**/***** (2/5)
"Tres chic." [Tommy] grinned like he imagined a sexy Italian man-whore might.
"Who drools in public," Jody said.
Damn, she's immune to my sexy Italian man-whore grin, Tommy thought.
I found Christopher Moore's YOU SUCK: A LOVE STORY a steep decline from the magic of BLOODSUCKING FIENDS (****). BLOODSUCKING FIENDS enthralled, humored and prompted fits of laughter while its sequel YOU SUCK failed to garner any outright laughs and I found the crux of the pacing and plotting exasperating, mostly going through the motions. I thought Moore should have chosen a different backdrop for YOU SUCK (not San Francisco again) with new characters supporting Jody and Tommy rather than the Animals, detectives Cavuto and Rivera, and the Emperor. Moore writes the goth minion character, sixteen year-old Abby Normal, with a pronounced sass and panache. Consequently, Abby completely steals the show and while the first half of the book returns Jody and Tommy, both as vampires this time, the second half of the book showcases Abby and her intrepid teenager wit. Abby is a welcome addition to be sure, and only chapters with Abby's amusing first-person narration resonates. I liked the beginning and I enjoyed Jody & Tommy therein, and Abby's journal was generally funny, but I really disliked the ending here.
"How 'bout I buy you a cup of coffee instead," [Tommy] said. "We can talk."
"It's because I have small boobs, isn't it?" Abby said, going into a very practiced pout.
"Of course not." Tommy smiled in a way he thought would be charming, mature, and reassuring. "Coffee won't help that."
I could have done without the Animals this time around, I could have done without Blue-the-Hooker's plot (a ruse for Elijah), and I definitely could have done without the ending here which I found an evasive cliffhanger possibly setting up another book in this line. My biggest problem: it seemed Jody & Tommy's continuing story served as backdrop to launch Abby's character. I would have liked to see Jody and Tommy more prominently, at least in the end. I would have liked to see Tommy make more of an impact some way, but I suppose Moore admirably keeps him in character.
I just didn't enjoy this one as much as BLOODSUCKING FIENDS. I hope however Christopher Moore writes another one in this line of love stories. And I hope the next one is much better than YOU SUCK.
Although fully titled YOU SUCK: A LOVE STORY, it's debatable which couple the title references: Jody & Tommy, or Abby & Steve? By the way, I thought Steve the Asian scientist met the new girl that started working at Safeway in BLOODSUCKING FIENDS?
The Story.
YOU SUCK picks up exactly where BLOODSUCKING FIENDS left off: Jody transmuting into mist to escape the bronze statue from the ear holes, kissing her lover Tommy and turning him into a vampire so they could be together forever. Tommy makes attempts at vampire-life acclimation in the first half or so, and Tommy and Jody share a continued love with some feral sex. Since Tommy is a vampire now they need new minion(s) for daytime errands while also requiring a new apartment. Recall from BLOODSUCKING FIENDS Jody promised the police detectives Cavuto and Rivera she'd take the old vampire and leave the city. Instead, Jody and Tommy hope relocating to a new apartment and laying low will suffice.
Tommy and Jody runs into Abby Normal, a 16 year-old goth who desperately tries to suppress her perkiness. Having witnessed Tommy's fangs grow, Abby willingly agrees to find Tommy and Jody a new apartment with very specific requirements while running interference for them with the police detectives Cavuto and Rivera and other would-be vampire hunters. In essence, Abby becomes their minion. Abby is, without a doubt, the heart of the novel. Only her perky, teenage humor keeps the book afloat.
Abby: And [the blond ho] goes to bite me, and something yanks her back off her feet and I go flying. So I'm all, "Owned! Bee-yatch! Dog fucking owned you!" Doing a minor booty dance of ownage, perhaps, in retrospect, a bit prematurely. (I believe hip-hop to be the appropriate language for taunting, at least until I learn French.)
Meanwhile, the Animals from BLOODSUCKING FIENDS take their share of the money from the old vampire Elijah's paintings to Vegas and bring back Blue, a blue-painted hooker with rather large implants. The Animals always wanted to enact some semblance of the Smurfs cartoon on a sexual level, and having Blue among the 7 or 8 of them realizes their deep-seeded fantasies. Blue, on the other hand, dreams of riches that does not rely on good looks and willingly agrees based on the money they're offering. Blue eventually discovers the existence of the vampires Tommy and Jody. After the Animals blow over six hundred thousand on Blue, Blue has a new agenda: to capture one of the vampires, and she convinces the Animals to help.
From here on out the story splinters into 3 major perspectives. First, we have Jody and/or Tommy (either together or separately) doing their thing. Tommy is finding the vampire lifestyle a difficult adjustment, while Jody of course revels in her newfound power as her abilities bloom making her the kick-ass vampire she is. Then we have Abby, and her role builds and builds while eventually completely eclipsing Jody and Tommy in the second half of YOU SUCK. Finally, we have fragments of the story involving Blue's agenda to capture one of the vampires.
There's also Steve, the Asian scientist who can conveniently turn vampires back to regular humans (later, Abby affectionately calls him "Foo Dog"); Elijah the old 800 year-old vampire encased in bronze just biding his time for an opportunity at escape; of course, the Emperor of San Francisco returns, the slightly-delusional homeless man and his two dogs; and we have our homicide detectives Cavuto and Rivera at it again investigating murders.
The plot dealing with Blue and the Animals was the weakest in a relatively weak book. I enjoyed the sparse moments between Jody and Tommy. I found the ending a cop-out and entirely unsatisfying. I have to praise Christopher Moore for the ambiguity of concrete "sides." Too often, black-and-white scenarios rule stories but not here. The Emperor and the Animals betray Jody and Tommy after they learn Jody turned Tommy, and then later regret it. Blue has her own goals obviously, while Elijah is driven by his own rules and motivations. Sometimes Elijah is an ally, other times a bitter enemy. There's only one thing you can count on here: Abby's steadfast loyalty to Jody and Tommy. Moore laces her character with an adolescent humor which makes the book readable.
Abby: Let me say right here, if I haven't made it clear, that I have seen as many pale, naked old-man parts in the last twenty-four hours to bruise my delicate psyche for a lifetime, so don't be surprised if you someday find me wandering the moors at midnight, a crazed look in my eye, babbling about albino Tater Tots nesting in Brillo pads and being pursued by sagging man ass, because that shit can happen when you've been traumatized.
Showing posts with label paranormal romance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paranormal romance. Show all posts
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Monday, September 3, 2007
Furies of Calderon, by Jim Butcher [1]
*/***** (1/5)
Codex Alera series
1. Furies of Calderon (1/5)
2. Academ's Fury
3. Cursor's Fury
4. Captain's Fury - Dec '07
...
Best known for his Dresden Files series, author Jim Butcher's foray into epic fantasy begins with the tediously predictable yet irritatingly addictive FURIES OF CALDERON. I found the book mostly epic fluff, but surprisingly unputdownable. The book contains episodic, soap-opera plotting which will inexorably compel me to find out what happens to some of the characters in spite of my overall lack of enjoyment. With names like Gaius Sextus and Legionnaires in the Legion, a Roman inspiration characterizes the book's settings and backdrop. This book firmly belongs to the young woman Amara, her missions under the First Lord and her romance with Bernard.
Some positives to begin with. I liked the magic system: humans command "Fury" elementals incipient in earth, water, air, wood, steel to do their bidding. Some of the elementals lend themselves to naturally restorative functions such as water furies while other elementals exhibit a tendency for destruction such as earth furies. For a fantasy series, Butcher injects the book with a prevalent romantic flavor. Astonishingly, I felt some of the romance here could have been written by pure romance novelists, and it almost seems like Jim Butcher has read some historical romance novels. For instance, Amara's tingling, melting reactions in response to a tall, broad-shouldered, handsome widower. The pacing is fast, and Butcher keeps the action and romance flowing in this 504-page paperback. There's some genuine gray characters and the book thankfully dismisses the black-and-white Good vs. Evil struggle in epic fantasies. In fact, treachery and civil conflict marked much of the climactic battle here with each group and character striving for their own end goals.
Possible SPOILERS ahead.
Now for the negatives which easily overwhelmed the positives. The plotting was entirely formulaic and predictable. There's even a magical river flood akin to the flood in Tolkien's FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING before the companions arrive at Rivendale. The prose was, in general, below average to average. There's an attempt at settings and world building but I've seen better, even in pure romance novels. I hated that our 15 year-old protagonist boy Tavi behaves more like a 7,8 year-old baby often crying and screaming in terror most of the time. If I were a 15 year-old boy, I'd resent anyone calling me a "boy" or "child" at every turn, and I'd definitely avoid any emotional outbursts in public (hugging, crying). Tavi is too much of a do-gooder at 15, I know I found myself in much more mischief at the same age. For a series about a boy's coming-of-age, the first installment FURIES OF CALDERON firmly belongs to our young woman Amara, and her mission as Cursor under the First Lord of the Aleran Kingdom. I really could have done without Amara's romance with Tavi's uncle, the tall, broad-shouldered, strong and handsome Bernard. I found myself begrudging any chapter from Amara's perspective, which comprises a majority of the novel. I don't know, something about her, I just didn't like, and I liked Bernard even less. The entire combination was just... bleh. Butcher mostly employs Amara's perspective in the prolonged climactic finale featuring the battle between the Marat barbarians and the Roman-inspired Alerans at the Garrison in Calderon Valley. The interminable climactic battle was long and pointless! Almost every other chapter, there's the threat of a major death, but unfortunately, you know this type of novel lacks the audacity to kill off a major character. By the end of the novel, with *everyone* surviving for future books, it all seemed sooooo very, very, very vapidly pointless. It's funny, I couldn't take The Major Death in Scott Lynch's RED SEAS UNDER RED SKIES, but I was begging for some deaths here, Amara and Bernard most of all. I would have given the book 2 stars if this novel had killed off Amara and Bernard! Most of the protagonists I found aggravating or unlikable. I disliked Tavi, hated Bernard and Amara. I liked Tavi's Aunt Isana (though she sparingly appears), I enjoyed the redoubtable warrior Aldrick's mistress, the water witch Odiana, and I definitely enjoyed our disillusioned antagonist Fidelias. Finally, the magic is egregiously overused. It's a danger of fantasy novels, but magic users here fling their furies at foes and allies alike with impunity and without any limitations. Whenever Amara needs some aid in a pinch, oh let's just call on her wind fury Cirrus to fly her to safety or deliver a lethal blow! Oh someone suffered a fatal wound? Fear not, Isana's water fury Rill to the rescue! It gets seriously out of hand, and you start to question whether death exists for our main characters in Butcher's world at all.
The Story.
Academ Amara wants to graduate the Academy and become a full-fledged spy in the Cursor Legate directly under First Lord Gaius of the Aleran Kingdom. As part of her confirmation from Academ to Cursor, the First Lord dispatches Amara on a mission to investigate a rebel camp and report back the identity of the High Lord(s) behind the insurrection legion. Her plans take a turn for the worse when she's betrayed by her own instructor, her patriserus Fidelias. Amara flees the camp with the assistance of her wind fury Cirrus, and quickly reports back to the First Lord Gaius. The First Lord Gaius, not without resources and power of his own, consequently sends Amara to the Calderon Valley where he senses the inchoate stirrings of doom.
In the Calderon Valley, we have Steadholder Bernard a tall, broad-shouldered widower commanding two powerful furies of his own (earth and wood), his sister Isana a powerful water craft commanding the water fury Rill and finally their 15 year-old nephew Tavi. Customarily, if the person were to command a fury, they would have done so well before Tavi's age, and he rues the absence of a fury of his own, a fact belittling the boy's status in the world of FURIES OF CALDERON.
The story then fragments into sundry pieces, each frantically driving the pacing. In one group we have Fidelias, Aldrick and Odiana, sent by the High Lord Aquitaine, a ruthlessly ambitious man fomenting the insurrection against the First Lord. Bernard and Tavi travel Calderon Valley in search of a flock gone astray. Isana remains at Bernardholt dealing with the inimical steadholder Kord. Finally, you have Amara traveling to Calderon Valley to gather information. Bernard and Tavi encounter the gargantuan Marat barbarians in their search for the flock, barbarians Alerans haven't seen in over 15 years. There appears to be a conspiracy afoot fomenting chaos and confusion. In fact, Fidelias has convinced the barbarian horde to attack Calderon Valley and Clan Herdbane's headman Atsurak leads the charge. Later, Tavi convinces Clan Gargant's headman Doroga and Clan Horse to dissent from Atsurak's complicity with Fidelias.
The story chugs along as characters separate and reunite fairly consistently with the Marat barbarian horde on the move.
The most enjoyable part of the novel definitely involved Tavi and Kitai's quest for the Blessing of Night. Tavi represents the Alerans and Kitai represents Clan Gargant in a competition to retrieve the Blessing (a magical mushroom) from the Valley of Silence amongst the Wax Forest crawling with deadly dog-sized wax spiders. If Tavi wins, Clans Gargant and Horse will withdraw from the Marat horde attacking Alera and help the Alerans instead at the battle taking place at the Garrison in Calderon Valley. This quest portends for Tavi much more than he bargained for though, and the full impact of exactly what he bargained for won't be realized until later novels.
I found the the interminable, incessant conclusion involving the climactic battle between half the Marat horde (Clans Wolf and Herdbane, still 10,000 strong), and the meager Aleran legion defending the Garrison led by Amara, very, very painful and insufferably long. Not to mention that it was glaringly obvious no one was going to die and that Tavi will triumphantly arrive with the Marat Clans Gargant and Horse to help. At the battle scene, Tavi does little else other than flail and run around.
Anyway, I can't believe I want to read the next novel in this series after this poor fantasy effort. I guess Jim Butcher hooked me enough to find out if/when Tavi will ever get his fury, who Tavi's parents are, will we see Tavi's Marat rival Kitai who turns out to be a girl, will Tavi grow out of his crying and screaming, will Amara and Bernard ever die. Episodic? Anecdotal? Fluff? Yep. Yep. And yep.
Codex Alera series
1. Furies of Calderon (1/5)
2. Academ's Fury
3. Cursor's Fury
4. Captain's Fury - Dec '07
...
Best known for his Dresden Files series, author Jim Butcher's foray into epic fantasy begins with the tediously predictable yet irritatingly addictive FURIES OF CALDERON. I found the book mostly epic fluff, but surprisingly unputdownable. The book contains episodic, soap-opera plotting which will inexorably compel me to find out what happens to some of the characters in spite of my overall lack of enjoyment.
Some positives to begin with. I liked the magic system: humans command "Fury" elementals incipient in earth, water, air, wood, steel to do their bidding. Some of the elementals lend themselves to naturally restorative functions such as water furies while other elementals exhibit a tendency for destruction such as earth furies. For a fantasy series, Butcher injects the book with a prevalent romantic flavor. Astonishingly, I felt some of the romance here could have been written by pure romance novelists, and it almost seems like Jim Butcher has read some historical romance novels. For instance, Amara's tingling, melting reactions in response to a tall, broad-shouldered, handsome widower. The pacing is fast, and Butcher keeps the action and romance flowing in this 504-page paperback. There's some genuine gray characters and the book thankfully dismisses the black-and-white Good vs. Evil struggle in epic fantasies. In fact, treachery and civil conflict marked much of the climactic battle here with each group and character striving for their own end goals.
Possible SPOILERS ahead.
Now for the negatives which easily overwhelmed the positives. The plotting was entirely formulaic and predictable. There's even a magical river flood akin to the flood in Tolkien's FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING before the companions arrive at Rivendale. The prose was, in general, below average to average. There's an attempt at settings and world building but I've seen better, even in pure romance novels. I hated that our 15 year-old protagonist boy Tavi behaves more like a 7,8 year-old baby often crying and screaming in terror most of the time. If I were a 15 year-old boy, I'd resent anyone calling me a "boy" or "child" at every turn, and I'd definitely avoid any emotional outbursts in public (hugging, crying). Tavi is too much of a do-gooder at 15, I know I found myself in much more mischief at the same age. For a series about a boy's coming-of-age, the first installment FURIES OF CALDERON firmly belongs to our young woman Amara, and her mission as Cursor under the First Lord of the Aleran Kingdom. I really could have done without Amara's romance with Tavi's uncle, the tall, broad-shouldered, strong and handsome Bernard. I found myself begrudging any chapter from Amara's perspective, which comprises a majority of the novel. I don't know, something about her, I just didn't like, and I liked Bernard even less. The entire combination was just... bleh. Butcher mostly employs Amara's perspective in the prolonged climactic finale featuring the battle between the Marat barbarians and the Roman-inspired Alerans at the Garrison in Calderon Valley. The interminable climactic battle was long and pointless! Almost every other chapter, there's the threat of a major death, but unfortunately, you know this type of novel lacks the audacity to kill off a major character. By the end of the novel, with *everyone* surviving for future books, it all seemed sooooo very, very, very vapidly pointless. It's funny, I couldn't take The Major Death in Scott Lynch's RED SEAS UNDER RED SKIES, but I was begging for some deaths here, Amara and Bernard most of all. I would have given the book 2 stars if this novel had killed off Amara and Bernard! Most of the protagonists I found aggravating or unlikable. I disliked Tavi, hated Bernard and Amara. I liked Tavi's Aunt Isana (though she sparingly appears), I enjoyed the redoubtable warrior Aldrick's mistress, the water witch Odiana, and I definitely enjoyed our disillusioned antagonist Fidelias. Finally, the magic is egregiously overused. It's a danger of fantasy novels, but magic users here fling their furies at foes and allies alike with impunity and without any limitations. Whenever Amara needs some aid in a pinch, oh let's just call on her wind fury Cirrus to fly her to safety or deliver a lethal blow! Oh someone suffered a fatal wound? Fear not, Isana's water fury Rill to the rescue! It gets seriously out of hand, and you start to question whether death exists for our main characters in Butcher's world at all.
The Story.
Academ Amara wants to graduate the Academy and become a full-fledged spy in the Cursor Legate directly under First Lord Gaius of the Aleran Kingdom. As part of her confirmation from Academ to Cursor, the First Lord dispatches Amara on a mission to investigate a rebel camp and report back the identity of the High Lord(s) behind the insurrection legion. Her plans take a turn for the worse when she's betrayed by her own instructor, her patriserus Fidelias. Amara flees the camp with the assistance of her wind fury Cirrus, and quickly reports back to the First Lord Gaius. The First Lord Gaius, not without resources and power of his own, consequently sends Amara to the Calderon Valley where he senses the inchoate stirrings of doom.
In the Calderon Valley, we have Steadholder Bernard a tall, broad-shouldered widower commanding two powerful furies of his own (earth and wood), his sister Isana a powerful water craft commanding the water fury Rill and finally their 15 year-old nephew Tavi. Customarily, if the person were to command a fury, they would have done so well before Tavi's age, and he rues the absence of a fury of his own, a fact belittling the boy's status in the world of FURIES OF CALDERON.
The story then fragments into sundry pieces, each frantically driving the pacing. In one group we have Fidelias, Aldrick and Odiana, sent by the High Lord Aquitaine, a ruthlessly ambitious man fomenting the insurrection against the First Lord. Bernard and Tavi travel Calderon Valley in search of a flock gone astray. Isana remains at Bernardholt dealing with the inimical steadholder Kord. Finally, you have Amara traveling to Calderon Valley to gather information. Bernard and Tavi encounter the gargantuan Marat barbarians in their search for the flock, barbarians Alerans haven't seen in over 15 years. There appears to be a conspiracy afoot fomenting chaos and confusion. In fact, Fidelias has convinced the barbarian horde to attack Calderon Valley and Clan Herdbane's headman Atsurak leads the charge. Later, Tavi convinces Clan Gargant's headman Doroga and Clan Horse to dissent from Atsurak's complicity with Fidelias.
The story chugs along as characters separate and reunite fairly consistently with the Marat barbarian horde on the move.
The most enjoyable part of the novel definitely involved Tavi and Kitai's quest for the Blessing of Night. Tavi represents the Alerans and Kitai represents Clan Gargant in a competition to retrieve the Blessing (a magical mushroom) from the Valley of Silence amongst the Wax Forest crawling with deadly dog-sized wax spiders. If Tavi wins, Clans Gargant and Horse will withdraw from the Marat horde attacking Alera and help the Alerans instead at the battle taking place at the Garrison in Calderon Valley. This quest portends for Tavi much more than he bargained for though, and the full impact of exactly what he bargained for won't be realized until later novels.
I found the the interminable, incessant conclusion involving the climactic battle between half the Marat horde (Clans Wolf and Herdbane, still 10,000 strong), and the meager Aleran legion defending the Garrison led by Amara, very, very painful and insufferably long. Not to mention that it was glaringly obvious no one was going to die and that Tavi will triumphantly arrive with the Marat Clans Gargant and Horse to help. At the battle scene, Tavi does little else other than flail and run around.
Anyway, I can't believe I want to read the next novel in this series after this poor fantasy effort. I guess Jim Butcher hooked me enough to find out if/when Tavi will ever get his fury, who Tavi's parents are, will we see Tavi's Marat rival Kitai who turns out to be a girl, will Tavi grow out of his crying and screaming, will Amara and Bernard ever die. Episodic? Anecdotal? Fluff? Yep. Yep. And yep.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Untamed, by Elizabeth Lowell [1]
*/***** (1/5)
Elizabeth Lowell's UNTAMED provides for many paranormal elements steeped in tradition (rather than outright magic) as excuses for its plotting and pacing. After a while, it just seems like Lowell relishes lapping on one esoteric rule after another. The book also grasps and offends at quantifying love, and measuring it. For example, only love can produce a male offspring with a Glendruid witch (like our heroine) while pleasure will merely result in daughters. The implication: somehow, male offspring require a higher level of intimacy than female offspring. For the majority of 408 pages, rumors of another man (Duncan) restrain our hero Dominic's desire for Meg and he awaits Meg's monthly bleeding before consummating their marriage. Meanwhile, Meg snips at Dominic's crude practicality over wanting land and sons, and laments over his lack of faith in her and his dearth to love (Meg cannot love any man whom she knows will not love her back). She's a virgin of course, and the novel again involves a virgin heroine's sensual awakening.
The prose wasn't bad, but failed to engage, and the plotting/pacing stagnates. The ending represents the epitome of cheeseball. The conclusion showcases our hero Dominic's transformation into the "Glendruid Wolf," a legend portending peace and prosperity for the people of the land. This ridiculous "transformation" into the "Glendruid Wolf" hinges on Dominic discarding the sensible thing and mouthing his words of love for Meg first. I found all the people coming forward to show their dedication and devotion for their abducted Glendruid mistress terribly cheezy. Meg's lack of faith in Dominic resonated throughout (he can't love, blah, blah, blah) and especially in the end when she doesn't believe he'll rescue her consequently risking war. She lacks faith in her husband despite the fact that she's the recepient of Dominic's very tender affection and caring throughout the novel. He ignites and pleasures Meg.
The backdrop of UNTAMED? It's a time following the William the Conquerer's conquest of England, a time when the Normans vanquished or assimilated the Saxons. King Henry I awards the Saxon stronghold in Northern England Blackthorne Keep to our tall, dark and handsome Norman knight Dominic le Sabre. In the absence of any legitimate Blackthorne male heirs, the King awards Lady Margaret ("Meg") and Blackthorne Keep's opulent and fertile lands to his redoubtable Norman knight Dominic.
Like many a man during the time, Dominic dreams of land and sons. He views sons as a means of preserving peace. Meg resents serving as the tool for any man's aspirations for land and sons, though she's willing to marry Lord Dominic in order to avert bloodshed. Following the marriage, Meg isn't averse to all of his sensual servicing either.
And this is where all the rules of paranormal tradition factor into the story. The paranormal rules range from ridiculously contrived to offensive.
Meg hails from a long line of Glendruids, women many consider witches. Glendruid witches traditionally fail to bear many children, much less sons, and they're rarely impassioned exhibiting a very cold demeanor to passion and love. Incidentally our hero Dominic has little trouble stirring Meg's passion on his first attempt. Glendruids are revered and much loved by the people of Blackthorne Keep, and if the Glendruid women are forced in any way, the rules call for the dessication of Blackthorne lands, cattle and its people. If the Glendruid women are cast off, again the people will revolt. If the Glendruid women are pleasured, but not truly loved, then a daughter is possible. If there's love -- and only love -- can a Glendruid bear a son. A Glendruid hasn't borne a son for centuries. There's also a legend that the next Glendruid son born (dubbed the Glendruid Wolf) will hail a time of peace and prosperity. Furthermore our old Glendruid witch Gwyn explains to us, "ultimately [it] rests on the woman's love, not the man's. Many Glendruid women have wanted sons to bring peace to their world. Not one has managed the kind of love a son requires." Oh, and for good measure, Lowell adds another caveat to the Glendruid traditions so Glendruid women aren't tricked into loving their men: "Glendruid women see beneath the sensual lure of broad shoulders and handsome faces. They see a man's soul." Of course it doesn't hurt for the man to possess broad shoulders, a chiseled frame and a handsome countenance either. Nothing less would do for a hero in a romance novel!
Dominic promptly resolves to teach Meg to love him. We all know the rest, right? In the process of trying to make her love him, obviously he loses his own heart to her. The sexual tension in UNTAMED involves having the hunky, experienced dark knight ignite a virgin's passions in spite of her scathing resistance. Dominic answers Meg's feisty imprecations with his experienced wiles of seduction. Despite Meg's notorious indifference to passion, she succumbs to Dominic's touch and kiss on their very first meeting. The rest of the novel interminably plays out the seducing-the-virgin-and-igniting-her-passion routine. It's a kind of antiquated and tedious banality under the most contrived paranormal contexts (rules). Obviously, Dominic will cede control of his heart and soul to Meg first, and in so doing, Meg wins the game! Yay!
The lengthy and wearisome seduction of said virgin was just too much. Over the days and weeks, he slowly assaults her "defenses" (which are nonexistent) with caresses, light touches, and kisses. Nothing happens whatsoever. The books is mildly sensual, if that. The plotting/pacing feeble, the ending cheezy beyond belief.
The title of the book stems from the tradition/rule of Glendruid witches exhibiting a cold, detached disposition towards passion and love. Meg is untamed, and similar to Dominic training and taming a peregrine to his touch, so too does Meg soar to new heights under Dominic's experienced touch. Again, the same'ole-same-'ole sexually-experienced-hero-igniting-virgin's-passion routine. Of course, there's also making the hero recognize his love for his heroine. In this particular version of the typical romance routine, we see very cheesy paranormal elements thrown in for good measure as well.
Elizabeth Lowell's UNTAMED provides for many paranormal elements steeped in tradition (rather than outright magic) as excuses for its plotting and pacing. After a while, it just seems like Lowell relishes lapping on one esoteric rule after another. The book also grasps and offends at quantifying love, and measuring it. For example, only love can produce a male offspring with a Glendruid witch (like our heroine) while pleasure will merely result in daughters. The implication: somehow, male offspring require a higher level of intimacy than female offspring. For the majority of 408 pages, rumors of another man (Duncan) restrain our hero Dominic's desire for Meg and he awaits Meg's monthly bleeding before consummating their marriage. Meanwhile, Meg snips at Dominic's crude practicality over wanting land and sons, and laments over his lack of faith in her and his dearth to love (Meg cannot love any man whom she knows will not love her back). She's a virgin of course, and the novel again involves a virgin heroine's sensual awakening.
The prose wasn't bad, but failed to engage, and the plotting/pacing stagnates. The ending represents the epitome of cheeseball. The conclusion showcases our hero Dominic's transformation into the "Glendruid Wolf," a legend portending peace and prosperity for the people of the land. This ridiculous "transformation" into the "Glendruid Wolf" hinges on Dominic discarding the sensible thing and mouthing his words of love for Meg first. I found all the people coming forward to show their dedication and devotion for their abducted Glendruid mistress terribly cheezy. Meg's lack of faith in Dominic resonated throughout (he can't love, blah, blah, blah) and especially in the end when she doesn't believe he'll rescue her consequently risking war. She lacks faith in her husband despite the fact that she's the recepient of Dominic's very tender affection and caring throughout the novel. He ignites and pleasures Meg.
The backdrop of UNTAMED? It's a time following the William the Conquerer's conquest of England, a time when the Normans vanquished or assimilated the Saxons. King Henry I awards the Saxon stronghold in Northern England Blackthorne Keep to our tall, dark and handsome Norman knight Dominic le Sabre. In the absence of any legitimate Blackthorne male heirs, the King awards Lady Margaret ("Meg") and Blackthorne Keep's opulent and fertile lands to his redoubtable Norman knight Dominic.
Like many a man during the time, Dominic dreams of land and sons. He views sons as a means of preserving peace. Meg resents serving as the tool for any man's aspirations for land and sons, though she's willing to marry Lord Dominic in order to avert bloodshed. Following the marriage, Meg isn't averse to all of his sensual servicing either.
And this is where all the rules of paranormal tradition factor into the story. The paranormal rules range from ridiculously contrived to offensive.
Meg hails from a long line of Glendruids, women many consider witches. Glendruid witches traditionally fail to bear many children, much less sons, and they're rarely impassioned exhibiting a very cold demeanor to passion and love. Incidentally our hero Dominic has little trouble stirring Meg's passion on his first attempt. Glendruids are revered and much loved by the people of Blackthorne Keep, and if the Glendruid women are forced in any way, the rules call for the dessication of Blackthorne lands, cattle and its people. If the Glendruid women are cast off, again the people will revolt. If the Glendruid women are pleasured, but not truly loved, then a daughter is possible. If there's love -- and only love -- can a Glendruid bear a son. A Glendruid hasn't borne a son for centuries. There's also a legend that the next Glendruid son born (dubbed the Glendruid Wolf) will hail a time of peace and prosperity. Furthermore our old Glendruid witch Gwyn explains to us, "ultimately [it] rests on the woman's love, not the man's. Many Glendruid women have wanted sons to bring peace to their world. Not one has managed the kind of love a son requires." Oh, and for good measure, Lowell adds another caveat to the Glendruid traditions so Glendruid women aren't tricked into loving their men: "Glendruid women see beneath the sensual lure of broad shoulders and handsome faces. They see a man's soul." Of course it doesn't hurt for the man to possess broad shoulders, a chiseled frame and a handsome countenance either. Nothing less would do for a hero in a romance novel!
Dominic promptly resolves to teach Meg to love him. We all know the rest, right? In the process of trying to make her love him, obviously he loses his own heart to her. The sexual tension in UNTAMED involves having the hunky, experienced dark knight ignite a virgin's passions in spite of her scathing resistance. Dominic answers Meg's feisty imprecations with his experienced wiles of seduction. Despite Meg's notorious indifference to passion, she succumbs to Dominic's touch and kiss on their very first meeting. The rest of the novel interminably plays out the seducing-the-virgin-and-igniting-her-passion routine. It's a kind of antiquated and tedious banality under the most contrived paranormal contexts (rules). Obviously, Dominic will cede control of his heart and soul to Meg first, and in so doing, Meg wins the game! Yay!
The lengthy and wearisome seduction of said virgin was just too much. Over the days and weeks, he slowly assaults her "defenses" (which are nonexistent) with caresses, light touches, and kisses. Nothing happens whatsoever. The books is mildly sensual, if that. The plotting/pacing feeble, the ending cheezy beyond belief.
The title of the book stems from the tradition/rule of Glendruid witches exhibiting a cold, detached disposition towards passion and love. Meg is untamed, and similar to Dominic training and taming a peregrine to his touch, so too does Meg soar to new heights under Dominic's experienced touch. Again, the same'ole-same-'ole sexually-experienced-hero-igniting-virgin's-passion routine. Of course, there's also making the hero recognize his love for his heroine. In this particular version of the typical romance routine, we see very cheesy paranormal elements thrown in for good measure as well.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Bloodsucking Fiends, by Christopher Moore [4]
****/***** (4/5)
Tommy went to the news racks by the registers and gathered up an armload of women's magazines... There was a pattern here. Cellulite, PMS, and men who don't commit were the enemies. Delightfully light desserts, marriage, and multiple orgasms were the allies.
Tommy felt like a spy, as if he should be microfilming the pages under a gooseneck lamp in some back room of a Bavarian castle stronghold, and any minute some woman in SS gear would burst in on him and tell him that she had ways of making him talk. Actually that last part wouldn't be too bad.
Women seemed to have some collective plan, and most of it seemed to involve getting men to do stuff they didn't want to do. [He] flipped [to an article] entitled: "Men's Love for Sports Analogies: How to Use Vince Lombardi to Make Him Put the Seat Down." ("When one player falls in, the whole team gets a wet butt.") He read on: "When it's fourth and ten and Joe Montana decides to go for it, would his linemen tell him that they won't go to the store to get him tampons? I don't think so."
My first Christopher Moore novel BLOODSUCKING FIENDS: A LOVE STORY delights, enthralls, and heartily amuses in tearful fits of laughter, all in the context of a vampire love story spun into a hysterical parody. BLOODSUCKING FIENDS sucks you right in, and even during the slower mid-to-late portions of the novel, I couldn't put the book down. I absolutely loved the contemporary western prose replete with references to American movies, writers and products, I was enchanted by all of the characters, I enjoyed the San Francisco backdrop, and I was charmed by the love story itself. Nothing special in the plot, Christopher Moore writes to his strengths: absolutely relentless humor and a satirical parody of sorts. This book had me laughing out loud at various places as Moore relentlessly packs every paragraph with his offbeat, quirky humor. The book contains adult language and at times some violence (thought nothing too bad).
Did I enjoy it? You bet, and I'll be reading more Christopher Moore down the line for sure. Reading Christopher Moore for the first time was like being a kid in a candy store.
The Story.
BLOODSUCKING FIENDS features 26 year-old, "cute-but-not-beautiful," green-eyed, red-haired, Transamerica employee Jody Stroud breaking free from her shell of insecurities and fears. Jody can't seem to live without a man in her life and attracts the worst kind of handsome, hunky assholes who exploit her sweet, passive nature. She's lived with so many guys over the years, she's lost count.
As the story begins, Jody is meekly walking home to her latest, hunky asshole of a boyfriend, Kurt. After she's suddenly attacked in a dark San Francisco alley, she wakes up the night after with heightened senses, a bunch of money and a wry retaliatory disposition, the vampire predator in her finally fighting back. Jody rebels, she rebels against people walking all over her, she rebels against her asshole of a boyfriend and knocks him out to suck some blood, and her survival instincts kick in as she seeks dark shelter from sunup to sundown. We're treated to the fun superhuman intricacies that go along with learning to cope with your new Vampire-self. Jody kicks some serious ass and the book rises above the hangover a lot romance novels have over insecurities in appearance. But then again, this isn't exactly a romance novel as much as it is Christopher Moore's hilarious parody on vampire love.
[Jody] thought, There must be a hundred thousand dollars here. A man attacked me, choked me, bit my neck, burned my hand, then stuffed my shirt full of money and put a dumpster on me and now I can see heat and hear fog. I've won Satan's lottery.
Meanwhile, C. Thomas Flood's family and friends ostracized him from his home in Indiana for trying to make it as a writer and being a bit on the sensitive side. Tommy doesn't exactly fit in with stereotypical hickville consisting of bowling, beer and rampant sex. After his car burns down from the drive to San Francisco, Tommy now needs a place to stay and a job to support his potential writing career. A comical, older homeless man known as "The Emperor of San Francisco" suggests a Safeway store for Tommy's job. By the way, the Emperor and his dogs, Bummer and Lazarus that he affectionately refers to as his "troops," are in some ways the heart of the novel. The Emperor rocks!
At the Safeway store, Tommy leads the graveyard shift stocking the shelves with the "Animals," juvenile delinquents between the ages of 16 and 27. The book describes some of the Animals' hilarious escapades during the graveyard shifts including using a turkey to bowl on a lubed, slick surface, surfing on a high-tech janitorial machine and drinking beer. The Animals always manage to get their stocking done though! All the Animals are introduced, from muscular, macho Simon to explosive expert Drew; all of them are fun and interesting and leave their mark on the story in their unique way.
Tommy meets Jody one late night as Jody searches for someone to do her daytime errands after she leaves her latest boyfriend (errands such as retrieving her impounded car, picking up her last check from Transamerica, etc.). Tommy calls her beautiful and Jody aggressively asks him out on a date. Jody would never have done that her last life, she thinks. Jody does and says things otherwise beyond the meek girl she once was, and Jody is absolutely loving her new, confident Vampire self. Things between Tommy and Jody progress intimately after a rather humorous first date and they quickly move in together. Jody trusts a younger Tommy who wears his emotions on his sleeve, and reveals everything to Tommy (about how she was turned into a vampire). Tommy agrees to help with Jody's errands during the day. Despite growing closer intimately, both still feel lonely since they're not like each other (one's a vampire, the other a human), and a younger Tommy constantly laments, "You're going to break my heart, aren't you." Jody answers, "Irreparably."
Jody and Tommy experiment over the fact vs. fiction of vampire culture. The exchanges are funny and I thought Moore handled the interchanges between a younger Tommy and an older Jody well. Since he's younger, Tommy does get a bit whiny at times, but he never manages to lose his sense of humor. It's a tumultuous relationship but a funny one nonetheless and Moore gets guys right: horny, sex-crazed beings of lust that can show tremendous love. Thankfully, Moore avoids the endless lovesick introspection romance novelists force upon their heroes' thoughts for their heroines and yet BLOODSUCKING FIENDS: A LOVE STORY still captures our hero Tommy's emotional affection for Jody.
"Let's try something." [Tommy] held his hand by her face. "Lick my finger."
[Jody] pushed his hand away. "Tommy, just finish eating and we can go home and do this."
"No, it's an experiment. My cuticles get split from cutting boxes at the store. I want to see if you can heal them." He touched her lower lip. "Go ahead, lick." [Jody] snaked out a tentative tongue and licked the tip of his finger, then took his finger in her mouth and ran her tongue around it. "Wow," Tommy said...his cuticle, which had been split and torn, had healed.
"Do another." He thrust another finger in her mouth." She spit it out. "Stop that...."
"Let's go home," Tommy said. "I've got a blister on my big tow."
"No fucking way, writer-boy."
"It's low in calories," Tommy coaxed, prodding her foot with his sneaker. "Good, and good for you."
"Not a chance."
Intermingled with this romance, Moore weaves the growing concern over the mysterious deaths of terminally ill people. Our homicide detectives investigating the deaths, the gay-but-rough Cavuto and the serene Cuban/Mexican/Colombian Rivera, make for an intriguing pair in their own right. The older vampire who initially turned Jody seems to be at large, and Jody and Tommy suspect the older vampire. It's funny, some of the interchanges between a feisty Jody and the laughing, older Vampire reminded me of the myriad of hero-and-heroine interactions from romance novels. The hundreds year-old vampire is darker and more mysterious than Tommy and that darker, mysterious quality fits the romance-hero mold much more so than our humble, skinny writer-boy Tommy.
In many ways, Jody and Tommy represent Moore's iconoclast figures in love stories.
Tommy interrupted, "Actually, there's only one body in the freezer. The other is my girlfriend."
"You sick fuck." Cavuto drew back as if to hit Tommy.
BLOODSUCKING FIENDS: A LOVE STORY had me in a constant state of laughing, chuckling, smiling and anticipating fervor. Good book, the love story itself may not work for some, but I enjoyed that aspect as well. And guess what. There's a sequel to this...
Tommy went to the news racks by the registers and gathered up an armload of women's magazines... There was a pattern here. Cellulite, PMS, and men who don't commit were the enemies. Delightfully light desserts, marriage, and multiple orgasms were the allies.
Tommy felt like a spy, as if he should be microfilming the pages under a gooseneck lamp in some back room of a Bavarian castle stronghold, and any minute some woman in SS gear would burst in on him and tell him that she had ways of making him talk. Actually that last part wouldn't be too bad.
Women seemed to have some collective plan, and most of it seemed to involve getting men to do stuff they didn't want to do. [He] flipped [to an article] entitled: "Men's Love for Sports Analogies: How to Use Vince Lombardi to Make Him Put the Seat Down." ("When one player falls in, the whole team gets a wet butt.") He read on: "When it's fourth and ten and Joe Montana decides to go for it, would his linemen tell him that they won't go to the store to get him tampons? I don't think so."
My first Christopher Moore novel BLOODSUCKING FIENDS: A LOVE STORY delights, enthralls, and heartily amuses in tearful fits of laughter, all in the context of a vampire love story spun into a hysterical parody. BLOODSUCKING FIENDS sucks you right in, and even during the slower mid-to-late portions of the novel, I couldn't put the book down. I absolutely loved the contemporary western prose replete with references to American movies, writers and products, I was enchanted by all of the characters, I enjoyed the San Francisco backdrop, and I was charmed by the love story itself. Nothing special in the plot, Christopher Moore writes to his strengths: absolutely relentless humor and a satirical parody of sorts. This book had me laughing out loud at various places as Moore relentlessly packs every paragraph with his offbeat, quirky humor. The book contains adult language and at times some violence (thought nothing too bad).
Did I enjoy it? You bet, and I'll be reading more Christopher Moore down the line for sure. Reading Christopher Moore for the first time was like being a kid in a candy store.
The Story.
BLOODSUCKING FIENDS features 26 year-old, "cute-but-not-beautiful," green-eyed, red-haired, Transamerica employee Jody Stroud breaking free from her shell of insecurities and fears. Jody can't seem to live without a man in her life and attracts the worst kind of handsome, hunky assholes who exploit her sweet, passive nature. She's lived with so many guys over the years, she's lost count.
As the story begins, Jody is meekly walking home to her latest, hunky asshole of a boyfriend, Kurt. After she's suddenly attacked in a dark San Francisco alley, she wakes up the night after with heightened senses, a bunch of money and a wry retaliatory disposition, the vampire predator in her finally fighting back. Jody rebels, she rebels against people walking all over her, she rebels against her asshole of a boyfriend and knocks him out to suck some blood, and her survival instincts kick in as she seeks dark shelter from sunup to sundown. We're treated to the fun superhuman intricacies that go along with learning to cope with your new Vampire-self. Jody kicks some serious ass and the book rises above the hangover a lot romance novels have over insecurities in appearance. But then again, this isn't exactly a romance novel as much as it is Christopher Moore's hilarious parody on vampire love.
[Jody] thought, There must be a hundred thousand dollars here. A man attacked me, choked me, bit my neck, burned my hand, then stuffed my shirt full of money and put a dumpster on me and now I can see heat and hear fog. I've won Satan's lottery.
Meanwhile, C. Thomas Flood's family and friends ostracized him from his home in Indiana for trying to make it as a writer and being a bit on the sensitive side. Tommy doesn't exactly fit in with stereotypical hickville consisting of bowling, beer and rampant sex. After his car burns down from the drive to San Francisco, Tommy now needs a place to stay and a job to support his potential writing career. A comical, older homeless man known as "The Emperor of San Francisco" suggests a Safeway store for Tommy's job. By the way, the Emperor and his dogs, Bummer and Lazarus that he affectionately refers to as his "troops," are in some ways the heart of the novel. The Emperor rocks!
At the Safeway store, Tommy leads the graveyard shift stocking the shelves with the "Animals," juvenile delinquents between the ages of 16 and 27. The book describes some of the Animals' hilarious escapades during the graveyard shifts including using a turkey to bowl on a lubed, slick surface, surfing on a high-tech janitorial machine and drinking beer. The Animals always manage to get their stocking done though! All the Animals are introduced, from muscular, macho Simon to explosive expert Drew; all of them are fun and interesting and leave their mark on the story in their unique way.
Tommy meets Jody one late night as Jody searches for someone to do her daytime errands after she leaves her latest boyfriend (errands such as retrieving her impounded car, picking up her last check from Transamerica, etc.). Tommy calls her beautiful and Jody aggressively asks him out on a date. Jody would never have done that her last life, she thinks. Jody does and says things otherwise beyond the meek girl she once was, and Jody is absolutely loving her new, confident Vampire self. Things between Tommy and Jody progress intimately after a rather humorous first date and they quickly move in together. Jody trusts a younger Tommy who wears his emotions on his sleeve, and reveals everything to Tommy (about how she was turned into a vampire). Tommy agrees to help with Jody's errands during the day. Despite growing closer intimately, both still feel lonely since they're not like each other (one's a vampire, the other a human), and a younger Tommy constantly laments, "You're going to break my heart, aren't you." Jody answers, "Irreparably."
Jody and Tommy experiment over the fact vs. fiction of vampire culture. The exchanges are funny and I thought Moore handled the interchanges between a younger Tommy and an older Jody well. Since he's younger, Tommy does get a bit whiny at times, but he never manages to lose his sense of humor. It's a tumultuous relationship but a funny one nonetheless and Moore gets guys right: horny, sex-crazed beings of lust that can show tremendous love. Thankfully, Moore avoids the endless lovesick introspection romance novelists force upon their heroes' thoughts for their heroines and yet BLOODSUCKING FIENDS: A LOVE STORY still captures our hero Tommy's emotional affection for Jody.
"Let's try something." [Tommy] held his hand by her face. "Lick my finger."
[Jody] pushed his hand away. "Tommy, just finish eating and we can go home and do this."
"No, it's an experiment. My cuticles get split from cutting boxes at the store. I want to see if you can heal them." He touched her lower lip. "Go ahead, lick." [Jody] snaked out a tentative tongue and licked the tip of his finger, then took his finger in her mouth and ran her tongue around it. "Wow," Tommy said...his cuticle, which had been split and torn, had healed.
"Do another." He thrust another finger in her mouth." She spit it out. "Stop that...."
"Let's go home," Tommy said. "I've got a blister on my big tow."
"No fucking way, writer-boy."
"It's low in calories," Tommy coaxed, prodding her foot with his sneaker. "Good, and good for you."
"Not a chance."
Intermingled with this romance, Moore weaves the growing concern over the mysterious deaths of terminally ill people. Our homicide detectives investigating the deaths, the gay-but-rough Cavuto and the serene Cuban/Mexican/Colombian Rivera, make for an intriguing pair in their own right. The older vampire who initially turned Jody seems to be at large, and Jody and Tommy suspect the older vampire. It's funny, some of the interchanges between a feisty Jody and the laughing, older Vampire reminded me of the myriad of hero-and-heroine interactions from romance novels. The hundreds year-old vampire is darker and more mysterious than Tommy and that darker, mysterious quality fits the romance-hero mold much more so than our humble, skinny writer-boy Tommy.
In many ways, Jody and Tommy represent Moore's iconoclast figures in love stories.
Tommy interrupted, "Actually, there's only one body in the freezer. The other is my girlfriend."
"You sick fuck." Cavuto drew back as if to hit Tommy.
BLOODSUCKING FIENDS: A LOVE STORY had me in a constant state of laughing, chuckling, smiling and anticipating fervor. Good book, the love story itself may not work for some, but I enjoyed that aspect as well. And guess what. There's a sequel to this...
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
The Night Drifter, by Susan Carroll [0]
/***** (0/5)
10/10 on the chick-lit meter (strictly for girls)
NIGHT DRIFTER showcases a grinding, all-too-familiar portrayal of the near-virgin heroine Rosalind restoring the tortured, disillusioned libertine his soul. A true and tried formula and I just don't enjoy Saving-the-hero's-tortured-soul routines, and this one is especially bad because of the atrocious plotting and characters. We also have a woman "betraying" Lance when he's young consequently embittering him and of course once he shares this tormenting story with Rosalind, "Rosalind's heart [predictably] ached for him." The book further indulges in the insecurities of the ordinary-looking heroine's appearance when it isn't noting Lance's perfect Adonis looks or his pining introspection over Rosalind, or his tormented past. I've read all this before a million times except in much better contexts. Most of the time, I found Carroll's writing very crass. Twinkle in the eye = joking. Pointless, repetitive banter or introspection always seemed to last 4-5 pages too long.
Our heroine Rosalind apparently restores her hero libertine Lance's lost sense of honor, lost love and lost dreams. Susan Carroll writes from her libertine Lance's perspective specifically to accentuate Lance's maidenly pining for Rosalind. I wanted to shoot myself, I wanted to tear my eyes out -- literally. Although Cornwell's THE WINTER KING is melancholy, at least I had something to read alongside this book.
I'm not sure if I had the misfortune to pick up the one Susan Carroll novel containing the most trite characterizations or if her every novel features these romance characterization stereotypes. THE NIGHT DRIFTER drowns in stereotypical facades of its perfectly handsome, libertine hero falling for his ordinary-looking, near-virginal heroine. We're reminded of Lance's debauched, seducing talents or his handsome looks at almost every turn. Even after their first time, they discuss Lance's experiences with other women. I'm not sure who Carroll is trying to convince because there's no chemistry between the hero and heroine. All of these references to Lance's rakehell, libertine ways come across as some desperate plea to the reader since all evidence in the book paints Lance in one of the more girly lights I've ever seen in romance novels.
Susan Carroll goes out of her way to describe her hero's Lance perfectly handsome countenance from the heroine's perspective while portraying the heroine as "not beautiful" from the hero's perspective. Obviously, that doesn't detract our libertine hero from desiring Rosalind. Nothing remotely different here. Most romance authors are reluctant to deviate from these proven character formulas to cater to their female readership. The problem arises when the novel fails to rise above these characterization archetypes as THE NIGHT DRIFTER miserably fails to do so. THE NIGHT DRIFTER's Lance essays an abject character study on a girl's girlish hero with every sleeping and waking thought centered around the heroine.
Susan Carroll allows her heroine Rosalind to swoon over Lance's muscles constantly yet Carroll won't allow her hero Lance to fall prey to anything so shallow as Rosalind's breasts or butt. No, no, no our libertine Lance is enamored with Rosalind's eyes and hair of course! Rosalind is fairly ordinary looking so god forbid having Lance use the word "beautiful" to describe the woman he's attracted to. Nope, instead Lance says, "it's a face a man is destined to remember forever." Too funny. Too ridiculously girly.
Reading Carroll's Lance in THE NIGHT DRIFTER, I'm acutely aware that this book is exclusively for girls, that it's written by a female author. It's entirely possible I don't understand Carroll's Lance but quite frankly I don't want to.
After marriage, Rosalind continues to bestow her heart and her heart's desires to Lance's ghost she believes as Sir Lancelot during nights while growing to understand Lance's tortured soul during the day. Not exactly a betrayal since Rosalind tells Lance before the marriage that her heart will always belong to another (Sir Lancelot's ghost), but it was difficult to read, and to me, opposite of romantic. Rosalind is pretty dumb too. Rosalind reveals all of her heart's desires to the ghost of Sir Lancelot during the night (getting a puppy, visiting a locale, etc.), and she finds Lance fulfills all of her wishes during the day. Both the ghost and the real man bear an uncanny resemblance. The gallant ghost and the rakehell man also tend to revert to mannerisms and speech that overlap. Yet Rosalind suspects nothing at all, and attributes the peculiar parallels to coincidences. She continues to love the ghost and live a chaste marriage bereft of passion or chemistry with the man.
Have I mentioned the book lacks any interesting plotting yet? Well along with lacking any chemistry whatsoever, the book mostly consists of overlong conversations between Sir Lancelot the ghost and Rosalind. The goal being to transform the rakehell libertine into the gallant, noble Sir Lancelot since Lance is loathe to part Rosalind with her love for the ghost of Sir Lancelot. It was all very lame, and often, unreadable.
Along with drowning in horrible characterizations, there's also a fetish here to embroil the hero in a game of Jekyll and Hyde, making his profligate libertine self jealous of his own noble, honorable ghost. Rosalind falls for the noble ghost Sir Lancelot who's really Lance, and of course it serves as an idiotic plot device to have the rakish libertine reform his degenerate, scoundrel ways and strive to be the noble Sir Lancelot in actuality.
There's a side plot having to do with a family rivalry (St. Legers vs. Mortmain) and smuggling. It's all a hodge podge of nonsense.
Like other paranormal romances, THE NIGHT DRIFTER sinks in the requisite elements we often find in paranormal romances. That is, a horribly lazy soul mate plot device providing an excuse to bring our leading pair together, the tortured, brooding handsome hero, the hero recognizing the "need" to be with his heroine well before his heroine, the heroine very reluctant to reciprocate and resisting for the majority of the book, the hero pining incessantly (THE NIGHT DRIFTER showcases one of the more painfully "heroic" pining I've come across in romance novels), et cetera, et cetera, you get the point. THE NIGHT DRIFTER even blames the "passion" Lance & Rosalind share on the St. Leger legend. Lance notes, "it isn't your fault at all. If you are my destined bride, you are not going to be able to help yourself."
10/10 on the chick-lit meter (strictly for girls)
NIGHT DRIFTER showcases a grinding, all-too-familiar portrayal of the near-virgin heroine Rosalind restoring the tortured, disillusioned libertine his soul. A true and tried formula and I just don't enjoy Saving-the-hero's-tortured-soul routines, and this one is especially bad because of the atrocious plotting and characters. We also have a woman "betraying" Lance when he's young consequently embittering him and of course once he shares this tormenting story with Rosalind, "Rosalind's heart [predictably] ached for him." The book further indulges in the insecurities of the ordinary-looking heroine's appearance when it isn't noting Lance's perfect Adonis looks or his pining introspection over Rosalind, or his tormented past. I've read all this before a million times except in much better contexts. Most of the time, I found Carroll's writing very crass. Twinkle in the eye = joking. Pointless, repetitive banter or introspection always seemed to last 4-5 pages too long.
Our heroine Rosalind apparently restores her hero libertine Lance's lost sense of honor, lost love and lost dreams. Susan Carroll writes from her libertine Lance's perspective specifically to accentuate Lance's maidenly pining for Rosalind. I wanted to shoot myself, I wanted to tear my eyes out -- literally. Although Cornwell's THE WINTER KING is melancholy, at least I had something to read alongside this book.
I'm not sure if I had the misfortune to pick up the one Susan Carroll novel containing the most trite characterizations or if her every novel features these romance characterization stereotypes. THE NIGHT DRIFTER drowns in stereotypical facades of its perfectly handsome, libertine hero falling for his ordinary-looking, near-virginal heroine. We're reminded of Lance's debauched, seducing talents or his handsome looks at almost every turn. Even after their first time, they discuss Lance's experiences with other women. I'm not sure who Carroll is trying to convince because there's no chemistry between the hero and heroine. All of these references to Lance's rakehell, libertine ways come across as some desperate plea to the reader since all evidence in the book paints Lance in one of the more girly lights I've ever seen in romance novels.
Susan Carroll goes out of her way to describe her hero's Lance perfectly handsome countenance from the heroine's perspective while portraying the heroine as "not beautiful" from the hero's perspective. Obviously, that doesn't detract our libertine hero from desiring Rosalind. Nothing remotely different here. Most romance authors are reluctant to deviate from these proven character formulas to cater to their female readership. The problem arises when the novel fails to rise above these characterization archetypes as THE NIGHT DRIFTER miserably fails to do so. THE NIGHT DRIFTER's Lance essays an abject character study on a girl's girlish hero with every sleeping and waking thought centered around the heroine.
Susan Carroll allows her heroine Rosalind to swoon over Lance's muscles constantly yet Carroll won't allow her hero Lance to fall prey to anything so shallow as Rosalind's breasts or butt. No, no, no our libertine Lance is enamored with Rosalind's eyes and hair of course! Rosalind is fairly ordinary looking so god forbid having Lance use the word "beautiful" to describe the woman he's attracted to. Nope, instead Lance says, "it's a face a man is destined to remember forever." Too funny. Too ridiculously girly.
Reading Carroll's Lance in THE NIGHT DRIFTER, I'm acutely aware that this book is exclusively for girls, that it's written by a female author. It's entirely possible I don't understand Carroll's Lance but quite frankly I don't want to.
After marriage, Rosalind continues to bestow her heart and her heart's desires to Lance's ghost she believes as Sir Lancelot during nights while growing to understand Lance's tortured soul during the day. Not exactly a betrayal since Rosalind tells Lance before the marriage that her heart will always belong to another (Sir Lancelot's ghost), but it was difficult to read, and to me, opposite of romantic. Rosalind is pretty dumb too. Rosalind reveals all of her heart's desires to the ghost of Sir Lancelot during the night (getting a puppy, visiting a locale, etc.), and she finds Lance fulfills all of her wishes during the day. Both the ghost and the real man bear an uncanny resemblance. The gallant ghost and the rakehell man also tend to revert to mannerisms and speech that overlap. Yet Rosalind suspects nothing at all, and attributes the peculiar parallels to coincidences. She continues to love the ghost and live a chaste marriage bereft of passion or chemistry with the man.
Have I mentioned the book lacks any interesting plotting yet? Well along with lacking any chemistry whatsoever, the book mostly consists of overlong conversations between Sir Lancelot the ghost and Rosalind. The goal being to transform the rakehell libertine into the gallant, noble Sir Lancelot since Lance is loathe to part Rosalind with her love for the ghost of Sir Lancelot. It was all very lame, and often, unreadable.
Along with drowning in horrible characterizations, there's also a fetish here to embroil the hero in a game of Jekyll and Hyde, making his profligate libertine self jealous of his own noble, honorable ghost. Rosalind falls for the noble ghost Sir Lancelot who's really Lance, and of course it serves as an idiotic plot device to have the rakish libertine reform his degenerate, scoundrel ways and strive to be the noble Sir Lancelot in actuality.
There's a side plot having to do with a family rivalry (St. Legers vs. Mortmain) and smuggling. It's all a hodge podge of nonsense.
Like other paranormal romances, THE NIGHT DRIFTER sinks in the requisite elements we often find in paranormal romances. That is, a horribly lazy soul mate plot device providing an excuse to bring our leading pair together, the tortured, brooding handsome hero, the hero recognizing the "need" to be with his heroine well before his heroine, the heroine very reluctant to reciprocate and resisting for the majority of the book, the hero pining incessantly (THE NIGHT DRIFTER showcases one of the more painfully "heroic" pining I've come across in romance novels), et cetera, et cetera, you get the point. THE NIGHT DRIFTER even blames the "passion" Lance & Rosalind share on the St. Leger legend. Lance notes, "it isn't your fault at all. If you are my destined bride, you are not going to be able to help yourself."
Monday, July 16, 2007
Archangel, by Sharon Shinn [1]
*/***** (1/5)
My first and inevitably my last novel by Sharon Shinn, ARCHANGEL explores a girl's faith in a story with strong Christian overtones. A fantasy novel preaching about having faith, there's a lot of bickering (between hero & heroine) in ARCHANGEL. ARCHANGEL's world is a sort of a religious utopia, and its grand city of Luminaux represents the height of the Utopian principles in all aspects: economy, social position, politics, etc. Every man in Luminaux goes to the job he loves, there's no such thing as a menial job in Luminaux. Through the nomadic, yet persecuted, gypsy-like Edori, the Edori customs and ways represent the height of a free, giving race; the Edori are perfect, all of their people good and wholesome beyond belief.
ARCHANGEL views all rich merchants in a very evil light, summarily condemning all of them and religiously denouncing all of their capitalistic practices to gain wealth. Simplistically, beautiful people are either power-hunger mongrels (Raphael) or ditzy dolts (Judith), except for our handsome hero Gabriel of course. "Metaphorical and ethical speculation was wasted on the literal-minded (and beautiful) Judith," Gabriel notes at one point.
There's 3 provinces in ARCHANGEL's world, with 3 angels to lead each province and an archangel which oversees everyone (included as 1 of the 3 "leading" angels). The archangel term lasts 20 years and oracles deduce from God the next chosen Archangel and his Angelica (or Angelico). Like most fantasy novels written by authors interested in romance, you have some sort of a soul-mate storyline and also similar to other other novels, you have the hero accepting it and quickly embracing his soul-mate (angelica) while the heroine very reluctant for the majority of the novel. In ARCHANGEL in fact, the heroine Rachel is resistant until the very last page of this 390-page superior paperback. There really isn't any warring factions or violence in ARCHANGEL's world as everyone lives in awe and fear of the Almighty God. The angels' power? Basically they pray in hymns and song to entreat god to help effect weather changes. Rain for farmers during a drought, for instance. The hero Gabriel is the most competent of the singing angels. There's plenty of concerts in the novel if you haven't guessed already by the way.
Finally, god tracks its "children" through the "Kiss of God," acorn-sized balls grafted into everyone's arms when they're a baby (similarly to a baptism). The balls illuminate when they're near people god wants to them love for bloodlines and procreation, and it's also supposed to help people find their true love. Even the final monumental climax is left in the hands of god.
Even though ARCHANGEL tells us early via its oracle Jesiah that the Archangel-elect Gabriel's Angelica will humble him, I thought it was his angelica Rachel that needed the humbling. The story begins with Rachel working as a slave in an affluent merchant household. Oh and just to preserve our heroine, this particular merchant household doesn't allow anyone to molest women slaves. The annual event Gloria, which celebrates, worships, sings and prays to god, is only 6 months away, and this year it marks the transition of power from the previous archangel Raphael to the archangel-elect Gabriel. Gabriel needs to track down his angelica quickly and God (via the oracle) is there to point him in the right direction. Handy!
The book clumps along as Gabriel finds Rachel early on and they fight with each other and other elements interfering in their confirmation as Archangel and Angelica on Gloria 6 months away.
I couldn't stand the story's religious preaching, I couldn't stand Rachel's character, and I couldn't stand anything about the other plots.
I had high hopes though. I liked how the heroine Rachel wasn't a virgin, I liked how she didn't swoon and melt at the hero's touch (only at his singing in this case), and I liked how Gabriel was very virtuous, and not the notorious libertine we find from romantic historicals. In case you're interested, there's no passionate scenes here, only goes as far as kissing.
Possible SPOILERS ahead, and various musings.
Rachel acts pretty superior and childish throughout, it's as though she alone understands the trials and tribulations of the poor and underprivileged. Anyone with a modicum of wealth or ambitions for fortune in Sharon Shinn's world are shunned as evil and power hungry. Certainly, this generalization holds true everywhere. Rachel flaunts her Edori heritage as superior to everyone and everything else. She's very juvenile and frosty with her husband too. By my count, Gabriel apologized to her at least 4 times for things he didn't know or understand about her, and he always shows her kindness and affection. Rachel reacts in her obligatory I-art-holier-than-thou attitude. When Rachel walks in on Gabriel and Judith, she secures Gabriel's promise later on that he has never slept with and never will sleep with Judith. They had begun fighting for a while, but this promise seems to have placated her. Inexplicably, they transition into a more amiable conversation. The amiable transition didn't follow after a heated discussion where both accused the other of infidelities. The author felt the need for Gabriel to comfort Rachel and dispel her misgivings, but not the other way around.
And it's Rachel who flirts with Obadiah, and the Edori Isaac and Adam. It's Rachel who kisses Isaac and Adam. I actually wanted to see Rachel get busy with Isaac & Adam and reject Gabriel. At least then Gabriel would be free of her. Lord.
I especially don't understand Rachel's cold desire to destroy an entire city, the city of Semorrah. For a Good Samaritan devoted to the betterment of the needy (she sets up a children's shelter and school), she wants to indiscriminately kill everyone in a city, she wants an entire city to pay for its slavery practices? Her friend the Lady Mary who lives in Semorahh would die too wouldn't she? Huh? What? How does this compute? At least think about vengeance discriminately, against the Jensai slavers maybe? Not an entire city!
It's so horrific to be an Archangel-elect's angelica in Rachel's mind. She doesn't want to be an angelica (predictably), and more than twice she thinks she will not forgive Gabriel for bringing her. She will not forgive Gabriel for freeing her from slavery and bestowing upon her every kindness and lavish comfort at her fingertips. Now she finds herself in a position of power to do something about the unfair poverty and build shelters and schools for orphaned children, yet of course she will not forgive Gabriel for plucking her out of slavery. Obviously, all of Rachel's childish reactions and juvenile fits of defiance serve simply as a ploy to add some romantic tension. Poor delivery in the novel here, because I didn't see so much a romantic tension than I did a childish juvenile rebelling against everyone and everything for the sake of being contrary. I thought Rachel was 25 and not a teenager?
Like heroes and heroines from other romance novels, ARCHANGEL has Gabriel justify Rachel's disdainful and combative disposition towards him by having Gabriel think he would prefer willful wife than a submissive one. Well, it is possible to be willful and not quite so bitchy. Gabriel shows her caring and kindness at almost every turn, attempting to talk to her but predictably she lashes out at the only person who will take it, her husband Gabriel. Shinn has Gabriel think and care for Rachel relatively early despite her belligerent, bratty attitude. In fact, Gabriel is constantly remorseful (for having to be away from Rachel), caring and affectionate towards Rachel. Consistently, Rachel fails to reciprocate Gabriel's caring and instead presents Gabriel with a childish, spiteful disdain. Stop whining and get over yourself for once.
Gabriel bestows every courtesy and kindness to Rachel. Gabriel makes an elevator lift available for Rachel to subvert her fear of heights, Gabriel agrees to provide funding for Rachel's shelter and school for orphaned children, Gabriel gives her gold bracelets as her wedding present, Gabriel asks after her well-being at every chance, it's always Gabriel who feels remorse for parting with Rachel badly (even though Rachel is equally to blame), for all of Rachel's juvenile fits of defiance and anger, it's always Gabriel apologizing and seeking forgiveness, it's Gabriel giving her gold-embroidered gloves as a gift.
In response, Rachel openly flaunts her friendship with the angel Obadiah, a close friendship which chafes her husband Gabriel.
The immature adolescence Rachel so exuberantly sponsors ranges to levels far beyond my comprehension. Get this. At this end, she's beyond petty and vindictive. Gabriel is aware Rachel's most fervent "justice" is to see the entire city of Semerroh destroyed. When it's clear that just such a feat will come to fruition if she will not sing, she uses that knowledge to test Gabriel's love and devotion to her instead, spiting him for not believing in her. When she threatens the city and its people if Gabriel doesn't promise to leave her alone, Gabriel quickly acquiesces to her ludicrous demands. After, she cries thinking how she wanted Gabriel to risk destroying hundreds of people so he would say he would rather have her instead. Despite telling her before that the only angelica he would ever accept by his side would be Rachel, and that he wouldn't choose another angelica had she died. Despite telling her that he would always come back to her if he ever leaves. Despite comforting her and protecting her, despite sheltering her under his sensitive wings no one is supposed to touch.
Man, I've never seen a character so selfish, so childish, so juvenile, so immaturely spiteful as ARCHANGEL's Rachel. And she hates Gabriel for choosing to save hundreds of lives instead of be with her, an ultimatum she herself lays down. Are you serious? Is that even a choice? That's no choice at all, any likable hero would sacrifice himself and his beloved in a heartbeat if not doing so meant the death to thousands of other innocents. There is nothing romantic about this retarded "choice" Rachel tests Gabriel with.
After all this, Rachel stays away for months traveling with the Edori and then when she finally decides she wants Gabriel back, she tests him yet again. She makes Gabriel with his broad wings walk through iron stakes on the top of a mountain he can't land on. Yep. Childish. Juvenile. Petty. Vindictive. Adolescent.
This book is garbage. I need to take my own advise, and I'll stop whining now. Needed to vent! Oh by the way, the prose and settings aren't half bad (though nothing great).
My first and inevitably my last novel by Sharon Shinn, ARCHANGEL explores a girl's faith in a story with strong Christian overtones. A fantasy novel preaching about having faith, there's a lot of bickering (between hero & heroine) in ARCHANGEL. ARCHANGEL's world is a sort of a religious utopia, and its grand city of Luminaux represents the height of the Utopian principles in all aspects: economy, social position, politics, etc. Every man in Luminaux goes to the job he loves, there's no such thing as a menial job in Luminaux. Through the nomadic, yet persecuted, gypsy-like Edori, the Edori customs and ways represent the height of a free, giving race; the Edori are perfect, all of their people good and wholesome beyond belief.
ARCHANGEL views all rich merchants in a very evil light, summarily condemning all of them and religiously denouncing all of their capitalistic practices to gain wealth. Simplistically, beautiful people are either power-hunger mongrels (Raphael) or ditzy dolts (Judith), except for our handsome hero Gabriel of course. "Metaphorical and ethical speculation was wasted on the literal-minded (and beautiful) Judith," Gabriel notes at one point.
There's 3 provinces in ARCHANGEL's world, with 3 angels to lead each province and an archangel which oversees everyone (included as 1 of the 3 "leading" angels). The archangel term lasts 20 years and oracles deduce from God the next chosen Archangel and his Angelica (or Angelico). Like most fantasy novels written by authors interested in romance, you have some sort of a soul-mate storyline and also similar to other other novels, you have the hero accepting it and quickly embracing his soul-mate (angelica) while the heroine very reluctant for the majority of the novel. In ARCHANGEL in fact, the heroine Rachel is resistant until the very last page of this 390-page superior paperback. There really isn't any warring factions or violence in ARCHANGEL's world as everyone lives in awe and fear of the Almighty God. The angels' power? Basically they pray in hymns and song to entreat god to help effect weather changes. Rain for farmers during a drought, for instance. The hero Gabriel is the most competent of the singing angels. There's plenty of concerts in the novel if you haven't guessed already by the way.
Finally, god tracks its "children" through the "Kiss of God," acorn-sized balls grafted into everyone's arms when they're a baby (similarly to a baptism). The balls illuminate when they're near people god wants to them love for bloodlines and procreation, and it's also supposed to help people find their true love. Even the final monumental climax is left in the hands of god.
Even though ARCHANGEL tells us early via its oracle Jesiah that the Archangel-elect Gabriel's Angelica will humble him, I thought it was his angelica Rachel that needed the humbling. The story begins with Rachel working as a slave in an affluent merchant household. Oh and just to preserve our heroine, this particular merchant household doesn't allow anyone to molest women slaves. The annual event Gloria, which celebrates, worships, sings and prays to god, is only 6 months away, and this year it marks the transition of power from the previous archangel Raphael to the archangel-elect Gabriel. Gabriel needs to track down his angelica quickly and God (via the oracle) is there to point him in the right direction. Handy!
The book clumps along as Gabriel finds Rachel early on and they fight with each other and other elements interfering in their confirmation as Archangel and Angelica on Gloria 6 months away.
I couldn't stand the story's religious preaching, I couldn't stand Rachel's character, and I couldn't stand anything about the other plots.
I had high hopes though. I liked how the heroine Rachel wasn't a virgin, I liked how she didn't swoon and melt at the hero's touch (only at his singing in this case), and I liked how Gabriel was very virtuous, and not the notorious libertine we find from romantic historicals. In case you're interested, there's no passionate scenes here, only goes as far as kissing.
Possible SPOILERS ahead, and various musings.
Rachel acts pretty superior and childish throughout, it's as though she alone understands the trials and tribulations of the poor and underprivileged. Anyone with a modicum of wealth or ambitions for fortune in Sharon Shinn's world are shunned as evil and power hungry. Certainly, this generalization holds true everywhere. Rachel flaunts her Edori heritage as superior to everyone and everything else. She's very juvenile and frosty with her husband too. By my count, Gabriel apologized to her at least 4 times for things he didn't know or understand about her, and he always shows her kindness and affection. Rachel reacts in her obligatory I-art-holier-than-thou attitude. When Rachel walks in on Gabriel and Judith, she secures Gabriel's promise later on that he has never slept with and never will sleep with Judith. They had begun fighting for a while, but this promise seems to have placated her. Inexplicably, they transition into a more amiable conversation. The amiable transition didn't follow after a heated discussion where both accused the other of infidelities. The author felt the need for Gabriel to comfort Rachel and dispel her misgivings, but not the other way around.
And it's Rachel who flirts with Obadiah, and the Edori Isaac and Adam. It's Rachel who kisses Isaac and Adam. I actually wanted to see Rachel get busy with Isaac & Adam and reject Gabriel. At least then Gabriel would be free of her. Lord.
I especially don't understand Rachel's cold desire to destroy an entire city, the city of Semorrah. For a Good Samaritan devoted to the betterment of the needy (she sets up a children's shelter and school), she wants to indiscriminately kill everyone in a city, she wants an entire city to pay for its slavery practices? Her friend the Lady Mary who lives in Semorahh would die too wouldn't she? Huh? What? How does this compute? At least think about vengeance discriminately, against the Jensai slavers maybe? Not an entire city!
It's so horrific to be an Archangel-elect's angelica in Rachel's mind. She doesn't want to be an angelica (predictably), and more than twice she thinks she will not forgive Gabriel for bringing her. She will not forgive Gabriel for freeing her from slavery and bestowing upon her every kindness and lavish comfort at her fingertips. Now she finds herself in a position of power to do something about the unfair poverty and build shelters and schools for orphaned children, yet of course she will not forgive Gabriel for plucking her out of slavery. Obviously, all of Rachel's childish reactions and juvenile fits of defiance serve simply as a ploy to add some romantic tension. Poor delivery in the novel here, because I didn't see so much a romantic tension than I did a childish juvenile rebelling against everyone and everything for the sake of being contrary. I thought Rachel was 25 and not a teenager?
Like heroes and heroines from other romance novels, ARCHANGEL has Gabriel justify Rachel's disdainful and combative disposition towards him by having Gabriel think he would prefer willful wife than a submissive one. Well, it is possible to be willful and not quite so bitchy. Gabriel shows her caring and kindness at almost every turn, attempting to talk to her but predictably she lashes out at the only person who will take it, her husband Gabriel. Shinn has Gabriel think and care for Rachel relatively early despite her belligerent, bratty attitude. In fact, Gabriel is constantly remorseful (for having to be away from Rachel), caring and affectionate towards Rachel. Consistently, Rachel fails to reciprocate Gabriel's caring and instead presents Gabriel with a childish, spiteful disdain. Stop whining and get over yourself for once.
Gabriel bestows every courtesy and kindness to Rachel. Gabriel makes an elevator lift available for Rachel to subvert her fear of heights, Gabriel agrees to provide funding for Rachel's shelter and school for orphaned children, Gabriel gives her gold bracelets as her wedding present, Gabriel asks after her well-being at every chance, it's always Gabriel who feels remorse for parting with Rachel badly (even though Rachel is equally to blame), for all of Rachel's juvenile fits of defiance and anger, it's always Gabriel apologizing and seeking forgiveness, it's Gabriel giving her gold-embroidered gloves as a gift.
In response, Rachel openly flaunts her friendship with the angel Obadiah, a close friendship which chafes her husband Gabriel.
The immature adolescence Rachel so exuberantly sponsors ranges to levels far beyond my comprehension. Get this. At this end, she's beyond petty and vindictive. Gabriel is aware Rachel's most fervent "justice" is to see the entire city of Semerroh destroyed. When it's clear that just such a feat will come to fruition if she will not sing, she uses that knowledge to test Gabriel's love and devotion to her instead, spiting him for not believing in her. When she threatens the city and its people if Gabriel doesn't promise to leave her alone, Gabriel quickly acquiesces to her ludicrous demands. After, she cries thinking how she wanted Gabriel to risk destroying hundreds of people so he would say he would rather have her instead. Despite telling her before that the only angelica he would ever accept by his side would be Rachel, and that he wouldn't choose another angelica had she died. Despite telling her that he would always come back to her if he ever leaves. Despite comforting her and protecting her, despite sheltering her under his sensitive wings no one is supposed to touch.
Man, I've never seen a character so selfish, so childish, so juvenile, so immaturely spiteful as ARCHANGEL's Rachel. And she hates Gabriel for choosing to save hundreds of lives instead of be with her, an ultimatum she herself lays down. Are you serious? Is that even a choice? That's no choice at all, any likable hero would sacrifice himself and his beloved in a heartbeat if not doing so meant the death to thousands of other innocents. There is nothing romantic about this retarded "choice" Rachel tests Gabriel with.
After all this, Rachel stays away for months traveling with the Edori and then when she finally decides she wants Gabriel back, she tests him yet again. She makes Gabriel with his broad wings walk through iron stakes on the top of a mountain he can't land on. Yep. Childish. Juvenile. Petty. Vindictive. Adolescent.
This book is garbage. I need to take my own advise, and I'll stop whining now. Needed to vent! Oh by the way, the prose and settings aren't half bad (though nothing great).
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Warlord, by Elizabeth Vaughan [1]
*/***** (1/5)
Series about Lara & Keir:
1. WARPRIZE (4 stars)
2. WARSWORN (2 stars)
3. WARLORD (1 star)
The final installment in Vaughan's Lara & Keir series ends on a bitter note, with so many dying from WARSWORN. I found the ending very unsatisfying and bitter (especially Keir's diminished status and the constant reminder of the dead), events at the Plains entirely boring and unimaginative (our destination for the better part of 2 and a half books), and the romance finally drying in this final book.
SPOILERS follow.
The 3 books really chronicle a unsatisfying symmetry: Lara's rise to esteemed Warprize status, finally being confirmed in WARLORD, while Keir's downfall from Warlord status, finally revoked in WARLORD. WARLORD also depicts a symmetry from one of the opening scenes in WARPRIZE; in WARLORD, it's Keir bowing and kneeling before his confirmed Warprize as Lara did before Keir in WARPRIZE.
On a positive note, the best scene was definitely Lara's return to the Heart of the Plains after she believes Keir dead. She demands Keir's body and vows never to speak or come before the Council of Elders ever again, only to find Keir is still alive. A very fun Lara there.
Unfortunately, this was another sore spot.
We find out that similar to Lara, Keir also thought Lara dead, but unlike Lara, Keir never attempted to find her body as confirmation. Who cares how vast the Plains is, if Keir actually loves Lara as much as he professes, why not at least attempt to scour the Plains in search of her body?!
Keir was starting to get annoying by the end of WARLORD, what with his (constant) girly need to be with Lara (much moreso than Lara). WARLORD alludes to Keir's "anger" over being separated from Lara, but of course he does nothing about it. Keir is "angry" over being demoted but of course takes it up the chin. Keir hates the warrior-priests and many times before he promises to kill them all. But alas, that promise is forgotten too. Keir's entire character dissipates into this subservient, useless warrior for Lara and his need to be with her.
Keir even has a lot of problems trying to ward off a crippled Iften at the end. Lara's horse saves Lara from Iften initially, and then kills another baddie, while Keir has everything he can handle from a crippled Iften!
There's hints of a plot regarding Warking which I was looking forward to, but of course its dropped just as quickly. Instead, WARLORD highlights the symmetry between the opposite directions in status Keir & Lara are heading towards by the end of WARLORD.
By the time you finish the book, we don't know what's going to happen to Lara's home when a new Warlord may attack the following summer, we don't ever find out what happened to the other half of Keir's army, and we really don't know how Keir is supposed to stave off an attack on Lara's home the following summer when he's not around to regain his status. I mean I know Marcus' bonded is supposed to help Keir so Keir & Lara can return to Lara's home for a year or more, but what if Marcus' bonded is unsuccessful? We also never find out anything about the bonding thing, which was a big deal in WARSWORN.
As you can tell, I found the ending very unsatisfying, jarred and lacking in any closure. Keir's characterization was pretty annoying and the romance fairly dry.
Series about Lara & Keir:
1. WARPRIZE (4 stars)
2. WARSWORN (2 stars)
3. WARLORD (1 star)
The final installment in Vaughan's Lara & Keir series ends on a bitter note, with so many dying from WARSWORN. I found the ending very unsatisfying and bitter (especially Keir's diminished status and the constant reminder of the dead), events at the Plains entirely boring and unimaginative (our destination for the better part of 2 and a half books), and the romance finally drying in this final book.
SPOILERS follow.
The 3 books really chronicle a unsatisfying symmetry: Lara's rise to esteemed Warprize status, finally being confirmed in WARLORD, while Keir's downfall from Warlord status, finally revoked in WARLORD. WARLORD also depicts a symmetry from one of the opening scenes in WARPRIZE; in WARLORD, it's Keir bowing and kneeling before his confirmed Warprize as Lara did before Keir in WARPRIZE.
On a positive note, the best scene was definitely Lara's return to the Heart of the Plains after she believes Keir dead. She demands Keir's body and vows never to speak or come before the Council of Elders ever again, only to find Keir is still alive. A very fun Lara there.
Unfortunately, this was another sore spot.
We find out that similar to Lara, Keir also thought Lara dead, but unlike Lara, Keir never attempted to find her body as confirmation. Who cares how vast the Plains is, if Keir actually loves Lara as much as he professes, why not at least attempt to scour the Plains in search of her body?!
Keir was starting to get annoying by the end of WARLORD, what with his (constant) girly need to be with Lara (much moreso than Lara). WARLORD alludes to Keir's "anger" over being separated from Lara, but of course he does nothing about it. Keir is "angry" over being demoted but of course takes it up the chin. Keir hates the warrior-priests and many times before he promises to kill them all. But alas, that promise is forgotten too. Keir's entire character dissipates into this subservient, useless warrior for Lara and his need to be with her.
Keir even has a lot of problems trying to ward off a crippled Iften at the end. Lara's horse saves Lara from Iften initially, and then kills another baddie, while Keir has everything he can handle from a crippled Iften!
There's hints of a plot regarding Warking which I was looking forward to, but of course its dropped just as quickly. Instead, WARLORD highlights the symmetry between the opposite directions in status Keir & Lara are heading towards by the end of WARLORD.
By the time you finish the book, we don't know what's going to happen to Lara's home when a new Warlord may attack the following summer, we don't ever find out what happened to the other half of Keir's army, and we really don't know how Keir is supposed to stave off an attack on Lara's home the following summer when he's not around to regain his status. I mean I know Marcus' bonded is supposed to help Keir so Keir & Lara can return to Lara's home for a year or more, but what if Marcus' bonded is unsuccessful? We also never find out anything about the bonding thing, which was a big deal in WARSWORN.
As you can tell, I found the ending very unsatisfying, jarred and lacking in any closure. Keir's characterization was pretty annoying and the romance fairly dry.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Warsworn, by Elizabeth Vaughan [2]
**/***** (2/5)
I'm absolutely lost in Chadwick's epic romance, Lords of the White Castle, and only 250 pages in on a 614-page hardcover. Not a light read by any stretch of the imagination, it's very melancholy and sad at times, and the epic nature of the book only magnifies these responses. Still, it's got me completely hooked and I often find myself pausing just for a breath of air to shake my head repeatedly, or simply rereading parts.
On to WARSWORN's (extremely brief) review though, the second installment in Elizabeth Vaughan's trilogy about a girl handed over to a barbarian warlord as a warprize...
Vaughan takes a decidedly dark turn with WARSWORN, and it just doesn't fit after a very endearing and entertaining WARPRIZE. I don't believe the novel successfully enmeshes the continued romance between Lara & Keir in the midst of a plague which kills thousands.
Also, the constant first-person vantage point started to wear in this novel. Just seems to limit the overall reading experience considerably, especially so in a dark novel like this one.
I'm absolutely lost in Chadwick's epic romance, Lords of the White Castle, and only 250 pages in on a 614-page hardcover. Not a light read by any stretch of the imagination, it's very melancholy and sad at times, and the epic nature of the book only magnifies these responses. Still, it's got me completely hooked and I often find myself pausing just for a breath of air to shake my head repeatedly, or simply rereading parts.
On to WARSWORN's (extremely brief) review though, the second installment in Elizabeth Vaughan's trilogy about a girl handed over to a barbarian warlord as a warprize...
Vaughan takes a decidedly dark turn with WARSWORN, and it just doesn't fit after a very endearing and entertaining WARPRIZE. I don't believe the novel successfully enmeshes the continued romance between Lara & Keir in the midst of a plague which kills thousands.
Also, the constant first-person vantage point started to wear in this novel. Just seems to limit the overall reading experience considerably, especially so in a dark novel like this one.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Warprize, by Elizabeth Vaughan [4]
****/***** (4/5)
Lords of the White Castle is something of an epic, and it looks like I'll be at that one for a while. In the meantime I'm cataloging reviews of other books I've read from the past.
Vaughan's WARPRIZE is a very endearing, enjoyable romance with an extremely satisfying ending. I found many parts of the novel funny as well, and the supporting cast of characters are all a delight to read. I'm looking forward to the sequels after this one.
Xylara (Lara) is our heroine, a very passionate healer, and Daughter of Xy. The Warlord and his barbarian host has been soundly defeating the Kingdom of Xy and the King of Xy (Xymund) acquiesces to the Warlord's demands for a "peace," one of the demands including a tribute to the Warlord, King Xymund's own half-sister Lara.
The book's heart rests with Lara and her struggle to balance her duties with her heart, which changes over the course of the novel.
I do have 2 complaints.
I find writing an entire novel in the first-person lazy. I thought Vaughn could have done a better job of building context, setting and history if the entire novel wasn't written in the first-person.
I thought the premise of the novel rested on Lara's trepidation to ask a simple question: what does being a Warprize mean? She finally asks Joden three-quarters of the way through and obviously, she is overjoyed.
Lords of the White Castle is something of an epic, and it looks like I'll be at that one for a while. In the meantime I'm cataloging reviews of other books I've read from the past.
Vaughan's WARPRIZE is a very endearing, enjoyable romance with an extremely satisfying ending. I found many parts of the novel funny as well, and the supporting cast of characters are all a delight to read. I'm looking forward to the sequels after this one.
Xylara (Lara) is our heroine, a very passionate healer, and Daughter of Xy. The Warlord and his barbarian host has been soundly defeating the Kingdom of Xy and the King of Xy (Xymund) acquiesces to the Warlord's demands for a "peace," one of the demands including a tribute to the Warlord, King Xymund's own half-sister Lara.
The book's heart rests with Lara and her struggle to balance her duties with her heart, which changes over the course of the novel.
I do have 2 complaints.
I find writing an entire novel in the first-person lazy. I thought Vaughn could have done a better job of building context, setting and history if the entire novel wasn't written in the first-person.
I thought the premise of the novel rested on Lara's trepidation to ask a simple question: what does being a Warprize mean? She finally asks Joden three-quarters of the way through and obviously, she is overjoyed.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
After Midnight, by Teresa Medeiros [1]
*/***** (1/5)
My 3rd Teresa Medeiros novel after CHARMING THE PRINCE and THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST, and now I'm finally seeing a clear pattern among them: a consistent play on appearances. Certainly, the heroine is always an average or less-than-average looking maiden who nurtures yet envies her beautiful, gorgeous sisters. Our average-looking maiden always lands her hunky, chiseled hero of course, while one or more of her gorgeous sisters pairs off with an Average-Joe in a secondary pairing. There's even an inelegant, stagnant pattern to the progression of the primary romance between our hero and heroine very much mirroring THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST. For a good 300 pages, our leading pair in AFTER MIDNIGHT share nothing but one kiss, all the while lusting after each other with second looks and ripples of shudders and tremors at slight touches and lascivious gazes. Weak.
Although I didn't find AFTER MIDNIGHT nearly as annoying or terrible as THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST, I found it just as boring if not moreso. AFTER MIDNIGHT is an extremely light paranormal romance set during the Regency period, we're completely spared of any blood-curling sucking throughout the novel. Vampires are monsters in Medeiros' paranormal, and the book reads more as an attempt at a humorous parody on paranormals. It wasn't all that funny to qualify as a satire, and not nearly dangerous/grave enough to take it seriously. I found the plotting a cure for insomniacs, the romance sapless and empty, and the ending worse with a flurry of villainous activity without reason and less sense. Thankfully, AFTER MIDNIGHT's hero Adrian isn't nearly as emasculated by the end as THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST's hero Bernard.
Still, similar to THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST, Medeiros has our hero again "tamed" by the end, choosing his love for the heroine over the chance to save his brother's soul, something he's been working towards for five long years. I suppose Medeiros finds it "romantic" to have the hero consistently choose the heroine over a cause he's been working at for years, nevermind if the cause is noble or not. I really don't see this as a taming or saving of the hero's soul; rather, it's best characterized by divesting the hero of his soul. Also similar to THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST, the hero balks at marriage and a happily-ever-after at the last second after witnessing the possible danger he could bring to his heroine. He doesn't hesitate for long though.
On the plus side, I found Portia's parts in the beginning very funny. The settings are fairly strong, just like Medeiros' other novels.
The Story, possible spoilers.
Our heroine's youngest sister Portia suspects Viscount Trevelyan, Adrian Kane, to be a vampire. Apparently, the viscount satisfies all the prerequisites: he doesn't go out in the sunlight, he shrouds his home in London, he sleeps during the day, etc. After learning that the viscount is courting their beautiful middle sister Vivienne, Portia entreats our heroine Miss Caroline Cabot to save Vivienne from the viscount's clutches. Portia's characterization is actually funny in the beginning, and pretty endearing throughout. The sequel to this novel in fact focuses on Portia.
At the viscount's invitation, Caroline and Portia travel to London to meet their sister's suitor for a midnight supper. The viscount and Caroline meet and they exchange some witty words. Our heroine Caroline discovers that the viscount paled when he saw her sister Vivienne for the first time and apparently Viv bares a strong resemblance to his last love. The viscount isn't really interested in Caroline's sister Viv though, and he plans on using Viv to draw out the evil vampire Duvalier who plagues the world. You see, the Adrian and Duvalier both vied for a woman's attentions years ago and Adrian won, but Duvalier killed the woman as retribution. Now Adrian wants to use Viv's resemblance to the woman to draw out Duvalier. This isn't a romantic notion, this is a ridiculously dumb plot device.
Adrian plans to host a grand masquerade at his country castle and invites the Cabot sisters, hoping to use Viv's resemblance to draw out his enemy Duvalier.
The novel bores and sags tremendously as the Cabot sisters travel to Adrian's castle a full week before the masquerade and stay there before the event. Nothing happens for 200 pages during this time before the actual masquerade. I mean nothing. It's so boring, Caroline spends her time exploring the castle for clues which would prove or disprove the rumors dealing with Adrian's vampire status. At one point, Caroline and Portia hunt the castle for mirrors, any mirrors, horrified they can't find any. Certainly, there's no romantic interaction between our lead pair during this time (unless you count "tremors" and "shivers" from touches and gazes).
Finally, Caroline discovers Adrian is a vampire hunter, his brother a vampire, and Adrian is using her sister Viv as bait for the evil vampire Duvalier to turn up. Apparently, Duvalier can return Adrian's brother's soul. The book doesn't say how, but it's possible. In order to divert danger from her sister, Caroline poses as Viv at the masquerade, capturing the attention of everyone there. An important moment for Caroline since she never had a Season and since she's widely considered the least pretty of the sisters. The finale follows the masquerade and we're treated to our first real love scene 300 pages into the novel. Funny, because by this point I was more interested in what was happening with a locked-up Portia.
As much I liked Portia's character, I seriously doubt I'll be reading another of her paranormals.
Teresa Medeiros is on her last straw with me, A KISS TO REMEMBER looms dangerously :O) I had such high hopes for her writing after CHARMING THE PRINCE. But I guess CHARMING THE PRINCE was an anomaly.
My 3rd Teresa Medeiros novel after CHARMING THE PRINCE and THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST, and now I'm finally seeing a clear pattern among them: a consistent play on appearances. Certainly, the heroine is always an average or less-than-average looking maiden who nurtures yet envies her beautiful, gorgeous sisters. Our average-looking maiden always lands her hunky, chiseled hero of course, while one or more of her gorgeous sisters pairs off with an Average-Joe in a secondary pairing. There's even an inelegant, stagnant pattern to the progression of the primary romance between our hero and heroine very much mirroring THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST. For a good 300 pages, our leading pair in AFTER MIDNIGHT share nothing but one kiss, all the while lusting after each other with second looks and ripples of shudders and tremors at slight touches and lascivious gazes. Weak.
Although I didn't find AFTER MIDNIGHT nearly as annoying or terrible as THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST, I found it just as boring if not moreso. AFTER MIDNIGHT is an extremely light paranormal romance set during the Regency period, we're completely spared of any blood-curling sucking throughout the novel. Vampires are monsters in Medeiros' paranormal, and the book reads more as an attempt at a humorous parody on paranormals. It wasn't all that funny to qualify as a satire, and not nearly dangerous/grave enough to take it seriously. I found the plotting a cure for insomniacs, the romance sapless and empty, and the ending worse with a flurry of villainous activity without reason and less sense. Thankfully, AFTER MIDNIGHT's hero Adrian isn't nearly as emasculated by the end as THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST's hero Bernard.
Still, similar to THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST, Medeiros has our hero again "tamed" by the end, choosing his love for the heroine over the chance to save his brother's soul, something he's been working towards for five long years. I suppose Medeiros finds it "romantic" to have the hero consistently choose the heroine over a cause he's been working at for years, nevermind if the cause is noble or not. I really don't see this as a taming or saving of the hero's soul; rather, it's best characterized by divesting the hero of his soul. Also similar to THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST, the hero balks at marriage and a happily-ever-after at the last second after witnessing the possible danger he could bring to his heroine. He doesn't hesitate for long though.
On the plus side, I found Portia's parts in the beginning very funny. The settings are fairly strong, just like Medeiros' other novels.
The Story, possible spoilers.
Our heroine's youngest sister Portia suspects Viscount Trevelyan, Adrian Kane, to be a vampire. Apparently, the viscount satisfies all the prerequisites: he doesn't go out in the sunlight, he shrouds his home in London, he sleeps during the day, etc. After learning that the viscount is courting their beautiful middle sister Vivienne, Portia entreats our heroine Miss Caroline Cabot to save Vivienne from the viscount's clutches. Portia's characterization is actually funny in the beginning, and pretty endearing throughout. The sequel to this novel in fact focuses on Portia.
At the viscount's invitation, Caroline and Portia travel to London to meet their sister's suitor for a midnight supper. The viscount and Caroline meet and they exchange some witty words. Our heroine Caroline discovers that the viscount paled when he saw her sister Vivienne for the first time and apparently Viv bares a strong resemblance to his last love. The viscount isn't really interested in Caroline's sister Viv though, and he plans on using Viv to draw out the evil vampire Duvalier who plagues the world. You see, the Adrian and Duvalier both vied for a woman's attentions years ago and Adrian won, but Duvalier killed the woman as retribution. Now Adrian wants to use Viv's resemblance to the woman to draw out Duvalier. This isn't a romantic notion, this is a ridiculously dumb plot device.
Adrian plans to host a grand masquerade at his country castle and invites the Cabot sisters, hoping to use Viv's resemblance to draw out his enemy Duvalier.
The novel bores and sags tremendously as the Cabot sisters travel to Adrian's castle a full week before the masquerade and stay there before the event. Nothing happens for 200 pages during this time before the actual masquerade. I mean nothing. It's so boring, Caroline spends her time exploring the castle for clues which would prove or disprove the rumors dealing with Adrian's vampire status. At one point, Caroline and Portia hunt the castle for mirrors, any mirrors, horrified they can't find any. Certainly, there's no romantic interaction between our lead pair during this time (unless you count "tremors" and "shivers" from touches and gazes).
Finally, Caroline discovers Adrian is a vampire hunter, his brother a vampire, and Adrian is using her sister Viv as bait for the evil vampire Duvalier to turn up. Apparently, Duvalier can return Adrian's brother's soul. The book doesn't say how, but it's possible. In order to divert danger from her sister, Caroline poses as Viv at the masquerade, capturing the attention of everyone there. An important moment for Caroline since she never had a Season and since she's widely considered the least pretty of the sisters. The finale follows the masquerade and we're treated to our first real love scene 300 pages into the novel. Funny, because by this point I was more interested in what was happening with a locked-up Portia.
As much I liked Portia's character, I seriously doubt I'll be reading another of her paranormals.
Teresa Medeiros is on her last straw with me, A KISS TO REMEMBER looms dangerously :O) I had such high hopes for her writing after CHARMING THE PRINCE. But I guess CHARMING THE PRINCE was an anomaly.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
The Last Dragonlord, by Joanne Bertin [4]
****/*****
Overall, a very entertaining read here. If you're looking for heroic swordplay or a hard-nosed, kick-butt male protaganist, you won't find it here. Bertin's Linden Rathan is a bit on the sensitive side, and despite songs and stories of his glory, there's no evidence of his mastery with the sword or magic in this particular novel. Bertin presents Linden as a pretty weak character, both mentally and physically (and I don't mean his size, he's weak with sword and magic).
Still, at the heart of The Last Dragonlord, there's something very endearing, very magical about a girl who lands her lifelong hero, even as a guy reading it, I found it very endearing. I couldn't help but fall in love with Captain Maurynna Erdon's character -- she's stubborn, headstrong, not the most beautiful girl but certainly no hunchback, very accomplished, and of course, a fledgling dragonlord.
Joanne Bertin's strengths are obvious. She writes very endearing romantic scenes, compelling female characterizations (Maurynna, Maylin, Tasha, even Sherinne), and some interesting political intrigue. I even found myself laughing out loud on a number of occasions, especially via Bertin's Otter. In general, the tone and prose of the novel conveys a light, fast read.
Bertin's weaknesses? With the exception of Otter, her male characterizations are weak if not uninteresting. Ironic isn't it, since our female heroine finds Linden Rathan the most interesting hero ever. There are some plot holes in the story, but what story is perfect anyway? There are passages from certain characters which doesn't really add to the impetus of the plot, and more or less fractures a disjoint story even more. Bertin tries to set the stage using various, disjoint passages from a wide variety of perspectives, but in the end, they don't add much.
The Story.
The plot blurbs and book inset really doesn't do the story justice. The real story: Dragonlord Linden Rathan is the last dragonlord in a top-ranking society of dragonlords, and the only dragonlord without a soultwin. Dragonlords are an interesting breed, they can change between human and dragon form, they have some magical capabilities, and each is bonded by soul to another of the opposite sex. For over six centuries (or was it 8?) Linden Rathan seeks his soultwin, but without any luck. He's always bitter and jealous when he has to witness other soultwinned dragonlords together. Linden was 28 when he endured his first Change to a dragon and like all dragonlords, he hasn't aged physically over the centuries much since his first Change. Dragonlords also have a very interesting dichotomy: there exists 2 sentient souls in one body, the human soul and the dragon soul. Out of amusement, the dragon soul - though stronger and more powerful - slumbers and is usually content to let the human soul dominate over the body (both in human and dragon form) until the human soul wearies and passes away, leaving the truedragon. A dragon is pretty patient and time has no meaning to them anyway.
The rest is backdrop: Linden is sent by the "Lady" of the Dragonlords to Casna to oversee a conflict of regency after the Queen of Cassori dies as well as her Prince-Consort, leaving a very young boy as the only surviving heir. There exists 2 uncles contending for the interim Regency until the boy comes of age, Peridaen and Duke Beren. Three dragonlords are sent to sit in judgement and prevent civil war. There's plenty of bureaucratic council meetings which hold the 3 dragonlords at Casna for an extended period of time and the rest of the novel. A plethora of political threads are hatched as soon as the dragonlords arrive, delaying their return back to dragonkeep even more.
Along with the bard Otter, Captain Maurynna Erdon, 19, travels on her ship the Sea Mist to Casna's port to deliver her cargo for trade. Descendent from a wealthy merchant family and rising to Captain quickly, she has family in Casna: an aunt, uncle and 2 cousins, Maylin & Kella. Like her younger cousin Maylin, Maurynna has a peculiar marking: mismatched eyes, one blue, the other green. Interestingly enough, Otter is the connection between Linden Rathan and Maurynna, since Otter is friends with both. Although rare for a truehuman, Otter can mindspeak Linden, and asks him if he objects to being introduced to Maurynna in Casna. Otter knows that Dragonlord Linden Rathan has always been Maurynna's hero, you see, and she dreams of meeting him one day. For Maurynna, meeting Linden Rathan would be a dream-come-true and she yearns for that meeting like nothing else. Linden consents to the meeting though he inwardly dreads another meeting another girl fawning over him and his heroics from ages long past.
Unbeknowest to Maurynna, 3 dragonlords -- including her hero Linden Rathan -- are at her destination in Casna to arbitrate the dispute over regency. Otter teases her about a surprise waiting for her, without revealing any details. Maurynna constantly threatens to keelhaul Otter.
While our heroine Maurynna is still en route, Linden mires himself with the most beautiful woman at Cassori court: the Lady Sherrine of Colrane. Our beautiful, young Sherrine has a rather lascivious reputation of picking up and dropping men like flies. No one dumps Sherrine, Sherrine dumps them. Sherrine is daughter to Lady Anstella of Colrane, while Anstella is Peridaen's lover; recall Peridaen is contending for the interim regency. Kas Althume -- Peridaen's "steward" -- plots to have Sherrine in bed with Linden in order to pluck more information about the tightly-wrapped magical abilities of the dragonlords. Althume is not what he seems. A powerful blood mage, Althume aspires to destroying dragonlords once and for all and revives the Fraternity of the Blood, a clandestine cult bent on the supremacy of truehumans and truehumans alone. Anstella, Peridaen and Sherinne are all enlisted in this Fraternity.
Yet-to-be-soultwinned Dragonlord Linden Rathan is quite a catch, you see, with all the young women and ladies vying for his attention and company; even a fleeting, cursory acquaintance would suffice for them. Sherrine strikes just the right cords with Linden and she has Linden snared from the first moment. However, she isn't all that successful in gaining more information about dragonlords and their magic. Linden does manage to hold that information back, but not for long.
While the bureacratic council meetings over the Cassori Regency drag on intolerably, Linden discovers other things outside of the council meetings and outside of his affair with Sherinne. Young Rann - the only survivng Cassori heir - is sickly, pale and emaciated. Healer Tasha has tried fair number of things, none of them working. Duke Beren's wife, Lady Beryl seems to constantly hijack Rann for "lessons." Duke Beren himself is very billigerant towards dragonlords and towards Linden. Linden falls into all the usual traps of outward appearances, and starts suspecting and believing exactly what Althume and Peridaen want him to.
There's a joke in the novel when Linden and Maurynna first meet about how tall, big brutes like Linden usually aren't very bright ("Big and stupid as the day is long."). Not just a joke in Linden's case, even at the climax where it seems like Linden has finally connected all the trails of scheming and all at once, he's still pretty dense. Linden and the dragonlords are, for the entirety of the novel, reacting to the political plots and schemes set in motion, never really commanding any of their own.
When Linden chances upon a place of blood magic in the woods which drives truehumans away, Linden and the other dragonlords don't really do anything about it. Even when Linden returns above that place in the woods as a dragon, and even when Rathan (Linden's dragon soul name) wanted to torch the whole place, Linden prevents it. We're not sure exactly why Linden prevents it, except apparently it may torch some nearby farms. Uh if this place is so deep in the forest as we're led to believe why would there be farms nearby? If this is a place of pure evil blood magic as all the 3 of the dragonlords in Casna agree, shouldn't they mindcall some other dragonlords to watch the place at all times, at the very least? And doesn't Maurynna's dragon soul torch the place in the end anyway? Following Linden's discovery of the place and Rathan's confirmation of its evil, Althume constantly uses that place to sacrifice prostitues in order power a soultrap jewel. Another dragonlord or two called in should have been watching it at the very east. If Sherinne can walk into that Place of Evil at the end, surely =someone= can keep an eye on all the trails leading to it, right?
Throughout the entire novel, we're led to believe that a dragonlord's dragon soul is very dangerous, but then why is all the evidence in the book contrary to that? The dragonsouls have all the right instincts and they never fail to aid when called upon during times of greatest need. When Linden and Maurynna finally mate and Rathan takes over, no one is hurt despite all the warnings to the contrary. And Maurynna hadn't undergone her first Change yet so it was supposedly very dangerous to them both. But they're both fine afterwards. When Althume attacks Dragonlord Tarlna via the soultrap jewel, Tarlna's soultwin Kief isn't strong enough to help. That's when Kief's draconic half Shaeldar awakens and aids him in saving his soultwin Tarlna's life. Again, the draconic being very helpful and having all the right instincts. Obviously, Rathan's original instinct to destroy the Place of Evil Blood Magic was the right one.
Not only is Linden pretty dense, but he's also very weak. He doesn't display any talent for magic or swords despite all the historical stories of him to the contrary. I have no problem with the poisoning plot with Sherinne, leaving Linden incapacited and weak.
It's Linden's weakness during the climactic end I have a huge problem with. After Linden connects many of the dots of the political schemes all in one page, he rushes to the Place of Evil (a place he should have had someone watching at all times to begin with) to stop Althume from sacrificing Rann. All of a sudden, the lingering effects of the poisoning incident many, many days earlier still debilitates Linden, and Linden is too weak to really help. Althume's one guy Pol manages to knock Linden over the head, and Linden doesn't even see it coming. With an unbelievable amount of effort and struggle, Linden manages to kill the unarmed, truehuman Pol with his greatsword. But of course he can't do anything else, he obviously didn't really think things through when he rushed headlong to the Place of the Evil to rescue Rann. He decided against Changing into a dragon first (his reasoning against the Changing makes zero sense, because obviously it helped Maurynna when she arrives there as a dragon later on, and Maurynna has no experience!). During the final climactic scene at the end, Bertin notes that Linden is still weakened from Sherinne's poisoning. By why, didn't it happen weeks before?! Wow. Maurynna has quite the strength then. She swims her way back to Casna after jumping ship in the middle of a storm (and she swims quite a distance from the middle of the sea!), climbs a very steep cliff, almost falls, and she's perfectly fine changing into a dragon for the first time, flying to the Place of Evil, frying a dragauth (ugly beast raised by Althume) before it killed Linden, kills Althume too and then flies away. After Maurynna's dragon soul (Kyrissaean) flies away from the Place of Evil, Linden runs out of the woods to Change so he can subdue Maurynna's draconic soul and bring back Maurynna. But he's too weak to even Change!
I have real trouble believing in all the fabled stories of Linden's heroism; he isn't very smart and he certainly isn't very strong with sword and magic. I understand why an author wouldn't want to make characters seem too powerful, but man, Linden is as weak and dense as they come in this novel. His sole purpose: a big oaf for Maurynna to moon over.
The highlights of the novel obviously belong to Maurynna. She's very fun to read, especially when she's mad at Linden for something. Her anger melts away though every time she's back with him.
I enjoyed Maurynna's first meeting with Linden. Obviously very romantic, as Maurynna mistakes Linden for a dockhand when she arrives in Casna. She calls him an ass and orders him to earn his pay. Linden obliges. Not knowing either one's names, Linden kisses her in the hold of Maurynna's ship, both driven by an intense and inexplicable attraction to one another. Linden later confirms that Maurynna is his soultwin and he's finally found his soultwin after all of these centuries. They meet for the second time at Maurynna's aunt's place when Maurynna drops a coin into a well, wishing to see the dockhand again. Also a very romantic scene there as Maurynna discovers who her dockhand really is -- her lifelong hero, Dragonlord Linden Rathan. Bertin's Otter is in his humorous element here. Later, there's again a very romantic picnic scene on a beach, and again Bertin is in her element. Maurynna can't believe this is happening to her. Maurynna is content, and happy beyond belief to be with Linden. Linden equally so, but Maurynna's dream-come-true to meet with her hero easily overshadows Linden's centuries-long wait for his soultwin.
Sherinne intervenes from here after she discovers that some low-born wench (Maurynna) has stolen Linden away from her. No one dumps Sherrine, Sherrine dumps them. And more, Sherrine actually feels a love for someone (Linden) for the first time in her life. So with her guards in tow, Sherrine hunts down Maurynna's aunt's home demanding to see Maurynna. She injures Maurynna as Linden arrives. After Maurynna is healed by Tasha, the Dutchess Alinya (current ruler of Cassori until the regency is settled) advises Linden to stay away from Maurynna lest he endanger his soultwin even more.
Linden consents and tells Maurynna they can't see each other again. The words rip out Maurynna's heart. Even this part is fun to read, because it really hits home Maurynna's dream to be with Linden. She lashes out Linden, "Then go. Go ur Lady Sherrine, Linden; she's beautiful. Not like me, with my mismatched eyes and calloused hands... It shall be as you wish, Your Grace. Indeed, I never want to see you again," she lied. "Go." She cries herself to sleep.
Later, she takes out her anger on other people for not being able to see Linden. She mutters, "I hate him," over and over but obviously she can't let go of her need, her intense desire, to be with him.
When a Fraternity spy divulges that there's a fledgling dragonlord about and that she's Linden's soultwin, Althume, Peridaen and Anstella are too smart for their own good as they arrive at all the wrong conclusions. Althume assumes Sherrine this soultwin, reasoning that Linden rejected Sherrine in favor of this new girl in order to protect Sherrine. Completely unintentional, and nothing of Linden's doing, but very convenient for Maurynna. Although in a different location, Sherrine has the same wine-colored birthmark as Linden, which seems to lend credence to the fact that she may be a fledgling dragonlord and Linden's soultwin. As tightly-wrapped as dragonlord secrets are, apparently these markings are public knowledge? Okayyy. Althume targets Sherrine for a dragonlord enslavement spell, and without any further investigation into the other girl whatsoever.
When Althume schemes to have Linden drink from Sherrine's Farewell Cup in public, Linden is completely incapacitated, and in the grips of severe pain later on. When he's alone and intercepted by Althume and Pol, Linden spasms in pain and cannot open his eyes. The magical poison mixed in the cup allows Althume to asks questions and control the victim completely, a truth serum if you will. After Althume has learned a great deal of dragonlords' magic, he asks Linden if there's a fledgling dragonlord in Casna. With little resistance, Linden answers, "Yes." Just when Althume is about to ask who this fledgling is (to confirm Sherrine), Maurynna arrives in a frenzy with a dagger in hand. Taking Maurynna for a mature dragonlord, Althume and Pol flee. So Maurynna really saves herself here, and arrives just in the nick of time to prevent Linden from revealing the true identity of the fledgling, because Althume was planning on letting Linden go with the antidote after he had his answers. Maurynna doesn't really know that she's a fledgling, but she really saves herself here even though Bertin would have us believe that otherwise. Before running in on Althume, Pol and Linden in a frenzy, Maurynna was at a ceremony and couldn't get Linden out of her mind. She feels that Linden is in danger somehow, but really it was her that was in danger if Linden revealed the fledgling's name.
After the traumatic poisoning episode, many days pass as Tashsa finally discovers how to purge Linden of the poison. Maurynna is forbidden from seeing Linden during this time. After Tasha purges Linden of the poison, he reverts into a state of self-pity. Again many days pass. Linden is recovering, but he still feels sorry for himself, horrified that he's revealed some important dragonlord secrets.
Again, Maurynna rescues him from this. Maurynna is still bitter towards Linden and Bertin describes this black dog which claws at Maurynna with every thought or mention of Linden, a very enjoyable part to read actually. She hates Linden but she can't get him out of her mind, not for one instant. Maurynna is very direct with Linden when she finally sees him in a pitiful state and gets his attention right away. They make love for the first time, and Linden is unable to control Rathan's intense desire for their soultwin in such a weak state (though shouldn't Rathan be weak too, since they share the same body?). Despite the constant warnings of danger though, neither Linden nor Maurynna die . Again Rathan's instincts prove on the mark, and a very entertaining romantic scene ensues.
The lingering effects of this weakness from the poisoning lasts many days later as Linden's weakness pops up at the worst possible moments, debilitating him into uselessness during the climactic ending.
Really, Maurynna rescues Linden twice. I don't count running in on Althume and Linden during the torturous questioning as an actual rescue. Maurynna saves herself there more than Linden, since Linden was about the reveal the true identity of the fledgling. Maurynna does rescue Linden from the pathetic state of self-pity following the poisoning though, and then of course at the end when Maurynna's dragon soul fries the dragauth about devour Linden.
Linden is too weak to do much of anything and too stupid to root out any political scheming until the very end, and then only in one page all at once.
My other complaint: too many disjoint passages from a wide array of perspectives that didn't add or amount to much, from an older mage trying to protect the soultrap jewel early on, from Beryl, from Rann's nurse, and from Astlana. Many of the passages from Athlume's perspective aimed to make the book a page-turner, imparting a sense of impending doom. But some of them (2 or 3 paragraphs max) didn't really reveal anything and they don't add to the story all that much, other than to fragment the story.
I did enjoy Maylin's perspective, as feisty as she is, and they were significant since they were shared with Maurynna for the most part.
Again, an enjoyable read overall, primarily because its heart lies with Maurynna's characterization, to land the hero of her dreams, her true love, her soultwin, while at the same time coming to terms to her own dragonlord status.
Overall, a very entertaining read here. If you're looking for heroic swordplay or a hard-nosed, kick-butt male protaganist, you won't find it here. Bertin's Linden Rathan is a bit on the sensitive side, and despite songs and stories of his glory, there's no evidence of his mastery with the sword or magic in this particular novel. Bertin presents Linden as a pretty weak character, both mentally and physically (and I don't mean his size, he's weak with sword and magic).
Still, at the heart of The Last Dragonlord, there's something very endearing, very magical about a girl who lands her lifelong hero, even as a guy reading it, I found it very endearing. I couldn't help but fall in love with Captain Maurynna Erdon's character -- she's stubborn, headstrong, not the most beautiful girl but certainly no hunchback, very accomplished, and of course, a fledgling dragonlord.
Joanne Bertin's strengths are obvious. She writes very endearing romantic scenes, compelling female characterizations (Maurynna, Maylin, Tasha, even Sherinne), and some interesting political intrigue. I even found myself laughing out loud on a number of occasions, especially via Bertin's Otter. In general, the tone and prose of the novel conveys a light, fast read.
Bertin's weaknesses? With the exception of Otter, her male characterizations are weak if not uninteresting. Ironic isn't it, since our female heroine finds Linden Rathan the most interesting hero ever. There are some plot holes in the story, but what story is perfect anyway? There are passages from certain characters which doesn't really add to the impetus of the plot, and more or less fractures a disjoint story even more. Bertin tries to set the stage using various, disjoint passages from a wide variety of perspectives, but in the end, they don't add much.
The Story.
The plot blurbs and book inset really doesn't do the story justice. The real story: Dragonlord Linden Rathan is the last dragonlord in a top-ranking society of dragonlords, and the only dragonlord without a soultwin. Dragonlords are an interesting breed, they can change between human and dragon form, they have some magical capabilities, and each is bonded by soul to another of the opposite sex. For over six centuries (or was it 8?) Linden Rathan seeks his soultwin, but without any luck. He's always bitter and jealous when he has to witness other soultwinned dragonlords together. Linden was 28 when he endured his first Change to a dragon and like all dragonlords, he hasn't aged physically over the centuries much since his first Change. Dragonlords also have a very interesting dichotomy: there exists 2 sentient souls in one body, the human soul and the dragon soul. Out of amusement, the dragon soul - though stronger and more powerful - slumbers and is usually content to let the human soul dominate over the body (both in human and dragon form) until the human soul wearies and passes away, leaving the truedragon. A dragon is pretty patient and time has no meaning to them anyway.
The rest is backdrop: Linden is sent by the "Lady" of the Dragonlords to Casna to oversee a conflict of regency after the Queen of Cassori dies as well as her Prince-Consort, leaving a very young boy as the only surviving heir. There exists 2 uncles contending for the interim Regency until the boy comes of age, Peridaen and Duke Beren. Three dragonlords are sent to sit in judgement and prevent civil war. There's plenty of bureaucratic council meetings which hold the 3 dragonlords at Casna for an extended period of time and the rest of the novel. A plethora of political threads are hatched as soon as the dragonlords arrive, delaying their return back to dragonkeep even more.
Along with the bard Otter, Captain Maurynna Erdon, 19, travels on her ship the Sea Mist to Casna's port to deliver her cargo for trade. Descendent from a wealthy merchant family and rising to Captain quickly, she has family in Casna: an aunt, uncle and 2 cousins, Maylin & Kella. Like her younger cousin Maylin, Maurynna has a peculiar marking: mismatched eyes, one blue, the other green. Interestingly enough, Otter is the connection between Linden Rathan and Maurynna, since Otter is friends with both. Although rare for a truehuman, Otter can mindspeak Linden, and asks him if he objects to being introduced to Maurynna in Casna. Otter knows that Dragonlord Linden Rathan has always been Maurynna's hero, you see, and she dreams of meeting him one day. For Maurynna, meeting Linden Rathan would be a dream-come-true and she yearns for that meeting like nothing else. Linden consents to the meeting though he inwardly dreads another meeting another girl fawning over him and his heroics from ages long past.
Unbeknowest to Maurynna, 3 dragonlords -- including her hero Linden Rathan -- are at her destination in Casna to arbitrate the dispute over regency. Otter teases her about a surprise waiting for her, without revealing any details. Maurynna constantly threatens to keelhaul Otter.
While our heroine Maurynna is still en route, Linden mires himself with the most beautiful woman at Cassori court: the Lady Sherrine of Colrane. Our beautiful, young Sherrine has a rather lascivious reputation of picking up and dropping men like flies. No one dumps Sherrine, Sherrine dumps them. Sherrine is daughter to Lady Anstella of Colrane, while Anstella is Peridaen's lover; recall Peridaen is contending for the interim regency. Kas Althume -- Peridaen's "steward" -- plots to have Sherrine in bed with Linden in order to pluck more information about the tightly-wrapped magical abilities of the dragonlords. Althume is not what he seems. A powerful blood mage, Althume aspires to destroying dragonlords once and for all and revives the Fraternity of the Blood, a clandestine cult bent on the supremacy of truehumans and truehumans alone. Anstella, Peridaen and Sherinne are all enlisted in this Fraternity.
Yet-to-be-soultwinned Dragonlord Linden Rathan is quite a catch, you see, with all the young women and ladies vying for his attention and company; even a fleeting, cursory acquaintance would suffice for them. Sherrine strikes just the right cords with Linden and she has Linden snared from the first moment. However, she isn't all that successful in gaining more information about dragonlords and their magic. Linden does manage to hold that information back, but not for long.
While the bureacratic council meetings over the Cassori Regency drag on intolerably, Linden discovers other things outside of the council meetings and outside of his affair with Sherinne. Young Rann - the only survivng Cassori heir - is sickly, pale and emaciated. Healer Tasha has tried fair number of things, none of them working. Duke Beren's wife, Lady Beryl seems to constantly hijack Rann for "lessons." Duke Beren himself is very billigerant towards dragonlords and towards Linden. Linden falls into all the usual traps of outward appearances, and starts suspecting and believing exactly what Althume and Peridaen want him to.
There's a joke in the novel when Linden and Maurynna first meet about how tall, big brutes like Linden usually aren't very bright ("Big and stupid as the day is long."). Not just a joke in Linden's case, even at the climax where it seems like Linden has finally connected all the trails of scheming and all at once, he's still pretty dense. Linden and the dragonlords are, for the entirety of the novel, reacting to the political plots and schemes set in motion, never really commanding any of their own.
When Linden chances upon a place of blood magic in the woods which drives truehumans away, Linden and the other dragonlords don't really do anything about it. Even when Linden returns above that place in the woods as a dragon, and even when Rathan (Linden's dragon soul name) wanted to torch the whole place, Linden prevents it. We're not sure exactly why Linden prevents it, except apparently it may torch some nearby farms. Uh if this place is so deep in the forest as we're led to believe why would there be farms nearby? If this is a place of pure evil blood magic as all the 3 of the dragonlords in Casna agree, shouldn't they mindcall some other dragonlords to watch the place at all times, at the very least? And doesn't Maurynna's dragon soul torch the place in the end anyway? Following Linden's discovery of the place and Rathan's confirmation of its evil, Althume constantly uses that place to sacrifice prostitues in order power a soultrap jewel. Another dragonlord or two called in should have been watching it at the very east. If Sherinne can walk into that Place of Evil at the end, surely =someone= can keep an eye on all the trails leading to it, right?
Throughout the entire novel, we're led to believe that a dragonlord's dragon soul is very dangerous, but then why is all the evidence in the book contrary to that? The dragonsouls have all the right instincts and they never fail to aid when called upon during times of greatest need. When Linden and Maurynna finally mate and Rathan takes over, no one is hurt despite all the warnings to the contrary. And Maurynna hadn't undergone her first Change yet so it was supposedly very dangerous to them both. But they're both fine afterwards. When Althume attacks Dragonlord Tarlna via the soultrap jewel, Tarlna's soultwin Kief isn't strong enough to help. That's when Kief's draconic half Shaeldar awakens and aids him in saving his soultwin Tarlna's life. Again, the draconic being very helpful and having all the right instincts. Obviously, Rathan's original instinct to destroy the Place of Evil Blood Magic was the right one.
Not only is Linden pretty dense, but he's also very weak. He doesn't display any talent for magic or swords despite all the historical stories of him to the contrary. I have no problem with the poisoning plot with Sherinne, leaving Linden incapacited and weak.
It's Linden's weakness during the climactic end I have a huge problem with. After Linden connects many of the dots of the political schemes all in one page, he rushes to the Place of Evil (a place he should have had someone watching at all times to begin with) to stop Althume from sacrificing Rann. All of a sudden, the lingering effects of the poisoning incident many, many days earlier still debilitates Linden, and Linden is too weak to really help. Althume's one guy Pol manages to knock Linden over the head, and Linden doesn't even see it coming. With an unbelievable amount of effort and struggle, Linden manages to kill the unarmed, truehuman Pol with his greatsword. But of course he can't do anything else, he obviously didn't really think things through when he rushed headlong to the Place of the Evil to rescue Rann. He decided against Changing into a dragon first (his reasoning against the Changing makes zero sense, because obviously it helped Maurynna when she arrives there as a dragon later on, and Maurynna has no experience!). During the final climactic scene at the end, Bertin notes that Linden is still weakened from Sherinne's poisoning. By why, didn't it happen weeks before?! Wow. Maurynna has quite the strength then. She swims her way back to Casna after jumping ship in the middle of a storm (and she swims quite a distance from the middle of the sea!), climbs a very steep cliff, almost falls, and she's perfectly fine changing into a dragon for the first time, flying to the Place of Evil, frying a dragauth (ugly beast raised by Althume) before it killed Linden, kills Althume too and then flies away. After Maurynna's dragon soul (Kyrissaean) flies away from the Place of Evil, Linden runs out of the woods to Change so he can subdue Maurynna's draconic soul and bring back Maurynna. But he's too weak to even Change!
I have real trouble believing in all the fabled stories of Linden's heroism; he isn't very smart and he certainly isn't very strong with sword and magic. I understand why an author wouldn't want to make characters seem too powerful, but man, Linden is as weak and dense as they come in this novel. His sole purpose: a big oaf for Maurynna to moon over.
The highlights of the novel obviously belong to Maurynna. She's very fun to read, especially when she's mad at Linden for something. Her anger melts away though every time she's back with him.
I enjoyed Maurynna's first meeting with Linden. Obviously very romantic, as Maurynna mistakes Linden for a dockhand when she arrives in Casna. She calls him an ass and orders him to earn his pay. Linden obliges. Not knowing either one's names, Linden kisses her in the hold of Maurynna's ship, both driven by an intense and inexplicable attraction to one another. Linden later confirms that Maurynna is his soultwin and he's finally found his soultwin after all of these centuries. They meet for the second time at Maurynna's aunt's place when Maurynna drops a coin into a well, wishing to see the dockhand again. Also a very romantic scene there as Maurynna discovers who her dockhand really is -- her lifelong hero, Dragonlord Linden Rathan. Bertin's Otter is in his humorous element here. Later, there's again a very romantic picnic scene on a beach, and again Bertin is in her element. Maurynna can't believe this is happening to her. Maurynna is content, and happy beyond belief to be with Linden. Linden equally so, but Maurynna's dream-come-true to meet with her hero easily overshadows Linden's centuries-long wait for his soultwin.
Sherinne intervenes from here after she discovers that some low-born wench (Maurynna) has stolen Linden away from her. No one dumps Sherrine, Sherrine dumps them. And more, Sherrine actually feels a love for someone (Linden) for the first time in her life. So with her guards in tow, Sherrine hunts down Maurynna's aunt's home demanding to see Maurynna. She injures Maurynna as Linden arrives. After Maurynna is healed by Tasha, the Dutchess Alinya (current ruler of Cassori until the regency is settled) advises Linden to stay away from Maurynna lest he endanger his soultwin even more.
Linden consents and tells Maurynna they can't see each other again. The words rip out Maurynna's heart. Even this part is fun to read, because it really hits home Maurynna's dream to be with Linden. She lashes out Linden, "Then go. Go ur Lady Sherrine, Linden; she's beautiful. Not like me, with my mismatched eyes and calloused hands... It shall be as you wish, Your Grace. Indeed, I never want to see you again," she lied. "Go." She cries herself to sleep.
Later, she takes out her anger on other people for not being able to see Linden. She mutters, "I hate him," over and over but obviously she can't let go of her need, her intense desire, to be with him.
When a Fraternity spy divulges that there's a fledgling dragonlord about and that she's Linden's soultwin, Althume, Peridaen and Anstella are too smart for their own good as they arrive at all the wrong conclusions. Althume assumes Sherrine this soultwin, reasoning that Linden rejected Sherrine in favor of this new girl in order to protect Sherrine. Completely unintentional, and nothing of Linden's doing, but very convenient for Maurynna. Although in a different location, Sherrine has the same wine-colored birthmark as Linden, which seems to lend credence to the fact that she may be a fledgling dragonlord and Linden's soultwin. As tightly-wrapped as dragonlord secrets are, apparently these markings are public knowledge? Okayyy. Althume targets Sherrine for a dragonlord enslavement spell, and without any further investigation into the other girl whatsoever.
When Althume schemes to have Linden drink from Sherrine's Farewell Cup in public, Linden is completely incapacitated, and in the grips of severe pain later on. When he's alone and intercepted by Althume and Pol, Linden spasms in pain and cannot open his eyes. The magical poison mixed in the cup allows Althume to asks questions and control the victim completely, a truth serum if you will. After Althume has learned a great deal of dragonlords' magic, he asks Linden if there's a fledgling dragonlord in Casna. With little resistance, Linden answers, "Yes." Just when Althume is about to ask who this fledgling is (to confirm Sherrine), Maurynna arrives in a frenzy with a dagger in hand. Taking Maurynna for a mature dragonlord, Althume and Pol flee. So Maurynna really saves herself here, and arrives just in the nick of time to prevent Linden from revealing the true identity of the fledgling, because Althume was planning on letting Linden go with the antidote after he had his answers. Maurynna doesn't really know that she's a fledgling, but she really saves herself here even though Bertin would have us believe that otherwise. Before running in on Althume, Pol and Linden in a frenzy, Maurynna was at a ceremony and couldn't get Linden out of her mind. She feels that Linden is in danger somehow, but really it was her that was in danger if Linden revealed the fledgling's name.
After the traumatic poisoning episode, many days pass as Tashsa finally discovers how to purge Linden of the poison. Maurynna is forbidden from seeing Linden during this time. After Tasha purges Linden of the poison, he reverts into a state of self-pity. Again many days pass. Linden is recovering, but he still feels sorry for himself, horrified that he's revealed some important dragonlord secrets.
Again, Maurynna rescues him from this. Maurynna is still bitter towards Linden and Bertin describes this black dog which claws at Maurynna with every thought or mention of Linden, a very enjoyable part to read actually. She hates Linden but she can't get him out of her mind, not for one instant. Maurynna is very direct with Linden when she finally sees him in a pitiful state and gets his attention right away. They make love for the first time, and Linden is unable to control Rathan's intense desire for their soultwin in such a weak state (though shouldn't Rathan be weak too, since they share the same body?). Despite the constant warnings of danger though, neither Linden nor Maurynna die . Again Rathan's instincts prove on the mark, and a very entertaining romantic scene ensues.
The lingering effects of this weakness from the poisoning lasts many days later as Linden's weakness pops up at the worst possible moments, debilitating him into uselessness during the climactic ending.
Really, Maurynna rescues Linden twice. I don't count running in on Althume and Linden during the torturous questioning as an actual rescue. Maurynna saves herself there more than Linden, since Linden was about the reveal the true identity of the fledgling. Maurynna does rescue Linden from the pathetic state of self-pity following the poisoning though, and then of course at the end when Maurynna's dragon soul fries the dragauth about devour Linden.
Linden is too weak to do much of anything and too stupid to root out any political scheming until the very end, and then only in one page all at once.
My other complaint: too many disjoint passages from a wide array of perspectives that didn't add or amount to much, from an older mage trying to protect the soultrap jewel early on, from Beryl, from Rann's nurse, and from Astlana. Many of the passages from Athlume's perspective aimed to make the book a page-turner, imparting a sense of impending doom. But some of them (2 or 3 paragraphs max) didn't really reveal anything and they don't add to the story all that much, other than to fragment the story.
I did enjoy Maylin's perspective, as feisty as she is, and they were significant since they were shared with Maurynna for the most part.
Again, an enjoyable read overall, primarily because its heart lies with Maurynna's characterization, to land the hero of her dreams, her true love, her soultwin, while at the same time coming to terms to her own dragonlord status.
A Hunger Like No Other, by Kresley Cole [2]
**/*****
A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER isn't bad for a paranormal romance. It really isn't. It just reminded me why I don't read vampire/warewolf/etc. stories from romance authors as much as historical romances. A personal fault, I've read a few accomplished scifi/fantasy (sff) from very engrossing worldbuilding authors, and romance authors just don't compare. The immersing gravity and rich fabric of the lore and history from sff authors are far superior. Unfortunately, good sff authors also desperately need a kick in the gut in the love/romance department because they either: (a) ignore it, or (b) write it in a very shallow way.
A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER relays most of the lore of the world in the dialogues between characters, all of it very satirical, light-hearted. The lore just didn't come alive as a result. I prefer my fantasy novels relaying the lore in interesting, descriptive ways via action, not via exposition or a character's dialogue obviously inserted to educate the reader on the world. A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER contains plenty of dialogue and exposition explaining the lore in a very satirical way, and it was hard getting over the suspension of disbelief factor, even for someone who reads sff avidly. Even Lachlain's estate in Scotland didn't seem =real=, didn't come =alive=. One moment the estate is this expansive, well-guarded inaccessible stronghold, while the next the Valkyrie are tearing down the gate and the castle's door because they were able to trace its location from Emma's cell phone.
I found the amazon-like Valkyrie very annoying and hard to digest, always bringing up questions about the relative power of the different species in Kresley Cole's world. One moment 3 strong Valkyrie (Annika, Regin, Lucia) are having problems with a demon Vampire, the next they're this ungodly kick-butt and indestructible race of amazon women able to easily imprison Lachlain's brother and defeat Lachlain. I had to wonder why the Valkyrie aren't the dominant species here even with their lower numbers. Nix took irritability to new bounds, all-sage and loopy, like she had an answer for everything. Don't get me started on our protective Valkyrie Annika. The big and imposing Wroth appears at the end and suddenly he seems more powerful than anyone there, certainly more powerful than Lachlain's brother.
A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER also didn't make me want to read any more of Kresley Cole's Immortal series, definitely not the next one featuring Kaderin. From the little we saw of Kaderin in A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER, she's our obligatory cold, kick-butt heroine, and I just can't identify with that. Bowen was the most interesting supporting character in A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER. In fact, after Emma, Bowen is the next most interesting character.
Certainly, A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER excels in the sexy-saucy-sensual department. I did enjoy our heroine's character; Emmaline oozes sex appeal, sass and a humorous wit. There's a scene where she's walking towards Lachlain in the lobby of a hotel wearing a tight skirt, and the book describes the scene from both Emma's point of view and Lachlain's point of view. It was charged with a sexual energy that really defined the novel. If only the lore was as interesting or the plotting as engaging. But then again I guess vivid settings, captivating world building and gripping plotting aren't marquee characteristics of a romance novel anyway.
Our hero Lachlain isn't nearly as interesting as Emma, other than for his obvious size in every respect. He's been tortured and feels the emptiness of lacking his soul mate for 1200 years. As a result, his character is reduced to two aspects really: vengeful towards his torturers of a 150 years, and protective, overbearing and lustful towards his identified soulmate. The later overshadowing the former. Both aspects contain his Lykae/warewolf bestial nature, perfect for the "love" scenes, ably satisfying Emma.
All the trite elements of a paranormal genre are certainly here -- the tortured hero with a brutal past (literally), the characters all having soul mates, the hero identifying his mate yet the heroine initially reluctant to reciprocate, and plenty of blood-sucking.
The Story, possible SPOILERS.
Vampires torture Lachlain, the king of the Lykae (a species of werewolves), in the catacombs with the fires of hell draining his life only to have his immortality constantly bring him back to life for the next round of burning death. I thought there could have been more descriptions of the catacombs and the nature of Lachlain's torture without being graphic. But unfortunately, we're treated to a very perfunctory description of the setting in the catacombs and a shallow portrayal of the nature of Lachlain's torture (other than the resulting pain and building vengeance).
When Lachlain scents his One Mate - Emmaline (half Valkyrie, half Vampire) - he finds the strength to escape his incarceration and capture Emma to claim her as her mate, the woman he's been searching for close to 1200 years. The resulting chapters devolve into a pattern: Emma is thirsty for blood, Lachlain offers himself, she drinks, both get off from the experience, rinse and repeat. Her need to drink blood and sustain/heal herself is always at the forefront of the plotting from beginning to end.
They share a feral and bestial sexual experience under a full moon on his estates and she begins to settle down there after that night. The feral experience under the moon supposedly officially claims Emma as Lachlain's mate but otherwise I'm not sure of its relevance. Then her Valkyrie family suddenly arrive for her, defeating and injuring Lachlain. Shortly after the Valkyrie arrive, vampires suddenly arrive at the scene for Emma as well, but most of them get easily slaughtered by the Valkyrie. Unfortunately, Emma willingly reaches out to one of the last living Vampire there. The vampire consequently captures Emma and traces (teleports) her away to Helvita where she meets her evil Vampire father. Following Emma's capture, the Valkyrie at Lachlain's estate suddenly depart gaily and leave it up to Lachlain to find and retrieve Emma, holding Lachlain's brother imprisoned as ransom elsewhere.
I found the protracted ending unsatisfying and the devices in the plotting to arrive at that ending dumb. By the time the book finally ends, the Valkyrie are watching movies and pretending to eat popcorn merrily with Lachlain & Emmaline. I'm not sure if Lachlain didn't want to act against the Valkyrie when they wouldn't let him see a weakened Emma or really couldn't do anything against the Valkyrie even if he wanted to. I suspect more of the later. His brother was easily subdued by them afterall. And Lachlain seemed to easily forget that they held his only remaining family member (his brother) prisoner. He demands for Emma first instead.
Anyway, besides the sensual energy exuding from Emma, the book was pretty weak.
A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER isn't bad for a paranormal romance. It really isn't. It just reminded me why I don't read vampire/warewolf/etc. stories from romance authors as much as historical romances. A personal fault, I've read a few accomplished scifi/fantasy (sff) from very engrossing worldbuilding authors, and romance authors just don't compare. The immersing gravity and rich fabric of the lore and history from sff authors are far superior. Unfortunately, good sff authors also desperately need a kick in the gut in the love/romance department because they either: (a) ignore it, or (b) write it in a very shallow way.
A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER relays most of the lore of the world in the dialogues between characters, all of it very satirical, light-hearted. The lore just didn't come alive as a result. I prefer my fantasy novels relaying the lore in interesting, descriptive ways via action, not via exposition or a character's dialogue obviously inserted to educate the reader on the world. A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER contains plenty of dialogue and exposition explaining the lore in a very satirical way, and it was hard getting over the suspension of disbelief factor, even for someone who reads sff avidly. Even Lachlain's estate in Scotland didn't seem =real=, didn't come =alive=. One moment the estate is this expansive, well-guarded inaccessible stronghold, while the next the Valkyrie are tearing down the gate and the castle's door because they were able to trace its location from Emma's cell phone.
I found the amazon-like Valkyrie very annoying and hard to digest, always bringing up questions about the relative power of the different species in Kresley Cole's world. One moment 3 strong Valkyrie (Annika, Regin, Lucia) are having problems with a demon Vampire, the next they're this ungodly kick-butt and indestructible race of amazon women able to easily imprison Lachlain's brother and defeat Lachlain. I had to wonder why the Valkyrie aren't the dominant species here even with their lower numbers. Nix took irritability to new bounds, all-sage and loopy, like she had an answer for everything. Don't get me started on our protective Valkyrie Annika. The big and imposing Wroth appears at the end and suddenly he seems more powerful than anyone there, certainly more powerful than Lachlain's brother.
A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER also didn't make me want to read any more of Kresley Cole's Immortal series, definitely not the next one featuring Kaderin. From the little we saw of Kaderin in A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER, she's our obligatory cold, kick-butt heroine, and I just can't identify with that. Bowen was the most interesting supporting character in A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER. In fact, after Emma, Bowen is the next most interesting character.
Certainly, A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER excels in the sexy-saucy-sensual department. I did enjoy our heroine's character; Emmaline oozes sex appeal, sass and a humorous wit. There's a scene where she's walking towards Lachlain in the lobby of a hotel wearing a tight skirt, and the book describes the scene from both Emma's point of view and Lachlain's point of view. It was charged with a sexual energy that really defined the novel. If only the lore was as interesting or the plotting as engaging. But then again I guess vivid settings, captivating world building and gripping plotting aren't marquee characteristics of a romance novel anyway.
Our hero Lachlain isn't nearly as interesting as Emma, other than for his obvious size in every respect. He's been tortured and feels the emptiness of lacking his soul mate for 1200 years. As a result, his character is reduced to two aspects really: vengeful towards his torturers of a 150 years, and protective, overbearing and lustful towards his identified soulmate. The later overshadowing the former. Both aspects contain his Lykae/warewolf bestial nature, perfect for the "love" scenes, ably satisfying Emma.
All the trite elements of a paranormal genre are certainly here -- the tortured hero with a brutal past (literally), the characters all having soul mates, the hero identifying his mate yet the heroine initially reluctant to reciprocate, and plenty of blood-sucking.
The Story, possible SPOILERS.
Vampires torture Lachlain, the king of the Lykae (a species of werewolves), in the catacombs with the fires of hell draining his life only to have his immortality constantly bring him back to life for the next round of burning death. I thought there could have been more descriptions of the catacombs and the nature of Lachlain's torture without being graphic. But unfortunately, we're treated to a very perfunctory description of the setting in the catacombs and a shallow portrayal of the nature of Lachlain's torture (other than the resulting pain and building vengeance).
When Lachlain scents his One Mate - Emmaline (half Valkyrie, half Vampire) - he finds the strength to escape his incarceration and capture Emma to claim her as her mate, the woman he's been searching for close to 1200 years. The resulting chapters devolve into a pattern: Emma is thirsty for blood, Lachlain offers himself, she drinks, both get off from the experience, rinse and repeat. Her need to drink blood and sustain/heal herself is always at the forefront of the plotting from beginning to end.
They share a feral and bestial sexual experience under a full moon on his estates and she begins to settle down there after that night. The feral experience under the moon supposedly officially claims Emma as Lachlain's mate but otherwise I'm not sure of its relevance. Then her Valkyrie family suddenly arrive for her, defeating and injuring Lachlain. Shortly after the Valkyrie arrive, vampires suddenly arrive at the scene for Emma as well, but most of them get easily slaughtered by the Valkyrie. Unfortunately, Emma willingly reaches out to one of the last living Vampire there. The vampire consequently captures Emma and traces (teleports) her away to Helvita where she meets her evil Vampire father. Following Emma's capture, the Valkyrie at Lachlain's estate suddenly depart gaily and leave it up to Lachlain to find and retrieve Emma, holding Lachlain's brother imprisoned as ransom elsewhere.
I found the protracted ending unsatisfying and the devices in the plotting to arrive at that ending dumb. By the time the book finally ends, the Valkyrie are watching movies and pretending to eat popcorn merrily with Lachlain & Emmaline. I'm not sure if Lachlain didn't want to act against the Valkyrie when they wouldn't let him see a weakened Emma or really couldn't do anything against the Valkyrie even if he wanted to. I suspect more of the later. His brother was easily subdued by them afterall. And Lachlain seemed to easily forget that they held his only remaining family member (his brother) prisoner. He demands for Emma first instead.
Anyway, besides the sensual energy exuding from Emma, the book was pretty weak.
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