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Yzabel / December 5, 2015

Review: Yesterday’s Gone (Season 1)

Yesterday’s Gone: Season One by Sean Platt

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

On October 15 at 2:15 a.m. everyone on Earth vanished.

Well, almost everyone.

A scattered few woke alone in a world where there are no rules other than survival… at any cost.

A journalist wanders the wretched reality of an empty New York, in search for his wife and son.

A serial killer must hunt in a land where prey is now an endangered species.

A mother shields her young daughter from danger, as every breath ﬁlls her with terror.

A bullied teen is thrilled to ﬁnd everyone gone. Until the knock on his door.

A fugitive survives a ﬁery plane crash. Will he be redeemed, or return to what he’s best at: the kill?

An eight year old boy sets out on a journey to ﬁnd his missing family. What he ﬁnds will change him forever.

And there’s a few people who aren’t surprised that this happened at all. In fact, they’ve been dreaming about this day for years.

These survivors aren’t alone…
Someone or something is watching them.
And waiting…

Strangers unite.

Sides are chosen.

Will humanity survive what it never saw coming?

The only certainty is that Yesterday’s Gone.

Review:

(I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

I seldom read serials, and I admit that reading one in the shape of a “novel” of gathered episodes kind of defeats the purpose (all the more since the authors mention their love of cliffhangers at the end), but… nevermind. I was in the mood for post-apocalyptic stuff, anyway.

So far, this first “season” isn’t the most original thing I’ve read when it comes to this theme: most people gone, survivors trying to figure out what happened (with some being really awful chaps), mysterious aliens-or-zombies creatures that may or may not be the reason behind the catastrophe, an infection… It’s part alien sci-fi, part zombie post-ap, and readers who enjoy the typical tropes of such stories are likely to get their share here, although at times it felt like a jumble of subplots more than a structured story, as if the authors were going along with whatever struck their fancy. This may or may not be true; I couldn’t make up my mind about it, as every time some new elements was introduced, I thought “yet another idea…, then “this could still come together in the end, with more seasons to go, depending on what they do, so let’s wait and see.” Truth be told, we don’t get a lot of clues about what’s happening behind the scenes; the hints are more of the gory variety (the worms, people being killed…)

The format itself is very TV-like, an obvious goal, and one I was looking for. It wouldn’t be difficult to imagine this serial as episodes, complete with regular shifts from group to group. This worked well enough for me. There’s no shortage of action, and as the focus jumped from one character to another, I often found myself wanting to know more about the one left in a predicament… while also wanting to read about the current focus, that is. There were a few boring parts (I didn’t really like the ones about the kids, the Uno game, etc., as I was of course interested in what the characters would do as survivors), especially in the middle, although the pacing managed to bring me back in again in the last third of the book.

The characters are fairly typical of such stories. Survivalists (both good and bad people), some of whom were united by strange dreams and knew beforehand they had to prepare for the apocalypse. An ex-government agent/spook. A pregnant teenager from a conservative family. A father who now regrets he let his work get in the way of his family. A mother trying to protect her daughter. A young man who finds himself stuck, supreme irony, with his abusive stepfather, instead of the latter being dead/gone like most other people. A guy whose last conversation with his now-gone wife was an argument. A kid who meets an old man, the latter taking him under his wing. Even a serial killer.

I remained torn about these characters for most of the story: some of them are uninteresting and would deserve more spotlight to be allowed to shine, but others are definitely intriguing, even though not always exploited to their best, plot-wise.

Boricio was one of the vilest ones in this story, and yet, in spite of all the revolting stuff about him, especially the way he treated women, he also had a sort of “heroic bastard” side to him, probably because he was written with a humorous, slapstick comedy side; oddly enough, some of his scenes were enjoyable… in a much twisted way–like a train wreck that you can’t help but keep looking at. Edward, too, was fascinating: I still don’t know what’s true about him, what’s make-believe, who’s right about him, and let’s not forget the twist at the end of his arc in this first season.

On the other hand, the female characters were a letdown: mostly here to be the object of violence (Callie, Paola after her dream) and/or to be rescued and protected (Teagan, Mary and Paola) by the guys. The only “active” female character is the one in Boricio’s narrative, and she’s clearly one of the baddies, on top of not being developed anyway (Callie is first shown as badass, same in her flashback, but quickly devolves into frightened-girl-in-need-of-protection). And don’t start me on the rape scene, so nicely wrapped and dropped under the rug as a sort of afterthought; that was seriously infuriating. Definitely not the way to write such a scene and its aftermath, to say the least.

In terms of writing style, something that bothered me was the use of numbers (it feels really weird to read “20 yards” and not “twenty yards” in a novel – though maybe it’s just me). Another issue was a tendency to resort to “descriptive” sentences (he did this, she did that), which ended up in a lot of cases of “telling, not showing.” Finally, the dialogues also felt stilted most of the time, with a lot of flashback-type narratives when characters revealed what had happened to them; not uninteresting in itself, but told in ways that didn’t feel very natural, as if they were, well, scripted.

Conclusion: 2.5 stars. I will likely read book 2, since I also got it through NetGalley anyway, because “Yesterday’s Gone” was interesting in more than one way. But I can only hope that this series will improve in terms of writing style and character development (and that we’ll get actual revelations about the monsters and the shady ops guys).

Yzabel / December 4, 2015

Review: The Night Parade

The Night Parade by Kathryn Tanquary

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

The last thing Saki Yamamoto wants to do for her summer vacation is trade in exciting Tokyo for the antiquated rituals and bad cell reception of her grandmother’s village. Preparing for the Obon ceremony is boring. Then the local kids take an interest in Saki and she sees an opportunity for some fun, even if it means disrespecting her family’s ancestral shrine on a malicious dare.

But as Saki rings the sacred bell, the darkness shifts. A death curse has been invoked… and Saki has three nights to undo it. With the help of three spirit guides and some unexpected friends, Saki must prove her worth – or say good-bye to the world of the living forever.

Review:

(I received an ARC copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

Although I didn’t find this novel exceptional as far as I am concerned as an adult (simple writing style and predictable character development), I think it would nonetheless make a good read for its intended middle-grade audience.

The story is easy enough to follow. A middle school girl (Saki) forced to spend a few days for a traditional ritual at her grandmother’s, far from her city friends, cell phone and usual activities. Her family’s fairly typical, with her parents and an annoying brother, and Saki immediately comes off as annoying, too, since it’s obvious she’s self-centered and somewhat whiny, and that she associates with people who’re only friends on the surface (out of cowardice more than real nastiness, though: she wants to be popular, and doesn’t dare risk alienating the Queen Bees, so to speak). Not a very likeable character, which however leaves room for growth once she realises that in the country just like in Tōkyō, she needs to cut the crap and stop being such a big baby.

This characterisation is somewhat problematic, in that, as said, Saki’s not very likeable, and possibly difficult for a reader to identify with, because she represents aspects we usually don’t want to acknowledge in ourselves, especially when we’re teenagers: she’s kind of a bully by association, but also weak and ready to do silly things just to avoid being rejected. Her development, in turn, becomes predictable: either she stays like that or she becomes a better person, by learning to pick her friends and stand in the face of the real bullies. (I wasn’t sold on the stereotypical bullies; she’s “friends” with one in the city, then meets another one in her grandmother’s village, and both situations being so similar somewhat made them a bit unbelievable and cliché.)

On the other hand, such an evolution is a positive one, and seeing a character progress and find her own path is always nice. The novel shows how Saki gets to grow up and respect many things she didn’t pay attention to before, including family bonds, through her adventures following the Night Parade. Another good thing is how she’s represented as a young girl/teenager first and foremost, and not as a “look, I’m Japanese” character.

I found the book to be quite reminiscent of a Miyazaki movie (more specifically Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi: the outhouse with the Filth Spirit, the girl having to solve problems in the spirit world in order to atone for a mistake committed in the human world…), but the blend in folklore creatures and myths was less harmonious, and too often felt simply described, rather than vivid (and there’s room for vivid here: some scenes were downright scary, and could have had even more of an impact with just the right amount of storytelling). I suspect it will work much better for younger readers, and not for someone who knows more already. Also, some creatures were called by their Japanese names (tengu, kappa…), while others were in English, like the fox and the ogres; I’m not sure about the reasons behind this choice. That said, the spirits Saki meets on her journey through the sanctuary are interesting, and amusing for some (oddly enough, the tengu more than than tanuki, probably because he was so serious and driven that he ended up sounding funny–gallows humour and all that).

The messages carried through this novel were to be expected: how the modern world intrudes on the ancestral, spiritual one; how younger people are glued to technology (cell phones…) and don’t pay attention to traditions anymore; how it’s so easy to let “bad” people influence us just because we don’t feel brave enough to confront them (too bad we don’t get to see how/if Saki confronted Hana in the end!). It was a bit heavy-handed at times, but that was something I could forgive, because all in all, Saki’s progress remained enjoyable to read about: both as a journey to repair what she had rent in the spirit world, and as a journey in learning to solve problems and expand her view of the world and people in general.

Final rating: 3 to 3.5 stars.

Yzabel / November 30, 2015

Review: Deep Time

Doctor Who: Deep Time by Trevor Baxendale
My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

‘I do hope you’re all ready to be terrified!’
The Phaeron disappeared from the universe over a million years ago. They travelled among the stars using roads made from time and space, but left only relics behind. But what actually happened to the Phaeron? Some believe they were they eradicated by a superior force… Others claim they destroyed themselves.
Or were they in fact the victims of an even more hideous fate?
In the far future, humans discover the location of the last Phaeron road – and the Doctor and Clara join the mission to see where the road leads. Each member of the research team knows exactly what they’re looking for – but only the Doctor knows exactly what they’ll find.
Because only the Doctor knows the true secret of the Phaeron: a monstrous secret so terrible and powerful that it must be buried in the deepest grave imaginable…

Review:

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

3 to 3.5 stars

This is the last book in the “Glamour Chronicles” series. I’m glad I seemingly read them in the “right” order, because while they were supposed to be readable in just any order, I don’t think they really are. At least, “Deep Time” should come last, as it brings a conclusion to this whole Glamour thing. A good or a bad thing, depending on how you see it: I felt that this story may have fared better on its own, because the way it tied in with the elusive Glamour was a bit vague. It still worked in the end, though, so that wasn’t too much of an issue, at least.

In any case, it was way, way better than “Big Bang Generation”. Not over the place, and one of those darker Doctor Who stories, where danger feels more real, where people die in gruesome ways.

This time, Twelve and Clara embark on board the Alexandria, a brand new spaceship, in an expedition financed by a rich guy. Pretty much every member of the expedition has their reasons to try and find the mysterious Phaeron Roads, an ancient network of now-collapsed wormholes. At the end of the journey, they hope to find what their heart most desires: a long-lost parent, the money to at last find a place where they can live in peace, the kind of adventure money can’t buy… And within the Glamour Chronicles, doesn’t that ring a bell? After all, from the beginning of this trilogy, it’s been about “wanting”…

The plot was classical, should I say: not very original (expedition gets stranded, time and space go wonky, some people die, the answer comes through what remains of a mysterious ancient race…), but it was enjoyable, with well-timed dark moments. It would’ve deserved more development, more fleshing out. Like the other novels in the trilogy, it was short, and didn’t leave much room for additional details.

I found the Doctor more active than in previous books, more “Doctor-like”, with more important screen time, too, and as a result, “Deep Time” felt like an actual TV episode, in spite of the large cast of characters (the large cast had kind of killed Twelve’s presence in “Big Bang Generation”, in my opinion). And speaking of these secondary characters, they were interesting enough; their backgrounds were kept to minimum information, yet it still allowed me to draw a fairly good picture of them (well, alright, Flexx and Cranmer less than the others). I wasn’t too convinced about Clara, though, as she was a bit too… passive to my liking. There were several instances of characters fainting after a time shift, for instance, and she was just a little too often part of the “weak” ones who didn’t wake up fast. I’m not really fond of such devices.

Conclusion: Not an exceptional novel, but one that does well enough as an enjoyable Doctor Who story.

Yzabel / November 25, 2015

Review: Deadlands: Ghostwalkers

Deadlands: Ghostwalkers by Jonathan Maberry

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

The first of three media tie-in novels based on the hit RPG franchise Deadlands

From New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry, the first in a thrilling series of novels based on Deadlands, a hugely successful role-playing game (RPG) set in the Weird, Weird West.

Welcome to the Deadlands, where steely-eyed gunfighters rub shoulders with mad scientists and dark, unnatural forces. Where the Great Quake of 1868 has shattered California into a labyrinth of sea-flooded caverns . . . and a mysterious substance called “ghost rock” fuels exotic steampunk inventions as well as plenty of bloodshed and flying bullets.

In Ghostwalkers, a gun-for-hire, literally haunted by his bloody past, comes to the struggling town of Paradise Falls, where he becomes embroiled in a deadly conflict between the besieged community and a diabolically brilliant alchemist who is building terrible new weapons of mass destruction . . . and an army of the living dead!

Review:

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

I used to play the Deadlands RPG when I was in high school. That was, well, long ago. Long enough for the game to be in its original iteration, no LCG or anything. Back when we used poker chips that could act as jokers, but we greedily kept them because the unused ones would turn into experience points at the end of the game. Yeah, that was quite a few years ago.

So I wanted to try and see what a novel set in the Deadlands universe was like.

Though I admit my recollections of the game are far and few between, I’m not sure the book exactly related. Some elements fitted, and had the “Weird West” feeling I tend to associate with that world, but they seemed to be thrown in more as add-ons than as true parts. (Dinosaurs, zombies, steampunk weapons, etc.) It was fun, sure, yet it also looked as too much being crammed in it… and at the same time, the novel felt too long for the story it had to tell.

It worked well enough as a “strange western”-like story in the beginning, in that the action started fast, and the tropes I was looking for were there: gunslingers, little town under the tyranny of a couple of rich white guys with their own militia of sorts, inhabitants trying to resist but being outnumbered… However, after a while, I began to lose interest, likely because of the repetitiveness of said action, and because the characters didn’t have much depths, all things considered. Grey had a troubled past… but there isn’t much more to him once this past is uncovered (he did work as a character thrown in that mess without much knowledge of what happened, as other people explaining things allowed the reader to discover them as well). Jenny was the mandatory brave female character with a shotgun, and her courage was commendable, yet out of this and her relationship with Grey, there wasn’t too much to her either. The monk was forgettable, and the villain was… gloating?

A definitely problematic character was Looks Away, the Sioux guy who happened to be part of a circus in Europe, got an education there, and now throwns in “British” slang all the time. Making him a Sioux felt more like ye olde mandatory POC than like a real person, as basically he could have been a British scholar just as well, and it wouldn’t have changed the plot in any way. (Granted, had the author gone overboard the other way, by making him a Native American cliché, it’d have been just as bad. But I believe in middle grounds.)

A good deal of the novel was also both boring and too over the top to fully belong. Characters discover awful weapon and enemies, fight them, manage to escape at the last moment, bit of deus ex machina here, rinse and repeat. (A corset stopping a bullet… Uh… Not sure about that, and if the explanation is what I think it was, it wasn’t made very clear in the end.) As for the enemies, I could do with zombies (in the Deadlandsverse? Sure!), but the vampire-witches mqde me wonder what they were doing here, and dinosaurs was too far-fetched, seemingly added to the mix just because at some point, someone must’ve said “hey, why not put dinosaurs in there, too, they’re cool.” Odd.

Writing style: long descriptions (of which I quickly get bored), and a tendency to veer into very short sentences/3-word long paragraphs that worked sometimes, and were jarring at others.

Conclusion: Some interesting ideas, but the characters need to be fleshed out, and the novel to be trimmed down when it comes to descriptions.

Yzabel / November 22, 2015

Review: Death Vigil (Volume 1)

Death Vigil: Volume 1 by Stjepan Šejić

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

Gifted? Join the Death Vigil in their ongoing war against the ever-growing power of the Primordial Enemy! Only catch is you have to die first. Become a corporeal immortal Death Knight and obtain reality-altering weaponry in the never-ending battle between good and evil.

Review:

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

This volume gathers issues 1 to 8, and while it’s not necessarily the most original take on the concept (the Reaper as a sort of goth girl + the scythe), I pretty much enjoyed it no matter what. Because, well, let’s be honest: I like goth chicks with scythes. Also I always have a soft spot for necromancy in general. And when it comes to toying with tropes.

I really liked the artwork and colours, although sometimes it was hard to differentiate between characters when their hair weren’t distrinctly black or white, and the author/artist went a bit heavy-handed when it came to cramming a lot of details in a panel. Granted, I read a PDF copy, which didn’t help (especially with panels on two separate pages—I had to change my display). It wasn’t such a big problem in the long run, just at times. Overall, the art grabbed me.

The scenario itself was somewhat simplistic: the Vigil (good guys) vs. the Necromancers (bad guys), complete with mysterious writings in the hands of a semi-crazy scientist/archaelogist bent on transcribing them. Nothing too original, but… it still worked. Sometimes you don’t need uber-original to be happy. There was action, and monsters, and cute monsters (Mia!), and Necromancers (some stupid, some definitely creepy), and puns (cheesy, but I’ve been known to be a much worse punster at times). Bad puns galore and characters dealing in death and horror, yet keeping a sense of humour? Count me in. Necromancers being both badass yet also highly ridiculous in how they always (always: even Sam, one of the main characters, keeps remarking about it) take their shirts off before running to battle? I am a simple being; this kind of stuff amuses me. It may be dumb, but it worked as far as I was concerned, possibly because I was in the mood for it.

Apart from the art and from smiling at the puns and all, what I also liked was the diversity. The people gravitating about Bernadette the Reaper were a family of sorts, all of different backgrounds and age, with strong bonds. A lot of female characters, too, and not the damsel-in-distress type: Marlene saves the day more than once, Grace looks frail yet is everything but, Clara actually gets back on her feet fairly quickly and embraces her power (which is fun, even though at first sight her weapon seems useless) instead of remaining “the typical clueless newbie who needs to learn all the ropes from Big, Burly Senior Male Characater”… That was refreshing.

Speaking of powers, while the scythe, knives and spade+pickaxe combination remain more “classical”, there’s also an interesting gallery here. James is a MMORPG player and his weapon is a deck of cards, which he uses as if he were playing Magic. Clara’s a feather which can do other things than just write. Chiyoko and Vlado can’t speak each other’s language, but their powers work really well together, and they have developed other means of communicating.

I’ll gladly pick the next volume. The subplot revolving around Clara, the mystery around Bernadette’s origins, Sam and his relationships with his tools (and also the hand)… Those make me want to know more.

Yzabel / November 5, 2015

Review: The Dream Engine

The Dream Engine by Sean Platt

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

A truth terrible enough to bury for a millennium …

A mysterious boy calling in her sleep …

A secret city that shouldn’t exist …

When Eila Doyle first sees the strange boy beckoning in whispers from somewhere deep in her imagination, she questioned her sanity. She was used to seeing strange things with her eyes closed — that’s what Eila did all day while strapped to the Blunderbuss, Building whatever the Ministry of Manifestation required — but never before have those images felt so real, or so dangerous.

After Eila learns the terrible truth about her reality and the monsters inside it, she thinks that maybe madness might be her only escape…

Review:

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

2.5 stars

A very interesting theme, but ultimately this novel felt more like an introduction.

I liked the idea of a world shaping its inventions through thoughts, from concepts and a strange machine called the Blunderbuss. I liked the explanation behind how this weird science worked, where exactly the concepts and images came from, not to mention that in general, anything that has to do with dreams tends to fascinate me. One part of the world living a relatively placid existence, with nights spent in quiet, without dreams; and the other, its counterpart, having to sift through dreams nightmares in order to send feedback. And the remnants, what nobody wants, the pollution born from human minds, which just goes… somewhere else. Although the explanations weren’t too easy to follow at first, soon they made sense.

Another thing I liked was how the “mysterious boy” didn’t end up as the mandatory love interest, the one that always ends up trampling over the plot in typical YA novels, whether their genre is actually romance or not. It was quite refreshing, and I can only hope that the world and the stakes presented by the “dream engine” will not fall prey to “luuuurve” in the next volume. There’s enough going in without giving in to trends. So, authors, thank you for sticking to the weird science and dreams and contraptions here.

However, as I was reading, I kept feeling that a lot of things often got rehashed and repeated more than necessary—that some trimming would’ve been in order. It took a long time for what I thought would be the plot to unfurl, and while Eila’s hesitation and questioning herself was totally understandable, it still looked to me like beating around the bush, instead of helping flesh out her character as well as others. In the end, Cora, Daw, Levi (for a few minutes, I couldn’t even remember his name, even though I’ve just finished reading the book… that’s how much an impression he made on me), all the others, were more shades than actual people. Eila was the most developed of all, yet her running in circles in her mind kept her at a basic level: I still don’t know what she likes and dislikes, for instance. I think this is the kind of plot where less time should’ve been spent on introspection, and more on subplots (no need for complex ones: simple things such as more than just Atwell confronting Eila after dinner, or someone realising she wasn’t with Cora every evening, etc.).

So much potential, so many endless possibilities, yet never truly explored…

The world itself, albeit interesting, also suffers from the “pocket universe syndrome”, in that the idea behind its foundations is great, but it seems really, really tiny, no more than a city and some land around it. It could be an island, for what it’s worth, completely isolated, and I didn’t get the feeling of a “real” world, for all its talks of airships and pilots bringing goods from other areas. How far is Stensue from Waldron’s Gate? Is Pavilion only under the latter, or does it extend everywhere? Are there other Pavilions under other towns? And so on.

Conclusion: despite finding quite a few likeable elements in there, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I may or may not pick the second book someday, to see if the potential of this series is going to be properly exploited; right now, though, I really don’t know.

Yzabel / November 2, 2015

Review: These Shallow Graves

These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich, and soon—like all the girls in her class—she’ll graduate from finishing school and be married off to a wealthy bachelor. Which is the last thing she wants. Jo dreams of becoming a writer—a newspaper reporter like the trailblazing Nellie Bly.

Wild aspirations aside, Jo’s life seems perfect until tragedy strikes: her father is found dead. Charles Montfort shot himself while cleaning his pistol. One of New York City’s wealthiest men, he owned a newspaper and was a partner in a massive shipping firm, and Jo knows he was far too smart to clean a loaded gun.

The more Jo hears about her father’s death, the more something feels wrong. Suicide is the only logical explanation, and of course people have started talking, but Jo’s father would never have resorted to that. And then she meets Eddie—a young, smart, infuriatingly handsome reporter at her father’s newspaper—and it becomes all too clear how much she stands to lose if she keeps searching for the truth. But now it might be too late to stop.

The past never stays buried forever. Life is dirtier than Jo Montfort could ever have imagined, and this time the truth is the dirtiest part of all.

Review:

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

A bit too long to my taste for the story it told, although some of the scenes at the end were worth the read.

It started with interesting ideas. Jo is a wealthy girl, who may look like she’s got everything but is tied to her family’s wishes and to society’s diktats: finishing school is just that, and once she’s out of it, she’ll marry the man who was already chosen for her, and will have to give up her dreams of writing. Journalism is so below her class that she’s not even allowed to read the newspapers, and has to do so in secrecy. She doesn’t want to give up, doesn’t want to renounce, yet deep inside, she feels there’s no other choice, that choosing otherwise will ruin her family as well as herself; she’s likely to get disallowed, and it takes some bravery to risk that fate. Jo is brave… but not so brave. And although it’s not openly stated (way less openly than the “fine women = fine breeding dogs” comparison enforced by insufferable Grandmama), I think this is perhaps why she embraces the mystery surrounding her father’s death. Not only because she’s bereaved, not only because she wants to learn the truth: because this is her first and only chance at an adventure before she gets stuffed into a life she’s may or may not really want. Selfish? Maybe. But understandable.

As often in similar stories, there was romance involved, and unfortunately, in this case, it kind of killed the mood for me. The danger and stakes Jo had to face were already a lot, enough to highlight the dilemma in her existence. The love interest thrown in the middle (without any spark in there) added drama and angst-filled scenes that clashed with what could have been otherwise a fine thread woven into the mystery: Jo’s wishes to live a life of her own choosing, as a woman who wants to be a journalist (all the more since she could’ve been of the muckraker variety, albeit a few years before investigative journalism really started to soar).

Trudy smiled ruefully. “What can I say? I merely wish to smoke. Sparky can forgive that. You, on the other hand, wish to know things. And no one can forgive a girl for that.”

Instead, this took the backstage in favour of trading one man for the other, as if the real choice here was only who to love, and not the whole package. To be fair, though, the author didn’t go with the easiest solution at the end, which in my opinion is good. Still, had there been no romantic plot, it may have allowed for more development when it came to Jo’s family, her friends, and her life as a person in general; it may also have helped fleshing out the friendships she developed, as those seemed to happen too fast, too strongly, and were not really believable, not considering what the characters did for each other later.

The tone of the story was a bit… childish, considering the themes tackled (suicide, life on the streets, prostitutes and pickpockets, digging up corpses—not a spoiler, by the way, as the first chapter opens exactly on that). Often a chapter would end on a mini-cliffhanger phrased in a way that I would’ve expected from a novel with a much younger audience, so to speak (for instance, “Jo and Eddie were trapped,” or “Jo and Eddie were locked in the closet.”). This clashed with what was a more serious story. The writing style in general border on the “telling, not showing” variety, and made for a dull reading in places. I couldn’t care that much about Jo, or Eddie, whose feelings seemed more mechanical when told in such a way.

Moreover, Jo didn’t strike me as believable: she was way too ignorant and naive for someone who supposedly had an interest in investigative journalism, read the newspapers behind her parents’ backs, and was supposed to be inquisitive and sharp. A lot of times, other characters had to spell out things for her (for instance, she took her sweet time to understand the hints at what “Della’s house” meant, when it was absolutely obvious). It would’ve worked if she had been a fully-sheltered young woman of fine upbringing who had never taken an interest to anything else than her family, gardening and parties, but it didn’t fit the wannabe-journalist part of her character.

Finally, a lot of things were predictable, both in the mystery and its clues, and in how some characters were linked to the investigation plot. I suspect the latter was intended in a Dickensian way, but I found this heavy-handed (there are a few glaring references to Oliver Twist) and not very efficient. It was too easy to guess who was related to whom, and where the whole thing was going, even though, as I wrote above, some of the ending scenes were fine, and made up a little for many more boring scenes that came before.

Conclusion: an interesting historical background and OK mystery, that however would’ve unfurled more efficiently without all the romantic angst and faffing about. 1.5 to 2 stars.

Yzabel / October 30, 2015

Review: The Prophecy Con

The Prophecy Con by Patrick Weekes

My rating: [rating=5]

Blurb:

Book Two in the Rogues of the Republic series.

Who would have thought a book of naughty poems by elves could mean the difference between war and peace? But if stealing the precious volume will keep the Republic and the Empire from tearing out each other’s throats, rogue soldier Isafesira de Lochenville—“Loch” to friends and foes alike—is willing to do the dishonest honors. With her motley crew of magic-makers, law-breakers, and a talking warhammer, she’ll match wits and weapons with dutiful dwarves, mercenary knights, golems, daemons, an arrogant elf, and a sorcerous princess.

But getting their hands on the prize—while keeping their heads attached to their necks—means Loch and company must battle their way from a booby-trapped museum to a monster-infested library, and from a temple full of furious monks to a speeding train besieged by assassins. And for what? Are a few pages of bawdy verse worth waging war over? Or does something far more sinister lurk between the lines?

Review:

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

I read the first book not long ago, and a lot of what I posted in my review at the time is valid again in here. The heist(s), with several levels of deception, double-crossing the opponent, thwarted plans, having to do with a situation turned for the worst… And with twists that aren’t always planned by all members of the team, ending in somewhat hilarious moments that nicely counterbalance the overall “they’re a bit too ready for absolutely everything” feeling one may get. Because something’s bound to give, to turn sour in a heist, otherwise there wouldn’t be as much interest in reading such adventures—at least not for me.

The characters are mostly the same, with some changes reflecting darker turns of events from the first book. Kail is still his old I-give-a-name-to-everything lockpick and pickpocket, and his skill in wielding “mom jokes” remains the same (also he’s contaminated Icy); however, his brush with mind-bending magic left him a bit more somber, but more decided than ever to fight this. Desidora has returned to her duties, yet is now questioning her role within the team, as she feels she is less useful. (I quite liked the conversations between these two, as their predicaments were somewhat related.) Ululenia and Dairy… well, let’s just say things didn’t exactly go as planned (not to mention that the unicorn had to make a choice whose consequences wouldn’t be so light). Loch is trying to work on the side of a law that doesn’t exactly make things easy for her in that regard. Hessler has broadened his magic, with somewhat dangerous results that however leave room to humorous dialogues: a welcome thing, considering that the tone of the novel is a bit darker and that this time, wounds aren’t only superficial.

We are given a bit more of a view of other parts of the world here: the Empire, the dwarves, the elves, as well as the Ancients themselves. A welcome addition, too. At first sight, it doesn’t stray too far from clichés (Elves had tree-ships and prefer to live far from humans, dwarves are often miners…); however, read just a little longer and the differences become obvious. I especially liked how the dwarves were so polite and orderly, while the elf dignitary was at the same time badass and insufferable (in a funny way). While the rules of magic in this world remain fuzzy, the relationship between magic and elves (through the crustals embedded in the latter) was interesting nonetheless.

This novel may have been slightly less humorous than the first one, because its stakes were higher from the beginning—not just a heist to steal a book and earn tons of money, but preventing a war, and trying not to become the sacrificial lamb in the middle of all this. Oddly or not, I liked it even better for this reason, and for another one: this time, knowing the characters, I could also better anticipate on what their moves might or might not be, and this made it more “logical”, so to speak, when something happened that I would’ve otherwise deemed a deus ex machina. Predictable? In a way. Yet the kind of predictable I like, that I *want* to see happen, and then, when it happens, I strike the air with my fist and I’m all “Yesss!”

4.5 stars. I’ll keep recommending this series, and hope book 3 is on the same level.

Yzabel / October 28, 2015

Review: Alice Takes Back Wonderland

Alice Takes Back Wonderland by David D. Hammons

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

After ten years of being told she can’t tell the difference between real life and a fairy tale, Alice finally stops believing in Wonderland. So when the White Rabbit shows up at her house, Alice thinks she’s going crazy. Only when the White Rabbit kicks her down the rabbit hole does Alice realize that the magical land she visited as a child is real. But all is not well in Wonderland.

The Ace of Spades has taken over Wonderland and is systematically dismantling all that makes it wonderful. Plain is replacing wondrous, logical is replacing magical, and reason is destroying madness. Alice decides she must help the Mad Hatter and all those fighting to keep Wonderland wonderful. But how can she face such danger when she is just a girl?

Alice must journey across the stars to unite an army. She discovers that fairy tales are real in the magical world beyond the rabbit hole. But they are not the fairy tales she knows. Fairy tales have dangers and adventures of their own, and Alice must overcome the trials of these old stories if she wants to unite the lands against Ace.

With the help of Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Snow White and heroes old and new, Alice may have the strength to take back Wonderland.

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.]

Both funny and leading one to think about darker themes, though a bit confusing at times.

I pretty much enjoyed this this novel. Its cover, for starters. Its grim version of a Wonderland not turned into gothic-like darkness or anything, but into an even more dreadful thing: grey, boring normalcy. Its mash-up of fairy tales, different from the ones known in our world, their echoes reaching us and being turned into stories, while our world has in turn their own echoes in those places—transcending time and space, too: Alice is actually from our contemporary United States, but Peter Pan knows her through her story as a girl from 19th century Britain, a story he himself was told before going to Neverland. Good ideas aplenty, in how the “true” characters were different: Pinocchio as a boy who doesn’t know whether he’s real or not (and with a darker backstory to his being a “puppet”), what’s truly going on with Captain Hook, Robin Hood’s real identity, Queen Charming who lost everything and has turned into a tyrant of her own kind because she couldn’t cope with all the sadness… There’s even a bit of a wink to Lovecraft, one that seemed odd at first yet ended up being not so odd, all things considered, with everything going on around it.

It may have been a bit too much at some point, making it difficult sometimes to remain focused on the story—possibly because of the large cast of characters and their nonsensical dialogue and ways of thinking: totally fitting the Wonderland setting (and thus good, too), but depending on your frame of mind and/or degree of tiredness, not necessarily the easiest to go through. I would advise not treating this novel as a “light read for when you don’t need to focus”, because you do, and you should, else some of its (interesting) elements may get lost along the way. (I’d dare say it’s the same with Carroll’s Wonderland, after all: to fully enjoy it, you definitely need to pay attention.)

I admit I would have liked to see just a bit more of Alice’s “madness” in the normal world, to better grasp how exactly she gave up on Wonderland at first: to me, it seemed she never gave up, picked up fairly quickly, and seeing her struggle more (or differently?) would have been nice. Not that I didn’t want her to accept Wonderland again—just differently, since Ace’s dominion there, his desire to turn it into a normal (boring) place, prompts her to take action and “retake” Wonderland. In the beginning, she didn’t *want* to believe, then the switch happened a bit too fast. Same with Alice’s parents: will they force her back into normalcy, or not? Can she stand up to them in that regard? Such answers aren’t given.

Otherwise it was a funny adventure, with good twists and turns and renewed takes on well-known fairy tales characters (the mysterious Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the dwarves dealing in moonshine…). 3.5 stars.

Yzabel / October 27, 2015

Review: Royal Blood

Royal Blood by Una McCormack

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.