[so you walk that way, i'll walk this way]
I have a half-dozen tangents going in my head and I don't know which to put into words. I don't know if I want to try with any of them. I guess the only one that's affecting anything is the one that will probably take away from my free time, so.
There's a lot of really frustrating drama with the offline friends, and I can't help thinking they should be too old for this shit. But apparently they aren't, and I have to clean things up for them (metaphorically) and I really just want to be out of here.
I love my friends. I really do. But I don't love the weird dynamic that developed over the past four or five years. I want to move on with my life; I'm sad that they don't. I'm too excited for the plans I've made to even regret leaving. Hopefully they'll find a way to be as content as I am right now.
Enough real life blathering. Book review time!
I've been reading the Marla Mason series, by T.A. Pratt. When I say "reading them", I mean I've read three of them in the past two weeks and I'm working on the fourth.
The writing lacks defining style, which is sadly typical of most of today's genre writers. But! The plots are so creative I don't even mind. It's leisure reading in the best sense of the word.
Marla is a gritty heroine who is really fun to read about. She's the chief sorcerer of an east coast city called Felport. She's also a crime lord on the side. The best part, for me? She doesn't run around in a chainmail bikini. She's kicked a hellhound across a room with her steeltoed boots, and she wears grimy t-shirts. She's not a sex object. She doesn't spend every book finding The One. (Not that she's opposed to love if it comes along, but let's just say Death can confirm that she takes care of her own business when she needs. Wink wink.)
Her sidekick is Rondeau, a psychic parasite inhabiting a street urchin's body. Wanna know how they met? When Marla was younger and Rondeau was a kid, she tore his jaw off to use it as an oracle device. Admittedly she was under the influence of her cloak-that-may-not-be-a-cloak, but still, she ripped a kid's jaw off because she needed it. It's horrible and shocking and the strangest start to a best friendship I've ever read. By the time we read about them, they've made amends, but it affects the dynamic from time to time. That's key in this series: things she does continue to have consequences for years.
Also, Rondeau is a snarky bisexual bar owner who dresses in godawful 70's leisure suits. I love him so much it's ridiculous.
Where was I?
In Marla's world, sorcerers are in every city running things behind the scenes. Marla's first master was a pornomancer. It is exactly what it sounds like. Some of her worst rivals are: a necromancer with Cotard delusion, Death incarnate, a would-be Incan priest, a snake god, a 'love talker' who can force everyone around him to love him, and the zombie of John Wilkes Booth.
Oh and there are technomancers, biomancers (one that reminds me so much of Kurotsuchi, Siren), and even a fungomancer. Yeah. A sorcerer who talks to and manipulates mushrooms. And he's fucking creepy, too. If you're wondering, Marla is a jack of all trades sorcerer--described as a "martial sorcerer" or just "asskicker for hire".
I love that Marla gets in trouble. She messes up, and things aren't neatly taken care of all the time. She does the best she can with what she's got, and sometimes that's not good enough. It's refreshing.
In short: if you like funny, extremely creative fantasy with a believably badass heroine? This series.
There's a lot of really frustrating drama with the offline friends, and I can't help thinking they should be too old for this shit. But apparently they aren't, and I have to clean things up for them (metaphorically) and I really just want to be out of here.
I love my friends. I really do. But I don't love the weird dynamic that developed over the past four or five years. I want to move on with my life; I'm sad that they don't. I'm too excited for the plans I've made to even regret leaving. Hopefully they'll find a way to be as content as I am right now.
Enough real life blathering. Book review time!
I've been reading the Marla Mason series, by T.A. Pratt. When I say "reading them", I mean I've read three of them in the past two weeks and I'm working on the fourth.
The writing lacks defining style, which is sadly typical of most of today's genre writers. But! The plots are so creative I don't even mind. It's leisure reading in the best sense of the word.
Marla is a gritty heroine who is really fun to read about. She's the chief sorcerer of an east coast city called Felport. She's also a crime lord on the side. The best part, for me? She doesn't run around in a chainmail bikini. She's kicked a hellhound across a room with her steeltoed boots, and she wears grimy t-shirts. She's not a sex object. She doesn't spend every book finding The One. (Not that she's opposed to love if it comes along, but let's just say Death can confirm that she takes care of her own business when she needs. Wink wink.)
Her sidekick is Rondeau, a psychic parasite inhabiting a street urchin's body. Wanna know how they met? When Marla was younger and Rondeau was a kid, she tore his jaw off to use it as an oracle device. Admittedly she was under the influence of her cloak-that-may-not-be-a-cloak, but still, she ripped a kid's jaw off because she needed it. It's horrible and shocking and the strangest start to a best friendship I've ever read. By the time we read about them, they've made amends, but it affects the dynamic from time to time. That's key in this series: things she does continue to have consequences for years.
Also, Rondeau is a snarky bisexual bar owner who dresses in godawful 70's leisure suits. I love him so much it's ridiculous.
Where was I?
In Marla's world, sorcerers are in every city running things behind the scenes. Marla's first master was a pornomancer. It is exactly what it sounds like. Some of her worst rivals are: a necromancer with Cotard delusion, Death incarnate, a would-be Incan priest, a snake god, a 'love talker' who can force everyone around him to love him, and the zombie of John Wilkes Booth.
Oh and there are technomancers, biomancers (one that reminds me so much of Kurotsuchi, Siren), and even a fungomancer. Yeah. A sorcerer who talks to and manipulates mushrooms. And he's fucking creepy, too. If you're wondering, Marla is a jack of all trades sorcerer--described as a "martial sorcerer" or just "asskicker for hire".
I love that Marla gets in trouble. She messes up, and things aren't neatly taken care of all the time. She does the best she can with what she's got, and sometimes that's not good enough. It's refreshing.
In short: if you like funny, extremely creative fantasy with a believably badass heroine? This series.