Reading roundup: urban fantasy heroines and the were-whatevers who love them edition

[hamsterwoman]

39. Ilona Andrews, Magic Slays (Kate Daniels #5) -- you know what I'm finding weird about this series? It seems to be actually becoming LESS subtle as it goes on, which is kind of a weird trajectory. Or possibly not so much "weird" as "depressing", because I suspect (maybe uncharitably) it has to do with the authors choosing to focus on/strengthen

Comments

[egelantier]

the quality drop between the actual novels and sidestories is pretty noticeable, isn't it? and you haven't even gotten the one that's from curran's pov yet (and don't do it; blurgh).

last book is the most terrible one in terms of curran/kate because it relies on the worst and stupidest case of Romantic Misunderstanding, curran behaves like an asshole (and isn't checked on it nearly close to enough), kate like an idiot, and they're hall highly and amazingly unreasonable for scarred veterans in their thirties.

(although i've liked this whole segment of curran throwing stones in fury and kate with the magical dude just chilling and discussing his technique).

on the plus side, russianness (ahhhhh slava the robber, my heart), SURPRISE SLAVEFIC IN UR BOOK, chrrrristopher, indeed hugh. i'd probably drop the books, but now i want more christofer :D

[hamsterwoman]

So noticeable that it makes me wonder how much the husband actually contributes to the main writing (if it's true that he writes the side stories alone). There were bits in the short story I liked, but then they appeared verbatim in the last book, so now I wonder if those had been written the normal way and just plunked down in the short story. I'm almost tempted to check out the curran POVs out of morbid curiosity, but I'm almost certain at this point that I wouldn't be able to make it more than 2-3 pages in...

Totally agreed that Curran isn't called enough on acting like an asshole -- everybody makes excuses (he must have a reason! he always has a reason!) and Kate gets over it quite easily with some sparring and "oh, lol, guess we're both crazy, who else would have me" Hugh! but anywayI did like the bit with the rocks! It was in my bookmarks, but I didn't get around to going through them one by one because I ran out of time. The part where Kate and the magic shepherd dude are going, "Sorry he's throwing your rocks around. I can

[egelantier]

oooooooooooooooooooh wow, i missed it, but yes, it's very russian-fairytale-y, isn't it? save the magical helper, have him come through later. i was mostly meh on this book, other than being sad over the death toll, but this ending was a+++++.

[hamsterwoman]

save the magical helper, have him come through later

Yep, exactly, very Russian fairy-tale-y, which makes it extra neat for me.

I was mostly meh on this book except for HUGH, because Kate and Curran were so annoying/stupid, and I had been looking forward to more Russianness/Ukrainianness from the Volkodavi, but nope, and some sense of place from Gagry, but didn't get that vibe either.

I did feel sad about Aunt B, though -- she was one of my favorite shapeshifters...

[meathiel]

I actually quite liked the 8th Mercy book ... but yay, Christy annoyed me a lot as well and also how the other pack members reacted towards her and Mercy. I mean ... Mercy's the Alpha's wife so surely they should stick to her and not the unlikeable Christy???

[hamsterwoman]

how the other pack members reacted towards her and Mercy. I mean ... Mercy's the Alpha's wife so surely they should stick to her and not the unlikeable Christy???

Yeah, that stuck me as really contrived. I mean, Christy is supposed to be some sort of master manipulator, which I guess would explain it? Except she was really very transparent, which made the rest of the pack look like jerks and/or idiots...

It was nice reuniting with Mercy again after a longish break while I waited for my hold to come in, but I think I need to take a break from shapeshifter-centric urban fantasy, as it's all kind of blurring together. Now that I'm out of library books, I'll probably go back to reading Alex Verus, since I intentionally didn't take either of the paper books I'm in the middle of to Norway to keep the weight to a minimum.

[meathiel]

I want to read the 3rd Alex Verus soon because I still need a book with a blue cover for the bingo! ;-)

[hamsterwoman]

Haha, because of how much of my reading has been on the Kindle this year, it took me something like 10 books to realize I'd already read a book with a blue cover and just didn't realize it b/c it was b&w on the Kindle and it skips past the cover page anyway. But until then, that was proving a challenging square!