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so i finally took the chance to finish this book, which i was about four chapters away from finishing this summer, because i caught the flu and was limited to staying in bed last weekend. i can't say as to what took me so long to finish; part of it, i can admit, is because of the sheer length of the book. anyone who's seen or picked up the book will know what a behemoth it is, though nothing special in comparison to some of the more hardcore fantasy novels. so that's no excuse. the other part i'm going to have to admit is simply because i grew too attached to some characters, and i knew they were gonna go. i accidentally flipped ahead, and also accidentally visited the wiki devoted to this series, and so i knew ahead of time who was going to die and partially how things would play out.
so then there are the personal reasons, like having no time to finish it, because a) the book was overdue from the library, b) the semester had just started, and c) i was still constantly doing photo shoots. all this adds up to a huge case of why i just recently managed to finish a book i started roughly 2-3 months ago. with all that aside, i can now move on to how the book actually was.
i had attempted to read this maybe about a year ago? i remember having checked it out from the library once before, and not having gone anywhere with it. i am personally a big fan of sherwood smith from having read some of her other books (which cater mainly to the YA crowd). it starts off slow, so i just kept putting it down, and eventually lost interest altogether. when i finally found my way back to inda though, i was determined to bull through that opening. i'll say for the opening that while it isn't dull per say.. it is somewhat hard to get through. we get introduced to at least a dozen different names/terms, there are the names of lands/countries to be learned, different titles to be learned, different class systems. it feels entirely like learning an alien culture, which is legitimate as that is the way a well-built world should be, but it would be easy enough to drown in information overload in this beginning.
once it gets going, however, it really draws you in. there is a huge amount of political intrigue that keeps the suspense going about how things will eventually play out; we know the factions involved, and we know what they want, but we gradually learn about why their motivations are what they are. and more and more these characters become multi-faceted as the plot thickens, and eventually, while you're not sympathizing with the villains, you do have to give some credit to the author for creating such unconventional villains. they become more real for their trials too, so you really do get a sense of everyone in the story getting fully fleshed out.
there are some things i thought were unnecessary: the ending is ripe with character deaths that were not foreshadowed or required by any means. the ending ends with the feel of, say, the unresolved conflict of the first episode of a tv series, but you know the second episode is coming soon, maybe in another week. this is a book. if i had read it when the sequels weren't already out, i might have lost interest by the time they did come out. while i said beforehand that a lot of the characters are fleshed out, at the same time i had kind of hoped that tdor, inda's betrothed, would have a bigger part in events, because otherwise i'm not sure i care either way about her. why is this important? because inda hits puberty at the end of this book, and he thinks about sex, and he thinks about tdor and how much he misses her, and i honestly couldn't feel where this was coming from. if i thought about the facts i could recognize that yes, tdor is his betrothed; but at the same time, i couldn't feel this connection in the writing. it could just be because of my long disconnection from the book, but i kind of doubt it, since i was only about four chapters from the end when i put it down. anyway.
i am definitely looking forward to reading the next book, despite being a bit intimidated by the size of that one too. i would get started on it right away if it wasn't for more pressing matters, like my waiting 20 page paper. so i'll say that i'm glad that sherwood smith has finally proven herself as a capable fiction author beyond writing for YA, but her scope may have been overextended. i'm sincerely hoping that isn't the case, since that would make for some amazing reading. at the moment, it looks like it doesn't matter anyway--i'll know when i read the subsequent volumes. the reviews on amazon look to be favorable so far though, so that is something to look forward to.
i decided to read this, or rather, to borrow this from the library because someone made a comment in passing that this was a good book, and that someone's opinion was something i could trust. the cover gave me a slight bit of pause, and the summary on the back cover made it sound very juvenile.. but i plowed on.
i plowed on, that is, to then discover that this was really a book written for children, and i don't exactly fit into that category. a lot of the characters were very one-dimensional, villains were fairly straightforward, and obstacles were often very black-and-white, which i found somewhat annoying at times. for instance, the bully in this book must have a lot of issues with himself to be behaving that way--but nope, they don't come to any kind of understanding. our main character just gives him a good ass-kicking and he's out of the story. this is likely the satisfactory conclusion that kids would be looking for, since it's easy, and the blame is assigned and resolved, but not exactly what i would be looking for. but that's alright, because by then i had taken that fact into account anyway, that it's written to appeal to that specific age range.
what i didn't appreciate is that her characters seem to accomplish fairly remarkable deeds simply by bumbling around, or acting in an irresponsible and idiotic way. it's like watching a horror movie, and trying to scream at the heroine who obviously can just turn tail and run instead of standing, staring, and just screaming in mindless horror. if this is truly aimed at children, then it also sets a terrible example: many times adults will say, no, don't do this! and they will go ahead and do it anyway, despite it obviously being a stupid thing to do. and our main character, alanna, is supposed to be a really intelligent child, while at every turn she simply demonstrates by her choices that she's not. her characters simply couldn't have spoken to me, a 23-year-old. they seemed one-dimensional and unreal, and many times adults will have very unlikely behavior not befitting that of.. well, adults.
but i don't fault these things, because i can understand that it's written solely in te viewpoint of a child, or one a child might have of the world. at that, i should probably also note that i probably shouldn't have read it, but the good part is that the pacing was definitely done well, because i had no problem reading it straight through. i would say this is more a book for an elementary schooler, to encourage reading for leisure, rather than any masterpiece in itself.
well, alanna supposedly grows up into a legend, so maybe i'll read on despite myself. :) we'll see.
i will start this off by saying that having read "the hero and the crown" and "the blue sword" both, i felt i had a taste of what this author has to offer in her earlier style of writing. i guess the main problem in that little conclusion is that both those earlier books were strictly written for a YA readership; this starts off stating that it is based on a fairy tale (if you can call it that) written by charles perault called donkeyskin, and so i expected it to be similarly aimed at YA readers.
i was really, really wrong.
sure enough, the novel starts off with a fairly fairy-tale setting; it doesn't quite do the "Once upon a time" route, but the invisible words were apparent in the way the story was told. lissar, the main protagonist, has two perfect parents, who are very much in love with each other (or so it seems), that she is completely invisible in their eyes altogether. the people, who love how perfect their king and queen are aesthetically, don't seem to recall the existence of a princess. at this point, i was settling back for a leisurely read, and was completely thrown off by everything that occurs afterward.
i also went and read the original fairy tale, and while disturbing, it is a walk in the park in comparison. i duly appreciate the work put into writing the back cover summary, because it does little to prepare me for all the horror contained within that it hits me that much harder. i feel i shouldn't mention exactly what it is that happens in here, but i should note that i found myself cringing away from the book at times, or wincing and having to put the book down. i simply don't find myself doing that often, and having so much sympathy for the character at the same time.
so, moving on, there are VERY adult themes contained in the book, which include incest and rape. the foreshadowing was done very well for both, and the handling of the subject was very delicate also. or maybe delicate isn't the word exactly, but.. it feels real, and raw, and nothing in the way of pretense in the presentation of such a hard topic. following lissar through her journey almost feels like watching someone go through surgery without anesthesia, but you can't look away because the writing grips you, and compels you to watch, if only in respect, as she overcomes her various demons. i've read some other reviews where the main commentary is that the content is "too dark"; i feel that that is not a fair appraisal at all, because in the darkness there is also light, because you are kept reading at a sense of hope at the end of the tunnel. and there is indeed some sense of closure of the matter, or that "light," because by the time the novel closes there is a sense of justice dealt, and perhaps a not quite happy ending, but a bit of peace and quiet for our heroine, and obstacles overcome, and victory won.
either way, i know i'm likely not doing this book any justice; it has to be experienced to be understood. and i really enjoyed how despite all the dark themes, it is still told much in the way of fairy tales, like the way the story is structured and how the characters come into play with each other--or even the different types of character involved. it gives one much study of the format of fairy tales if one cares to look at it, i guess, and it sort of makes this a truer fairy tale than any that i've read in childhood, and it seems that much more impressive and fascinating because of that. i think it would've held me even more in sway if i hadn't already been spoiled by what happens by reading some of the comments on amazon, but either way it was a mesmerizing read.
i guess, to finish off, if i do have to find anything negative to say about it, i would have to say that the relationship that blossoms between ossin and lissar is just a tad bit sudden, and i didn't see much development in that area. but generally that's not much of a complaint, since i was so buried in lissar's own inner struggle, and there were plenty of other puppy antics to distract me. a mild, random thing that i didn't expect to pop up was a reference to aerin and dragon slaying, and malak, which gives me a sort of sense of things coming full circle--these are all tied in the same world, somehow. i was giddy and excited when i read that one line, and just in general glad for the brief tie-in, because it gives me room to fill out what kind of universe this might be. and all things considered, i really enjoyed this a LOT, probably mostly because i wasn't expecting much from this book with its odd title and somewhat odd cover. i guess now i'll likely not enjoy anything else much because i will have to keep comparing them to this.
this is a prequel to the book "the blue sword," but written and published after, which is the main reason i picked this up to read. i enjoyed the adventures of harry considerably, and figured that having a prequel about the legendary hero mentioned in "the blue sword" is a pretty great idea. this is both true, and not, i guess, and i'll proceed to explain.
first of all, the mood set in "the hero and the crown" is a lot more epic, and it's not apparent from the get-go.. since the majority of the beginning is used solely to develop aerin's character, and give background. the plot doesn't quite start until the second half of the book, and this, to me, jars the pacing of the book somewhat, but not enough to really matter in the long run. more on this later.
the main problem i had with this book was that sometimes the sentence structures were written oddly, and it takes a couple of passes to understand the content of the specific line. i should be used to it by now, considering this is just mckinley's style in general, but seeing as this is how her writing first used to be, it wasn't quite as pronounced as her later works.. and so i guess sometimes i just don't see it coming. the character of aerin doesn't seem quite as heroic and strong as she was made out to be in "the blue sword," as she seems much more human, and i can't help being fascinated by that. it would make sense that her legend would be blown out of proportion, but seeing as this is the realm of fiction i guess i never really thought it through, and i thoroughly appreciate it that aerin was brought back down to earth a bit. having a perfect hero for a main character would've been awfully preachy, i guess, and it was a smart move to do so.
now, more on the pacing: the intro detailing aerin's childhood and her always not having been a part of the kingdom was done very nicely, and it showcases her loneliness well; the problem i sort of had was that once i adjusted to that pacing, part one ends. when part two begins, ALL the epic legendary action begins as well. i was completely thrown off the course i was riding, and had to put it down repeatedly because i simply never got back into the groove completely after being thrown off like that. then comes luthe out of nowhere, which, i suppose, is to add a bit more depth to aerin's character, but that was pleasant, if somewhat jarring, as well. the little bit revealed about aerin's true lineage was sort of interesting in that i didn't see it coming, but aerin's devotion to her country i did not get at all. i kept wondering, why does she care? the first portion of the book ensured that she had no real reason to do this, and i didn't entirely trust her motives.
so, moving on.. the ending has her marrying, and that's a bit of a stretch too, considering the guy she marries was out of the book for almost half of the book that, by then, i simply couldn't care. there was no real closure, i felt, to the relationship between her and luthe, and i still have no notion how the story of aerin turned to legend. it was somewhat explained by saying that eventually the people of the country forgot about the old aerin thanks to dragon poison or whatever.. so all they remembered was the good new aerin. it seemed like too easy a way out to me, and i'm not sure i completely bought it.
granted, i do like this better than "the blue sword"... but i suppose in a strange sort of way, since i knew i would be reading about a heroine of epic proportions, i was expecting the book to be the same, which isn't all that realistic. my biggest problem with it is the disjointed pacing, but other than that, i have nearly no complaints. there is one instance in which a little editing may have been necessary (she claimed in one scene she couldn't taste anything, then almost right after that scene she said that milk dulls down the taste of a drink called malak--inconsistency). those i do not hold into account unless there's an endless pile of them, which just screams lack of effort.
in conclusion, i really did enjoy "the hero and the crown," and despite knowing mckinley writes better later on, i really appreciated the universe she introduced in these two books. i will be moving on to read some of her others soon, and i do believe i have a copy of "deerskin" on hand. these should tide me over until i get my hands on some new releases.
EDIT: to be fair, i do know i was overly harsh in this little rant here. it's just so hard not to be, when i was expecting so much.. and the characters keep changing faces on me, which frustrates me beyond belief and seems to be for no other purpose than to make me pull my hair out. but to be honest, i can say this was mediocre at best.. while i was expecting a whiff of fresh air, like the first book in the series. didn't happen. i will, however, still read the third in the hope of some kind of redemption, and so whoever reads what follows here.. if you don't feel the same, i'm sorry, and i do know i overreacted.
it's been.. *checks last post* wow, almost a month since i read the first book! i know i said that book really showed promise, and i was completely itching to read this one; unfortunately, the promise from the last book wasn't ever really carried onto this. my thoughts are that it might be that the first book was written in a leisurely manner before she got signed with the publishing company, because everything in this installment of her series spells of a rushed job to me. because i took so many breaks while reading this one.. there were many details that i might not completely remember. what's-her-name.. mira, i believe?--was annoying the pants off me. and the entire cast of characters, and the random introduction of some newer ones.. it just kept teetering on and going not much of anywhere. here are some minor fault points:
- mira and danaus's relationship starts off back to square one, which is to say, homicidal. i thought they'd gotten way past their "i want to kill you" phase by the end of the last book, but in this book it's almost like the author either forgot she had written them beyond that already, or she wanted to hang onto it as a sort of joke between the characters. whatever. one, that would be sloppy writing, and two, if it's a joke, not close to funny. seriously though, bravo on leaving the reader hanging onto every word and wanting more of danaus and mira.. but starting it like this? it's like shitting on all the character buildup from the last book.
- right after they land in venice, or a bit after, i smelled a bit of half-assed editing. she mentions something about having worn the same outfit throughout all her fights, but that is simply untrue; she changed into that girl-on-vacation's shirt and used her shower at the themis compound, remember? tsk tsk, i say.
- the mention of there not being as rich a history in the americas as europe is repeated throughout, and i wonder if anyone out there would take it as an insult; the native americans especially, considering that nothing in their culture qualifies as "history," or in danaus's words, that there isn't a sense of "history or identity" there. come on now, play nice.
- if the bori being a parasite to danaus's soul is the only thing giving him his powers, assuming it's also what gives him his immortality--saving the world from the bori and destroying the bori within him would render him completely mortal, and he would be weak and capable of dying. that's kind of a potential downer between mira and danaus's relationship, and it'll have to be explored sooner or later.
- whenever danaus defends her, she always inserts some private commentary stating that they're still enemies one way or another, and still want to kill each other. after about the tenth time, i honestly wanted to rip the page out; way to abuse the narrative voice, sheesh. it got tiring by about the second time.
- i honestly don't think rowe is as evil as he's made out to sound, and mira obviously has serious prejudices against the naturi. what if rowe has the same reasons as she does to be prejudiced toward her kind? frankly, for a second book with villains that are just as as single-faceted as they first seemed to appear spells lack of effort to me.
- i laughed out loud when she mentioned that danaus's outlook on a sentient being owned by another is wrong; technically, that would make domestication a sin.
- at two instances, she wakes up early in time to watch the sun set. the thought i had was, if the vampires in her universe are burned by sunlight, why did she have no problem walking over to a giant bank of windows either time? i mean, sure, it makes for a dramatic scene in the reader's head, but...
- here's another thought in the same line of context: she mentions that elders can teleport, sort of. if it's that instantaneous, with no distance limit, they could be continually teleporting to areas where it's still night, and not have to sleep/die at all. wouldn't that work? hell, they could freaking space travel, considering they don't even need to breathe. sci-fi vamps, here we come.
- there are too many hints that danaus likes mira, but nothing comes from it. a subtle touch here, a bit too much concern there, and it builds up, but with no outlet throughout the entire book, and it's frustrating. to make things worse, she goes and pairs her up with someone else. great.
- the one sex scene in here was so out of the blue and random that i can't help but think that she added it for marketing's sake, and not until after the book was finished, because it completely threw the pace of the plot. i wasn't even close to appreciating it.
- "I walked over to the nightstand by the bed and picked up my cell phone. Nicolai covered my hand with his before I could pick up the phone." umm.. more careful with the editing please? she picked it up, and then he stopped her from picking it up? what the hell?
- i remember it being like two-thirds of my way through the book already, and in the middle of the chapter she's still reintroducing events from the last book. first, she had already done that within the first few chapters. secondly, YES, we do happen to know who ryan is already, so christ, stop repeating yourself!
- the analogy of the night 'dying' is milked to death and back. when an author repeats her own little poetic phrasing over and over.. it was nice throughout the first book. when no new creative phrasing comes about, it spells writer's block and half-assed writing to me.
- funny thing: they have enough money to keep flying all over the place and stay at all the fancy hotels in the world--but no one gets anything laundered. she keeps mentioning she's down to the last clean garment and whatnot; well, hello, the hotels offer laundering as a service. geez.
- Chapter 19, and she's still reintroducing Ryan. again, i think i got the memo the past bajillion times.
you know what else i just realized? ryan mentions somewhere along the way, either in the first book or in this book, that danaus thought she was the perfect embodiment of evil because she was both a vampire and controlled the fires of hell or something, and that really makes absolutely no sense. fire has got to be the most purifying element there is, since it's composed of pure energy, and secondly, in the bible, fire is used all over the place by the agents of good. what happened to god and his burning bush? whatever version of the bible danaus has been weaned on, it doesn't sound close to christian.
i will give this 3 stars since i do like the characters so much.. but nothing about this book really merits a 3-star rating, to be honest. the plot was jagged, there were holes all over the place, and almost everyone acts out of character. but then i guess i wouldn't know what their characters are anyway, considering i only really have the first book to base my judgment on--but hey, it was a good book, and i'd rather use that as a guideline to their true characters than this disjointed lump of text. despite all these faults (and boy, that's more than a couple) i still enjoyed revisiting mira and danaus again, depsite danaus's random homicidal bouts. i understand that's probably something mira and danaus can work through in the next book, unless the author contracts amnesia again and decides to take them back to some point where either none of this happened or she'll invent some other version of the events that she's written and that no one has ever read about.
sigh.
okay, i understand i'm being harsh. but that's what happens when you raise my expectations with a good first book and leave me with what's in the second for a follow-up. redeeming qualities? there aren't any yet. what danaus is was blatantly obvious from the first book, so having solved that particular "mystery" is no great feat for me. even what mira is seems blatantly obvious to me, unless the author decides to pull a fast one on me and slap me upside the head with something entirely new--but at this point, i kind of doubt it.
again, i re-sigh.
so disappointed.
well, hopefully, i'll lighten up a bit when the next book hits the shelves, and maybe i'll be able to reach for the next one in good faith by then. that's the best i could hope for right now.
to be honest, i'm not even really completely sure why i decided to start reading this book. aside from hearty blurbs from kim harrison and vicki pettersson, there was no other real reason, i guess; the plot sounded somewhat cliched and cheesy, and i didn't think i was up to more paranormal pretension or the disguise of bad writing behind drama. that, fortunately, was not the case with this book, and it gives me a little bit of delight to admit that i can still find new series to enjoy aside from those few authors i religiously follow.
the way it starts is quite weird enough, because it leaves you not quite knowing what to expect. the heroine seems like the typical villain in most of the other stuff in the genre, so there's a bit of confusion for a while over how this is going to work out. as it progresses, however, the picture is painted increasingly more thoroughly, and i really liked the way all the circumstances that have driven mira to become the character she is comes together, and she doesn't seem as bad a protagonist as first impressions would make her seem.
i don't think the book places as much importance in the moral uprightness of its characters as other books tend to, since most of the characters in this book seem to have issues, one way or another. it's not so much a matter of right or wrong, but it seems each character, including the villains, have their own agendas, and they all seem equally justified in some light somehow. at this point of having finished the first book, i think it's pretty apparent what danaus is, and there are even abundant clues offered as to what mira is, though that question was never quite outright asked. maybe it's just strange to me that mira seems more concerned about what danaus is than what she herself might be. on the other hand, the vampires do begin to look more and more like the bad guys here, because it seems their sole strength is in manipulation, and almost everything they do is done in an unnecessarily backhanded way. and yet mira's loyalty seems to be toward the vampires, although maybe that will gradually come to change in future books? one of the main flaws of her character is not being able to figure out the obvious though, so i wonder how long that will be allowed to play out. it also didn't seem much like sadira and jabari were necessary for the triad or whatever, because they really didn't seem to play much of a part in there. i think mira is more important than they would have her believe, or perhaps more than they themselves would prefer to believe.
anyway, at this point, i can't really directly critique the writing style much, since i'm still so enveloped in the story in general. i will say that the prose tends to be beautifully written, with some descriptive abstracts painted here and there that were so poetic in nature that i ended up going back and rereading them just for the pleasure of it--that was certainly not expected. the tension between mira and danaus was also nicely portrayed; i actually found myself being frustrated right along with them when events would pull them apart from their fascination with each other, and it's usually pretty rare to get me to be that involved in any characters' relationships in that way. what's rarer still is my level of involvement with these characters apparently have nothing to do with how much i like these characters, considering that they're all quite flawed, and so i have to respect the author's ability for whatever little additional touch she added that made that possible, at the least. in fact, that fondness for her characters' interactions even overshadows what plot holes i might have picked up from time to time, and it's quite impressive that the characters alone carried this book through a somewhat average premise, and left me wanting more.
and to that end, i'm still quite happy, because the next book in the series is already out. my dilemma now is whether i should move on to that next book, or read the increasingly large pile of books i have checked out from the library. tough choice.
so, i wanted to start off by saying that something seriously kept me from logging this, and i have no idea what it was. laziness? suddenly learning how to copy wii games? who knows. but in any case, i guess i mostly just wanted a break from reading. yeah, i didn't think i'd ever say that either, but there it is.
strangely, this book held less sway for me than the last one, succubus dreams, did. i realize she must have had to write a book within two months in time for the editing process to kick in too, but after the heartbreak of the last book, i'm not sure i can still invest as much in georgina. most of this book was just drama, drama, drama. seth still seems to be a part of her life, and that just annoys me. i like maddie okay, but seth.. not so much, still. i don't care that he did what he did to "save" her (though in this book it was more like destroy instead), and the fact that she still feels soft toward him is just weak to me. lashing out? okay. getting back with him? ...not.
as someone else has mentioned in a review on amazon somewhere, georgina needs to learn. she keeps making the same mistakes, over and over, and it's cheating and not being able to own up to it that made her a succubus to begin with. we keep hearing about everything that's ever gone wrong through the eons she's lived through, but seriously, what good is it if she doesn't change? does age make a person incapable of that? to be fair though, i guess i could feel the magnetism between seth and georgina. somewhat. maybe not to its full effect, because i was still ridiculously pissed at seth. but georgina, despite knowing right and wrong, shoves aside her morals for indulgences that she can't help but want, possibly even need. i guess i can't fault her for that too much, and yet, lust is her major downfall, every time. i don't know how much more obvious a lesson can get before it gets a little too drawn out.
moving on the other men then; dante thoroughly annoyed me, not necessarily with his cynicism, but with his cruelty. i understand that's all in his character and in his past, but i didn't think georgina could be the same, even in her rage. there were some parts of it where i went soft on him though, simply because he cares so much about her--all the gifts to try to cheer her up and whatnot considered. i was beginning to hope that maybe prolonged exposure to georgina will somehow redeem him, soul-wise. i'm even still hoping by the conclusion of this book that that will somehow come to pass, but maybe we'll never even see him again. and i might or might not be spoiling things a bit when i say that there is a bit of soul-damning a little closer to home that needs watching, in the meantime. but to sum this little part with dante up, he's much too violent and destructive for anyone's taste, i feel. it's a wonder georgina felt fondness toward him at all.
the big, BIG thing i really wish i hadn't known going into reading this: roman comes back. because someone already mentioned this in an amazon review, i kept expecting him to pop up everywhere, and so all the things that were happening, i already knew who was behind them. crap. i'm sure the surprise would've been nice though, if i hadn't been spoiled ahead of time. but anyway, there seems to be a big hinting of roman coming back into her life as a love interest, because despite the role she played in his twin sister's death, he still seems to care about her. he's very nonchalant in his reactions to most things, which is a good counterpoint for georgina's impulsive and, in this book, destructive force, and i felt that they balanced out well. that one scene right after the big showdown with the villain of the book when he mentions georgina's men's antics and her stolen car had me laughing out loud, so i'm going to say that to me, roman is now the most convincing as an other half for georgina. because.. while i can't see seth in a suit, roman isn't out of the question. nyx's dream can still come true for georgina, i just don't think seth is going to be any part of it.
in her dream, her yard looks out onto snow--i wonder if her new place is close enough north to snow from time to time? i also wanted to note that i wish carter had more face time, and that i was so sure i knew who the villain was that i didn't expect it to be who it ended up actually being. that's some good bait-and-switching there. i guess i can also finally close this by saying after reading the preview chapters at the end, i can at least admit to being interested in roman's involvement in her life and how that'll play out, because technically, she now has a higher immortal to help her in these things. and lastly, i can't help but be curious about how many more books this will be, because much as i love this series, i really do want georgina's happy ending to come about. i'm just as desperate as she is, because how much more suffering can she be put through? and let's hope maddie can save seth there.
i already had a copy of this lying in my TBR list, but didn't want to damage my own copy with any wear and tear, so instead borrowed a copy from the library instead. the cover of the library copy is a lot more updated and colorful, so it probably lended a different mood to what i would've expected going in with my copy instead. it's almost funny how much these little things affect my expectations, and i suspect that's why publishing companies still have marketing departments.
so, moving right on, i wanted to get into how this ties in with the previous book, masques, first. there are almost no recurring characters, but they are set in the same world; sianim is still the mercenary headquarters from where our protagonist originates, and the magic system is the same as the one from previous books. we learn that the ae'magi is a different man now, and learn more about the races that wield green magic. darran, which was introduced briefly in the first book, is the main setting in this one. the one main difference between the last one and this one is the nature of the characters themselves. the slave turned spy, rialla, is a lot more tortured than the heroine from the last book (damn, i forgot her name already). the relationship that developes throughout the book was also a lot less abrupt. instead of the slightly strange transition i felt in masques, i felt that there was a distinct buildup of the relationship between rialla and tris. however, i didn't find any of the other characters all that compelling, which was a shame, because i never got a true taste of the villain, really. at least, that's how i felt. not much of a fight against overwhelming forces here, but it definitely did concentrate more on the spying she did.
while masques explored torture quite vividly, this one is also quite dark in its own way; among them i found rape and slavery the most prevalent and disturbing. though sometimes i felt that her talk of slavery is only slightly melodramatic, the rape thoroughly disturbed me, only because i am not accustomed to reading about it. the way she ends (sort of) the issue raised with slavery with the conversation near the end is quite satisfying, and it ties religion loosely with the concept of slavery, which is also quite thought provoking. the Finis chapter, though, makes me curious; is this supposed to be the opener for the next book? because that chapter in itself ruined the closure she had established by the end of the chapter before it. i guess i'm going to have to read the next book yet in the sianim world to find out what happens to the rising political conflicts here. i'm somewhat reluctant to move on though, because it would require me to leave behind yet another character. this is yet another reason why i find her series that share protagonists that much easier to read. but aside from that, i will try.
closing off now so i can head to sleep, or perhaps at least start another book.
to be honest, i don't even know what exactly made me reach for this book; i was certainly not in the mood for a letdown, and i don't think i had any faith in the ability of this book to even entertain in any way--the last one was quite bad. i'm not sure any fans believe in Anita Blake anymore, and i would have to agree with them, lately. however, once i started reading, i did find myself pulled along despite myself, and i might actually be excited enough to say that LKH might be back. i'll probably regret saying it when she comes out with crap again though, but i sincerely hope not.
the first big sign that something was different about this was the presentation of an actual mystery within the book, and there were actual unknowns that anita has to solve, instead of just randomly knowing all the answers like some god. she actually spends almost the entire book trying to figure out where and what this villain is, unlike the past couple of books where the villain is just a pretense, because of course we know that anita is all-powerful and will kick his ass anyway. there is actually suspense in this book, and there is actually danger. i think we're beginning to get some of the elements from the earlier books back, and she does blend both together.. i wouldn't say exceptionally well, but decently by the end of the book. i wasn't disappointed, much, and that's a definite step for me and LKH's books.
secondly, a HUGE change between this and the more recent predecessors is that anita has insecurities. she questions herself constantly, and while i've read that some people on amazon are complaining that it's too whiny, come on: fans who have followed this series for a while will know that just having anita question anything is a huge step. i personally was sick and tired of reading about this omnipowerful god in a human body, and who knows exactly what she's doing, and anyone who's friends with her just somehow ends up okay no matter what. there's no believability in that, because we keep hearing that she's human, and she doesn't even begin to act like it. sure, in this book, we still keep hearing the 'holy crap she's powerful' stuff, but that i can deal with. i'd be annoyed from time to time, but i wouldn't hate the book so much i'd pour gasoline all over it. so, that's that.
and now i guess i'll move onto faults, some of which i've brought up already. there is one prevailing problem with her writing that i can't help but notice: all her characters seem to have the same voice. i mean i know, and it's nice, that LKH puts all of herself into her characters at all times, but the one thing that takes away believability is that people must have different ways of talking, different mannerisms and such. they can't all refer to the same thing the same way, or otherwise you begin to see the seams of the dialogue, and that's not good. for example: during sex, they all talk about 'prepping' her, and how many people in the world actually call foreplay that? these random strangers will say she's not 'prepped,' and she'll respond like it's completely normal that they happen to all use the same terms to refer to the same things. sometimes, that makes it so that the 'individual' characters i'm reading about appear to all be the same character--and it makes me wonder if that one character just so happens to be our author, Laurell K. Hamilton. if so, then it makes all the sex parts of it almost disturbing, because it would mean i'm reading someone else's sexual fantasies (or realities), and there's a certain sense of voyeurism in that.
secondly, when it comes to faults: i've read books that curl my toes with their sex scenes. this one does a little bit at some points, but mostly doesn't, which i'm sorry about. she takes all the passion out of her sex when she has everyone just pause in the moment and talk about it--and again, i bring up the 'is she prepped?' instance, because it shows up a LOT. not to mention that randomly a side character will just be like 'oh, are you too big?' and then 'no, it's okay, because if you do it this way she'll be okay'--what? is this dialogue even necessary? i know it doesn't do anything for me except make me roll my eyes, because you're gonna pause a sex scenes to talk about all the angles you can take? are you serious? maybe this process helps her write herself into it, i don't know, but the biggest issue with this is obviously that passion (we are talking about her theory of the ardeur here) shouldn't feel like a science. the moment she breaks passion down into the how and why, it is no longer passion, but again, a science.
and now that i've got that out of my system, i'll just state all the small things that might otherwise not have been worth a mention, but i remembered them, so why not. this book breaks continuity in some places, which makes it obvious that the editor wasn't combing too hard; or maybe the editor was concentrating on other areas so hard that she couldn't help missing one or two here and there, in which case it wouldn't be a biggie at all, because this book turned out well in comparison to her recent works, in my opinion. an example of this break of continuity is her cell phone ringtone; i don't even know why i noticed it, but she says she doesn't know how to change her ringtone. it starts out with her having a duran duran ringtone outside the circus, and then when she lands in vegas it had changed to a different ringtone. however, by the end of the book, she's still in vegas, and somehow it changes back to the duran duran song, without nathaniel ever being there with her--how? little things like that shouldn't even be worth mentioning, but i thought it wouldn't hurt. maybe they'll find the error and change it for the paperback edition.
she also closes the book by saying lust and love are really the same thing if you think about it--and i can't say enough how disturbing that is. because if we applied this theory to family members and other people we love, it's just downright gross. and if i'm taking it the way she meant it, that lust and love are the same thing when we're talking about significant others, NO, it's NOT the same thing. i can be completely lusting after someone i barely know at a bar, because they're attractive, but it doesn't mean i love them. i love my other half, because he's him. lust plays partially into it, but they are NOT to be equated. and because it's so obvious to me, i believe that that is possibly the most shallow comment i have ever heard from someone who's lived through that much, and i would've liked to think that she knew better than to write a closer like that.
*** SPOILERS *** i also felt that the last section of the book was a cheap way to get rid of a major god-like villain, but i don't know if anyone feels the same. and maybe it doesn't matter anyway, but if you get rid of the biggest and baddest already in this volume, then who's gonna be the villain for the next books? it kinda leaves her in a dead end as a writer, no? i mean it's nice that they're gone now, but really, what could possibly happen from here on?
but finally, i want to go back and say again that i am impressed with this book, because anita is once again human enough for me to relate to, and vulnerable enough for the suspense and danger to actually somewhat get to me. a character needs to be vulnerable, or otherwise what good is the plot? we also won't care for her otherwise. so i honestly think that this is a step forward, but again, others may disagree. it's my hope that LKH will keep improving from here, because she has given me hope that there is something to salvage out of this series again. and that's the best compliment i could possibly give a series i thought was long dead.
i decided to start reading this because.. well, why else? because it's kim harrison. and the short story was one i'd never read before, despite my being a huge fan. so the order and the method in my reading this was basically that i went back and dug out the short story, read it, then jumped straight into this book for the sense of continuity. it also made me feel good that it worked out perfectly, because there was no sense of disjointedness at all; the short story literally flows right into the beginning of this book. so, here goes.
i must admit, i had no idea what to admit, and so when i was introduced to madison initially, the thing i was most hung up on was her constant immaturity; there are bigger things at work than she knows, and she is innocent enough to simply whine about the mundane things. i think we know automatically from the get-go who the villains and heroes are, but can't be sure until the big blowup near the end; regardless, it does make for a somewhat predictable read, but i am not complaining overly much. there is still something good in simplicity, i think. for a while there, when grace was introduced, i seriously thought ms. harrison just has a big thing with little people--there has to be a small chibi figure in there somewhere, being cute and annoying. but it turns out she doesn't play such a big part after all, which i guess i'm glad for, otherwise this is just a twin series to her usual, and i'll be getting all her characters mixed up. as it turns out though, nakita bears a striking resemblance to ivy, except without the primal needs part. so i hope there will be no weird chemistry going on between madison and nakita, because that would be sort of disturbing.
strangely, i don't think i feel all that fond toward josh, the human. it certainly looks like that's the direction it's gonna boil up to for a while, but i really think what's-his-name--barnabas?--and madison would make a likely pair. i'm not even really sure why. he seems a bit more sensitive around her, albeit only slightly. maybe. it seems sweet to me, and i'm not sure if i'm just imagining it. josh just seems like an average joe, and so basically anyone else would have been fine for him too, and it doesn't make madison special. i guess i'm sort of a believer of fate myself ;)
let's see, what else.. the twist about 3/4 of the way in caught me off guard, despite my statement that it was fairly predictable. i thought the villain was just gonna turn out to be a corrupted wheel in the system, but it gets slightly more complicated than that--not too much, but just enough to make it a worthwhile and interesting read. i got over madison's annoying quirks halfway through, and sometimes even found it a bit endearing. it was exciting to read about her photography, because it was such a distinct connection for me, as i'm personally really into it. anyway, who knows. i can only hope that these books can come regularly enough to satisfy the publishing company, and yet not ruin the consistency of the quality of her works so far. if the rachel series suffers because of this new series, that would be a huge shame, as i would have no idea where else to turn to, and this series, despite being a decent starter, is not the beloved rachel morgan series i drool for every year.
