NetGalley Archives - Page 47 of 48

Yzabel / October 5, 2013

Review: One Great Year

My rating: [rating=1]

Summary:

As the world descends from a Golden Age into darkness and brutality, Marcus has been reincarnated an exhausting number of times. Selected to become an Emissary, it is his duty to protect the ancient secrets. His adventure is heightened because he secretly consumes a serum that allows him to have memory from one lifetime to the next. In doing so, he sets himself up for thousands of years of torment, loneliness, and searching.

Desperate to never forget his soulmate, Theron, and never sure if he was truly meant to be an Emissary, Marcus struggles through lifetimes to overcome his cruel and powerful nemesis, Helghul.

Fusing the adventure of Indiana Jones with the introspection and wisdom of Eckhart Tolle, One Great Year takes readers on an epic journey through history, following characters who are born and reborn as they struggle to triumph over evil.

Review:

(I got this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

I must unfortunately admit I had a very hard time finishing this book, and only did so because I was supposed to review it.

The ideas behind it are interesting, and could indeed have spanned for quite an epic over millenia. Besides, I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of reincarnation and those linked to it (such as that of the jati), and being able to also see the characters in some of their previous lives is something I tend to like in books. But I found the execution lacking here.

What turned me off almost from the beginning was how everything, or almost, was told instead of shown, which made up for a dull style, and one hard to stand for so many pages. As a result, connecting with the characters was difficult, both because this kept me distanciated from them and because of how one-dimensional they seemed. I never got why Helghul made such a choice in the cave, for instance, and mostly he appeared like a tantrum-throwing kid who only wanted Theron because Marcus wanted her. What were his initial motives, anyway? As for Theron, she was described as so perfect in every way in her first life that she was just unbearable; then her sole purpose in the following ones seemed to be the object of Marcus’s quest, as well as a kind of prize for Helghul. There was also quite a lot of head-jumping, with the point of view quickly shifting from one character to the other and, again, telling the reader about everything, including a bit of foreshadowing (to be fair: I like the latter when it’s done through events, only not when it’s through explanatory sentences).

Another big peeve of mine was how Marcus, basically, totally wasted his ‘gift’. I thought his having memories of his past lives would prompt him to *do* something in each new life, if only to further his chances of finding Theron, but he didn’t seem to do much, especially in his latest life, with so many means at one’s disposal. Somehow, I found myself rooting for the bad guys, because they, at least, had been planning ahead and showing signs of cleverness. With heroes like those, no need for enemies, I guess.

It’s too bad. I really wanted to like this story. But I just couldn’t.

Yzabel / September 30, 2013

Review: Quin’s Shanghai Circus

Quin’s Shanghai Circus by Edward Whittemore

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

Quin, born in China and raised in the Bronx, is orphaned in the closing days of the Second World War when his parents go missing and are presumed dead in Shanghai. Years later, in a Bronx bar, Quin encounters a stranger who hints that he can uncover the secrets of his past by accompanying Big Gobi, an adult orphan too simpleminded to travel alone, on a journey to meet his guardian in Tokyo. Quin arrives in Japan determined to uncover the truth about his parents’ past, but his search soon raises more questions than answers. What are the connections between a Russian anarchist, a one-eyed baron who is head of the Japanese secret service known as the Kempeitai, and the atrocities committed during the rape of Nanking? And what does any of it have to do with Quin’s parents?

Part espionage novel and part surreal fantasy, Quin’s Shanghai Circus, the first novel by Edward Whittemore, is a remarkable and audacious literary feat. Alive with a fascinating cast of characters and equally enthralling turns of events, former CIA officer Whittemore offers readers a mesmerizing glimpse at a secret history of the twentieth century.

Review:

(I got an ebook copy from the publisher through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

This book was a pretty weird one, in that I couldn’t honestly tell at first whether I was liking it or not, nor where it was going. At the same time, those very impressions (or lackthereof) may be what contributed to my appreciating it in the end, as paradoxical as it sounds. Reading it, seeing the story unfold, was like working on a jigsaw puzzle whose final picture I didn’t know, yet wanted to see no matter what. I always found myself coming back to my tablet to get to the next chapter.

It’s probably not a novel for just everyone. Some of the themes it deals with expose all the crass of human nature, through conflict between Japan and China and severe misdeeds from some characters(rape, murder, mutilation…), and such scenes are often depicted in a graphic enough way to be considered as disgusting. I admit those weren’t my favourite parts.

On the other hand, what I found fascinating were the relationships fitting within each other. This is basically what the novel is about: relationships above everything else, how they got shaped through events, what led to certain people to work together or become friends or lovers… The characters often had features that made them unforgettable, even bigger than life—something that may not have been convincing in another story, but felt somehow oddly logical and normal here.

“Quin’s Shanghai Circus” is definitely a strange book, sometimes disturbing, sometimes shedding light, on the contrary, on what’s still good in humans. “Read at your own risk”, I’d say.

Yzabel / September 27, 2013

Review: Shakespeare v. Lovecraft

Shakespeare vs. Lovecraft: A Horror Comedy Mash-Up featuring Shakespeare’s Characters and Lovecraft’s Creatures by D.R. O’Brien

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” — William Shakespeare

“In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.” —Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

In the same putrid vein as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Shakespeare v. Lovecraft slithers hideously onto the literary mash-up scene, whispering of cosmic horrors and eldritch tales whilst espousing sweet soliloquys and profoundly contemplating mankind’s place in the universe.

Prospero, driven dangerously insane by prolonged exposure to the dread Necronomicon, makes a terrible pact with the titanic alien beast known only as Cthulhu. Now only his enchantress daughter Miranda and a handful of history’s greatest heroes are all that stand between humanity and blasphemous eternal subjugation.

It’s a bloodbath of Shakespearean proportions as Cthulhu and his eldritch companions come at our protagonists from all manner of strange geometric angles in a hideous and savage battle for supremacy.

This horror-comedy novella of 36,000 words will seize you in its clammy grip and not release you until you have gone positively mad with delight! Witness all this and more:

Histrionic Heroes vs. Tentacled Terrors!!! Endless Soliloquys vs. Unnatural Silences!!!
Romeo vs. Mi-Go!!! England’s Royal Beasts vs. A Shoggoth!!!
The Author vs. Iambic Pentameter!!!

Review:

(I received an e-copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

2.5 stars. I liked some parts better than others.

Overall, this book was a quick and nice read that made me smile, although I can’t say it made me actually laugh.

I appreciated the numerous winks to and quotes to Shakespeare, of course. The latter may be both a strength and a weakness: just knowing a couple of lines from the Bard isn’t enough to get them, since they cross-reference several plays (The Tempest first, but also Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Henry V, Henry IV, A Midsummer’s Night Dream… and others). If one knows these works well enough, the inserts are likely to look awesome (personnally, I loved Henry V’s “Gods, stand up for mankind!”, alluding to Edmund’s soliloquy in King Lear); otherwise, they may fall flat. The same goes with Lovecraft—and I’m positive I missed a few things regarding those parts, since I haven’t read his works in the past eight years or so. I suppose that such mash-ups don’t appeal to people who don’t like the original novels they’re inspired from, so it’s not that much of a problem; but it could be for readers who know only a little.

The writing style attempts at emulating both Shakespeare’s and HPL’s. In my opinion, sometimes it manages, and sometimes it fails, making reading somewhat fastidious; I’m thinking about the heavy use of adverbs stacked almost one upon the other, among other things, which made a lot of sentences and paragraphs look weird. This is somewhat paradoxical, considering how short the book is (86 pages or so).

Also, the narrative itself regularly seemed more of a pretext than a real story. Again, this may not be the aim of a mash-up (I admit I haven’t read a lot of those, so perhaps I’m just a poor judge), but I still expected events to be stringed in a more streamlined way. As it is, I couldn’t care about the characters like I would have for Shakespeare’s, nor did I get the feeling of human life easily discarded as I would in Lovecraft’s works.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad read, though. Only I was expecting more, and therefore ended up disappointed.

Yzabel / September 26, 2013

Review: A Study in Darkness

A Study in Darkness by Emma Jane Holloway

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

When a bomb goes off at 221B Baker Street, Evelina Cooper is thrown into her Uncle Sherlock’s world of mystery and murder. But just when she thought it was safe to return to the ballroom, old, new, and even dead enemies are clamoring for a place on her dance card.

Before Evelina’s even unpacked her gowns for a country house party, an indiscretion puts her in the power of the ruthless Gold King, who recruits her as his spy. He knows her disreputable past and exiles her to the rank alleyways of Whitechapel with orders to unmask his foe.

As danger mounts, Evelina struggles between hiding her illegal magic and succumbing to the darker aspects of her power. One path keeps her secure; the other keeps her alive. For rebellion is brewing, a sorcerer wants her soul, and no one can protect her in the hunting ground of Jack the Ripper.

Review:

(I received an ARC e-copy of this book from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

This second installment in the “Baskerville Affair” series takes a darker turn for its protagonists, in a good way. The author keeps on developing an interesting society, dominated by manipulative steam barons who all seek to move their pawns and take new ones in the process. She also weaves unsolved elements from the first book into this one, allowing to make more sense of what happened then, and introduces a few more questions that pave the way for volume three… not to mention two cliffhangers at the end, regarding the fate of two characters.

Evelina is now faced with harsher choices, partly due to her own mistakes, the latter being as many opportunities to make her fall. However, she does her best to keep her head high, and do what she must do while trying to find a solution to her predicament. Some of her decisions may seem rash or stupid, but much less so when remembering she’s only 19, and pitched again people twice her age (at least), who have had much more experience in the great game of manipulation. There’s potential here for some huge comeback on her part, as well as for temptation of the darkest kind, and I sure want to know what she’s going to do in the last part of the series.

The romance aspect remains present, in a more interesting way than the somewhat feeble triangle from book one. Evelina seems to make a decision in that regard that suits her personality much more, although it’s a source of problems in and of itself. Here, too, lie more opportunities for the author to exploit later, and I hope this will be the case. I like what Nick has become: he’s going about his new life and decisions with gusto, and although he’s on the wrong side of the law, he’s probably one of the more decent people in all that, along with Imogen and, surprisingly, Alice Keating (who was given the short end of the straw, yet seems to be able to fall back on her feet in the future).

No ties with canon Sherlock Holmes cases this time; on the other hand, it’s the fall of 1888, and a lot of scenes are set in Whitechapel… This period, setting and characters imply another cameo, of course, and this time the murderer is in my opinion quite unexpected, although logical when considering the big picture.

I wasn’t too thrilled with the characterization of Holmes in this book, but he doesn’t appear that much, and he’s not the main focus of the story, so it didn’t bother me as much as if everything had revolved about him.

Yzabel / September 23, 2013

Review: The Cypher

The Cypher by Julian Rosado-Machain

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

GUARDIANS INC.: THE CYPHER is two stories in one. A glimpse into a multinational company that is in reality the oldest of secret societies, one that spans close to seven thousand years of existence, weaving in and out of history, guiding and protecting humanity from creatures and forces that most of us believe are only mythology and fairy tales.

The other is the story of Thomas Byrne, a young man thrust into secrets he shouldn’t be aware of and dangers he shouldn’t face, but that he ultimately will, for he is a Cypher. The only one who can steer humanity’s future.

The ultimate conspiracy theory is that Magic is real. Kept in check by technology, but every five hundred years the balance can shift and, if it does, technology will fail and those creatures we’ve driven into myth will come back with a vengeance.

To protect the present, Guardians Incorporated needs to know the future.

Review:

(I got an ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

This novel was likeable enough, but in the end, I’ll probably forget it quickly, in spite of its good points.

You don’t get bored with the story: there’s always something happening. It is also rife with good ideas regarding magic, its role in shaping the world, elementals, various fantastic creatures, and basically lets us see a world close to our own, yet fundamentally different no matter what. Most of the characters all have their distinct features, and pave the way for more development later on. The concept of the Cypher, too, was fascinating: it’s kind of like being a super-librarian and super-translator at once, and as someone who likes both those fields of work, well, of course I would like that! Same with how the author included the works of H.P. Lovecraft, and various books supposedly never published for common people, yet available in the special Guardians’ library.

On the other hand, even though the story was interesting, I found myself dragging through it. I wasn’t sure why at first, but I think it had to do with the discrepancy between the main character and the style, among other things: although Thomas is in high school, the book reads more like a middle-grade novel, and this became strange after a while. I’m sure I’d have liked it a lot more when I was 13, but not at 17-18 (which seems to be the intended audience). Furthermore, while it’s indeed packed with action, sometimes things just moved too fast, and I had to pause and flip back to see if I hadn’t missed anything in between. A downside to this is that the characters don’t get fleshed out as much as they could have in other circumstances—Thomas especially appeared as somewhat ‘flat’ compared to others. Finally, I also wondered several times at some of the decisions made by the adults in the book (I would’ve expected them to be more clever).

All in all, “The Cypher” will likely please readers from the middle-grade crowd, but perhaps not older ones.

Yzabel / September 9, 2013

Review: A Study in Silks

A Study in Silks by Emma Jane Holloway

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

Evelina Cooper, the niece of the great Sherlock Holmes, is poised to enjoy her first Season in London’s high society. But there’s a murderer to deal with—not to mention missing automatons, a sorcerer, and a talking mouse.

In a Victorian era ruled by a council of ruthless steam barons, mechanical power is the real monarch, and sorcery the demon enemy of the empire. Nevertheless, the most coveted weapon is magic that can run machines—something Evelina has secretly mastered. But rather than making her fortune, her special talents could mean death or an eternity as a guest of Her Majesty’s secret laboratories. What’s a polite young lady to do but mind her manners and pray she’s never found out?

But then there’s that murder. As Sherlock’s niece, Evelina should be able to find the answers, but she has a lot to learn. And the first decision she has to make is whether to trust the handsome, clever rake who makes her breath come faster, or the dashing trick rider who would dare anything for her if she would only just ask.

Review:

(I got an ARC ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

For once, I’ll say I liked this story better than I expected to. I can be a terribly grouchy fan of good old Sherlock Holmes, and among the few other books I read in which he makes an appearance, only two really managed to grip me (one because the author managed to emulate Doyle’s style and narrative as much as possible, and the other for totally different reasons, with a very different Holmes, too). The reasons behind this reluctance of mine are usually of three kinds: character betrayal, easy Deux Ex Machina and badly disguised fanfiction, complete with self-inserts. I don’t think “A Study in Silks” fell into those pitfalls, or so little that it didn’t impede my reading pleasure.

Evelina is definitely the main character here, and stands her ground as a strong young woman, even though she commits mistakes and is clearly not on par (yet?) with her uncle in terms of investigating. But then, could anyone be, especially someone as young and yet to learn much more from life, especially in a society such as hers, and torn as she is between two worlds? Considering her circumstances, I thought she actually did quite a good job with the hands she was dealt. Besides, while I’m not always a big proponent of the romance aspect, I find it to be quite à propos in Victorian-like settings, women being expected to either marry or earn a living through a limited range of jobs only (governess, school teacher, maid…). In that regard, Evelina’s problems and on-the-side “errings” make sense.

Add magic (banished and rejected!) and lobbying, powerful steam barons who can disconnect people, both directly (cutting gas supplies) and indirectly (being without lighting means Society understanding you’re a reject), and you’ve got a complex world in which to navigate. Clearly it wasn’t described entirely here, far from it, but I got enough to form a proper vision of my own, and to wish to read the next installment in order to learn more about it.

The book shifts through several points of view, not only Evelina’s, which is a little unusual at first for a mystery novel: it cuts on potential culprits fairly quickly, since when we switch to their POV, we know they’re not guilty (and conversely). However, in the long run, the technique worked; the plot is complicated enough as it is, and using only Evie’s POV may have forced the author to resort to other tricks to have everything solved, which in turn may have seemed too convenient. As for Sherlock Holmes himself, although he wasn’t on the same level as the original character (can any be?), he was far from being the worst, too. I liked how he was tied to canon happenings (Bohemia, Irene Adler…), which allowed for him to have an influence on the story as a whole, without intervening too directly, yet without being shoved aside “just because” either. Though he helps to solve the mystery, he doesn’t do all the work—and there are things himself doesn’t know, and that his niece won’t tell him about, thus leaving her with the ace of magic under her sleeve.

While the main story gets wrapped up, the ending is an open one: not a “how frustrating!” cliffhanger, but with enough things left unsolved, and enough new elements, to allow, I think, for a second book with more than just a couple of leads to chase. As for the love triangle, at first I wasn’t convinced (they’re so common nowadays!). Nevertheless, both love interests have a darker side. Both end up in shady deeds. Neither is totally black or white, and Evelina isn’t blind to that, keeping her wits about her and not melting as soon as she sees them, although part of her sure wishes to. Things didn’t pan out as I expected them to, and this was a nice surprise, leaving open roads here as well.

If one thing, I think the book might have been a trifle too long, or perhaps dwellt a little too much on some aspects (marriage prospects, romance for more than one character…) to my liking. But, again, this fits within the Victorian-like setting—much more than it fits in many contemporary ones, to be honest.

Yzabel / August 30, 2013

Review: Under a Graveyard Sky

Under a Graveyard Sky by John Ringo

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

A family of survivors who fight back against a zombie plague that has brought down civilization.

Zombies are real. And we made them. Are you prepared for the zombie apocalypse? The Smith family is, with the help of a few marines.

When an airborne “zombie” plague is released, bringing civilization to a grinding halt, the Smith family, Steven, Stacey, Sophia and Faith, take to the Atlantic to avoid the chaos. The plan is to find a safe haven from the anarchy of infected humanity. What they discover, instead, is a sea composed of the tears of survivors and a passion for bringing hope.

For it is up to the Smiths and a small band of Marines to somehow create the refuge that survivors seek in a world of darkness and terror. Now with every continent a holocaust and every ship an abattoir, life is lived beneath a graveyard sky.

Review:

(I received an ebook ARC of this novel through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

This is an oddball to review, and I still don’t know what to think of it.

On the one hand, I liked the ideas developed in it. A family already having a plan in case of a zombie apocalypse? Well, why not. They have the right connections to be informed of such things first-hand, and it’s not harder to believe in that than in, say, a family during the early Cold War living in fear of, and preparing for, a potential nuclear war. I found it interesting to see them go from “save ourselves” to “let’s try to save as many people as they can”, with all the problems stemming from organising a whole flotilla: fuel, food, who’s going to give the orders, potential dissenters who could become real trouble… Fortunately, the main characters weren’t stupid, and I appreciated seeing them not giving weapons to just anyone, and remaining just the right shade of paranoid in that regard.

On the other hand, the pacing of the book really puzzled me. I was expecting it to be more about the survival part, but the first half went much more slowly compared to the second one (the one about gathering survivors and organising a new society at sea). Some of the decisions taken by highers up seemed too crazy to be believable (for instance, who they enlisted to help create a vaccine…), and there were moments when things went like a breeze, not giving much sense of urgency. The concert at the end of part one was another mind-boggling element: fun to read on the moment, but not making that much sense in hindsight. And then we switch to part two, without having actually seen the full unfolding of the apocalypse, going from some zombies in the streets to full already-wiped-out civilisation. I guess I’d have liked to see more of that, and earlier in the story. The transition was too abrupt.

Also, the pacing in that second part felt really weird. It was more a slice-of-life (well, slice-of-killing-zombies-spree) kind of story, with lots of switching between the various characters involved, and after a while, this made the book difficult to go on with, in that it lacked smoothness in its transitions. On top of this, Faith above all was a puzzling character. When and where exactly did she get the training that allowed her to kick ass the way she did? How come she didn’t get crazy (there are some bits about that towards the end, but not as well-exploited as they could have been)?

“Under a Graveyard Sky” has a lot of potential, but in the end, it didn’t cut it for me. Too bad, because I wish it had.

Yzabel / August 1, 2013

Review: Arrow of the Mist

Arrow of the Mist by Christina Mercer

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

Terror strikes the Celtic inspired kingdom of Nemetona when barbed roots breach the veil of a forbidden land and poison woodsmen, including 15-year-old Lia’s beloved father. Lia and three others embark on a quest to the forbidden land of Brume to gather ingredients for the cure. But after her elder kinsman is attacked and poisoned, she and her cousin, Wynn, are forced to finish the quest on their own.

Lia relies on her powerful herbal wisdom and the memorized pages of her late grandmother’s Grimoire for guidance through a land of soul-hungry shades, trickster creatures, and uncovered truths about the origin of Brume and her family’s unexpected ties to it. The deeper they trek into the land, the stronger Lia’s untapped gift as a tree mage unfolds. When she discovers the enchanted root’s maker, it forces her to question everything about who she is and what is her destiny. Ultimately she must make a terrible choice: keep fighting to save her father and the people of the lands or join with the power behind the deadly roots to help nature start anew.

Review:

(I got this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

“Arrow of the Mist” reads fast, and is brimming with vivid descriptions. Throughout the whole story, I found it easy to picture what was happening, the places the characters went through, and even the plants themselves (I’m really not well-versed in that area at all). The world it is sent in seemed vibrant and vivid, pitching a normal-enough country (Nemetonia) against the mysterious and enchanted Brume, where many creatures dwell, and where magic is far from being extinct.

Lia is a strong character, who knows what she wants, doesn’t hesitate to take matters into her own hands, and uses her knowledge to the best of her ability to help her family and her fellow villagers, even though some of the latter don’t seem to always be too kind with her. Yet her courage goes hand to hand with stubbornness, and her eagerness to save her kinsmen sometimes causes her to make rash decisions. She’s reliable, but not perfect, and as such, connecting with her becomes easy. This is helped, I think, by the fact that she travels with family and friends; the bonds uniting them are here from the start, not forged through random encounters and other wishy-washy reasons.

Paradoxically enough, though, the book’s strong points felt like shortcomings at times. While Lia gains in self-confidence and discovers her powers, the other characters don’t seem to evolve, and as such remained somewhat flat throughout the story. I think we weren’t given enough to see regarding their own personalities and lives before the quest started. The romance bit was awkward, and might have been best kept for the end of the book, with potential development in the next installment; as it is, it looked to me like it fell out of nowhere, then was quickly shoved out of the way. It wasn’t an essential aspect of the plot (Lia had enough people to save back home without adding the hope of seeing her love interest again on top of it), and therefore felt a little misplaced. In the same way, the world was beautifully described, but some parts were barely brushed off (the village’s life, for instance, or why the official rulers dismissed “the old ways”), leaving maybe too much room to forest-wandering that didn’t allow me to get a proper grasp of some potential other stakes in the story.

All in all, I enjoyed reading it. However, if I end up picking the second volume, I hope those questions will be given answers to at some point.

Yzabel / July 28, 2013

Review: Broken Elements

Broken Elements by Mia Marshall

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

“It’s happening again, Aidan. We didn’t stop it, after all.”

As an elemental, Aidan Brook holds the power of water at her fingertips. A descendant of the earth’s oldest magic, she can cause tides to ebb and flow, put out house fires without calling 911, and give anyone who’s annoying her an impromptu shower.

But even her magic has its limits. After it fails her one terrible night, she hides from the world and everyone she once loved, trying to escape the memories that haunt her. Ten years later, her exile is brought to an abrupt end when her former best friend appears on her front porch. An elemental killer is once again murdering her friends, and she must return to the scene of her own crimes.

Lake Tahoe proves more than she bargained for. Between a sadistic killer, some clever FBI agents, an annoyingly attractive landlord, and way too many new roommates, she has a pretty full plate. Add in a past she’s desperate to escape and her own uncontrollable powers, and Aidan Brook is having a very, very bad month.

Review:

3.5 stars. “Broken Elements” reads fast and with ease. While elemental powers are nothing new in itself, they were woven into the story in a seamless way that made sense.

I really liked the relationship between Aidan and Sera, and their interactions that were sometimes bumpy, but always speaking of their underlying affection for each other. The downside was maybe that compared to these two, the other characters seemed a little flat, less defined—albeit still enjoyable (I quite liked Simon’ behaviour). I also appreciated that the romantic interest was woven in gradually, and didn’t end up in full-blown eternal-love-at-first-sight: there’s still room for evolution in it, that will hopefully span over the next book(s), and this seems more natural to me than the contrary.

The author took care of avoiding info-dumps as much as possible; however, there still was a big one in the first chapters, which seemed a bit forced. I was also left dubious about the involvement of some of the human characters (no names here, to avoid spoiler), who I expected would have been more suspicious after the revelation of elemental powers: after all, it was the girls’ word against their meager knowledge, so how would they be sure said girls told the whole truth? Finally, I thought that sometimes, the characters reacted a little too much like “young” people: they have lived for several decades, so I’d expect more wisdom from them. (But this is something that I always find tricky in books dealing with older-than-they-seem and/or immortal characters; it’s clearly not an easy job to do.)

All in all, though, I still enjoyed this story, and will very likely pick the next volume to learn more about the world and characters presented in the first one.

Yzabel / July 26, 2013

Review: Angel on the Ropes

Angel on the Ropes by Jill Shultz

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

Dazzling trapeze artist Amandine Sand leads a perilous double life. Will her secret—and her choices—save her planet or ruin it?

Amandine walks a high wire between two lives—hobbled by a life-threatening secret. She’s one of the spotted humans wrongly accused of being a plague carrier. These “leopards” are hunted by zealots to protect their offworld colony from the scourge. Despite this threat, Amandine spends her days guiding other leopards to an underground shelter run by the pacifist Seekers. At night, with her own spots hidden, she takes to the air, the one place this extraordinary artist feels free and gloriously alive.

When the persecution of leopards explodes into widespread violence, the Seekers demand more of her time. But her circus is teetering toward bankruptcy and desperately needs her, too. She has no time to breathe… and then she meets a stranger who leaves her breathless. And might just be the biggest risk of all. If her trust is misplaced and she’s unmasked, everyone she loves—and everything she’s fought for—could crash.

Now she must make an irrevocable leap. Without a net.

To survive, Amandine must draw upon everything she’s learned from the circus and Seekers and summon the courage to reveal her true colors. But can a pacifist defend her violent enemies to stop a civil war? And can this reluctant angel fly beyond her limits to save her life, her love, and her world?

Review:

(I got this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

2.5 stars. I enjoyed some parts of the story, but others almost made me give up at times, especially in the beginning (not enough for me to drop the book, though).

The circus routines are described in marvellous ways, and I found it easy to picture them, even though I’m not too familiar with such performances. They didn’t seem repetitive either, and I could feel that the author had done her research and put a lot of care into making her readers *be* in the audience, rather than remain distanciated readers.

The world presented in the book is also a complex one—a very peculiar colony (more a Dyson sphere than a traditional solar system) with its various classes and problems. However, things were a little confusing at first regarding those, and it took me some time to understand what Titans or Seekers really were; although the author introduced all those in such a way as to avoid info-dumping (which is good),

What constituted the biggest problem for me with “Angel on the Ropes” was that the plot seemed to end up dwarfed and rushed at some point. It started with concepts such as leopards (people born with spots on their skins) being hunted down and killed by Plaguellants (religious extremists who believe said leopards are responsible for a terrible illness). Around the 40% mark, it then moved to something much more complex, involving a very flawed healthcare system in which people have to gamble in casinos in order to have some of of their organs healed—winning means receiving cures, losing means getting indentured, sometimes for years. Another subplot involved a species imported from Earth, with the potential of totally thwarting the local ecosystem. All of those collided into something pretty complex, and I felt that they would have deserved more development. As it is, the story seemed rushed in parts, with too many others left in the dark, or dropped along the way.

The ending especially made me feel let down. While I understand what it tried to achieve (and this was a beautiful lesson), it didn’t solve the aforementioned subplots. It also made some characters appear as they had taken a U-turn that may have happened, sure, but only later, with more “meat” and reasons in between, so to say. I kept waiting for more, and “more” didn’t happen.

I don’t know if this is the beginning of a series, or a standalone book. If there’s a second volume on its way, it could explain why some subplots were left aside for now, but I’m not sure.