Moon Called
Periodically throughout the summer, since I actually have time to read, I'll be posting my thoughts on what I read in the form of book reviews here. Any book review post will have the tag for it, and the same title as the book. Other stuff that's happening with me will go in another entry. Usually, I'll just jump right into it. However, since this is the first one, fair warning: in any book review I write, there will be spoilers. I'm not going to bother to hide them unless somebody requests it in advance or I know Laura hasn't read it because she would knife me. I'll try to keep them relatively minor, but they will happen. One last note: I will periodically use terms from the TVTropes wiki. Usually, they're self-explanatory. If not, I'll take a sentence or three to explain the gist, although the wiki would probably do it better. With that disclaimer, on to Moon Called.
First thoughts: It's not the best thing I've ever read, or even the best fantasy I've read, or even the best non-epic fantasy I've read. What it is is one of the better first books in a series I've read. It's clear that Patricia Briggs has put a fairly large amount of thought into her world, and that everything is reasonably well set up from the word go. She knows who her characters are, she knows how the rest of the world sees the supernatural community (important, and often somewhat neglected,) and she knows where her characters fit into said community.
Characters: I think that Mercy was better thought out than anybody else in the book, which makes perfect sense; she is the main character, after all. I think that Mercy herself is a very interesting and well put together character. It's nice to have a realistic character who actually has weaknesses, although I think that it would have been nice to show her getting her ass kicked by a werewolf. We're told it would happen a few times, but the only time she fights them, they lose. I thought that the rest of the characters, particularly Adam and Sam, could have used a little more fleshing out. We get flashes of character off of both of them, but nothing hugely significant from either one. I suspect that's because Patricia Briggs hadn't quite decided which one to make the primary love interest when she was writing, and therefore wasn't sure how to characterize either of them. It shows. The other minor characters, most notably Warren, aren't really fleshed out but have sparkles of personality and/or mystery (Zee, I'm looking at you) here and there- again, just fine for a first book. You can't fully explore every character's personality in one book, nor can you give them equal time- with each other or with the main character. Also, the fact that she took somebody who looked to be a potentially major character and then killed him is, to me, awesome. It sets a tone of actual danger for the rest of the book, even though we know the main character is still unlikely to die. I know some people hate unexpected character death, but I personally prefer to know that Anyone Can Die.
Setting: I like the world. I like the thought that clearly went into it. Well done modern/urban fantasy is some of my favorite, and I think that a lot of thought went into the setting. It's internally consistent, it makes sense, and it leaves room to add other things later. She's already got vampires, werewolves, fae, witches and walkers in there, and can add more with minimal effort. I also liked the way Mercy is something slightly off-kilter. Vampires have gotten slightly cliched recently, and a werewolf would have worked, but the added mystique is kind of nice. Also, the fact that she's exploring Native American traditions is very very nice.
Plot: Good news: I couldn't call the plot. I've read enough fantasy that I can frequently call the entire plot from fifty (+/- 45) pages into any given book. This one I couldn't predict, certainly not in its entirety. It hangs together in a reasonably believable fashion, too: everything that happens follows more or less reasonably from what has already happened. Key word: more or less. In a few places the plot seems to hang a little strongly on coincidence that isn't really justified as anything but something happening because the author says it will. The first and most obvious of these was Mac showing up at Mercy's shop in the first place. I mean, OK, coincidence to get the ball rolling, but in hindsight it seems slightly odd. I can't think of any more off the top of my head, so I can't justify that any further; I should write these within two days of reading the book in the future.
Kvetches: My personal gripes with the book (and believe me, I can always find SOMETHING to gripe about.) In this case, it's the plot. It gets a little too complicated, and while I wasn't able to call the entire thing, I could frequently call what would happen in a given segment. For example, I knew most of what would happen in the vampire visit significantly before it happened. Moreover, the final reveal bugged me. While it made perfect sense in retrospect, it didn't make sense in retrospect because you had the information to figure it out. It would have been extremely difficult to call what was going on and why without knowledge that you didn't really get during the book. Maybe it's just me, but I prefer the final reveal to make me go "Oh! Shit! Why didn't I see that coming? That makes perfect sense!" This one felt, to me, like "OK, I guess that also makes sense, but no way in hell would I have expected it."
Final thoughts: a solid, entertaining read with a well-developed world and decent characters. More than good enough to get me to keep reading the series.
First thoughts: It's not the best thing I've ever read, or even the best fantasy I've read, or even the best non-epic fantasy I've read. What it is is one of the better first books in a series I've read. It's clear that Patricia Briggs has put a fairly large amount of thought into her world, and that everything is reasonably well set up from the word go. She knows who her characters are, she knows how the rest of the world sees the supernatural community (important, and often somewhat neglected,) and she knows where her characters fit into said community.
Characters: I think that Mercy was better thought out than anybody else in the book, which makes perfect sense; she is the main character, after all. I think that Mercy herself is a very interesting and well put together character. It's nice to have a realistic character who actually has weaknesses, although I think that it would have been nice to show her getting her ass kicked by a werewolf. We're told it would happen a few times, but the only time she fights them, they lose. I thought that the rest of the characters, particularly Adam and Sam, could have used a little more fleshing out. We get flashes of character off of both of them, but nothing hugely significant from either one. I suspect that's because Patricia Briggs hadn't quite decided which one to make the primary love interest when she was writing, and therefore wasn't sure how to characterize either of them. It shows. The other minor characters, most notably Warren, aren't really fleshed out but have sparkles of personality and/or mystery (Zee, I'm looking at you) here and there- again, just fine for a first book. You can't fully explore every character's personality in one book, nor can you give them equal time- with each other or with the main character. Also, the fact that she took somebody who looked to be a potentially major character and then killed him is, to me, awesome. It sets a tone of actual danger for the rest of the book, even though we know the main character is still unlikely to die. I know some people hate unexpected character death, but I personally prefer to know that Anyone Can Die.
Setting: I like the world. I like the thought that clearly went into it. Well done modern/urban fantasy is some of my favorite, and I think that a lot of thought went into the setting. It's internally consistent, it makes sense, and it leaves room to add other things later. She's already got vampires, werewolves, fae, witches and walkers in there, and can add more with minimal effort. I also liked the way Mercy is something slightly off-kilter. Vampires have gotten slightly cliched recently, and a werewolf would have worked, but the added mystique is kind of nice. Also, the fact that she's exploring Native American traditions is very very nice.
Plot: Good news: I couldn't call the plot. I've read enough fantasy that I can frequently call the entire plot from fifty (+/- 45) pages into any given book. This one I couldn't predict, certainly not in its entirety. It hangs together in a reasonably believable fashion, too: everything that happens follows more or less reasonably from what has already happened. Key word: more or less. In a few places the plot seems to hang a little strongly on coincidence that isn't really justified as anything but something happening because the author says it will. The first and most obvious of these was Mac showing up at Mercy's shop in the first place. I mean, OK, coincidence to get the ball rolling, but in hindsight it seems slightly odd. I can't think of any more off the top of my head, so I can't justify that any further; I should write these within two days of reading the book in the future.
Kvetches: My personal gripes with the book (and believe me, I can always find SOMETHING to gripe about.) In this case, it's the plot. It gets a little too complicated, and while I wasn't able to call the entire thing, I could frequently call what would happen in a given segment. For example, I knew most of what would happen in the vampire visit significantly before it happened. Moreover, the final reveal bugged me. While it made perfect sense in retrospect, it didn't make sense in retrospect because you had the information to figure it out. It would have been extremely difficult to call what was going on and why without knowledge that you didn't really get during the book. Maybe it's just me, but I prefer the final reveal to make me go "Oh! Shit! Why didn't I see that coming? That makes perfect sense!" This one felt, to me, like "OK, I guess that also makes sense, but no way in hell would I have expected it."
Final thoughts: a solid, entertaining read with a well-developed world and decent characters. More than good enough to get me to keep reading the series.