Review: Spider’s Bite by Jennifer Estep
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Book Reviews, Reading
Spider’s Bite by Jennifer Estep
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I enjoyed it this book, and plan to go on to the next book in the series, Web of Lies. I’m hoping that Jennifer Estep grows as an author, though, as the foreshadowing regarding the real “big bad” as well as the revelation of a fact important to the main character were both rather clumsily done, in my opinion.
I’m aware of another series by Estep, Bigtime. I was thinking of reading it, but it was written earlier than the Elemental Assassin series, and now I’m not so sure about whether I want to read it or not. Estep’s characters are interesting, but I’m not sure that they’re interesting enough to hold me through writing that’s less polished than Spider’s Bite. Then again, I’ve certainly read worse. I suppose it all depends on what I happen to have in hand at any given time. I’d be more likely to read it if there were short stories available similar to the ones on Estep’s web site that drew me in to this series.
I didn’t do reviews for those, but there are three stories that occur chronologically before Spider’s Bite: Poison Web of Deceit and Spider’s Bargain. Reading them certainly isn’t necessary to enjoy the novel, and it’s definitely better to avoid reading Web of Deceit first. They are good stories, though, and I do recommend that anyone who enjoys Estep’s work seek them out in order to enjoy the additional bits of information gained in them. For instance, Spider’s Bargain is the story of an event that is pivotal to Gin and Caine’s relationship, and its consequences are likely to continue echoing through the next few volumes of the series.
Review: Moon Fever (anthology)
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Book Reviews, Reading
Moon Fever by Susan Sizemore
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
This was one of those “I finished the last thing I was reading and I’m bored, what’s already loaded on the iTouch?” reads. It was on there because the anthology includes Lori Handeland’s “Cobwebs Over the Moon” (Nightcreatures, #10) and I read all of that series a while back. I didn’t care to read the rest of the anthology at the time, but I hadn’t gotten around to deleting the book. Ah, happy digital packrat am I!
If I’ve read anything by Susan Sizemore other than “Tempting Fate” (Primes #6.5), it was eminently forgettable. I’m absolutely sure that I haven’t read anything else in her Primes series, because I probably would have thrown said material firmly into the nearest hard surface (or whatever the equivalent is with bytes) because of the insanely annoying number of times Sizemore feels it necessary to remind us that her vampires are Primes! Alpha Primes! They are! Really! And that means they fight a lot! Especially over women! Otherwise, it’s a Mary Jane story set in New Orleans. I have a strong feeling that most of the Primes series is Mary Jane-ish, but I may at some point be trapped and forced with the prospect of staring at the inside of my eyeballs or reading more of Sizemore’s stuff. I’m not sure which would be worse right now. I’ll get back to you on that.
“The Darkness Within” by Maggie Shayne feels terribly familiar, although I’m sure I haven’t read it before. I have, however, read other Shayne novellas in other anthologies, and this story follows a familiar pattern. Sexy gal who doesn’t think she’s attractive has had a run of hard luck and may lose the house she has bought relatively recently and loves. Said house has a spooky past that she didn’t know about when she bought it. Stalwart too-sexy-for-her man gets involved somehow, preferably in a way that allows her to question his motives. They are inexplicably drawn to each other and screw like bunnies (or near as makes no difference), then blame their lapse in judgement on whatever weirdness is going on in the house. (Yep, that’s what they all say — and no safer sex anywhere! Does paranormal activity preclude discussion of sexual history and prevent STD transmission?)
“Cobwebs Over the Moon” by Lori Handeland (Nightcreatures, #10) isn’t the most logical entry in that series. Neither is it the most illogical — but by the tenth entry, the series’ mythology has gotten a bit ridiculous, so I don’t know why I even bother bringing up something as irrelevant as logic. Silly me! In every book, we’re introduced to a woman who is in some way tangled up with werewolves, then to a man who is tangled up with her and/or the creatures and, of course, whose loyalties are uncertain. There is always an element of danger to add spice to the romance that has to grow between the two. The formula never changes at all. There are always evil werewolves, but sometimes there are also good ones. If you like predictability in your paranormal romance, Nightcreatures is a great series for you.
I suppose Caridad Piñeiro’s “Crazy for the Cat” isn’t technically any better or worse than any of the other three stories. There’s more variety in the shapeshifting and the main setting is the Amazon jungle. I couldn’t get past the bigotry and colonialism, though. Dark is bad, light is good, of course! Those poor benighted natives couldn’t possibly handle a few rogues without that white woman, could they? Spare me.
Tags: anthology, Caridad Piñeiro, Lori Handeland, Maggie Shayne, Moon Fever, Nightcreatures, paranormal romance, Primes, Susan Sizemore, vampires
Review: and Falling, Fly by Skyler White
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Reading
and Falling, Fly by Skyler White
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Sam Chupp has been after me to read this book for weeks, so as soon as I finished All Clear, I started it. This book is different from anything else I’ve read in years. I hesitate to say it’s more literary than most fantasy, because I don’t like “literary” books — they’re usually stuffy, dry, and presumptuous.
After the first few chapters, there’s no slowing down, because you’re as caught up in what’s happening as the characters are. I was transfixed by White’s descriptions, which can make even ugliness fascinating.
We are traveling into time, burning two hours for every one I endure beside this babbling, cursed child of Greece. I see them all the time, these bastard half children of stories and mortals, trapped between worlds, the genetic lineage of myth reasserting itself across the inextricable ages. Helen of Troy is born the socialite child of a partial Zeus mated to half of a swan-loving Leda, the mythic DNA in each of them dormant until they breed and damn their offspring with its expression.
White’s vampire mythos is like no other I’ve encountered. I found it far more believable than most of what’s being printed over and over and over again. Another refreshing thing about the book is that there’s no feeling of a set up for a series. Oddly, though, I’m now seeing the book identified as the first of a series called Harrowing, at least on GoodReads, but as far as I can tell, the second book has no characters in common with the first. Perhaps it’s simply set in the same universe?
In any case, I’ve added In Dreams Begin to my to-read stack, and I’ll be keeping an eye on Skyler White.
Tags: and Falling Fly, mythology, Skyler White, vampires
Review: All Clear by Connie Willis
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Reading
All Clear by Connie Willis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Well, this volume moved much more quickly than Blackout did! Having read a brief piece written by Ms. Willis thanking those who stood by her as one book spread into two, I think I have a slightly better understanding now of what happened that led to my unhappiness with the way the first book ended. They really shouldn’t be two books, but they couldn’t physically fit into one volume. Or, for many e‑readers, one ebook.
It is still a large book! And, as in Blackout, it isn’t always clear just who a character is. I’m reading along happily and all of a sudden, there’s a new main character! Wait, who is this? Has Colin gotten through somehow? Or is it another historian? Or another trip by one of the people we already know? Or–but–…Ms. Willis does a marvelous job of keeping us guessing. And the historians’ habit of using different names on different assignments meant that I didn’t always know which person I was reading about even when I thought I did know who he or she was! The reader has to catch the tiniest details to know that something isn’t quite right, or be left completely surprised at the reveal! The many references to Agatha Christie are definitely meaningful, and I’ve come to believe that I haven’t read nearly enough of her work!
I’ve always considered Ms. Willis a cerebral author, but my emotions were heavily engaged here. The analogy of Polly, Sir Godfrey, and The Admirable Crichton was so apt, and that dreadful business in the Phoenix had me bawling. By the time a hero we’d grown to know and love dearly fell, and fell so, so close to home, I was a basket case.
After finishing this massive duology (which really should count as one enormous book spread across two volumes), you would think that I would be sick and tired of all things Willis and not want to read another word by her for the next year or so. Instead, I want to know, right now, what comes next. I want to read about Eileen and the Vicar, and watch Alf and Binnie grow up. I want to see Polly and Colin’s relationship grow.
I imagine Ms. Willis is rather tired of all of them, though, and happy to rest for a while and remember what it is to live back in this century again. The Oxford Time Travel universe offers so many rich and fascinating possibilities for fiction, and I hope she chooses to write many more novels set in it. I’ll definitely be willing to read them!
Tags: All Clear, Connie Willis, Oxford Time Travel, World War II
Review: Blackout by Connie Willis
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Reading
Blackout by Connie Willis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Oh, Ms. Willis! I cannot believe you did this to me! A cliffhanger? After 512 many pages? And I hung in there SO long in the beginning, when the book was so slow to get going!
Seriously–during all that nattering about over changed schedules and finding drop sites I nearly screamed to just get on with it already! So it is absolutely ridiculous to find that after more than 500 pages, I am not a nice resolution to any of the various plot lines, but rather am referred to the next boook, All Clear!
It’s a bloody good thing that I 1) really, really like Ms. Willis’ work; and 2) already have All Clear on hand and ready to go, or I would have been sorely tempted, sorely, I say, to throw the book across the room. That isn’t nearly so satisfying with ebooks, and tends to do absolutely nothing but damage one’s hardware, so I imagine I would have refrained.
But I absolutely would not suggest this work to a first-time Willis reader. To Say Nothing of the Dog, certainly. Bellwether, even more so. But not this one, and not Doomsday Book or Lincoln’s Dreams or, honestly, even Fire Watch (the story on which the All Clear duology is based).
Willis doesn’t write simplistic stories, or I probably wouldn’t enjoy her work so much, but she has a way of making the complex clear that’s beautiful. It’s just that these require a bit more desire to get there on the part of the reader, to my way of thinking, than the other two. And once one is seduced by those, it is clear that the effort is wholly worthwhile.
In any case, there’s no doubt but that I’m going right on ahead to read All Clear. I’m just a bit put out with the author at the moment–and very, very glad, considering the heft of these tomes, that I’ve switched to ebooks!
I still think that readers deserve some small reward for the sheer aggravation meted out thus far. Surely resolving some small plot issues would not have caused trouble? For instance, authors who are accustomed to working with multi-book series regularly wrap up some issues in each book, while leaving other, larger plot threads to carry over into future volumes to provide continuity.
Tags: Blackout, Connie Willis, Oxford Time Travel, World War II
Question of the Day: Put it all together, it spells Mother
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Blogging, Family
From LiveJournal’s “Writer’s Block” prompt:
What’s the most important lesson your mom taught you?
You can’t believe the words, only the actions.
No, I don’t ever recall her saying it. It’s something I had to learn the hard way.
Tags: Mother's Day, writer's block