reviews: series
Kim Stanley Robinson, Sixty Days and Counting: The third book in Robinson’s Washington, DC trilogy (?), this continues the Robinson tradition of combining talking heads with detailed attention to landscape. Policy wonks continue to struggle against global warming, and the forces arrayed against changing human behavior, while also trying to navigate their all-too-human personal lives. Forty Signs of Rain is my favorite book of the three, but hanging out with these folks again, including the monks from the drowned island of Shangri-La, felt comforting. Robinson’s like the liberal Michael Crichton, full of science and hope for the future even as he describes the heavy weather headed towards us.
Patricia Briggs, Blood Bound: Second in a series featuring Mercedes (Mercy) Thompson, mechanic and shapeshifter, and her meddling in the affairs of wolves and vampires. As I said about the first installment, Briggs does an excellent job balancing Mercy’s stated skills with common sense - she behaves like a person who doesn’t have superpowers even if she has extra powers; she behaves like someone who doesn’t know she can’t die because she’s the protagonist. It still feels like Briggs is writing these books because there’s a market, not because there are lots of Mercy stories she’s aching to tell. Because Briggs is good, this story of a vampire enchanter who comes to town and wreaks havoc is still entertaining, but it’s not as juicy as early Laurell Hamilton. Also, the cheesecake cover is a huge turnoff, and it gets worse because the thumbnail on the spine is Mercy’s breasts.
Jim Butcher, White Night: Harry Dresden! Hi, Harry! Speaking of superpowers, Butcher is having to work pretty hard to create antagonists that Harry can’t easily defeat these days. It helps to have some gods in his arsenal, along with powerful and organized vampire tribes. This volume starts off with suicides that aren’t really suicides, but the work of a serial killer out to get witches. Since the human police can’t see the links between the murders, Harry investigates, only to find an even more complicated story involving politics and an assault on - or a betrayal from within of - the White Council he’s reluctantly joined. A side plot involves the continued training of his apprentice, who has to behave herself or the Council will kill them both. Also, Harry’s half-brother the sex vampire is involved in the whole mess somehow. Another side plot - well, at least Butcher remembers them! - involves the fallen angel Lasciel who’s taken up residence in Harry’s head, offering him great power in return for great corruption. I like how Harry is implicated in power structures even when he wants no part of them, and I like the glimpses of how people who just have a little bit of magic view Harry and his ilk - with fear and suspicion, often justified. Harry has really grown on me, and I look forward to further adventures.
Patricia Briggs, Blood Bound: Second in a series featuring Mercedes (Mercy) Thompson, mechanic and shapeshifter, and her meddling in the affairs of wolves and vampires. As I said about the first installment, Briggs does an excellent job balancing Mercy’s stated skills with common sense - she behaves like a person who doesn’t have superpowers even if she has extra powers; she behaves like someone who doesn’t know she can’t die because she’s the protagonist. It still feels like Briggs is writing these books because there’s a market, not because there are lots of Mercy stories she’s aching to tell. Because Briggs is good, this story of a vampire enchanter who comes to town and wreaks havoc is still entertaining, but it’s not as juicy as early Laurell Hamilton. Also, the cheesecake cover is a huge turnoff, and it gets worse because the thumbnail on the spine is Mercy’s breasts.
Jim Butcher, White Night: Harry Dresden! Hi, Harry! Speaking of superpowers, Butcher is having to work pretty hard to create antagonists that Harry can’t easily defeat these days. It helps to have some gods in his arsenal, along with powerful and organized vampire tribes. This volume starts off with suicides that aren’t really suicides, but the work of a serial killer out to get witches. Since the human police can’t see the links between the murders, Harry investigates, only to find an even more complicated story involving politics and an assault on - or a betrayal from within of - the White Council he’s reluctantly joined. A side plot involves the continued training of his apprentice, who has to behave herself or the Council will kill them both. Also, Harry’s half-brother the sex vampire is involved in the whole mess somehow. Another side plot - well, at least Butcher remembers them! - involves the fallen angel Lasciel who’s taken up residence in Harry’s head, offering him great power in return for great corruption. I like how Harry is implicated in power structures even when he wants no part of them, and I like the glimpses of how people who just have a little bit of magic view Harry and his ilk - with fear and suspicion, often justified. Harry has really grown on me, and I look forward to further adventures.