Red Hood's Revenge by Jim C. Hines
After having a pretty good time reading the Mermaid's Madness, I did go out and purchase Red Hood's Revenge by Jim C. Hines (jimhines ). After plowing through it in about three days four days ago, I finally have the time to comment on it.
The story centers around an assassin named Roudette (better known as Little Red Riding Hood) targeting Talia (Sleeping Beauty) with the aim of bringing Talia alive to her employer (never a good thing). Mess ensues as Talia, Danielle (Princess Cinderella) and Snow (White) go to hunt down the bad guy in Talia's old kingdom... while trying to stay out of trouble there (easier said than done, of course).
As one might expect from my duration of reading, the book progressed along at a good clip. Since this was a somewhat action-y book, I thought it worked rather well. The fights also tended to be rather short affairs (which is a good thing) so the quick pace is more a function of actual plot, character development and story (especially character development). The plot is pretty straightforward overall, consisting mainly of Talia's past coming back to bite her in the rear and threaten the people she cares about. The book is also clearly Talia's story for the most part as she undergoes the most development past her singular overpowering issue of how badly mistreated she had been in her past. It's good to see her finally start to move beyond it with help from the people she cares about.
I liked most of the heroines to start with, but I was most pleased to find that Snow was much less annoying to me than the last story arc. Clearly putting some limits on how much magic she can use and those impacting her serial flirting have improved her character for me a great deal. The villains seemed more secondary in many ways, primarily because they were mostly defined with how they exerted power (or tried to) over Talia or how she perceived them to have power over her. The main driving force of the plot is how she's trying to get them to leave her alone and how she doesn't have the option from running, hiding or ignoring them in her life. I like how this played out with Roudette acting as a mirror and counterpoint for Talia and how this book was far more a character tale rather than a "save the kingdom" story. Maybe we can call it a "character saves self" kind of narrative instead. I liked how the ending was handled regarding Talia's sons. It was very delicate.
Although it did not have the fun plot twists that The Mermaid's Madness had (nor did it have the neat side characters whom I hope will show up again) I do think that this kind of story does have its place in any series and will happily read it again. It can sit on the shelf next to the Terry Moore graphic novels. ^_^
The story centers around an assassin named Roudette (better known as Little Red Riding Hood) targeting Talia (Sleeping Beauty) with the aim of bringing Talia alive to her employer (never a good thing). Mess ensues as Talia, Danielle (Princess Cinderella) and Snow (White) go to hunt down the bad guy in Talia's old kingdom... while trying to stay out of trouble there (easier said than done, of course).
As one might expect from my duration of reading, the book progressed along at a good clip. Since this was a somewhat action-y book, I thought it worked rather well. The fights also tended to be rather short affairs (which is a good thing) so the quick pace is more a function of actual plot, character development and story (especially character development). The plot is pretty straightforward overall, consisting mainly of Talia's past coming back to bite her in the rear and threaten the people she cares about. The book is also clearly Talia's story for the most part as she undergoes the most development past her singular overpowering issue of how badly mistreated she had been in her past. It's good to see her finally start to move beyond it with help from the people she cares about.
I liked most of the heroines to start with, but I was most pleased to find that Snow was much less annoying to me than the last story arc. Clearly putting some limits on how much magic she can use and those impacting her serial flirting have improved her character for me a great deal. The villains seemed more secondary in many ways, primarily because they were mostly defined with how they exerted power (or tried to) over Talia or how she perceived them to have power over her. The main driving force of the plot is how she's trying to get them to leave her alone and how she doesn't have the option from running, hiding or ignoring them in her life. I like how this played out with Roudette acting as a mirror and counterpoint for Talia and how this book was far more a character tale rather than a "save the kingdom" story. Maybe we can call it a "character saves self" kind of narrative instead. I liked how the ending was handled regarding Talia's sons. It was very delicate.
Although it did not have the fun plot twists that The Mermaid's Madness had (nor did it have the neat side characters whom I hope will show up again) I do think that this kind of story does have its place in any series and will happily read it again. It can sit on the shelf next to the Terry Moore graphic novels. ^_^