Reading roundup (urban fantasy recs, take 2 + Seraphina)

[hamsterwoman]

I seem to have gotten my reading mojo back, after a slow year in 2013, which means both that I'm reading more (at the expense of LJ time, unfortunately), and want to talk about books more than I've recently wanted.

4. Mike Carey, The Devil You Know (Felix Castor #1) -- this is another one of the urban fantasy madness recs from December, and I've

Comments

[ladymercury_10]

I liked Seraphina a lot overall, but yeah, she did not sound sixteen to me. And that introduction with the double saint and the thing about covering up the heretical saint with paper if you didn't want to glue your books was pretty great! :P

[hamsterwoman]

I wasn't sure if you'd already finished the book -- if you've posted about it, I must've missed it -- but was hoping to hear your thoughts if you had :)

I'm glad I was not the only one who had trouble believing Seraphina was sixteen. I mean, some of the narration could be from the older version of the character recounting the events, but she didn't seem sixteen in her actions and dialogue and the way people were relating to her, either, so I concluded it wasn't that.

What did you think about the mathematical-minded dragons, btw?

[ladymercury_10]

Yeah, it seemed like she had a very adult voice and the way she related to other characters also seemed awfully mature for a sixteen-year-old.

I liked the dragons! They're so serious and logical and I really like characters who have a hard time understanding social norms and ~how to be a person. I liked Eskar a lot especially.

[hamsterwoman]

and I really like characters who have a hard time understanding social norms and ~how to be a person

Me too! Those conversations and scenes between the dragons and the human characters were probably my favorite thing about the book!

[hamsterwoman]

I do, and I love the art she posts, as well as the random snippets from her life -- everything she does seems to be hugely entertaining :D I actually found her LJ first and then stumbled across the Dragonbreath books in the library and knew I had to read them and share them with my kids.

Glad to hear you're another fan of her work/LJ! :)

[egelantier]

hah, our opinions on carey mostly match. i went through two books and gave up midway on third, not because anything annoyed me too noticeably, but just because i didn't care. even for the sake of succubi lesbian and her human lover :)

nice language, nice plot, but just... not working for me. i've chalked it up to my general meh about urban fantasy noir, but maybe it's just the style itself, i don't know.

(and aaaaaaaaaaagh the russianfail, i know, i know. THE NAMES, THEY BURN US, PRECIOUSSS).

[hamsterwoman]

Ahaha, I'm glad you've read the Carey book, too, so that I can have someone to headdesk with about the RussianFail XD

I suspect these books skew more noir than most urban fantasy books, including UF books that are trying to be noir, and that's part of what's not working for me particularly well. Nice language, nice plot, yes... but not really grabbing me beyond that. I expect I will try #3 at some point and see what happens, but it's definitely not a new favorite series...

[egelantier]

the best headdesk of urban fantasy in my life was thurman's chimera. like, she writes a character who's supposedly second-gen russian mafia ("mafiya"), and insists on him using russian all the time, and once upon a time he affectionally calls his bb brother "ty malenkoye der'mo".

and i'm like, ooooooooooooooooh man.

the only uf noir thing that worked for me is kate daniels series, and it's because it's actively moving from noir setup to friends-and-family-and-support-network setup.

(i was also hella impressed by russian phrases and mythological allusions in this book, right until i've discovered that the write is actually a husband-wife team and wife is russian. like, OF COURSE :D)

[hamsterwoman]

"ty malenkoye der'mo".

XD I remember seeing this phrase on my flist, either from you or someone else. That is rather impressive. (WHY. Why do people insist on making characters of background they know nothing about and not bothering to run it by someone who knows these things...)

I've heard good things about the Kate Daniels series, from sarahtales and other places, and the loner --> support network progression is the thing that makes me want to check it out. And, ooh, I didn't realize Ilona Andrews was a) not a single person and b) of Russian extraction -- that makes me more curious to check out their stuff.

[philomytha]

For Gail Carriger, I liked the Curtseys and Conspiracies book much better than the Alexia Tarabotti ones - they're in the same world, but the other series is set at a ladies' finishing school that's actually teaching spycraft.

And I had the same reaction to Carey in reading the first and wanting to go on to the second, and reading the second and wanting to stop.

[hamsterwoman]

I've read the first of the finishing school books, and liked it better than the Parasol Protectorate ones, too -- I think because a clever 14-year-old (or however old Sophronia is) doing inadvisable things or missing things that could be obvious to the reader is easier to swallow than a supposedly clever grown-up, and because there are girls other than Sophronia who are more than stupid and shallow. I only recently heard there was another book out in that series, and definitely intend to read it when I come across it -- and L, too, as she enjoyed the first one along with me.

Interesting re: Carey! I saw that you had posted after finishing two books, but wasn't sure if you were still reading. I guess it could be just the fairly typical second-book slump, so I'm not writing off the series entirely -- it wouldn't surprise me if I went back to it after RoL #5 leaves me craving more London fantasy...

[manue7a]

I'll check this list when I get time to read books again. :)

[hamsterwoman]

Hope you find something appealing here! And, hey, Wuthering Heights is a book ;)