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My hope is that by posting about reviews for books I read, I might actually motivate myself to start working my way through my epic to-read stack and stop re-reading porn on the internet.
The Better Part of Darkness, by Kelly Gay:
This is another cop-who-polices-the-supernatural story, which made me leery, but for the first two-thirds of the book I was sold. First of all, the worldbuilding is pretty neat, with it being more than a decade after the Big Reveal, which happened not because of "we're among you!" revelation, but instead the invention of a portal to other dimensions, of which there are two, a heaven-like one, and a hell-like one. I like all the talk about treaties and laws and stuff like that, because she managed to frame a big supernatural thing in mundane terms, which I always enjoy. (It's actually why I enjoy Charlaine Harris so much. She's particularly good at that.)
The heroine seemed more than typical at first, too, being a divorced mother who's still in love with her ex but left him for good reasons (black crafting, the crack cocaine of the supernatural world) and doesn't trust him even though he's clean. Once again, bring the mundane, the human into the supernatural. She has a tiny thing for her partner, who is an honest-to-God siren, but doesn't want to upset that apple cart, because he's a friend too. Stop me if you've heard this one, but to be fair it managed to ring a lot more sincere than I'm used to.
There's also a fascinating subplot about the fact that she's the first human to be resurrected, by the same genius that invented the dimensional gates, and ever since she came back from the dead there's been forces at war inside of her, nightmares about things she couldn't possibly remember, strange new powers and emotions surfacing when she least expects it. It's not exactly shocking when you learn that she has the powers of "Heaven and Hell" both, thanks to the process that brought her back, and her denial of the whole issue would have been impressive if it weren't so infuriating.
Look, don't get me wrong, I don't want my protagonists to know everything. But I don't want them to be deliberately stupid, either, and I don't have much patience with self-delusion, and I've always hated the trope of the "strong female character who is so strong that she won't ask for help even when her friends are offering because strong women never ask for help, like guys don't ask for directions because they're strong manly men and did we mention that she's a strong woman?" They did it in Buffy, except in Buffy it always bit her on the ass until she learned to ask for help, for fuck's sake, and ever since I've seen that trope abused everywhere I turn. It's one of my sure-fire turn-offs in a read, and sure enough, two-thirds of the way through the book, she's falling apart and there are entire hordes of friends and family and coworkers falling over themselves to be there for her, but she has to push them away because... because? I don't know. There are times when that trope can be written brilliantly and I'm sympathetic with the heroine, but this was not one of those times.
Kelly Gay is also an author that I'm told usually writes standalones, and I can tell because the point where she starts working the plot to set up for the rest of the soon-to-be-series is where it all starts to fall apart. She has too many subplots going on, and they sort of link to each other but not really, and she like, learns magic overnight but she's got three books to go before it's mastered! She keeps introducing new characters even when the existing ones are underused, and there are all sorts of things she edges around explaining but never quite gets around to it, which is infuriating when they're central to the plot. Also she sort of drops stuff into the narrative with no foreshadowing, like "She's psychic but in denial! She had a twin brother but he was dead! He's the reason she's an emotional shut-in!" Just out of nowhere. You don't have to tip your hand to the reader, but if you want them to feel any kind of emotional impact of finally finding out the tragic story of the dead twin, you have to let them know that there was a twin in the first place.
Overall: showed promise, but was disorganized and fell into annoying tropes. A really in-depth edit could have fixed a lot of it.
Quatrain, by Sharon Shinn.
Sharon Shinn is one of my favorite authors, certainly my favorite fantasy author. Her Summers at Castle Auburn is probably in my top-ten favorite books of all time, and I can re-read her Twelve Houses and Samaria series pretty much endlessly. Her characters and worldbuilding are second to none, and so this book, four novellas that all return to the worlds of previous books, was like fucking catnip.
I didn't read the Heart of Gold one because I was skipping around and forgot before I passed it off to Mom, but the other three were all pretty brilliant, so I can't imagine that one was any different.
Flight was a prequel to Archangel, and featured a mother going to extremely dangerous lengths in defense of her child. I actually thought that Raphael was creepier in Archangel, and the mental image of the empty Eyrie with the wind whistling through the rocks will haunt me for all time, but he's so much more personal about his creepiness in this, if it makes any sense. Still an absolutely amazing villain, though, and the heroine was so practical and ruthless and clear-sighted even in her rage and fear. I fell in love with her in thirty pages or less, how's that for good writing?
Gold was a sort-of sequel to Summers at Castle Auburn, featuring Coriel's teenage daughter being send to the land of the Fae for protection during wartime. The plot was a fairly basic fairy-tale trope, the princess being slowly seduced into wanting to stay and renounce the mortal world, and the devotion of a lover bringing her back to her real life. But again, it was the character that really made the story sing, because she was just so petulant and spoiled and practical and laughing and smart, that I couldn't help but root for her. Coriel was one of my favorite heroines, and this is definitely her daughter in all the ways that matter. Shinn also did a brilliant job of portraying the slow seduction on the part of the Aliora (the faeries), and every time she made a choice that brought her closer to giving in, I couldn't actually say I'd have chosen different. And the whole point is that there was no malicious intent, there's no evil to guard against, just people who love absolutely and want you to join them and be part of their joy. How insidious, how absolutely impossible to say no to.
The last story was the first one I read, because Fire was a prequel to Mystic and Rider, and I absolutely loved the look at Senneth before she formed her adopted family, before resolved her past and fell in love and became a figure of note in that world's power and politics. In this she is much as she was for the seventeen years before it, a solitary wanderer, and absolutely the most powerful mystic in the world. This is a woman who could burn a city down with a breath, and this story does a fantastic job of showing just how poorly such power fits into the normal strictures of society.
In this story, more than the rest of the series, the fear and persecution of mystics felt like a metaphor for homosexuality. In the books it was always presented as some kind of religious hatred/legitimate fear of people who can set you on fire by looking at you, but in this it's more insidious, it's, I couldn't tell you were a mystic by looking at you; it's, it's not that I have a problem with mystics, it's just that I've never met one before; it's, but doesn't the Goddess say that mystics are damned?; it's, what's it like to be a mystic?; it's, I don't know about all mystics, but you at least are a good person.
Replace the word "mystic" with the word "gay" and I'm sure a hundred percent of you have heard someone say at least one of those before. It was a subtle bit of writing, too, because it didn't strike me till later.
Overall: If you like Sharon Shinn, pick this up right the hell now, but if you haven't read the books/series they're based on, they're probably a little confusing.
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The Better Part of Darkness, by Kelly Gay:
This is another cop-who-polices-the-supernatural story, which made me leery, but for the first two-thirds of the book I was sold. First of all, the worldbuilding is pretty neat, with it being more than a decade after the Big Reveal, which happened not because of "we're among you!" revelation, but instead the invention of a portal to other dimensions, of which there are two, a heaven-like one, and a hell-like one. I like all the talk about treaties and laws and stuff like that, because she managed to frame a big supernatural thing in mundane terms, which I always enjoy. (It's actually why I enjoy Charlaine Harris so much. She's particularly good at that.)
The heroine seemed more than typical at first, too, being a divorced mother who's still in love with her ex but left him for good reasons (black crafting, the crack cocaine of the supernatural world) and doesn't trust him even though he's clean. Once again, bring the mundane, the human into the supernatural. She has a tiny thing for her partner, who is an honest-to-God siren, but doesn't want to upset that apple cart, because he's a friend too. Stop me if you've heard this one, but to be fair it managed to ring a lot more sincere than I'm used to.
There's also a fascinating subplot about the fact that she's the first human to be resurrected, by the same genius that invented the dimensional gates, and ever since she came back from the dead there's been forces at war inside of her, nightmares about things she couldn't possibly remember, strange new powers and emotions surfacing when she least expects it. It's not exactly shocking when you learn that she has the powers of "Heaven and Hell" both, thanks to the process that brought her back, and her denial of the whole issue would have been impressive if it weren't so infuriating.
Look, don't get me wrong, I don't want my protagonists to know everything. But I don't want them to be deliberately stupid, either, and I don't have much patience with self-delusion, and I've always hated the trope of the "strong female character who is so strong that she won't ask for help even when her friends are offering because strong women never ask for help, like guys don't ask for directions because they're strong manly men and did we mention that she's a strong woman?" They did it in Buffy, except in Buffy it always bit her on the ass until she learned to ask for help, for fuck's sake, and ever since I've seen that trope abused everywhere I turn. It's one of my sure-fire turn-offs in a read, and sure enough, two-thirds of the way through the book, she's falling apart and there are entire hordes of friends and family and coworkers falling over themselves to be there for her, but she has to push them away because... because? I don't know. There are times when that trope can be written brilliantly and I'm sympathetic with the heroine, but this was not one of those times.
Kelly Gay is also an author that I'm told usually writes standalones, and I can tell because the point where she starts working the plot to set up for the rest of the soon-to-be-series is where it all starts to fall apart. She has too many subplots going on, and they sort of link to each other but not really, and she like, learns magic overnight but she's got three books to go before it's mastered! She keeps introducing new characters even when the existing ones are underused, and there are all sorts of things she edges around explaining but never quite gets around to it, which is infuriating when they're central to the plot. Also she sort of drops stuff into the narrative with no foreshadowing, like "She's psychic but in denial! She had a twin brother but he was dead! He's the reason she's an emotional shut-in!" Just out of nowhere. You don't have to tip your hand to the reader, but if you want them to feel any kind of emotional impact of finally finding out the tragic story of the dead twin, you have to let them know that there was a twin in the first place.
Overall: showed promise, but was disorganized and fell into annoying tropes. A really in-depth edit could have fixed a lot of it.
Quatrain, by Sharon Shinn.
Sharon Shinn is one of my favorite authors, certainly my favorite fantasy author. Her Summers at Castle Auburn is probably in my top-ten favorite books of all time, and I can re-read her Twelve Houses and Samaria series pretty much endlessly. Her characters and worldbuilding are second to none, and so this book, four novellas that all return to the worlds of previous books, was like fucking catnip.
I didn't read the Heart of Gold one because I was skipping around and forgot before I passed it off to Mom, but the other three were all pretty brilliant, so I can't imagine that one was any different.
Flight was a prequel to Archangel, and featured a mother going to extremely dangerous lengths in defense of her child. I actually thought that Raphael was creepier in Archangel, and the mental image of the empty Eyrie with the wind whistling through the rocks will haunt me for all time, but he's so much more personal about his creepiness in this, if it makes any sense. Still an absolutely amazing villain, though, and the heroine was so practical and ruthless and clear-sighted even in her rage and fear. I fell in love with her in thirty pages or less, how's that for good writing?
Gold was a sort-of sequel to Summers at Castle Auburn, featuring Coriel's teenage daughter being send to the land of the Fae for protection during wartime. The plot was a fairly basic fairy-tale trope, the princess being slowly seduced into wanting to stay and renounce the mortal world, and the devotion of a lover bringing her back to her real life. But again, it was the character that really made the story sing, because she was just so petulant and spoiled and practical and laughing and smart, that I couldn't help but root for her. Coriel was one of my favorite heroines, and this is definitely her daughter in all the ways that matter. Shinn also did a brilliant job of portraying the slow seduction on the part of the Aliora (the faeries), and every time she made a choice that brought her closer to giving in, I couldn't actually say I'd have chosen different. And the whole point is that there was no malicious intent, there's no evil to guard against, just people who love absolutely and want you to join them and be part of their joy. How insidious, how absolutely impossible to say no to.
The last story was the first one I read, because Fire was a prequel to Mystic and Rider, and I absolutely loved the look at Senneth before she formed her adopted family, before resolved her past and fell in love and became a figure of note in that world's power and politics. In this she is much as she was for the seventeen years before it, a solitary wanderer, and absolutely the most powerful mystic in the world. This is a woman who could burn a city down with a breath, and this story does a fantastic job of showing just how poorly such power fits into the normal strictures of society.
In this story, more than the rest of the series, the fear and persecution of mystics felt like a metaphor for homosexuality. In the books it was always presented as some kind of religious hatred/legitimate fear of people who can set you on fire by looking at you, but in this it's more insidious, it's, I couldn't tell you were a mystic by looking at you; it's, it's not that I have a problem with mystics, it's just that I've never met one before; it's, but doesn't the Goddess say that mystics are damned?; it's, what's it like to be a mystic?; it's, I don't know about all mystics, but you at least are a good person.
Replace the word "mystic" with the word "gay" and I'm sure a hundred percent of you have heard someone say at least one of those before. It was a subtle bit of writing, too, because it didn't strike me till later.
Overall: If you like Sharon Shinn, pick this up right the hell now, but if you haven't read the books/series they're based on, they're probably a little confusing.
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth (
comments)