Someone mentioned this on fangs_fur_fey and I hadn't realized it till then - there is a subset of covers in urban fantasy with a nice rounded butt shot! Now.. I do have a place in my heart for these. And apparently I have been reading quite a few books with this type of cover lately (and looking forward to one in the case of Iron Kissed). I wonder what this means.. Now favorite butt of these four.. that's a tough one. What do you think?
Cast in Secret is the third book in the Chronicles of Elantra series so I am going to give an overview without giving spoilers for the first two books (Cast in Shadow and Cast in Courtlight).
The setting is a fantastical city by the sea – ruled by a dragon emperor. As with all cities, it is segmented into different neighborhoods, and it is full of people of all castes, races and beliefs. Living side by side are mortal humans, mages, winged people (the Aerians), lion people (the Leontines), Dragons, super-empaths (the Tha'alani), and elf-like immortals (the Barrani). Kaitlin grew up in the poorest part – in the fief, but now she is an adult, and belongs to one of the three arms of the law – the Hawks. This is akin to the detective branch. The Swords are the beat cops, and the Wolves are the executioners. Kaitin is unusual – she has unexplainable magical ability and tattoos on her body which bring attention to her from powerful people.
Book 1 seemed to center on the story of Kaitlin and where she came from and introduces the main characters. Book 2 moves the plot forward while focusing on the Barrani. In book 3, the focus seems to be the Tha'alini.
This book is a magic-filled detective story. Kaitin is asked to investigate the theft of a locked box with no keyhole. Of course things are not that simple. In fact, things could get very bad if the box isn't found. On top of that, Kaitlin – who has a major soft spot for children, sees a girl in the reflection of a pool in the same room the box was stolen from. This girl calls out her name, and Kaitlin feels she must find and help this child.
This will be the 3rd book in what so far is a 5 book series. So while the story is almost standalone, when it comes progressing Kaitlin's relationships and powers and it does feel like a transition book. This is a Luna book, which usually means some romance, but there is very little in this series. There are two possible love interests, but the relationships are subtle.
As usual, the writing is very strong. There are interesting characters and magical happenings and I LOVE the worlds that Sagara creates. As I have said before – she's on my autobuy list.
But I have a couple of nits. In all books, Kaylin is considered ignorant and barely an adult that world – and I'm just as clueless as she is, so the reader learns as she does. I felt that this worked in book 1 and 2 but by the third book I'm beginning to feel irritated. This is because people pointing out her stupidity and offensiveness by not knowing their customs in book 3 was getting tired – she should have learned not to keep making this same mistake, or they should have learned to stop pointing this out, no? Another repeating theme was Kaitlin's exclusion from important secrets. If she is supposed to help everyone, shouldn't they tell her these things? This happening in every book means you have to read slowly and pay attention because Kaitlin (and the reader) are kept in the dark with only small hints about the big secret thrown in along the way. This is ok, and in fact enjoyable for a couple of books, because I like the way the story takes it's time to unfold, but by the third, I was feeling impatient with this ploy. I'm actually surprised that I found ANYTHING negative to say here, because I love love love Michelle Sagara.
OK even with this nit, I liked the book, but it does not topple my favorite – the second book – Cast In Courtlight. AHH, one more year for the next one!
Hmm. I just looked at Sagara's website and she says "The "Cast" Series (5 linked books – not a pentalogy)". What does not a pentalogy mean? So maybe this is why it feels like each book is semi-standalone. I hope that more progress is made in finding out what her powers mean and the relationships though..
I haven't posted in a bit – I've been reading. I have to post about:
Cast in Secret by Michelle Sagara
Stray by Rachel Vincent
On the Prowl by Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks, Karen Chance and Sunny
There were surprises in there – things I liked more than I expected and things I expected to like more than I did. Hmmm..
And I wanted to post pictures of author goodies from authors I'm a fan of.
My TBR is @ 97. Sigh.
Also there seem to be a lot of urban fantasy covers with butt-shots that I have been reading recently. I shall create a new tag – butt shot cover.
This was a Did Not Finish for me. The writing was good, the plot was ok, but I just did not relate to the protagonist at all. Basically Stacy works in NYC and has been celibate for almost a year. She barely notices until a friend points this out and then she decides she must fix it. I thought this could be amusing but Stacy doesn't even care about finding a relationship, she just wants to get laid and is willing to sleep with practically anyone just so she won't hit that year mark. She doesn't care much about the person she does it with, just about making that date. Using people – not on my list of positive traits. I thought trying to sleep with her boss's son who was still in college and over 10 years her junior who she just met 2 hours before was kind of skanky. This is one example of many embarrassed for her moments. Another time she tries to seduce some guy in shipping or something that she just met literally 30 seconds before. So I couldn't shake this image of Stacy as someone desperate, shallow and unlikeable. And I didn't like most of Stacy's possible lovers. I think it was supposed to be humorous but I couldn't see it that way – so perhaps it will work better for those less serious than I. I skimmed through all of the book and the ending was also one of the most unbelievable endings I've ever read. If I liked the rest of the book, I would still complain about it. Bah.
I do not recommend this book. Kind of too bad because an asian, female author (I have a soft spot), and pretty cover, plus it has been compared to Laurell Hamilton and Anne Bishop's books.
Unfortunately a little TOO similar to their books – seems to take a lot of things from each and not much feels unique when I compare them – I feel like I'm reading fanfiction. The writing is awkward – dialog sort of stilted (moves from casual speech to formal at odd times), characterization very one dimensional, romance unbelievable, and the protagonist is a Mary Sue who everyone falls in love with for no good reason. She has 1 magical ability at the beginning of the book and keeps gaining new ones until she has about 8 by the end – a little overboard and a little cliched, aspects I noticed a lot throughout the book.
I have a feeling you are either going to love this book if what you want is something trashy + erotic + pure fluff, otherwise you may not like this. You may dislike this more if you have read Anne Bishops Black Jewels trilogy or Hamilton's Meredith Gentry series before reading this and can compare it to them.
Here are the 1 star reviews of this book on amazon … Sadly I think I agree with the majority of them.
This is the second S. L. Viehl book I've read. The first one, Blade Dancer was reviewed here.
When I read Blade Dancer, I looked at the amazon reviews for it and noticed someone say that it was the same story as Stardoc. In a way they are very similar. In both stories there is a smart female heroine who isn't afraid to stand up for herself, that flees Earth (Terra), has a maniacal father who tries to control her, a dead mother with a last wish for her daughter, and spends a lot of time in the book working through trials to learn and prove herself in her chosen career. The general similarities are astonishing, but I still think these are very different stories and very different characters.
Cherijo Grey Veil is a brilliant Terran surgeon who discovers something about her father that causes her to run away and take an assignment at a free clinic light years away from his influence in Kevarzangia Two. Because of the racism of the Terrans and her sheltered life in Terra, Cherijo has never met many aliens before. Let alone treat them. So she endures many trials and tribulations learning about all the species of aliens that live in K2. She also endures hostility from coworkers and others. Meanwhile her father – a very rich, famous and extremely powerful man in Terra (with Machiavellian tendencies), wants her to come back home and is willing to use his influence to get her back any way he can.
Viehl has a very easy writing style, and the book is from the first person point of view of Cherijo, so the reader gets to learn about the alien species at the same time Cherijo does. I liked her character - intelligent and professional, but also willing to argue her points and defend herself. Which is a good thing because she needs it. I thought this was just as enjoyable as Blade Dancer, though the excitement came in the form of Cherijo racing against time to save lives rather than fighting like Jory does. Slowly, patient by patient, through her own hard work she proves herself in the alien landscape and makes a lot of allies. Viehl does a good job in describing easy friendships and bonding. I think she just explains relationships well. Speaking of – there is some romance as Cherijo falls for an alien, but there is another possible love interest as well.
This is also the first book in a series, but the story felt self contained – no giant cliffhanger, thank goodness. And while this is a science fiction novel, it wasn't hard science fiction, which made it a fun, satisfying read for me. There were no difficult lessons, just a straight story about a young woman's fight for her independence. I think I've found an author who I can expect page-turning and fun science fiction from.
My general feeling - 8 (Really liked it) / Plot - 7.5 (Really liked it) / Writing style - 7 (Easy to get absorbed by)
By the way, if you liked this you will probably like Warchild by Karin Lowachee (OK that book was AMAZING, so if you DIDN'T like this book, but you like Ender's Game you will like Warchild).
TBR @ 99 (I stupidly keep getting books. Why do I even bother keeping count? Will it ever be at 50? I don't know).
Oh man, I'm slipping. I have about 3 books I read recently that I should post about, but… laze, laze. Maybe I can do some shorter ones since I'm being a bum this week.
This is the second book in what is so far a duology. I don't think a third book is currently planned – the author's website talks about another series that she's working on, not this one, but there seems to be room for more to happen in any case.
I posted about the first book – Doppleganger here. The premise is this – all witches are born with a doppleganger. This twin of the witch is born without a soul, and killed before she can be exposed to moonlight (and thus receive one). Somehow Miryo's dopplegangler Mirage survived and Miryo was tasked to kill "it" or be unable to control her magic and die. This is is the continuation of the story of what happens when Miryo and Mirage meet – and what they did. A lot of theory and questioning about the witches beliefs occur – about the Void and how it affects witches to travel through it, about the Cousins – their servants (some of them failed witches), the way witches get their powers and changes to how this is tradionally done.
There is a lot of upheaval in the customs of the witches because of Miryo and Mirage, and not everyone agrees with what happened. While most of the witches now believe dopplegangers should not be killed, many believe them to be abominations and disagree. A faction of witches leaves the witch stronghold of Starfall and attack it from outside. War amongst the witches begins. The faction would like to bring about the death of several young girls who are witches and their surviving dopplegangers, and topple the Primes that would protect them. This is an interesting situation because it clearly shows how beliefs felt strongly cause people go to war when they feel that there is no other way to prove that they are right. Both sides do questionable things in order to preserve their beliefs and win the war.
Liked:
1. I thought that illustrating the frustrations of both sides in the war was a huge strength of the book. You can see what incidents cause them to react the way they do and to understand the belief that they are right and those who oppose them are wrong.
2. Another strength was the way that the author managed to shift the focus temporarily away from the main character in a seamless way. It gives us different viewpoints and clues about what's going to happen and how one character is perceived by another (sometimes incorrectly).
Nit picky over:
1. While the story had forward momentum, I think that sometimes the author indulged a little bit too much answering her own what-ifs (what if a doppleganger did x? What would happen to her witch? etc). There were a couple of what-ifs that were answered too quickly in the timeline they occurred. Brennan created this interesting world and an interesting idea with the dopplegangers, but she didn't have to explore every idea that spun off of it. I thought a couple of incidents it didn't quite fit the story as a whole and only served to answer a what-if. I think they could have had their own separate stories, but not in this book.
2. The writing is solid and good, but it lacked something. Maybe it's my own personal feeling, but it felt a little flat because the characters could have been stronger. I knew who everyone was, I knew their motives and their emotions, that was well done, but I needed a little more to care more about them. I think I needed to know more about their personalities so I could get into reading what happens to them – not just their fears which I got, but their joys too. And maybe because of this, the emotional ties between characters felt a little off. Affection between characters – I didn't see much of this, and if I did, it wasn't always believable. This wasn't a HUGE glaring problem - but something I thought when I looked back – that the foundation was there – it just needed more give it kick.
When I think about this author, I would say that if you like Kristen Britain's books, you will like this.
General Feeling: 6 (Solid. Liked), Plot: 5.5 (OK, Liked) Writing Style: 6.5 (Pretty good, lacks a little emotional oomph). Recommended for straight fantasy lovers.
I was having a hard week with lots of tiring work going on so when I saw a post about this book by calico_reaction on livejournal, I was sold on a guaranteed HEA. Sometimes, I neeed a well-written book with a happy ending to get through life.
This is total romance by the way. When I saw the cover, I thought – chick-lit. I think its the font, plus the shoes and no other real "romance-y" cover hints, but this is a contemporary romance. It has romantic elements to it – the hero and heroine meet each other early on, most of the book is about their growing relationship, they both sort of fight it (uselessly, us readers know they are meant to be), and something keeps them from reallly getting together until the very end. Not that this was a formulaic story - the romance was done in a fun way. Also – I think there was a good splash of chick-lit influence – humor, girl with a job in the city with good girlfriends and nice shoes.
The title is about betting and that is something that plays a big part in the plot. The very first time Min meets Cal she overhears what sounds like a bet that he can "bed" her within a month. The jerk trying to make this bet is her ex-boyfriend who dumped her earlier that evening for not having sex with him. While Min isn't an obvious beauty and her mother often chides her for not being a size four (something that I wish was addressed in a more serious way than it was eventually), Cal on the other hand is considered to be gorgeous and godlike (Crusie gives him some traits later on that prove he is human though). So Min doesn't expect a relationship and just decides to give him a miserable time when he asks her out to dinner. After a bad date where Min rolls her eyes and berates Cal for anything he says that sounds like a line, they both part ways expecting that to be that. Except that no matter what they do they keep finding themselves together again. I think the author was having fun with hinting that the fates were putting these two together. When either of them says "I'm never seeing — again" they keep getting into painful accidents, and they both go to a movie to avoid each other and find themselves sitting next to the other when the lights come up. Min avoids Cal to stop him from winning the bet she thinks he made and Cal avoids Min because she doesn't seem to like him. Meanwhile Cal and Min's ex's are watching them get closer, know about "the bet" and plan to keep them apart.
My favorite things –
1. The ensemble cast. Quirky, well-drawn characters that I liked and weren't cookie-cutter who also had their own lives outside of Cal and Min that were interesting and didn't take away from the main plot either.
2. One liners – really amusing one liners that sometimes made me snort.
3. The food. Lots of talk about chicken marsala and Krispy Kreme donuts.
4. I actually liked the scientific breakdown of relationships that Cal's ex keeps explaining to everyone. It was amusing how her list of stages that a relationship goes through was sort of mirrored in the story, though not quite the way she explains it should happen.
5. The chicklit-y elements.
Wasn't in love with –
1. The talk about the heroine's weight. I think to an extent it's great not to have a beautiful perfect Mary Sue of a heroine, but eh, I'm tired of books where it's brought up repeatedly. OK this book wasn't that annoying about it, mostly because I thought that Min doesn't feel sorry for herself and wasn't really obsessed with a diet, but she came close.
2. It could be me, but close to the end it felt like there was one scene too many. The right-before-the-finale bit felt a little longish.
General Feeling: 9 (Loved it), Plot: 7.5 (Really liked it) Writing Style: 8 (Really liked it). I recommend this highly as a pick-me-up.
Patricia Briggs posted the cover of the next book in the Mercy Thompson series on her site. Nice ass huh. This will be out January 08.
She also says on her website that there will be a total of 7 books in this series to be released in Jan/Feb of each year. Also there is another series starting in the same world following characters in the "Alpha and Omega" story that was is in the anthology "On the Prowl". Three books have been proposed: to be released in July-ish of each year, so a new Patricia Briggs novel every six months.
Also here is an interesting link – Briggs explaining why many fantasy authors write multi-book stories which I found after my mini-rant on series that go on too long. Still, she talks about trilogies more than anything which is a series length I'm ok with so no disagreements here.
The Mercy Thompson series is one of my auto-buys. Another one is the Cast series by Michelle Sagara West, the Magic series by Ilona Andrews and the Tinker series by Wen Spencer.
specficromantic 