The Passage vs. The Strain

I have to say that after being inundated with friendly vampires the last couple of years (which I do have a soft spot for myself), I was excited when I heard about The Passage and The Strain.  Both were getting good buzz and were modern takes on vampires that promised to include no sparkles or deep emotions of love from the vampires.

After getting around to reading both of them, I realized that it's basically trying to compare apples to a Volkswagen.  They really are two different beasts.  But to the best of my ability, here's the breakdown of the two books:

Warning: I'm trying to avoid spoilers as much as possible, but small details may be given away.  But don't worry, nothing big.


Plot

• The Passage
• First "book"-Modern setting, spread of the epidemic.  BEST PART of the book!
• Middle "book"-Takes place about a hundred years later, America is now a wasteland.  Centers on The Colony and the survivors there.
• Last "book"-All hell breaks loose, lots of new story arches, fancy set pieces, and extra characters are thrown into the mix.
• The Strain
• A plane lands safely in New York, but never taxis to the gate.  Everyone (or almost) on board is dead.  CDC scientist Eph Goodweather is called in to figure out why.  All around New York, strange things are happening: rats are flooding from the sewers, people are disappearing, and a strange man named Setraikan knows why. 

Writing style

• The Passage
•  More emotional writing
• Long stretches of character development
• HUGE cast of characters
• The Strain
• Highly visual (no surprise with DelToro leading the way)
• Action packed
• Short scenes with lots of minor characters (mostly just walk-ons before they get killed)

Vampires

• The Passage
•  Man-created
• Bat-like, glowey creatures
• Called "Flyers"
• More animalistic, with only traces of humanity
• The Strain
• Naturally occuring
• Hive like mentality
• Hierarchy of more powerful vampires

Humans

• The Passage (Major cast of characters)
• Grew up after epidemic
• More worried about survival as opposed to wiping them out
• Several are trained to kill the flyers, so good in a battle
• The Strain
• Mostly oblivious to what's going on
• A handful are actively trying to stop the spread
•  More smart than good fighters

Overall views:

I can tell that The Passage was Cronin's first attempt at a horror/sci fi genre novel.  Although the first 200 or so pages were AMAZING (really, I can't emphasize that enough), it all went downhill from there.  I could really see his influences bleeding through (which isn't a good thing), and that distracted me at several points.  He had a huge cast and really tried to make us care about the colonists, but I just really only cared for about three of them.  The action pieces were good, but in this genre of writing, you really need more than one per 200 pages or so. (Did I mention the book is 784 pages?)

The Strain is a more straight forward horror novel.  While I could tell it was inspired directly by Dracula, it was basically only head-nods to the work, and took it's own unique spin.  I cared about all the characters, and several times was really touched by side character's situations (and often bloody deaths).  I could tell that DelToro had his hand in the description of the vampires.  They really could have been something out of a darker (if that's possible) and scarier (as opposed to just traumatizing) Pan's Labyrinth.  

So who won?

Without a shadow of a doubt, for me, The Strain won.  It was scarier, more touching, and interesting.  It took me several months to read The Passage, simply because I hated the middle section.  I had to force myself to get through that.

I already have The Fall, the second Strain book, on my Nook and can't wait to start.  I'm not sure I'll even pick up the second book in the Passage trilogy when it comes out next year.

I'm sure I'll have lots of people disagree with me, and I welcome that.  The Passage has gotten a lot of good reviews.  I just felt he needed a much stronger editor to help him pare down some of the fluff in the book.

Review: The Color of Magic

I have a secret that calls into question my geek card: I don't like fantasy novels.  Ok, let me qualify that, in general I don't like fantasy novels.  The ones I've read are either filled with atrocious writing or so many characters that I need a field guide to keep up.

However, I had heard Discworld mentioned lots of times before as a funny Douglas Adams-y take on fantasy and even caught part of the film Hogfather one day on TV.

So I was intrigued and checked out my library's e-book version of the first novel in the series, The Color (or Colour, if you're British) of Magic.

The Plot in a Sentence or two:
The sort of, kind of, but not really a full wizard, Rincewind, is paid by the fiscally frivolous Twoflower, the Discworld's first tourist, to show him around. Along for the ride is Luggage a sentient chest that has dozens of little legs and sometimes teeth and Hrun the Barbarian who can use two syllable words when he thinks about it.  They go through lots of adventures, cheating Death along the way (who really has had it up to here with Rincewind) with the help of the Lady (whose name starts with L, is fond of gambling, and disappears when you acknowledge her).

What I liked:
Pratchett has a great sense of humor and it really shows through the work.  He winks and nudges the reader with how silly the cliches of fantasy are while fully incorporating them into his works.  I love his nods at the multiverse and our world (for one brief moment, Rincewind and Twoflower find themselves in our dimension.  A short page or two, but is hilarious in it's own right.  Rincewind also learns of the "magic" of Twoflower's country: economics).  The plot is full of big action set pieces that hold your interest and keep the novel moving.

What I didn't like:
For all of its genre breaking, the things I didn't like about the novel are the same things that I don't enjoy about fantasy:  Too many characters to keep straight.  So many countries and races and changes of scenery that it's hard to keep them individualized.  However, because the book had a humorous, parody edge, I didn't stress out as much about trying to remember how everything tied in.  By the first quarter of the book, I just sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the ride.

Overall:
I really enjoyed the book and plan on continuing to read them. I felt a bit intimidated when I found that there's 30 something books in the series, and you really shouldn't read them chronologically. Luckily the website The L-Space Web has a detailed reading guide so you can follow the different major characters on their adventures.

Not enough to fully change my mind about fantasy in general, the book was good enough to help me keep an open mind.

What about you, how do you feel about fantasy? Any favorites I should try?

Review: American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot

If you've never heard of Craig Ferguson before, you need to go on YouTube and watch one of his late night monologues.  It doesn't matter which one.  Just go and then come back and check out my review.

Now don't you feel better?

I fell in love with Craig Ferguson when he was on Drew Carey and then even more so when he started doing the Late, Late Show (which sadly I mostly catch on youtube now). I was lucky enough to catch his stand up show in Austin and the husband and I will still randomly quote lines to each other. But after reading his memoir, it solidified my love for him and earned him a spot on The List.

(If you don't know what I mean, ask one of your married couples.  They might have a different name for it, but I'm sure they have some version.)

Plot in One Sentence: Ok, so this really isn't a plot since it's non-fiction, but you know what I mean.  The book chronicles Craig's life and fascination with America as well as his battle with drugs and alcohol.

What I liked about it:
Craig's trademark humor is rampant through the memoir, absurdity mixed with genuine sentiment that never becomes too sticky-sweet.  He's not ashamed to open up about the mistakes he's made, and while the killer ducks that he describes during a bad LSD trip are hilarious (to us outside of the trip) he uses all of his stories to a greater purpose.

The memoir also opened the doors to seeing some of his movies (I highly recommend The Big Tease) and I've begun reading his fiction work Between the Bridge and the River (which has strong echoes of autobiography so far).

I loved hearing the stories about growing up in Scotland and his family life, sometimes surprised by the links in behavior across the boundaries of space and time (Work=Love in my upbringing, too).

One of the major themes about the book is explaining how Craig came to apply for US Citizenship.  In his funny, quirky way he has managed to do what no politician has done for me, ever: made me see the promise we have as a country.

What I didn't like about it:
Craig is a bit of a name-dropper in the book, but not with famous people.   Instead it's people that made a difference in his life, but I felt the need to have a cheat sheet with all the names as they tend to pop in and out of his life.  If you're better with names than I am you might fare better than I did.

Overall:
You'll enjoy the book if you're a fan of Craig Ferguson, are moved by stories of overcoming addiction, or enjoy tales about killer ducks, gay hairdressers, and winning despite Hollywood being stacked against you.


And as a bonus, for all of my fellow Doctor Who fans, Craig's a fan as you can see by his musical number for when Matt Smith stopped by the show:

Review: Charlotte Collins, A continuation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

I've been following Jennifer Becton's journey as an author for a little while now on her blog Skidding in Sideways. She's worked long and hard to get this book into the world, and I finally got around to ordering my Nook version and read it over the weekend.  I read it in two sessions, which would have been one if I could make myself stay up past 2am anymore. 

Plot in one sentence (ok, maybe two or three):
After Mr. Collins' death, Charlotte finally is on her own to make her own choices and find security on her terms, however, chaperoning her sister Maria throws her into the society of some men that she doesn't know if she should trust. Should Charlotte follow her practical nature or break with tradition?

What I liked:
Everything.

No, really.  It was a great story that was masterfully done.  The plot mimics Pride and Prejudice in many ways, but also keeps the reader guessing.  The novel is edgier in many ways than what Austen would have written, but still manages to keep Austen's characteristic tone. 

What I didn't like:
Really, there wasn't anything that stood out to me.  I'm sure that if I re-read the novel, I could nit-pick and find something to complain about, but I had so much fun reading the book that my mind glossed over any of these things.  Not many novels have the ability to make time speed past like that.

If you're interested in checking out the novel (and please do, remember, Becton is doing this on her own), you can find it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. 

Some Overdue Book Reviews

So a long time ago, I checked out a giant pile of books for my 101 in 1001 challenge, vowing to read and review them all.  In that amount of time I've only read one of them, and had to return the rest to the library, on threat of daily fines.  AND I've also read the latest installment of The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger.  So here's the quick and dirty reviews of both.

The Master Executioner was my random Western pick.  Oddly enough, it felt like less of a Western than the Mystery selection I chose.

Plotline in a sentence: Oscar stone starts out as a carpenter, but a failed marriage and odd apprenticeship later, he winds up as the best hangman around.

What I liked: All the information about hanging.  I know, sounds morbid, but it was actually really interesting (supposedly this author is big on research, so it's at least 80% accurate, I'd say).  I really liked that Oscar just wanted to give a good, clean death to the people.  He wasn't morbid or anything, he just didn't think anyone deserved a botched hanging.  The writing was very beautiful in spots as well.

What I didn't like: The plot, or lack thereof.  It's really just a long character sketch of Oscar.  The ending also felt tacked on, as if Estleman didn't know how to end it, so he drew it out of a melodramatic hat.  Really really melodramatic as opposed to the rest of the very logical, level-headed book.

Blameless is the third novel in what is coming to be a really good Steampunk/Urban Fantasy/Mystery/Romance genre (I know, it's a mouthful, but Sufmr just sounds kinda dirty to me.

Since it's the third in a series:
Spoilers
Will
Undoubtedly
Follow!

Plotline in a sentence: Alexia rushes off to Italy to find the Templars, possibly the only group that can prove she's pregnant by her werewolf husband, forcing him to take her back.

What I liked: Lots!  Alexia is feeling more like a real character (and less of a stereotype) more and more (if still a bit dense at times, especially about a certain French lesbian) as are many of the other characters (Ivy being in the forefront). The introduction of the Templars and the possibilities of the baby make me really excited for the next book.  Those of you who disliked the ending of the second will find a lot of that explained away and dealt with pretty nicely.  (Sorry about all the parenthesis, I tend to be too liberal with them the sleepier I get).

What I didn't like: The big reveal about the baby and what it may or may not be felt really rushed to me, and in all actuality, I'm not sure I understand it.  However, I'm sure that's what the next book will be about.

So there you go guys, hope these help narrow down (or broaden (oops...sorry again)) you're reading horizons!  Until later!

Mini-Reviews! (Or all the guilty pleasures I've devoured lately)

During my hiatus from blogging, I've read several guilty pleasure books.  You know, those books that are so much fun, but you wouldn't want to read next to the person who brought Proust on the airplane (no really, there was a lady reading Proust on her way to Costa Rica). 

Since I have three books backed up on the review train, I thought I'd give them a very short review.  Hope you enjoy and I've tempted you enough to pick them up!

Guilty Pleasure Meter: 8/10
The Masque of the Black Tulip is the second in the Pink Carnation series. It follows the story of two side characters from the first novel, Henrietta and Miles. I found Henrietta a very refreshing change from Amy in the first novel.  She's more level headed and intelligent.  Miles is also very charming as the protective big brother figure that suddenly realizes that "Hen" is a woman.

I felt that Eloise (our modern heroine) was better drawn this time.  I'm starting to like her more as I read about her, although I still have a very hard time remembering her name.

The plot was fast paced and fun (although some parts were very predictable), and some new very intriguing characters were added (my eye's on you Lord Vaughn).  I started the next one as soon as I put this one down.

Guilty Pleasure Meter: 9/10
The Deception of the Emerald Ring is the third book in the Pink Carnation series.  I really enjoyed the different approach this book took.  Instead of a love connection, the main couple in the book is forced to marry, even though they don't love each other.  We see them struggle and fight between chemistry and terrible misconceptions about each other.

Letty is also rather refreshing.  Although she's given a great rack, she isn't considered a beauty by anyone.  She's too short, too plump, and too freckled.  She's also terrible at lying and intrigue. 

Some of the plot points seemed a little rushed or confusing at times, however it was still a great, fun read.  Thanks, Jamie, for turning me on to this series!

Guilty Pleasure Meter: 10/10
A Duke of Her Own is actually the last of the Desperate Duchess series. It was my randomly chosen romance novel for my 101 in 1001 challenge.  Based on the reviews from Amazon, it's the best of the series, so I'm glad I picked this one up.  I actually started reading it about 8 one night and finished it a few hours later. 

It's the perfect guilty pleasure book: great heroine (although the back of the book makes it a mystery as to who the heroine is, you know in the first chapter), a Byronic hero with a heart of gold, a standard romance plot with interesting variations, one or two steamy scenes, humor, and one or two scenes to make you tear up.

A fun, quick read, that's more regular novel than the cover would make you believe.

Review of Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris

What's with the "Never Before Published"?

I picked up Dead in the Family yesterday from my local library (it had that long of a wait list) and finished it last night. (Only my love for Tim Gunn and Moscato kept me from posting this yesterday).  I love the Sookie Stackhouse books and was really looking forward to this one after some of the revelations at the end of the last novel and the tragedy that Sookie came through.  Sadly, it didn't quite live up to my expectations.

If you haven't read any of the series: Spoilers Ahead!

Plot 6/10
Sookie's life is in an uproar.  Everything seems to be changing after her recent injuries during the Fae War.  Bill is still dangerously sick from his poisoning during the fighting and seems to be giving up hope. Her relationship with Eric is growing stronger, but there are still some shaky parts (Does she actually love him, or is it the blood bond? Why didn't he come to rescue her when she needed him? And now vampires from his past have come back, and they aren't the nicest of vamps.). Her friend Amelia moves back to New Orleans and her cousin Claude (the hot, and often rude stripper) comes to move in with her.  She's trying to help her young cousin Hunter harness his telepathic abilities. AND the were community is starting to face legal repercussions from their "coming out."

As you can see from my brief summary, there's a lot going on in this book.  That's the core of my issue: there wasn't one cohesive story. The novel felt more like a collection of subplots.  They were very interesting subplots, especially the one dealing with Eric's origins (which comes the closest to the main plot, I think) and Claude becoming a more likable character.  But the whole book seemed kind of scattered.  It reminded me in a lot of ways of Living Dead in Dallas, which also felt very uneven and scattered.

I also felt that perhaps I need to go and read her collections of short stories.  There were some new characters (or at least ones I didn't remember) that felt they had more back story than was in this novel.

It did, however make me excited for the next book, because so many things are set into motion here.  It is the 10th book in the series, so I can understand how some of the books fill a little bit like filler.  I can imagine it's really hard to come up with so much plot.

Characters 9/10
The characters are one of the the major things I love about the Sookie Stackhouse novels.  They've all grown and changed quite a bit from the first book, and I think it just keeps getting better. 

My one issue was that I feel that Sookie might have recuperated from her torture a little too quickly.  She has definitely taken a darker turn, which I think was necessary, but after the first chapter, it really didn't mention her being jumpy or anything.  I would think almost being killed would have you on edge for quite a while.

I really enjoy what Harris is doing with the Claude character, and I thought the new vamps introduced were very creepy and well drawn.

Writing Style 10/10
I love Harris' writing style: lots of action and humor, with some creepiness along the way.  She's just as good here as any, and it's to her credit that with such an uneven plot, the book still flew by.  


Overall: Thumbs Up (But only if you love the series)
An uneven book that certainly won't win over any new fans (thank goodness the first one wasn't this all over the place).  But not enough to drive me away.

On a side note, I really liked the nod that Harris gave to the HBO series.  At one point, Sookie mentions that Jace Everett's song "Bad Things" comes on the juke box.  Harris knows that a lot of new fans have come to the books through the TV series.  Nice touch.

Review of Heartshot by Steven F. Havill

Heartshot is the first one of my 101 in 1001 random book choices. I probably never would have picked up this author if it wasn't by chance.  It's put out by a small press, so it might be a bit hard for you to find it, but it's fairly cheap on Amazon.

Plot 7/10
Bill Gastner is an older Undersheriff in his Posadas County, New Mexico.  He's good at his job, if a bit of a loner.  On the Forth of July, a carload of teenagers dies in a traffic accident running from the cops.  While clearing the wreckage, they find a kilo of cocaine, and it becomes clear that Bill's small town is in danger of getting big city problems.

This book had the feel of a first time mystery novelist, and I was able to work out who was responsible the second time they came on the scene.  The "twists" weren't very surprising, and I had the majority of things worked out long before they happened.  It was still an interesting plot, and I enjoyed watching Bill figure out the mystery.

One thing that I really didn't care for was the killing off of a secondary character (I won't give it away).  The death doesn't really make sense, and isn't given a satisfying explanation.  Also, I think it threw away what could have been a really interesting character in a book filled with so-so placeholders.

Characters 6/10
Bill is drawn very well.  He's funny, down to earth, and smart.  If you've read the "Cat Who" books by Lillian Jackson Braun, think of Jim, but darker.  I really liked getting to know the character, and I think Havill made a good choice of using Bill as the narrator as opposed to some of the other characters.

That being said, the other characters are pretty lack-luster.  We meet Sheriff Holman, an elected politician.  At first we're supposed to distrust him, then be proud of his supportiveness, but I never really got a clear sense of his character or motives.  We're told he really loves press and he's a politician, but he seems to hand Bill the reigns and glory of the case with little reluctance.

Bill's right hand woman is the lovely Estelle Reyes.  Literally all I know about her is that she's pretty and supposedly a good detective.  Maybe Havill fleshes her out in further novels?  At one point she tells Holman that she's Bill's gopher (in an attempt to draw out the killer), and Bill is upset with downplaying her abilities.  But to me, that seemed a pretty accurate portrayal. 

Overall, Bill (and the characters that are killed off) were the only ones that interested me or that I connected to.

Writing Style 8/10
The book is a slim 209 pages, but it felt like a lot longer.  The style was a solid, non-descript mystery style (here's this guy, here's this clue, here's where the villain explains the plot), but that's not necessarily bad.  Havill used the conventions in the genre well, but without any exciting flare.

Bill does have his funny moments, but not enough to lighten the mood of a book with such a high body count (nine by the end).

Overall: A Hesitant Thumbs-Up
It was a good book, but it took me twice as long  to read than The Secret History of the Pink Carnation which is 449 pages.  If you like curmudgeon-y old men who smoke a lot and solve crimes, and you like a western-small town feel, you'll enjoy it. 

Update:
I was planning on reading Kid B for my random YA pick, but I've decided to put it down.  After reading the following sentences:

What you really gotta know is, Peanut and Warren were one-half of the Krush Krew's most worst enemy crew, the Magno Clique, which also had Izzle and Dap.  Izzle and Dap were both already way out of high school and real old, like twanky-two or maybe even more old than that.  Magno Clique was the only other posse in B-town that could represent as real b-boys.

I decided I was too old, too white, and too suburban to enjoy this book.  

Review of The Secret History of the Pink Carnation

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation was recommended to me by my friend Jamie after I gave my review for Soulless.  It's a quick, fun read, and I'm already waiting for the second one from the library (excited, it's in transit)!

Plot 9/10
Eloise is a historian doing research in England for her dissertation.  She's focusing on three of the most famous English spies during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars: the Scarlet Pimpernel (real in the book's universe), the Purple Gentian, and the Pink Carnation.  No one has ever found out the identify of the P.C., but Eloise has a lead that could prove the clue to the mystery.

We also discover the story of the Purple Gentian in more detail through his alter ego Lord Richard Selwick and a young English girl Amy Balcourt.  Amy travels to France to live with her brother during a brief moment of peace between the English and the French.  It's been her life long desire to join the ranks of the Purple Gentian and help him avenge all the deaths during the revolution and depose Napoleon.  It's only once she gets to France that she starts to realize that perhaps the Purple Gentian could be more than a hero to her, he could be the love of her life.

The plot moves quickly and sweeps you along.  There's not a lot of exposition or background on the historic period, so if you're unfamiliar with Napoleon's reign in France, you might be a bit lost.  I felt that the modern sections were the weakest.  In all honesty, I wanted to skip those and go back to Amy and Richard's story.  There are some slight twists toward the end, but they come as no real surprise. Overall a pretty basic mistaken identity, defeat the bad-guy type of love story, but very enjoyable.

There were a couple of slight plot holes that I wish had been fleshed out more, but nothing major.



Characters 9/10
I really enjoyed the characterization of  the characters.  I loved Miss Gwen most, I think.  She's the chaperon Amy takes with her to France.  She's a tough bird that always surprises the reader and the characters with what she does next.

I didn't really care for Eloise.  She seemed a bit like a Mary Jane meets Bridgette Jones character.  But she wasn't in the boor for very long, so I could see how it would be hard to make her three dimensional. I also found her a bit dense, she was completely shocked by the twist at the end, even though it was pretty clearly foreshadowed.

Amy actually got on my nerves sometimes, but not because of the tunnel vision she had about her mission and the Purple Gentian.  She giggles and bounces.  A lot.  A whole lot.  To me that made her more of a little girl, and less of a woman to take seriously.  By the end she redeems herself, but she's still bouncing and giggling.


Writing Style 9/10
The writing style was very good.  I felt that Willig captured the feel of the time period, but also was able to make the characters better fit our modern sensibilities.  Too many times historical fiction just seems to plop modern characters in costume and never really makes them merge.

There's lots of humor and silliness, but it all makes sense in the context.  I don't think I would have liked it as much without the lighter touches.

The jumps back and forth between the time periods are easy to follow.  The modern is in first and the past is in third (we learn that Eloise is piecing the story together from letters and journals from all of the characters).  


Overall: Thumbs Up
I really enjoyed this.  It went by really quickly, just two days.  I could have easily made it one, but life got in the way.  I was really excited to see that there are several more already out in the series.  It seems that this is how it always goes with me, I'm always late on the bandwagon. But that does mean that I don't have to wait for the next book to come out!

Review of To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer

First let me the you the rundown of how I came to read To Your Scattered Bodies Go.  Based on previous ratings and genres you like, Netflix gives you suggestions.  Well, it was being really insistent that I would love this movie called Riverworld.  I read the premise and it sounded interesting enough, so I gave it a go.

I only gave it about 30 minutes, and then gave up.  I read a couple of reviews and saw that it was based on the third book of the Riverworld series.  So I hunted down a copy at the library and gave it a go.

I think I should have learned my lesson from the movie version.

Plot 5/10 (With a mercy point for premise) 6/10
Sir Richard Francis Burton, a famous nineteenth century explorer, awakens after his death to find himself an a strange new world.  It is similar to Earth except for a few things: the entire planet seems to be covered in one giant river, he is years younger and in perfect health, and the entire history of humanity (including neanderthals) has been resurrected.

Burton quickly gathers a motley crew around him to try and find the origin of the river and the reason why everyone has been given a second chance.

Sounds like a great premise, huh?  I know, it had me hooked, too.  The problem is, there's not really much of a plot.  It's a short book (216 pages), but it covers seven years.  In that seven years, there's really only a bare minimum of plot.  Most of it is simply Burton and his crew traveling from place to place.  It's not until about halfway through the book that we get a character that could be seen as a solid antagonist or even an understanding of where the plot might be going.

The plot feels like a long boring road trip, even though they are randomly attacked, so there should be some suspense. 


Characters 4/10
There's really only one character in the whole novel: Burton.  Everyone else is simply a placeholder.  We have a history buff to fill us in on all the real-life characters we meet.  There's a Holocaust survivor to add drama when we meet Herman Goring and allow Burton to explain his real-life Antisemitism. (Although the author does a little bit of Antisemitic stereotyping in the novel himself.  Did you know that all Jewish women are shrews?) There's a string of beautiful women that Burton sleeps with (who are all resurrected as virgins), and one that he loves for no reason other than she's beautiful and snubs him.  There's even a small girl to help show that Burton isn't as hard as he seems, he has a softer, protective side.

Even the Neanderthal and an Alien that died on Earth are bland and boring.  There's so much potential here for great characters.  I mean, you have EVERY SINGLE PERSON THAT"S EVER LIVED at your fingertips! You could actually have Ghandi get into a fistfight, a duet between Hendrix and Joplin, and finally get to see if Anne Boleyn is the slut she's always portrayed as.  Instead we're stuck with stuffy boring characters that never come to life.


Writing Style 3/10
My main issue with the writing style was that it was too detailed on issues that didn't matter.

We get way too much detail about physical characteristics and settings.  For example, here's the description the first time we see Tau Ceti (the alien from the future):

"The creature, it, he--it undoubtedly was a male--was a biped about six feel eight inches tall.  The pink-skinned body was very thin; there were three fingers and a thumb on each hand and four very long and thin toes on each foot.  There were two dark red spots below the male nipples on the chest.  The face was semi-human.  Thick black eyebrows swept down to the protruding cheekbones and flared out to cover them with a brownish down.  The sides of this nostrils were fringed with a thin membrane about a sixteenth of an inch long.  The thick pad of cartilage on the end of his nose was deeply cleft.  The lips were thin, leathery, and black.  The ears were lobeless and the convolutions within were nonhuman.  His scrotum looked as if it contained many small testes."

I get the point that he's like nothing Burton's ever seen.  But we don't get a shocked "Holy Crap, What is that?" from Burton.  Instead we get a calm cataloging of his physical description.  Down to the scrotum.  Do we really need to know what alien balls look like?

We also get a data dump on every real-life character we meet. In one scene, several characters, including Goring, are debating if they are still who they were when they were on Earth, or if they are copies (the word clone is never mentioned, but that's what they're batting around).  One character is trying to explain this to Goring.

"You are living. But you are not the Hermann Goring who was born in Marienbad Sanatorium at Rosenheim in Bavaria on January 12, 1893..."

I was going to type out the whole speech, but realized it goes on for 12 lines.  And you get the point from that one sentence.


Overall: Thumbs down
The premise was very interesting.  Interesting enough that I read summaries of the rest of the books in the series. But not interesting enough to read them myself.

However, the lack of overarching plot, character development, or emotional attachment to ANY of the characters made this book feel like a chore to read.

This book has made me question the selectivity of the Hugo Awards.  Really, this was the best they could find?




Sorry this turned into a bit of a rant.  If you love the book, I apologize for offending you.  If you have any other suggestions that will restore my faith in the genre of sci-fi, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

Review of Soulless by Gail Carriger

My first official book review and my first official steampunk/urban fantasy/romance novel.  That's a lot of slashes, folks. I do have to admit that the cover was what grabbed me.  I love British history and lit, so much so that I have a very hard time narrowing down a favorite time period for the literature. I've also been wanting to get into steampunk for a bit, but haven't really checked out much of it.  So, on a whim, I picked up Soulless to pass the time at the airport for my return trip home (I expected it to be as long as before, but luckily wasn't)

Plot: 7/10
Soulless is a hard book to pin down genre wise.  It has splashes of a lot of different genres, but doesn't easily settle into any one niche.

Alexia Tarabotti is a half-Italian 25 yr old spinster in an alt. reality Victorian England.  In this version of history, vampires, werewolves, and ghosts (oh, my!) have been integrated into English society since the Renaissance.  They are responsible for the rise in power of the Empire and many of the societal norms (cloakrooms came into popularity because werewolves were in need of extra cloths after shifting into their wolf-form).

Alexia has been part of the supernatural world since birth, because she lacks a soul.  This hasn't turned her into a deviant, in fact, she has strived to accept and uphold traditional morals (except when it interferes with her appetite).   Her unique state allows her to temporarily turn any supernatural creature back to a human state.

One night, as she's hiding out in the library at a boring ball, she is attacked by a lisping, rude, and untrained vampire.  Using her trusty parasol, she is able to kill the vampire.  However, this quickly gains her the unwanted attention from the local vampire hive and the Bureau of Unnatural Registry.  Well, most of the attention is unwanted, except from the direction of Conall Maccon, a high, and werewolf, official in BUR.

Soon everyone is trying to find out what Alexia knows about the situation, and she finds herself drawn into a battle that stands in the way of her ultimate happiness.

While the details of the plot are interesting and unique, if you've read much at all and pay attention to foreshadowing, there'll be no surprises for you. Satisfying, but nothing new.

Characters: 6/10
To me, a novel is only as strong as its characters.  Sadly, this is one of the downfalls of the novel.  Alexia is uneven at best, and annoying at worst.  The first chapter in the novel gives us the equivalent of a Victorian Buffy, but then in later chapters she seems to forget life-saving advice and refuses to see her worth. By about halfway through, the character seems to stabilize and becomes more real.

Lord Akeldama is Alexia's foppish vampire friend.  Every time he came on the scene, I cringed a little.  I know from reading other novels written about and during the time that dandies did really act like the stereotype of a gay man, but he was a little over the top for me.  However, based on some hints, you can tell that the mannerisms are hiding a depth that isn't fully seen in this novel.  I hope to see more of the "real" Akeldama in later novels.

Conall Maccon is the love interest.  He's Scottish, a werewolf, and sexy.  Yeah. Can't see anything wrong with that. 


Writing style: 5/10
My main issue with the novel overall is the writing style.   The unevenness of Alexia is amplified in the writing style.  It's written in third person omniscient, which is an extremely hard pov to master.  Carriger doesn't quite know how to handle it.  There is a lot of distracting "brain hopping" in early scenes of the novel.  By the end of the novel, she seemed to have a better grasp, however, it may be that I just got used to it. 

There's a lot of anachronisms in the book that can be distracting.  One of them that really stuck in my mind was Maccon saying "Gee, do you think so?" (Or something to that affect)

The first physical scene with Maccon and Alexia had the same feel to me.  Alexia seems a bit too wrapped up in propriety to allow things to go the way they do.

Overall: Thumbs up
I know, I know, I mixed my reviewing systems.  But I have a hard time placing an overall grade on books.  I like to go by the pass/fail method.


While there were things that bugged me about the book, I think overall it was a lot of fun. I loved the premise and found all of the alternative history details fascinating.  I want to find out more about these characters and how it goes for them. I hope that (as with a lot of other series I've read) each book will get better.

And as the book is only found in paperback, it's definitely worth your 7.99.