Solange Drake may attend a regular school with her classmates, but she's very special. She's destined to become Queen of the Vampires, and her pheremones are becoming so strong that she can't be out alone any more because of the danger of her being attacked by some vampire who wants her for a bride. The only one that doesn't treat her like the second coming of the vampire messiah besides her family is her best friend Lucky, who prefers to be called Lucy.
Solange's family has been vampires for a very long time, and are old enough that they can have children. While the children are young, they are human, but once they turn 16, they undergo a blood change and become vampires, unable to stand the sun. Everyone is sure that she is the prophesied leader of the vampires because she is the only female born to the Drake family- all she has are brothers, and the other female members of the family either started out human and were made, or were already vampires and married in.
The current leader of the Vampires, Lady Natasha, hates and fears Solange because of the prophecy. Because of it, she banished Solange's family from her court, but the distance hasn't made any difference in her feelings- and as the time ticks down to her 16th birthday, tons of flowers and other presents are being left on the perimeter of her family's lands in hopes that she will choose to marry one of the givers and make him her King- a vain hope, as Solange doesn't want to be Queen- but no one except her family actually believe that.
Then comes a night when Solange is attacked by numerous vampires. Her mother and brothers kill all of them for one, whom they disable to ask the reason behind the attack. He is not a vampire, but a human, Kieran Black, a warrior of a group called "Helios-Ra", who are vampire hunters. He attacked because he believes the Drake family broke their treaty with Helios-Ra and killed his father. The Drakes know they didn't, but Kieran refuses to believe them. They decide to keep him Prisoner for now, but the next day, he breaks free by using a powder that mimics the persuasion pheremones of Vampires on Lucy, who is usually immune to such things. But this one is adulterated with a powder known as Hypnos- the only upside being that now the Drake family has a sample and can try to duplicate it.
Meanwhile, Lucy, who normally hates Solange's brother Nicholas, finds her opinion changing, and his as well. But how can she be attracted to a boy she so totally despises? And when Solange is taken to Lady Natasha for a meeting by a member of the family, even her brothers can't prevent her from being taken Hostage by the Helios-Ra. When her father summons their leaders to a meeting at his house, they swear that someone put out a contract on the family. When Solange's father tells them the family was not to blame for what happened to Kieran's father, Lucy discovers that Kieran is the nephew of one of the leaders, a man named Hart. Hart believes Solange's father, and his sister, Hope, the other leader, agrees to remain behind as a hostage while Hart tries to reign in one of his own units gone Rogue.
Back with Solange, Kieran, having finally believed the Drakes about them not being responsible for the death of his father, rescues Solange from the Helios-Ra men and hides her through the sun of the day. Solange is only two days from her 16th birthday and starting to undergo the change. This means she will need both vampire and human blood to survive. But can Kieran get Solange back to the bosom of her family before she dies, and can Lucy and Nicolas find her and bring her home? When she's captured by Lady Natasha, all bets are off. Is she truly the vampire of prophecy?
I enjoyed this book. It packs enough backstory and story into it that you do understand what is going on, but readers also might feel that they have missed some books in the series, because the story starts completely in media res with parts in both Solange and Lucy's points of view. And both characters have known each other for so long that they know pretty much everything about each other and speak in almost a kind of shorthand that long-term best friends use. This can make readers feel like they missed a book or three along the way.
But no, this is the first book in the series, it just doesn't feel like one, which can be more than a little confusing, and each main character has a romance which is the direct opposite of each other- Solange with Kieran, who hates her and her family at the beginning, and Lucy and Nicolas, who she dislikes for picking on her at the beginning of the book. what I liked about Lucy and Nicolas is that Lucy generally doesn't go into the "I can't be with him- I despise him!" rant more than once, and is generally open to romance once she gets used to the idea., and Solange and Kieran only get together at the end, after running and hiding from danger with each other.
Now, what didn't work for me was the world-building and background. Information about the world of the vampires, the different kinds of vampires, Solange's family, an evil vampire dude who wants her because he wants power and so on are tossed into the mix a paragraph or two at a time. It's so disjointed that it adds to the feeling of not being a first book. It's like the author is supposed to be reminding us of stuff we already know rather than introducing the knowledge for the first time that doesn't quite lead to a "Huh? What?" moment, but pretty close- it's hard to put it all together into some kind of coherent whole for the reader.
In the end, my reaction to the book was mixed. It's only kind of okay, mixing a romance trope that is already very overdone (Vampire romance) with a scattershot approach to world-building that isn't for everyone. Alyxandra Harvey might have a wonderfully complete and realized world for her vampires to live in, but she didn't make me feel it in the pages of this book. Add in some very over-used tropes (Seven wildly over-protective vampire brothers, an over-protective family and the heroine who knows there are credible threats against her who decides she can duck out of that protection just because she wants to feel normal) and you have a book that can make you want to throw it at a wall in frustration- particularly if you've read other YA vampire romances before.. This one ended up in the "Meh" category for me.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore
Nimira is a dance-hall girl, from a country not unlike India. With her mother dead, her father banished from court because of his excessive gambling and frittering away of their family's money, Nimira fled her Uncle's farm to the land of Lorinar, where she came to be a trouser girl, a woman who sings the native songs of her country, Tiansher, which the Lorinians call "Tassim".
But Trouser girls were no longer the entertainment of Lords, but the masses, and now she sings in a music call for a show with a 2 penny admittance, along with other girls of her country drawn by the same dream. Lately, though, Minira has seen a young man dressed like a Lord who has been watching her especially through the performances. During the day, she pooh-poohs any idea of him whisking her away from the tawdry glamour of the music hall to set her up in luxury somewhere, while at night, she dreams of just that.
When he does approach her, instead, it is about a singing job, but even so, she is happy to leave the theatre to go see him. Packing up her stuff and wearing her best Lorinan dress, she unfortunately has a run-in with the owner of the theatre who doesn't wish to let her go,. He's drunk and belligerent and nearly tears the arm off her dress, but she manages to get away from him and go to the hotel where the Lord who wishes her singing talents is staying. There, she is nearly turned away by the over-zealous doorman, but her possible boss shows up before the doorman can call the policemen on her.
Hollin Parry is more than just a lord, he's also a magician. He's recently bought an automaton from an estate sale, one that plays the Piano- several tunes. He's not made by human work, but by fairy work, infinitely finer and more magical. He wants Nimira to sing with the automaton because she sings with such passion, and because she strikes him as a no-nonsense sort of girl. He's tried to use other singers, but they claimed the automaton is haunted- groaning, wailing and chattering when it plays, and they left in fear of it. Nimira knows she's not one to be frightened of a machine, so she tells him that it won't frighten her.
Hollim says he knew she was the right woman for the job and hires her on the spot, soon taking her to his country estate, Vestenveld. It was there Hollin lived with his wife, Annalie, until she died of a fever. He wanted to travel with her, all around the world to see the wonders of the world, but now that she is dead, he has no reason to go. He revives the idea of going with Nimira, but she has no idea if she should be flattered at the attention or slightly panicked at the idea of being a man's courtesan/mistress.
They arrive at the estate at night, and at the entrance to the house, there are two magnificent golden lions. Namira finds them fierce and lovely, until she is told that Hollin's father, also a magician, turned real lions into the golden statues she is admiring now. Nimira is quite taken aback and disgusted that these things were once alive, and thinks that Hollin's father must have been quite a cruel man to do something like that.
In the morning, she is taken to see the automaton, a life-sized and even human-looking man in velvet clothes beautifully embroidered that plays the piano while seeming to look from the audience to the keys he is playing. Once again, Namira is taken aback at how lifelike he seems, even though he is wound up with a key in his back, and you can see his mechanisms through the front of his jacket. The automaton plays a few songs that Namira knows and Hollin gives her music and words to the others so that she can practice. But when she is finally alone, she discovers that the tales about the automaton weren't wrong -it does moan and chatter.
Slowly, she comes to realize that something about it is very strange, and she asks it questions that it can answer in its own way. It proposes a more complete method by playing an alphabet song, but Nimira, who can read and write, needs paper and a writing implement to translate. When she goes to look for some, she stumbles into the study of Hollin's father- a terrible place with stuffed fairies under glass- fairies which she was sure were once alive. Later, Hollin confirms this, and that his father was a cruel man. Not only does he have stuffed fairies, but a stuffed and mounted unicorn as well.
Nimira warms to him a bit, as he seems a much nicer man than his father, who is thankfully now dead. One of his father's friends, a magician who is head of the council, will be visiting, named Smollings. Smollings is a disagreeable man, but he was a friend of Hollin's father, who asked Smollings to look after his son when he was gone..
Back with the Automaton, Nimira asks him questions, and writes out his answers from the keyboard. The automaton tells her not to trust Hollin, but begs her for help. He asks her to contact someone named Karstor, who, as it turns out, is another sorceror. The Automaton, who gives his name as Erris, was told by Garvin, the former Minister of Magic, who tragically died and was replaced by Smollings, to contact Karstor if anything happened to him. She asks Erris what he is, and he tells her he is a man.
Smollings comes to visit, and is casually dismissive of Nimira and her talent. He discusses with Hollin the possibility that Erris, the automaton, might be a missing Faerie Prince, disappeared during the last war and presumed to be dead. However, there was also a story going around that one of his family's enemies had him turned into an automaton. He was searched for after the war but never found, and the rest of his family was assassinated. Now, a distant cousin rules the throne, and his people might be at war with the humans again at any moment.
That night, Nimira hears woman scream, and thinking it is the maid who has befriended her, goes out, only to be confronted by a different woman entirely. She's been hand-tied, but her legs are free, and she begs Nimira to untie her. Before she can, Smollings appears, tells Nimira that the woman is a mentally ill witch, and drags her off again, telling Nimira to mind her own business. Soon, Hollin appears, and confirms the story, but looks twitchy and nervous as he does so, so Nimira doesn't believe him. The next day, her servant friend tells her that the woman is really Annalie, former mistress of the house- not really dead, but changed and imprisoned on the upper floors of the house.
Nimira goes in search of her, but is found out by the housekeeper, who throws her out of the upper part of the house. Nimira convinces the woman she was just bored and exploring, so she tells Nimira not to go up there again, under pain of an even worse punishment. But Nimira doesn't listen, and finds Annalie anyway, who tells her that when Hollin resorted to death magic to cure her of her fever, he succeeded, with a strange drawback- now she can hear the spirits of the dead. Smollings uses her to contact the dark spirits of the dead- which hurts her.
Nimira, having fallen in love with Erris, needs Annalie's help to contact the one person she feels can help her, The Queen of the Longest Night, also known as the Queen of the Dead. Nimira is prepared to do anything to save Erris, but the Queen is moved by her love for him, and tries to do what she can. But as Smollings conspires to have Erris destroyed along with the automaton, can Nimira save Erris and save Lorindar from Smollings, who would destroy the faeries to ensure the primacy of humans? Or will she choose to travel abroad with Hollin and leave Lorindar behind? Can she ever convince Hollin to grow a backbone to stand up to Smollings, whom he both hates and fears, but who has a hold over him because of what he did to save his wife?
I loved this book. The words drew me right in from the start, so much so that it only took me an hour and a half to read. I know other readers will probably have to read for longer than that. but it's not a very thick book, and it is extremely enjoyable.
Readers will definitely be able to fill in the blanks, that Lorindar is England/America (Because Hollin talks about his ancestors coming there from across the sea) and Nimira is from Tiansher or India (her native dress certainly sounds like a Sari). Some readers might be upset at not simply calling the countries "England" and "India", but the chosen fantasy names make it easier to accept the magical world we find ourselves in when inside the book.
I loved the romance between Erris and Nimira- this may be Jaclyn Dolamore's first book, but she definitely hits the right notes to make us believe in the romance and why Nimira would fall for the transformed/imprisoned Erris. The readers, too, will sympathize with him, and feel that Hollin is too much a coward to deserve Nimira- willing to leave his wife behind to escape the situation in Lorinar and never telling Nimira that he is still married. He quickly loses any sympathy one might have had, and only gets our pity, even after he does finally grow a backbone and stand up for his wife and what is right against the man who has such a hold over him.
My only complaint here is that the novel cuts off very abruptly at the end. There is definitely indications of a sequel, but the ending was abrupt and could have been led into a little better- it just abruptly stops, and it could have been handled better, but I will definitely be interested in reading the next book when it comes out. Highly recommended.
But Trouser girls were no longer the entertainment of Lords, but the masses, and now she sings in a music call for a show with a 2 penny admittance, along with other girls of her country drawn by the same dream. Lately, though, Minira has seen a young man dressed like a Lord who has been watching her especially through the performances. During the day, she pooh-poohs any idea of him whisking her away from the tawdry glamour of the music hall to set her up in luxury somewhere, while at night, she dreams of just that.
When he does approach her, instead, it is about a singing job, but even so, she is happy to leave the theatre to go see him. Packing up her stuff and wearing her best Lorinan dress, she unfortunately has a run-in with the owner of the theatre who doesn't wish to let her go,. He's drunk and belligerent and nearly tears the arm off her dress, but she manages to get away from him and go to the hotel where the Lord who wishes her singing talents is staying. There, she is nearly turned away by the over-zealous doorman, but her possible boss shows up before the doorman can call the policemen on her.
Hollin Parry is more than just a lord, he's also a magician. He's recently bought an automaton from an estate sale, one that plays the Piano- several tunes. He's not made by human work, but by fairy work, infinitely finer and more magical. He wants Nimira to sing with the automaton because she sings with such passion, and because she strikes him as a no-nonsense sort of girl. He's tried to use other singers, but they claimed the automaton is haunted- groaning, wailing and chattering when it plays, and they left in fear of it. Nimira knows she's not one to be frightened of a machine, so she tells him that it won't frighten her.
Hollim says he knew she was the right woman for the job and hires her on the spot, soon taking her to his country estate, Vestenveld. It was there Hollin lived with his wife, Annalie, until she died of a fever. He wanted to travel with her, all around the world to see the wonders of the world, but now that she is dead, he has no reason to go. He revives the idea of going with Nimira, but she has no idea if she should be flattered at the attention or slightly panicked at the idea of being a man's courtesan/mistress.
They arrive at the estate at night, and at the entrance to the house, there are two magnificent golden lions. Namira finds them fierce and lovely, until she is told that Hollin's father, also a magician, turned real lions into the golden statues she is admiring now. Nimira is quite taken aback and disgusted that these things were once alive, and thinks that Hollin's father must have been quite a cruel man to do something like that.
In the morning, she is taken to see the automaton, a life-sized and even human-looking man in velvet clothes beautifully embroidered that plays the piano while seeming to look from the audience to the keys he is playing. Once again, Namira is taken aback at how lifelike he seems, even though he is wound up with a key in his back, and you can see his mechanisms through the front of his jacket. The automaton plays a few songs that Namira knows and Hollin gives her music and words to the others so that she can practice. But when she is finally alone, she discovers that the tales about the automaton weren't wrong -it does moan and chatter.
Slowly, she comes to realize that something about it is very strange, and she asks it questions that it can answer in its own way. It proposes a more complete method by playing an alphabet song, but Nimira, who can read and write, needs paper and a writing implement to translate. When she goes to look for some, she stumbles into the study of Hollin's father- a terrible place with stuffed fairies under glass- fairies which she was sure were once alive. Later, Hollin confirms this, and that his father was a cruel man. Not only does he have stuffed fairies, but a stuffed and mounted unicorn as well.
Nimira warms to him a bit, as he seems a much nicer man than his father, who is thankfully now dead. One of his father's friends, a magician who is head of the council, will be visiting, named Smollings. Smollings is a disagreeable man, but he was a friend of Hollin's father, who asked Smollings to look after his son when he was gone..
Back with the Automaton, Nimira asks him questions, and writes out his answers from the keyboard. The automaton tells her not to trust Hollin, but begs her for help. He asks her to contact someone named Karstor, who, as it turns out, is another sorceror. The Automaton, who gives his name as Erris, was told by Garvin, the former Minister of Magic, who tragically died and was replaced by Smollings, to contact Karstor if anything happened to him. She asks Erris what he is, and he tells her he is a man.
Smollings comes to visit, and is casually dismissive of Nimira and her talent. He discusses with Hollin the possibility that Erris, the automaton, might be a missing Faerie Prince, disappeared during the last war and presumed to be dead. However, there was also a story going around that one of his family's enemies had him turned into an automaton. He was searched for after the war but never found, and the rest of his family was assassinated. Now, a distant cousin rules the throne, and his people might be at war with the humans again at any moment.
That night, Nimira hears woman scream, and thinking it is the maid who has befriended her, goes out, only to be confronted by a different woman entirely. She's been hand-tied, but her legs are free, and she begs Nimira to untie her. Before she can, Smollings appears, tells Nimira that the woman is a mentally ill witch, and drags her off again, telling Nimira to mind her own business. Soon, Hollin appears, and confirms the story, but looks twitchy and nervous as he does so, so Nimira doesn't believe him. The next day, her servant friend tells her that the woman is really Annalie, former mistress of the house- not really dead, but changed and imprisoned on the upper floors of the house.
Nimira goes in search of her, but is found out by the housekeeper, who throws her out of the upper part of the house. Nimira convinces the woman she was just bored and exploring, so she tells Nimira not to go up there again, under pain of an even worse punishment. But Nimira doesn't listen, and finds Annalie anyway, who tells her that when Hollin resorted to death magic to cure her of her fever, he succeeded, with a strange drawback- now she can hear the spirits of the dead. Smollings uses her to contact the dark spirits of the dead- which hurts her.
Nimira, having fallen in love with Erris, needs Annalie's help to contact the one person she feels can help her, The Queen of the Longest Night, also known as the Queen of the Dead. Nimira is prepared to do anything to save Erris, but the Queen is moved by her love for him, and tries to do what she can. But as Smollings conspires to have Erris destroyed along with the automaton, can Nimira save Erris and save Lorindar from Smollings, who would destroy the faeries to ensure the primacy of humans? Or will she choose to travel abroad with Hollin and leave Lorindar behind? Can she ever convince Hollin to grow a backbone to stand up to Smollings, whom he both hates and fears, but who has a hold over him because of what he did to save his wife?
I loved this book. The words drew me right in from the start, so much so that it only took me an hour and a half to read. I know other readers will probably have to read for longer than that. but it's not a very thick book, and it is extremely enjoyable.
Readers will definitely be able to fill in the blanks, that Lorindar is England/America (Because Hollin talks about his ancestors coming there from across the sea) and Nimira is from Tiansher or India (her native dress certainly sounds like a Sari). Some readers might be upset at not simply calling the countries "England" and "India", but the chosen fantasy names make it easier to accept the magical world we find ourselves in when inside the book.
I loved the romance between Erris and Nimira- this may be Jaclyn Dolamore's first book, but she definitely hits the right notes to make us believe in the romance and why Nimira would fall for the transformed/imprisoned Erris. The readers, too, will sympathize with him, and feel that Hollin is too much a coward to deserve Nimira- willing to leave his wife behind to escape the situation in Lorinar and never telling Nimira that he is still married. He quickly loses any sympathy one might have had, and only gets our pity, even after he does finally grow a backbone and stand up for his wife and what is right against the man who has such a hold over him.
My only complaint here is that the novel cuts off very abruptly at the end. There is definitely indications of a sequel, but the ending was abrupt and could have been led into a little better- it just abruptly stops, and it could have been handled better, but I will definitely be interested in reading the next book when it comes out. Highly recommended.
Flesh and Stone by Vickie Taylor
Connor Rihyad is a gargoyle, one of the offspring of a village in France who made a deal with a priest to become warriors for Christianity in exchange for driving out a dragon named Gargouille. The priest implied that he would drive out the dragon himself, only to get the villagers to change from Pagans to Christians. When he had their agreement, he brought together the beasts of the field and forest and infused the village men with parts of the animal's spirits so that they could kill the Dragon themselves.
He charged the men to multiply and to look out for humans, but after hundreds of years and the honor of having their images watching over cathedrals everywhere, the gargoyles fell out of favor, and although many of them still watch over humans, humans have long forgotten about them.
Connor has been sent to infiltrate a group of Gargoyles that have decided to lord it over humans instead of helping them. With human reaction to Gargoyles more frightened and freaking out rather than thankful or respectful, many Gargoyles have lost their lives helping humans. Even though they are simply reborn, the hurt feelings tend to linger, and this new group of Gargoyles have been kidnapping human women and impregnating them simply to add to their numbers and build an army.
Needless to say, the gargoyles who remain faithful to their mission view this as little better than enslavement, and Connor pretends to be fed up with the old way of doing things to join this new group. But they set him a test- to kill the leader of his old nest, Nathan Cross, and bring them the body. He does, and gains entry to their group, tossing his old leader's body into a frozen river.
That night, he meets Mara Kincaide at the group's residence. Mara has been a captive for a while, but she hates all the men holding her captive equally- she's even convinced the women to escape, while she stays behind to look for information on a friend of hers, Angela, who was also caught and enslaved. But Angela isn't with the women in the house, and she can't find any information on her in the office.
Earlier that night, Connor saved Mara from a beating at the hands of the other Gargoyles, and now he saves her again when she is caught snooping and the other women retrieved from where they fled. Connor drags Mara upstairs to his bedroom and pretends to rape her so that the other gargoyles will leave her in his hands. When he doesn't actually rape her, Mara begins to believe that he's a good guy, but she still doesn't really trust him.
He tells her part of his true mission, that he's there to find out what the men are up to, and he helps her by keeping the men from raping the women, making them pretend to be sick from sleeping in the basement. She finds him handsome and attractive, but she doesn't find out what he really is until she catches a glimpse of the men coming back in gargoyle form one night. Never having seen them before, she is convinced they are monsters. He takes her upstairs and tries to use his mental powers on her to persuade her they were just a herd of deer, but is unable to persuade her because of her strong will. He confesses the truth about what he and the others are, and even transforms to show her.
She's horrified at first, but slowly comes to see his form as wonderful. She caresses him, only to have him tell her to stop, because it's too easy to arouse him in his beast form. Shortly afterwards, they become lovers, first in a dream, and then in real life.
But the Wizenmot, or leader, of the Gargoyle groups of Minnesota calls the group Connor has joined to his home, Connor goes because he wants to find the women that the Minnesota groups have been kidnapping, and figure out what they are up to. But within the home of the Wizenmot lurks not only Angela and the other stolen women, but an age-old foe set to conquer the world at the head of an army of Gargoyles. Can Connor and Mara overcome this deadly foe, and survive to have some sort of relationship afterwards? Can Mara survive the taking of a male baby that the Gargoyle society requires?
I'd read the first Vickie Taylor Gargoyle romance, about Nathan and his love, Rachel, when it first came out almost 5 years ago. I hadn't known that it was going to be a series, nor that another book had been published, so coming across this one was a very nice surprise. I liked this book even better than the first- the characters are in danger from the moment that you meet them, and the danger causes them to grow attatched to each other even more quickly- from the first meeting to the time they become lovers is less than two weeks.
Part of the conflict of the book arises out of Connor's feelings. Connor doesn't agree with Nathan making Rachel part of the Chicago council, even though her powers are strong, arising from being the child of one of the first generation Gargoyles from Rouen. He doesn't think women should have that much power- Gargoyles are only males, so females should only be discarded after they are impregnated- a state of affairs he comes to question after falling for the brave and courageous (maybe even foolhardy) Mara.
Mara was foolish for what she tried to do. From her personal bravery, going into the same situation that swallowed her friend Angela, you'd think she was a policeman or firefighter- something that requires bravery and the ability to take care of oneself in the line of duty. But no, she's a social worker. Admittedly, that takes bravery as well, but going into a situation like that without backup was sheer folly. On the other hand, she always keeps on trying to escape, and never capitulates to her captors, which gains the reader's sympathy and admiration.
I found this to be an interesting a intriguing series, and well worth my money in buying this book. I also liked that this isn't a paranormal romance/urban fantasy about an overdone type of hero like a were, shape-shifter or vampire. Reading how Gargoyles came about is interesting, and the villain harkens back to that origin and those days. I can't wait to find the third book in the series and read it. Recommended.
He charged the men to multiply and to look out for humans, but after hundreds of years and the honor of having their images watching over cathedrals everywhere, the gargoyles fell out of favor, and although many of them still watch over humans, humans have long forgotten about them.
Connor has been sent to infiltrate a group of Gargoyles that have decided to lord it over humans instead of helping them. With human reaction to Gargoyles more frightened and freaking out rather than thankful or respectful, many Gargoyles have lost their lives helping humans. Even though they are simply reborn, the hurt feelings tend to linger, and this new group of Gargoyles have been kidnapping human women and impregnating them simply to add to their numbers and build an army.
Needless to say, the gargoyles who remain faithful to their mission view this as little better than enslavement, and Connor pretends to be fed up with the old way of doing things to join this new group. But they set him a test- to kill the leader of his old nest, Nathan Cross, and bring them the body. He does, and gains entry to their group, tossing his old leader's body into a frozen river.
That night, he meets Mara Kincaide at the group's residence. Mara has been a captive for a while, but she hates all the men holding her captive equally- she's even convinced the women to escape, while she stays behind to look for information on a friend of hers, Angela, who was also caught and enslaved. But Angela isn't with the women in the house, and she can't find any information on her in the office.
Earlier that night, Connor saved Mara from a beating at the hands of the other Gargoyles, and now he saves her again when she is caught snooping and the other women retrieved from where they fled. Connor drags Mara upstairs to his bedroom and pretends to rape her so that the other gargoyles will leave her in his hands. When he doesn't actually rape her, Mara begins to believe that he's a good guy, but she still doesn't really trust him.
He tells her part of his true mission, that he's there to find out what the men are up to, and he helps her by keeping the men from raping the women, making them pretend to be sick from sleeping in the basement. She finds him handsome and attractive, but she doesn't find out what he really is until she catches a glimpse of the men coming back in gargoyle form one night. Never having seen them before, she is convinced they are monsters. He takes her upstairs and tries to use his mental powers on her to persuade her they were just a herd of deer, but is unable to persuade her because of her strong will. He confesses the truth about what he and the others are, and even transforms to show her.
She's horrified at first, but slowly comes to see his form as wonderful. She caresses him, only to have him tell her to stop, because it's too easy to arouse him in his beast form. Shortly afterwards, they become lovers, first in a dream, and then in real life.
But the Wizenmot, or leader, of the Gargoyle groups of Minnesota calls the group Connor has joined to his home, Connor goes because he wants to find the women that the Minnesota groups have been kidnapping, and figure out what they are up to. But within the home of the Wizenmot lurks not only Angela and the other stolen women, but an age-old foe set to conquer the world at the head of an army of Gargoyles. Can Connor and Mara overcome this deadly foe, and survive to have some sort of relationship afterwards? Can Mara survive the taking of a male baby that the Gargoyle society requires?
I'd read the first Vickie Taylor Gargoyle romance, about Nathan and his love, Rachel, when it first came out almost 5 years ago. I hadn't known that it was going to be a series, nor that another book had been published, so coming across this one was a very nice surprise. I liked this book even better than the first- the characters are in danger from the moment that you meet them, and the danger causes them to grow attatched to each other even more quickly- from the first meeting to the time they become lovers is less than two weeks.
Part of the conflict of the book arises out of Connor's feelings. Connor doesn't agree with Nathan making Rachel part of the Chicago council, even though her powers are strong, arising from being the child of one of the first generation Gargoyles from Rouen. He doesn't think women should have that much power- Gargoyles are only males, so females should only be discarded after they are impregnated- a state of affairs he comes to question after falling for the brave and courageous (maybe even foolhardy) Mara.
Mara was foolish for what she tried to do. From her personal bravery, going into the same situation that swallowed her friend Angela, you'd think she was a policeman or firefighter- something that requires bravery and the ability to take care of oneself in the line of duty. But no, she's a social worker. Admittedly, that takes bravery as well, but going into a situation like that without backup was sheer folly. On the other hand, she always keeps on trying to escape, and never capitulates to her captors, which gains the reader's sympathy and admiration.
I found this to be an interesting a intriguing series, and well worth my money in buying this book. I also liked that this isn't a paranormal romance/urban fantasy about an overdone type of hero like a were, shape-shifter or vampire. Reading how Gargoyles came about is interesting, and the villain harkens back to that origin and those days. I can't wait to find the third book in the series and read it. Recommended.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Bone Magic by Yasmine Galenorn
Camille D'Artigo is one of three sisters from the Otherworld. Camille is the oldest, and the one who has taken care of her sisters since they were all children. Now, she's looking forward to reuniting with her Svartan lover, Trillian, who has been on a secret mission for the Queen of Y'Elestrial in Otherworld.
In the meantime, Camille has met and married two other men, Smoky, a silver Dragon, and Morio, a Youko Demon Kitsune. Because the new general of Shadow Wing is rumored to have death magic, Camille and Morio have begun to study it, in hopes of taking on whatever the new general can throw at them. But first, they have to deal with old business- the frat house that had called up a demon may have been destroyed, but the lot where it is located has begun to attract harmful spirits as well- and a jogger was pulled onto the land and killed.
Though already tired from their studies, Camille and Morio go to investigate. and find the source of the infestation- a goshanti devil, formed from the spirits of abused and murdered women- while they are dangerous to men, whom they kill, they will suck the souls of women into them to grow stronger. Nut they are too tired to take care of it tonight, and the goshanti are less powerful during the day.
The next day, they go back to lay the spirit to rest and discover a chest hidden under one of the trees with souvenirs from the women that the frat boys killed- it's this, and their lack of ability with magic, that has allowed the goshanti not only to form, but to grow so strong so quickly. Camille and Morior ask an Ash tree on the property to hold the bones, and banish the goshanti, sending the spirit of the women whose trapped souls formed it into death. But when they get back home, there is an unwelcome surprise for them- Smoky's father, a white dragon, has shown up, along with Smoky's Golden Dragon fianceé, to demand that Smoky marry her.
Camille is blindsided by the thought that Smoky could have been promised to someone else, but Smoky reassures her that he loves her, and that he was promised in marriage before he was even born to have a say in the thing. His refusing to marry this female gold dragon was one of the reasons he left home, but his father intends to put the matter to the dragon council, then he steps closer to Camille with an implied threat that he could steal her away and enjoy her, if she loves power and dragons so much, and that no one could stop him if he wanted to do so. Camille feels dirty and horrified by his attempting to seduce her, thinking she is easy, but Smoky reassures her once more, then returns to his homeland with his father and erstwhile Fianceé.
Soon after, Camille, Morio and Iris return to Otherworld to speak with the Queen and meet Trillian, her Svartan Alpha lover. But the Queen has a mission for her- to meet with the head of the Dahns Unicorns- not her friend Feddrah-Dahns, but his father. Camille is a bit frightened, but agrees. She reunites with her father, and learns that Iris was once a priestess of her people's goddess. And something in the past happened, and Iris was stripped of her title and banished. But what was it? Iris doesn't want to talk about it, and Camille respects her privacy, for now.
She reunites with her father, who seems upset that Camille is going to return to Trillian. But Camille is an adult now, and can do what she likes. She and Trillian reunite with some very hot sex, but afterwards, he accuses her of being a traitor by marrying Smoky and Morio. She's hurt by his accusation, but knows that her father is the one that told him, trying to break them apart. She tells him the truth, that she married them because she needed their power to try and find him- that she'd been out of her mind, and out of luck, trying to find him on her own.
He calms down a bit and reveals to her some of the details of his mission, and the fact that he'd been captured and raped while he was on the mission- gang raped, that is. The people of the otherworld may take multiple lovers and some even take lovers of the same sex, but Trillian has always been a man who only went for women. Camille asks what happened to the men who raped him, and Trillian says he killed them all, for which Camille is very glad. They make up, and she asks him to marry her completely to take part in the soul ritual with her like Smoky and Morio. He agrees, as long as he is her Alpha lover and she more than happily agrees.
They go to meet with Upala-Dahns, King of the Dahns Unicorns. He has been asked to send her to meet the Black Beast, the ancestor of the Dahns Unicorns. But he, Feddrah-Dahns, her father, Queen Asterial and Queen Lethesanar come to tell her their plans for the Spirit Seals. They are gathering a group, the Keraastar Knights, that will use the seals against Shadow Wing. Camille is horrified. Using the seals- that's the same thing that Shadow Wing wants, but none of them will be swayed from their decision, even though Feddrah-Dahns doesn't agree with his father. He thinks it's a stupid idea, but he isn't in charge of the Dahns Unicorns.
After this bombshell, Camille and the others go to meet with the Black Beast in the Thystlewyd Deep. There, he is pleased to see that she has brought the horn and cape of one of his former lives with her. The Black Beast is getting older and less powerful, less able to protect his people, so her job is to kill him so that his spirit can be reborn anew and grow strong once more.
Once again, she's stunned, and asks her Goddess if she should. Her goddess gives her an affirmative, and she agrees. As the moon moves towards midnight and the full moon, Camille gets caught up in the wild hunt of the Goddess, with the Black Beast as the Prey. She slays him with the horn of his former incarnation, and runs with the Wild Hunt all night in the Astral Realm. Afterwards, she and the others must leave the Otherworld quickly in case not all the Dahns unicorns feel that she has done the Black Beast a favor by killing him at his request.
Back on earth at last, Camille, her sisters and her husbands prepare to take on Dark Wing's new general, the lamia known as Stacia. But Stacia is much more powerful than Camille and Morio combined at Death Magic, and Grandmother Coyote actually seems *worried* for Camille, which is frightening. Can Camille and her extended family overcome Stacia and her forces, or has the battle been lost before it is even begun?
I loved this book. I've been reading this series ever since the first one, Witchling. I love Camille, and her men. Smoky and Morio are delicious, and so is Trillian, now back after a long absence. I love how Camille has changed and grown through the series- all her sisters have. They've gone from three sisters sent to Earth because they are screw-ups, alone but for each other, to sexy, confident and powerful women who are the only line of defense against Shadow Wing, with many allies and friends, and even mates, ready to help them out.
With each book they grow more powerful, and both conflicts and plots are seeded for further books. And then, the author throws a number of hooks into the mix, like the conflict between the three Earthside Queens, who seem desperate to get the D'Artigo sisters on their side, and the Otherside Queens and rulers have an idea that is, quite frankly stupid and wrong-headed. So which will the sisters end up backing- the Queen they are bound to, or the Queens they helped put on the throne? I don't know, but whatever happens it's going to be interesting.
Other threads pop up left and right, like Iris's background and past, and Delilah's wanting to make her human boyfriend, Chase, live 1000 years via a special Faerie wine, not to mention the other threads, like Smoky's people possibly backing up the sisters and the Otherworld against Dark Wing, make me think that this series might not wrap up in another two books after all. So much is going on, that it seems like there just isn't enough space left to do all these ideas justice. I wouldn't mind if the series continue, not if they continue getting so wonderful and complex.
With every book, this series gets richer, more complex and both worlds expand. I can't comment on how realistic the D'Artigo sisters Seattle is, because I have never been there, but Yasmine Galenorn's Otherworld seems like a very real place, and somewhere I'd love to see. I recommend this series for many reasons, not the least of which is how good it is. Avoid it if you don't like reading truly adult things, sex included, but for those who have no problems reading adult material, this series is a delight. Highly recommended.
In the meantime, Camille has met and married two other men, Smoky, a silver Dragon, and Morio, a Youko Demon Kitsune. Because the new general of Shadow Wing is rumored to have death magic, Camille and Morio have begun to study it, in hopes of taking on whatever the new general can throw at them. But first, they have to deal with old business- the frat house that had called up a demon may have been destroyed, but the lot where it is located has begun to attract harmful spirits as well- and a jogger was pulled onto the land and killed.
Though already tired from their studies, Camille and Morio go to investigate. and find the source of the infestation- a goshanti devil, formed from the spirits of abused and murdered women- while they are dangerous to men, whom they kill, they will suck the souls of women into them to grow stronger. Nut they are too tired to take care of it tonight, and the goshanti are less powerful during the day.
The next day, they go back to lay the spirit to rest and discover a chest hidden under one of the trees with souvenirs from the women that the frat boys killed- it's this, and their lack of ability with magic, that has allowed the goshanti not only to form, but to grow so strong so quickly. Camille and Morior ask an Ash tree on the property to hold the bones, and banish the goshanti, sending the spirit of the women whose trapped souls formed it into death. But when they get back home, there is an unwelcome surprise for them- Smoky's father, a white dragon, has shown up, along with Smoky's Golden Dragon fianceé, to demand that Smoky marry her.
Camille is blindsided by the thought that Smoky could have been promised to someone else, but Smoky reassures her that he loves her, and that he was promised in marriage before he was even born to have a say in the thing. His refusing to marry this female gold dragon was one of the reasons he left home, but his father intends to put the matter to the dragon council, then he steps closer to Camille with an implied threat that he could steal her away and enjoy her, if she loves power and dragons so much, and that no one could stop him if he wanted to do so. Camille feels dirty and horrified by his attempting to seduce her, thinking she is easy, but Smoky reassures her once more, then returns to his homeland with his father and erstwhile Fianceé.
Soon after, Camille, Morio and Iris return to Otherworld to speak with the Queen and meet Trillian, her Svartan Alpha lover. But the Queen has a mission for her- to meet with the head of the Dahns Unicorns- not her friend Feddrah-Dahns, but his father. Camille is a bit frightened, but agrees. She reunites with her father, and learns that Iris was once a priestess of her people's goddess. And something in the past happened, and Iris was stripped of her title and banished. But what was it? Iris doesn't want to talk about it, and Camille respects her privacy, for now.
She reunites with her father, who seems upset that Camille is going to return to Trillian. But Camille is an adult now, and can do what she likes. She and Trillian reunite with some very hot sex, but afterwards, he accuses her of being a traitor by marrying Smoky and Morio. She's hurt by his accusation, but knows that her father is the one that told him, trying to break them apart. She tells him the truth, that she married them because she needed their power to try and find him- that she'd been out of her mind, and out of luck, trying to find him on her own.
He calms down a bit and reveals to her some of the details of his mission, and the fact that he'd been captured and raped while he was on the mission- gang raped, that is. The people of the otherworld may take multiple lovers and some even take lovers of the same sex, but Trillian has always been a man who only went for women. Camille asks what happened to the men who raped him, and Trillian says he killed them all, for which Camille is very glad. They make up, and she asks him to marry her completely to take part in the soul ritual with her like Smoky and Morio. He agrees, as long as he is her Alpha lover and she more than happily agrees.
They go to meet with Upala-Dahns, King of the Dahns Unicorns. He has been asked to send her to meet the Black Beast, the ancestor of the Dahns Unicorns. But he, Feddrah-Dahns, her father, Queen Asterial and Queen Lethesanar come to tell her their plans for the Spirit Seals. They are gathering a group, the Keraastar Knights, that will use the seals against Shadow Wing. Camille is horrified. Using the seals- that's the same thing that Shadow Wing wants, but none of them will be swayed from their decision, even though Feddrah-Dahns doesn't agree with his father. He thinks it's a stupid idea, but he isn't in charge of the Dahns Unicorns.
After this bombshell, Camille and the others go to meet with the Black Beast in the Thystlewyd Deep. There, he is pleased to see that she has brought the horn and cape of one of his former lives with her. The Black Beast is getting older and less powerful, less able to protect his people, so her job is to kill him so that his spirit can be reborn anew and grow strong once more.
Once again, she's stunned, and asks her Goddess if she should. Her goddess gives her an affirmative, and she agrees. As the moon moves towards midnight and the full moon, Camille gets caught up in the wild hunt of the Goddess, with the Black Beast as the Prey. She slays him with the horn of his former incarnation, and runs with the Wild Hunt all night in the Astral Realm. Afterwards, she and the others must leave the Otherworld quickly in case not all the Dahns unicorns feel that she has done the Black Beast a favor by killing him at his request.
Back on earth at last, Camille, her sisters and her husbands prepare to take on Dark Wing's new general, the lamia known as Stacia. But Stacia is much more powerful than Camille and Morio combined at Death Magic, and Grandmother Coyote actually seems *worried* for Camille, which is frightening. Can Camille and her extended family overcome Stacia and her forces, or has the battle been lost before it is even begun?
I loved this book. I've been reading this series ever since the first one, Witchling. I love Camille, and her men. Smoky and Morio are delicious, and so is Trillian, now back after a long absence. I love how Camille has changed and grown through the series- all her sisters have. They've gone from three sisters sent to Earth because they are screw-ups, alone but for each other, to sexy, confident and powerful women who are the only line of defense against Shadow Wing, with many allies and friends, and even mates, ready to help them out.
With each book they grow more powerful, and both conflicts and plots are seeded for further books. And then, the author throws a number of hooks into the mix, like the conflict between the three Earthside Queens, who seem desperate to get the D'Artigo sisters on their side, and the Otherside Queens and rulers have an idea that is, quite frankly stupid and wrong-headed. So which will the sisters end up backing- the Queen they are bound to, or the Queens they helped put on the throne? I don't know, but whatever happens it's going to be interesting.
Other threads pop up left and right, like Iris's background and past, and Delilah's wanting to make her human boyfriend, Chase, live 1000 years via a special Faerie wine, not to mention the other threads, like Smoky's people possibly backing up the sisters and the Otherworld against Dark Wing, make me think that this series might not wrap up in another two books after all. So much is going on, that it seems like there just isn't enough space left to do all these ideas justice. I wouldn't mind if the series continue, not if they continue getting so wonderful and complex.
With every book, this series gets richer, more complex and both worlds expand. I can't comment on how realistic the D'Artigo sisters Seattle is, because I have never been there, but Yasmine Galenorn's Otherworld seems like a very real place, and somewhere I'd love to see. I recommend this series for many reasons, not the least of which is how good it is. Avoid it if you don't like reading truly adult things, sex included, but for those who have no problems reading adult material, this series is a delight. Highly recommended.
Monday, February 08, 2010
Obsession Untamed by Pamela Palmer
Tighe is a Feral, one of a race of immortals known as the Therians who are filled with the spirits of one of the thirteen warrior clans. Tighe is the Tiger, and right now, his soul is split in two. A witch cloned several of the Ferals, and while all the other clones have been dealt with, Tighe's clone is far more persistent, evil and harder to catch.
Worse for Tighe is that his clone has taken to killing innocent women and children, and since he's wearing Tighe's face, that could lead to serious trouble for Tighe and the other ferals. Thankfully, no one has survived seeing the killer's face, but even if all he's doing is killing humans, Tighe needs his clone dead- if he's denied his full spirit for too long, he will die, and already, dark streaks have started appearing in his eyes. He doesn't know what they mean, but he thinks it's something bad. The only upside to this is that he can sometimes see through his clone's eyes, allowing him to see who he is killing.
Delaney Randall is an FBI agent on the trail of the DC Vampire serial killer when she confronts him over the body of his latest victim. She sees his face, and fires her gun at him, but it doesn't seem to stop him, and he nearly kills her as well before he is driven off by other agents working with her. But now, something is wrong, and she has started to see through the killer's eyes when he kills. Tighe gets a glimpse of Delaney as she deals with the horrible headaches that seeing the visions give her.
But why does Delaney suddenly have the visions and not Tighe? The ferals think that perhaps when his clone was killing her by sucking out her soul, he sccidentally breathed some of his into her when her partners shot him. In any case, it's imperative that Tighe get the ability to see visions of his clone back from Delaney, which means kidnapping her and taking it from her.
But that is harder than it looks, because Delaney has seen the face of Tighe's clone, and when she sees him, she's sure he's come back to finish killing her off. As they fight, Tighe tries to wrest the visions from her, but instead of taking them, it has the effect of *really* turning her on. The harder he tries to take the visions, the more aroused she gets- and it arouses him as well. Before he can think of anything else to do, she climaxes and passes out, leaving him aroused, horny and still not having the ability to see what his clone is up to. Lacking anything else to do, he takes her to the safe house where the rest of the ferals are waiting.
They think he should just kill her, but Tighe isn't willing to do that. Instead, he talks to Delaney, telling her he's the killer's twin brother, and about their connection through the visions. Delaney isn's sure she believes him, and mortified at the way he's caused her to lose control sexually. But when another vision comes on her, he realizes that the visions are killing her- she'll be dragged down into darkness with no way out if he can't go into her mind and reach her. Which he does, and then realizes that if he touches her forehead while she is having a vision, not only does it alleviate her pain, but he can share her vision of what his clone is doing.
But when her visions lead her to a woman who is tortured by having her arms broken, and then having her children killed in front of her, Delaney, Tighe and the Ferals race to the scene, but the clone has started a fire, burning the woman alive and imperiling another young child, a girl. But when he goes to her aid, the FBI agents that Delaney called try to arrest him, and he must flee. They shoot him, and Delaney sees him take a shot in the heart. Tighe disappears into the woods, and Delaney thinks he is dead.
She's upset, but Tighe can't leave her alive with her knowledge of him. but when his clone comes back to try and off her again, Tighe risks his life to save her from the blood loss- and she returns the favor when he goes into his feral form and can't come out again, bringing him back into sanity and human form. In exchange, he bonds her to him to allay the other ferals fears of her, but again, the clone sneaks into Feral House to steal her away, this time in the form of Lyon's mate, the Radiant. But as time passes, and Tighe comes close to losing his soul forever, can he find the woman he loves and kill the clone, regaining the missing half of his soul before it's too late? And then, can a mere human and an immortal Therian have any kind of future together?
I liked this book, but not as much as Passion Untamed. I found it less compelling and less easy to get into- maybe because it's quite clear that this is not the first book in the series, and in this one, what's missing makes readers feel like they are missing something- unlike Passion, where it doesn't quite really matter how Paenther was caught. Here, I felt like I was playing catchup all the time, and not making much headway.
I found the names less irritating and annoying this time- I guess I've gotten used to them. Although now, it was the cover that kept making me go... WTF? Tighe is supposed to be a Tiger, but the animal depicted on the cover is a mountain lion/cougar- or maybe a female lioness. The artist couldn't even figure out what a Tiger was supposed to look like? Epic Fail.
I did end up liking the story more towards the end of the book, but the beginning was something of a slog for me. I would still like to read the first book in the series, and maybe about Vhyper (because there are way too few weresnakes in romance, or even Urban Fantasy. And yes, I would recommend this book, but not as much as Passion Untamed. Recommended.
Worse for Tighe is that his clone has taken to killing innocent women and children, and since he's wearing Tighe's face, that could lead to serious trouble for Tighe and the other ferals. Thankfully, no one has survived seeing the killer's face, but even if all he's doing is killing humans, Tighe needs his clone dead- if he's denied his full spirit for too long, he will die, and already, dark streaks have started appearing in his eyes. He doesn't know what they mean, but he thinks it's something bad. The only upside to this is that he can sometimes see through his clone's eyes, allowing him to see who he is killing.
Delaney Randall is an FBI agent on the trail of the DC Vampire serial killer when she confronts him over the body of his latest victim. She sees his face, and fires her gun at him, but it doesn't seem to stop him, and he nearly kills her as well before he is driven off by other agents working with her. But now, something is wrong, and she has started to see through the killer's eyes when he kills. Tighe gets a glimpse of Delaney as she deals with the horrible headaches that seeing the visions give her.
But why does Delaney suddenly have the visions and not Tighe? The ferals think that perhaps when his clone was killing her by sucking out her soul, he sccidentally breathed some of his into her when her partners shot him. In any case, it's imperative that Tighe get the ability to see visions of his clone back from Delaney, which means kidnapping her and taking it from her.
But that is harder than it looks, because Delaney has seen the face of Tighe's clone, and when she sees him, she's sure he's come back to finish killing her off. As they fight, Tighe tries to wrest the visions from her, but instead of taking them, it has the effect of *really* turning her on. The harder he tries to take the visions, the more aroused she gets- and it arouses him as well. Before he can think of anything else to do, she climaxes and passes out, leaving him aroused, horny and still not having the ability to see what his clone is up to. Lacking anything else to do, he takes her to the safe house where the rest of the ferals are waiting.
They think he should just kill her, but Tighe isn't willing to do that. Instead, he talks to Delaney, telling her he's the killer's twin brother, and about their connection through the visions. Delaney isn's sure she believes him, and mortified at the way he's caused her to lose control sexually. But when another vision comes on her, he realizes that the visions are killing her- she'll be dragged down into darkness with no way out if he can't go into her mind and reach her. Which he does, and then realizes that if he touches her forehead while she is having a vision, not only does it alleviate her pain, but he can share her vision of what his clone is doing.
But when her visions lead her to a woman who is tortured by having her arms broken, and then having her children killed in front of her, Delaney, Tighe and the Ferals race to the scene, but the clone has started a fire, burning the woman alive and imperiling another young child, a girl. But when he goes to her aid, the FBI agents that Delaney called try to arrest him, and he must flee. They shoot him, and Delaney sees him take a shot in the heart. Tighe disappears into the woods, and Delaney thinks he is dead.
She's upset, but Tighe can't leave her alive with her knowledge of him. but when his clone comes back to try and off her again, Tighe risks his life to save her from the blood loss- and she returns the favor when he goes into his feral form and can't come out again, bringing him back into sanity and human form. In exchange, he bonds her to him to allay the other ferals fears of her, but again, the clone sneaks into Feral House to steal her away, this time in the form of Lyon's mate, the Radiant. But as time passes, and Tighe comes close to losing his soul forever, can he find the woman he loves and kill the clone, regaining the missing half of his soul before it's too late? And then, can a mere human and an immortal Therian have any kind of future together?
I liked this book, but not as much as Passion Untamed. I found it less compelling and less easy to get into- maybe because it's quite clear that this is not the first book in the series, and in this one, what's missing makes readers feel like they are missing something- unlike Passion, where it doesn't quite really matter how Paenther was caught. Here, I felt like I was playing catchup all the time, and not making much headway.
I found the names less irritating and annoying this time- I guess I've gotten used to them. Although now, it was the cover that kept making me go... WTF? Tighe is supposed to be a Tiger, but the animal depicted on the cover is a mountain lion/cougar- or maybe a female lioness. The artist couldn't even figure out what a Tiger was supposed to look like? Epic Fail.
I did end up liking the story more towards the end of the book, but the beginning was something of a slog for me. I would still like to read the first book in the series, and maybe about Vhyper (because there are way too few weresnakes in romance, or even Urban Fantasy. And yes, I would recommend this book, but not as much as Passion Untamed. Recommended.
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Passion Untamed by Pamela Palmer
Paenther is a feral warrior, one of the last of the Immortal Therians to carry the strength and magic of the thirteen shifter clans. Long ago, before he became a feral, he was trapped by a witch who he thought was a woman in distress. Trapped, she tortured him with both sex and pain, trying to wrest the animal spirit that shared his soul from him so that she could have more power. Thanks to another trapped Feral, Vhyper, they are able to escape the witch's control and later, to help the other ferals capture her. But even after she is dead, the pleasure that should be his when he shifts to his animal form is gone- all he feels is pain.
Now, years later, Panther has been trapped by another witch named Skye, and even as he hates himself for being tricked yet again, he hates Skye in greater measure for tricking and capturing him. Somehow, she was able to hide the copper rings in her eyes that mark her as a mage, leading him to think she was just another human and safe to sport with. When he followed her into the woods for a second round, her people captured him, and he grits his teeth, waiting for her to start torturing him as Ancreta, the other witch did.
But instead of hurting him, she treats him gently, kissing and stroking him. Skye was forced to capture Paenther by Birik, the leader of the witches, who is soulless. In truth, everyone except Skye in this group is soulless, giving up their souls for more power. Skye's power, though, is that of an enchantress, able to call to her the beasts of the earth, or even humans and ferals. But Birik uses that power to get animal sacrifices for their rituals, which he forces her to call and makes her dance at the rituals while he slaughters the animals and makes her dance in their blood. Skye, who views the animals as friends hates it, but has no choice in the matter, as Birik has forced spells of compliance on her. Paenther has also been shackled with bonds that prevent him from shifting shape.
Birik wants her to raise power from Paenther, but the power she raises from his sexual arousal by merely touching, stroking and kissing him isn't enough for Birik, who comes in and beats her savagely in full view of Paenther. This tells Paenther more than he wants to know about Skye, and he begins to feel sorry for her, because it is obvious that she is just as much a prisoner as he is. And he still wants her- even though he hated her before, it wasn't enough to affect or dim his hunger for her. And he is the only man she has ever wanted, ever been able to respond to. But when the time finally comes, the beating she's taken has made her uninterested, so he coaches her on how to find pleasure for herself, and they make love once more.
But as Skye leaves to find them something to eat, Vhyper, the Feral that Paenther has been searching for, comes into his room and intimates that the whole thing, the beating and Birik's treatment of Skye, was a scene meant to persuade Paenther that Skye was innocent and untouched. Paenther, already uneasy because Skye is a witch, believes Vhyper and hates her again. Vhyper, who Paenther wants to rescue, tells Paenther not to bother, when he was injured by the demon knife, it took away his conscience. Now, he doesn't want to return to the Ferals and is interested in helping the witches free Saetanan, the Demon Lord, locked away in the knife for many, many years.
Later that night, Paenther is dragged into the main room of the witches cave and chained up,, where he sees Skye dancing naked in the blood of animals that she enchanted to come to her and who Birik sacrificed. This makes him hate her even more, but even so he wants her. Birik tells Skye that he means to sacrifice Paenther to open the gate into the knife and release Saetanan, and that he means to have her entice other Ferals there to do so. This is too much for Skye and when she returns Paenther to his room, she lets him go, taking him to a secret, hidden entrance to the mound and telling him to go. Paenther does, but not before knocking her out and taking her with him for revenge.
When she recovers, she is in a car with Paenther and several other ferals, who are upset at her because she is attracting the animals that live inside her. He demands her Cantric, without which it apparently makes her unable to do magic, but she can't give it to him, because it is embedded in her heart, which was done when she was 8 years old, Paenther denies this as being possible, but she is telling the truth.
Back at Feral House, they call in the Shaman to bind Skye's power, while the Ferals have sex with other Therians to break the effect of any magic that Skye was able to perform on them. All except for Paenther, who finds he is unable to perform with anyone but Skye. This makes him long to kill her even more, but at Midnight, he sees the results of what happens when she tries to run from Birik- slashing wounds open on her body, starting on one side and moving up and down the other as she bleeds and hurts. He feels sorry for her and begins to believe, again, that Skye is just an innocent pawn in all of this.
None of the other warriors believe that, but Paenther stays with her and bathes her wounds, taking her to his room. She shares some information with the other Ferals, that Birik and the other witches in the mound are soulless, but she still has her soul because Birik feared that if it was gone, it would damage her abilities as a powerful enchantress. While the other ferals are still wary of her, the Shaman reveals that he is friends with an old mage who was married to an enchantress, and that he might know how to help her use her abilities in a good way.
Paenther takes her to see this mage, who is a crusty man, but softens and warms considerably to Skye. As he teaches her, two more of the Ferals go missing, and Skye must return to try and prevent Birik from sacrificing them to open the blade. However, the warriors discover that they have a traitor in their ranks- someone who is passing on information to Birik in some way, allowing him to capture other ferals and destroy their plans. But can Skye and Paenther discover who it is and rescue the other warriors before Birik gets his way?
I was all set to be annoyed at the names of the characters in this story, which reminded me entirely too much of the Black Dagger Brotherhood names. There's Foxx, Paenther, Lyon, Tighe (for Tiger), Kougar... And Vhyper, of course. Vhyper's name made me laugh, because every time I read it, I was thinking "I am Vhyper- I come to Vhype your Vhyndows." like the old joke. But thankfully, it was only the names, and I could forgive that. The Ferals aren't like the BDB, and for that, I am heartily glad!
I found myself quickly drawn into the story, and invested in both the story of Skye and Paenther (Okay, the names are more than a little annoying, I'll admit.), and I liked the love/hate dynamic on the part of Paenther, and on Skye's part, well, we find out she's been raped by the men there since she was 8, and Paenther is the only guy she has ever been attracted to. It was very delicious to read the two of them together, especially once he'd stopped switching from love to hate an anger every 30 minutes, and it was nice to see Skye blossom- she's hidden her true feelings for so long that she blooms when she is among people who can feel something besides hate and coldness.
This was the first book in the series I'd read, and I really enjoyed my first glimpse of this world. There wasn't a lot of infodumping, which I greatly appreciated, and even when i was puzzled by something (Like what a Cantra is), I could usually figure it out from the context. This book never stops or slows down for long, giving it a great energy, and Pamela Palmer's prose made it easy to get into- each scene flows well and never comes off as stilted or clunky.
I really enjoyed this book, and I found it an easy and interesting read. There's no pain when it comes to absorbing the information sprinkled about the characters and the world throughout the text, the love scenes were hot and engrossing, and the story really pulled me in. Highly recommended.
Now, years later, Panther has been trapped by another witch named Skye, and even as he hates himself for being tricked yet again, he hates Skye in greater measure for tricking and capturing him. Somehow, she was able to hide the copper rings in her eyes that mark her as a mage, leading him to think she was just another human and safe to sport with. When he followed her into the woods for a second round, her people captured him, and he grits his teeth, waiting for her to start torturing him as Ancreta, the other witch did.
But instead of hurting him, she treats him gently, kissing and stroking him. Skye was forced to capture Paenther by Birik, the leader of the witches, who is soulless. In truth, everyone except Skye in this group is soulless, giving up their souls for more power. Skye's power, though, is that of an enchantress, able to call to her the beasts of the earth, or even humans and ferals. But Birik uses that power to get animal sacrifices for their rituals, which he forces her to call and makes her dance at the rituals while he slaughters the animals and makes her dance in their blood. Skye, who views the animals as friends hates it, but has no choice in the matter, as Birik has forced spells of compliance on her. Paenther has also been shackled with bonds that prevent him from shifting shape.
Birik wants her to raise power from Paenther, but the power she raises from his sexual arousal by merely touching, stroking and kissing him isn't enough for Birik, who comes in and beats her savagely in full view of Paenther. This tells Paenther more than he wants to know about Skye, and he begins to feel sorry for her, because it is obvious that she is just as much a prisoner as he is. And he still wants her- even though he hated her before, it wasn't enough to affect or dim his hunger for her. And he is the only man she has ever wanted, ever been able to respond to. But when the time finally comes, the beating she's taken has made her uninterested, so he coaches her on how to find pleasure for herself, and they make love once more.
But as Skye leaves to find them something to eat, Vhyper, the Feral that Paenther has been searching for, comes into his room and intimates that the whole thing, the beating and Birik's treatment of Skye, was a scene meant to persuade Paenther that Skye was innocent and untouched. Paenther, already uneasy because Skye is a witch, believes Vhyper and hates her again. Vhyper, who Paenther wants to rescue, tells Paenther not to bother, when he was injured by the demon knife, it took away his conscience. Now, he doesn't want to return to the Ferals and is interested in helping the witches free Saetanan, the Demon Lord, locked away in the knife for many, many years.
Later that night, Paenther is dragged into the main room of the witches cave and chained up,, where he sees Skye dancing naked in the blood of animals that she enchanted to come to her and who Birik sacrificed. This makes him hate her even more, but even so he wants her. Birik tells Skye that he means to sacrifice Paenther to open the gate into the knife and release Saetanan, and that he means to have her entice other Ferals there to do so. This is too much for Skye and when she returns Paenther to his room, she lets him go, taking him to a secret, hidden entrance to the mound and telling him to go. Paenther does, but not before knocking her out and taking her with him for revenge.
When she recovers, she is in a car with Paenther and several other ferals, who are upset at her because she is attracting the animals that live inside her. He demands her Cantric, without which it apparently makes her unable to do magic, but she can't give it to him, because it is embedded in her heart, which was done when she was 8 years old, Paenther denies this as being possible, but she is telling the truth.
Back at Feral House, they call in the Shaman to bind Skye's power, while the Ferals have sex with other Therians to break the effect of any magic that Skye was able to perform on them. All except for Paenther, who finds he is unable to perform with anyone but Skye. This makes him long to kill her even more, but at Midnight, he sees the results of what happens when she tries to run from Birik- slashing wounds open on her body, starting on one side and moving up and down the other as she bleeds and hurts. He feels sorry for her and begins to believe, again, that Skye is just an innocent pawn in all of this.
None of the other warriors believe that, but Paenther stays with her and bathes her wounds, taking her to his room. She shares some information with the other Ferals, that Birik and the other witches in the mound are soulless, but she still has her soul because Birik feared that if it was gone, it would damage her abilities as a powerful enchantress. While the other ferals are still wary of her, the Shaman reveals that he is friends with an old mage who was married to an enchantress, and that he might know how to help her use her abilities in a good way.
Paenther takes her to see this mage, who is a crusty man, but softens and warms considerably to Skye. As he teaches her, two more of the Ferals go missing, and Skye must return to try and prevent Birik from sacrificing them to open the blade. However, the warriors discover that they have a traitor in their ranks- someone who is passing on information to Birik in some way, allowing him to capture other ferals and destroy their plans. But can Skye and Paenther discover who it is and rescue the other warriors before Birik gets his way?
I was all set to be annoyed at the names of the characters in this story, which reminded me entirely too much of the Black Dagger Brotherhood names. There's Foxx, Paenther, Lyon, Tighe (for Tiger), Kougar... And Vhyper, of course. Vhyper's name made me laugh, because every time I read it, I was thinking "I am Vhyper- I come to Vhype your Vhyndows." like the old joke. But thankfully, it was only the names, and I could forgive that. The Ferals aren't like the BDB, and for that, I am heartily glad!
I found myself quickly drawn into the story, and invested in both the story of Skye and Paenther (Okay, the names are more than a little annoying, I'll admit.), and I liked the love/hate dynamic on the part of Paenther, and on Skye's part, well, we find out she's been raped by the men there since she was 8, and Paenther is the only guy she has ever been attracted to. It was very delicious to read the two of them together, especially once he'd stopped switching from love to hate an anger every 30 minutes, and it was nice to see Skye blossom- she's hidden her true feelings for so long that she blooms when she is among people who can feel something besides hate and coldness.
This was the first book in the series I'd read, and I really enjoyed my first glimpse of this world. There wasn't a lot of infodumping, which I greatly appreciated, and even when i was puzzled by something (Like what a Cantra is), I could usually figure it out from the context. This book never stops or slows down for long, giving it a great energy, and Pamela Palmer's prose made it easy to get into- each scene flows well and never comes off as stilted or clunky.
I really enjoyed this book, and I found it an easy and interesting read. There's no pain when it comes to absorbing the information sprinkled about the characters and the world throughout the text, the love scenes were hot and engrossing, and the story really pulled me in. Highly recommended.
Prince of Magic by Linda Winstead Jones
Sian Sayre Chamblin rushes south to meet with Arik, King of Columbyana, to bring him a prophecy from his deceased grandfather, passed on to Sian on his deathbed. The prophecy is dire- unless Sian can find the firstborn of the "three fine women" and help the warriors overcome the darkness that plagues Columbyana, the kingdom, and its King- is doomed.
The King is concerned, but when Sian expresses frustration over finding the "Three Fine women", the emperor suggests that Sian's grandfather meant the "Three Fyne Women", witches who only a generation ago saved Columbyana from Emperor Sebastyen, a cruel and hateful ruler. And the firstborn of one of them he has already met, Ariana Varden, Arik's healer, who Sian dismissed as a bit of fluff when he first met her, thinking her the Emperor's concubine. Instead, she is his savior, as Arik is dying and it is only Ariana's knowledge of Herbs, Healing and healing skill that is enabling her to keep him alive.
Sian is definitely taken aback- he saw the offspring as warriors, and to him, no woman can be such a warrior. And Ariana is only a healer. How can she defeat the evil assaulting Columbyana? But her ability to heal without herbs or medicines shows she might have some magical ability, and so Sian becomes her tutor in the magical arts. He does tell her of the darkness assaulting the Kingdom, but keeps to himself the detailed knowledge of the prophecy, thinking that it will keep her from quailing at the fate it fortells for her- dying in battle and being stricken with doubts.
But Ariana has definite feelings about where the evil threatening the kingdom is birthed. She suspects it came from the castle itself, since the evil deeds occurring in the Kingdom have all been equidistant from the castle in Arthes itself. The two most potent possibilities for evil are the first level of the castle - the very top, or the pit, the very bottom, the thirteenth level. When her look at the first level proves unfruitful, they go down to examine the thirteenth, a level Sian claims doesn't exist. But Ariana knows better- her own aunt was thrown there long ago.
Down in the level below, Ariana senses a great evil, and also, something else, something waiting in the dark that she can almost touch- this turns out to be the spirit of Queen Diella, one of Sebastyen's queens thrown in the pit for her addiction to Panwyr, a narcotic drug that ramps up the sex drive, and her sating of this sex drive with any male in reach. In exchange for a kiss, she tells Sian the true source of the trouble, an Isen Demon who lives in Arik's son, Prince Ciro. The demon was put into him by a mage named Fynnian, and who has raised tbe boy in his home while feeding the demon's appetites for blood, souls and Panwyr. So far the demon can only feed on tainted souls, but the more souls he eats, the easier he will find it to take pure and good souls- like that of Fynnian's daughter, Rayne.
Ciro has plans for Rayne. He will take her soul and make her his empress, impregnating her with his child and allowing demon and human to come together at conception. He looks forward to eating her soul and making her his creature. Rayne can feel his malevolence, which frightens her, but she is a dutiful daughter and obeys her father rather than running in fear. Ciro and Fynnian also have plans to conquer Columbyana and put Ciro on the throne, with Fynnian in control of Ciro- little does he know that the demon is only biding his time to get rid of the mage as well. And when Ciro becomes powerful enough to demand Fynnian bring Ciro the soldiers he promised him, the mage realizes he has lost control and becomes frightened. He does as Ciro asks.
Back in the Palace, Ariana has returned to herself and Sian teaches her as much as he can. But it turns out that Diella has never really left Ariana's body and fights with her for control. When Diella tries to seduce Sian, he puts her off, and helps Ariana regain control of her body. But the urges Diella feels are also her own, and she can taste his mouth in hers, even though it was Diella that he kissed- in her body. Already attracted to her, when she reveals to Sian that she wants him, too, he cannot resist her and they become lovers.
But when he refuses to divulge the full prophecy, they have a falling out, and she can no longer trust him. She leaves the castle at the head of a band of Sentinels- the warriors of the palace guard and armed forces of Columbyana. Her troops are going to fight Ciro's, as Ciro has left Fynnian's home, imprioning Rayne in the depths of the castle, and marched to bring evil and death to the otherwise defenseless citizens of Columbyana. The only one who can stop him is Ariana... and unbeknownst to her, Sian can't leave her to die alone. He's joined her group of Sentinels with the hopes of saving her from her fate. But when she and her company are ambushed on the road, can Sian really save her? And what will he do... how will he survive, if she really does die?
I liked this book, even though the hero of the story is pretty much pegged as an asshat- he's pegged Ariana as a woman of loose morals the first time he sees her- even though she's just a healer, and most of the time, he thinks she just can't hack it when it comes to fighting against the evil plaguing Columbyana. Even as he learns better- that Ariana is uncommonly strong and isn't going to crumple like a bit of tinfoil if she's seriously in trouble, he's still acting like an asshat in keeping the details of the prophecy from her- she asks him at least twice, and he's all "No! She wouldn't be able to take the truth!" and keeps it from her.
Her reaction when she finally does read the prophecy shows he was completely wrong about her- she doesn't get upset or break out into tears, and the cool way in which she tells him she can no longer trust him makes him humbled and afraid for her once again- and this time, instead of dismissing her as a woman, he wants to save her because he's fallen in love with her, but he's also afraid that she'll die- just like his wife, who died in childbirth, along with his son. And while I thought he went a long way towards being redeemed, I also thought he was still hanging out there in asshat territory somewhat. And when the story ends, it's not so much an ending, because it leads into the second book of this trilogy.
I did like this book, but the ending isn't really the ending, because apparently the hero and heroine will continue to be somewhat developed through the other stories in this series. Heck, Ariana hasn't even found the crystal dagger that it will be her job to wield, according to the prophecy, in the pages of this book. I do hope Sian gets some more "screen time" as it were, because I don't think he's been allowed to suffer amply enough for being such an idiot at the beginning of this one... yet. Other readers may feel differently, of course. But I did enjoy the book and am looking forward to the next one, Prince of Fire.
The King is concerned, but when Sian expresses frustration over finding the "Three Fine women", the emperor suggests that Sian's grandfather meant the "Three Fyne Women", witches who only a generation ago saved Columbyana from Emperor Sebastyen, a cruel and hateful ruler. And the firstborn of one of them he has already met, Ariana Varden, Arik's healer, who Sian dismissed as a bit of fluff when he first met her, thinking her the Emperor's concubine. Instead, she is his savior, as Arik is dying and it is only Ariana's knowledge of Herbs, Healing and healing skill that is enabling her to keep him alive.
Sian is definitely taken aback- he saw the offspring as warriors, and to him, no woman can be such a warrior. And Ariana is only a healer. How can she defeat the evil assaulting Columbyana? But her ability to heal without herbs or medicines shows she might have some magical ability, and so Sian becomes her tutor in the magical arts. He does tell her of the darkness assaulting the Kingdom, but keeps to himself the detailed knowledge of the prophecy, thinking that it will keep her from quailing at the fate it fortells for her- dying in battle and being stricken with doubts.
But Ariana has definite feelings about where the evil threatening the kingdom is birthed. She suspects it came from the castle itself, since the evil deeds occurring in the Kingdom have all been equidistant from the castle in Arthes itself. The two most potent possibilities for evil are the first level of the castle - the very top, or the pit, the very bottom, the thirteenth level. When her look at the first level proves unfruitful, they go down to examine the thirteenth, a level Sian claims doesn't exist. But Ariana knows better- her own aunt was thrown there long ago.
Down in the level below, Ariana senses a great evil, and also, something else, something waiting in the dark that she can almost touch- this turns out to be the spirit of Queen Diella, one of Sebastyen's queens thrown in the pit for her addiction to Panwyr, a narcotic drug that ramps up the sex drive, and her sating of this sex drive with any male in reach. In exchange for a kiss, she tells Sian the true source of the trouble, an Isen Demon who lives in Arik's son, Prince Ciro. The demon was put into him by a mage named Fynnian, and who has raised tbe boy in his home while feeding the demon's appetites for blood, souls and Panwyr. So far the demon can only feed on tainted souls, but the more souls he eats, the easier he will find it to take pure and good souls- like that of Fynnian's daughter, Rayne.
Ciro has plans for Rayne. He will take her soul and make her his empress, impregnating her with his child and allowing demon and human to come together at conception. He looks forward to eating her soul and making her his creature. Rayne can feel his malevolence, which frightens her, but she is a dutiful daughter and obeys her father rather than running in fear. Ciro and Fynnian also have plans to conquer Columbyana and put Ciro on the throne, with Fynnian in control of Ciro- little does he know that the demon is only biding his time to get rid of the mage as well. And when Ciro becomes powerful enough to demand Fynnian bring Ciro the soldiers he promised him, the mage realizes he has lost control and becomes frightened. He does as Ciro asks.
Back in the Palace, Ariana has returned to herself and Sian teaches her as much as he can. But it turns out that Diella has never really left Ariana's body and fights with her for control. When Diella tries to seduce Sian, he puts her off, and helps Ariana regain control of her body. But the urges Diella feels are also her own, and she can taste his mouth in hers, even though it was Diella that he kissed- in her body. Already attracted to her, when she reveals to Sian that she wants him, too, he cannot resist her and they become lovers.
But when he refuses to divulge the full prophecy, they have a falling out, and she can no longer trust him. She leaves the castle at the head of a band of Sentinels- the warriors of the palace guard and armed forces of Columbyana. Her troops are going to fight Ciro's, as Ciro has left Fynnian's home, imprioning Rayne in the depths of the castle, and marched to bring evil and death to the otherwise defenseless citizens of Columbyana. The only one who can stop him is Ariana... and unbeknownst to her, Sian can't leave her to die alone. He's joined her group of Sentinels with the hopes of saving her from her fate. But when she and her company are ambushed on the road, can Sian really save her? And what will he do... how will he survive, if she really does die?
I liked this book, even though the hero of the story is pretty much pegged as an asshat- he's pegged Ariana as a woman of loose morals the first time he sees her- even though she's just a healer, and most of the time, he thinks she just can't hack it when it comes to fighting against the evil plaguing Columbyana. Even as he learns better- that Ariana is uncommonly strong and isn't going to crumple like a bit of tinfoil if she's seriously in trouble, he's still acting like an asshat in keeping the details of the prophecy from her- she asks him at least twice, and he's all "No! She wouldn't be able to take the truth!" and keeps it from her.
Her reaction when she finally does read the prophecy shows he was completely wrong about her- she doesn't get upset or break out into tears, and the cool way in which she tells him she can no longer trust him makes him humbled and afraid for her once again- and this time, instead of dismissing her as a woman, he wants to save her because he's fallen in love with her, but he's also afraid that she'll die- just like his wife, who died in childbirth, along with his son. And while I thought he went a long way towards being redeemed, I also thought he was still hanging out there in asshat territory somewhat. And when the story ends, it's not so much an ending, because it leads into the second book of this trilogy.
I did like this book, but the ending isn't really the ending, because apparently the hero and heroine will continue to be somewhat developed through the other stories in this series. Heck, Ariana hasn't even found the crystal dagger that it will be her job to wield, according to the prophecy, in the pages of this book. I do hope Sian gets some more "screen time" as it were, because I don't think he's been allowed to suffer amply enough for being such an idiot at the beginning of this one... yet. Other readers may feel differently, of course. But I did enjoy the book and am looking forward to the next one, Prince of Fire.
Saturday, February 06, 2010
Five Centuries of American Costume by R. Turner Wilcox
Five Centuries of American Costume is a book that covers American dress from the earliest discoverers of America (Vikings and Eskimos) to Native Americans, colonists, early settlers, the military dress of those troops who fought for and against the British in the Revolutionary War, and then all the way through from those times to modern day (Modern day being 1963, when this book was written).
Each chapter has a discussion of the fashions of the time covered, both male and female, formal and informal, and leads up to a series of drawings depicting those fashions, in both clothes, shoes and head coverings. The sections on Native Americans are organized by tribe, in both description and picture, and each picture has text describing what it is portraying, the person and the time period on the bottom left side of the page. For example "Navy Officer in Formal dress- black bicorne hat, blah, blah blah..., 1840".
At the end of the adult fashions up to 1960, there is one entire section for children's wear covering the entire 500 years in one fell swoop. Everything from papooses for the indians, dresses for the Victorian boys and girls and more modern rompers and sailor suits is packed into one fairly small section. The reason for this is that the mode of dress for children has almost always been "Just like adults, but smaller" for most of history. The Medieval era was the first time this changed, pretty much, and boys were dressed in dresses, like girls, for the first 5 or 6 years of life, when they were "Breeched" and put into pants. Making it impossible to tell, most of the time, if the children in a family portrait are boys or girls.
This book was suggested to the author by the Publisher, Dover, who wanted a book with an overview of American Fashions from the discovery of America by Europeans to what was then the modern day. The problem with the book is its size- it's really too small to hold all the costumes that should be in it, and conversely adds some that are more South American than North. Is this book supposed to be about both continents, or just one? If it's North America, why add Incas and Azteca? (You could argue for the inclusion of Eskimos because Alaska is currently part of America, the nation, but as far as I know, no Inca or Aztecs ever lived in America.
My other complaint with the book is that it is too small- the pictures are too few to really show the variations in modern dress, even when you break it down by decade for the 20th century. Military outfits of various periods seem to get more space than fashions of an era, and children's fashions only go up to the 1950's, and then only one boy's outfit is shown. Perhaps you can say that Children's outfits are much less fashionable than those of adults, but you can hardly say that modern children's outfits are less photographed or mentioned, especially in the modern day.
In short, this book is a very short, very small overview of fashions here in America. It's hardly comprehensive or far-ranging, and because all the illustrations are in black and white, it can be very hard to tell what some of the fashions are actually supposed to look like. But, it's not bad, and I'd still recommend it for fashions of olden-days done in a fairly modern drawing style.
Each chapter has a discussion of the fashions of the time covered, both male and female, formal and informal, and leads up to a series of drawings depicting those fashions, in both clothes, shoes and head coverings. The sections on Native Americans are organized by tribe, in both description and picture, and each picture has text describing what it is portraying, the person and the time period on the bottom left side of the page. For example "Navy Officer in Formal dress- black bicorne hat, blah, blah blah..., 1840".
At the end of the adult fashions up to 1960, there is one entire section for children's wear covering the entire 500 years in one fell swoop. Everything from papooses for the indians, dresses for the Victorian boys and girls and more modern rompers and sailor suits is packed into one fairly small section. The reason for this is that the mode of dress for children has almost always been "Just like adults, but smaller" for most of history. The Medieval era was the first time this changed, pretty much, and boys were dressed in dresses, like girls, for the first 5 or 6 years of life, when they were "Breeched" and put into pants. Making it impossible to tell, most of the time, if the children in a family portrait are boys or girls.
This book was suggested to the author by the Publisher, Dover, who wanted a book with an overview of American Fashions from the discovery of America by Europeans to what was then the modern day. The problem with the book is its size- it's really too small to hold all the costumes that should be in it, and conversely adds some that are more South American than North. Is this book supposed to be about both continents, or just one? If it's North America, why add Incas and Azteca? (You could argue for the inclusion of Eskimos because Alaska is currently part of America, the nation, but as far as I know, no Inca or Aztecs ever lived in America.
My other complaint with the book is that it is too small- the pictures are too few to really show the variations in modern dress, even when you break it down by decade for the 20th century. Military outfits of various periods seem to get more space than fashions of an era, and children's fashions only go up to the 1950's, and then only one boy's outfit is shown. Perhaps you can say that Children's outfits are much less fashionable than those of adults, but you can hardly say that modern children's outfits are less photographed or mentioned, especially in the modern day.
In short, this book is a very short, very small overview of fashions here in America. It's hardly comprehensive or far-ranging, and because all the illustrations are in black and white, it can be very hard to tell what some of the fashions are actually supposed to look like. But, it's not bad, and I'd still recommend it for fashions of olden-days done in a fairly modern drawing style.
Beast Master's Quest by Andre Norton and Lyn McConchie
Laris is a young woman with the Beast Master talent who lives on the planet Arzor. When she was younger, she was the prisoner of a circus run by a cruel man named Dedran, who coerced both her and her pet Prauo into theft and industrial espionage. But now Dedran is deceased and she and Prauo no longer have to live that way. Instead, they live with Bruce Quade, the father of the beastmaster Hosteen Storm and his half-brother, Logan.
And now that Storm has married his wife, Tani, another Beastmaster, he and she have a ranch of their own, where they live with their teams, and Logan and Laris live with Bruce Quade and Prauo. Prauo is unlike most other beast-master team animals, because unlike the animals, he isn't just an empath, but a true telepath. But no one knows where he comes from. Laris found him abandoned on a world named Fremlyn, just tossed in a can like another piece of trash. But somehow, even then, he was able to reach out with his mind and touch hers.
Just like Prauo, Laris isn't sure where she came from. but unlike Laris, Prauo and Laris both want to find out where Prauo came from so that they could possibly reunite him with his people. But it's been so long since Laris found him, and with so many worlds decimated by the alien Xik, how could they possibly track down where he might have come from?
Yet, when Laris recieves as her inheritance an old Garand space ship from the man who had been her father, she is determined to use it to track down where Prauo came from and find his people. The others she lives with agree to help her, and prepare for the arrival of the ship while Vedris, a friend of the family who is also a researcher, looks for information on anything to do with Prauo and a spacer who landed on Fremlyn. And she hits pay dirt, a man who had a friend, also a spacer, who thought he was going crazy after he picked up a small, alien cat-like being. As Vedris pumps him for information, Brad Quade tracks down information on the company the spacer worked for and where their records might be now.
With some work, they have an area of space to search. But the Space Patrol have a reason to be interested in this mission and the possibility that there might be an intelligent cat-like race of aliens that they could make contact with and trade with, so with the assistance of the Patrol, they and a patrol ship take off on the search- with the knowledge that the ship that discovered Prauo's world is still out there, having gone into hiding shortly after war with the Xik was declared. The Patrol suspects that the crew wanted to set themselves up as total rulers on a world of backwards colonists, with their higher technology and tremendous food resources, and are out there to find both worlds. Prauo's and the taken-over world. but in case Laris and company find Prauo's world first, they make Storm and Tani Ambassadors Pro Tem- able to negotiate trade contacts and whatnot with any inhabitants they might find.
And then they are off. During their time on the ship, Storm keeps Laris, Prauo and Tani and his team busy training them in Beast team tactics and various games that teach skills she may need to know- tracking and hunting and spying. He also figures out that Prauo could also be a beastmaster and lead a team of his own, which starts Prauo thinking about what he would like to do in his life.
But when they finally find Prauo's world, they are met with suspicion and even hatred from the natives, who seem to think that a human bonding with animals is a horrible abomination. Laris's bond also bothers them, but in a different way- and when Logan nearly dies in an attack by a native Water Monster, Laris and her friends get the idea that the humanoids who bond with Prauo's people consider themselves the masters and the cat-like beings are the lesser in their relationship- which upsets Laris to no end, as Prauo is friend and brother in fur to her. But the others of Prauo's kind tell them to go south and meet with another of the humanoid aliens- one which might be more friendly to them.
They go, and indeed, the second set of aliens are much more welcoming. But when Prauo meets with his mother, he finds that the truth about his people and the reason why he was taken, are much more difficult to understand. Simply because the other aliens are more welcoming doesn't make them all-good, and there is conflict between this set of people and the ones they first encountered. But when Laris is kidnapped by one of the aliens they first met, the others uncover a horrifying secret that links both sets of aliens, and explains more about why the two groups are at such odds. But can Laris and her friends find a way to reunite the separated peoples and help them heal their fractured society before the Patrol arrives and prevents them from doing so out of reasons of not interfering with the development of alien races?
I've always loved Andre Norton, and even as she got older, I've loved her collaborations with other writers. But as we get further and further from the time of her death (2006), I have to wonder how much of what is published as a collaboration is truly her work- because Andre Norton novels have a distinct feel to them- alien races and alien peoples that truly do seem alien, with motivations that are sometimes as far from human as it is possible to get. This book has only really a hint of that- because Andre Norton was content to let alien motivations remain alien from human experience- like it or not, that's the way she wrote.
And while this culture does feel authentically alien in some Andre-Nortonish ways, it's also more explainable and understandable in strictly human ways- something that, had Andre Norton remained alive to work on this book, I think would have turned out very differently- her aliens would have been more inscrutably alien and less humanish, so I find very little, in the end, of Andre Norton in this work.
This isn't to say it's a bad story- but I got the feeling it's more a Lyn McConchie story than an Andre Norton story- far, far more. And Lyn McConchie is no Andre Norton. I've been reading Andre Norton ever since Voorloper came out when I was in High School, and as an Andre Norton novel, it's a very poor one. As for Lyn McConchie, well, I think that as a writer she's okay, but that a heroine of Andre Norton wouldn't have resorted to the way that Laris ends up talking one of the villains into letting her go.
I'll have to say that I was more than a bit disappointed in this book. It's only got a very small part of Andre Norton in it, and I miss the way she made all her books her own. I enjoyed her collaboration with Sherwood Smith for the newer Solar Queen novels, and even her other Beastmaster books, Beastmaster's Circus and Beastmaster's Ark, but this one needed more Andre Norton to carry her legacy and writing talents forward. I wish Lyn McConchie had been top-billed for this one, because anyone who has read vintage Andre Norton and reads this one will certainly see that this is the case. Not recommended.
And now that Storm has married his wife, Tani, another Beastmaster, he and she have a ranch of their own, where they live with their teams, and Logan and Laris live with Bruce Quade and Prauo. Prauo is unlike most other beast-master team animals, because unlike the animals, he isn't just an empath, but a true telepath. But no one knows where he comes from. Laris found him abandoned on a world named Fremlyn, just tossed in a can like another piece of trash. But somehow, even then, he was able to reach out with his mind and touch hers.
Just like Prauo, Laris isn't sure where she came from. but unlike Laris, Prauo and Laris both want to find out where Prauo came from so that they could possibly reunite him with his people. But it's been so long since Laris found him, and with so many worlds decimated by the alien Xik, how could they possibly track down where he might have come from?
Yet, when Laris recieves as her inheritance an old Garand space ship from the man who had been her father, she is determined to use it to track down where Prauo came from and find his people. The others she lives with agree to help her, and prepare for the arrival of the ship while Vedris, a friend of the family who is also a researcher, looks for information on anything to do with Prauo and a spacer who landed on Fremlyn. And she hits pay dirt, a man who had a friend, also a spacer, who thought he was going crazy after he picked up a small, alien cat-like being. As Vedris pumps him for information, Brad Quade tracks down information on the company the spacer worked for and where their records might be now.
With some work, they have an area of space to search. But the Space Patrol have a reason to be interested in this mission and the possibility that there might be an intelligent cat-like race of aliens that they could make contact with and trade with, so with the assistance of the Patrol, they and a patrol ship take off on the search- with the knowledge that the ship that discovered Prauo's world is still out there, having gone into hiding shortly after war with the Xik was declared. The Patrol suspects that the crew wanted to set themselves up as total rulers on a world of backwards colonists, with their higher technology and tremendous food resources, and are out there to find both worlds. Prauo's and the taken-over world. but in case Laris and company find Prauo's world first, they make Storm and Tani Ambassadors Pro Tem- able to negotiate trade contacts and whatnot with any inhabitants they might find.
And then they are off. During their time on the ship, Storm keeps Laris, Prauo and Tani and his team busy training them in Beast team tactics and various games that teach skills she may need to know- tracking and hunting and spying. He also figures out that Prauo could also be a beastmaster and lead a team of his own, which starts Prauo thinking about what he would like to do in his life.
But when they finally find Prauo's world, they are met with suspicion and even hatred from the natives, who seem to think that a human bonding with animals is a horrible abomination. Laris's bond also bothers them, but in a different way- and when Logan nearly dies in an attack by a native Water Monster, Laris and her friends get the idea that the humanoids who bond with Prauo's people consider themselves the masters and the cat-like beings are the lesser in their relationship- which upsets Laris to no end, as Prauo is friend and brother in fur to her. But the others of Prauo's kind tell them to go south and meet with another of the humanoid aliens- one which might be more friendly to them.
They go, and indeed, the second set of aliens are much more welcoming. But when Prauo meets with his mother, he finds that the truth about his people and the reason why he was taken, are much more difficult to understand. Simply because the other aliens are more welcoming doesn't make them all-good, and there is conflict between this set of people and the ones they first encountered. But when Laris is kidnapped by one of the aliens they first met, the others uncover a horrifying secret that links both sets of aliens, and explains more about why the two groups are at such odds. But can Laris and her friends find a way to reunite the separated peoples and help them heal their fractured society before the Patrol arrives and prevents them from doing so out of reasons of not interfering with the development of alien races?
I've always loved Andre Norton, and even as she got older, I've loved her collaborations with other writers. But as we get further and further from the time of her death (2006), I have to wonder how much of what is published as a collaboration is truly her work- because Andre Norton novels have a distinct feel to them- alien races and alien peoples that truly do seem alien, with motivations that are sometimes as far from human as it is possible to get. This book has only really a hint of that- because Andre Norton was content to let alien motivations remain alien from human experience- like it or not, that's the way she wrote.
And while this culture does feel authentically alien in some Andre-Nortonish ways, it's also more explainable and understandable in strictly human ways- something that, had Andre Norton remained alive to work on this book, I think would have turned out very differently- her aliens would have been more inscrutably alien and less humanish, so I find very little, in the end, of Andre Norton in this work.
This isn't to say it's a bad story- but I got the feeling it's more a Lyn McConchie story than an Andre Norton story- far, far more. And Lyn McConchie is no Andre Norton. I've been reading Andre Norton ever since Voorloper came out when I was in High School, and as an Andre Norton novel, it's a very poor one. As for Lyn McConchie, well, I think that as a writer she's okay, but that a heroine of Andre Norton wouldn't have resorted to the way that Laris ends up talking one of the villains into letting her go.
I'll have to say that I was more than a bit disappointed in this book. It's only got a very small part of Andre Norton in it, and I miss the way she made all her books her own. I enjoyed her collaboration with Sherwood Smith for the newer Solar Queen novels, and even her other Beastmaster books, Beastmaster's Circus and Beastmaster's Ark, but this one needed more Andre Norton to carry her legacy and writing talents forward. I wish Lyn McConchie had been top-billed for this one, because anyone who has read vintage Andre Norton and reads this one will certainly see that this is the case. Not recommended.
Friday, February 05, 2010
It Happens Every Day by Robin Sax
Sex Crimes against Children are always a shock when they get reported in the media, and especially when big-name stars, like Michael Jackson and Roman Polanski. But unless the crime is really heinous or involves a multitude of people, it is generally not reported or reported in small print on back pages of the newspaper.
But just because it's not trumpeted each time it happens, don't think that it never happens or that it happens only rarely. Or make the mistake of thinking that since kids are resilient and able to bounce back that such abuse is something they can shrug off easily. Worse yet, don't fool yourself into thinking that it's only strangers your kids have to worry about when it comes to sexual molestation. This book shows us that of all sexual assaults in 2008, 67 percent occurred to juveniles, and of those, 93% knew their attacker.
That's not just "Have seen around before", but fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, uncles, babysitters and neighbors, among others. And sexual assault cases are discovered every single day. As a prosecutor, Robin Sax has plenty of experience with child molestation and child sexual assault: she's the one who goes after the people who do it, and they don't stop unless they are found out and stopped. Some of the stories will horrify you- about a father who would take his daughter out in his truck and sexually molest her there. He used to do it at home, in the middle of the night, until she'd told her mother what was happening. Her mother bought her a lock for her door, but didn't do anything else. So instead of having her at home, he'd do it in his truck instead. Luckily, someone saw him and called the police, which got him arrested.
In the past, the girl would have had to repeat her story many times, but now, with a team approach to prosecution, the victim is treated much more gently- and is only interviewed once, while her siblings (if any) are removed from their parental custody and taken care of as the case goes forward. LA County is at the forefront of this new approach to prosecuting child molesters, and has led to many more convictions, and fewer traumatized victims.
Sax takes us from the moment the crime is discovered and offender arrested, all the way through to the day in court and eventual conviction. Along the way, she defuses many accusations leveled at Child molestation accusations: that they are a weapon in a divorce case with one parent versus another, that the child is lying, that the child changing his or her story means they are lying, and perhaps the most pernicious, that children will lie about these things in the positive but not the negative. Not only does she point out why these accusations are lies, but show why each are wrong, and even shows cases where the child says nothing happened when it did and defends the molester. Sometimes out of love, and sometimes out of fear.
From there, we get a glimpse of what goes into the trial of the child molester and the way the victims are prepared for the trial, learning not to feat the court and the stand- or the questions of their molester's defense attorney. She also tells parents how best to prepare their children so that this doesn't happen to them, or if it does or has, that they aren't allowed to suffer in silence.
This was a chilling and saddening book to read, but there was a fair amount of joy, too, because Robin Sax is more than just a prosecutor- she's a successful proesecutor- so most of the cases she's taken on have ended with jail time for the molester. But that large number of cases hasn't jaded or hardened her. She still fights as much as she's able for the victim, and she gets her man, or woman.
Reading this book also allows the reader to see the criminal justice system at work, on behalf of the victim, and the many long strides that have been made when it comes to questioning victims of child sexual assault and child rape. It's not just something that happens to older kids, but even babies have been molested. At least Sax doesn't list the pity-partyfest that would come from the "justifications" that the molesters use for their actions.
Another interesting and well-written book. Although you may not agree with the author about what steps can be taken and must be taken to eliminate much, of not all, of the monsters that prey on children, there is one way you can pretty much ensure that this never happens to your child- listen to them and don't judge them for what they say. If your child is afraid to tell you what happened to them out of the fear of not being believed, or thinking that you will be angry with them for the incident- it's as good as letting the molester have power over them. If all the molester has to say is, "Go ahead and tell! No one is going to believe you anyway!" and the child is already considered a liar- the child will know the molester speaks the truth.
Similarly, raise your children to have confidence in and believe in themselves. Molesters pick on the kids who are already troubled and problem children. But if the child is loved and believed, and knows that, and the molester knows it, he is unlikely to pick that child to molest- it's simply too much trouble for him. This book is packed full of good advice like that among many other useful pieces of information. I highly recommend this book on a troubling topic- it will make you angry, make you cry and also make you want this to never happen to any child you know- and help you if the unthinkable *does* happen to your child. It's not always a pleasant read, but a necessary one? Definitely.
But just because it's not trumpeted each time it happens, don't think that it never happens or that it happens only rarely. Or make the mistake of thinking that since kids are resilient and able to bounce back that such abuse is something they can shrug off easily. Worse yet, don't fool yourself into thinking that it's only strangers your kids have to worry about when it comes to sexual molestation. This book shows us that of all sexual assaults in 2008, 67 percent occurred to juveniles, and of those, 93% knew their attacker.
That's not just "Have seen around before", but fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, uncles, babysitters and neighbors, among others. And sexual assault cases are discovered every single day. As a prosecutor, Robin Sax has plenty of experience with child molestation and child sexual assault: she's the one who goes after the people who do it, and they don't stop unless they are found out and stopped. Some of the stories will horrify you- about a father who would take his daughter out in his truck and sexually molest her there. He used to do it at home, in the middle of the night, until she'd told her mother what was happening. Her mother bought her a lock for her door, but didn't do anything else. So instead of having her at home, he'd do it in his truck instead. Luckily, someone saw him and called the police, which got him arrested.
In the past, the girl would have had to repeat her story many times, but now, with a team approach to prosecution, the victim is treated much more gently- and is only interviewed once, while her siblings (if any) are removed from their parental custody and taken care of as the case goes forward. LA County is at the forefront of this new approach to prosecuting child molesters, and has led to many more convictions, and fewer traumatized victims.
Sax takes us from the moment the crime is discovered and offender arrested, all the way through to the day in court and eventual conviction. Along the way, she defuses many accusations leveled at Child molestation accusations: that they are a weapon in a divorce case with one parent versus another, that the child is lying, that the child changing his or her story means they are lying, and perhaps the most pernicious, that children will lie about these things in the positive but not the negative. Not only does she point out why these accusations are lies, but show why each are wrong, and even shows cases where the child says nothing happened when it did and defends the molester. Sometimes out of love, and sometimes out of fear.
From there, we get a glimpse of what goes into the trial of the child molester and the way the victims are prepared for the trial, learning not to feat the court and the stand- or the questions of their molester's defense attorney. She also tells parents how best to prepare their children so that this doesn't happen to them, or if it does or has, that they aren't allowed to suffer in silence.
This was a chilling and saddening book to read, but there was a fair amount of joy, too, because Robin Sax is more than just a prosecutor- she's a successful proesecutor- so most of the cases she's taken on have ended with jail time for the molester. But that large number of cases hasn't jaded or hardened her. She still fights as much as she's able for the victim, and she gets her man, or woman.
Reading this book also allows the reader to see the criminal justice system at work, on behalf of the victim, and the many long strides that have been made when it comes to questioning victims of child sexual assault and child rape. It's not just something that happens to older kids, but even babies have been molested. At least Sax doesn't list the pity-partyfest that would come from the "justifications" that the molesters use for their actions.
Another interesting and well-written book. Although you may not agree with the author about what steps can be taken and must be taken to eliminate much, of not all, of the monsters that prey on children, there is one way you can pretty much ensure that this never happens to your child- listen to them and don't judge them for what they say. If your child is afraid to tell you what happened to them out of the fear of not being believed, or thinking that you will be angry with them for the incident- it's as good as letting the molester have power over them. If all the molester has to say is, "Go ahead and tell! No one is going to believe you anyway!" and the child is already considered a liar- the child will know the molester speaks the truth.
Similarly, raise your children to have confidence in and believe in themselves. Molesters pick on the kids who are already troubled and problem children. But if the child is loved and believed, and knows that, and the molester knows it, he is unlikely to pick that child to molest- it's simply too much trouble for him. This book is packed full of good advice like that among many other useful pieces of information. I highly recommend this book on a troubling topic- it will make you angry, make you cry and also make you want this to never happen to any child you know- and help you if the unthinkable *does* happen to your child. It's not always a pleasant read, but a necessary one? Definitely.
X-Men: The Characters and their Universe by Michael Mallory
With the release of the X-Men movies and X-Men: Origins- Wolverine, the X-men seem to have become wildly popular. But that's a conception that's just wrong. The X-Men have always been popular among readers of comics, and this book sets out to examine why.
Like many Marvel heroes, the X-Men were born out of the imaginations of two men: Stanley Lieber and Jacob Kurzberg, better known as Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Stan had started out writing strictly text stories between the more usual comic stories- which were required by the Postal Service at that time to qualify comics for a cheaper postal rate, and Kirby was among the most prolific of Marvel artists, taking on a heroic workload to keep the Marvel titles afloat. Even the mutant part of the equation came less out of serendipity or reasoned thought than as a workaround: by making all the characters in the comic mutants, they didn't have to come up with separate origin stories for each- which meant a lot less mental work!
However, that explanation made for much deeper stories as the title continued to run- so many teens feel like outcasts anyway, and public sentiment against mutants ties into many types of prejudice, from racial to sexual, and made the stories deeper than just heroes fighting against villains. This has been used in many stories since the 60's and the first issue of the X-Men.
The book then gives a history of the team, from the first issue to those published early in 2006 (this book was published in 2008) and also has deeper looks at some of the longer-lived and more favored comic characters, from Marvel Girl/Jean Grey/Phoenix to those like Kitty Pryde, Colossus and Professor X. And Wolverine, of course. But the comics aren't the only thing this book covers. It also has in it the animated series, TV movies ("Generation X") and live-action moves produced that take place in this universe.
I found it intriguing that there was an animated series which included the X-Men and came out before "Pryde of the X-Men", which shared several of its good and bad spots, like Wolverine's Australian Accent in "Pryde". This was "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" (who were Iceman and a new character named Firestar). And even the Aussie Accent given to Wolverine has an explanation- their contract with Marvel said that they *couldn't* give him a Canadian Accent, due to copyright issues. But by the time the X-Men animated series came to be produced, those issues had been dealt with, and with the voice actor playing Wolverine actually being Canadian, he went back to his intended Canadian accent- and making "Pryde of the X-men" Wolverine sound incredibly weird!
Each movie is covered in detail, but most amazing of all is "Generation X", based on the characters in that book (minus a few), like Skin, Jubilee (not Asian in this version), Mondo and Monet Sr. Croix, along with two new characters created especially for the movie, a girl known as "Buff" (Incredibly muscular but tries to cover it up) and a mutant with heat, and later, X-ray vision. Banshee and the White Queen make appearances as the mentors of these young mutants (with Finola Hughes playing the part of Emma Frost) and Matt Frewer in the role of the ludicrously over the top villain scientist, Tresh.
With all the ground this book covers, from origins to the future of the X-men, it's quite appropriate that this book is coffee-table sized, and trying to pick it up could be painful if you aren't prepared for just how heavy it is, but it's also appropriate for covering a superhero team that has had so many members and has made so much of Marvel Comics history- not only have they made much of it, they are also very important to just that history, which this book makes abundantly clear.
But more importantly than just the stories, this book also gives the story behind the story- such as why the "House of M" story reduced the immense number of mutants in the world and then the "Son of M" storyline brought some back. Reading the history and the history of the history of this series is fascinating in its own right, and this book, packed as it is with plenty of art from the comics, stills from the movies, cels from the animation and character art from the artists who have worked on the books or who just love the books, makes this an intensely interesting read.
If you discovered your love of the X-Men through the movies, through the comics or in any other way, this is a book you are definitely going to want to read. But it's big and expensive, so unless you can afford to shell out serious money or get it as a present, you might want to look for it at the library. But be warned- many typos seem to have crept into the editing process- if this sort of thing annoys you, you might want to give this one a pass. Recommended.
Like many Marvel heroes, the X-Men were born out of the imaginations of two men: Stanley Lieber and Jacob Kurzberg, better known as Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Stan had started out writing strictly text stories between the more usual comic stories- which were required by the Postal Service at that time to qualify comics for a cheaper postal rate, and Kirby was among the most prolific of Marvel artists, taking on a heroic workload to keep the Marvel titles afloat. Even the mutant part of the equation came less out of serendipity or reasoned thought than as a workaround: by making all the characters in the comic mutants, they didn't have to come up with separate origin stories for each- which meant a lot less mental work!
However, that explanation made for much deeper stories as the title continued to run- so many teens feel like outcasts anyway, and public sentiment against mutants ties into many types of prejudice, from racial to sexual, and made the stories deeper than just heroes fighting against villains. This has been used in many stories since the 60's and the first issue of the X-Men.
The book then gives a history of the team, from the first issue to those published early in 2006 (this book was published in 2008) and also has deeper looks at some of the longer-lived and more favored comic characters, from Marvel Girl/Jean Grey/Phoenix to those like Kitty Pryde, Colossus and Professor X. And Wolverine, of course. But the comics aren't the only thing this book covers. It also has in it the animated series, TV movies ("Generation X") and live-action moves produced that take place in this universe.
I found it intriguing that there was an animated series which included the X-Men and came out before "Pryde of the X-Men", which shared several of its good and bad spots, like Wolverine's Australian Accent in "Pryde". This was "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" (who were Iceman and a new character named Firestar). And even the Aussie Accent given to Wolverine has an explanation- their contract with Marvel said that they *couldn't* give him a Canadian Accent, due to copyright issues. But by the time the X-Men animated series came to be produced, those issues had been dealt with, and with the voice actor playing Wolverine actually being Canadian, he went back to his intended Canadian accent- and making "Pryde of the X-men" Wolverine sound incredibly weird!
Each movie is covered in detail, but most amazing of all is "Generation X", based on the characters in that book (minus a few), like Skin, Jubilee (not Asian in this version), Mondo and Monet Sr. Croix, along with two new characters created especially for the movie, a girl known as "Buff" (Incredibly muscular but tries to cover it up) and a mutant with heat, and later, X-ray vision. Banshee and the White Queen make appearances as the mentors of these young mutants (with Finola Hughes playing the part of Emma Frost) and Matt Frewer in the role of the ludicrously over the top villain scientist, Tresh.
With all the ground this book covers, from origins to the future of the X-men, it's quite appropriate that this book is coffee-table sized, and trying to pick it up could be painful if you aren't prepared for just how heavy it is, but it's also appropriate for covering a superhero team that has had so many members and has made so much of Marvel Comics history- not only have they made much of it, they are also very important to just that history, which this book makes abundantly clear.
But more importantly than just the stories, this book also gives the story behind the story- such as why the "House of M" story reduced the immense number of mutants in the world and then the "Son of M" storyline brought some back. Reading the history and the history of the history of this series is fascinating in its own right, and this book, packed as it is with plenty of art from the comics, stills from the movies, cels from the animation and character art from the artists who have worked on the books or who just love the books, makes this an intensely interesting read.
If you discovered your love of the X-Men through the movies, through the comics or in any other way, this is a book you are definitely going to want to read. But it's big and expensive, so unless you can afford to shell out serious money or get it as a present, you might want to look for it at the library. But be warned- many typos seem to have crept into the editing process- if this sort of thing annoys you, you might want to give this one a pass. Recommended.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Beyond Heaving Bosoms- The Smart Bitches Guide to Romance Novels by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan
Romance is one of the largest categories in the bookselling world, and also one of the most despised by critics and non-readers of romance. Romances are put down as "Chick porn", and the average image of a romance reader isn't very flattering- the bored housewife in sweats voraciously devouring stack after stack of brainless romances where the heroes order the virginal young heroine around, force their passions on her with hard, punishing kisses, and even rape her- and it all somehow ends at "happily ever after". And the hero? Some long-haired guy who runs around with a shirt unbuttoned to expose his many chest, but not untucked from his pants, occasionally sporting something long and phallic to suggest something else long and phallic.
But are all romances really brainless chick porn? Hell, no! And the smart romance readers know it. The really smart ones can point out to you that romance in books is everywhere, from the classics, like Jayne Eyre, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice- to modern day mystery and detective novels, or Science Fiction and Fantasy- all have romance in them. Unless you've spent your entire life reading only non-fiction (and honestly, that's not possible given schools these days), you've read romance, even if it's in a play like Romeo and Juliet.
So why is romance so roundly hated? Well, part of it has to do with who it is aimed at- women, who have always been low on the totem pole of importance. Just as how women were once only the nurse, and the nurse was deemed less important than a doctor, so romance, as a primarily marketed to women category of books, comes into the same sort of condemnation. Because romance books are so female friendly, it's okay to look down on them and by extension, by the readers of those same romances.
And yes, perhaps once there was a glut of Alpha (or Asshole Alpha) heroes with shouty, abusive, rapey ways, but those quickly went by the wayside and are now no more to be seen- except in reprints of old titles. Modern readers of romance tend not to find them interesting or sexy, so now heroesget their own point of View, so the readers can see the Hero's Journey as well as the heroine's. And the clinch cover has also changed- did you know that the cover was never for women, but for the men who bought the romance novels for the book stores?
I love the Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books blog, but this is more than just a re-hash of what's on the website. This book traces the evolution of the romance novel from the early Asshole Alpha heroes (which they memorably dub the "Alphole" into the kinder, gentler heroes of today. Illustrated with many charts (How can you tell if what you are reading is Old Skool Romance or New Skool Romance? Check the chart!) and pictures (Mavis, the supposed "average romance reader" many people think of when they think about people who read romance, and Clinch cover with the O-face heroine)m, this book tackles what is sore subject for many people with amazing wit and humor.
You can not only laugh at the misperceptions of those who think of romance novels as the land of the shouty, rapey hero, but dissect the reason why old skool romance pisses so many modern readers off, from the "Big Mis" or misunderstanding that could be solved by locking the hero and heroine in one room and making them, you know, TALK TO EACH OTHER. But this book confronts a real big misunderstanding in just about every romance novel- the idea that the hymen is located just inside the heroine's "moist cave".
This is a book that will make you laugh while pointing out just how prevalent the myths are about romance, and give you truth to combat the myths. The Chapters aren't numbered, but are titled in such a way as to provide laughter while informing you as to what lies within, such as "Chapter WTF?", " Chapter Codpiece" and my personal favorite "Chapter Secret Cowboy Baby". Some of the stuff inside will either tickle your funnybone or make you go "Sigh, another mad-libs romance?", but this book tends towards the snarky/funny side of the spectrum rather than the serious/learned side, but it does cover some more serious sides of the romance genre, such as the plagiarism scandals that brought down both Cassie Edwards and Janet Dailey. Well done, and recommended.
But are all romances really brainless chick porn? Hell, no! And the smart romance readers know it. The really smart ones can point out to you that romance in books is everywhere, from the classics, like Jayne Eyre, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice- to modern day mystery and detective novels, or Science Fiction and Fantasy- all have romance in them. Unless you've spent your entire life reading only non-fiction (and honestly, that's not possible given schools these days), you've read romance, even if it's in a play like Romeo and Juliet.
So why is romance so roundly hated? Well, part of it has to do with who it is aimed at- women, who have always been low on the totem pole of importance. Just as how women were once only the nurse, and the nurse was deemed less important than a doctor, so romance, as a primarily marketed to women category of books, comes into the same sort of condemnation. Because romance books are so female friendly, it's okay to look down on them and by extension, by the readers of those same romances.
And yes, perhaps once there was a glut of Alpha (or Asshole Alpha) heroes with shouty, abusive, rapey ways, but those quickly went by the wayside and are now no more to be seen- except in reprints of old titles. Modern readers of romance tend not to find them interesting or sexy, so now heroesget their own point of View, so the readers can see the Hero's Journey as well as the heroine's. And the clinch cover has also changed- did you know that the cover was never for women, but for the men who bought the romance novels for the book stores?
I love the Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books blog, but this is more than just a re-hash of what's on the website. This book traces the evolution of the romance novel from the early Asshole Alpha heroes (which they memorably dub the "Alphole" into the kinder, gentler heroes of today. Illustrated with many charts (How can you tell if what you are reading is Old Skool Romance or New Skool Romance? Check the chart!) and pictures (Mavis, the supposed "average romance reader" many people think of when they think about people who read romance, and Clinch cover with the O-face heroine)m, this book tackles what is sore subject for many people with amazing wit and humor.
You can not only laugh at the misperceptions of those who think of romance novels as the land of the shouty, rapey hero, but dissect the reason why old skool romance pisses so many modern readers off, from the "Big Mis" or misunderstanding that could be solved by locking the hero and heroine in one room and making them, you know, TALK TO EACH OTHER. But this book confronts a real big misunderstanding in just about every romance novel- the idea that the hymen is located just inside the heroine's "moist cave".
This is a book that will make you laugh while pointing out just how prevalent the myths are about romance, and give you truth to combat the myths. The Chapters aren't numbered, but are titled in such a way as to provide laughter while informing you as to what lies within, such as "Chapter WTF?", " Chapter Codpiece" and my personal favorite "Chapter Secret Cowboy Baby". Some of the stuff inside will either tickle your funnybone or make you go "Sigh, another mad-libs romance?", but this book tends towards the snarky/funny side of the spectrum rather than the serious/learned side, but it does cover some more serious sides of the romance genre, such as the plagiarism scandals that brought down both Cassie Edwards and Janet Dailey. Well done, and recommended.
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Shades of Midnight by Lara Adrian
Alex Maguire is a bush pilot in Alaska and is making a delivery to the Toms family when she comes on a scene of unimaginable horror. The Tomses are all dead, slain in a single night, their bodies mostly drained of blood and left out in the snow. Alex reports it to Zach Tucker, her friend and the town of Harmony's constable, even as she lands to search for any survivors. She finds none, although she does find a single naked, bloody footprint in the snow, and her stomach seizes as she is drawn back into her childhood horror of an attack that left her mother and brother dead.
Kade is a Breed warrior who was originally from Alaska, but when a report of a video posted on the internet is recognized by the order as being the aftermath of a vampire attack, Lucan, the leader of the Order, sends Kade back to his home to investigate, destroy the vampires who did this, and wipe the memories of anyone who witnessed the attack. When he arrives, he finds that the good people of Harmony are worried about the attack, which they blame on wolves. Alex is about to confess that she knows what is really behind the attacks when she catches a glimpse of Kade, and thinks better about it.
The next day, she goes back out to the Toms place to see if she could be remembering wrong, but when she enters Papa Toms' house, she is surprised to see Kade there and wonders how he got there when he'd been in Harmony just the night before, but isn't satisfied with his explanation that he snowshoed there. But he has no intention of leaving before the sun goes down. She's also fairly stunned at the amount of weapons he carries on him, and she questions him being just a hunter, as he told her the night before.
At the same time, she feels an attraction to him, one which he returns in spades. But he thinks she is just a human, so that he can simply have fun with her, and wipe her memories when he leaves. She leaves to return to town, and he encounters her again the next day in the town tavern. He talks with her and asks her to tell him what she really saw at the Tomses. And she is about to, before they are interrupted, so she runs instead.
Meanwhile, Kade is checking out Skeeter, a shifty guy who lives with his mother and is a complete loser. Skeeter is only out for himself, and sells drugs and alcohol to the dry native communities. He's also the one who shot the video of the carnage at the Tomses and posted it to a death porn site. But he isn't there. He's already run afoul of the other Breed in the area and been drained into becoming a minion. Kade tracks him to a company site and sees him working with the other minions there.
Kade has also heard about another older man gone missing, and hires Alex to bring him to the missing man's place to check what clues might have been left there. But the sight of the man's body makes Alex go hysterical, and as Kade takes care of the mess, he sends her to wait for him in the house. When he finally gets back, Alex is waiting for him.
Kade makes her feel safe, and she gives herself to him completely. She also reveals, through her nakedness, the sight of a breedmate mark on her leg. Kade can't have a one night stand with her and just leave. Not if she's a breedmate. But he also can't resist her, and they make furious love.
Afterwards, she tells him the truth about what happened to her mother and brother as a child- they were attacked by rogue breed vampires, and she and her father only barely managed to escape, and they came to Alaska when she picked it out on a globe. Harmony sounded friendly, so they moved here. And now she's found that the monsters are here, too...
Kade tries to tell her what she is, but only gets partway into the explanation before they are called back to town by an attack on some of the hunters, who intended going after the wolves. Kade and Alex fly back as quickly as possible and discover Skeeter in the process of killing the one surviving hunter. Kade kills Skeeter and tells Alex he must meet the rest of the warriors of the Order whom he has called in.
But at the headquarters set up by Dragos' minions, they discover that the Ancient, who has been moved here by Dragos, has broken free and drunk from Alex's friend, Jenna. While the Order take care of the Minions and Dragos's men, Alex is found by Seth, Kade's half-wild brother and is imperiled by Zach, Skeeter's source. But when Alex becomes a target for the Ancient, can Kade save her in time?
I liked this book. Although I wasn't familliar with Kade before the start of the book, he's new to the Order, so I didn't feel like I should know him that well. Although joining the order now seems to be like- join and find a Breedmate lifemate. Or at least that has to be something of a joke going around by now among the members of the Order.
I liked both Alex and Kade both, but neither really stood out much. Kade's big secret is his brother, who is running wild with the wolves and going around killing people- when Jenna, Alex's friend is attacked, we're not really sure who attacked her, Kade's brother Seth or the Ancient. Alex's big secret is what exactly happened to her mother and brother down in Florida, where she used to live. She tells everyone that a car wreck killed them, but we can see that's not the case.
And I felt for Jenna as well. Jenna, who is only a secondary character, loses her husband before the book begins. Her brother the sheriff turns about to be crooked, her best friend, Alex, is talking about leaving Alaska to start her life over (and that's even *before* she falls in love with Kade), and then she's attacked and has some of her blood drained by the ancient, and ends up mumbling in his language. I got the feeling that she was being heavily sequel-bated, i.e. that she is going to end up being a breedmate and mated to one of the order when and if she recovers from the attack- maybe even in the very next book.
I still like the series, but I felt that Jenna was the more interesting character in this particular book, so this perhaps wasn't a very successful pairing for me. I liked both characters just fine, but they didn't stand out for me so much. Not as much as, say, Reichen and Claire, from "Ashes of Midnight". Since I've enjoyed the rest of the series just fine, I'll still continue to read about the Breed Warriors of the Order. But I am hoping we get something really different next time. Recommended.
Kade is a Breed warrior who was originally from Alaska, but when a report of a video posted on the internet is recognized by the order as being the aftermath of a vampire attack, Lucan, the leader of the Order, sends Kade back to his home to investigate, destroy the vampires who did this, and wipe the memories of anyone who witnessed the attack. When he arrives, he finds that the good people of Harmony are worried about the attack, which they blame on wolves. Alex is about to confess that she knows what is really behind the attacks when she catches a glimpse of Kade, and thinks better about it.
The next day, she goes back out to the Toms place to see if she could be remembering wrong, but when she enters Papa Toms' house, she is surprised to see Kade there and wonders how he got there when he'd been in Harmony just the night before, but isn't satisfied with his explanation that he snowshoed there. But he has no intention of leaving before the sun goes down. She's also fairly stunned at the amount of weapons he carries on him, and she questions him being just a hunter, as he told her the night before.
At the same time, she feels an attraction to him, one which he returns in spades. But he thinks she is just a human, so that he can simply have fun with her, and wipe her memories when he leaves. She leaves to return to town, and he encounters her again the next day in the town tavern. He talks with her and asks her to tell him what she really saw at the Tomses. And she is about to, before they are interrupted, so she runs instead.
Meanwhile, Kade is checking out Skeeter, a shifty guy who lives with his mother and is a complete loser. Skeeter is only out for himself, and sells drugs and alcohol to the dry native communities. He's also the one who shot the video of the carnage at the Tomses and posted it to a death porn site. But he isn't there. He's already run afoul of the other Breed in the area and been drained into becoming a minion. Kade tracks him to a company site and sees him working with the other minions there.
Kade has also heard about another older man gone missing, and hires Alex to bring him to the missing man's place to check what clues might have been left there. But the sight of the man's body makes Alex go hysterical, and as Kade takes care of the mess, he sends her to wait for him in the house. When he finally gets back, Alex is waiting for him.
Kade makes her feel safe, and she gives herself to him completely. She also reveals, through her nakedness, the sight of a breedmate mark on her leg. Kade can't have a one night stand with her and just leave. Not if she's a breedmate. But he also can't resist her, and they make furious love.
Afterwards, she tells him the truth about what happened to her mother and brother as a child- they were attacked by rogue breed vampires, and she and her father only barely managed to escape, and they came to Alaska when she picked it out on a globe. Harmony sounded friendly, so they moved here. And now she's found that the monsters are here, too...
Kade tries to tell her what she is, but only gets partway into the explanation before they are called back to town by an attack on some of the hunters, who intended going after the wolves. Kade and Alex fly back as quickly as possible and discover Skeeter in the process of killing the one surviving hunter. Kade kills Skeeter and tells Alex he must meet the rest of the warriors of the Order whom he has called in.
But at the headquarters set up by Dragos' minions, they discover that the Ancient, who has been moved here by Dragos, has broken free and drunk from Alex's friend, Jenna. While the Order take care of the Minions and Dragos's men, Alex is found by Seth, Kade's half-wild brother and is imperiled by Zach, Skeeter's source. But when Alex becomes a target for the Ancient, can Kade save her in time?
I liked this book. Although I wasn't familliar with Kade before the start of the book, he's new to the Order, so I didn't feel like I should know him that well. Although joining the order now seems to be like- join and find a Breedmate lifemate. Or at least that has to be something of a joke going around by now among the members of the Order.
I liked both Alex and Kade both, but neither really stood out much. Kade's big secret is his brother, who is running wild with the wolves and going around killing people- when Jenna, Alex's friend is attacked, we're not really sure who attacked her, Kade's brother Seth or the Ancient. Alex's big secret is what exactly happened to her mother and brother down in Florida, where she used to live. She tells everyone that a car wreck killed them, but we can see that's not the case.
And I felt for Jenna as well. Jenna, who is only a secondary character, loses her husband before the book begins. Her brother the sheriff turns about to be crooked, her best friend, Alex, is talking about leaving Alaska to start her life over (and that's even *before* she falls in love with Kade), and then she's attacked and has some of her blood drained by the ancient, and ends up mumbling in his language. I got the feeling that she was being heavily sequel-bated, i.e. that she is going to end up being a breedmate and mated to one of the order when and if she recovers from the attack- maybe even in the very next book.
I still like the series, but I felt that Jenna was the more interesting character in this particular book, so this perhaps wasn't a very successful pairing for me. I liked both characters just fine, but they didn't stand out for me so much. Not as much as, say, Reichen and Claire, from "Ashes of Midnight". Since I've enjoyed the rest of the series just fine, I'll still continue to read about the Breed Warriors of the Order. But I am hoping we get something really different next time. Recommended.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Maggie Quinn: Girl versus Evil- Highway to Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore
Maggie Quinn has battled demons, Sorority House Witches, and now? She's going on vacation to South Padre Island with her best friend Lisa, a former Goth chick and witch who once accidentally summoned a demon. Lisa knows that she must atone for that act for the rest of her life, and into her next life as well, but Maggie is glad to see her and enjoy a girl's-only Spring Break when her friend/boyfriend Justin goes to spend time with his old friend Henry, who is in seminary school.
But on their way to South Padre Island, they are riding down in the wilds of Texas at Two AM when the carcass of a cow is thrown on the road in front of them. Before Maggie can react, her jeep has run the carcass over and the cow's horn has pierced the gas tank. There's also the little matter of the smell of sulfur and shining red lights that look like eyes out of the dark. Maggie, while simultaneously freaking out, puts her hand in the cow's blood and gets an image of it being attacking by... something, and more of the red eyes.
They are found on the road by Zeke, a cowboy, who helps them move the jeep to the side of the road and takes them to the nearest town, Dulcina, where they can stay at the Duck Inn for the night, and until their car is fixed. The next morning, as Maggie is ordering breakfast from the local diner, she meets Teresa, the waitress who owns the place, and the Inn. It seems that the dead cow that Maggie hit wasn't the first animal death in the area, and she's convinced that a supernatural creature called a Chupacabra, or "Goat-sucker" was responsible. But that might be a problem, as such a thing is unkillable, at least, according to Teresa.
Maggie would rather not get pulled into another supernatural case, but because she and Lisa will be stuck in town for a good long while, she decides to start looking into it, just in case. She and Lisa meet Zeke again, and get his own opinion on the case. He believes what's killing the livestock is a rogue Coyote or bobcat, maybe even a mountain lion. He doesn't believe in supernatural explanations, and neither does his grandmother, a local landowner named Doña Isabel.
While she's stuck, she and Lisa do some research on the Chupacabra, and find that there is fairly local museum/Tourist attraction that claims to have a Chupacabra skeleton, among other things (including a two-headed snake), but while she finds that the museum has a real mammoth bone, and some real indian relics, the Chupacabra is a fake, put together from a variety of animals. Disappointed, she returns to Duclina.
Meanwhile, she's been somewhat disturbed by her dreams, which have been unusually clear. The price that she pays for these dreams is always a headache on waking, but despite her dreams, she's been waking amazingly headache-free. She and Lisa soon find the reason for that- small charm bags placed between the bed's boxspring and mattress. But who could have put them there, and do they have anything to do with the Chupacabra?
More animals are dying all around, and Lisa and Zeke have been showing an unusual level of interest in each other. And between Teresa and Doña Isabel, the town is caught between trying to kill the supposed Chupacabra and taking pictures of it to make money off it, As Maggie comes to realize that the Chupacabra is evil, and has been imprisoned before but now has escaped its imprisonment, she and Lisa get roped in to the effort of trying to either re-imprison or destroy it. But what will be the price of imprisoning the Chupacabra? And can Maggie, Lisa, her boyfriend Justin (playing the Knight come to the rescue) and his friend Henry affect the outcome of this supernatural battle with evil? And will any of them survive the coming supernatural conflagration?
I read the previous Maggie Quinn book, Hell Week, and I really liked it. This one had a quicker build than Hell Week, but the tension quickly ramps up with Maggie and Lisa trying to find out more about what a "Chupacabra" is, and then determine if it is merely a natural creature, or something supernatural. In this case, it's definitely the latter, but some of the plot points didn't add up for me.
For one thing, the Chupacabra is supposedly the same creature who made a series of attacks in the 1950's (and before), and even killed a human. It's also demonic. Yet, this thing supposedly doesn't know what it needs to survive and grow stronger, which is just blood- not flesh, but blood. And that for me, just didn't add up. It's been around so long and doesn't know? I mean, this thing is literally demons, and they seem to know the route to get there- they are bad enough to try and mind-screw Maggie. And yet they don't know they need blood at first? The other was that no one else in town but Doña Isabel seemed to know or remember that much the same thing happened 60 years ago. Huh? Seems to me that something like that would really be remembered for quite a long time in town.
However, the book gets a great deal right as well. The smart, snappy dialogue is back as is the relationship with Justin, her boyfriend. I still feel a strong resemblance to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and her gang of Scoobies, though they continue to lack the "Giles" character. I really did enjoy this book and am looking forward to any sequels. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Buffy or Angel. Very well done and makes you want to read more.
But on their way to South Padre Island, they are riding down in the wilds of Texas at Two AM when the carcass of a cow is thrown on the road in front of them. Before Maggie can react, her jeep has run the carcass over and the cow's horn has pierced the gas tank. There's also the little matter of the smell of sulfur and shining red lights that look like eyes out of the dark. Maggie, while simultaneously freaking out, puts her hand in the cow's blood and gets an image of it being attacking by... something, and more of the red eyes.
They are found on the road by Zeke, a cowboy, who helps them move the jeep to the side of the road and takes them to the nearest town, Dulcina, where they can stay at the Duck Inn for the night, and until their car is fixed. The next morning, as Maggie is ordering breakfast from the local diner, she meets Teresa, the waitress who owns the place, and the Inn. It seems that the dead cow that Maggie hit wasn't the first animal death in the area, and she's convinced that a supernatural creature called a Chupacabra, or "Goat-sucker" was responsible. But that might be a problem, as such a thing is unkillable, at least, according to Teresa.
Maggie would rather not get pulled into another supernatural case, but because she and Lisa will be stuck in town for a good long while, she decides to start looking into it, just in case. She and Lisa meet Zeke again, and get his own opinion on the case. He believes what's killing the livestock is a rogue Coyote or bobcat, maybe even a mountain lion. He doesn't believe in supernatural explanations, and neither does his grandmother, a local landowner named Doña Isabel.
While she's stuck, she and Lisa do some research on the Chupacabra, and find that there is fairly local museum/Tourist attraction that claims to have a Chupacabra skeleton, among other things (including a two-headed snake), but while she finds that the museum has a real mammoth bone, and some real indian relics, the Chupacabra is a fake, put together from a variety of animals. Disappointed, she returns to Duclina.
Meanwhile, she's been somewhat disturbed by her dreams, which have been unusually clear. The price that she pays for these dreams is always a headache on waking, but despite her dreams, she's been waking amazingly headache-free. She and Lisa soon find the reason for that- small charm bags placed between the bed's boxspring and mattress. But who could have put them there, and do they have anything to do with the Chupacabra?
More animals are dying all around, and Lisa and Zeke have been showing an unusual level of interest in each other. And between Teresa and Doña Isabel, the town is caught between trying to kill the supposed Chupacabra and taking pictures of it to make money off it, As Maggie comes to realize that the Chupacabra is evil, and has been imprisoned before but now has escaped its imprisonment, she and Lisa get roped in to the effort of trying to either re-imprison or destroy it. But what will be the price of imprisoning the Chupacabra? And can Maggie, Lisa, her boyfriend Justin (playing the Knight come to the rescue) and his friend Henry affect the outcome of this supernatural battle with evil? And will any of them survive the coming supernatural conflagration?
I read the previous Maggie Quinn book, Hell Week, and I really liked it. This one had a quicker build than Hell Week, but the tension quickly ramps up with Maggie and Lisa trying to find out more about what a "Chupacabra" is, and then determine if it is merely a natural creature, or something supernatural. In this case, it's definitely the latter, but some of the plot points didn't add up for me.
For one thing, the Chupacabra is supposedly the same creature who made a series of attacks in the 1950's (and before), and even killed a human. It's also demonic. Yet, this thing supposedly doesn't know what it needs to survive and grow stronger, which is just blood- not flesh, but blood. And that for me, just didn't add up. It's been around so long and doesn't know? I mean, this thing is literally demons, and they seem to know the route to get there- they are bad enough to try and mind-screw Maggie. And yet they don't know they need blood at first? The other was that no one else in town but Doña Isabel seemed to know or remember that much the same thing happened 60 years ago. Huh? Seems to me that something like that would really be remembered for quite a long time in town.
However, the book gets a great deal right as well. The smart, snappy dialogue is back as is the relationship with Justin, her boyfriend. I still feel a strong resemblance to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and her gang of Scoobies, though they continue to lack the "Giles" character. I really did enjoy this book and am looking forward to any sequels. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Buffy or Angel. Very well done and makes you want to read more.
Never After by Laurell K. Hamilton, Yasmine Galenorn, Marjorie M. Lio and Sharon Shinn
Stories of marriage offered and marriage refused are the basis for this book, collecting three tales from well-known writers of romance and fantasy.
"Can He Bake a Cherry Pie?" by Laurell K. Hamilton is the first story. Ellinore is a noblewoman whose father offers her in marriage to a depraved old man in order to grow his fortune and get closer to the throne, but Ellinore is sickened by the bargain. But when she decides to go and try to free Prince True, who tried to best a sorceress and lost her father is angered. The Witch has him, still imprisoned, forever young and handsome.
Many have tried to free him, and many have died in the process. But the truth is he can only be freed by one who has learned the womanly arts. To fail is death and Ellinore would rather die than marry her loathsome bridegroom. But when Elinore sees that the Prince is still handsome and arrogant after all this time imprisoned, will she want to free him and become his bride? Or is there another way that she can have the freedom she wants without death or marrying Prince True?
"The Shadow of Mist" by Yasmine Galenorn tells the story of Siobahn Morgan, a selkie who is a friend of the three D'Artigo sisters from the Otherworld. She's travelled the world over to escape the man who raped her and wished to make her his own, and now, after 100 years, he's finally tracked her down to make her his.
Siobahn fled him, even though her family would have married her to him, because of his cruelty and pleasure in her fear. Now that she has finally found love with Mitch, another selkie, and is pregnant with his child, she must not only protect herself and her child from Terrence, but Mitch as well, plus bring Terrenceto pay for his crimes against her so very long ago. She may not be a fighter, but does she have the courage to battle for the man she loves against the man who is her worst fear?
"The Tangleroot Palace" by Marjorie M. Liu has Princess Salinda, who her father has betrothed to the Southern Warlord in order to save his kingdom from attacks by enemies. But Sally doesn't care to face life with so fierce and bloodthirsty a man. So on the advice of her gardener, she flees into the kingdom, hoping to pass into the Tanglewood Forest and speak to the Queen imprisoned there.
Rescued from a group of horny mercenaries by a three musician/Players, she travels with them, trying to stay one step ahead of her father. She bonds with Mickle, the head of the group, but when she flees into the forest to escape her father, it turns out to be a trap laid for her by the imprisoned Queen, who wishes to be free to wreak her will on the lands around. Will Sally succumb to the wants of the magical Queen, and can she save Mickle when he comes to rescue her and find happiness at last?
"The Wrong Bridegroom" by Sharon Shinn tells the story of Princess Olivia, who has rejected the man her father selected for her and in response, her father throws a tournament of three tests. Whoever can pass all three tests will be her husband. Before the contest starts, she looks around at all the men who have come to win her and is enchanted with a magician named Darius, who in addition to having magical powers, is handsome and cheerful and seems happy- surely this is someone she can live with!
The tournament ends with two winners, both Darius and her father's choice, Harwin. She chooses Darius and sets off with him on a journey to meet his family. But Harwin, and later her stepmother, the Queen, Gisele, comes to accompany them, and Olivia is forced to see what ia really happening in the kingdom, and how much of a monster her father really is. As she does, she gets a new look at Harwin, and likes what she sees. But can she find a way to rid her kingdom of her father and bring back a more enlightened rule when her father will have no compunctions about killing her if and when she gets in his way?
I found this book unusual in that I really enjoyed every story in it. Most anthologies have one or two, or even three really good stpries, but the others are only so-so. Not so much in this case, as each story was well constructed, and kept my interest throughout. I did find the first story somewhat deceptive, as it is the shortest story in the book, but it's still a very strong story.
My favorite story was "The Wrong Bridegroom", because Princess Olivia has a lot to learn, both about herself and her kingdom... and her father. I loved that the story was serious. Yes, there were fantasy elements, but at the same time, it transcended them to be more, and I felt that it was a deeper story than just a romance. All of them were, but this one went the deepest.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes Fantasy, romance, and fairy tales, as the stories combine elements of all three, each in different proportions, to make a harmonious whole Furthermore, each story is like a sparkling jewel, whole and complete unto themselves, but at the same time wonderful together. Highly recommended.
"Can He Bake a Cherry Pie?" by Laurell K. Hamilton is the first story. Ellinore is a noblewoman whose father offers her in marriage to a depraved old man in order to grow his fortune and get closer to the throne, but Ellinore is sickened by the bargain. But when she decides to go and try to free Prince True, who tried to best a sorceress and lost her father is angered. The Witch has him, still imprisoned, forever young and handsome.
Many have tried to free him, and many have died in the process. But the truth is he can only be freed by one who has learned the womanly arts. To fail is death and Ellinore would rather die than marry her loathsome bridegroom. But when Elinore sees that the Prince is still handsome and arrogant after all this time imprisoned, will she want to free him and become his bride? Or is there another way that she can have the freedom she wants without death or marrying Prince True?
"The Shadow of Mist" by Yasmine Galenorn tells the story of Siobahn Morgan, a selkie who is a friend of the three D'Artigo sisters from the Otherworld. She's travelled the world over to escape the man who raped her and wished to make her his own, and now, after 100 years, he's finally tracked her down to make her his.
Siobahn fled him, even though her family would have married her to him, because of his cruelty and pleasure in her fear. Now that she has finally found love with Mitch, another selkie, and is pregnant with his child, she must not only protect herself and her child from Terrence, but Mitch as well, plus bring Terrenceto pay for his crimes against her so very long ago. She may not be a fighter, but does she have the courage to battle for the man she loves against the man who is her worst fear?
"The Tangleroot Palace" by Marjorie M. Liu has Princess Salinda, who her father has betrothed to the Southern Warlord in order to save his kingdom from attacks by enemies. But Sally doesn't care to face life with so fierce and bloodthirsty a man. So on the advice of her gardener, she flees into the kingdom, hoping to pass into the Tanglewood Forest and speak to the Queen imprisoned there.
Rescued from a group of horny mercenaries by a three musician/Players, she travels with them, trying to stay one step ahead of her father. She bonds with Mickle, the head of the group, but when she flees into the forest to escape her father, it turns out to be a trap laid for her by the imprisoned Queen, who wishes to be free to wreak her will on the lands around. Will Sally succumb to the wants of the magical Queen, and can she save Mickle when he comes to rescue her and find happiness at last?
"The Wrong Bridegroom" by Sharon Shinn tells the story of Princess Olivia, who has rejected the man her father selected for her and in response, her father throws a tournament of three tests. Whoever can pass all three tests will be her husband. Before the contest starts, she looks around at all the men who have come to win her and is enchanted with a magician named Darius, who in addition to having magical powers, is handsome and cheerful and seems happy- surely this is someone she can live with!
The tournament ends with two winners, both Darius and her father's choice, Harwin. She chooses Darius and sets off with him on a journey to meet his family. But Harwin, and later her stepmother, the Queen, Gisele, comes to accompany them, and Olivia is forced to see what ia really happening in the kingdom, and how much of a monster her father really is. As she does, she gets a new look at Harwin, and likes what she sees. But can she find a way to rid her kingdom of her father and bring back a more enlightened rule when her father will have no compunctions about killing her if and when she gets in his way?
I found this book unusual in that I really enjoyed every story in it. Most anthologies have one or two, or even three really good stpries, but the others are only so-so. Not so much in this case, as each story was well constructed, and kept my interest throughout. I did find the first story somewhat deceptive, as it is the shortest story in the book, but it's still a very strong story.
My favorite story was "The Wrong Bridegroom", because Princess Olivia has a lot to learn, both about herself and her kingdom... and her father. I loved that the story was serious. Yes, there were fantasy elements, but at the same time, it transcended them to be more, and I felt that it was a deeper story than just a romance. All of them were, but this one went the deepest.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes Fantasy, romance, and fairy tales, as the stories combine elements of all three, each in different proportions, to make a harmonious whole Furthermore, each story is like a sparkling jewel, whole and complete unto themselves, but at the same time wonderful together. Highly recommended.
Rereading again
I started the day re-reading "The Third Circle" by Jayne Ann Krentz. You can read my prior review of it here.
Monday, February 01, 2010
Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong
Elena is the only female Werewolf in existence, and she is also a bitten Werewolf rather than a born Werewolf, which makes her extremely rare. She is married to Clay, another werewolf who also happens to be the one who bit and infected her long ago. For a long time, all Elena wanted was a normal human life, but loving Clay has sold her on the life of a Werewolf, and she's also become an enforcer for Jeremy, the Alpha wolf of her pack.
Elena is on the hunt for Reese, an Australian Werewolf who has been accused of mankilling by Liam Molloy and Rene Santos, two other Weres who are the real mankillers. Apparently, they think they can continually pin the blame on other, innocent Werewolves, then kill the innocents and not have to pay the price of their own sins. And Elena just wants to make sure Reese really is innocent so she can string the other two up before they call pull the same stunt again.
But Reese manages to get past her and to the airport, where he takes the first flight for Alaska. Elena wants to go after him, but she also wants to get back to her kids as well. When she calls Jeremy, he tells her that three women have died up in Alaska, and that it might be Werewolves, so between that job and Reese, she agrees to go north and look into it. Joining her in Alaska is Clay, her husband. He's got a job as a professor, but he also works for Jeremy as his crazy killer. Back when Clay was younger, he deliberately reveled in such a role, and now he's just resigned to it.
Back long ago, Clay used a chainsaw to dismember a Were who'd done bad- mostly so that people would think him crazy and try to run from him rather than deal with him. But now he comes to realize that while he's one generation of Weres bogeyman, the new generation doesn't have the fear of him that the older one does, and so he's seen as less of a threat. He joins Elena and helps her out in finding Reese, who's been attacked by a group of Werewolves in the area, who chopped off two of his fingers for no reason he can discern.
Elena talks to him, and tells him she isn't looking to punish him for the crimes of Molloy and Santos. She wants him to testify about them to Jeremy, who will see that they are taken care of. But she begins to suspect that these new Werewolves may be the ones responsible for the killings/disappearance of the three girls.
She's also stunned to hear from Clay that Jeremy will soon be stepping down as Alpha, and that he wants her to replace him. She's afraid that anyone else will think that a female Alpha is weak, and thinks Clay should take the job, but he emphatically doesn't want it. He knows he's not suited for the position. The position of scary guy enforcer suits him just fine. As Elena mulls that over, she gets a call from Jeremy and he has another wolf, the Alpha of the Russian packs, call her. The Russian Alpha says that some of the wolves recently arrived in Alaska might be his, thrown out for being general troublemakers. If she wants some help, he says, she should call him back. She agrees to do so if she needs it.
But these other wolves aren't the only ones in Alaska. Two Weres left Jeremy's pack, a father- son team named Dennis and Joey. But when they check on Dennis shortly after arriving, they discover him killed in his shack in the woods, and Joey has become an old man who doesn't want to know them any more. Nor is Dennis's tortured body all they find in the woods- there is a dead body killed and partially eaten- probably by Werewolves, and Clay is attacked by something that looks like a cross between a Werewolf and a bear.
As they try to track down the rogue weres, Clay and Elena have to deal not only with the rogues and the hostile Joey/Joseph, but find out what is the creature that attacked Clay and for Elena to lose the uncertainty about being Alpha and learn to stand on her own. Because if she can't be strong and powerful, she'll be dead, and when her foes have raping her high on their list of wants, she'll have to be able to do more than just defend herself to win...
I haven't read many of Kelley Armstrong's books, but what I have read, I enjoy. I certainly like her "Women of the Otherworld" books, of which I have read four. Elena featured in two of those books and the first was about how she stopped wanting and craving the kind of normal life she could never have and learned to accept who and what she was- a werewolf. This book takes place several years later, when she's been married to Clay and they finally have kids together.
And what a difference that time makes. She was really cautious in the first book and wanted life with a human guy while suffering her life in the city. Now, she's much more strong and confident, but she still has to accept that not only can she be an Alpha wolf, she among the whole pack is best suited for the job. She worries most that she can't be ruthless enough, and eventually finds out that she *can* be ruthless, if she needs to be, and having to deal with similarly ruthless rogues is what allows her to step up to the plate and use all her wiles and wits to defeat them.
I found this a very good novel. Alaska is the real last frontier of America, and she presents readers with an wilderness that is not only stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we can imagine, a harsh and ruthless land where even powerful creatures like Werewolves can be outclassed and outmatched by what is already there. And with the big mystery presented to the characters and the readers, what the strange creature Clay fights happens to be is a mystery both to the characters and the readers.
I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from Kelley Armstrong, both about this character, and about her other characters. I highly recommend her books as ones that make you think even as you are enjoying them. Pick up her Women of the Otherworld books if you enjoy reading about strong female characters who can hold their own even in very strenuous and trying circumstances.
Elena is on the hunt for Reese, an Australian Werewolf who has been accused of mankilling by Liam Molloy and Rene Santos, two other Weres who are the real mankillers. Apparently, they think they can continually pin the blame on other, innocent Werewolves, then kill the innocents and not have to pay the price of their own sins. And Elena just wants to make sure Reese really is innocent so she can string the other two up before they call pull the same stunt again.
But Reese manages to get past her and to the airport, where he takes the first flight for Alaska. Elena wants to go after him, but she also wants to get back to her kids as well. When she calls Jeremy, he tells her that three women have died up in Alaska, and that it might be Werewolves, so between that job and Reese, she agrees to go north and look into it. Joining her in Alaska is Clay, her husband. He's got a job as a professor, but he also works for Jeremy as his crazy killer. Back when Clay was younger, he deliberately reveled in such a role, and now he's just resigned to it.
Back long ago, Clay used a chainsaw to dismember a Were who'd done bad- mostly so that people would think him crazy and try to run from him rather than deal with him. But now he comes to realize that while he's one generation of Weres bogeyman, the new generation doesn't have the fear of him that the older one does, and so he's seen as less of a threat. He joins Elena and helps her out in finding Reese, who's been attacked by a group of Werewolves in the area, who chopped off two of his fingers for no reason he can discern.
Elena talks to him, and tells him she isn't looking to punish him for the crimes of Molloy and Santos. She wants him to testify about them to Jeremy, who will see that they are taken care of. But she begins to suspect that these new Werewolves may be the ones responsible for the killings/disappearance of the three girls.
She's also stunned to hear from Clay that Jeremy will soon be stepping down as Alpha, and that he wants her to replace him. She's afraid that anyone else will think that a female Alpha is weak, and thinks Clay should take the job, but he emphatically doesn't want it. He knows he's not suited for the position. The position of scary guy enforcer suits him just fine. As Elena mulls that over, she gets a call from Jeremy and he has another wolf, the Alpha of the Russian packs, call her. The Russian Alpha says that some of the wolves recently arrived in Alaska might be his, thrown out for being general troublemakers. If she wants some help, he says, she should call him back. She agrees to do so if she needs it.
But these other wolves aren't the only ones in Alaska. Two Weres left Jeremy's pack, a father- son team named Dennis and Joey. But when they check on Dennis shortly after arriving, they discover him killed in his shack in the woods, and Joey has become an old man who doesn't want to know them any more. Nor is Dennis's tortured body all they find in the woods- there is a dead body killed and partially eaten- probably by Werewolves, and Clay is attacked by something that looks like a cross between a Werewolf and a bear.
As they try to track down the rogue weres, Clay and Elena have to deal not only with the rogues and the hostile Joey/Joseph, but find out what is the creature that attacked Clay and for Elena to lose the uncertainty about being Alpha and learn to stand on her own. Because if she can't be strong and powerful, she'll be dead, and when her foes have raping her high on their list of wants, she'll have to be able to do more than just defend herself to win...
I haven't read many of Kelley Armstrong's books, but what I have read, I enjoy. I certainly like her "Women of the Otherworld" books, of which I have read four. Elena featured in two of those books and the first was about how she stopped wanting and craving the kind of normal life she could never have and learned to accept who and what she was- a werewolf. This book takes place several years later, when she's been married to Clay and they finally have kids together.
And what a difference that time makes. She was really cautious in the first book and wanted life with a human guy while suffering her life in the city. Now, she's much more strong and confident, but she still has to accept that not only can she be an Alpha wolf, she among the whole pack is best suited for the job. She worries most that she can't be ruthless enough, and eventually finds out that she *can* be ruthless, if she needs to be, and having to deal with similarly ruthless rogues is what allows her to step up to the plate and use all her wiles and wits to defeat them.
I found this a very good novel. Alaska is the real last frontier of America, and she presents readers with an wilderness that is not only stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we can imagine, a harsh and ruthless land where even powerful creatures like Werewolves can be outclassed and outmatched by what is already there. And with the big mystery presented to the characters and the readers, what the strange creature Clay fights happens to be is a mystery both to the characters and the readers.
I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from Kelley Armstrong, both about this character, and about her other characters. I highly recommend her books as ones that make you think even as you are enjoying them. Pick up her Women of the Otherworld books if you enjoy reading about strong female characters who can hold their own even in very strenuous and trying circumstances.
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