Reading is fun
So awhile back, over the summer, I bought a book called Poison Sleep and posted about it in here. Thought it was a pretty cool book, but got the feeling it was a sequel and didn't know where the first book was. And then the author commented in here, confirming it was a sequel, and I promptly got so excited by pointing out this comment to friends that I forgot to reply to the author. Oops. >.>
At any rate, I finally managed to FIND this first book, Blood Engines, by T. A. Pratt, neatly sandwiched between Tim Powers and Terry Pratchett. It was about 2 shelves away from the multiple copies of the second and third book, Poison Sleep and Dead Reign. You know, after Terry Pratchett, where it should be. At any rate, I bought both of them. You can never have too many good fantasy books. I also bought the second and third book of Piers Anthony's Incarnation of Immortality series. Technically, I'm saying this was for Frank, since I already read them, but you know, good fantasy books.
So, earlier I was speculating about the author's gender in here, because it seems to be pretty damn well hidden. I've since figured it out and was completely wrong, but damn is that hard to work out. Apparently Amazon Kindle has the book listed as being by Tim Pratt, and Wikipedia has a page for Tim Pratt that says he wrote these books. He also has another LJ under that name, which includes all the posts from TA Pratt. The weird part is that all the evidence his name is Tim is essentially one way. Except for Wikipedia. But if you'd known his site or name from before these books, you can learn about these books from there. But the information only goes one way. Good luck trying to work it out from MarlaMason.net or TA Pratt's lj.
There goes my theories on a female author. Good job, T.A. Pratt, on writing a convincing female.
Blood Engines
For a book that I thought was holding all the secrets to Poison Sleep, it really didn't clear up a hell of a lot. Which I really like. Okay, so it's the first book of the series. But that doesn't mean it's the first book of the Marla's life. She's done alot of crazy stuff in the past, and we're only coming into the series after a lot of it has been settled. Most series would have started out with how she climbed her way to be the head Sorceress of Felport and all the crazy stuff that happened there. Blood Engines assumed we already knew that, and gave just enough information for us to know what happened. It wasn't an info dump, like some novels are prone to do. There was no one point where I felt like Marla's history was being spoon-fed to me. More like, after the book was done, I had a decent idea that she had done some cool things in the past, and that they weren't really the point of this book. I think this is what helps the book feel so fast paced. Learning how the universe works isn't something the author breaks immersion over. Instead, it's just rather spread out over the whole book, one sentence or two at a time.
On the other hand, I might question Marla and her odd habit of thinking about the past so much and at odd times. "Marla threw a funny one-liner at the crazy magician about to end her life. It's true, she thought, she had once fought the undead Somerset, who had been the previous head of Felport." I mean, T. A. Pratt does this really well, but I do wonder why Marla's thinking about how she got her cloak or something when there's a crazy sorcerer standing in front of her thinking about how best to cut out her heart. This is going off memory, so I don't know if that specific example ever happened. Marla never seemed much like the introspective type to me.
I think what I disliked most about Blood Engines was the random sex party. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like the idea of good BDSM party as much as the next person, and probably more. What I don't get is the why. Suddenly, the whole books starts reading like soft-core porn from what was a gritty, urban fantasy novel. It feels a little self-indulgent, like the author was really horny one day and wanted to write some erotica, but knew that the deadline was coming up. Obvious solution? Make the erotica part of the storyline! I really just don't get it. The story would have been just as good without that, but with it, it just feels a like it's pushing an agenda or trying to artificially inflate the ratings. Not that books have ratings, but now I might have to be more careful where I start leaving it around. I'll probably still bring it up to the cottage and leave it there. It's too good for casual reading to leave on my bookshelf at home.
Then there was Ch'ang Hao. Okay, I saw this from a mile away. Yes, let's only partway free the trapped god. No no, he won't resent it, after all, we freed him from his masters. Or, you know, he might resent it A LOT. You know what they say, you win more bees with honey than vinegar. Only Marla apparently missed that memo. I understand she's trying to be suspicious and cautious, but when you already acknowledged the guy is unlikely to turn around and kill you for cutting him free, why not, you know, finish the job? Gah. Making mortal enemies of God-like things is never really a good idea. Even if you are so confident in your own abilities you think you could take him.
Dead Reign
You know, I think I already covered most of the really good points in the author's writing. This books was just good, straight through. Personally, I found it a little strange when I started the book and she had already hung up the cloak for good. Especially considering she's still wearing it on the cover. On the other hand, it did explain the variations in the colouring. Still, this cloak was one of her biggest assets in the earlier books. In fact, I can't really remember her winning many fights without using it. Which is perhaps one of the bigger flaws in the series.
A lot of times, it's said that Marla doesn't need to cloak to be an amazing fighter. So why not show that more often? It tends to happen that the fight is either big, so she flips the cloak, or that the fight is really small and she doesn't have to use anything more than some fancy martial arts and a couple of parlour tricks. This books does a bit to fix this habit of saying, not showing, but most of Marla's small fights happen off-screen. We only see her when she's going up against something with near god-like powers. Or gods. There's never any fights with the little guys, where she seems even more than a little taxed. I've been told she's good in a fight without relying on powerful artifacts, I think we need to see it a little more.
Are the books falling into some Sorting Algorithm of Evil? Where the next bad guy in each book is bigger and badder than the last? I hope not. But the truth is that she's already defeated a god by the end of this book, and has the power to do so again. Where do you go from there? Oh sure, some of the power was taken away, but if her life was in trouble, wouldn't she start pulling in major favours? The preview at the back says she meets up with her brother again. I'm thinking that facing her past might be the only way to bring her back to a level playing field. At least then, she has to face her own guilt and such, and in a way, she handicaps herself. Or maybe a prequel. I'm already pretty sure there's a bunch of good stories back there. And really, a book doesn't have to be about someone really really powerful fighting an even more powerful evil thing.
I think this kinda moved off of Dead Reign and more moved into being about the direction the series is taking. Ah well. Thing is I just really enjoyed the book, and didn't have any actual problems with it. The new characters were hilarious and awesome in their own rights. I love how Death just couldn't get over the fact that Marla didn't have a throne room. And Pelham was cute in how he knew pretty much everything that would be useful in any situation, and yet has a break down in a public washroom because it's just so foreign to him.
A curious thing about the secondary characters though is how much Marla overshadows them. I mean, I barely talked about Rondeau at all, and he's her sidekick. He's been in every novel so far, but when Marla is there he just starts to become someone to bounce jokes off. Not that he isn't funny himself, but his personality just isn't powerful enough to stand out beside Marla. Same thing applies to the other character who hangs out with them, which has so far varied every book. From B, to Tim, to Pelham, they just fall into this general category of "Person the audience can relate to, so someone can explain how the universe works to them." And then they get a little lost when something cool happens, because invariably it's Marla taking control of the situation, and Marla fighting the bad guy, and these other characters just kinda run away and hide.
Overall though, I really enjoyed the books. Sure, there's some points where I think the main character is a moron, but I normally do think this about almost everything I read/watch. I think the humour is my favourite part of the books. Too many fantasy novels take themselves too seriously. Piers Anthony did a good job at making his books funny, but his latest novels are slipping into a formula of what works and what he can crack out in a month. T. A. Pratt, on the other hand, is managing to write consistently good, funny books, and slowly working his way up my list of good authors. Already he's managed to jump to a name I recognize and like, which is more than a lot of authors manage.
Sadly, I think it's when I start taking the books too seriously that I start finding the biggest flaws in them. Obviously, I should stop trying to review books and just go back to reading and enjoying them. This series is fun and fast paced enough that if I hadn't taken the time to try and write about them, I doubt I would have noticed anything wrong at all. I seem to be having this problem with a lot of authors. This might be a good reason to never try and review Neil Gaiman.
Anyways, tl;dr version is this. The series is awesome. The characters are funny, the books are fast paced, and you never feel like you're missing information. Or you always feel like you're missing information, whichever you prefer. The setting is pretty awesome too. I would recommend these if anyone on my list is out looking for something new to read. Or looking for Christmas gifts.
Also, you should click my dragon eggs so they grow up.
*shameless plug*
At any rate, I finally managed to FIND this first book, Blood Engines, by T. A. Pratt, neatly sandwiched between Tim Powers and Terry Pratchett. It was about 2 shelves away from the multiple copies of the second and third book, Poison Sleep and Dead Reign. You know, after Terry Pratchett, where it should be. At any rate, I bought both of them. You can never have too many good fantasy books. I also bought the second and third book of Piers Anthony's Incarnation of Immortality series. Technically, I'm saying this was for Frank, since I already read them, but you know, good fantasy books.
So, earlier I was speculating about the author's gender in here, because it seems to be pretty damn well hidden. I've since figured it out and was completely wrong, but damn is that hard to work out. Apparently Amazon Kindle has the book listed as being by Tim Pratt, and Wikipedia has a page for Tim Pratt that says he wrote these books. He also has another LJ under that name, which includes all the posts from TA Pratt. The weird part is that all the evidence his name is Tim is essentially one way. Except for Wikipedia. But if you'd known his site or name from before these books, you can learn about these books from there. But the information only goes one way. Good luck trying to work it out from MarlaMason.net or TA Pratt's lj.
There goes my theories on a female author. Good job, T.A. Pratt, on writing a convincing female.
Blood Engines
For a book that I thought was holding all the secrets to Poison Sleep, it really didn't clear up a hell of a lot. Which I really like. Okay, so it's the first book of the series. But that doesn't mean it's the first book of the Marla's life. She's done alot of crazy stuff in the past, and we're only coming into the series after a lot of it has been settled. Most series would have started out with how she climbed her way to be the head Sorceress of Felport and all the crazy stuff that happened there. Blood Engines assumed we already knew that, and gave just enough information for us to know what happened. It wasn't an info dump, like some novels are prone to do. There was no one point where I felt like Marla's history was being spoon-fed to me. More like, after the book was done, I had a decent idea that she had done some cool things in the past, and that they weren't really the point of this book. I think this is what helps the book feel so fast paced. Learning how the universe works isn't something the author breaks immersion over. Instead, it's just rather spread out over the whole book, one sentence or two at a time.
On the other hand, I might question Marla and her odd habit of thinking about the past so much and at odd times. "Marla threw a funny one-liner at the crazy magician about to end her life. It's true, she thought, she had once fought the undead Somerset, who had been the previous head of Felport." I mean, T. A. Pratt does this really well, but I do wonder why Marla's thinking about how she got her cloak or something when there's a crazy sorcerer standing in front of her thinking about how best to cut out her heart. This is going off memory, so I don't know if that specific example ever happened. Marla never seemed much like the introspective type to me.
I think what I disliked most about Blood Engines was the random sex party. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like the idea of good BDSM party as much as the next person, and probably more. What I don't get is the why. Suddenly, the whole books starts reading like soft-core porn from what was a gritty, urban fantasy novel. It feels a little self-indulgent, like the author was really horny one day and wanted to write some erotica, but knew that the deadline was coming up. Obvious solution? Make the erotica part of the storyline! I really just don't get it. The story would have been just as good without that, but with it, it just feels a like it's pushing an agenda or trying to artificially inflate the ratings. Not that books have ratings, but now I might have to be more careful where I start leaving it around. I'll probably still bring it up to the cottage and leave it there. It's too good for casual reading to leave on my bookshelf at home.
Then there was Ch'ang Hao. Okay, I saw this from a mile away. Yes, let's only partway free the trapped god. No no, he won't resent it, after all, we freed him from his masters. Or, you know, he might resent it A LOT. You know what they say, you win more bees with honey than vinegar. Only Marla apparently missed that memo. I understand she's trying to be suspicious and cautious, but when you already acknowledged the guy is unlikely to turn around and kill you for cutting him free, why not, you know, finish the job? Gah. Making mortal enemies of God-like things is never really a good idea. Even if you are so confident in your own abilities you think you could take him.
Dead Reign
You know, I think I already covered most of the really good points in the author's writing. This books was just good, straight through. Personally, I found it a little strange when I started the book and she had already hung up the cloak for good. Especially considering she's still wearing it on the cover. On the other hand, it did explain the variations in the colouring. Still, this cloak was one of her biggest assets in the earlier books. In fact, I can't really remember her winning many fights without using it. Which is perhaps one of the bigger flaws in the series.
A lot of times, it's said that Marla doesn't need to cloak to be an amazing fighter. So why not show that more often? It tends to happen that the fight is either big, so she flips the cloak, or that the fight is really small and she doesn't have to use anything more than some fancy martial arts and a couple of parlour tricks. This books does a bit to fix this habit of saying, not showing, but most of Marla's small fights happen off-screen. We only see her when she's going up against something with near god-like powers. Or gods. There's never any fights with the little guys, where she seems even more than a little taxed. I've been told she's good in a fight without relying on powerful artifacts, I think we need to see it a little more.
Are the books falling into some Sorting Algorithm of Evil? Where the next bad guy in each book is bigger and badder than the last? I hope not. But the truth is that she's already defeated a god by the end of this book, and has the power to do so again. Where do you go from there? Oh sure, some of the power was taken away, but if her life was in trouble, wouldn't she start pulling in major favours? The preview at the back says she meets up with her brother again. I'm thinking that facing her past might be the only way to bring her back to a level playing field. At least then, she has to face her own guilt and such, and in a way, she handicaps herself. Or maybe a prequel. I'm already pretty sure there's a bunch of good stories back there. And really, a book doesn't have to be about someone really really powerful fighting an even more powerful evil thing.
I think this kinda moved off of Dead Reign and more moved into being about the direction the series is taking. Ah well. Thing is I just really enjoyed the book, and didn't have any actual problems with it. The new characters were hilarious and awesome in their own rights. I love how Death just couldn't get over the fact that Marla didn't have a throne room. And Pelham was cute in how he knew pretty much everything that would be useful in any situation, and yet has a break down in a public washroom because it's just so foreign to him.
A curious thing about the secondary characters though is how much Marla overshadows them. I mean, I barely talked about Rondeau at all, and he's her sidekick. He's been in every novel so far, but when Marla is there he just starts to become someone to bounce jokes off. Not that he isn't funny himself, but his personality just isn't powerful enough to stand out beside Marla. Same thing applies to the other character who hangs out with them, which has so far varied every book. From B, to Tim, to Pelham, they just fall into this general category of "Person the audience can relate to, so someone can explain how the universe works to them." And then they get a little lost when something cool happens, because invariably it's Marla taking control of the situation, and Marla fighting the bad guy, and these other characters just kinda run away and hide.
Overall though, I really enjoyed the books. Sure, there's some points where I think the main character is a moron, but I normally do think this about almost everything I read/watch. I think the humour is my favourite part of the books. Too many fantasy novels take themselves too seriously. Piers Anthony did a good job at making his books funny, but his latest novels are slipping into a formula of what works and what he can crack out in a month. T. A. Pratt, on the other hand, is managing to write consistently good, funny books, and slowly working his way up my list of good authors. Already he's managed to jump to a name I recognize and like, which is more than a lot of authors manage.
Sadly, I think it's when I start taking the books too seriously that I start finding the biggest flaws in them. Obviously, I should stop trying to review books and just go back to reading and enjoying them. This series is fun and fast paced enough that if I hadn't taken the time to try and write about them, I doubt I would have noticed anything wrong at all. I seem to be having this problem with a lot of authors. This might be a good reason to never try and review Neil Gaiman.
Anyways, tl;dr version is this. The series is awesome. The characters are funny, the books are fast paced, and you never feel like you're missing information. Or you always feel like you're missing information, whichever you prefer. The setting is pretty awesome too. I would recommend these if anyone on my list is out looking for something new to read. Or looking for Christmas gifts.
Also, you should click my dragon eggs so they grow up.
*shameless plug*