Out of print

Posted on December 11, 2007 by janicu

Remember when I was all gung-ho about trying to do BTT every week? Well that stopped quickly. Anyway, last weeks Booking Through Thursday question was a good one:

This week’s question is suggested by Island Editions:

Do you have a favourite book, now out of print, that you would like to see become available again? (I have several…)

There are a few books out of print that I own, so in a way I'm content even though they are out of print because I can go over and pet them and hug them and laugh to myself that they are mine as much as I want. On the other hand, I wish more people knew about and owned them so it would be nice if they were still in print. Also there are some books that are out of print that are so expensive I don't own them and I'm not sure I ever will. I'm not sure these are favorites, but they do make me yearn/burn for them to be reprinted. So two sections:

1) Out of print, but still available used at prices normal non-crazies can afford:

The Adventures of Holly Hobbie – A novel, by Richard Dubelman (about $10?)- ok. I don't know if this book is any good anymore, but I read this when I was 12 or so and it's about that Holly Hobbie girl with the big bonnet around her face who is on a lot of kids toys and illustrations. In this book a girl - Liz, whose parents are archeologists, meets Holly through some time stepping magic type thing, and they go find Liz's missing dad. It involves Mayan pyramids and I remember it being fascinated by the descriptions of that ancient civilization and its beliefs. I vaguely recall some magic involving either light or an eclipse which I thought was very cool at the time. I went to the whatwasthatbook community on LJ to figure out what this book was.

Greensleeves by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (I got it for about $15-$20? but it sells for around $30 on up, eck) – I thought I posted about this book but looks like not. Sherwood Smith, author of Inda and Crown and Court Duel has recommended it on livejournal (http://community.livejournal.com/athanarel/111008.html) and describes it very well, I suggest clicking on that link for a better description than I can give. This was growing pains type of book. You see the silliness of youth and moving away from that and becoming more comfortable in your own skin. It's basically a well written young adult novel. Shannon is the main character – a girl who isn't sure if she wants to go to college instead spends the summer helping her uncle with a case with a will. She spends all summer pretending to be someone she isn't, playing detective, and trying to glean information about the people specified in the will, and along the way she comes out of her shell and also learns a thing or two about relationships.

Nameless Magery and Of Swords and Spells by Delia Marshall Turner (about $3 each?)- I bought one of these in college and didn't get the second book till a year or two ago. They can be read in either order but Nameless Magery goes first. Both are in the same universe and involves a futuristic, sci fi world/s where people can also do magic. There are robots and a mage school and smart young women protagonists and hyperspace drives and all kinds of meshing of sci-fi and fantasy and trickery. I don't think I've read anything else like it that blends those two genres so well together. And I think they're the only two books this author has written.

The Merro Tree by Katie Waitman (about $3-$5)- This is an author who has 2 books (I own both), and every year or so I will go and check if she's written anything else. And then I'll cry to myself because the answer is no. I also do this with Delia Marshall Turner but I think she's definitely not writing anymore, I feel more open ended with Katie Waitman. This book is a sci fi-ish story centering around the life of an abused boy (Mikk) who becomes the galaxy's master performance artist. In some ways it feels like a fantasy novel even though it's more sci fi. The description of the alien species, the performing arts school, Mikk's life, growing up, dealing with censorship and the stigma of his lovelife.. it's all great. The book says "discovery of the year" across it, but then.. no more books by her! I sob to myself.

The Night World Series by L.J. Smith (about $1-$10 each? Depends on how well you do on ebay) - ok this is a silly teen series with vampires and true love and whatnot. But I bonded with people who are now my closest friends over these books so I'm adding them here for nostalgia's sake. If I read over these books now, they're not bad but they aren't fabulous. I had to have them all (and maybe extra copies of certain ones) just because. And is book 10, Strange Fate, the last of this series ever going to be printed? I don't know.

2) Out of print and super expensive, maybe I can win the lottery or sell my car/left leg/kidney/soul to afford:

Anima Mundi by Mark Ryden ($300-$1000+)- An art book that has popular low brow art for those who have no idea who the hell Mark Ryden is. Lots of pictures of cute kids, animals, and meat products reminiscent of a child's picturebook. Really detailed work and often on album covers. This was on my wishlist when it was $25 on Amazon. Then three months later it went out of print and went up to $300+ dollars. After that if I saw a pamplet by this artist that I wanted, I got it without waiting around. I have his Bunnies and Bees book that I bought for $20? $25 when it came out which is now going for $90-$150 or so. Josh and my sister have a copy too. My attitude - "ok I know this is going to go up.." - *buy*. I also have Blood (one copy sealed, one unsealed) which I got for $25 each and which is selling for over $100 and it's this TINY thing really. Maybe these prices are less on ebay… Maybe not. OK I think telling Josh this is making him want to sell his Bunnies and Bees book.

Wagner's Trilogy – Tannhauser, Parsifal and Lohengrin by Willy Pogany (from $300 to $2000+ each depending on edition and condition). Pogany was a prolific illustrator in the early part of the last century, mostly of children's books. Some of his best work is in this set of three books. I found illustrations of Lohengrin online several years ago and since then I've been looking for copies that aren't expensive. All I can find for "cheap" aren't first editions, and even those go for $200-$300. I have Tannhauser (reprint), but not the other two. Like this on ebay. I don't remember how much I paid, but it was not over $150 and that was a few years ago. Every book in the trilogy have lovely pages bordered with illustrations and pictures, both black and white and in color and the boards for these books are often gilted and pretty. I once saw pictures of the whole set for sale online bound in white leather going for about the price of a car.. $10,000.. I coveted. I saved the pictures for that sale on my computer but they got lost in hard drive crashes. Oh well. Here's an image heavy link to many gorgeous Pogany illustrations. P.S. I also like his version of Alice in Wonderland.

Masques by Patricia Briggs – This book goes for at least $60 on ebay, $120 to over $600 elsewhere. Which I think is CRAZY. I find that Briggs's earlier work isn't as good as her recent books, but yes there is the compulsion to own everything by an author you like. Masques was her first published book I think. Right now, she's very popular because her Mercy Thompson series is one of the best urban fantasy series out there (in my opinion). Sigh. $60 is too much for an old used paperback book that may not be that good.

Mushroom Girls Virus by Deanne Cheuk – Another art book. This one came out in 2005. I saw this, loved it at first sight and bought it from the author. I'm glad I did, now it's out of print and selling for at least $150. Sheesh. I bought it for $45. Mine's not "mint" because I actually wanted to look at it, but I keep it in a plastic wrap because its got a lovely embroidered cover and I don't want anything to mess it up. I hope it gets reprinted, its lovely and girly and pretty. Click here for illustrations in the book. Also here.

There's more but I'm tired..

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Pop-up books by Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda

Posted on December 9, 2007 by janicu

Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy

Matthew Reinhart

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: A Pop-up Adaptation

Lewis Carroll

I wanted to post about these pop-up books for a long time now but I was waiting till after Hanukkah because of certain people who read this blog (who I bought copies of these pop-up books for as gifts). Basically – I like pop-up books, their construction is a big complex puzzle – let's make something 3D out of 2D parts and let's make it squish down back to 2D when the reader turns the page. That's awesome – engineering + art. And these books are on the high end of the pop-up book – they boggle my mind. First of all – how are they only around $20 each? Because the construction – there must be 3 or 4 dozen slots and tabs and things that needed to be glued down to create each page – can a machine do that? Is this all hand done?! For $20?! And when I look at it – I see that often things are printed on both sides of a pop-up, so in the Alice pop-up when I see a giant Alice stuck in the White Rabbit's house, I can peer through the windows to see her inside. And I see wallpaper in there. On top of that, there isn't just one pop up per page, oh no, each page has one giant pop-up in the middle, then little mini books on the side with mini-popups in there too! What…my head just imploded. In the Star Wars pop-up book there are light sabers which light up when you open the pages that shut off again when you close them. I think the dinosaur book has a page where one dinosaur pop-up "bites" the other dinosaur. That's some cool beans.

Alice

If these books ever go out of print they are going to start getting expensive in the used book market. I think they're collectibles you'll want to keep for a long time. The only thing I see that people could complain about is that you have to be gentle with these books. So they're more for adults and older children who know how to treat their books. You have to make sure nothing gets caught or torn to preserve them. So far ours are still pristine and both of us (I got the Alice book, the rest I got for the boyfriend) put our books back into the plastic sleeve the books came in after we're done looking at them.

Even Martha is a fan - these two pop-up guys were on her show. And I want to make the pop-up reindeer card that's on the martha stewart website.

Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs: The Definitive Pop-Up

Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Sharks and Other Sea Monsters

Robert Sabuda

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Art Forms in Nature by Ernst Haeckel

Posted on December 5, 2007 by janicu

Art Forms in Nature: The Prints of Ernst Haeckel (Monographs)

Ernst Haeckel

And now a different kind of book from what I usually blog about. Actually I am a little bit in love with collecting art books so I thought I'd post about some art books I've been drooling over and which would make good christmas/hanukkah gifts for science geeks/illustration lovers/art students.

Ernst Haeckel is a big name in biology. According to wikipedia he named thousands of new species and "coined many terms in biology, including phylum, phylogeny, ecology and the kingdom Protista". He also was an artist and his book "Kunstformen der Natur, "Artforms of Nature") has over 100 detailed pictures of animals, especially sea creatures. Even if you aren't into biology – it's gorgeous.

I am not sure how I came upon this book. I think it was random surfing from one blog to a site about bird illustration to googling Haeckel to some other website to looking it up on amazon. Anyway, somewhere in there, I stumbled upon a german site which had a lot of his illustrations scanned and viewable as jpgs along with a pdf file which I think is the whole book in german. Then, randomly a day or so after finding out it was on Amazon (see link to the left), I found this book at anthropologie of all places, and I was surprised because all the illustrations are very nicely done in glossy paper and they are all in one place after a nice introduction about Haeckel and his life, but also the book itself is also a little oversized, which is good - you can really see the detail in the pictures. It shall be mine.

P.S. For more biological books online (including Haeckel's) go to www.biolab.de where you can find cool stuff like this.

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Hot Mama by Jennifer Estep

Posted on December 5, 2007 by janicu

Hot Mama

Jennifer Estep

I had fun reading Karma Girl so I picked up the second book Hot Mama, when it came out last month. This was also like candy – really easy and fast to read, fun and campy, but I ended up not liking it quite as much as the first one in the series for a number of reasons.

This is the book dedicated to the story of Fiona Fine, successful fashion designer who is really Fiera, part of the Fearless Five. We continue a few months after Karma Girl leaves off with the Five moving on with their lives and Fiona, after mourning her fiance's death has started thinking about dating again. In the meantime, two more ubervillans – Intelligal and Siren, have entered the scene in Bigtime, New York. Much of the first part of the book rehashed book one – so new readers could read this book without reading the first one (but they would probably be spoiled for book one's ending).

Fiona Fine aka Fiera is a different character from Carmen Cole – and this was probably part of my issue. She's got a fiery personality to match her superpowers but sometimes stubborn and willfull felt like bullheaded and obtuse! I missed Carmen because she paid attention to details while Fiona sort of stomps all over the place and ignores subtlety – even when it was so obvious to everyone else. In Karma Girl I could guess the secret identities of many of the superheros/ubervillans. I think it wasn't meant to be hard to do, but in Hot Karma it felt like we got twice the amount of hints and Fiona isn't even *trying*. At least when Fiona finally figures it out she does say how ridiculously obvious it was, which somewhat mollified me because I was ready to throw my hands up at that point.

I felt that while there were a couple of compelling emotional story arcs in here (Fiona's grieving for her fiance, falling in love and dealing with vigilante revenge) the book moved forward through Fiona's dating, working, and fighting the bad-guys without me to feeling like I really connected with her character. Emotions of hers were repeatedly brought up but I still coudn't buy it. I got that she was hot-tempered, but I wish I understood her reason for her flare-ups more than – so and so is annoying. Also when she thought about her fiance she'd describe his qualities but I didn't feel emotionally connected to her grief just because she kept saying she was sad. I could buy Carmen's actions and thoughts in Karma Girl and that coupled with the zany story made me really like it. In Hot Mama the fun stuff was there but I didnt feel as involved in Fiona's character. It's weird though – I mean this book is a seriously easy read. So Fiona wasn't enough for me to put the book down, and the rest of the world in the book kept me engaged, but once I finished I felt unsatisfied with how I felt about her character. Maybe this is a matter of preference. I'd be interested if others agree/disagree about Fiona. Meanwhile I'd still recommend this for those looking for an unserious, very-much-like-candy read.

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Braced 2 Bite by Serena Robar + Boys that Bite by Mari Mancusi

Posted on December 2, 2007 by janicu

Couple of quick reviews. I read some YA in recent months and never posted about them.

Boys that Bite

Mari Mancusi

Boys That Bite: This one is about a teen named Sunshine who gets mistaken for her goth sister Rayne (yep, Sunshine and Rayne) by Rayne's vampire sponsor. This means that she gets turned into a vampire when she wasn't supposed to and she's not happy about it. Sunshine has to get accustomed to her new form while trying to find a way to get changed back and trying to pretend to be normal. So she goes to school even though the daylight makes her feel very tired and has to pretend garlic doesn't make her want to run away. Meanwhile Sunshine's mom begins to get very concerned about drugs because of her red-eyed, tired look and pale skin.

This one was a mixed bag. There were some things I liked – a chubby, acned slob of a vampire slayer, some slacker Druids, the humor at times. There were others I disliked, but I think some of them had to be because I keep seeing this in YA –

a) Why is the heroine so obsessed with the prom?

b) Why does a two hundred+ or whatever old vampire even like this teen girl obsessed with the prom? Also does not compute. This is a common thought of mine reading vamp books.. At least here there is a matching system to explain it, which helps.

Overall the main characters didn't feel like they really stood out to me. There were a lot of cliches in their characterization. That said – uh, maybe I'm just not in the age range for this book, and maybe I've read a lot of teen vampire books and I'm just jaded at this point. So taking it for what it was – a light young adult novel – ok it manages to be that. This is the start of a series. Book 2 deals with her sister being recruited as the next vampire slayer, even though Rayne is pro-vampire.

Braced2Bite

Serena Robar

Braced 2 Bite (eck, "2" being used instead of "to", but the rest of this series has numbers in the titles as well so at least theres continuity): There are similarities between this book and the one above – besides the word "bite" in the titles. Again we have a teen girl who thinks about the prom/homecoming who did not want to be turned into a vamp but becomes one against her will. Instead of mistaken identity, Colby Blanchard is attacked by a rogue vampire. Written from a first person point of view (also like the book above), we follow Colby as she pretends to be normal and not half-undead. As in Boys that Bite, there is a vamp society with rules, and unfortunately for Colby, one of the rules is no half-vampires allowed. She has been assigned a Vampire Investigator who may become her executioner.

In this one Colby is mostly concerned about proving that she be allowed to live since there is no way for her to turn back. Her character was very proactive about this, and it were interesting twists to it. For example she was popular before her attack but people start to think she's faking it when she recovers quickly and refuses to go to the hospital. Also her family is all in on her secret and rallys around her (including her dentist dad who outfits her with braces to suck blood), but they don't know about her troubles with proving she be allowed to live. I'd say that my one major complaint besides a little sniff of a) and b) listed above is that this book felt rushed, especially towards the end. This too is the start of a series – book 2 follows Colby to college and continues her activities championing half-vampires.

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Enchanted, Inc. By Shanna Swendson

Posted on December 2, 2007 by janicu

Enchanted, Inc. (Katie Chandler Series, Book 1)

Shanna Swendson

Remember that post I made a while ago about this series (I was miffed because I heard they were chopping it off at book 4 instead of the complete 5)? I finally got around to reading book one.

The series is about Katie Chandler, a Texas girl who has relocated to the Big City (NYC) and discovered that she's normal. So normal that she's in fact rare – someone with no magic in her what-so-ever, which means that she is not fooled by enchantments and can see through them. She thinks she's just not jaded enough when no one else blinks at the girl in fairy wings or the gargoyles that aren't always in the same place. Then she finds out other people aren't seeing what she's seeing and she's so unusual she's offered a job.

Excerpt of book 1

In one word – the book was "charming". I think it has a sweet, uncomplicated appeal to it. Nice texan girl comes to New York and makes good using her common sense. I also like the idea of a secret side to the city, and the author does incorporate a lot of New York into the story. There is also a lot of interesting aspects to the magical world that the author included in the story (like how many frogs in Central Park really are princes and the hijinks that ensue when Katie gets talked into going to kiss some with her tipsy female coworkers). I'm having a little trouble categorizing the genre of this book though. The romance is so light I don't even know if I should mention it, but I think it's possibly going to come up more in following books. I think it comes closest to being chick-lit. Except ..I guess I'm used to chick-lit books being more stand-alone and something, than this book feels. Anyway: a pleasant read, I found it hard to put down. I'll be looking for book two.

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Red Handed and Blacklisted by Gena Showalter

Posted on November 23, 2007 by janicu

Red Handed (Teen Alien Huntress)

Gena Showalter

Blacklisted

Gena Showalter

These two books by Gena Showalter are from the young adult half of her Alien Huntress series. In this series the focus is on strong women who live in a futuristic society where aliens live amongst us. To protect themselves from some of the more dangerous aliens, humans have A.I.R – Alien Investigation and Renewal agency, which these books revolve around. The list of books so far:

Adult:

Awaken Me Darkly
Enslave Me Sweetly

Young Adult:

Red Handed
Black Listed

I read Awaken Me Darkly first, early this year. This centered around A.I.R. agent Mia and on Arcadians – aliens tha sound like the twins from The Matrix. I liked the action and the aliens but the story lost steam in the second half and the plot became much less tight. Basically I liked the world but it didn't end up a keeper.

Red Handed and Blacklisted are in the same world except the protagonists are teenagers. The reader also gets to learn about other alien species that weren't discussed in detail in Awaken me Darkly. Also, these books can be read in any order without missing anything. Characters from past books make appearances but they are not central to the story.

In Red Handed, Phoenix is a recovering drug adult trying to redeem herself in her mother's eyes. She just got back from rehab for an addiction to Onadyn – a drug that some aliens need to survive but deprives humans of oxygen. Phoenix tries to stay away from her friends that still use but misses the companionship, so she ends up at a party in the woods where many kids are high. Aliens attack the party expecting little resistance but Phoenix is sober and fights back with the help of a mysterious boy she meets at the party. Unfortunately for Phoenix, when she gets home her mother only thinks it's more drugs. The people who brought Phoenix home suggest a boot camp to straighten her out, and Phoenix's mom is only too ready to let her go. The twist is that this boot camp isn't a rehabilitation center. It is a training center for A.I.R., the mysterious boy is an A.I.R agent, and Phoenix has just been recruited. The rest of the story deals with Pheonix's training, making friends in A.I.R and overcoming the stigma of being an addict. I enjoyed reading about Phoenix's struggles to prove that she has moved past her addiction and to become more than an ex-junkie. The portrayal of the bitterness from others, especially her mother, for what Phoenix put them through and Phoenix's subsequent shame added depth to the story. This ended up being my favorite book in this series.

Blacklisted centers around an ordinary girl named Camille with a huge crush on Erik, who goes to her high school. She and her best friend sneak into a nightclub that they heard he was going to be. Erik isn't happy to see her because he's involved with drugs, and he needs to lose the tail of A.I.R. agents watching him, so he gives her an empty napkin hoping this would both make her stop following him and distract the A.I.R. agents. Unfortunately Camille proves to be more resourceful than he expected and follows him into a high security area of the club, leading A.I.R. to believe she's involved in his shady dealings. A.I.R. is even more unhappy with Erik than the usual drug-dealer because he used to be an A.I.R. agent himself. Erik has a reason for why he's doing what he does, and he doesn't want to involve an innocent like Camille, but her actions means A.I.R is now looking for both of them. This was an interesting story because it looked at the situation from a different angle – where A.I.R. and laws that condemn the guilty can also condemn the innocent at the same time. In this story the actions of A.I.R. were bullheaded from this point of view. An interesting point and written nicely, but I preferred Red Handed. I think my main issue was that I found Camille to be silly from the beginning for doggedly pursuing Erik, and I just couldn't shake this view of her as foolish and impulsive. Even when she continued to trust and believe Erik, I thought – in real life this would be a parent's nightmare – their daughter romanticizing a drug dealer. In real life he wouldn't really be a good guy. This book also tied up really quickly and easily in the last few pages which I had real trouble with as well. I think I would have felt more satisfied with an ending that was less easy, if that makes sense.

Last point – both of these books had sexual situations which make them geared to a more mature teen. It's interesting how much more of this I see in books now than in my teens (10 years ago). I did notice that both girls were 18, the author is careful about that, and they in what seemed to be serious long term relationships.

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Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

Posted on November 11, 2007 by janicu

Halfway to the Grave: A Night Huntress Novel

Jeaniene Frost

Halfway to the Grave is already on the NYT bestseller list in its debut week. And I was one of the people who bought it a day or so after it came out (hohoho, yes Barnes and Noble gift card!). The spine calls it "paranormal romance" and it was shelved in the romance section, but after reading it I have decided that my best description of it would be an urban fantasy for romance readers. This book is the first of what looks to be a series, so there is an open ended feeling to it that die-hard romance readers who need a HEA may not appreciate, but I personally liked it and it made me want to read more of this series. I'd be interested to see what other readers thought.

Anyway, this is the story of Cat – half vampire, half human, she is the product of her mother's rape 22 years ago by a newly turned vampire who apparently still had some viable sperm. Her mother's hatred of vamps overshadows her love for her daughter and Cat is pushed into the dangerous job of becoming a vampire-slayer at an early age. Every chance she gets, Cat goes to seedy bars, baiting vampires to try to suck her neck and killing them. Up to her usual tricks, she encounters Bones, and recognizes him as a vampire, but unlike other vamps, he ignores her baiting and later bests her when she tries to kill him and he thinks she is working for some vamps herself. Bones is also a vampire hunter, and after deciding she isn't a threat, just a self-taught slayer, he suggests an alliance and help with her training.

Overall I'd say I liked it. When I picked it up to read, I'd read 100 or so pages at a time, then put it down again. So – engaging but I was also antsy this week so it took me longer to read than it usually would. I shall buy book 2 when it comes out.

Bits I liked:

1) The cover!! It is pretty gorgeous. It's all matte finished and the artwork and coloring is amazing. Plus the author's name – Jeaniene Frost. That's a cool name.

2) Cat. Her character is unusual – I felt like even though she starts off somewhat young-seeming in this book, you see her growth and she matures a lot. This reminds me a little of Faythe in the werecat series by Rachel Vincent, except Faythe has a very strong family support structure and Cat practically has none (her family lives amogst bible-thumping stock that seem to expect her to sin). I guess she's a little broken by her past but she's more vunerable than hard.

3) Fight scenes – oh especially towards the end, but the training was fun to read as well. Cat is a trigger-happy ass-kicker so there is much of that happening. I also enjoyed how her half-human part made her seem much less of a threat than she actually was, until she moved with inhuman speed, or her eyes glowed green. Fun to read.

4) Bones' humor. The bantering between Cat and Bones was good. They spend a lot of time in each other's company throughout the book, though Bones has Cat's number while Cat's still growing up. There were quite a few things Bone's said that amused me, and Cat does also make a few smart-ass remarks, but she didn't go over the line into being annoyingly smart-assed.

Some nitty things:

1) I think practically everyone is going to comment on this – Bones has a british accent, has hair bleached white and high cheekbones. Mightly similar to a certain character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This felt a little odd to read. Also when I read the part where Cat gives him a christmas present. It sounds like a black duster. Hmm.

2) At the start,Cat's dialog like calling Bones a suck-neck instead of what I'd expect in that situation – a chance to really swear like a sailor, made me pause. It made me think like the heroine was kind of immature, like she was in high school rather than in her early 20s. This did get better after the first 100 pages of the book. The last 100-150 pages were the best bit of the book where I didn't feel this anymore.

3) Slightly connected to the youth of the heroine. There were some bits where felt like there was a lot of angst on Cat's part. Her love interest was very aware of her hangups. He was consistently handling her with care, and I found it a little unbelievable that he was that patient, and loved her so much so quickly to be that way. The bumps on the road felt more on the romance novel, throwing a wrench into the love story side than what is typically in urban fantasy. And I don't know if it was Cat or love interest, but there was something a little too fast in the pacing of their feelings. This could be just me who felt this way, but even then I don't really think it was bad, this type of thing is pretty romantic to read, but it's part of why I'd call this urban fantasy for romance readers. Anyway, sort of mulling over this one still.

4) Stylistic comment – In the beginning, a lot of the vampire world was described in a long conversation between Cat and Bones. It felt like an info-dump.

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The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Posted on November 1, 2007 by janicu

The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel

Jasper Fforde

I'd heard about The Eyre Affair before – something about an agent named Thursday Next and being able to hop into a book and meet the characters and possibly change the outcome of the book's story. I was sort of "meh" over this idea. I've read Inkheart by Cornelia Funke where someone has the ability to make pieces of the book they're reading appear just by reading aloud, and someone in the real world disappears into the book world as well. This wasn't done in a fun way though, it was a sinister talent. I had a hard time imagining visiting a book in the flesh to be "fun" because of it – more like a horrible trap. Anyway, I saw this book at my FOL bookstore for 25 cents, picked it up, then later that day I was stuck in a traffic jam. I was the passenger so I started reading a little bit, and I was surprised – hey, this book is kind of good. And it IS a fun to read book too. wow.. a couple of days later and this book was done.

I highly recommend this to literature fans. If you are a Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Bronte, Dickens or english history fan there are lots of little inside jokes going on here. Even if you aren't so into these things, this book is still enjoyable. A rudimentary knowledge of the basic plot of Jane Eyre helps though. The parallel world described here is surprising and refreshing – its 1985, London, and highbrow art and literature is very important to the masses and a part of everyday life. Richard III is treated like a Rocky Horror Picture show production – complete with audience participation and people who have been to over 30 showings, and little boys trade Henry Fielding cards. Gangs of students backing certain artistic movements riot against other conflicting movements. Compared to our values, everybody in this book seems a little on the nutty side.

Thursday Next is a Crimean War veteran, ex-police officer and now agent in Special Ops 27 – the literary division – they solve crimes like forgeries of famous manuscripts. Usually this is a pencil pushing type of job, but it's getting more dangerous every year as organized crime gets more and more involved with literature crimes. Thursday is after a master criminal who has stolen the original Martin Chuzzlewit manuscript. This criminal is number 3 on the most wanted list, has special powers and has killed 42 people. Peppering this story all is Thursday's odd family and coworkers - her father a rogue ChronoGuard (time travel police) agent, her aunt and uncle – math genius and genius inventor, her pet dodo (created with a cloning kit, version 1.2), Spike the cheerful vampire/werewolf hunter…the list goes on and on.

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Dates from Hell by Harrison, Sands, Armstrong and Handeland

Posted on October 31, 2007 by janicu

Dates From Hell

Kim Harrison

I've been having one of those slow months where I don't really feel like reading anything I have. This is bad since my TBR pile is at 104..sigh.. oh wait.. I won 4 books so its 108, SIGH (ok - not really if I think about it, I won, weee!). To solve this, I got the Dates from Hell anthology. I like short stories when I'm in a reading slow-down because I can read a complete story then take a break and it feels like less to commit to than a whole 300 page book. And sometimes it means I find an author I never tried before that I really like, which gets me all excited to find their books: thats a win-win.

This anthology turned out to be OK. I guess one of the downsides sometimes to short stories, maybe more so in fantasy/urban fantasy- its hard to get some great world-building in there. I often see that the stories are based in a world the author has their series in - which can be confusing to new readers if not done quite right.

"Undead in the Garden of Good and Evil" by Kim Harrison – This is a story of the vampire Ivy from Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series, before Ivy and Rachel met. Ivy is working at Inderland security under an undead vampire and trying to advance up the ranks, except she doesn't want to do it the traditional way vamps do it (which is pretty much requires her to use her body/blood and submitting to older vampires). So we get some backstory here on Ivy which is very interesting if you have read and liked Kim Harrison's series and explains some of her angsty past. On the other hand, if you haven't read that series, this story (especially the beginning of it) can be confusing. I was a little confused myself for the first page or two before I got where the time period was and remembered some of the rules of being a vampire from Harrison's series. Once I got that I felt it was one of the stronger stories in here (but I'm a fan of that series too, so I'm not sure how much that colors my opinion).

"The Claire Switch Project" by Lynsay Sands - this is about a couple of scientists who are testing a ray on lab animals which is supposed to allow them to have cameleon-like abilities. An evil scientist, impatient to test it on humans, tricks our heroine Claire into getting into shooting range of this ray and zaps her. Now she can change into anyone she wants to just by thinking about it. Hijinks ensue when her best friend finds out and wants her to pretend to be super-moviestar Brad Cruise at their high school reunion, the same reunion she is invited to by her long time crush and fellow co-worker Kyle. I think the name Brad Cruise was a silly choice, and then half of the story takes place in the restroom as the heroine switches from Brad Cruise to herself and back multiple times, so to me this felt like the most goofy story in here. It also felt very high school sitcom (trying to get back at the mean girl in high school who became the mean woman at the high school reunion). It could be amusing for someone who likes this kind of humor, but not really my thing.

"Chaotic" by Kelly Armstrong – This too is a short story based in a world that the author has a series on – the women of the otherworld, but it centers on a new character named Hope who is half chaos-demon trying to use her powers for good. A newbie in her task, she runs into werewolf and thief Marsden, mentioned in the series (so I hear, but I haven't gotten to those books yet). This was a pretty interesting story and I liked how the author had a resolution to the story but also left some things unfinished – made the tale believable and I wouldn't mind seeing these characters again in the future to see where that relationship went. Also one of the stronger stories for me.

"Dead Man Dating" by Lori Handeland – Kit is a literary agent in New York City and she's out on a date, but when she finds herself pinned against an alley wall by him and she's not that kind of girl - she begins to feel strangely not herself. When demon hunter Chavez rescues her, she learns her date is dead – possessed by some kind of incubus demon which wants her in particular. There were a couple of amusing bits to this one (Chavez has a thing for girls who read), and a couple of annoying bits (Kit's self esteem issues), but overall it was in the "alright" category.

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