It's been a while again. And, once again I've gone through a bunch of books and returned them to the library without writing anything about them. This is a shame because there were some good ones (and some not-so-good ones), and now I'll forget the titles and authors and my reactions to them because I just keep on reading, and reading, and reading (sort of like a Godzilla-reading-monster with a bottomless appetite...the more I read, the more I need to read more...) and I can't remember all the books if I don't write down the details when they are fresh in my mind. Like most people I get busy, and I also get in moods where I don't have the energy, time, or focus to sit down, think about, and write about what I've read.
Enough 'splainin' and apology. Back to the real purpose of this blog update.
Here's my most recent library roundup since the libraries re-opened.
Marie Brennan's
With Fate Conspire is a well-researched Victorian/Steampunk/Fae novel set in the mortal London as well as the Fae London. What mortals do in the world above directly affects the well-being of the Fae below. Brennan makes the point that everything and everyone is interconnected: the actions of the powerful have huge consequences for those of "other" races, classes, genders, species, and worlds.
As I read along I kept thinking, what an awful lot of work it must have been for Brennan to gather up all the little historical details she did to create such a convincing setting, such convincing characters, and the fascinating and intricate set of theories that she based her story upon. When I got to the end of the story and I read her Acknowledgements, she admitted as much. She has a long list of people who helped her in the research to thank.
I was quite taken by her explanation for *how* a Fae photograph might capture the essence soul/spirit/memory. I was however a little disturbed by the world-building machine which uses the ectoplasm of ghosts. I couldn't help wondering, what if there is a very good reason for ectoplasm existing, and what if the ghosts need it for a very important purpose as yet not understood by human or fae? Was it possible that the spirits of the dead were being treated as yet another "other" to be exploited simply because they were no longer corporeal/living but had something of use to the living?
I have added her to my list of favourite novelists and will be looking for her other novels in the future.
Esperanza by Trish J. MacGregor was probably enjoyable for me primarily because of its setting in Ecuador. MacGregor's bio says she grew up in Venezuela and that her upbringing in the South American culture and geography strongly influenced her novel. I thought she did an excellent job of making me feel as if I had almost been there myself, which I haven't in real life. I also liked her concept of a large host of hungry unsettled spirits (she calls them brujas - the Spanish word for witches) organizing as an army and wanting to take over more than a few bodies to experience corporeal life again.
Patricia Briggs
River Marked is the latest in the Mercy Thompson series. The series is paranormal mystery, urban fantasy, with one of my favorite kick-ass heroines. Mercy is a shape-changer with some Native American blood who own her own auto mechanic repair shop. She turns into a Coyote. She hangs out with Vampires, Fae, and Werewolves, and is married to one. She is also always getting into some kind of life-threatening trouble, and in the course of the book usually manages to save herself and others from that trouble.
What I liked most about this novel was how it dug into Mercy's Native American heritage, and her Coyote shape-changer status. This is the sixth novel in the series, so I think it was about time we got some more insight into Mercy's character background and development. I thought Briggs presented the theory of Archetypes in a way that would be accessible to most of her readership. I thoroughly enjoyed her character portrayal of the Native American Trickster deity Coyote himself.
Dark Prophecy by Anthony Zuiker and Duane Swierczynski is the first book in the Level 26 series that I have read so far. The series is based on a serial killer profiler named Steve Dark who works for a highly secret US Government agency, catching the most evil of serial killers. (Zuiker is the creator and producer of the popular CSI television series). Steve Dark's job takes its toll on him and on his loved ones, and although he tries (after it kills almost everyone he cares about), he finds that he can't give it up. It seems that he's driven to catch these killers, just as much as, if not more so than they are driven to kill.
The story explores how much his insight into these serial killers, and his drive to catch them might make him similar to them, and whether or not and under what circumstances he might cross the line into becoming a vigilante executioner. Considering the degree of bureaucratic government stupidity, selfishness and petty personal politics and power struggles hampering Dark from doing what he does best, I couldn't help but be sympathetic towards his situation.
This particular novel was most interesting to me because the serial killer (as it turns out - a team) being chased uses Tarot cards to chose the victims involved in the killing spree, and the method/styles/staging of the killings. There is an interactive website set up at Level26.com which allows the reader of the book to read the tarot reading for each of the cards that each of the murders is based on. There is actually some respectful knowledge and/or research of the Tarot in this book - which surprised and pleased me.
Thats it for now.
Next up on my list for this week are:
Magic on the Line by Devon Monk,
Kitty's Big Trouble by Carrie Vaughn,
Darkness Unbound by Keri Arthur (I suspect that this one may not satisfy me as it looks like it might be a supernatural romance novel, but I will see how it goes), and
Play Dead by Ryan Brown.
