Warrior and Witch by Marie Brennan

Posted on August 4, 2007 by janicu

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.

Warrior and Witch

Marie Brennan

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.

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Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie

Posted on July 30, 2007 by janicu

Bet Me

Jennifer Crusie

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.

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Things to look forward to

Posted on July 28, 2007 by janicu

Iron Kissed cover

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.

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Whoa

Posted on July 26, 2007 by janicu

Giant book sculpture in Linz, Austria

More about this here.

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Resenting the Hero by Moira J. Moore

Posted on July 26, 2007 by janicu

Resenting the Hero

Moira J. Moore

This is a a light fantasy set in a world that does not let technology thrive. It was populated by colonists who have evolved certain powers to protect themselves from the world's natural forces. Sources can channel the energy from natural disasters (floods, tornados..) harmlessly away, but to do so they often die unless they have a Shield – someone to watch and regulate their body (heartrate, breathing) while they channel. Sources and Shields pair up in a bonding ritual which makes them paired for life – no matter if they have complementary personalities or not. Shields are typically stoic people while Sources are considered emotional and flightly.

The voice of the narrator is Dunleavy Mallorough (Lee), who is a Shield. She prayed for a steady Source, but got paired up with one of the most famous up-and-comers at the academy (Shintaro Karish). Pay attention to the title, that's what this a lot of this book is about! Although she says she found his much gossiped about antics amusing when she wasn't paired, she isn't pleased when they are. They have a rough start because of her preconceptions that Karish will pull her into some kind of trouble because of his "obvious" rakishness. Also, because Karish is the darling of the academy, they are soon sent to the most active post in the country, where Lee is just waiting for Karish to mess up and doom them both (Pairs are punished together). I think that some readers will find Lee's judgemental attitude annoying, and she holds onto it for much of the book, but I think she is a stubborn person who takes a long time to change her mind. I felt that taking so long to warm up to someone is something that happens every so often, especially if you have a stubborn, somewhat naive personality like Lee's, and I could believe the slow progress they make. Also I believe because he is her Source, not someone else's, she is even more hard on him because of the huge impact he has on her life. They can't be separated, and if one dies, so does the other. The writing in the book is good, the adventure interesting (some thought-provoking ideas on Shields and Sources which I hope get continued in following books), but it is definitely a series. Book 2 is "The Hero Strikes Back", I believe book 3, "Heroes Adrift", comes out in 2008, and book 4 is being written by the author. Fast reading and there is an underlying feeling that the two main characters are eventually going to get together although the author isn't going to let that happen until the very end of the series, which may drive some people insane (see pet peeves. I am on the fence about if this is going to bug me since it's only book one, and I think there are other love interests in there).

The one thing that kind of bugged me in the book was this – when Lee talked to someone heart to heart, she doesn't say much. She thinks a lot which the reader sees, but doesn't say this to whoever she's speaking with and gives short answers. She just doesn't say what she's really thinking! Drives me a little nutty.

Another thing: The cover makes it look very much like a comedy, and it isn't. I'm not sure why they decided to market it that way. It's written in a straight tone.

General Feeling: 7.5/8 (Liked it quite a bit, could get good), Plot: 7 (Liked it, plus it had something, so I give extra)Writing Style: 6 (Liked it)

An Excerpt (first few pages of the book)

Here is a review of this book at sfreviews.net (maybe goes into too much detail about what the plot is).

Here is one that seems like a similar opinion to mine.

Here is a review from Dear Author (who HATED the book). I thought the inconsistencies she pointed out weren't really inconsistencies if you read the book carefully.

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More on series

Posted on July 25, 2007 by janicu

My pet peeves with series has to do with the fact that there are a LOT of series out there. It's a lot to juggle in my mind and keep track of, especially since it takes years to finish a series. I like series, but its easier to start one that is finished than one that's ongoing, and easier to start one by an author I know I like than a new author I'm not sure of. I think that I may actually prefer standalones. Authors that write mostly standalones – Neil Gaiman, Robin McKinley, Patricia McKillip (besides the Riddlemaster of Hed). Actually – duologies and trilogies are fine too. Open ended series.. beginning to feel tired. This is the list of series I'm reading right now:

1) Wen Spencer - need to start book 4 of 4 in the Ukiah Oregon series

2) Wen Spencer – need to start book 2 of 2? maybe in the Tinker series

3) Patricia Briggs – read 2 out of 7(!!), in the Mercy Thompson series (book 3 – Iron Kissed is out Jan 08)

4) Kim Harrison – need to start book 3 of ??? (5 so far) in the Hollows series

5) Rachel Caine – need to start book 3 of ??(6 so far) in the Weather Warden series

6) Rachel Caine – need to start book 2 of ?? (3 so far) in the Morganville Vampires series

7) Dawn Cook – need to start book 2 of 4 in the Truth series

8) Kat Richardson – need to start book 2 of ?? (2 so far) in the Greywalker series

9) Faith Hunter - need to start book 2 of ?? (3 so far) in the Apocalpse series (I don't know the name of this series really)

10) Michelle Sagara – read 2 of ?? (5 so far) in the Cast in series (book 3 will be out August 07)

11) Garth Nix – started reading his Keys of the Kingdom series (book 1). Waiting for book 7 of 7 to go through it since its fast reading. YA.

12) Anne Bishop – I read book 1 of her Ephemera series (prob a trilogy), not really interested in continuing. Maybe.

13) Mindy Klasky - Need to read book 4 of 5 in her Glasswright series.

14) Moira J. Moore – Need to read book 2 of ?? (around 4 so far) in her Hero series

15) Anne Bishop – Read her Jewels trilogy, need to read her 2 other books from this world (continuations?) - Dreams made Flesh, Tangled Webs..

16) Sharon Shinn – Read book 1 of her Twelve Houses series.. not sure if I want to read 2 and 3 out of ??.

17) Karen Chance – Read book 2 of ?? in her Shadows series.

18) S. L. Viehl – Reading book 1 of 7 so far in her Stardoc series

19) Marie Brennan – Reading book 2 of 2 in her Doppleganger duology (I think)

20) Louise Rennison – Read book 2 of ?? (7 so far) in her Georgia Nicolson series

21) Casey Daniels – Read book 2 of ?? (at least 3 so far).. in her Pepper Martin series. Probably will not continue.

22) Ilona Andrews – Read book 1 of 2 so far of her Magic series

23) Lilith Saintcrow – Read book 2 of ?? in her Dante Valentine series

24) Karin Lowachee – Read book 1 of 3 in her series, will continue eventually.

25) Katie MacAlister – Read up to book 3 of her Aisling Grey, Guardian series, not really interested in continuing.

26) Janet Evanovich - Read book 1 of … ??? 13 so far in her Stephanie Plum series. Not interested in continuing.

27) MaryJanice Davidson – Read book 1 of ?? in her Undead series

28) Holly Black – Read book 2 of 3 in her Modern Faery Tale series.

29) Kristen Britain – Read book 2 of 3 (I think) in her Green Rider series.. Not really into it.. may finish though.

30) Ellen Schreiner – Read book 1 of ?? (3 so far) of her Vampire Kisses series

31) Sophie Kinsella – Read book 2 of ?? (5 so far) of her Shopaholic series

32) Kelley Armstrong – Read book 1 of ?? (8 so far) of her Otherwold series

33) Stephenie Meyer – Read book 1 of ?? (3 so far) of her series

34) Clare B. Dunkle – Read book 1 of 3 in her Hollow Kingdom series

There are other series I'm not going to even mention here since I'm now very tired. At least 10 more. At least.

K – I figured out another pet peeve – NOT KNOWING when a series is going to end!!

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Series being chopped off before the ending

Posted on July 25, 2007 by janicu

*pointing at the subject*. That's a HUGE pet peeve. OK, who doesn't find it annoying – you like a series, you are reading it and eagerly awaiting for years for the ending, when it gets cruelly chopped off and you NEVER KNOW what happens!!! J knows what I'm taking about (L.J. Smith – book 10 of Nightworld).

I found out that the Enchanted Inc series by Shanna Swendson was going to be 5 books, but the 5th one isn't going to be published. I haven't read these books yet but they were on my wishlist because I read an excerpt (I read the first few pages of the 1st book on Amazon) and thought it looked good. Anyone here read these books? That sucks! I feel all miffed on principle. Here is a post about what's going on at Shanna Swendson's blog. If you like her books you should buy them and up the sales. It may help get book 5 out. I'm going to read the first one to see how I like it.

—————

Unrelated to the Enchanted Inc series, but related to pet peeves – some of my other pet peeves to do with series:

1) Series that go on toooo long and the reader senses milking (I think about 7 books is near the max for me. I will allow more than this if books are from the viewpoint of different characters, or if the author is brilliant enough to pull it off, but after about 10, that. is. IT)!

2) Series that go on way too long because the author refuses to edit and cut things out. I'm thinking of some epic fantasies that are way too involved and could be pared down. This just feels like the author loves their baby and wants to show their world in great, excruciating detail, but the story should be more important, and sometimes less is more. This should be obvious - seeing the surface of the world and knowing it is so much more is better writing than reading about everything the author could possibly jam in. Tanith Lee is a good example of showing the surface and hinting at more.

3) Series that have some love triangle or two friends who you know are going to get together at the end, but the author keeps the reader hanging for 3-5 books or more. I can take this if the characters are young and growing up and the relationship is going to take time to start, or if there is so much more going on in the series than just that, but not if its just ridiculous and obviously a ploy. If much of the book is about the romance and its just going round and round, I get fed up and want to kill all the characters.

4) Books in the middle of the very long series where nothing happens.. not much advances in the plot and it feels like a waste of money.

I guess much of the above have this in common – I don't like being jerked around or feeling like.. someone is just doing this to keep a cash cow going at my expense.

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Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance

Posted on July 11, 2007 by janicu

Claimed By Shadow (Cassandra Palmer Series, Book 2)

Karen Chance

In book one, Cassandra (Cassie) Palmer is introduced as a clairvoyant with the ability to see ghosts and see flashes of the future (usually bad things that she can't stop from happening). Raised by vampires with mafia-like attributes, she escapes their "care" and spends most of the book running around and being chased by different factions of mages and vampires while learning that the power of the Pythia (head clairvoyant for lack of a better description) is going to be hers. She doesn't want to be Pythia and to make things more complicated – others are trying their damnedest to make her Pythia or to kill her and stop her from becoming it. On top of that is a lot of action and some time travel that occurs when some of the Pythia's abilities start to transfer to Cassie.

Now in book 2 we have some of the same problems – Cassie has enemies and her supporters aren't very clear cut. She still spends her time running from one place to another and again we have people who want her to be under their control or dead. I think the goal here is Cassie wanting to track down two people who she knows are her enemies and want to kill her, but she spends so much time getting there it was ridiculous. Subgoal – she has a geas placed on her by master vamp Mircea, her guardian from childhood which binds her to him and she wants it off.

This was the book: Cassie is somewhere, suddenly 4 random characters appear and chaos ensues, Cassie gets/runs away or other character/s leaves. Cassie is somewhere else (it doesn't help that she gets pulled back and forth in time too). Suddenly 4 random characters mentioned in book 1 or new ones appear and chaos ensues. Cassie runs away. Cassie is somewhere else.. suddenly more characters appear, chaos, fighting, someone runs away.. Cassie is somewhere else.. SUDDENLY…

Oh my god. First of all: does it have to be this way? And how slowly does anything happen in between all the action? Sure its interesting to see the world building here and the neat new characters with cool abilities (moving tattoos, incubi, magic bombs, portals, talismans, zombies, gargoyles), and fights and action is fine, but don't overdo it so that it bogs down the story. Save it for the next book! Basically: too many characters, too much action without a break, too complicated. What really irritates me is that if the author cut down on her interesting ideas she would have a good story, but she has a tendency to just throw everything in there and mix. This COULD be a good book, but too much cool ideas = overkill. If there were less new characters added every scene or so, less action (does it have to happen every scene?), and less complications, the book would be AWESOME. Right now the pace is always high, and its tiring to read something with one pace. It needs breaks and it doesn't have any. Something is always happening and even when Cassie does her thinking and planning – she's doing this when she HAS to make a decision, so its all very forced march and it doesn't help that explaining her decisions is very complicated to read because the author adds a billion things to make things more complicated – mostly more and more characters with their own agendas. Cassie explains her thought process is this way: "If I d x, then this is how the vampires will react, this is how the mages will react, this is why its good for me, this is why its bad for me, this is probably the goal of the vamps, this is what the mages probably want.. blah blah blah". Very confusing and irritating that it has to be so complicated and take so long. I would like to see Cassie just make a decision and explain it in simple, straightforward, non wishy washy terms. What's sad is that because I see it could be awesome I keep reading, hoping the plot will get better. Another thing: I really don't like it when the author finds a plot device where sex is needed in order to complete some ritual or where the characters get all hot and bothered because of a spell, both which are used in this book. Not to have orgies or anything, there hardly any actual sex in here, but it hangs over everything and the plot revolves around it and I suspect will continue to revolve around it.

Siiiiigh. I just ranted on that one. And yet: I still want the author to get it right in the next book and I'm willing to read it to see if she does. I liked book one better, so maybe I'll like book three better. Or I'm a machochistic.

General feeling – 4.5 (it was ok. I think it can be redeemed)

Plot – 4 (didn't like it, made worse by it came close to being good)

Writing style - 7 (The writing is good. Nit: were some typos I noticed in the early pages that bugged me – quotes in wrong place, same exact sentence used twice in a couple of pages that were right next to each other)

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I even like pictures of books

Posted on July 9, 2007 by janicu

Miles Aldridge did a photo editorial series called "Blown Away" in Vogue Italia, April 2006. The models have weird expressions on their faces, but I'm way too busy admiring the library. I also like to look at libraries in movies. Sex!

Blown Away by Miles Aldridge 2

Blown Away by Miles Aldridge 1

The rest of the series is posted at livejournal community foto_decadent here.

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Blade Dancer by S. L. Viehl (part 2)

Posted on July 6, 2007 by janicu

I forgot to rant about 2 nits that bugged me:

1) The cover! I didn't like it. The picture of the person on the cover does not look like how I pictured the character. The eyes on the cover are ALL white, even the irises. In the book she's supposed to have all green eyes, even where the whites should be.

2) On page 68 – Jakol has "Terran Causcasian skin". On page 290 and elsewhere near the end of the book, he's blue "a strong blue hand pushed back the obeck-la".. Did I miss somewhere when he turned blue?

I go now.

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