), plus there are a lot of new things to learn for those who read those series. We learn about Rachel's family dynamics, and about Rachel's reasons for joining IS. I was also surprised to see how different Rachel is physically in this short story than what I was used to seeing in the series, but her stubbornness and trying to do things seemingly beyond her abilities seems very familiar.

"Run, Run, Rudolf" by Lynsay Sands. If you look at the link to the first anthology, and check out the "Claire Switch Project", this is a continuation of that short story. A couple of scientists gets zapped by a "destabilizer ray" that allows them to shapeshift if they concentrate really hard. I thought that story was goofy and I think this continuation is equally so. The scientists from the first story rebuild the ray in their basement and the same mad scientist from before (John Heathcliffe) zaps Jill with it. The characters sound like caricatures, and because Jill's keeps losing concentration during shapeshifting, she keeps conveniently being naked in public and flashing the man she's interested in (at least three times!). I rolled my eyes a lot. I have checked out reviews from this book and surprisingly this was many people's favorite story so I don't know.. I may be crazy or something when I say this was my least favorite of the bunch and it did not fit in with the rest of them.

"Six" by Marjorie M. Liu. I think this one is a stand alone, unconnected to an outside series, and it manages to have great world-building, action, characters, and plot in a short space. Six is a elite Chinese agent trying to track down terrorists when she stumbles upon the paranormal – vampires – not the western myth I'm used to reading about, but the Chinese version – Jiang Shi. This was a refreshing twist. When I was a kid and camping for the first time, a Singaporean boy scared me to death telling me about the Jiang Shi. I couldn't sleep all night imaging them hopping over to kill me! Seriously – cold sweats. Anyway, Six also meets a man named Joseph who fights these vampires, and who has some special abilities and they start working together. Possibly my favorite of the bunch because I liked the setting – urban China. Liu has several romance novels out but I really like her urban fantasy. I also enjoyed her short story in the Wild Thing anthology – that one was about a woman with living tattoos over her body which protect her but will eventually kill her, and that's going to be a series called Hunter Kiss.

"The Harvest" by Vicki Pettersson – Another one based in the world where a series is set. This is the story of Zoe Archer – the mother of the protagonist in the Signs of the Zodiac series, Joanna Archer. I thought this was a great side story to go with the series which fills us in on the motivation of Zoe's mother as well as learning about her personality and how she was able to do what she did. But, if you haven't read this series, I'm not sure how lost you would be reading this story. It's possible the answer is – quite lost. Though there are several hints that explain the world, the Zodiac world is very complex so it's hard for me to say how confused someone would be. Definitely a must-read for a Zodiac series fan though.

P.S. This one shall be tagged with my butt shot cover tag. I'm not a fan of the shoes on this cover but ok, it's holiday-related. Also – I noticed that this cover is so similar to another Kim Harrison cover – For a Few Demons More the mass market paperback (same pose – woman in dress walking with knife on the left side of the cover). Odd.

My TBR is around 120. Eek?

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The Dead Girls’ Dance (Morganville Vampires, book 2) by Rachel Caine

Posted on January 19, 2008 by janicu

The Dead Girls' Dance (The Morganville Vampires, Book 2)

Rachel Caine

This is Rachel Caine's (author of the Weather Warden books) young adult series. It's in the third person but follows the story of Claire, a young college student going to school at what turns out to be a town run by vampires. Claire lives with 3 other teens (Shane, Michael and Eve) in a unusual house. The three others are all older than Claire and grew up in Morganville, and they all know more about the town and it's history than Claire does, but everyone seems to have some secrets and history with the vamps. As time goes on, power plays amongst the vampires (themselves very interesting and complex characters), end up involving these friends who want to be free of vampire control. Book 1 dealt with Claire's move to Morganville, meeting the other teens and learning about the vampires, and book 2 continues with some trouble that they run into when vampire-slayers come to town.

Caine explains a lot of things that I'd question. For example the "Vampires running a whole town? How does that work?" question: not everyone living in Morganville even realize there are vampires there, and through some sort of magic, people forget about the vampires by the time they leave Morganville. The police and mayor are largely controlled by the vampires, but there are rules between human and vamp – who is under protection, who is fair game, what's allowed and what's not. It's a very interesting premise and the story is never dull, one surprise follows another and there is a lot of action going on. I did notice that the author likes to end her books with cliffhangers, so the series is addictive, but if you hate cliffhangers, make sure you have book 2 around if you start reading book 1. Book 2 ends with a much smaller surprise. Meanwhile the heroine is smart and thoughtful while sounding like a teenager. I'm glad this is not another "teen girl with bubblegum brains falling for a vampire" story. The book has surprising depth, and even bad guys seem to have another side (my favorite example of this in The Dead Girls' Dance is at the title dance). There are three books out so far and a forth one coming out in June 08.

Rachel Caine's Morganville page

Excerpt of Book 1 – Glass Houses

Excerpt of Book 2 – The Dead Girl's Dance

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