subscribeBeing sick is good for one thing…
Tuesday May 11, 2010
Reading. While I lay around like a dirty old towel this weekend, sick, I managed to finish the two library books (one of which was getting on in overdue fines) I’ve had since before the move. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs and Tales of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong. Briefly, without spoiling anything I’ll say this:
Silver Borne was great. It felt, for the first time in a few books, like Mercy was back to her old self—though with a clearer maturity than before. The series regulars/favorites were back, but in some cases with deeper characterization than in any previous volume (Darryl and Auriele, Ben; even Samuel) and overall while the plot tended to veer this way and that a few times, I really enjoyed it. Glad to see Mercy is going strong again.
Tales of the Otherworld felt like an indulgence, like that extra dollop of whipped cream you really want but know you should probably abstain from if someone else is watching…but what the hey. It felt like that. The stories were pure backstory, enrichment, extra tidbits and explanations, the little pieces here and there finally fleshed out in narrative form (my favorite, naturally, being Clay and Elena’s backstory story). The two novella-length stories (Clay & Elena’s and The Case of El Chupacabra) were probably the strongest, but that’s probably because I think Armstrong is at her strongest with novel-length fiction.
Other than being sick, my other despite-being-sick accomplishment this weekend was installing Office for Mac on the new computer. Not that I wasn’t surviving without Word and Excel…not that I couldn’t… but yes. I caved. I need them. I am too strangely addicted to Excel for organizing character detail in extensive chart form for me to purely go word processor, and I’m too used to Word to think I could adapt to a different program without Word as a standby (though I am planning on using Scrivener, at least for the free trial, because it’s so clever).
Also in regards to the [shiny, lovely, new] Mac, I am trying to get used to the idea of the touchpad. I have been an external mouse devotee forever; the Mini made it not only necessary but absolutely vital for me to use an external mouse because my hands were almost too big for its keyboard and it’d always jostle the touchpad accidentally. With the Mac, though, I am delighting in its multi-finger functionality so far. Call me easily entertained, but it’s very fun to scroll down a page with two fingers. Much smoother than the scroller thinger in a mouse. (Technical term, that.) Though for dragging and dropping, an external mouse is still undeniably necessary. Wow, I can’t believe I talked about that for a paragraph. I am a wordy, wordy lady today. (Cough. Always…)
Must now dive back into work. It’s so exciting, finally being able to write again!
Curse the Dawn by Karen Chance
Monday April 27, 2009
Curse the Dawn is the fourth book in the Cassandra (Cassie) Palmer series by Karen Chance (after Touch the Dark, Claimed by Shadow, and Embrace the Night). The series focuses on clairvoyant-turned-Pythia Cassie Palmer, the world’s foremost clairvoyant (whose powers are intermittent) who can also manipulate time and space (albeit clumsily with hilarious results). The other major characters include smooth and seductive vampire senator Mircea and shoot-first-ask-questions-later battle mage and all-around mystery man, Pritkin. I’ll be very spoiler-lite and talk mostly about the series as a whole, I think.
This is a series I can’t stop reading for the simple reason that the characters are engaging. The plots are very all-over-the-place, the descriptions of scenes and images are often hard to understand or a little clunky, the diction and language are inconsistent and a little annoying, but Chance has done something some well- and tightly-written fantasies have failed to do for me: she has utterly and truly engaged my interest with what happens to her characters, even the most insignificant ones.
Unlike the other series in the genre I’ve read, Chance is willing to do some crazy things to her characters. And I’m not talking “dangerous” things or “complicated” things — I mean crazy crazy things with hilarious results. Like swapping bodies. Like compromising situations involving time travel, famous historical events, and mage conspiracies that turn things on their heads. I really enjoy those moments. This series is much more light-hearted and comedic than the other series, definitely full of self-referential tongue-in-cheek moments that make me giggle. Sometimes a good giggle is a lot more effective to me than a good moment of action or a good dramatic moment. Not saying I don’t get plenty of enjoyment out of series with little humor, but it’s a different kind. If I could satisfy all of my reading tastes and desires with a single book or series, forever, then I wouldn’t be the wide-ranging voracious [fantasy] reader that I am. The Cassie Palmer series fills a gap, satisfies a need/desire for me, and perhaps that’s why I keep reading it. No other series has such a clunky, goofy, naggy, whiney, amusing heroine who interacts with such interesting main male characters. (Pritkin is my personal favorite; I suppose that means I am a Cassie/Pritkin shipper? Dare I say it? I never usually go for the vamp when there’s a choice, and Mircea is no exception. Crazy battle mages for the win!)
Midnight’s Daughter, an off-shoot novel to the Cassie Palmer series, was not a necessary read before Curse the Dawn but because I’d read it, I had a more enriching experience, I think, because the action in that novel sort of bisected this one (off-screen) a bit. Also, Cassie sees a photo — or several — of Dorina, the main character introduced in Midnight’s Daughter, and having read Midnight’s Daughter I understood the ironic context of Cassie seeing the photo. Without that knowledge Cassie’s suspicions and jealousy wouldn’t have been as amusing. But reading that novel wasn’t necessarily necessary to the series, but considering they’re set in the same world at the same time I have a feeling that Chance is shaping things up to coincide between books. There’s a huge conflict she’s building toward and between the two series, she’ll be able to show two different sides of it (the fey side, and the vampire/mage side). I’m also assuming there will be character crossover, as there was already some crossover with Mircea in Midnight’s Daughter.
All in all I enjoyed this book. Books 3 and 4 of this series were much better than 1 and 2; based on that I can’t wait for more. If you enjoy urban fantasy and humor, with a little dash o’ crazy thrown in, this is a fun series for that and you may as well dive right into it, starting with the beginning.
Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews
Friday April 24, 2009
Last week, over a 24 hour period, I devoured Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews. It’s the third in the Kate Daniels urban fantasy series about merc/mage/kickass female hero Kate Daniels (the previous two being Magic Bites and Magic Burns), written in first person, set in a futuristic and magical Atlanta. I’ll try to keep the reaction as spoiler-free as possible.
Firstly, the book was excellent. I love this entire series. It’s different from a lot of the other series in the genre for a few reasons, but the main one is the world. It’s set in a slightly futuristic time in a world where magic and technology intermingle and often cancel each other out (well, when it comes to magic canceling out tech, really) and the world is built up so well, you’re utterly and unquestioningly drawn in. That rich world layers the present action with a lot of depth, as well as allowing a huge backstory to unfold in a skillful way that doesn’t feel too clunky — in part because of how slowly and deliberately it’s revealed. (Any story can have a backstory this richly developed but the trick is in the way it’s revealed and therefore absorbed by the reader. If it’s all thrown out immediately, or infodumped in the middle/end, it’s hard to process.) That and the entire series so far is very well-paced. There’s a very comfortable unfurling of overarching series plot going on across all of the books that I am really enjoying as well as each book’s individual plot. And each book does have a distinct individual arc, which both complicates and helps to enhance the series plot. As much as I really want to know what will happen… it’ll keep. I’m enjoying everything as it’s been written. Yes, I want to know some things, but enough has been said, implied, and foreshadowed that I am quite happy to keep reading. (Twitch. I keep telling myself that I can wait patiently, anyway.)
I also love this series compared to many others for two other major reasons: the first is Kate herself (a true female hero if there ever was one) and the fact that there is no distracting, drama-ridden love triangle or ridiculous battle over the “many men” who love Kate. Nope. It’s straightforward and singular and I love that. The love plot for each book is simple, pointed, and clear, with as little drama as possible — which fits Kate. She’s not one for drama, and her love life (whatever there is of it) shouldn’t be made into the tug-of-war some authors make for their female main characters. (I am thinking of two series in particular; if you read the genre you probably know which I mean.) She just doesn’t have the time nor the energy to care too much about it and if it were any other way than the way it is, I wouldn’t enjoy the series half as much.
More specifically in Magic Strikes I enjoyed the interaction between Kate and Curran (as always, their witty interplay and chemistry is wonderfully amusing) and the structure of the tournament idea. The whole underground fighting idea has been done but it was used here in an entirely new and interesting way in keeping with this world and its style, and I enjoyed that. I really enjoyed getting to see a different/deeper side of Saiman, and getting to see the developing relationship between Raphael and Andrea (lovelovelove her!), especially as it compares to (and is totally different from) Kate and Curran’s. Getting to know more about Kate was exhilarating, as was seeing the promise of battles to come through well-placed hints and some obvious comments.
I’m thrilled at the way this series is shaping into something subtly grander and more epic than I’d initially anticipated. It’s growing into an epic urban fantasy series and I love that. And it’s not losing its voice or sense of characters, either, as it grows into a larger and more epic framework, which is so vital.
I can’t wait for the next installment in the Kate Daniels series, as well as the new book set in a new world that’s coming out, On the Edge. Keep them coming!
Midnight’s Daughter by Karen Chance
Sunday February 1, 2009
If you’ve read the Cassandra Palmer series, definitely check out Midnight’s Daughter.
I’ve read the Cassandra Palmer series to date — three books, the fourth is coming out in April 2009 — and when launching into this novel, I was glad I had. Karen Chance definitely made me feel as if I needed to have not only read all three of those books but also the short story in the anthology On the Prowl (which I have read), too, to really get an appreciation for the story’s situation. That said, that’s not necessarily a bad thing on her part — plenty of authors love confusing me with that sort of thing, so she’s not alone! — but I still felt a little annoyed because it didn’t really mention that anywhere on the book before I’d started reading it. So yes, having read those helps, but in retrospect they weren’t entirely necessary, as her vampires and the magic system is fairly basic and works off of a lot of canon lore (her vampires have all the usual strengths & weaknesses, plus levels of mastery that yield interesting results).
Basically, Midnight’s Daughter was all right, but then again, I’m the first to admit I’m both easy going about saying I enjoy a ton of books while having ridiculously high standards for books that go that next step from enjoyment to adoration. (Or obsession.) I wasn’t obsessed with this book, but you know, that’s quite all right. I didn’t race through it — honestly, some of her language tripped me up a little and I had to reread things to be sure I was getting the meaning, and still wasn’t entirely sure I’d gotten it — but I definitely was grabbed by the plot and characters. Louis-Cesare is Mmm, of course — I was wondering if he’d get his own book when he featured so prominently in the Cassandra Palmer books – and Dory was a fun character, if a little abrasive with a voice that didn’t really match her character. (Would a 500 year old half-vampire — dhampir – really speak like that? Really? Oh, first person narration when it’s not quite there.) But I sort of loved Radu (teehee) and the whole thing with the “Dracula” family? The brothers, Dory’s place in it, the history, I have to admit, it kept me interested.
Having gotten used to Karen Chance’s style, I can’t say I wasn’t expecting the way a lot of this book was going to unfold. Her unpredictable plots are predictable in a strange and amusing way. I like the way she’s imagined the Fey (proper creepy/pretty Fey, yes! None of this cutesy crap) and I definitely am a fan of any series that has battle mages and people who are half-things and therefore have to deal with crazy family or genetic issues that result. (More Claire! More Claire!) Plus, I have to admire a writer who just plows forward with world-building and drops detail without getting heavy-handed with the explanation — she doesn’t really explain about magic or they Fey the way she might, the way other authors have, and I like that. She left the end open enough for a sequel or sequels and I admit, I’ll check them out.
So yes, Midnight’s Daughter was quirky, fun, random, and it definitely helps to have read Karen Chance’s other books, but it was still enjoyable.
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