Recommendations

Mistborn

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Courtesy of goodreads.comSince I was terribly disappointed in that steampunk book that I reviewed last week, I thought I’d check out something that’s not part of my usual reading repertoire but which one of my all time favorite authors, Jim Butcher, spoke about at a Q&A I went to. That would be Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy.

I got myself a sample from our friendly neighborhood Amazon.com Kindle store and then I immediately bought the trilogy. Not just Mistborn, the first book, but the whole trilogy. It has the feel of a far, far dystopian future mixed with the more traditional swords & steeds fantasy.

The book revolves around two Mistborn skaa called Vin and Kelsier. Mistborn refers to people who have “supernatural” (in quotes because it isn’t really supernatural, but not everyone has these traits) abilities fueled by the burning of ingested metals (pewter for strength, tin for enhanced senses and up to 8 others). Most people only have the ability to burn one metal (pewter burners are call Thugs, tin burners Tineyes) but those who can burn more than one metal are called Mistborn.

These abilities are supposed to be relegated to the nobility, but Vin and Kelsier are, as mentioned skaa. Skaa are peasants. Well, serfs in the old Russian tradition, really. They have no rights, are worked to the bone and the nobles can take advantage of them in any way they wish. Women can be used in the most vile of ways and must be killed afterwards, lest the aforementioned Mistborn abilities get passed on to a bastard.

Not all nobles are as careful as they should be, so there are a whole slew of skaa who can burn one metal, and a few who are Mistborn. Most of these people are thieves and conmen, which sounds like a bad thing until you realize that they target mostly noble houses. And trust me, in this world, that isn’t a bad thing.

Kelsier is our lead Mistborn and he recruits a bunch of single metal burners (I think there’s a term for these folks, but I can’t remember what it is) and Vin to pull a job. They’re going to bring down the Lord Ruler, the despot who have ruled over them for around a thousand years.

This is a long game, a year or more in the making. Kelsier has a definite plan but it’s also clear that he’s keeping a good portion of that from his fellow thieves. Kelsier gets his fellows to quietly raise a skaa army from those who aren’t already beaten into submission from a thousand years of grueling and intensive labor. It’s a small army.

He himself manages to start a war between the noble houses by using his Mistborn abilities to attack them in their keeps. Since only nobles are supposed to be Mistborn, they all think that the others are attacking them. Its almost beautiful how well Kelsier plays them.

While doing that, he trains Vin, who had been a young and female street urchin who was just trying to survive and not be raped. Vin transforms from a suspicious, rather mousy kid to a suspicious, talented Mistborn who can act well enough to infiltrate the nobility as a part of their long term plan.

This book was really, really good. I’m not usually one for the more traditional sort of fantasy. I like my Harry Dresdens and my Jane Yellowrocks with their screw you attitudes, cars and destructive tendencies. 😀 That said, this book was amazing and I will definitely be reading the other two books. I’ll have to take a break in between however because as good as this book is, it is a long and chewy read.

I can’t recommend this enough, especially because I didn’t see the ending a mile away as I tend to do with a lot of books and movies. I like a writer who can keep me guessing, or who can at least write well enough so that if I do see the end coming, I’ll still be happy I read the book.

Sanderson does a great job with the characters, showing them grow and change over the time of the book. His world building could have been a little better, but I think that in the context of the book (meaning the Lord Ruler essentially writing history), it works well. I’ll be interested to see where the next two books go. Rating: A+

War of the Alphas

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Courtesy of goodreads.comSo this last week, I’ve read what I believe is all four of the War of the Alphas books. Yeah, four books in about as many days, well, hours really as I read mostly on my lunch breaks. The War of the Alphas books – Omega, Beta, Alpha and Pas – are written by SM Reine.

In this world, some sort of cataclysmic event many years ago (1o-20 from what I can figure) killed off quite a bit of the world’s population and then brought them back again as something other than human beings. That could be anything from a werewolf to an angel.

Because of the upheaval, an alpha werewolf called Rylie Gresham enforced a stratified society on the world. Her chosen ones would get to live at Sanctuary, everyone else was forced into group homes that were horrifying.  Medical and magical testing were allowed on children, as was corporal punishment and pretty much any nasty thing you can imagine.

Our protagonist – not heroine because she’s not a good person – Deirdre Tombs is what this world considers and Omega. She’s a shifter of some sort who cannot shift. Because she can’t shift, she doesn’t know what sort of shifter she is. She’s also treated as a second class citizen among already second class citizens. She’s got a shit job that her boss is trying to fire her from by killing her but due to a strange encounter on the street with an unknown crazy man, her life takes a turn for the strange.

The encounter, where this unknown crazy man orders her to Kill them all, brings her to the attention of earlier mentioned Rylie Gresham. Apparently the fact that Deirdre didn’t kill anyone is unusual. The man is an alpha were named Everton Stark and he can compel other shifters to anything he wants. Except Deirdre.

In exchange for possibly finally finding out what she is and learning how to harness that, Deirdre agrees to go undercover with Stark in his terrorist cell. And he is a terrorist. He’s using force, death and fear to get what he wants: Rylie Gresham’s death and a new, anarchist society. Weres, he argues, should be free to do what they want and the strongest should lead. They don’t need Rylie’s artificially stratified society.

In order to survive this assignment, Deirdre finds herself doing things she never thought she would or could do, up to and including killing people, getting beaten by Stark and taking a shifter drug called lethe. Greek mythology fans will recognize the name as the river of forgetfulness in the underworld, which is fitting.

I found all four of these books very interesting, obvs since I read them all last week. Deirdre is a crazy imperfect protagonist. She’s (rightfully) angry at the world and while she tries to do the right thing, she’s more concerned with her survival (at least at the start) and what her animal is to really give a shit about helping Rylie Gresham. And Rylie isn’t a sympathetic character either. I don’t think there’s really a character in this whole series that you’re rooting to survive. I’m not upset that the main characters lived, but I wouldn’t have been upset if they died either.

Everton Stark is a loathsome man. He’s a physically and emotionally abusive man and I really wish his character had been killed off instead of incarcerated (with the possibility of escape–SPOILERS?). I’ve never really read a book where they could kill off everyone…and I’d be okay with that. It’s interesting.

Deirdre’s eventual goals are admirable. She wants a better life for gaeans (the non-human peoples of the world). She wants the group homes abolished and she wants everyone to have a fair shake at life. Those are all good things. She goes about them in a very wrong way until the very end. And I mean literally the very end of the series. It isn’t until the end of the fourth book when Deirdre pulls her head out of her ass and realizes that in order to make the changes she wants, she needs to work in the system that the people want instead of against it. Or so it seems. The only thing I really, really didn’t like about this series is that the last book left it open ended a bit.

Sue me, I like closure. I’d definitely read more of this world. I found it absolutely fascinating the world that SM Reine created. I’d like more likeable characters though, but other than that, I really can’t complain. If you’re interested in darker urban fantasy, I can’t possibly recommend these books any higher. Rating: A.

Manners & Mutiny

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Courtesy of gailcarriger.comI love Gail Carriger’s steampunk novels. Have I mentioned this? In particular, I like her Parasol Protectorate books and her Finishing School series. In her latest (and last) of the Finishing School novels, Manners & Mutiny, we follow protagonist Sephronia Temminnick as she tries to finish her final year at Mademoiselle Geraldine’s.

This book was released on Wednesday November 4, so I’m not going to go into too much detail. Just because I finished this book over the course of about three lunch hours doesn’t mean everyone did. But just in case I do spill something plotty, below be SPOILERS. You have been warned.

Sephronia and her friends, Dimity and Agatha, are given some increasingly complex tests as a part of their final year. And not just in classes. They have a ball with the all boys school Bunson’s on Swiffle-on-Exe, where Dimity’s brother Pillover and their friend Vieve (a girl masquerading as a boy) attend. And let’s not forget about Felix de Mersey, Sephronia’s other suitor (the first being sootie Soap).

Felix and Sephronia are at loggerheads due to his involvement of Soap dying and becoming a werewolf in the previous novel. Things do not get better here. Felix is the son of the Grand Gherkin of the Picklemen (aren’t these titles just fantastic?! They’re so silly. I love them), who shot soap and is generally a bad guy and the Picklemen are clearly up to something.

They break into Mademoiselle Geraldine’s after the ball but leave with nothing, vexing Sophronia who got into trouble with the teachers. She chased the Picklemen and got caught. They’re not upset about the former but they are upset about the latter. Sophronia gets saddled with all sorts of busy work that leave her no time to figure out what the Picklemen are up to.

To make matters a little worse, Soap keeps showing up attempting to court her. Sophronia, despite what her heart wants, is still a member of high society and a lady like her can’t be with the only black werewolf in England. It just isn’t done. And don’t blame me or Ms. Carriger for those words. That was the times in mid-1800s England.

Will Soap ever talk Sophronia around? What are the Picklemen up to? Why is Felix trying so hard to make up with Sophronia? And what is going on with Lord Akeldama (and really, we all wonder that)? Read to find out!

I enjoyed the hell out of this book. It makes me sad that it was the last in the series but obviously you can’t continue finishing school once you’ve properly finished and debuted. I’m hoping that we’ll continue to see more from this lovely world and lovely writer. I highly recommend this series and this book. Rating: A+

This Broken World

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Courtesy of Amazon.comI don’t think I’ve reviewed any of the Damian Vesik books by Eric R. Asher yet, but This Broken World is the fourth and latest in that series. Damian Vesik is a necromancer and in this world necromancers are treated with a certain amount of suspicion but they aren’t necessarily outright evil. Damian is one of the good guys.

He owns an occult shop somewhere in Missouri (can’t remember the name of the town but I think it’s somewhere around St. Joseph’s?). His sister is a vampire (these vamps can be out in the daytime if they’re strong enough a la Dracula. No sparkling, thank god), his shop is home to a family of faeries (one of whom he considers as a surrogate mother. His own mother is alive and well but doesn’t really understand his world) and two cu siths (fae dogs).

In this book, he’s facing a war with a necromancer so old and powerful that he was considered a god at one point? Which god? Well that would be Anubis. I know you’re thinking that it should really be Osiris (okay, maybe that’s just me being my Ancient Egyptian mythology nerd) but Anubis is good enough a choice. Anubis is a slightly darker figure in Egyptian mythology, so it fits better with this bad guy than Osiris really would be.

Anubis issued a challenge to Vesik in the last book. Meet him and fight at Gettysburg or face the consequences. Damian has to rally his people and learn how to channel his growing powers while trying to dodge the commoners (humans who don’t know that the magical world exists) who are getting suspicious (news outlets and the like).

I enjoy these books and this one was no exception. Its very well written and you care about what happens to the characters. The only thing I don’t like is that Damian Vesik has to do all the heavy lifting (he’s expected to save the world after all) but the people who are supposed to be giving him the tools to do so (his mentor Zola and another ancient necromancer called alternately the Old Man or Leviticus) kind of just give him bits and pieces at a time. He’s a mushroom and they’re feeding him just enough to make him grow the way they want. That frustrates the crap out of me (and Vesik).

At any rate, these books are definitely worth the read, especially if you’re fond of the Dresden Files or the Jane Yellowrock novels. Rating: B+

Free Agent

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Courtesy of goodreads.comSo I picked up this book Free Agent by J.C. Nelson because it said it was book 1 of the Grimm Agency series. I thought that the idea of a Grimm (as in the brothers) Agency sounded interesting. And it was an interesting read.

We get introduced to Marissa Locks (as in Goldi) who is an agent for fairy godfather Grimm (no first name). She’s chasing down someone who has stolen a pair of glass slippers. Apparently if a godfather or godmother grants you a magical item, such as glass slippers, the magic will work perfectly for you until midnight (natch). But if you steal said item, it will turn you into a slavering monster at midnight (…natch).

Marissa’s job is to retrieve objects like this, to set up princesses with princes and pretty much do anything else Grimm asks of her since her parents sold her to him for a miracle cure for their youngest (and only biological) daughter. The interesting thing about this world is that there is a Kingdom (where all the high society lives) and it is sort of an overlay (or maybe underlay) to the mortal world. I don’t recall them naming the city it overlays, but I’m assuming its New York because it’s always New York. So there are actual princes and princesses in this place not just princely people.

After retrieving the slippers, Marissa has to play the “wrong woman” again. This means she has to go out, find the appointed prince, break his heart and set him up to find his one, true, princessly love. I had issue with this bit because why does a princess need a prince? Or vice versa.

But people pay good Glitter (the currency of the Kingdom) to get their happily ever after so Marissa makes that happen. Unfortunately for her, this time she screws up though we find out in time that it isn’t really her fault. A fairy godmother is trying to move in on Grimm’s territory, which is usually a no-no. And since fairy magic cancels each other out, neither fairy can go up against each other directly. Meaning its Marissa to the rescue.

I found a few of the things in this book just “ugh, why?”, mainly the whole setting up princesses for marriage thing. Now, I am happily married but I also believe that a woman doesn’t need to be married to have a fulfilling life. Or a man for that matter. But since we’re dealing with fairy tales here, obviously happily ever afters involve marriage or one true loves so I guess I’ll give it a pass.

I like the concept of Glitter being currency and the idea that fairy tale creatures are among us, if only just slightly off, like you need to turn sideways to see them. Its interesting and I’m tempted to get the follow up book but I’m afraid that Marissa is going to go damsel in distress as so many women do in fairy tale based stories. Nothing bugs me more than a strong woman suddenly needing a man to do everything for her when a romantic interest comes into her life.

All in all, it was an entertaining read. Rating: B+.

The Aeronaut’s Windlass

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Courtesy of jim-butcher.comOne of my all time favorite authors wrote a steampunk story. I fan girled. I got to meet him and get an autographed copy of said book. I fan girled. Then I read the book…and I sighed. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in Jim Butcher’s The Aeronaut’s Windlass.

It isn’t what I would properly call steampunk. It had a lot of the same themes as steampunk: a highly stratified society, aeroships, aether, copper/brass doohickies. It was not clear whether this was some sort of alternate earth time line or some alternate planet. A no point were any recognizable human countries from the Victorian age mentioned.

All humans, and cats, live in these giant Borg cubes (and yes, that is straight from the horse’s mouth) called Spires. They are 10,000 feet high by two miles wide. Each level in the cube is 50 feet in height and referred to as a habble. The top habble occupied mostly by the top families, who are rather like the English nobility.

The main power source seems to be crystals rather than steam, which I thought was cool and not nearly as noisy. It doesn’t seem like women are at all treated like arm candy, which is pretty opposite of Victorian England, you must admit.

Cats can communicate, but only if the human is “smart” enough to realize that they’re talking. They’re also assholes but…so are real cats. There is also a caste (not really a caste system but the best word I can come up with at the moment) of humans called warriorborn. From what I can tell, they’re some sort of half-human, half-cat like creature as cats call them half-souls.

I think my favorite characters are the ethrealists, which are mad to a one. And by mad I mean Mad Hatter sort of mad.  They’re powerful but doofy. Master Ferus, one of the ethrealists, has a problem with door knobs. He can’t open them. It’s a nice little running gag.

Since the book only came out about a week or so ago, I’ll just give a brief overview. So possible SPOILERS here.

This book features five people other than the ethrealist Master Ferus: Captain Francis Madison Grimm (often called the grim captain by Ferus), Gwendolyn Lancaster of House Lancaster (who control the crystal vatteries in Spire Albion), her cousin Benedict Sorellin-Lancaster, Bridget Tagwynn (who speaks cat) and Folly (apprentice ethrealist).

Gwen and Bridget are new inductees into the Spirearch Guard of Spire Albion (there are several Spires, not just this one). The Spirearch is like the king and the guard are his, well, guard. They’re the police force and the fighting force  for the spire. Benedict has been a guard for two years already and is enjoying being one up on his cousin on the reg.

Grimm is the aeronaut with a bad past. He was drummed out of Fleet for cowardice, even though it clearly wasn’t him. He was the patsy. Still, he has his own ship, The Predator, no matter how badly damaged so he’s his own man.

Due to a surprise attack from Spire Aurora, our unlikely allies are gathered together by the Spirearch as the only people he can really trust. Mostly because they’ve all given them lip at some point, I think. At any rate, he has a mission for them to Habble Landing, where the majority of the Spire’s commerce takes place. Habble Landing, naturally enough, houses the docks and is the likely place for any further Auroran attacks.

The writing is good. If I didn’t know who had written it, I probably would have guessed Jim Butcher. But. It wasn’t what I would term a good steampunk novel. I would really classify this as just a fantasy novel. I think that’s where my disappointment stems from. I’ve read and enjoyed so much steampunk that I have an expectation of what it should be like, and this book isn’t it.

I would say that if you want to read this one, go into it thinking of it as a fantasy novel and not a steampunk novel. Don’t box yourself into a set of expectations. However, I would also say, wait until it comes down a little in price if you want to buy it. Rating: B-. I’ll probably read any follow up books, but I’m not sure if I’ll read this one again.

Killing Pretty

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Courtesy of goodreads.comI love the Sandman Slim novels. Richard Kadrey’s writing reminds me of a mix of Simon R. Green’s evocative descriptions and Jim Butcher’s snark peppered with a hint of the dystopian. A hint is all I need really, I’m not generally a person who reads full on dystopian books.

The latest Sandman Slim is Killing Pretty. This book picks up where the last one left off, pretty directly. Stark is resented by a lot of angels, his girlfriend Candy is ‘dead’ (she was ‘killed’ pretty spectacularly in front of a lot of cops but it was a fake out. A glamour making her a Japanese woman is all that keeps her safe these days) and he no longer has access to the room of 13 doors. This is the major bummer as that was his big trick, the one he relied on more than anything to help him figure out what was going on.

But the big thing is that someone has killed Death. Or rather, they managed to stuff the Angel of Death into a body and then kill that body. It didn’t take, so Death crawled out of where the body was and went to Stark for help. Because he’s working as a PI for a woman who used to be a marshal, she ends up working the case.

This is the big case, the name maker that will make sure that she and Stark remain in business. Because while Death is stuck in the body of a mortal, people aren’t dying. It’s a little Torchwood Children of Earth, honestly, but the mechanics of what’s going on at least make a little sense in this universe.

I highly recommend this whole series, and this is a pretty good one. You don’t need to read the whole series for this to make sense but there are a number of callbacks to prior novels that make more sense if you’ve read them. I do know that this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea so be warned there is a lot of cussing and graphic violence, as one would expect with Sandman Slim. Rating: A

Forces from Beyond

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Courtesy of Amazon.comObligatory SPOILERS warning because this book is really, really new. I just finished the last of Simon R Green’s Ghost Finders novels, Forces from Beyond. This series features the folks of the Carnacki Institute, who deal with those who just won’t lay down and die already. The books revolve around one team made up of JC Chance, ‘Happy’ Jack Palmer and Melody Chambers.

JC is sort of like Faceman from the A-Team, smooth, suave, well-dressed and charming with it. He lives with his ghost girlfriend Kim. No, I don’t feel like elaborating. Read the books. 😉 JC is the team leader because he’s that sort of guy.

Jack Palmer is the team telepath. In order to keep himself functioning in a sane way, he pumps himself full of drugs which could probably kill an elephant. He lives with the team tech geek, Melody Chambers. From the sound of it, they have a really interesting sex life. Jack’s nickname of Happy is heavily ironic.

In this book, we find out that Happy is dying. No surprise given his drug problem, but it really seems to be just around the corner here. The Carnacki Institute is hoping to have him for one last push against the final boss, the Flesh Undying. We know it’s the last push because Carnacki Institute boss Catherine Latimer is behind what goes on in the book.

I don’t want to get into this plot in too much detail since it’s so new but I do feel that the book was rather rushed. I feel like he really could have stretched out this Flesh Undying arc into another two or even three books. It seemed like because he’s having some health difficulties, he’s decided to just get his series over with as soon as possible.

While that might work well with the Nightside or the Secret Histories, which are rather winding down naturally, it didn’t work so well with the Ghost Finders. I found this a rather meh series to begin with but the kind of Scooby Doo ending in this one just left me going “Wait, that’s it?”.

So yeah, if you’ve read the others in this series, totally go ahead and round it out. I really hate leaving books unfinished unless I find them truly godawful but I almost wish I hadn’t read this book at all. I have re-read a lot of Simon R. Green’s books but I don’t think this will be one of them. Rating: C-. Not worth the price, luckily I believe I bought this with birthday money.

A Red-Rose Chain

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Courtesy of goodreads.comI just finished the latest October Daye story from Seanan McGuire, A Red-Rose Chain. Literally just finished as I set down my Kindle and came to pop out a review. This book is so, so new (less than two weeks now), that I’m going to give a bare-bones description but please be warned that there could be SPOILERS here.

So, we start out with Toby and company fighting off a pack of Mauthe Doog, giant black dogs from the depths of Faerie that had been locked away by Oberon centuries ago. I’m still hoping that McGuire will get Toby to find out why Oberon sealed off much of Faerie so long ago. I think it would be fascinating.

She figures out that these dogs aren’t evil creatures. They’re frightened. They haven’t seen the mortal world in centuries or longer and to be suddenly dumped out in modern San Francisco scared the crap out of them. Scared animals will fight back, so naturally, they’d caused a dust up. And because she’s a hero of the realm, Queen Arden of the Mists called in Toby for help.

Once they Mauthe Doogs are taken care of, the next catastrophe rears its ugly head pretty immediately. Like, within 2-3 hours immediately. The Kingdom of Silences to the north has declared war on the Mists because, though Queen Arden is confirmed as the rightful ruler and heir of the prior king, Gilad Windermere, the deposed queen had run straight to Silences and the puppet she’d put on the throne.

Arden sends Toby as her chosen diplomat to Silences in hopes of averting a war. Which, given Toby’s experience is probably not the best course of action but Toby touched the queen without permission (a major taboo in the fae world). So this post is punishment essentially.

With her are new fiancee and King of Dreaming Cats (I believe is the kingdom’s name) Tybalt, squire Quentin and former Fetch May. Let’s face it, May is around because 1) she’s hard to kill and 2) she’s the only person who has a hope in hell of making Toby presentable to royalty. Together, they have three days to try and talk Silences out of their ridiculous war or there will be hell to pay.

I won’t say more because otherwise we get into major plot points and I don’t want to ruin it. It’s a delicious book that took me about four hours to plow through total (stretched over a few lunch breaks). I love the October Daye novels. All of them. There hasn’t really been a bad one, though some of them are definitely better than others. I think at one point in time Amazon had this listed of book 9 of 9 of the series, so I’d gone into this a bit sad, expecting a grand wrap up.

Luckily, I don’t think this is the case. There are too many loose ends. We still don’t know what it is that the Luidaeg really wants Toby to do. We don’t know what’s going on with Amandine. And (spoilers) Toby and Tybalt didn’t get married at the end of the book. So there’s lots left to come. I’ll be interested to see what happens. So, Ms. McGuire, I can haz next book please? Rating: A

Prudence

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Courtesy of goodreads.comI just finished Gail Carriger’s latest, Prudence. This is book one of the Custard Protocol series, which I assume will be a 4-5 book series like the Parasol Protectorate books and the Finishing School series. Because this is a very new novel, I won’t go into much detail here. All three series are interlinked, so it’s really fun to see where things come from or go.

This book follows Lady Prudence Akeldama, the adopted daughter of Lord Akeldama, rove vampire extraordinaire and biological daughter of Lord and Lady Maccon. She’s out in society, so probably about 18-19. Her best friend Primrose is the daughter of her mother’s best friend, Ivy Tunstall and she clearly has some sort of feeling for Madame LeFoux’s  son Quesnel.

This book follows the adventures of Prudence (called Rue) and her friends to India via the improbably ladybug colored dirigible, The Spotted Custard. This is a present from Lord Akeldama to Rue with the express intent of getting her out of London due to an unfortunate werewolf in bloomers incident at a society party and to get her to do some covert tea buying.

This is clearly the introductory story of her next story arc. There’s a lot of character building but I can’t quite decide of I’m supposed to like any of these character, particularly Rue. I feel she’s a bit spoiled and I can’t help but feel that I really, really want her taken down a serious peg or two.

There’s clearly supposed to be some sort of romantic build up between Rue and Quesnel, but…I just can’t seem to care. I think that’s far too tidy, considering Quesenl’s mother was in love with Rue’s mother. I don’t particularly like that Lady Alexia Maccon seems to have turned into every disapproving mother ever. She didn’t seem like that when Rue was little in the last Parasol Protectorate book.

I enjoyed reading the book. It had Gail Carriger’s distinctive style…but I think you could read the second book in this series (whenever it comes out) and still not really miss anything. It makes me want to read Soulless again. Rating: C+/B-