Wired by Liz Maverick

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Wired (Shomi)
Wired (Shomi)
Liz Maverick

I just finished Wired by Liz Maverick, the first book to come out from the  from the Shomi line. So far I'm liking the futuristic aspect of these books (I reviewed Driven which I liked a lot over here). I guess since paranormal is big now – that's sort of a melding of fantasy + romance, that it makes sense that sci fi and romance is another blend that would work as well. 

This book is told from the first person point of view of L. Roxanne Zaborovsky, a programmer who gets intercepted from going to the 7-11 one night by two men. What follows is a non-linear story where time gets manipulated like a record being scratched by a DJ – forward and backward, reset and spliced, Roxy lives through the same situations a few times but with different variables. The two men interested in Roxy are doing this all in order to ensure the right future outcome occurs, but who is doing it to keep the future as close as it was meant to be as possible, and who is doing it for their own ends? Roxy has to figure out why she's important and who to trust and she flip-flops on that decision.

I read some of Liz Maverick's Crimson City novel, and I prefer her first person voice here to the third person voice in that start of the series. Roxy's story had an urgent pace, and the story flowed well.

The comment I have would be similar to many other reviewers – I think because I expected this to have romance I noticed that the romance was cut short. But I can't imagine how the author could put more romance into this – Roxy is being thrown into a weird reality and doesn't know who to trust, and keeps reliving certain things over and over. Where is the time for some wooing in there? It was a stretch as it was that Roxy trusted people enough for the romance that was in there. So.. maybe if this wasn't expected, this wouldn't even be an issue? I ponder.. Not only that, I think half of the romance happens off screen – around the timeline of the book, not so much during it, and the reader has to just make their own assumptions. I didn't mind this, other people looking for more romance might.

The one thing that confused me in this book was the timeline thing. I felt comfortable with the record player idea of time, it keeps playing forward but it can get pulled back and sped forward and things can be changed in it. On top of this was the idea of time as a wire where you took splices of one piece and put it on another and made up a whole wire, and eventually it all gets used up, there is no more wire left. BUT, I got so confused by one wire bit changing here then being spliced there even though they're two different timelines really parallel to one another – and somehow this works? My head wouldn't quite wrap around it. I was actually thinking of perhaps a diagram of this on the book flap somewhere..

Light, interesting read.

Link to a dear author review. Link to guest review on the good, bad and unread.

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The League of Reluctant Adults

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There's a new blog/website (about a week old or so) started by a group of urban fantasy authors with an irreverent view of things, call the League of Reluctant Adults. This week the posts are about humor in urban fantasy. Yup, not that much humor to be found in in urban fantasy but looks like there's going to be. They discuss. Each author has books I'm either waiting to read or books I read and enjoyed (Ilona Andrews' Magic Bites). Also, probably because this is opening week, each author is giving away something to do with their books as well. Here are their posts about humor. Well worth checking out:

1. Anton Strout (author of Dead to Me)

2. Stacia Kane/December Quinn (author of Personal Demons)

3. Mark Henry (author of Happy Hour of the Damned)

4. Ilona Andrews (author of Magic Bites)

5. Jill Myles (author of Sex Starved)

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BTT: Sunshine and roses

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This weeks Booking through Thursday:

"The reverse of last weeks question:

Imagine that everything is going just swimmingly. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and all’s right with the world. You’re practically bouncing from health and have money in your pocket. The kids are playing and laughing, the puppy is chewing in the cutest possible manner on an officially-sanctioned chew toy, and in between moments of laughter for pure joy, you pick up a book to read . . .

What is it?"

 

This is actually harder to answer than last weeks BTT. I think the answer is pretty much anything. If I'm in a good mood, I have more patience to read books that are slower paced, aren't instantly gratifying, more non-fiction, heavier and not just for fun books. If I was in a good mood I'd probably also be able to concentrate to read more so I'd be able to get in the heavy reading in with the light. I'd probably be more in the mood to read books that have been on my TBR for a while and I just haven't felt like getting to.

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The Scent of Shadows by Vicki Pettersson

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The Scent of Shadows (Sign of the Zodiac, Book 1)
The Scent of Shadows (Sign of the Zodiac, Book 1)
Vicki Pettersson

Joanna Archer is one of the daughters of a rich Las Vegas mogul – Xavier Archer. While her sister Olivia is a blonde socialite whose character is sweetness and light, Joanna is the dark and brooding sister – a traumatic event has separated her from others and colored her view of the world. Olivia is loved by Xavier, Joanna is not. Their mother, Zoe, left mysteriously many years ago, and as Joanna's birthday comes around, people start to approach her, and she becomes aware of a hidden war between dark and light which may have something to do with her mother's disappearance, and definitely has something to do with Joanna.

The Scent of Shadows is a book I'd classify as dark urban fantasy. It's set in Las Vegas, there are monsters and heroes and superpowers in it and there are a lot of horrifying and violent elements to it as well. I think the series I'd compare it to in the darkness scale is maybe Lilith Saintcrow's Dante Valentine series. This book wrung me out, but I did find the ending somewhat satisfying and I am looking forward to book 2, The Taste of Night.

(On an aside: the creepiest death scenes I've read in a book for the past few years was in Tamara Siler Jones' Ghosts in the Snow. Eeeek, I needed breaks after each murder. Of course, I am squeemish.)

In The Scent of Shadows the violent bits were not as gorey as the book above, but there was also a lot of emotional pain to deal with on top of it.  It's told from a first person perspective, and I could just be ridiculously sensitive, but I had to put the book down then pick it up and continue when I was ready. To tell you the truth, it's not uncommon for me to put a book down to process what I just read for all kinds of reasons, but with this book it was about processing emotions. The heroine, Joanna Archer, goes through anger, pain, loss, heartache, treachery, vengeance.. and I was emotionally invested. Basically, Joanna's emotional state was well written.

The world building was slow at the beginning and then revelations came in doses as Joanna seemed to be kept in the dark about many things until she absolutely had to know. The explanation of the Zodiac is something that will probably continue on to the next book. In this first book, I understood the gist, and some major points about their powers and their life cycles, but really knowing their history and why they exist is still unclear to me. Joanna is still a fledgling to this world so it makes sense she doesn't know everything yet, and I hope to learn more about "superhero" training and more about the good guys and bad guys in the next book. I thought the comic book explanation was a little odd, but that's a nit. My favorite part of the world building was the scents - the ability to smell emotions and even thoughts. Luckily for me, this was a major part of the Zodiac world.

This book was also long - 455 pages, which I'm not sure everyone will like. It did feel long to me when I was less than a hundred pages in and was still wondering what was going on. I think it really stopped mattering to me after a certain pivotal scene at Olivia's apartment. After that, I could have read forever.

Overall an engaging, gritty story with an ass-kicking heroine. Worth a read if you like something a little dark.

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The Hero Strikes Back by Moira J. Moore

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The Hero Strikes Back
The Hero Strikes Back
Moira J. Moore

This is the second book of this series. I reviewed the first book, Resenting the Hero here. Book two continues where book one left off – Dunleavy Mallorrough (Lee) and Shintaro Karish (Taro) are a Shield and her Source, who protect the populace from natural disasters. Taro senses these disasters and channels them away while Lee protects Taro and shields his body from the forces which would otherwise tear him apart. Paired together after years of training at an academy from an early age, they will have to work together for life. If one dies, so does the other.

After their last adventures, the Pair is back in the city of High Scape, normally a hotbed of disasters which the Pairs must avert. Now there are odd climate changes, but not disasters, and on top of that Lee is afraid for Taro because minor nobles have been disappearing. Again Lee is the narrator of this story so we see everything from her perspective. I get the feeling that although she's supposed to be an observant and quiet Shield, she misses a lot about other people and how they perceive her. After their rough beginning as a Pair, she and Taro have a closer relationship, with some moments where I thought both were being very oblivious about how deep the relationship really was.

So far this series is light fantasy – easy reading, not too taxing, but there is an underlying layer of more serious subjects. Unfortunately the books point out these underlying layers and then frustratingly nothing really gets resolved about them. In book one, it's pointed out how terribly some Shields (steadfast, dependable) are treated by their Sources (flightly, dramatic), but while Lee is shocked and dismayed by this, she doesn't act. In book two we learn of how both Sources and Shields are resented by the population for getting everything for free, and there seems to be a mistaken notion that they do hardly anything for it, but if the Pairs are doing their jobs, the normal population should never know what disasters they have avoided. The resentment by the population, which usually is far below the surface, is exacerbated by the odd climate changes – blizzards, snow in July followed by miserable rain and hot muggy days followed by snow again. For some reason, these don't count as disasters and Sources/Shields can't do anything about them (I thought this was odd but OK.. I guess I'll go with it). Meanwhile, from Lee and Taro's perspective – they had to sacrifice their whole lives for this job – they left their families at an early age, they can't earn any money so they can't give any heirs anything when they die, and their lives are on the line protecting the public, all while they are stuck with a partner they may not like, who might stupidly die and take them with him/her. When the unrest finally dies down, I didn't see any resolution to this problem of public misconceptions of Shields/Sources and the work they do. Is it another thing that Pairs are just supposed to deal with? And what about the odd climate changes? Theres a resolution, but there is more to it that I really hope gets addressed in subsequent books.

Oh the cover – again, don't know why it was made to look like this book could be humor, it isn't, but it shows Lee and Taro with probably Lee's mother, but maybe its Taro's. Both Lee's and Taro's mothers come to visit in this story. It was interesting to see more of where these two came from and how this may have colored their personalities, but this wasn't touched on as much as I expected with the cover. It was a smaller side story. We learn more about Taro's years before he got training at the academy and how that affects his personality now. We also see what Lee's mother thinks of how Lee was taken away at such and early age. There is a discussion there that again, Lee with her stoic personality just listens and says nothing even though we can see she's thinking plenty. Drives me nutty when she does that! I also think it drives the other characters nutty too.

Excerpt of chapter 1 here.

Basically – an ongoing series, that has a lot of things I'm interested in seeing resolved so I'm pretty much sucked into seeing what happens. I also like how flawed the characters are, even though they can drive me nuts (of course Lee) so that's sucking me in too. It looks like there is so far 6 books planned from Lee's POV, and then 2 more by another character (?? hmm wonder who. It's not Taro). There is a cover of book 3, Heroes Adrift, out on Moira Moore's website and I like it much better than the first two.

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BTT: Comfort Food

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This weeks Booking Through Thursday:

"Okay . . . picture this (really) worst-case scenario: It’s cold and raining, your boyfriend/girlfriend has just dumped you, you’ve just been fired, the pile of unpaid bills is sky-high, your beloved pet has recently died, and you think you’re coming down with a cold. All you want to do (other than hiding under the covers) is to curl up with a good book, something warm and comforting that will make you feel better.

What do you read?

(Any bets on how quickly somebody says the Bible or some other religious text? A good choice, to be sure, but to be honest, I was thinking more along the lines of fiction…. Unless I laid it on a little strong in the string of catastrophes? Maybe I should have just stuck to catching a cold on a rainy day….)"

 

It's pretty hard to say what I'd read until the scenario happens. But I'm pretty sure that the trend is A Book I Know Has a Happy Ending to cheer me up. I will gravitate to books with really good reviews that am pretty sure can take me away from feeling crappy. So this year Driven by Eve Kenin and Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie were books I got because I was feeling down, and they did their job. It helps if the book is really well written too, like Tanith Lee's Silver Metal Lover – I think I read that 3 times during bad patches. And VERY inexplicably, and embarrassingly, I have read Simon R. Green's Blood and Honor like 8 times over the years when I'm feeling just blue for no reason. It's a comfort read and pretty… I hang my head here…sword-buckling fantasy something something..  I don't know why I keep reading it! The spine is getting damaged and if you know me, I'm REALLY REALLY picky about how I hold my books, but I've owned this one since I was 15.

I also just read whatever is available sometimes. After a break up I was reading some Sydney Sheldon novel, don't remember what it was about anymore. I've had a bad month and right now I'm reading Scent of Shadows by Vicki Pettersson. I do not recommend it if you are feeling down. You will need breaks from the emotional turmoil, but I keep reading anyway.

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On the Prowl by Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks, Karen Chance, and Sunny

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On the Prowl
On the Prowl
Patricia Briggs

OK, been procrastinating about this review for some reason, better do it before I forget. I picked up On the Prowl because Patricia Briggs is on my buy list for her Mercy Thompson series and her short story in this book is from that world. I’ve also read Karen Chance (who I will keep reading) and Sunny (who I probably won’t), but I’d never read anything by Eileen Wilks before.

In this anthology, all four stories have to do with some kind of shapeshifting, so there are urban fantasy and paranormal elements.

Overall I liked the anthology, but it was a mixed bag. I was surprised in that I liked some stories more than I expected and others less than I expected.

Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs [link to excerpt]- Charles, son of the Marrok (the werewolf King) goes to Chicago to investigate suspicious activity there. At the airport he meets with Anna, the werewolf who called the Marrok, who is an Omega wolf. This was one of the surprises of the anthology. There was more of a paranormal romance rather than an urban fantasy feel to it, and I wasn’t expecting that because the Mercy Thompson series is very light on relationships. I’m not sure that completely worked for me because I thought the pacing was a little fast in the emotional aspect. It just didn’t fit into the constraints of a short story. I wouldn’t say I didn’t enjoy the story. The writing is well done. I’m going to keep following the series that is supposed to stem from the characters in it. Patricia Briggs says on her website that 3 books have been agreed on so far.

Inhuman by Eileen Wilks [link to excerpt] – This story centers around Kai, who is one of the Gifted in an Earth where some sort of unusual wave has caused a lot of people to discover minor pyschic abilities, but she is hiding something about her Gift even amongst her friends. She’s also covers for her neighbor Nathan who is an odd character, even though she’s not completely sure what he’s hiding either. This turned out to be what I thought was one of the stronger stories in the anthology and I enjoyed the subtle world building and the relaxed pace. I’d be interested in reading more books by this author. Hmm, I just realized that this short story is in the same world as her Lupi series. Well I couldn’t tell.

Buying Trouble by Karen Chance [link to excerpt]- This is another story which is in the same world as the author’s Cassandra Palmer series, and I didn’t think it was too hard to follow without reading the series but it’s hard for me to tell. It centers around Claire, a null who works for an auction house and who is avoiding her family and the Fey for some reason. When she sees a Fey noble at an auction, then sees her enemy cousin, she knows things are going to get bad. I was pleasantly surprised by this one, because OK I have ranted about the pacing in Chance’s books before. This story had some pauses in the action of the story which I was pleased by. Less rushing around = good!!! Also there was some mild humor in this one that I enjoyed.

Mona Lisa Betwining by Sunny [link to excerpt]- OK, yet again a story set in the same world as the author’s series, except this time this seems more of a side story in the actual series than a story separate from the series. A warning – major spoilers for book 2 in this short story!!! We have Mona Lisa, the main character of Sunny’s Monere series continuing down her path of sexual conquest and increasing powers. I think that the point of this was to introduce the character Lucinda who will be getting her own set of books, but this was done really awkwardly and I was wondering why Lucinda was even mentioned at all, because she sort of: enters, vaguely threatens Mona Lisa and then goes off somewhere, and that was it. Didn’t fit the context at all. I didn’t like this one and I skimmed it so I’ve already forgotten much of it. I really think this deserves to be in an erotic anthology, not with just paranormal/urban fantasy that’s not as sexual. OH. I remember one thing. At one point I actually paused for a few moments because I had just read the sentence “Crammingly so.”

Driven by Eve Kenin

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Driven (Shomi)
Driven (Shomi)
Eve Kenin

So Dorchester publishing has this new line of futuristic romances called Shomi fiction. All the covers of the books so far published are manga inspired, and the stories are a fusion of romance with sci fi, fantasy, thriller, action, and manga type genres. It's very unique sounding and I like cross-genre books so I've been keeping an eye on Shomi. So far Wired by Liz Maverick, Moongazer by Marianne Mancusi, and Driven by Eve Kenin are out. I'm probably going to pick them all up eventually. 

Excerpts for: Wired ,  Moongazer , and Driven

My first buy was Driven because … seriously – it has siberian ice-truckers in it. I was gravitating to it because that sounded really interesting, plus I kept seeing good reviews for it, liked the excerpt, had $5 in Borders bucks burning in my pocket and a hankering for a HEA. Also a disregard for the length of the TBR (97).

The world in Driven is a post nuclear landscape with an extreme climate. Much of it is governed by a corrupt New Government Organization and by big business (headed by bad guy Duncan Bane). The two main characters are a couple of toughies who value supressing emotion and making quick decisions to stay alive in their harsh environment (a sub-zero Northern wasteland). Raina Bowen is in hiding from Duncan Bane, and determined to win the 50 million interdollars awarded in to the first trucker to deliver their cargo to Gladow Station. Wizard is the contact she was supposed to meet at Bob's Truck stop so that she can get a special license to ride the ICW, the Intercontinental Worldwide. Unfortunately, things go wrong at their first meeting, and the two are thrown together for longer than expected. There is a lot of action as they run from and fight the bad guys – who do remind me of the bad guys in the Mad Max movies.

The story is told from a third person POV, and mostly centers on Raina, although a couple of times the focus shifts to Wizard and his take on the situation. I thought the quick shifts to Wizard was a little odd in the story, and it felt very romance-like to get a tell-not-show, short internal monologue but it wasn't done often. Wizard has a robotic personality which I enjoyed. He reminds me of Data on Star Trek; he has a hard time with human interaction, misses subtle humor and sarcasm and confused about sayings because he tries to interprete them literally. Raina is similar in having a tight rein on her emotions, but not such an extreme case as Wizard (she has them) – she keeps people at a distance and has long hardened herself to expect betrayal. I enjoyed how she pointedly shoved Wizard away when he encrouched her space and hid her feelings even when she found herself attracted to him. It was an interesting relationship to see develop between the two loners.

I thought the author did a great job blending both light science fiction and romance. Lovers of only one of those camps may be turned off by the presence of another genre blended in here, or they may enjoy reading something different. I definitely liked the blend. There are sex scenes and while they did go on a little, they didn't feel gratuitious. The world-building was done well – information (on technology, politics, communication, whatever) was given as needed, not as a huge info dump, and the plot was action packed and well paced. Even till the end it kept my interest. There was a good balance between the story and the focus on the relationship. A recommend for those who like romance and who like cross-genre books. Maybe futuristic romance is going to be the next big thing after paranormals in romance? Hmm.

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BTT – Goldilocks

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This weeks Booking Through Thursday question:

"Are you a Goldilocks kind of reader?

Do you need the light just right, the background noise just so loud but not too loud, the chair just right, the distractions at a minimum?

Or can you open a book at any time and dip right in, whether it’s for twenty seconds, while waiting for the kettle to boil, or indefinitely, like while waiting interminably at the hospital–as long as the book is open in front of your nose, you’re happy to read?"

Hmmm.. I need some light. I don't like the room to be dark, and if its too sunny, it hurts my eyes and I need sunglasses to read (I have light sensitivity). 

It's hard to read with the TV on, but I can do it. Radio is much easier to ignore.

I don't mind interruptions and putting the book down, but if its certain people like my mom who interrupt me and then a minute after I pick up the book again interrupts again, and then does this a dozen times, I get a little miffed.

I don't care what chair I'm sitting in or how comfortable it is.

I can probably read most places. I carpool, and I read in the car this morning on the way to work and the light changed across my page with trees blocking and unblocking the sun, and we had the radio on, and the car was obviously moving, but I still read about a hundred pages. I've just always been a person who can concentrate and block out everything else. Sometimes I won't even hear people trying to interrupt me. This actually makes certain people annoyed - they think I'm deliberately ignoring them. I really don't hear them. The same thing happens if I'm watching something on TV that I'm really focused on. Or when I'm thinking intently about something.

I'm pretty much an anti-Goldilocks reader.

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BTT – Statistics

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OK, I'm going to start doing this meme each week. Booking Through Thursday posts a book related question and bloggers reply on their blogs and link the answer.

 

"There was a widely bruited-about statistic reported last week, stating that 1 in 4 Americans did not read a single book last year. Clearly, we don’t fall into that category, but . . . how many of our friends do? Do you have friends/family who read as much as you do? Or are you the only person you know who has a serious reading habit?"

 

I think that all of the people in my circle of friends have read at LEAST one book last year. Probably more. The one person I know who doesn't read at all is a work friend who I know watches a lot of TV instead. Family: my parents read, and I read, but my brother who used to read a lot hasn't been reading (he asked me for recommendations recently so I think I can pull him back over to the dark side), and my sister doesn't like reading either, but even she likes books - art books.

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