May/June Book Reviews
Book reviews are going to be short and sweet this month (I say this and then I end up rambling for pages upon pages). I spent most of the month re-reading Kim Harrison’s Hollow series, as 1) I love it and 2) I always forget some of the finer details that Harrison tends to loop back to in future instalments. After that, I finally managed to get round to reading Black Magic Sanction and Pale Demon.
To sum up… I’m loving the direction Harrison is taking this series in. It’s slow-moving, or seems that way, but I always feel like it’s genuinely developing, that Rachel is metamorphosing steadily and believably, becoming something so much more than she was with every book.
My one and only disappointment with the book before these was that we never got to see Rachel in the after-ever with Al. Harrison more than makes up for this lack in her next two novels, and we not only get to learn more about the ever-after, but Al and Newt and the demon species itself. I found it all fascinating and well-explored, especially the history behind the ever-after and the reasons why Newt is the only female demon left. I liked the juxtaposition between Rachel and Ku’Sox, what each of them represented for the demon world and how they were “created”.
I also liked that, while Harrison gave us more of an insight into Al and Newt and the demons, she didn’t try to justify their actions, or even try and play on our sympathies. I thought it was interesting that those with the ability to feel love were the ones that survived, because it made it very clear that the ability to love doesn’t make someone inherently “good”.
As for Pierce… I was never really a fan. I thought he was fun as a character, sure, but as a love interest, no. Maybe it’s the Kisten fangirl in me, but the chemistry wasn’t there for me. I did like that Harrison used this character to emphasise Rachel’s fascination with dangerous men, to us and to Rachel, and at the same time used him to introduce a new, subtle change in her heroine. Rachel realises why she is drawn to Pierce - and what Pierce represents - and she finally, finally seems determined not to repeat old patterns.
Speaking of… Rachel pulling one over on Nick again? Awesome.
I would just like to take this moment to say that Trent is still one of my favourite characters in this series. He’s not good, he’s not bad; he’s not stupid but he makes stupid decisions; he’s ruthless, but strangely soft; he’s arrogant and capable, but surprisingly insecure; and oh my God, he has a daughter. ADORABLE. TIMES TEN. I don’t always like him and it pisses me off when he messes with Rachel and screws up, because sometimes it seems like they’re genuinely making progress… and then he fucks it all!
In Pale Demon he makes beyond stupid decisions. He gets people killed. A lot of people. And he makes Rachel’s life beyond difficult. And he unreasonably blames Rachel for him becoming her familiar, like she would honestly use him as a slave. He’s not always the smartest cookie, but then sometimes he is the smartest cookie, and that’s when he’s dangerous.
But, I still love him. I love his relationship with Rachel and his interesting relationship with Quen. I want to see more of him in the next book; I want to see him learning how to be a dad and learning how to balance that with his conscience and his responsibilities as an elf and a human being.
On the flipside… oh, Matalina. Oh, Jenks. Just… I knew it was coming, but not like this, you know? And while one part of me is glad that Jenks will be around for twenty more years, a part of me wanted Rachel to let him go, let him join Matalina the way he was meant to. My heart strings, they did twang.
Another thing that I’ve liked about the recent books is that Harrison seems to have toned down Ivy’s volatility finally. I know that in the earlier books Harrison was trying to establish how difficult it is for vampires to co-exist with humans that aren’t their shadows and how there were consequences for Ivy denying her nature, but it just seemed like there’d be no hope that Ivy and Rachel would find a balance one day without throwing in sex or blood. I, like Rachel, can’t separate Ivy’s need for blood with her need for sex, because yeah, she does mix the two, and so do most of the vampires in this series.
I’ve seen people actually criticise Harrison and this series for being homophobic because of Rachel’s refusal to be with Ivy or to sleep with her, and that always confuses me. Yes, you love who you love, and Rachel readily admits she loves Ivy. But a person’s sexual preference doesn’t change over night and Rachel has never made it a secret that she’s attracted to - and loves - men. I don’t think Harrison is adverse to this relationship, but I think she recognises that there’s a little more standing in the way of a happily ever after here than a simple case of gender.
If the situation were reversed, if Ivy was a man and Rachel was a gay woman, I’ve no doubt there’d be an uproar if Rachel decided she was in love with Ivy-the-man and jumped into bed with him.
Anyway, every now and again I get the vague impression that Ivy/Rachel is Harrison’s endgame. But then again, I get the same impression about Rachel/Trent. What I have learned from this series, though, is that Harrison doesn’t necessarily take me where I expect to go, but I’m always happy with where I find myself. Nine (eight?) books in and I’ve yet to be disappointed. Harrison hasn’t written one instalment that has dulled my appreciation for her books or her heroine, which is why I’ll be picking up the next one. And the next. And probably the next.
The only upside to finishing Harrison’s latest was that I had Nalini Singh’s latest, Kiss of Snow, waiting for me. And boy, have I been waiting for this book. I don’t know if I have any Singh fans on my flist, but man, this was the book that every Psy-Changeling fan was looking forward to. We’ve all been dying to read Sienna and Hawke’s story and I’m so glad that Singh didn’t decide to use that against her fans and save it for the final book in the series.
I completely understand why she waited this long to write it - Judd’s story had to come first, because in Caressed by Ice we’re introduced to the more dangerous Psy designations. And just when we think that maybe Judd’s is the most dangerous of all, it turns out there’s the X designation, and Sienna is it.
Not only that, but in the earlier books Sienna was simply too young for Hawke, despite the obvious connection and chemistry between them. Not only did the readers know that but so did the characters in the book. To have pushed this story before Sienna was ready for it would probably have squeaked me.
The age gap wasn’t ever an issue for me whilst reading this book. Hawke will always be older than Sienna, but I think Singh handled it well. Sienna had her immature moments but she wasn’t immature. And Hawke had his idiotic moments, too.
I think what made it so easy to accept this pairing was that the chemistry between them has always been believable, even in the earlier books when Sienna was too young for anything to come of it. And I like Sienna. She’s a great mix of kickass sass and vulnerability, and probably they only one that will ever give Hawke a run for his money.
Like most of the books in this series, the conflict between them, the obstacles keeping them apart, are genuine. Though we as readers know they’ll eventually get their happy ending, the journey they take to get there is key to the enjoyment of the book. And in this instance, the journey was fun, sexy, sad and sincere.
The overall story arc in the series took a backseat in this instalment. With regards to the war brewing between the Psy and the Changelings, nothing much really happens. Both sides make their moves and the end result is… well, very little changes. There are no losses, dynamics don’t shift, though by the end of the book there is one significant change within the SnowDancer pack. Plus we’re introduced to a new character who I think will play a very important role in the books to come.
Apart from that, nothing big happens. Not that I minded. Sienna and Hawke’s romance never feels like filler; Singh manages to make every scene between them something fresh and hot and significant to who they are as characters. That, combined with the secondary romance blossoming between Walker and Lara, means the book doesn’t read like a set-up book; yes, Singh uses this instalment to introduce changes that won’t be fully realised until future books (revealing Sienna as the pack’s most lethal weapon; the changes in the LaurenNet/the pack; the introduction of a character originally believed to be dead) but it’s by no means boring or bloated. I devoured this book in two days and now I find myself craving the next instalment already.
Anyone know when that’s out?
I like the ideas and I like the characters, but the format of these books is just so unnecessary. A book doesn’t need that many POVs or plotlines.
I get that Phoenix is trying to establish how important Dante is, that he has a lot of enemies simply because of who he is, etc., but dear God, she needs to wrap up some of her subplots. Between Heather’s father, Rutger, the FBI, the Shadow Branch, the angels and that other vampire dude, there’s just too much going on here.
The first book worked, despite it’s format, because the plot was pretty straight forward and Dante and the characters only really had to deal with the fallout from Bad Seed. But with every book Phoenix has added more and more to the story, and now it just feels bogged down. The different POVs she’s writing from have multiplied and I find myself chugging my way through scenes with characters I’m really not all that bothered about.
The formatting of this instalment was weird. I didn’t get why she chose to write it in that way. Jumping forward in time, jumping back to get us to that point, and then continuing. It didn’t create tension or suspense; in fact it kind of drained those things away, because I spent most of the book knowing exactly where the characters would end up and why.
I’m also getting pretty tired of the whole story. What bothers me is that the ideas are there, but Phoenix seems to ignore them in favour of making Dante even more of a tragic figure. Not that Dante is a character that complains about what’s happening to him. He gets on with things, he deals with his shit, and that’s that. But he never stops to think about his actions and he fires his way through all the drama on anger and a fuck you attitude that sometimes makes matters a hundred times worse.
Most of this book was just a regurgitation of the same problems Dante was having in the first three books. His attitude hasn’t changed. He’s still suffering. The plot hasn’t gone anywhere in the grand scheme of things. Every book just repeats the same plot; someone or something is after Dante for whatever reason. But his character never develops. Yeah, he learns a lot about his past and who he is, but it doesn’t change him, not really. He hasn’t managed to control his new powers even a little, nothing from his childhood has been resolved, he hasn’t had many new memories, and he still keeps losing himself between the past and the present.
That was another aggravating thing. Despite the fact that he’s constantly losing track of where and when he is, Dante still tries to fight what’s happening, despite the fact that he and his friends and Heather will probably fare better if he tried to find a way to fix himself first. But no, he never thinks to do this.
I think this is one of those series where I won’t even need to read the rest of it. I could probably wait until the last book, read that, and the same things would be happening and everything would probably be resolved in the final act.
Sorry, Phoenix. I really tried. Your first couple of books had a charm to them that I just couldn’t put into words, but I’m over it.
I didn’t know that Vicki Pettersson’s sixth book, Cheat the Grave, was going to be the last in the Zodiac series. I knew there wasn’t actually going to be twelve, but I thought she had at least two or three more books planned out for this. Not that I had a problem with it. I’m sad I had to leave that world behind, because I loved it, but it sounds like Pettersson has something new planned so I’m interested to see in what direction she’ll head now.
Gonna make this a short one.
LOVED: that Warren got what was coming to him; that Pettersson worked in the thirteenth star sign in such a fascinating way; that she twisted the interpretation of the Kairos so it became less about Joanna being the Chosen one, and more about the chosen moment and what you do with it; that not all of her powers were returned; that she wasn’t awesome all by her lonesome, but used and appreciated the resources available to her; that she wasn’t the first of her kind and that the Grays showed it’s all about choice, not fate; that Hunter turned out to be more genuine than expected; that Joanna managed to find herself somewhere between who she used to be and the sister she used to be and that she finally got her own version of a family and a white picket fence; that her story isn’t really done, just done for now.
DISLIKED (not hated, because I hated nothing about this book or this series): that I was confused by how Joanna managed to defeat the Tulpa in the end; that the answer to his defeat wasn’t found in the original manuals like Pettersson hinted it would be; that her fight with him didn’t live up to her fight with Solange; that Zoe never cameo’d (she was awesome as Suzanne in the previous books, BTW); that Cher wasn’t even mentioned and that nothing was said about Joanna’s daughter.
Most of that wasn’t really a problem, per se, because though Petterrson wraps up the bigger plotlines for this series, she leaves a lot open. She makes it quite clear that though Joanna is taking a “break” from the superhero world, that world isn’t finished with Jo and Jo will never stop fighting to protect what it is hers. The author isn’t closed off to visiting this world again and she’s already said that Joanna’s story maybe done, but it’s not done.
It wouldn’t surprise me if a few years down the line I’m re-visiting this world and seeing it from the eyes of a new character, with Joanna and her family guest starring and kicking ass. There’s still a lot this world can offer, a lot of questions that could be answered, especially when it comes to the history of the troops, the first Zodiac manuals, how Midheaven came into existence and what will become of it now Warren is trapped there.
Still, though the final instalment predictably tied up most of the important threads of the story into a nice, neat bow, I had no problems with that. I think if this story had ended in Joanna’s defeat or her suffering through one loss too many, it would have pushed this series past its key message; it isn’t about what happens when someone gets repeatedly kicked while they’re down. It’s about what they do when that happens.
Can’t wait to see what Pettersson comes up with next!
Okay, I ranted more than I expected to. I’ve still got my X-Men: First Class review to write.
Plus, I’m considering signing up for X-Men Movie Ficathon. Hmmm. Only ever wrote in the X-Men fandom once and it was dire. And I really only want to write Erik/Raven or Charles/Raven or Erik/Charles/Raven. Hmmmm.
To sum up… I’m loving the direction Harrison is taking this series in. It’s slow-moving, or seems that way, but I always feel like it’s genuinely developing, that Rachel is metamorphosing steadily and believably, becoming something so much more than she was with every book.
My one and only disappointment with the book before these was that we never got to see Rachel in the after-ever with Al. Harrison more than makes up for this lack in her next two novels, and we not only get to learn more about the ever-after, but Al and Newt and the demon species itself. I found it all fascinating and well-explored, especially the history behind the ever-after and the reasons why Newt is the only female demon left. I liked the juxtaposition between Rachel and Ku’Sox, what each of them represented for the demon world and how they were “created”.
I also liked that, while Harrison gave us more of an insight into Al and Newt and the demons, she didn’t try to justify their actions, or even try and play on our sympathies. I thought it was interesting that those with the ability to feel love were the ones that survived, because it made it very clear that the ability to love doesn’t make someone inherently “good”.
As for Pierce… I was never really a fan. I thought he was fun as a character, sure, but as a love interest, no. Maybe it’s the Kisten fangirl in me, but the chemistry wasn’t there for me. I did like that Harrison used this character to emphasise Rachel’s fascination with dangerous men, to us and to Rachel, and at the same time used him to introduce a new, subtle change in her heroine. Rachel realises why she is drawn to Pierce - and what Pierce represents - and she finally, finally seems determined not to repeat old patterns.
Speaking of… Rachel pulling one over on Nick again? Awesome.
I would just like to take this moment to say that Trent is still one of my favourite characters in this series. He’s not good, he’s not bad; he’s not stupid but he makes stupid decisions; he’s ruthless, but strangely soft; he’s arrogant and capable, but surprisingly insecure; and oh my God, he has a daughter. ADORABLE. TIMES TEN. I don’t always like him and it pisses me off when he messes with Rachel and screws up, because sometimes it seems like they’re genuinely making progress… and then he fucks it all!
In Pale Demon he makes beyond stupid decisions. He gets people killed. A lot of people. And he makes Rachel’s life beyond difficult. And he unreasonably blames Rachel for him becoming her familiar, like she would honestly use him as a slave. He’s not always the smartest cookie, but then sometimes he is the smartest cookie, and that’s when he’s dangerous.
But, I still love him. I love his relationship with Rachel and his interesting relationship with Quen. I want to see more of him in the next book; I want to see him learning how to be a dad and learning how to balance that with his conscience and his responsibilities as an elf and a human being.
On the flipside… oh, Matalina. Oh, Jenks. Just… I knew it was coming, but not like this, you know? And while one part of me is glad that Jenks will be around for twenty more years, a part of me wanted Rachel to let him go, let him join Matalina the way he was meant to. My heart strings, they did twang.
Another thing that I’ve liked about the recent books is that Harrison seems to have toned down Ivy’s volatility finally. I know that in the earlier books Harrison was trying to establish how difficult it is for vampires to co-exist with humans that aren’t their shadows and how there were consequences for Ivy denying her nature, but it just seemed like there’d be no hope that Ivy and Rachel would find a balance one day without throwing in sex or blood. I, like Rachel, can’t separate Ivy’s need for blood with her need for sex, because yeah, she does mix the two, and so do most of the vampires in this series.
I’ve seen people actually criticise Harrison and this series for being homophobic because of Rachel’s refusal to be with Ivy or to sleep with her, and that always confuses me. Yes, you love who you love, and Rachel readily admits she loves Ivy. But a person’s sexual preference doesn’t change over night and Rachel has never made it a secret that she’s attracted to - and loves - men. I don’t think Harrison is adverse to this relationship, but I think she recognises that there’s a little more standing in the way of a happily ever after here than a simple case of gender.
If the situation were reversed, if Ivy was a man and Rachel was a gay woman, I’ve no doubt there’d be an uproar if Rachel decided she was in love with Ivy-the-man and jumped into bed with him.
Anyway, every now and again I get the vague impression that Ivy/Rachel is Harrison’s endgame. But then again, I get the same impression about Rachel/Trent. What I have learned from this series, though, is that Harrison doesn’t necessarily take me where I expect to go, but I’m always happy with where I find myself. Nine (eight?) books in and I’ve yet to be disappointed. Harrison hasn’t written one instalment that has dulled my appreciation for her books or her heroine, which is why I’ll be picking up the next one. And the next. And probably the next.
The only upside to finishing Harrison’s latest was that I had Nalini Singh’s latest, Kiss of Snow, waiting for me. And boy, have I been waiting for this book. I don’t know if I have any Singh fans on my flist, but man, this was the book that every Psy-Changeling fan was looking forward to. We’ve all been dying to read Sienna and Hawke’s story and I’m so glad that Singh didn’t decide to use that against her fans and save it for the final book in the series.
I completely understand why she waited this long to write it - Judd’s story had to come first, because in Caressed by Ice we’re introduced to the more dangerous Psy designations. And just when we think that maybe Judd’s is the most dangerous of all, it turns out there’s the X designation, and Sienna is it.
Not only that, but in the earlier books Sienna was simply too young for Hawke, despite the obvious connection and chemistry between them. Not only did the readers know that but so did the characters in the book. To have pushed this story before Sienna was ready for it would probably have squeaked me.
The age gap wasn’t ever an issue for me whilst reading this book. Hawke will always be older than Sienna, but I think Singh handled it well. Sienna had her immature moments but she wasn’t immature. And Hawke had his idiotic moments, too.
I think what made it so easy to accept this pairing was that the chemistry between them has always been believable, even in the earlier books when Sienna was too young for anything to come of it. And I like Sienna. She’s a great mix of kickass sass and vulnerability, and probably they only one that will ever give Hawke a run for his money.
Like most of the books in this series, the conflict between them, the obstacles keeping them apart, are genuine. Though we as readers know they’ll eventually get their happy ending, the journey they take to get there is key to the enjoyment of the book. And in this instance, the journey was fun, sexy, sad and sincere.
The overall story arc in the series took a backseat in this instalment. With regards to the war brewing between the Psy and the Changelings, nothing much really happens. Both sides make their moves and the end result is… well, very little changes. There are no losses, dynamics don’t shift, though by the end of the book there is one significant change within the SnowDancer pack. Plus we’re introduced to a new character who I think will play a very important role in the books to come.
Apart from that, nothing big happens. Not that I minded. Sienna and Hawke’s romance never feels like filler; Singh manages to make every scene between them something fresh and hot and significant to who they are as characters. That, combined with the secondary romance blossoming between Walker and Lara, means the book doesn’t read like a set-up book; yes, Singh uses this instalment to introduce changes that won’t be fully realised until future books (revealing Sienna as the pack’s most lethal weapon; the changes in the LaurenNet/the pack; the introduction of a character originally believed to be dead) but it’s by no means boring or bloated. I devoured this book in two days and now I find myself craving the next instalment already.
Anyone know when that’s out?
I like the ideas and I like the characters, but the format of these books is just so unnecessary. A book doesn’t need that many POVs or plotlines.
I get that Phoenix is trying to establish how important Dante is, that he has a lot of enemies simply because of who he is, etc., but dear God, she needs to wrap up some of her subplots. Between Heather’s father, Rutger, the FBI, the Shadow Branch, the angels and that other vampire dude, there’s just too much going on here.
The first book worked, despite it’s format, because the plot was pretty straight forward and Dante and the characters only really had to deal with the fallout from Bad Seed. But with every book Phoenix has added more and more to the story, and now it just feels bogged down. The different POVs she’s writing from have multiplied and I find myself chugging my way through scenes with characters I’m really not all that bothered about.
The formatting of this instalment was weird. I didn’t get why she chose to write it in that way. Jumping forward in time, jumping back to get us to that point, and then continuing. It didn’t create tension or suspense; in fact it kind of drained those things away, because I spent most of the book knowing exactly where the characters would end up and why.
I’m also getting pretty tired of the whole story. What bothers me is that the ideas are there, but Phoenix seems to ignore them in favour of making Dante even more of a tragic figure. Not that Dante is a character that complains about what’s happening to him. He gets on with things, he deals with his shit, and that’s that. But he never stops to think about his actions and he fires his way through all the drama on anger and a fuck you attitude that sometimes makes matters a hundred times worse.
Most of this book was just a regurgitation of the same problems Dante was having in the first three books. His attitude hasn’t changed. He’s still suffering. The plot hasn’t gone anywhere in the grand scheme of things. Every book just repeats the same plot; someone or something is after Dante for whatever reason. But his character never develops. Yeah, he learns a lot about his past and who he is, but it doesn’t change him, not really. He hasn’t managed to control his new powers even a little, nothing from his childhood has been resolved, he hasn’t had many new memories, and he still keeps losing himself between the past and the present.
That was another aggravating thing. Despite the fact that he’s constantly losing track of where and when he is, Dante still tries to fight what’s happening, despite the fact that he and his friends and Heather will probably fare better if he tried to find a way to fix himself first. But no, he never thinks to do this.
I think this is one of those series where I won’t even need to read the rest of it. I could probably wait until the last book, read that, and the same things would be happening and everything would probably be resolved in the final act.
Sorry, Phoenix. I really tried. Your first couple of books had a charm to them that I just couldn’t put into words, but I’m over it.
I didn’t know that Vicki Pettersson’s sixth book, Cheat the Grave, was going to be the last in the Zodiac series. I knew there wasn’t actually going to be twelve, but I thought she had at least two or three more books planned out for this. Not that I had a problem with it. I’m sad I had to leave that world behind, because I loved it, but it sounds like Pettersson has something new planned so I’m interested to see in what direction she’ll head now.
Gonna make this a short one.
LOVED: that Warren got what was coming to him; that Pettersson worked in the thirteenth star sign in such a fascinating way; that she twisted the interpretation of the Kairos so it became less about Joanna being the Chosen one, and more about the chosen moment and what you do with it; that not all of her powers were returned; that she wasn’t awesome all by her lonesome, but used and appreciated the resources available to her; that she wasn’t the first of her kind and that the Grays showed it’s all about choice, not fate; that Hunter turned out to be more genuine than expected; that Joanna managed to find herself somewhere between who she used to be and the sister she used to be and that she finally got her own version of a family and a white picket fence; that her story isn’t really done, just done for now.
DISLIKED (not hated, because I hated nothing about this book or this series): that I was confused by how Joanna managed to defeat the Tulpa in the end; that the answer to his defeat wasn’t found in the original manuals like Pettersson hinted it would be; that her fight with him didn’t live up to her fight with Solange; that Zoe never cameo’d (she was awesome as Suzanne in the previous books, BTW); that Cher wasn’t even mentioned and that nothing was said about Joanna’s daughter.
Most of that wasn’t really a problem, per se, because though Petterrson wraps up the bigger plotlines for this series, she leaves a lot open. She makes it quite clear that though Joanna is taking a “break” from the superhero world, that world isn’t finished with Jo and Jo will never stop fighting to protect what it is hers. The author isn’t closed off to visiting this world again and she’s already said that Joanna’s story maybe done, but it’s not done.
It wouldn’t surprise me if a few years down the line I’m re-visiting this world and seeing it from the eyes of a new character, with Joanna and her family guest starring and kicking ass. There’s still a lot this world can offer, a lot of questions that could be answered, especially when it comes to the history of the troops, the first Zodiac manuals, how Midheaven came into existence and what will become of it now Warren is trapped there.
Still, though the final instalment predictably tied up most of the important threads of the story into a nice, neat bow, I had no problems with that. I think if this story had ended in Joanna’s defeat or her suffering through one loss too many, it would have pushed this series past its key message; it isn’t about what happens when someone gets repeatedly kicked while they’re down. It’s about what they do when that happens.
Can’t wait to see what Pettersson comes up with next!
Okay, I ranted more than I expected to. I’ve still got my X-Men: First Class review to write.
Plus, I’m considering signing up for X-Men Movie Ficathon. Hmmm. Only ever wrote in the X-Men fandom once and it was dire. And I really only want to write Erik/Raven or Charles/Raven or Erik/Charles/Raven. Hmmmm.