Blah blah, vampire emergency, blah
Soulless
by Gail Carriger
So after my initial impressions of it my enjoyment of the book improved significantly, though I can't quite put my finger on what made the difference, if anything.
I finally got to the sex... and by sex I don't just mean actual intercourse, but everything leading up to it, and that was a relief for what it was worth, because the book was so OBVIOUS about its sexual tension, which was driving me mad. So that "just get a room already!" feeling that was frustrating me finally subsided, to be replaced with.... "just get a room, no, really, please, for the love of god, this is not the fucking time, people." This book just goes from 0-60 in 60 seconds... well, 0-59 because Victorian propriety demands they be married first... the same Victorian propriety they're blatantly ignoring the rest of the time.
Instead it's all, "what's going on? Does he/she like me? Why won't he/she talk to me?" with all the manners and society and heavy dollops of affected snark like what I imagine a Jane Austen novel must be like except that I've never read one because I HATE THAT SHIT.
I did appreciate the world-building, I can't fault Carriger for anything in particular about the world she's created, I like the whole "vampires and werewolves as nobility with their fingers in the workings of the government" thing, though like almost every single other writer she of course, had to add her own rules as to how vampires and werewolves physically worked, because god forbid we have some shared cultural ideas about the supernatural. I think the worst part is that the added rules are always such a downer, they just suck some of the fun right out of vampires and werewolves (one particular one that bothers me is the whole "they can't change their hair, because it's set at whatever it was when they were bitten/cursed").
The problem with the world is that the plot isn't very inspired. Secret society, mysterious diappearances, blah blah blah. It's so obvious you don't need "glassicals" to see it (ugh, hate that word) and it doesn't really go anywhere because of course, this is book 1 of a series. The book actually ramps up pretty nicely before that point, only to deflate like a sad balloon.
One thing I was thankful for in the first book was the incredibly low amount of steampunk crap, alas, I see it's already starting to escalate in the second book, which I started reading and so far have not been enjoying as much, though I do note with delight that she finally stopped changing character perspective in the middle of scenes, thank god.
by Gail Carriger
So after my initial impressions of it my enjoyment of the book improved significantly, though I can't quite put my finger on what made the difference, if anything.
I finally got to the sex... and by sex I don't just mean actual intercourse, but everything leading up to it, and that was a relief for what it was worth, because the book was so OBVIOUS about its sexual tension, which was driving me mad. So that "just get a room already!" feeling that was frustrating me finally subsided, to be replaced with.... "just get a room, no, really, please, for the love of god, this is not the fucking time, people." This book just goes from 0-60 in 60 seconds... well, 0-59 because Victorian propriety demands they be married first... the same Victorian propriety they're blatantly ignoring the rest of the time.
Instead it's all, "what's going on? Does he/she like me? Why won't he/she talk to me?" with all the manners and society and heavy dollops of affected snark like what I imagine a Jane Austen novel must be like except that I've never read one because I HATE THAT SHIT.
I did appreciate the world-building, I can't fault Carriger for anything in particular about the world she's created, I like the whole "vampires and werewolves as nobility with their fingers in the workings of the government" thing, though like almost every single other writer she of course, had to add her own rules as to how vampires and werewolves physically worked, because god forbid we have some shared cultural ideas about the supernatural. I think the worst part is that the added rules are always such a downer, they just suck some of the fun right out of vampires and werewolves (one particular one that bothers me is the whole "they can't change their hair, because it's set at whatever it was when they were bitten/cursed").
The problem with the world is that the plot isn't very inspired. Secret society, mysterious diappearances, blah blah blah. It's so obvious you don't need "glassicals" to see it (ugh, hate that word) and it doesn't really go anywhere because of course, this is book 1 of a series. The book actually ramps up pretty nicely before that point, only to deflate like a sad balloon.
One thing I was thankful for in the first book was the incredibly low amount of steampunk crap, alas, I see it's already starting to escalate in the second book, which I started reading and so far have not been enjoying as much, though I do note with delight that she finally stopped changing character perspective in the middle of scenes, thank god.