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Yzabel / October 27, 2015

Review: Royal Blood

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

The city-state of Varuz is failing. Duke Aurelian is the last of his line, his capital is crumbling, and the armies of his enemy, Duke Conrad, are poised beyond the mountains to invade. Aurelian is preparing to gamble everything on one last battle. So when a holy man, the Doctor, comes to Varuz from beyond the mountains, Aurelian asks for his blessing in the war.

But all is not what it seems in Varuz. The city-guard have lasers for swords, and the halls are lit by electric candlelight. Aurelian’s beloved wife, Guena, and his most trusted knight, Bernhardt, seem to be plotting to overthrow their Duke, and Clara finds herself drawn into their intrigue…

Will the Doctor stop Aurelian from going to war? Will Clara’s involvement in the plot against the Duke be discovered? Why is Conrad’s ambassador so nervous? And who are the ancient and weary knights who arrive in Varuz claiming to be on a quest for the Holy Grail…?

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

An entertaining, if a little fast and simplistic read.

Although the plot wasn’t extremely complex (in that it was fairly straightforward, without many twists and turns), this novel nonetheless had its own depths. I liked the somber ambiance permeating it, the feeling of longing tinged with regret for days long gone, the despair reigning in Varuz more than the land’s own rulers could ever do. The strange narration (sometimes 3rd person, sometimes 1st person) was, well, strange, indeed; on the other hand, in some way, it fitted the mood. As if the narrator had patched up afterwards the events in which other people were involved, then put everything together to try and tell a story he needed to tell, out of nostalgic feelings in a crumbling world.

I liked the echoes, too, clearly linked to the Arthurian mythos: not only through the Grail’s quest, yet also etched within the relationships uniting some of the characters. Aurelian, the misguided ruler. Guena, his clever wife. Bernhardt, ever Guenas’ faithful servant, who would like to be more. Mikhail, rightful heir but shunned. I’d keep thinking “Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Mordred” here. However, these echoes unfurled a little differently, which was a good thing, as a complete retelling of the legend wouldn’t have been so interesting if it had been done just for that sake.

Where I was less satisfied was in some aspects of the world: I wish there had been more information about the technology in Varuz: its inhabitants used it without understanding it, and there was more to it, only nothing was really explained, and in the end it was left to vague warnings. In some cases, it wouldn’t be a problem, but here, the whole “medieval society” clashed a little with electricity and light sabers, and I think a better integration of these two extremes would have been welcome—at least for me.

Also, the Doctor wasn’t very present, and while Clara’s characterisation was okayish, it wasn’t much more than that. The “secondary characters” felt more present.

It paves the way for more, in any case. This is a trilogy, and more revelations are to come, I hope, about the mysterious, dangerous and elusive Glamour. I definitely want to see more of the beautiful ravage it can inflict on many worlds and people.

3 stars, but barely.

Yzabel / October 10, 2015

Review: The Conquering Dark

The Conquering Dark by Clay Griffith

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

The Crown and Key Society face their most terrifying villain yet: Gaios, a deranged demigod with the power to destroy Britain.

To avenge a centuries-old betrayal, Gaios is hell-bent on summoning the elemental forces of the earth to level London and bury Britain. The Crown and Key Society, a secret league consisting of a magician, an alchemist, and a monster-hunter, is the realm’s only hope—and to stop Gaios, they must gather their full strength and come together as a team, or the world will fall apart.

But Simon Archer, the Crown and Key’s leader and the last living magician-scribe, has lost his powers. As Gaios searches for the Stone of Scone, which will give him destructive dominion over the land, monster-hunter Malcolm MacFarlane, alchemist extraordinaire Kate Anstruther, gadget geek Penny Carter, and Charlotte the werewolf scramble to reconnect Simon to his magic before the world as they know it is left forever in ruins.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

I have to admit I read this third installment because I had received a copy to review, and I didn’t want to let it go to oblivion; however, I wouldn’t have picked it otherwise.

A lot of points I made in my reviews of the first two novels stand here again. The action scenes had a spectacular side, yet in the grand scheme of things didn’t bring that much to the plot nor to the characters. The magic system—”speaking a secret word” doesn’t do much for me (I want technobabble, to make the magic look “real”, like something the character truly masters and knows about). Again, the book read like a draft more than like an edited version (I’m not talking about proofing here), even considering it was an ARC; I could sense a lot of telling instead of showing scenes and thoughts, as well as sentence structures that could, and should, have been polished. I can only hope this was different in the final, printed version.

Also problematic was the characters’ growth. More time was devoted to Imogen and Charlotte, which was great, because their relationships with Kate for the one and Malcom for the other provide good opportunities for questioning. Who needs to accept whom? What if Imogen never goes back to being “human”? Can she accept that? And what of the monster hunter’s affection for the very creature he’s supposed to hunt? Unfortunately, they were more part of the story as new additions to the group, fighting alongside with the others—cf. the first action scene, making everybody look as if they’re some kind of badass society of supernatural-savvy people who’ve been fighting crime together for years. The gap between the events of book 2 and 3 (a few months) removes plenty of possibilities here, as we go for instance from one Imogen to a completely different one, without getting to see her evolve fully; this would’ve been very interesting to witness, at least in my opinion.

Penny was still full of fun and useful ideas (the battle fan: for when a lady cannot bring a gun). The others, though, I couldn’t really push myself to care about. The villain’s motives were somewhat shallow, which didn’t make them very interesting as characters either. More insight about Ash, Gaios and Byron’s relationships would’ve been necessary, to fully get why their group imploded for starters, and why everything turned sour to the point of a full-out war between Ash and Gaios. “Because I loved him and he didn’t love me back” is a bit… simplistic.

The story read like an average action movie, and was somewhat entertaining, but I already know I won’t remember much about it very soon.

Yzabel / September 25, 2015

Review: The Gap of Time

The Gap of Time: A Novel by Jeanette Winterson

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

The Winter’s Tale is one of Shakespeare’s “late plays.” It tells the story of a king whose jealousy results in the banishment of his baby daughter and the death of his beautiful wife. His daughter is found and brought up by a shepherd on the Bohemian coast, but through a series of extraordinary events, father and daughter, and eventually mother too, are reunited.

In Jeanette Winterson’s retelling of The Winter’s Tale we move from London, a city reeling after the 2008 financial crisis, to a storm-ravaged American city called New Bohemia. Her story is one of childhood friendship, money, status, technology and the elliptical nature of time. Written with energy and wit, this is a story of the consuming power of jealousy on one hand, and redemption and the enduring love of a lost child on the other.

Review:

[I received an advanced copy of this book through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

I’m not too familiar with Winterson’s writing—except for a puny page from Sexing the Cherry that I had to translate at uni a some 10 years ago—so I can’t comment on how this adaptation exercise affected her usual writing, or if there’s anything really noteworthy here, in one way or another.

As a retelling of a play I incidentally also had to study, and quite enjoyed, I found it interesting: close enough to Shakespeare’s work in its themes (and names), but different enough as well, in that the modern setting allowed for other ways of dealing with those themes.

I liked this new interpretation of the characters. Hermione’s death, for instance, carried through isolation from the media as well as from her family. What happened to Milo/Mamilius. How exactly Perdita was “lost”. The absent Oracle, replaced by a DNA test. The kingdoms being a corporation and a colony. The Sheperd as a poor musician, Autolycus as a wily car dealer. And, last but not least, the twist on Antigonus’s fate, in a surprising interpretation of the famous “exit, pursued by a bear” stage direction. The Winter’s Tale is not an easy play; retelling it is certainly not easy either; in any case, for me, it worked.

As with the play, I preferred the first part to the second—darker, edgier, also with a more hateful Leo/Leontes, through his vulgarity and the way he treated MiMi/Hermione, so blinded by his jealousy that he kept refusing the means to actually prove whether he was right or wrong. Mostly the characters evolved in a bleak setting of money and fake smiles, in lieu of a Court, where finding happiness was just impossible as long as Perdita wasn’t fully accepted among them. I can’t exactly explain why such a setting was more interesting to me than the “happy” one of Shep’s and Clo’s life, raising Perdita on the other side of the ocean… it just was. This doesn’t make the novel less good, though—it’s probably more a matter of personal preference.

I liked what became of Leo in the third part, too: repentant yet still himself, amending his ways yet not all of them, which made him… believable? As for the video game… not sure what to make of it, however I found it lending a strange, eerie, haunted quality to the story, a sort of gloomy backdrop to Leo’s and Xeno’s broken relationship, with MiMi as the single unattainable beacon of light in the darkness. Quite powerful imagery.

Although it’s not absolutely necessary to have read the original play, since a summary is provided, I would recommend doing so, if only to be able to properly draw the parallels between both.

Conclusion: with other authors such as Margaret Atwood and Gillian Flynn being involved in this project, on top of that, I think it is definitely worth another check later. Here’s to hope I’ll be able to get copies of these books as well!

Yzabel / September 21, 2015

Review: The Undying Legion

The Undying Legion by Clay Griffith

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

With a flood of dark magic about to engulf Victorian London, can a handful of heroes vanquish a legion of the undead? When monster-hunter Malcolm MacFarlane comes across the gruesome aftermath of a ritual murder in a London church, he enlists the help of magician-scribe Simon Archer and alchemist extraordinaire Kate Anstruther. Studying the macabre scene, they struggle to understand obscure clues in the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics carved into the victim’s heart—as well as bizarre mystical allusions to the romantic poetry of William Blake. One thing is clear: Some very potent black magic is at work. But this human sacrifice is only the first in a series of ritualized slayings. Desperate to save lives while there is still time, Simon, Kate, and Malcolm—along with gadget geek Penny Carter and Charlotte, an adolescent werewolf—track down a necromancer who is reanimating the deceased. As the team battles an unrelenting army of undead, a powerful Egyptian mummy, and monstrous serpentine demons, the necromancer proves an elusive quarry. And when the true purpose of the ritual is revealed, the gifted allies must confront a destructive force that is positively apocalyptic.

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

I’ve had the three novels of Crown & Key for quite a while, but only got to the second one now. Better late than never, I suppose.

I admit I still can’t reconcile the writing style in this trilogy with what I read a couple of years ago (The Vampire Empire series). Granted, I received Advanced Reader Copies, so there were likely changes in the published novels, but I’m not sure either there were that many between my copy and the final result. In general, the style felt more like a first draft’s: unedited, with a lot more telling than showing, including during fight scenes.

There are, again, good ideas and concepts here. Imogen’s need to accept her fate, even though her appearance shall ensure she cannot be easily accepted. Charlotte’s desire to find a home and be the little girl she is, to desperately use her “evil” nature to help her new “family” in spite of all the risks. Malcolm’s dilemma about her: can the hunter accept the beast? Penny’s inventions and the overall steampunk mood she brings to the story—she doesn’t get that much screen time, unfortunately, but her pistol and her bullets are fun. Necromancy (I’m always so partial to necromancy). Gruesome, bloody rituals, whose aim may be evil, or may not be: does the end justify such means?

But then, there are a lot of inconsistencies, too. Fight scenes made even weirder, as two characters do OK for instance against several werewolves, and it kind of makes you wonder what the fuss is about Charlotte (she can’t be so dangerous then, can she?). The use of necromancy: it’s cool in a creepy factor way, but doesn’t really seem to be that important when it comes to the rituals themselves, which in turns makes the use of a necromancer a little pointless (any “dark magician” can go about performing ritualistic murders). The uneven pace: a really strange combination of fast-paced action and lulls. A couple of decisions that didn’t make a lot of sense once you think about them, their only actual point being to drive the plot forward.

I’m not sure of what I should make of Kate’s and Simon’s budding relationship. The banter didn’t have as much appeal as I thought it would have; at times I just wanted them to go on with the plot and stop wasting their time. And yet, we don’t learn that much about the characters, and I would have liked said plot to focus on them in less trivial ways than it did. (So Malcolm has read Blake… Great, it still doesn’t make me feel a lot for him. What about more Malcolm & Jane, so that I could get more interested in that for the last book?)

Conclusion: 1.5 to 2 stars. Some fun scenes, fun inventions on Penny’s part, Charlotte is cute in her own ways, but I can’t bring myself to really care about the main characters. I’ll still read book 3, since I have it; I can’t promise I’ll enjoy it, though.

Yzabel / September 9, 2015

Review: The Secrets of Blood and Bone

The Secrets of Blood and Bone by Rebecca Alexander

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

Venice, 16th Century.
Having undertaken a mission of the upmost discretion, occultist and scholar Edward Kelley finds the answers he seeks are more perilous than can be believed, and his ultimate salvation means confronting the darkest deeds of his past.

England, 21st Century.
Running from her past and hiding from her future, Jackdaw Hammond buys a new home in the middle of nowhere. But her fresh start is threatened by a wild magic similar to her own. The legacy of Edward Kelley remains, and with their fates inexorably entwined, the battle for Jackdaw’s soul has just begun.

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

I had quite liked the first book in this series, but I didn’t enjoy this one as much. Perhaps because the pacing felt too slow, and the book to long for what it had to say? Either it would have worked better as a shorter read, or it would have deserved to be expanded on, developed more.

The format pretty much follows the same one as in the first book, interspersing the contemporary plot with one involving Edward Kelley again — this time in Venice, where he’s looking for information for the Dannick family, not realising he’s about to stumble upon another, dangerous family, as well as meet old acquaintances of the not-so-pleasant kind. The Dannicks in turn play a part in Jack’s and Sadie’s lives, too, as the two girls set into the cottage of a dead witch and gradually discover what really happened there.

There are very interesting ideas and questions raised here, all the more after reading The Secrets of Life and Death. Jack’s and Sadie’s fates as “borrowed timers” obviously tie into the whole matter of having to feed on blood to survive, and what it involves and implies: would Jack become a monster by doing so? Would she suffer side effects? Can she, Maggie and Felix afford to let Sadie try this too, even though her health is failing and she’s not likely to last as long as Jack has, even with the circles and potion?

However, while those points are indeed raised, not many answers are brought, and there’s only slight progress towards the end to explain what may be happening. Sure, this sets the backdrop for a third novel, but considering that not much happens in this one, all things considered, I think such developments could very well have occurred here instead. Not necessarily through Jack herself: more about Felix’s research, the people he met (Gina, Ivanova…), would have been nice as well.

The same is worth regarding Sadie. There’s something going on with her and the garden at the new cottage, and it was brushed upon rather than given the weight it deserved. It felt like Sadie was mostly meant to be the Damsel in Distress again, and this made her potential role and importance… somewhat less potent.

As for the two families, the one in Venice and the one in England, I didn’t find them so convincing as antagonists, and I think this is due to how little we actually see them “in action as villains”. There’s more telling than showing when it comes to the Dannicks — the other one seemed a little more convincing… although the bit about them at the end left me wondering how such a change came to be. Details were needed here as well in my opinion, after what the Kelley chapters allowed me to see.

Conclusion: a novel with interesting elements, but too shy in exploiting them.

Yzabel / September 3, 2015

Review: Armada

Armada by Ernest Cline

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Zack Lightman has spent his life dreaming. Dreaming that the real world could be a little more like the countless science-fiction books, movies, and videogames he’s spent his life consuming. Dreaming that one day, some fantastic, world-altering event will shatter the monotony of his humdrum existence and whisk him off on some grand space-faring adventure.

But hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little escapism, right? After all, Zack tells himself, he knows the difference between fantasy and reality. He knows that here in the real world, aimless teenage gamers with anger issues don’t get chosen to save the universe.

And then he sees the flying saucer.

Even stranger, the alien ship he’s staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armada—in which gamers just happen to be protecting the earth from alien invaders.

No, Zack hasn’t lost his mind. As impossible as it seems, what he’s seeing is all too real. And his skills—as well as those of millions of gamers across the world—are going to be needed to save the earth from what’s about to befall it.

It’s Zack’s chance, at last, to play the hero. But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can’t help thinking back to all those science-fiction stories he grew up with, and wondering: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little…familiar?

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel through NetGalley and Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

I loved Ready Player One by the same author, and I was rather worried about this one: reviews were extremely mixed, and I kept wondering whether I’d like it or not. In the end, while I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did RPO, I still managed to like it. Which doesn’t mean it’s not without faults. Basically, for me, this was all a constant game of “good!” and “but…!”.

Armada plays with a lot of tropes, from beginning to end. The video games-addicted kid living in the memory of a father he never knew, and who suddenly finds himself an ace in a top-secret military organisation where his gamer skills are of the utmost importance. Games used as training (more about this later). The hot gamer/hacker chick. A handful of mavericks saving the world. Faceless aliens threatening humanity. The same aliens’ strategy resembling so much that of a video game.

The downside is that, in a way, the novel also feels like some kind of wish-fulfilment, and this always tends to ring a bit silly. Unless this is another subverted trope? It’s difficult to tell. Another issue may be the way the novel ties into specific works, namely Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card . Although I didn’t read it, I know enough to see the links, and the same goes with movies mentioned along the way. It’s acknowledged in Armada, but I can’t make up my mind whether it’s homage or “borrowing too much”, so to speak. And then, there are all those “geek culture” references that are OK for a while, yet become burdensome in the end. They were more justified in RPO, because of the nature of the game itself and the hints the players had to decipher; here, they tether between “hey, funny”, “I don’t get it” and “you didn’t need to explain that”. (In other words, the balance is very thin between references readers may miss, references that are understandable and in the right places, and references that are likely to make one roll their eyes.)

The story itself could’ve been more original; on the other hand, it could also have been *less* original. All in all, it was interesting along the pattern it followed, if you like such patterns. Good call on some characters’ part to wonder about the aliens’ real goal. Also, the stakes are real. People do die in this book. The invasion leaves destruction in its wake, and the gamers have to quickly wake up and realise it’s not a joke, it’s not a game anymore. The way they’re quickly thrown into this new reality, brought to this realisation, was a “good” thing, as it made the threat more real. But! At the same time, the twists were fairly predictable. Or was it on purpose, to fit into the mould of tropey alien invasion stories?

Speaking of the characters: likeable enough, but nothing to write home about. Zack was probably too serious for his age, and the others didn’t left much of an impression. Nice and forgettable. I wish I could’ve gotten to know them better, see more of them, as it would have made more of an impact when X or Y got into trouble during a fight against the aliens, and so on. (And yet, again, I have to wonder: isn’t this also part of the private jokes contained in the novel—a bit like red shirts? Tricky, I tell you!)

2.5-3 stars, in the end, to even out things between all these “buts”. I didn’t dislike it, *but* I didn’t love it the way I had expected to. It had good ideas, *but* were they homage, playing on tropes, or just using existing works to build without too much effort? The characters were likeable, *but* very cardboard-like too. And so on. You get my drift…

Yzabel / August 30, 2015

Review: Mechanica

Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Nicolette’s awful stepsisters call her “Mechanica” to demean her, but the nickname fits: she learned to be an inventor at her mother’s knee. Her mom is gone now, though, and the Steps have turned her into a servant in her own home.

But on her sixteenth birthday, Nicolette discovers a secret workshop in the cellar and begins to dare to imagine a new life for herself. Could the mysterious books and tools hidden there—and the mechanical menagerie, led by a tiny metal horse named Jules—be the key to escaping her dreary existence? With a technological exposition and royal ball on the horizon, the timing might just be perfect for Nicolette to earn her freedom at last.

Gorgeous prose and themes of social justice and family shine in this richly imagined Cinderella retelling about an indomitable inventor who finds her prince . . . but realizes she doesn’t want a fairy tale happy ending after all.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley and Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

An interesting retelling of “Cinderella”, in that it veers away from the traditional Happy Ever After being brough by Finding True Love. Not that love isn’t nice, but I’ve always found it a bit… lackluster, in that it feels like a deus ex machina—why would there be any need for resourceful, smart, brave characters, right, since Love is meant to care of everything in the end! So this novel was a definite good change of pace, with Nick/Nicolette/Mechanica basically doing things herself, laying down her own plans and acting on them to get her own workshop. She was determined to reclaim her own life, without waiting on Prince Charming to come to the rescue, and I particularly liked that she realised this and chose her own path when other characters tried to force her into that particular mould.

Last but not least, the story focuses on friendship as a possible form of “love”, which isn’t something that I’ve seen that often in YA books, which too often only consider the couple aspect. Yet love has so many variations, offers so many possibilities…

The world itself was also intriguing, with its mix of steampunk-ish science and faerie wares, with the Fae getting the short end of the stick after having seen their lands conquered by the humans. It was a shame these two civilisations couldn’t coexist peacefully, and it raises the question of whether this could’ve been possible or not, or maybe if one of the sides (or both?) deliberately tried to sabotage relationships. Nick’s recollection of her childhood, of the family’s housekeeper, of her mother’s works—mixing technology and possibly a bit of magic—gave quite a few insights into how things degraded.

However, while the ideas carried through this retelling are excellent, I couldn’t help but be bored at times, as the story progressed rather slowly without exactly more than the basic original plot. Nicolette’s thoughts were not always the most interesting, and even though a Cinderella is supposed to be a solitary creature, so to speak, isolated from the world because of her step family, this resulted in maybe just a little too much beating around the bush. I think more interactions with Caro and Fin would have spiced up things a little, especially considering the relationship that developed between these three characters. Genuine female friendship, and none of the insta-dislike of the other girl because here’s a rival? Hell yeah. On the other hand, the lack of interactions in general made a certain love story border more on insta-love than anything else (not to mention that it developed in Nick’s fantasies more than “in real life”).

The other major “negative” point for me was how so many threads were left dangling. I’m not sure at all if this book is supposed to be a standalone or not. If it isn’t, it wasn’t made clear enough. If it is, then these plot points should’ve been resolved. The Ashes, more specifically, remain a mystery. What about the king’s latest decision regarding Faerie? And while the latter was a good element to include, somehow more details about the Fey themselves would’ve been a nice addition (and nice opportunities for twists and turns): revolution, trying to break the embargo, whatever… Only it didn’t happen. Here’s to hope it will happen in a next volume…

3 stars for the empowering message delivered throughout (make your own life, love yourself, don’t wait on a man to save you), and because I like machines and trinkets. Nevertheless, as it was rather uneventful, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would’ve otherwise.

Yzabel / August 15, 2015

Review: The Fold

The Fold by Peter Clines

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

STEP INTO THE FOLD.
IT’S PERFECTLY SAFE.

The folks in Mike Erikson’s small New England town would say he’s just your average, everyday guy. And that’s exactly how Mike likes it. Sure, the life he’s chosen isn’t much of a challenge to someone with his unique gifts, but he’s content with his quiet and peaceful existence.

That is, until an old friend presents him with an irresistible mystery, one that Mike is uniquely qualified to solve: far out in the California desert, a team of DARPA scientists has invented a device they affectionately call the Albuquerque Door. Using a cryptic computer equation and magnetic fields to “fold” dimensions, it shrinks distances so that a traveler can travel hundreds of feet with a single step.

The invention promises to make mankind’s dreams of teleportation a reality. And, the scientists insist, traveling through the Door is completely safe.

Yet evidence is mounting that this miraculous machine isn’t quite what it seems—and that its creators are harboring a dangerous secret.

As his investigations draw him deeper into the puzzle, Mike begins to fear there’s only one answer that makes sense. And if he’s right, it may only be a matter of time before the project destroys…everything.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

Excellent idea and premise, although I wasn’t really convinced by the ending.

I liked the main character’s ability (eidetic memory): although convenient, alright, it’s also interesting. Mike’s take on it, on life the way he wanted to lead it, may have seemed silly at first, yet kind of made sense at the same time: somewhat resenting being “special”, because it set him apart, made people react to him differently, perhaps even more because he “wasn’t trying”… but also pushing him to want to know more about that odd and potentially twisted government project his old friend Reggie sends him on. Both a blessing and a curse, so to speak.

As for the project itself, “teleportation” in general is one of those ideas that have always fascinated me (and not only because long commutes are getting old fairly quickly). Space-folding is definitely a subset of this, with all the questions, the “hows” and the “what ifs…” it raises; the main theme behind the Albuquerque Door project grabbed my attention from the beginning, and I eagerly kept reading to see what would unfold (no pun intended), what the catch was, how the characters would react… I suppose Mike should’ve guessed sooner, perhaps? I don’t know. Everybody was behaving in shifty ways and sending mixed signals, which in retrospect was totally normal, so probably anyone, even a genius, would be confused at some point. These strange relationships between, on the one hand, scientists and engineers who all had their quirks, and Mike with his own quirks too on the other hand, were intriguing. Much like Reggie himself, as a reader, I could feel that something was wrong, yet without being able to put my finger on what exactly.

The Big Reveal didn’t disappoint: extremely logical yet unexpected enough, as there could have been several other explanations behind the science of the Door and what happened every time it was opened. This part of the novel had a Fringe-quality for me (the TV series, I mean), and was intriguing as well as horrifying, considering what it involved and implied for the characters. That was clearly a world-shattering revelation.

My main issue with this story was its last third, when the horror was given a face, so to speak. The ontological implications of the Door, the secret behind it, were more horrifying for me than what happened afterwards. By comparison, the “regulation system” (for want of a non-spoilerish term) seemed banal and a bit cliché. The way the characters chose to solve the issue was unfortunately a cliché as well, and I wasn’t really sold on the romance part either. (The latter was both really important, as it allowed to unveil the mystery, and enough on the side to keep me from rolling my eyes—too often, in many novels, characters are busy frolicking instead of attending more pressing matters such as saving the world.)

Conclusion: An interesting novel, with a fascinating theme that raises a lot of questions, prompting a lasting malaise in turn. However, the ending felt disappointing when pitched against the rest. 3.5 stars.

Yzabel / May 4, 2015

Review: Black Dog

Black Dog: Hellhound Chronicles by Caitlin Kittredge

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

Ava has spent the last hundred years as a hellhound, the indentured servant of a reaper who hunts errant souls and sends them to Hell. When a human necromancer convinces her to steal her reaper’s scythe, Ava incurs the wrath of the demon Lilith, her reaper’s boss.

As punishment for her transgression, Lilith orders Ava to track down the last soul in her reaper’s ledger… or die trying.

But after a hundred years of servitude, it’s time for payback. And Hell hath no fury like an avenging Ava…

Review:

(I got an ARC of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.)

Interesting setting, but ultimately the characters didn’t keep me invested enough in the story. I wasn’t sure at first why; in the end, I think it was because they were presented as badass, did have an etremely badass-y potential, yet didn’t make enough use of this potential.

The good thing was that it made them vulnerable, more human, not the kind of characters who win all the time and tear through their enemies like there’s no tomorrow. Ava had a painful past, was abused and betrayed, and this makes it quite ironical that she ended up as a hound, expected to show the loyalty that was never really shown to her when she was alive.

On the other hand, there were also several moments when they were too weak, didn’t see through their enemies’ ploys, ended up in dire situations because they hadn’t been careful enough (though they knew they should have been)… Here’s a Hellhound and a warlock who keep being on the wrong end of the stick, being the underdogs (pun intended), and it’s not something I had expected from them. Obstacles and trials? Sure… Only not with such similar endings (character gets into problems, gets beaten up, blacks out, wakes up in an unknown room with someone who may or may not be an enemy…). This was all the more annoying with Ava, who’s supposed to be close to a century old, and not just a budding Hellpuppy. Ava who keeps making wrong decision after wrong decision. You’d think she’d learn. (Also, akward sex scene out of nowhere.)

The setting itself was OK, with elements that could easily be used and developed later again: Leo’s father and his thugs; what happened in Hell; whether Ava will be really free or not; the way boundaries aren’t so well-defined when it comes to demons and angels, as being a meanie isn’t limited to “the bad guys”… There’s potential here as well, including vampires and shifters— not the most original I’ve ever seen, but not the cheesiest either. And necromancers. Shall I state once again how partial I am to necromancy?

Good ideas in general. My main beef with the book were the characters, whom I mostly found unremarkable, when they should have been.

Yzabel / April 24, 2015

Review: The Girl Who Never Was

The Girl Who Never Was by Skylar Dorset

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

THE GIRL WHO NEVER WAS is the story of Selkie Stewart, who thinks she’s a totally normal teenager growing up in Boston. Sure, her father is in an insane asylum, her mother left her on his doorstep—literally—when she was a baby, and she’s being raised by two ancient aunts who spend their time hunting gnomes in their Beacon Hill townhouse. But other than that her life is totally normal! She’s got an adventurous best friend who’s always got her back and an unrequited crush on an older boy named Ben. Just like any other teenager, right?

When Selkie goes in search of the mother she’s never known, she gets more than she bargained for. It turns out that her mother is faerie royalty, which would make Selkie a faerie princess—except for the part where her father is an ogre, which makes her only half of anything. Even more confusing, there’s a prophecy that Selkie is going to destroy the tyrannical Seelie Court, which is why her mother actually wants to kill her. Selkie has been kept hidden all her life by her adoring aunts, with the help of a Salem wizard named Will. And Ben. Because the boy she thinks she’s in love with turns out to be a faerie whose enchantment has kept her alive, but also kept her in the dark about her own life.

Now, with enchantments dissolved and prophecies swinging into action, Selkie finds herself on a series of mad quests to save the people she’s always loved and a life she’s learning to love. But in a supernatural world of increasingly complex alliances and distressingly complicated deceptions, it’s so hard to know who to trust. Does her mother really wish to kill her? Would Will sacrifice her for the sake of the prophecy? And does Ben really love her or is it all an elaborate ruse? In order to survive, Selkie realizes that the key is learning—and accepting—who she really is.

Review:

(I received an ARC copy through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review. Since it was an ARC, though, some things may be different in the published version of this book.)

I am sorely late in reading and reviewing this book. My mistake for not keeping track of when which review was due. Apologies to the publisher for this. Unfortunately, I have to admit I didn’t like this book, balancing between “it’s OK” and “this is getting long… are we there yet?”

It had plenty of ideas and themes that I normally would like. Fae, for starters, as well as wizards and ogres. A blue-and-orange-morality take on said fae, as well as a Seelie Court that is all but full of “nice fairies” (they’ll kill someone because they can, and when asked “why”, they’ll answer “why not?”). Boston as a stronghold for the supernaturals, built over the centuries through magic and enchantments. One of the characters has the power to travel between the human world and the fae lands. And so on.

On the other hand, I just couldn’t connect with the characters. Selkie reacted too often like a kid rather than as a 17-year-old girl, acting impetuously and making rash decisions, sometimes to the point of reaching Too Stupid To Live status. Her friend wasn’t so much better. Putting yourself in danger to save someone is a noble thing, even if it means willingly jumping into a trap, but Selkie did it with too little preparation; as a result, her attempt at rescue was pretty much… useless.

Conversely, her tantrums weren’t totally unjustified either, because of all the other characters’ tendency to never tell her anything, never explain, arguing that “it’s not yet time”… and we all know that the “let’s keep you in the dark in order to protect you” trope has a severe tendency to backfire about 99% of the time, all the more in YA novels, because the teenager will just jump into dangerous situations anyway—the only difference being they’ll lack important information that would help them. Moreover, keeping the character sheltered from knowledge for 50% of the story (at least) also means keeping the reader confused. While I managed to make sense of who was doing what at some point, let’s just say it was thanks to my ability to piece things together, not to the novel doling out information in a useful way.

The characters in general felt too flat. Her aunts weren’t indistinguishable from each other, and the Seelie queen could have been so much scarier, be so much more cruel… Instead, she didn’t look like much of a threat, despite her powers and her ability to use Names to weaken or even kill other fae. All in all, it should’ve been a desperate predicament for Selkie, considering what the wizard and her aunts told her, yet I never get a sense of a real threat coming from the Seelie fae. They did harmful things… just not to the extent I expected them to.

Not relating to the characters also meant I couldn’t connect with the romance. It was just there—too one-sided for a long time, before taking a sudden U-turn. I’m not a good audience for romance as a whole, and I know it’s difficult to find a love story that will touch me, but here, it was definitely a miss. I couldn’t bring myself to care about it, and the “stay with me because you love me” part made me roll my eyes.

I still liked the setting, though, both Tir na nOg and Boston/Parsymeon. It just wasn’t enough to keep me interested.