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.
well, here goes: my official first read from jacqueline carey, who i keep hearing praise about. the reason why i started reading this wasn't even anything to do with the author's fame, but rather that i just happen to have gotten a copy of this book, and flipped it open to page 1 just to see what it was about--to promptly find myself hooked and unable to stop reading. i think it's been a long time since a book caught me that off guard.
first off, this is an amazing book. that should be pretty evident by the fact that i honestly couldn't put it down, but i want to explain a bit further than that. the characters introduced are all extremely vivid, and character interactions are fragile and real, even though i admit to being caught off guard by the rampant swearing here and there. the premise is very interesting too, sort of like a crossover between x-files and v for vendetta, and there is a very accurate depiction of oppression here, of there being no way out.
this is also i think the first book in a long time that has managed to make me cry. i think about halfway through the book, something dramatic happens to our character, and it honestly left me in a state of shock; it was abrupt and traumatizing, not only to our main character, but i felt to me as a reader as well. that was the one instance where i had to stop in order to take a few breathers, because tears were literally streaming down my face, to my surprise. it was just completely awesome, considering the fact that i doubt another book will be able to make me feel that strongly again. this is something i will continue to doubt, but hope for.
our group of vigilantes also seriously had me cheering for them all the way. now, here i go: the only one part of the series i didn't find too convincing was the "love" story; it felt more like a lust story than anything else, and i didn't believe that what was developing was any form of love, since it seemed to only be about the physical. i felt there was a bit too much concentration on the physical aspects of their relationship, and oftentimes i just found myself thinking it's just younglings and hormones. some of the known "enemies" don't turn out to be such bad guys, and it was touching the way the main character was able to go around and form connections with these people from all walks of life in her world. i think i will sincerely be looking forward to any sequels that may come from a similar world, perhaps with different characters? i want to know what happens to our beloved santa olivia.
and with this, i'll close by saying i really think this is the most captivating book to come by me in a while, and to me that feels fairly significant. hopefully this is a streak that will continue, because i'd hate to see that i can only find one good read out of 10. i gave this 4 1/2 stars out of 5.
