Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison

My Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

Amazon Rating: 4.00 / 5.00

Goodreads Rating: 3.99 / 5.00

Rachel Morgan lives in Cincinnati, or, more specifically, “The Hollows”: the area of the city inhabited mostly by the non-human parts of society. It is now forty years since a genetically modified tomatoes transmitted a virus around the world, bringing death to most of the human population, plus the Elves. However, the other Inderland species were unaffected and their previous infiltration of human society proved invaluable in maintaining some form of normalcy. Not long after the ‘Turn’, when humans had to accept that they were not alone on the Earth, two new Security Services were formed: the Federal Inderland Bureau, run by humans, and Inderland Security, staffed by a wide assortment of Witches, Vampires, Pixies and other species. Rachel is a Witch and works for the IS as a runner, bringing in those Inderlanders who persist in pushing brimstone, using black magic or eating the human population too publically.

Unfortunately, Rachel has been having a streak of bad luck, with felons escaping and spells back-firing, and her boss is gunning for her. So, when she captures a leprechaun who offers her three wishes as a bribe, she decides that it is time to quit the IS and strike out on her own. Well, not quite on her own: she has Ivy, her Vampire runner friend and Jenks, her Pixie backup, to help out. They all move to Ivy’s rented home, a converted church, and Rachel tries to dodge the attempts on her life whilst trying to prove that city councilman, Trent Kalamack, is not only responsible for the sudden death of his secretary, but also for other illegal activity, because there is something very mysterious about Trent: no one knows what he is . . . As she investigates him she uncovers evidence that he supplies highly illegal biomedical drugs, outlawed since the Turn. Along the way she disguises herself as a mink, dodges more hit men and encounters a very scary demon.

Amazon suggested this book to me not long after I bought some of Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse titles, and there are some similarities. Both series deal with a human world coming to terms with the other species living amongst them and both have a strong, feisty heroine. However, Ms Harrison’s Vampires are even further removed from the traditional garlic-fearing undead: Ivy is a living Vampire, born that way and destined to rise again after her death. Humans can be bitten and infected with the virus, but they must depend upon an undead vampire to raise them to undeath. One other significant difference is the exploration of the magic that Rachel wields. This is an interestingly practical form of magic that involves a lot of preparation to cook up potions that can be impregnated into wooden charms and which must be activated by a drop of blood. It makes a very nice change for magic to be slightly more than just shouting and pointing. But perhaps the greatest addition to the supernatural universe is that of the Pixies. Jenks and his family are amazingly well drawn and amongst my favorite characters of all time, and it seems that Shara at Calico Reaction fell in love with him as well. Jenks may be only four inches tall, but his personality is massive and his hyperactivity fills any scene that he is in. He is funny, witty, sarcastic, brave, protective . . . and looks like a blond sex-god: no wonder he has so many children! 

Rachel is a strong character and given some depth, which is fortunate as the book is written in the first person from her perspective. She is fully realized and stands out against the backdrop of world building that is always necessary in the first book in a series. Not that the exposition is overt and distracting: Ms Harrison deals with the differences between our world and hers in such a subtle way that I was never jarred out of the story. I agree with Sparky at Fangs For The Fantasy: this is a wonderfully detailed world, which has an interesting, and believable, history. This makes it so much easier to make the leap of faith needed to accept the presence of the supernatural in ‘normal’ human society. However, I have to agree with Chelsea at Vampire Book Club, that the first two-thirds of the book are a little slow, though the action kicks off after that and the last third moves at a more satisfying pace.

One thing I especially like about Rachel is that she is not perfect: she worries about her looks, sometimes makes dumb decisions and is often clumsy. As Thea at The Book Smugglers notes, it is nice to have a strong woman who isn’t a total bitch or jaded and who needs to be rescued by her friends now and then. Rachel is always her own person and is willing to stand by her poor choices without too much whining. Also, she values her relationships and the friends that support her, although this can make life uncomfortable for her. The biggest example of this is Ivy, who is obviously very attracted to Rachel and who has a great deal of difficulty controlling her desire to take their relationship further. For Harrison’s Vampires, sexual relationships are closely tied to feeding because they produce a neurotoxin in their saliva that turns the pain of their bite into erotic pleasure. Ivy is a real threat to Rachel’s safety, but there is such a deep trust between them that they both struggle to make their relationship work. It is also encouraging to see a LGBT character treated as perfectly normal.

The bad guy, Trent, is nicely ambiguous: is he really evil, or not? There is a twist right at the end of the book that shakes Rachel’s belief that he is rotten to the core, so who knows? He is certainly capable of great cruelty, and has little regard for the lives of the humans and Witches that he manipulates ruthlessly. Even some the supporting characters are ambiguous: only Rachel and Jenks’ family to seem to be totally good. Ivy is more than capable of killing or enslaving Rachel, whilst Nick, the nominal love interest, seems to have a dodgy past, because he is known to the FIB, and knows how to handle demons. As Kristen points out in her guest review for The Book Smugglers, the book does tie up the plot quite neatly at the end, but we are left with many questions about secrets and motivations that I hope will be explored later in the series. 

I do have one criticism, though this is more of a personal reaction than one that will be shared by many other readers: it certainly made the NYOBG members laugh. I’m sorry, Ms Harrison, but I have to stay true to my training as a Biology graduate: mink are NOT rodents . . . check the Wikipedia entries here and here, if you don’t believe me!

   

Read Along of The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch: Part 2

I saw the details for this Read Along on the Little Red Reviewers blog, here, though I know that several other blogs are involved as well. I thought it looked like fun and signed up to make posts on my blog every week.

You can see Redhead’s Part 2 post here and Dark Cargo's here.

If you haven't read the book, or even if you have, why not join in and read along with the rest of us?

This week we have read up to the end of the Interlude: The Boy Who Cried for a Corpse, which ends on p. 190 of my kindle edition.

1. Do you think Locke can pull off his scheme of playing a Midnighter who is working with Don Salvara to capture the Thorn of Camorr? I mean, he is now playing two roles in this game - and thank goodness for that costume room the Gentlemen Bastards have!

I have little doubt that Locke can do pretty much anything he wants and get away with it. The decision to add the Midnighters to the scam is such total genius that I cannot imagine that anyone other than the Gray King can foil his schemes. I really loved the way that these were scenes were presented in a 'saw-toothed' pattern of time progression, so that we were led to believe that Locke was in grave danger, only to be let in on the 'joke'. Seeing the scene a second time, now knowing that Locke was almost unconscious because of his injured 'bits' made his talents for disguise even more impressive. 

2. Are you digging the detail the author has put into the alcoholic drinks in this story?

Alcohol does seem to be an important part of life in Camorr: this could reflect Scott's own interests . . . or it could show that he did his research into late medieval life, when alcoholic drinks were much safer to drink than the water, which was full of disease-carrying bugs, and also provided the poor with a large proportion of their daily calories. Of course, he could simply be reflecting the young male's obsession with this particular past time . . . I seem to recall quite a few mentions of prostitutes as well . . . but it does add to the richness of the world in a wonderful way, as does the attention given to food.

3. Who is this mysterious lady Gentlemen Bastard Sabetha and what does she mean to Locke?

Sabetha seems to be a fellow orphan taken in and trained by Chains, and she obviously broke Locke's heart before leaving. I am not sure if we will ever meet her, though I suspect that she will be with Locke forever.

4. Are you as creeped out over the use of Wraithstone to create Gentled animals as I am?


Completely! This is truly horrible and the description of how and why it is used was horrifying. However, this fits with the cruel way in which people are treated in the Revel and how the Palace of Patience operates. Life in general is short and brutal for many of the people, so their compassion towards animals is much less than ours, and in one way they are trying to be kind to animals that could get stressed by their living and working conditions. Even more horrific is the hint that they use it on people occasionally . . .

5. I got a kick out of child Locke's first meeting with Capa Barsavi and his daughter Nazca, which was shortly followed up in the story by Barsavi granting adult Locke permission to court his daughter! Where do you think that will lead? Can you see these two together?


I think the shadow of Sabetha will be a problem here, plus they both seem to be openly uninterested in each other. However, Romance novels are littered by people who 'suddenly realize that they are madly in love with someone they hate' . . . though that would be a lot less interesting than having them maintain the appearance of a loving relationship. I can see them together: I think they could rule the world given half a chance . . .

6. Capa Barsavi is freaked out over rumors of The Gray King and, in fact, us readers are privy to a gruesome torture scene. The Gray King is knocking garristas off left and right. What do you think that means?

I can only think of two possibilities: a) someone is trying to replace the Capa as head of the Right People; or b) the Duke is re-exerting control over his city covertly. I am assuming that the small bird-like thing that has been mentioned a couple of times, during Bug's acrobatics at the Temple and the 'Midnighters' entry into the Don's house, is connected to The Gray King, but I cannot think of any hints as to who the King might be.

7. In the Interlude: The Boy Who Cried for a Corpse, we learn that Father Chains owes an alchemist a favor, and that favor is a fresh corpse. He sets the boys to figuring out how to provide one, and they can't 'create' the corpse themselves. How did you like Locke's solution to this conundrum? 

I thought it was elegantly simple, playing on people's expectations and perceptions beautifully. I knew that the acquisition of the body was far too simple, so Locke's solution to recouping their expenses had me laughing in delight. Again, it was elegant, but it showed such an extraordinary understanding of psychology and human behavior that it was a thing of beauty. Plus I loved Chains response: "Bugger me bloody with a boathook".

NYOBG March Meeting

A very enjoyable meeting was made all the more special by Sarah's extra scrumptious lemon bundt cake: I can only hope that a recipe is forthcoming . . .

The Woman in Black was universally liked, although it sounds like the recent film will be a grave disappointment to those of us who have read the book: why do some directors have to remove the subtlety that make some books successful? The Magicians received more mixed reviews, mainly because the main characters were not very sympathetic although the second book in the series is supposed to be far better.

This month we will be reading Soulless by Gail Carriger (I have decided to hold back my review until after the group meeting) and Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich. The selections for May's meeting are The French Gardener by Santa Montefiore and the first Sookie Stackhouse book from Charlaine Harris: Dead Until Dark. This book has been a runner-up in the book votes so many times that I'm pleased that it has finally made it . . . plus, any time spent with Eric Northman is time well spent . . . mmmmmm . . . Eric . . . sorry, drifted off there . . . :D

Minion by L.A. Banks

My Rating: 1.0 / 5.0

Amazon Rating: 3.10 / 5.00

Goodreads Rating: 3.29 / 5.00

I made it to about page 100, but I'm afraid I simply couldn't force myself to keep reading this book.

The main character is not only the one-born-in-every-1000-years uber vampire slayer, but also a rap star . . . the dialogue is inane and often used for exposition in a way that is simply absurd . . . but the worst was a chapter where the author changed where the action was located half way through the scene but didn't re-edit the dialogue to change the 'here's to 'there's.

I hate not finishing a book, and I rarely give up part way through, but this was just plain bad. :(

I have finally found something good to say about Minion: it brought me to Fangs for the Fantasy, where Sparky gives a much more in depth discussion of the book and why she hated it.

On My Coffee Table

I have added a new page to the blog to keep you all updated on what I will be reviewing / reading in the next month or so. Let me know what you think . . . :)

Read Along of The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch: Part 1

I saw the details for this Read Along on the Little Red Reviewers blog, here, though I know that several other blogs are involved as well. I thought it looked like fun and signed up to make posts on my blog every week.

You can see Redhead’s Part 1 post here. 

If you haven't read the book, or even if you have, why not join in and read along with the rest of us?

This week we have read the Prologue and up to the end of the Interlude: Locke Stays For Dinner, which ends on p. 97 of my kindle edition.

1. If this is your first time reading The Lies of Locke Lamora, what do you think of it so far?  If this is a re-read for you, how does the book stand up to rereading?

I had never heard of the title, or it’s author, before I saw the post about the Read Along, but I am a fan of fantasy and any series with the title “The Gentlemen Bastard” is going to catch my eye. So far I have found this a very entertaining read, with plenty of humor and texture. The characters are gritty and often very ‘direct’ in their use of language, so this is no fairy tale with fluffy bunnies and coy princesses: excellent! I am going to find it difficult to restrict my reading to the proscribed pages over the next few weeks.

2. At last count, I found three time lines:  Locke as a 20-something adult, Locke meeting Father Chains for the first time, and Locke as a younger child in Shades Hill. How are you doing with the Flashback within a flashback style of introducing characters and the world?

Obviously it is difficult to decide if this is the best way for the author to proceed, but it does have the massive advantage of keeping Locke mysterious. We are seeing the present and past versions of him, so we can contrast the brilliant but impulsive child with the polished final item that he has become. It also has the feel of a scam: as we uncover one layer of ‘truth’ another one is revealed underneath. It will be interesting to see what other ‘mistakes’ the young Locke makes during his training.

3. Speaking of the world, what do you think of Camorr and Lynch’s world building?

I like how he slips unusual aspects of the world into the story telling in a subtle way, often with no explanation at all. I haven’t felt bogged down by tons of exposition, though some of the differences between Camorr and our world are quite intriguing.

4. Father Chains and the death offering. . .  quite the code of honor for thieves, isn’t it? What kind of person do you think Chains is going to mold Locke into?

I found this quite touching and unexpected for thieves. Of course, that is assuming that it is the truth. If it is, then it shows how the thieves remember their own sad beginnings and try to pay back the care and training that they received as youngsters. However, it might all be a bluff by Father Chains to teach Locke the value of being careful: I wouldn’t trust Chains as far as I could spit him.

5. It’s been a while since I read this, and I’d forgotten how much of the beginning of the book is pure set up, for the characters, the plot, and the world. Generally speaking, do you prefer  set up and world building done this way, or do you prefer to be thrown into the deep end with what’s happening?

As I said above, I haven't felt weighed down by the set up, so I feel as if there is a good balance of the two approaches here. It can be very difficult to really follow a story if you don’t have time to become acclimated to the new environment. However, it can be very tedious to spend the first fifty pages on an intricate description of the world with mind-blowing amounts of detail.  

6. If you’ve already started attempting to pick the pockets of your family members (or even thought about it!) raise your hand.

As someone who has had people repeatedly try to lighten my purse whilst in Rome, Italy, I would never dream of doing this! :D

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

February Read

My Rating 4.50 / 5.00

Amazon Rating: 4.40 / 5.00

Goodreads Rating: 3.93 / 5.00

Josey Cirrini’s father, Marco, took Bald Slope, North Carolina and transformed it from a summer-only destination to a year-round success by building a very popular ski resort. He married Margaret, a southern belle from neighboring Asheville, and they had Josey late in life. A terror of a child, Josey has not felt happy or accepted since Marco died when she was nine years old. Margaret demands that Josey stay at home and be a "good daughter" by acting as her constant companion, totally controlled and always belittled. Josey's only escape from the barrage of criticism is her closet, with it's secret compartment crammed with romance novels, travel magazines and candy . . . lots of candy. Whenever she has negative feelings, which is quite often, Josey reaches for her favorite candies to fill the void.

Then, one day, Josey finds local waitress, Della Lee Baker in her closet, refusing to leave and questioning Josey's dowdy wardrobe and lack of self confidence. At Della Lee's insistence Josey strikes up a friendship with Chloe Finley, who runs the cafe in the courthouse and has a strange relationship with books: they appear out of thin air when she needs them and will pursue her if she tries to ignore them. Chloe has just thrown her boyfriend Jake out of their apartment after he admitted to being unfaithful. He is staying with his friend Adam, who is Josey's mailman . . . and with whom she has been hopelessly in love since she first saw him. As Josey continues to follow Della Lee's advice she becomes less reliable as her mother's slave, and Margaret is forced to reconnect with Rawley Pelham, the local taxi driver. As secrets within the Cirrini household are revealed, we follow Josey, Chloe and Margaret as their lives change forever . . . and we find out why Della Lee will not leave and why the Cirrini's maid calls them Oldsey and Oldgret.

This is a charming book, and in many ways it is similar to Garden Spells, Allen's debut novel. The characters are well-drawn and the dialogue is realistic but quirky enough to make it funny. The setting is warmly familiar and yet slightly magical, although this is mostly restricted to Chloe, with her book-stalkers and ability to cook eggs with passion, and Rawley, who cannot break a promise because he is a Pelham. Most of the characters are sympathetic and likeable, although Della Lee's boyfriend, Julian, is a real creep and it is difficult to sympathise with the unfaithful Jake. The place of chief baddy seems to be reserved for Margaret who resents her daughter, and hated her husband, so very much, that she continues to punish Josey for simply existing and looking like her father. However, as the story unfolds, we come to understand the reasons for this, and so she is a fully-realised three-dimensional character with a very sad past. Indeed, Marco turns out to be the true villai, in more ways than one. The funniest character is undoubtedly Hannah, the maid, who has an amazingly irreverent attitude to her employers, and the reason behind the Oldsey / Oldgret names is so pointedly rebellious that it will make you laugh out loud. 

Unfortunately, the biggest difference between this and Garden Spells is that, at the end, I didn't have the same sense of disappointment that I had to leave these characters. Their stories and conflicts are resolved and there is a sense that they can now ride off into the sunset to enjoy the rest of their lives happily ever after: with Garden Spells, I felt that unusual things were always going to happen to this family and I wanted to know what they were. That is why this isn't quite a five star review: I really enjoyed it, but I didn't LOVE it, a view that was shared by the rest of NYOBG when we discussed it. However, I will read Allen's other books, as soon as I can fit them onto my coffee table.

The Wonderful World of Book Review Blogs . . . and How To Find it

A few weeks ago I had the very great fortune to attend a class on blogging led by a pair of lovely ladies who have well-established review blogs.

Jessica writes Read React Review, where she comments on many types of fiction, though she does admit to a passion for Romance. Kristen writes Fantasy Cafe, a review site for mostly Fantasy and Science Fiction, though there is some Young Adult and Urban Fantasy as well. BTW, they didn’t pay me to say any of the nice things in this piece, honest!

They were very restrained and didn’t point and laugh at us as we admitted our almost total ignorance of the reviewing community and how to join it. Instead, they gave us a wealth of wonderful advice and suggested some great resources to help us on our way. I came away buzzing with enthusiasm and determined to explore this wonderful community that they said was out there, just waiting for me to join . . .

Whether or not you want to actually write a book blog, you are probably here because you like reading about books and discussing them with other people. So, I would like to pass on some of their advice:

• Go and have a good look at Jessica and Kristen’s blogs, which are entertaining and informative. They have links to websites and blogs that they enjoy . . . and you might like some of them as well. This is how I found Bookworm Blues, Fantasy Book Critic and The Book Smugglers, and I haven’t even visited all of them yet. If you find it difficult to keep track of all the blogs, try to subscribe to them by email or by following their RSS feed. Also, feel free to post comments . . . most of us bloggers like to get some feedback so that we don’t feel like we are simply talking to ourselves.

• Get onto Goodreads: This wonderful website is basically a way to list all the books you have read or want to read. I know this sounds pretty lame, but you can sort, rate, comment on and review them . . . and read what thousands of other people have said about them. There are friends to find, groups to join, authors to follow, giveaways to try for and, most importantly, it recommends books for you based upon the titles that you have already read. It makes it super easy to keep that list of book suggestions that you keep on a pile of old scraps of paper . . . or is that just me?

• Get onto Twitter: Before you say it: yes, I too thought that Twitter was just a waste of time for self-important minor celebrities. However, it is also a great way to find like-minded people, as long as you have somewhere to start. I would recommend following Jessica and Kristen: you can find links on their blogs. Not only will Twitter alert you to their new posts, but they repost interesting stuff from the blogs and people they follow . . . that’s how I came across the Vampire Book Club and the Little Red Reviewer.

I hope these three simple steps will help you to join the mass of people discussing books online: they are a fascinating bunch . . . and surprisingly friendly!