tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67639019083477185262024-02-18T23:13:51.040-08:00BookeracyBook reviews and analyses from a compulsive reader. Sci-fi, fantasy, romance, non-fiction and moreOverprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-76609545528858579102017-09-28T11:04:00.001-07:002017-09-28T11:27:22.044-07:00Review: The Epic Love Story of Doug and Stephen<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="418" src="https://read.amazon.com/kp/card?asin=B004W8DA30&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_dGtZzbAJWKMRD&tag=bookeracy-20" style="float: left; margin-right: 15px; max-width: 100%;" type="text/html" width="250"></iframe>
<b>I loved this book. The protagonist, Doug, is like Bill and Ted's dumber, hotter friend, and he falls in love with an almost murderously antisocial, uptight, artsy queer guy, Stephen. The narrative is laugh-out-loud funny and teeters on the edge of farce, but is saved by having a really charming emotional core.</b><br />
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It breaks conventions that I wasn't aware could be broken. For example, Doug is not slow-by-common-measures-but wise-in-other-ways. He really is just dumb as a rock. He's also a lazy, cowardly, amoral, slutty slob. From that description, I should hate him (I'm judgemental like that). Yet he ended up being a really sympathetic character for me. Stephen is intellectual, anally neat, and interested is almost a
caricature of a east coast liberal, wishing that there was just more
injustice in his life to rail against and more angsty than a goth teen. He's also not someone I would normally find attractive, but I eventually appreciated him though Doug's eyes.<br />
<br />
And Stephen really doesn't like Doug at first and is pretty mean to him. If it were a girl, I'd feel uncomfortable with having her be hot but so much dumber than the guy she loves, or having her be such a doormat that she take his abuse and never defends herself. But somehow since they're both guys, it doesn't feel misogynistic and just becomes a story about unconditional love.<br />
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For a while, I didn't know if I really wanted them to be together. I kept reading just to get to more funny bits, but I didn't at first see how it would work. I mean, if I met them in real life, I would be totally on Stephen's side in trying to dissuade Doug from pursuing/bothering him. They seem a horrible match. Completely different in every possible way, and not in the "he completes me" sense.<br />
<br />
Also Doug starts out heterosexual. The "queer for you" trope has a bad reputation for a reason, but here it worked for me, because I could actually believe that Doug could go his whole went his whole life without questioning the default sexuality and then switch his assumptions without it bothering him all that much. He's as deep as a puddle.<br />
<br />
The only thing I didn't love about the book was the climax. Although entertaining, there was just too much coincidence for me. YMMV.<br />
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Overall though, I'd recommend it. Plus, it's free on Kindle Unlimited, so there's that.Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-23656160897544277892012-09-16T18:37:00.001-07:002012-09-17T09:56:48.443-07:00Review: Serial Hottie by Kelly Oram<div style="float: left; margin-right: 20px;">
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Serial Hottie is a YA romance about a tomboy and the mysterious new guy who moves in across the street. She finds him attractive, but their first few interactions don't go well. When a serial killer starts killing red headed teen aged girls in her home town soon after he moves in, she suspects he's the serial killer. <br />
The relationship is a little creepy. She's a bit violent, including punching him at one point. He is over-the-top jealous and stalker-y, and a couple of times physically restrains her to get her to listen to him when she doesn't want to. On the other hand, we eventually understand why he acts the way he does, and when she calls him out on the creepy psycho stuff, he realizes that it's a problem and tries to change it. <br />
Other than that, I think it's a good story. I have a soft spot for stories about beautiful bad boys who are head-over-heels over a girl (Beautiful Disaster, et al). The author does a decent job of showing the problems with dating a violent boy with stalker-ish tendencies and socialization issues, and how their relationship evolves as they learn he starts to learn how to act right. She also has some issues with defensiveness and not really feeling comfortable with her feminine side, and with his help, she starts to feel more comfortable in her skin.<br />
The story also has a fair amount going on. There's the serial killer sub-plot, that is mostly about them learning to understand and trust one another for most of the story, but involves some suspense and action here and there. There's also a solid arc about the relationship between Ellie and her sister, as well as a strong dose of tomboy-gets-a-makeover story line. For all that there's a lot of potentially heavy things going on, the general tone of the book is actually pretty light-hearted. It's a fun YA read.Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-73843432352428677762012-09-16T08:14:00.000-07:002012-09-16T19:55:36.197-07:00Review: Do Over by Emily Evans<div style="float: left; margin-right: 20px;">
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Pez, the heroine and POV, really makes this story. She's a born leader - smart, organized, decisive, and understands people. She mostly channels that into her prom committee, although she's really like that all the time. She's also determined to be a fashion designer, and the contrast between her interest in fashion and art and her practical, level-headed approach to everything is great.<br />
The main blemish in her life is that her parents are divorced. Not one to take things lying down, she's determined to make prom into a perfectly romantic event so her parents get back together, bonding over pre-prom rituals (I found this reasoning a little weak, but not a deal breaker - it's clear that she's having trouble accepting that they're not getting back together and is being a little irrational about it). In the meantime, her father is engaged to a professional cheerleader, who Pez gets to know over the course of the book. Their relationship was a surprisingly strong point of the story.<br />
Mostly though, the story is a romance. Pez is forced to interact with the jocks her father coaches. She finds one of them attractive, but she recognizes that he's promiscuous and isn't generally into jocks, so doesn't act on it. Over the course of the story, they get to know each other better and develop a relationship (although not a romantic one for at first). The romance is understated. There is some tension before they act on their attraction, and there are difficulties they overcome when they start having a relationship, but the author doesn't unnecessarily draw out the problems, and Pez doesn't spend all her time wallowing in thoughts about the relationship - she's got things to do! For all that, when they do come together, it's intense and passionate considering that they only kiss (it is YA, after all).<br />
I love that the author avoids the standard YA tropes and tendencies. There's no love triangle, insta-love, or angst. The girl doesn't feel unworthy of attention and she doesn't need - or get - a makeover. She's popular and good at school without being a genius or a goddess. The boy has no impulse control issues and wasn't her best friend from when they were kids. Nobody is abused or bullied. Mind you, I've loved stories that had all of these things, but it's refreshing to see YA romance that doesn't use any of them.<br /><br />The only thing keeping me from rating it a five star instead of a four is that the climax isn't so climatic for me. When they run into relationship problems, there's some time when I'm sure Pez is hurting, but it really takes place off stage. So we go from conflict to resolution without tearing my heart out too much in between. Perversely, I would have liked my heart torn out just a tiny bit more. Other than that, though, I thought it was great. Highly recommended if you like YA romances.Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-24342751826346006942012-04-16T21:42:00.002-07:002012-04-16T21:42:17.269-07:00SSF Stories with Middle Eastern LeadsThis post is focuses on my favorite science fiction and fantasy stories with protagonists whose race and ethnicity is rooted in the Middle East.<br />
<b>Previous Posts:</b> <a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/01/sff-stories-with-native-american-leads.html">SFF Stories with Native American Leads</a>, <a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/01/sff-stories-with-asian-leads.html">SFF Stories with Asian Leads</a> and <a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/02/sff-stories-with-black-leads.html">SFF Stories with Black Leads</a>.<br />
<h3>
The Aggregate Stats</h3>
<ul>
<li><b>Total number of works/series/authors on the list:</b> 15/7/24</li>
<li><b>Author with most works on the list:</b> Frank Herbert, with 6 books on the list</li>
<li><b>Most consistent pattern: </b>Historical Fantasies. Rather than take the ideas and culture and build their own world, about half the series on the list placed their stories in a serious historical context.</li>
<li><b>Biggest overall surprise:</b> No fantasies with the magic based on ancient Egyptian mythology. I would have assumed that would be more popular, but no.</li>
</ul>
and now for... <br />
<h3>
My Favorites</h3>
<a name='more'></a><h4>
Blue Sword</h4>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441012000/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0441012000">The Blue Sword</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0441012000" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, by <b>Robin McKinley,</b> is an old favorite of mine.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> Fantasy. It has a hint of a Lawrence of Arabia thing going on, but was written long before the current fad for gas-lamp/steampunk really took hold. Like all of Robin McKinley's stories, it has a very dream-like approach to magic, rather than a systemic one.</li>
<li><b>Why I love it:</b> Reading feels like you're in the midst of a legend, but with really relatable, human characters. Plus, the love story is very sweet.</li>
<li><b>Middle-Eastern-ness:</b> The story mostly takes place in a culture based on the Bedouin culture, and the main love interest (and secondary POV character) is the king of that people.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Spirit Ring</h4>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671578707/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0671578707">The Spirit Ring</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0671578707" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> is the first novel by <b>Lois McMaster Bujold</b> that I ever read, and I highly recommend it. It holds up well.
<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre: </b>Fantasy. It's set in an alternate Late-Medieval/Early Renaissance Italy and the magic and culture are based on her historical research of what really existed, or what they thought existed, at the time. </li>
<li><b>Why I love it:</b> The world-building is meticulously thought out and inventive, but that's not a surprise because, you know, it's Bujold. But it's also a charming coming-of-age novel with some grit and gruesomeness. And it has a great love story and wonderfully rich characters. And great action. And a sense of humor. Win!</li>
<li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Middle-Eastern</b></span>-ness:</b> The main character (Fiametta) is half-North African and deals with the prejudice and of having her mother's darker skin among a very white people.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Dune</h4>
This series is <b>Frank Herbert's</b> magnum opus and includes <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441013597/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0441013597">Dune</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0441013597" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441015611/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0441015611">Dune Messiah</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0441015611" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441104029/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0441104029">Children of Dune</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0441104029" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441016316/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0441016316">God Emperor of Dune</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0441016316" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441016774/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0441016774">Heretics of Dune</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0441016774" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441102670/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0441102670">Chapterhouse: Dune</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0441102670" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.
<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> Far-future science fiction on a ridiculously epic scale.</li>
<li><b>Why you have to read it: </b>It's been scientifically proven that 24% of all nerd jokes and allusions allude to Dune. Plus, the universe-building is incredible, and it's a phenomenal thought experiment in ecology, politics, religion, fate, power, and evolution. And probably a bunch of other things. It takes place over a couple thousand years though, so it's more about the thoughts than about any individual character. The first book is the key one, so if you quit after that one, I won't tell.</li>
<li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Middle-Eastern</b></span>-ness:</b> The Fremen culture is based on Arab Islamic culture, and many of the primary POVs are Fremen.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Alamut</h4>
This duology by <b>Judith Tarr</b> includes <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553287869/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0553287869">Alamut</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0553287869" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005WOFQJ4/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B005WOFQJ4">The Dagger and the Cross</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B005WOFQJ4" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.
<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre: </b>Fantasy. Alternate-world Crusades-era Middle East, but with a rare magic race.</li>
<li><b>Why I love it:</b> Tarr writes with impeccable historical authenticity, but she also has these really rich and relatable characters. This is set in the same world her The Hound and the Falcon trilogy, which I also love.</li>
<li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Middle-Eastern</b></span>-ness:</b> It takes place mostly in the Middle East (Damascus, Jeruselum, etc.) and one of the female lead POV character is a Muslim Djinn assassin.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Arabesques</h4>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0380753197/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0380753197">Arabesques: More Tales of the Arabian Nights</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/038075570X/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=038075570X">Arabesques II</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=038075570X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
are out of print and not available as e-books (yet!), but if you run across a copy, I recommend these anthologies edited by <b>Susan Swartz</b>. They're a great collection of stories written by <b>Steven R. Donaldson</b>, <b>Ru Emerson</b>, <b>M.J. Engh</b>, <b>William R. Forstchen</b>, <b>Esther M. Friesner</b>, <b>K.E. Kimbriel</b>, <b>Tanith Lee</b>, <b>Andre Norton</b>, <b>Larry Niven</b>, <b>Elizabeth Scarborough</b>, <b>Charles Scheffield</b>, <b>Melissa Scott</b>, <b>Nancy Springer</b>, <b>Judith Tarr</b>, <b>Harry Turtledove</b>, <b>Gene Wolf</b>, and <b>Jane Yolen</b>.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre: </b>Fantasy. The theme to the anthology is that it's a follow up to 1001 Arabian Nights, so you'll see a variety of short stories with Djinn, magic carpets, etc.</li>
<li><b>Why I love it:</b> Great writing and lots of different takes on the theme.</li>
<li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Middle-Eastern</b></span>-ness:</b> Each story is different, but it's all a big bubbling pot of Arabian-ness.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Fire Spirits</h4>
This series by<b> Samantha Young </b>includes <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005XP1VBY/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B005XP1VBY">Smokeless Fire</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B005XP1VBY" style="border-bottom-style: none !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-style: none !important; border-right-style: none !important; border-top-style: none !important; border-width: initial !important; cursor: move; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important;" width="1" /> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007J68J60/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007J68J60">Scorched Skies</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B007J68J60" style="border-bottom-style: none !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-style: none !important; border-right-style: none !important; border-top-style: none !important; border-width: initial !important; cursor: move; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important;" width="1" />, although she hasn't finished writing it yet.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre: </b>Young Adult Urban Fantasy, but with a djinn as the magical race.</li>
<li><b>Why I love it:</b> It's a lot smarter than most YA UF, but it still has the delicious addictiveness that you get with having the classic coming-of-age/love-triangle thing. </li>
<li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Middle-Eastern</b></span>-ness:</b> The main character and the general mythos are all based on Arabian mythology, with authentic details like the Madrid Djinn and the Seal of Solomon working their way in. </li>
</ul>
<h4>
Steppe</h4>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1601251823/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1601251823">Steppe</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1601251823" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, by Piers Anthony<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre: </b>Time traveler/far future Science Fiction. A person from the ninth century gets pulled into the twenty third century.</li>
<li><b>Why I love it:</b> It's one of the more original ideas that Anthony played with. He revisits the idea of an advanced civilization having this big multiplayer game in his more popular Adept series, but in this one he is focused on the book as a vehicle to examine a particular era in history with some really creative twists.</li>
<li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Middle-Eastern</b></span>-ness:</b> The main character is a ninth-century Turkish warrior.</li>
</ul>
<h3>
Honorable Mention</h3>
<ul>
<li><b>The Halcyon Trilogy by Joseph Robert Lewis </b>(The Burning Sky, the Broken Sword, and the Bound Soul), is a fantasy steam punk set in the Mediterranean in a world where the last ice age never ended. The set up seems cool, but the intro didn't suck me in, so I never read it, but I keep meaning to give it another (longer) try.</li>
<li><b>Heart of Flame by Janine Ashbless</b> is on my TBR list and is a fantasy romance set in a mythical version of the Arabian peninsula.</li>
<li><b>A Wind in Cairo</b> <b>by</b><b> Judith Tarr </b>is a historical fantasy based in ancient Egypt. I haven't read it, but I've really enjoyed other Judith Tarr books, so I imagine this one is also worthwhile.</li>
</ul>
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</noscript>Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-60130270525304880512012-03-05T07:36:00.002-08:002012-03-05T07:36:24.928-08:00Review: Peacemaker by Lindsay Buroker<b>As with the other installments of the Flash Gold Series, it's fun and action-filled. Apparently it's also longer than the other stories, but unfortunately Buroker doesn't really use that extra length to make noticeable progress on any of the main story arcs. Despite this, I recommend it as a fun read in a fun series.</b><br />
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<b>Peacemaker</b>, by Lindsay Buroker, is the third story in her Flash Gold series, a steam-punk adventure set in the Yukon gold rush. The protagonist is Kali, a half-Han/half-white female MacGuyver. She's clever and crotchety and brave and vulnerable. In the first book she becomes partners with Cedar, a sword-and-gun-wielding bounty hunter. He's mysterious and wise and fierce and a little crazy and socially awkward to complement her craziness and socially awkwardness. I love them both. Instead of novels, each installment in this series is a short story or novella, so the episodes are fairly light and fun, with larger arcs that carry over the stories and action that's solved with a mixture of derring do and improvised engineering. <br />
<br />
In a lot of ways, this story was a good addition to the series. The the action was fun, the writing is good, the main characters are great, the inventions are inventive, and the setting is cool.<br />
<br />
I have two beefs however.<br />
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The first is with the world building. Now, don't get me wrong. It's a rollicking setting with fun details. And she infuses enough richness to it that her steam punk world feels like it's own distinct place. The problem is that after three stories, it still feels a like a bubble setting. I don't have a real sense of how the world got to be the way it is or how it fits into the rest of the world, despite the fact that other places in the world are mentioned. <br />
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For example, there are a couple mentions of medicine men and native american witches who have some sort of magical powers (no real detail on that). But those people don't seem to be any different from real life medicine men and women accused of witches other than to give us flash gold. And other than that, there's no integration of magic into the rest of her world. That level of world-building was okay for the first story, because it's a short story and I don't want Buroker to spend so much time explaining the setting that it takes away from the story. But three stories in, we've gotten a chance to look around a bit, and it still feels like magic is just plopped into one place in her world and doesn't affect anything else. And that's just odd. I'd think that some people having magic powers would affect the world in a bunch of ways. Maybe regular people would be more superstitious or prejudiced against magic users or maybe magic users would occupy certain roles that aren't available in our world, or there would be a bunch of charlatans pretending to have power, or, I don't know, a bunch of possibilities. But about the only possibility I don't swallow is that you'd be able to change such a fundamental part of world (some people can do real magic) and the only difference is that now there's flash gold, which only Kali has.<br />
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To give another example, Kali and other tinkerers can do all sorts of crazy engineering, but the world as a whole is not any different than our real world. It seems like there are a few crazy fun things inserted (we don't just have outlaw gangs riding horses, we have sky pirates riding zeppelins!), but it doesn't seem like it makes that much of a difference - it just adds flavor. And that also seems odd or inconsistent. Unless you posit something like that the crazy engineering ability is so recent that it hasn't had a chance to really change history yet, I would expect the world to be a bit more different than our real one. In particular, it seems like there are no changes to the culture or institutions or history or anything. <br />
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This isn't a huge problem with me because it's still a fun world and the story is meant to be fairly light-weight, but from reading her Emperor's Edge series, it's clear to me she has the ability to do more extensive and consistent world building, so that aspect of it is a bit of a disappointment. I'd love to see her really let loose on the premise.<br />
<br />
Anyway. <br />
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The other beef I have is that it just doesn't feel like anything important happened in the story. Over all, it feels very much like an interstitial story, rather than a building block story. I don't always need a short story to move the the plot arcs forward. If it's an interstitial story in the middle of a bunch of novels, then I can just appreciate it as a nice little gift from the author to tide me over until the next major installment. But when the whole series is short stories, then I want each one to contribute to moving the things forward or else it feels like I'm being strung along a little bit. I want each story to be an important one that needs to be told in the overall context of the series.<br />
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The first story (Flash Gold) was important because it told the story of how Kali and Cedar met and started working together, as well as being the point where Kali learned she was being hunted. It was a solid beginning. The second one (Hunted) was important because it was the story of how they opened up to each other and started having a romantic relationship. <br />
<br />
Now we're on the third one, and I feel like we have a few good possible threads for turning it into a significant point in Kali or Cedar's lives, but none of them went anywhere in this story. There's a little more about Kali and Cedar's back story, but none of the reveals significantly color our perception of them as characters, nor do they affect their relationship. The relationship between Kali and Cedar sort of had some tension that never got too tense and was easily resolved, and the relationship between them also didn't progress. I thought we might go somewhere with the introduction of Tadzi, but he just has a cameo. I thought maybe we'd get farther along with the Cudgel arc, but, other than knowing he's in the area (which we already knew) and that we now know that he knows about Cedar and Kali, nothing really happened there. There's the possibility for some emotional growth from Kali as she faces her Han past and deals with her issues from that, but no actual emotional growth happened. In the epilogue, she's a hero for the Han and the town and so it's possible that this will be will be important because it's the time when her relationship to the world changed, but that's not really explored either. <br />
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I don't know. <br />
<br />
We get another installment, but I don't feel like it accomplished much. It's fun and frothy, but we're in the same place that we started. I'm still glad that I read the story because it's a cool adventure, and I'm still going to buy the next one when it comes out, but I hope that overall Buroker will balance this one out with a bit more depth or forward progress in the next installment. I'm afraid of this turning into an adventure-of-the-week style series where every installment has a new contraption, but is otherwise a rehash of the same basic plot and static relationships and characters and world. I'd rather a Buffy the Vampire Slayer approach where there may be monsters every week, but you want to see them all because they tell a story together that has significant plot movement, world-building, and character growth.Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-1378448146274004652012-03-01T20:24:00.001-08:002012-03-01T20:24:49.890-08:00Review: Zero Factor by Stacy Gail<b>This sci-fi romance was not bad, but nothing to write home about either. Although, I supposed I'm writing <i>here</i> about it, in any case.</b><br />
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<b>Zero Factor</b>, by Stacy Gail, is a dystopian action romance set in a militarized future with cyborg militia soldiers, radioactive pollution, and starving masses. The future is sharply divided between the haves and have nots.<br />
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The heroine has psychic powers, and is trying to keep a low profile to avoid conscription by the government which apparently rounds up psychics for nefarious purposes. While delivering food, she has a vision of the group she's with being attacked and dying. At a loss for how to prevent it, she shares it by kissing one of the soldiers who's watching over her group. When he realizes that the attack is a plot by his commanding officer, he foils it and they go on the run together. <br />
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The story didn't have anything terribly wrong with it, but I just didn't respond to it for some reason. The world building is a compilation of ideas that I've seen before. I didn't feel the chemistry between the leads (death for a romance book). And I didn't love the protagonist, although I didn't hate her or get annoyed with her either. I don't know. I just didn't respond to it. It was literally a Zero Factor for me as well, I suppose - not important enough to matter. YMMV.<br />
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<br />Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-66090465264127297142012-02-29T19:24:00.000-08:002012-02-29T19:24:12.695-08:00Review: Twist, by Dannika Dark<b>Dark's sophomore effort is a great urban fantasy with more of a focus on relationships and romance than the first in the series. It's teh hot. I enjoyed it so much, I read it twice. :)</b> <br />
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Twist, by Danika Dark, is the sequel to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005LHI8K6/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk">Sterling (Mageri Series: Book 1)</a>, a book about a woman who is brutally attacked and turned into a mage and finds herself part of a dangerous, magical side of the world she never knew existed.<br />
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This one starts off with Silver chafing a bit under Justus' tight restrictions. She clearly respects him and understands that's he's trying to protect her, but she has her own ideas of how her life needs to be. Throughout the book, she disobeys him to either do things that she thinks is right or that she has a right to do. This dynamic could have come off like a self-centered teenage rebellion against a father figure/love interest, but I think the author succeeded in crafting an arc for the relationship between Justus and Silver that makes sense for two adult characters. She is a grown woman with very understandable issues about control and independence, and he is a controlling, honorable, very old (very hot) man who is uncomfortable with affection and not really human. They don't see eye-to-eye, but they both want their learner-ghuardian relationship to work. I don't know if it worked evenly throughout the book, but overall I liked it. I also liked what the author did with Silver's other relationships in general. More on that in a minute.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Although Silver's immediate nemesis, Samil, died in the end of the last book, we know that the mysterious Benefactor is still out there, and the action of this plot is driven mostly by Silver's side trying to get the Benefactor and the Benefactor's attempts to recapture Silver. The action is good, and we get to find out a bit more about the Breeds, but those aren't the best parts of the book.<br />
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The BEST part is the romance. And, OMG, it has it in spades. There is both a really touching romance resolved early on in the book between a couple of secondary characters, and a great romance for Silver. I won't spoil it by giving away who ends up with who, even though I really want to. <br />
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For a while there in the middle of the book I had my doubts about how it was all going to be resolved. I mean, it seemed like she was surrounded by a bunch of hot guys who all cared for her, and I was worried that she was headed towards a Laurell Hamilton-style series with an ever-expanding male harem. Dark managed to avoid that pit trap though. The relationships in Silver's life are important to her, but Silver doesn't fall in love with the guys around her just because they're good-hearted and and good-looking. She understands the difference between attraction and affection and love. So when she does fall for someone, it makes an impact.<br />
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Anyway, I enjoyed the first book, but I think I ended up liking this one even more. It's a contemporary urban fantasy with a bit of a darker edge than most and a strong paranormal romance leaning. The world-building is creative and cohesive, although we still see fairly small parts of it, so I wouldn't read it just for that. The relationships are gratifying, and I like the protagonist. Overall, I definitely recommend it.Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-72728169304908652932012-02-21T06:41:00.000-08:002012-02-21T19:44:19.467-08:00Gah - I've been badOK, so lately I've been focusing on a development developing:<br />
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<b>‘Line Pirates: Bane of the MultiVersal Corps </b></div>
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Basically, it's an online Real Time Turn (RTT) Collectible Card Game (CCG) with a high-adventure, sci-fantastical military theme. It also incorporates some elements that are normally found in Role Playing Games (RPGs), namely grid-based strategy and a strong narrative element. We're aiming for high strategy, but low time commitment - a game played in 15-20 minutes. We hope to alpha by Dec 2012 and release by June 2013, if we can get sufficient funding. <a href="http://linepirates.wikia.com/wiki/Linepirates_Wiki">Check out our wiki for it if you want more details</a>, although at this stage it's really aimed more for us to codify the ruleset than for users to start playing.<br />
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Anyway, I just wanted to say that, although it may appear as though I was swallowed by a black hole, I've just been temporarily distracted and will shortly return to my regular reading and blogging obsession.<br />
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Oh, and if anyone is interested in participating in beta testing or observing the creation process, let me know. My partner and I are doing this mostly by email since we live in different parts of the country, so we've gathered a small group of people who want to be cced on everything to see how a game comes to live.Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-77089906345729191352012-02-02T14:12:00.000-08:002012-04-16T21:46:43.841-07:00SFF Stories with Black LeadsThis post is focuses on my favorite science fiction and fantasy stories with protagonists whose race and ethnicity is rooted in sub-Saharan Africa and the African diaspora. I'm separating out Northern Africa and putting that with the Middle East, since I figured Egypt and Saudi Arabia have more in common with each other than with the places such as the Congo or Japan.<br />
<b>Related Posts:</b> <a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/01/sff-stories-with-native-american-leads.html">SFF Stories with Native American Leads</a>, <a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/01/sff-stories-with-asian-leads.html">SFF Stories with Asian Leads</a>, and <a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/04/ssf-stories-with-middle-eastern-leads.html">SFF Stories with Middle Eastern Leads</a>.<br />
<h3>
The Aggregate Stats</h3>
<ul>
<li><b>Total number of works/series/authors on the list:</b> 16/7/6</li>
<li><b>Author with most works on the list:</b> Octavia Butler, with 7 books on the list</li>
<li><b>Most depressing realization:</b> The overwhelming majority of books here have no recognizable black people on the covers. Sigh.</li>
<li><b>Biggest overall surprise:</b> No (non-urban) fantasies. How'd that happen?</li>
</ul>
and now for... <br />
<h3>
My Favorites</h3>
<a name='more'></a><h4>
Anansi Boys</h4>
The novel <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060515198/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0060515198">Anansi Boys</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0060515198" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, by <b>Neil Gaiman,</b> is set in the same universe as American Gods, but is a very different book in cast, tone, and structure.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> it's a bit of a genre-bender, but I'd say it was roughly contemporary fantasy with a focus on gods and folklore</li>
<li><b>Why I love it:</b> It has lots of dry British humor, a clever plot and world-building, and happy ending. I disliked the protagonist in the beginning, but loved him by the end. </li>
<li><b>African-ness:</b> Most of the POV characters are of black, including the main one. Gaiman also builds a lot of his story around folklore about Anansi the Spider, a trickster god from west Africa and the Caribbean.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Star of David</h4>
This short story by <b>Patricia Briggs</b> is in the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0425241769/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0425241769">Hexed</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0425241769" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> Anthology, and is about a minor character in her Mercy Thompson series.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> Urban Fantasy, with a focus on werewolves</li>
<li><b>Why I love it: </b>It's a wonderful redemption story focusing on an adult father-daughter relationship. But also with a werewolf, an evil villain, and the requisite action. It's a UF short story for grown ups.</li>
<li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>African</b></span>-ness: </b>The protagonist and his daughter are both African-Americans.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Patternist Series</h4>
This series by <b>Octavia Butler</b> includes <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446676977/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0446676977">Wild Seed</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0446676977" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446362816/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0446362816">Patternmaster</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0446362816" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446361887/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0446361887">Mind of My Mind</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0446361887" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451086732/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0451086732">Survivor</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0451086732" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446603708/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0446603708">Clay's Ark</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0446603708" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> Science fiction with a real exploration of issues of power and immortality</li>
<li><b>Why I love it: </b>The series is the opposite of brain candy - if you read her books your mind grows at least three millimeters a day.</li>
<li><b><b>African</b>-ness:</b> In the story, there are two immortal beings, both black, and the story starts in Africa.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Parable Series</h4>
This series by <b>Octavia Butler</b> includes <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446675504/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0446675504">Parable of the Sower</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0446675504" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446675784/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0446675784">Parable of the Talents</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0446675784" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. <br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> Dystopian science fiction</li>
<li><b>Why I like it:</b> She won a Nebula award for one of the books and was nominated for a Nebula for the other. 'Nuff said.</li>
<li><b><b>African</b>-ness:</b> The main character is African American and draws from her faith and experience as a minister's daughter to become a leader.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Smoke Trilogy</h4>
This series by <b>Tanya Huff</b> includes <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0756402638/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0756402638">Smoke and Shadows</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0756402638" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006UMI26Q/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B006UMI26Q">Smoke and Mirrors</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B006UMI26Q" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0756404150/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0756404150">Smoke and Ashes</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0756404150" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. <br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> Urban fantasy with vampires</li>
<li><b>Why I like it:</b> It's a fun mix of vampires, wizards, ghosts, and behind-the-scenes Hollywood, but with some depth. Huff does a good job avoiding stereotypes in this cliche-ridden field.</li>
<li><b> African-ness: </b>The main protagonist is African American.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Negotiator Trilogy</h4>
This series by <b>C.E. Murphy</b> includes <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0373803109/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0373803109">Heart of Stone</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0373803109" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0373803117/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0373803117">House of Cards</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0373803117" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0373803125/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0373803125">Hands of Flame</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0373803125" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. <br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> Urban Fantasy with gargoyles, dragons, selkies, djinn, and vampires.</li>
<li><b>Why I like it:</b> She makes gargoyles awesome. Plus, the protagonist uses her cleverness and mad lawyer skills to get ahead - she a human without special magical or fighting powers.</li>
<li><b><b>African</b>-ness: </b>The protagonist is African American. Apparently, the author had to fight with her publishers about not making her half-white, and they ended up using a white woman model for the cover, but in the book, she's definitely black.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
The Left Hand of Darkness</h4>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441007317/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0441007317">The Left Hand of Darkness</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0441007317" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> is a stand-alone novel by <b>Ursula Le Guin</b>. <br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> science fiction, with a political intrigue and fish-out-of-water story of a human envoy to a more primitive alien world</li>
<li><b>Why I like it: </b>It's an amazing thought experiment on gender. It's also a Hugo award winner and one of the more famous sci-fi novels period.</li>
<li><b>African-ness:</b> The protagonist is black, and he goes to an world where the natives are brown-skinned, although not human.</li>
</ul>
<h3>
Honorable Mention</h3>
<ul>
<li><b>Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews:</b> Jim, the love interest/other main character is black and AWESOME, although he's not the main POV character. They're contracted to write a spinoff book about Jim and Dali, so hopefully I can add it to the main list soon. </li>
<li><b>Zoo City and Moxyland by Lauren Beukes:</b> I haven't read these science fiction novels set in South Africa, but Zoo City is highly recommended by a friend as well as being on a bunch of short lists for SFF awards.</li>
<li><b>Lilith's Brood (Xenogenesis) by Octavia Butler: </b>I haven't read this sci-fi trilogy, which includes Dawn, Adulthood rites, and Imago, but the premise sounds cool and she's awesome, so it can't be that bad</li>
<li><b>Farnham's Freehold, Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Tunnel in the Sky by Robert Heinlein: </b>I have mixed feelings about the first book and the main character isn't black, but it is a science fiction book that explicitly examines race and prejudice from a time when most didn't, so I give it a nod. The other two are supposed to have black leads, but Heinlein didn't make it obvious so that it would get published as YA novels.</li>
<li><b>Wild Cards Series by George R. R. Martin:</b> this is a share-world series so the setting and timeline is cohesive, but it's written by a lot of different authors. A few, although not most, of the protagonists are black.</li>
<li><b>Vampire Huntress Series by L.A. Banks: </b>I haven't read this one yet, and may not because vampires are not as much my thing, but from what I can tell looking at the reviews, the protagonist is an African American vampire slayer, and the series improves after a verbose first book.</li>
</ul>
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</noscript>Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-3399745984552668982012-01-28T20:54:00.000-08:002012-04-16T21:45:58.879-07:00SF/F Stories with Asian LeadsThis post only covers from central, East and Southeast Asia. I'm covering the Middle East and north Africa in a separate post.<br />
<b>Related Posts:</b> <a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/01/sff-stories-with-native-american-leads.html">SFF Stories with Native American Leads</a>, <a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/02/sff-stories-with-black-leads.html">SFF Stories with Black Leads</a>, and SFF <a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/04/ssf-stories-with-middle-eastern-leads.html">Stories with Middle Easter Leads</a>.<br />
<h3>
The Aggregate Stats</h3>
<ul>
<li><b>Total number of works/series/authors on the list:</b> 24/7/7</li>
<li><b>Author with most works on the list:</b> Eileen Wilks, with 8 books in her Lupi series</li>
<li><b>Biggest overall surprise:</b> No ninjas. Huh. With all the assassin stories out there, I would have assumed I had read something more explicitly ninja-esque. I'm going to have to hunt one down. Also, I was a little surprised at the diversity. After doing the list for Native Americans, I was expecting patterns to emerge, even among excellent writers. But, they're a pretty diverse group of stories.</li>
</ul>
and now for...<br />
<h3>
My Favorites</h3>
<h4>
<a name='more'></a>World of the Lupi</h4>
This series by <b>Eileen Wilks</b> includes <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0425198782/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0425198782">Tempting Danger</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0425198782" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0425202909/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0425202909">Mortal Danger</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0425202909" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0425213447/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0425213447">Blood Lines</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0425213447" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/042522015X/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=042522015X">Night Season</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=042522015X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0425225526/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0425225526">Mortal Sins</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0425225526" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0425233057/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0425233057">Blood Magic</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0425233057" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0425239195/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0425239195">Blood Challenge</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0425239195" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0425245128/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0425245128">Death Magic</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0425245128" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> It starts out mostly contemporary urban fantasy with werewolves and a bit of police procedural, but later in the story it breaks into parallel universes, too</li>
<li><b>Why I love it: </b>The way she writes about Lily's family feels a little like Amy Tan, which is my touchstone for authenticity for writing about Chinese-American women. Except, of course, that the tiger inside Lily's grandmother is not just a metaphor. Plus, if I ever needed to work with a cop, I'd choose Lily for sheer believable competence.</li>
<li><b>Asian-ness:</b> Lily is a Chinese American and part of a close and extended Chinese immigrant family in San Francisco. The magic is pretty diverse, but eventually in the series, you get a bit of Chinese magic.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Initiate Brother</h4>
This duology by <b>Sean Russell</b> includes <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0886774667/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0886774667">The Initiate Brother</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0886774667" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004X6R6PY/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004X6R6PY"> Gatherer of Clouds</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004X6R6PY" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> Wuxia fantasy epic with palace intrigue</li>
<li><b>Why I love it:</b> I love all the main characters, the romances are heartbreakingly sweet, and it's a fantastic epic that manages to be complete within two books.</li>
<li><b>Asian-ness:</b> It's set in a world that is very clearly based on ancient China, complete with Shaolin temple politics and Mongolian-ish invasion issues, although I've read someone argue that the structure is also similar some of the great medieval Japanese civil war epics. I haven't the expertise to argue back. It's definitely all Asian, anyway.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox</h4>
This short series by<b> Barry Hughart</b> can be found as a three-book omnibus <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005ISOYLK/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B005ISOYLK">The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B005ISOYLK" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, but it covers Bridge of Birds, The Story of the Stone, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> A Sherlock Holmes story set in a historical fantasy with Terry Pratchett humor.</li>
<li><b>Why I love it:</b> It is, in the words of Master Li, "much like wandering blindfolded through a myth devised by a maniac". It's clever and absurd and silly. But it has moments of poignancy and depth all the more touching for the contrast.</li>
<li><b>Asian-ness:</b> It's set entirely in mythical ancient China, with the only hints of western-ness being occasional comments from Master Li letting you know that he's aware of the developments in places like Europe.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Snow Crash</h4>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBJCJE/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000FBJCJE">Snow Crash</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000FBJCJE" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, by <b>Neal</b> <b>Stevenson</b> is is a stand-alone novel.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> Cyberpunk, one of the classics in the genre, or possibly a classic satire of the genre. I'm not sure which</li>
<li><b>Why I love it:</b> It's all about the ideas. For example, the hero is Hiro Protagonist, a half-African American/half Korean pizza delivery driver who, in his spare time is an awesomely powerful hacker samurai. </li>
<li><b>Asian-ness: </b> Hiro himself is half-Korean, but also, like most cyberpunk novels, it assumes that corporations and organizations from Asia such as Hong Kong and Japan, have gained de facto world-wide cultural supremacy.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Magic Dreams</h4>
This novella by <b>Ilona Andrews</b> can be found in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0425241769/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0425241769">Hexed</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0425241769" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> and is a side story their Kate Daniels series. Apparently they're now under contract to write one or more spin off books focusing on the leads from this book, so hopefully we'll be able to add to the new books to the list as soon as they're written.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> The series in general is apocalyptic urban fantasy with absolutely every magical and mythological tradition mixed explosively</li>
<li><b>Why I like it:</b> The series in general and this story in particular are among my all-time favorites. Mostly, it's the two main characters that make me love it, but really, it excels at everything. World-building, dialog, action, and anything else you can think of is great, and all fit into a novella-sized package.</li>
<li><b>Asian-ness:</b> The lead is an Indonesian expert on the oriental magical traditions, and there are key plot points around an Asian black market, Japanese demons and culture, and Indonesian family life.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Empire Trilogy</h4>
This trilogy by<b> Janny Wurtz and Raymond Feist</b> includes <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/055327211X/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=055327211X">Daughter of the Empire</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=055327211X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553292455/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0553292455">Servant of the Empire</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0553292455" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553561189/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0553561189">Mistress of the Empire</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0553561189" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
. It's contemporaneous to Feist's more famous Riftwar Saga, but it can be read separately. I actually like it better; I think the writing and characterization are more even and the ideas are more original.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre: </b>Epic fantasy with significant palace intrigue</li>
<li><b>Why I like it:</b> It not only has a female protagonist, but it has one who is successful because of her cleverness and character, not because of any special abilities (indeed, she's is physically weaker than everyone under her, and she has no magic). Plus, it's just wonderfully written.</li>
<li><b>Asian-ness:</b> The setting seems mostly drawn from medieval Japan, although I've read reviews suggesting particular elements taken from Aztec and Egyptian cultures. It's mostly inspired by Japan though.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Sun Sword</h4>
This series by <b>Michelle West</b> includes <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0886777402/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0886777402">The Broken Crown</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0886777402" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0886778018/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0886778018">The Uncrowned King</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0886778018" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0886778379/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0886778379">The Shining Court</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0886778379" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0886779782/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0886779782">Sea of Sorrows</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0886779782" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0756401461/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0756401461">The Riven Shield</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0756401461" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0756401704/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0756401704">The Sun Sword</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0756401704" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.
<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> sprawling fantasy epic written before the current trend in gritty realism</li>
<li><b>Why I like it:</b> it's complex and richly detailed, with multiple POVs set in multiple cultures whose stories don't meet up until the end. And it's already finished, although she's most of the way through another series that overlaps this one and tells you what happens at the end of it.</li>
<li><b>Asian-ness: </b>This connection is weaker, but Annagar, is a fusion of Asian cultures, probably India and Japan, although she made it original enough that it's not perfectly clear.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Honorable Mention</h4>
<ul>
<li><b>
Iron Duke by Meljean Brook</b>: I absolutely love this wildly imaginative steam punk book, and the lead is half-Mongolian, but her ethnicity only comes into play to make her reviled because she's associated with the hated enemy, so I reluctantly dropped from the list.</li>
<li><b>Women of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong</b>: The series has both a half-Japanese werewolf alpha protagonist in a couple of books and a half-Indian/half chaos demon protagonist in a couple other novellas and a book. Their ethnicities don't make much of a difference in the overall series or world, but cheers for not just making white be the default.</li>
<li><b>Ender Series by Orson Scott Card</b>: In this sci-fi series, two of the books (Xenocide and Children of the Mind) have POVs from people whose culture is evolved from Chinese culture.</li>
<li>
<b>Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey:</b> I never read it, but I believe the main character in this gas lamp fantasy is from India.
</li>
</ul>
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</noscript>Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-1522632115237236672012-01-25T19:46:00.000-08:002012-04-16T21:47:30.408-07:00SF/F Stories with Native American LeadsIn an attempt to celebrate great examples of sci-fi and fantasy books with Native American protagonists, I'm writing down a list of my favorites. It's part of a series of posts covering SFF stories with non-white protagonists. See also <a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/01/sff-stories-with-asian-leads.html">SFF stories with Asian Leads</a>, <a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/02/sff-stories-with-black-leads.html">SFF Stories with Black Leads</a>, and <a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/04/ssf-stories-with-middle-eastern-leads.html">SFF Stories with Middle Eastern Leads</a>.<br />
<br />
First...<br />
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
The Aggregate Stats</h3>
<ul>
<li><b>Total number of works/series/authors on the list:</b> 17/5/6 </li>
<li><b>Author with most works on the list:</b> Patricia Briggs by a landslide - 8 books and 1 short story.</li>
<li><b>Most common trope:</b> Coyote. A close second is the female half Native American/half white tomboy protagonist with grease under her fingernails from all her work as a mechanic or mechanical tinkerer. She can handle her own in an adventure and is prepared to defend herself if she has to, but would rather be left alone, especially since she has secrets to hide. Unfortunately, her secrets draw her into the preternatural world she's trying to avoid. Seriously, this describes half the protagonists!</li>
<li><b>Biggest overall surprise:</b> There's only one full-blood Native American, and there are no (non-urban) fantasies on the list. There are also no stories set within a Native American culture (or magical version thereof), the stories always have the protagonist living in a white world. </li>
</ul>
and now for... <br />
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
My Favorites</h3>
<h4>
<a name='more'></a>Mercy Thompson (Series)</h4>
This series by Patricia Briggs includes <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OCXHTK/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000OCXHTK">Moon Called</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000OCXHTK" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000O76NHS/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000O76NHS">Blood Bound</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000O76NHS" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010JWVK2/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0010JWVK2">Iron Kissed</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0010JWVK2" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001PU7WKK/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001PU7WKK">Bone Crossed</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001PU7WKK" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0030AOBS4/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0030AOBS4">Silver Borne</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0030AOBS4" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441020003/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0441020003">River Marked</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0441020003" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
. <br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> Urban Fantasy set in small-town in the Southwest. She's a coyote shifter (walker), and the world has all the standard races: werewolves, vampires, fae, with a few random things taken from other traditions showing up in later books. </li>
<li><b>Why I love it</b>: It's not so much that Briggs does anything breathtakingly new here, as it is that she just does it so <i>well</i>. The world is believable, the secondary characters are well-developed, the plotting is good, the dialog makes me snicker, and the characters and relationships continue to deepen over time.</li>
<li><b>Native American-ness:</b> She's half-Blackfeet, and the only walker she knows about. In this universe, the European supernatural creatures (the vampires, werewolves, and fae) overran the indigenous ones in a parallel way to how the humans did. Mercy starts pretty ignorant about her heritage, but as the series progresses, she (and you) learn more about what happened.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Alpha and Omega (Series)</h4>
This spinoff series by Patricia Briggs includes <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596062878/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1596062878">Alpha and Omega</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1596062878" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> (a short story), <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441016154/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0441016154">Cry Wolf</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0441016154" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DW92Y8/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B002DW92Y8">Hunting Ground</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002DW92Y8" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre: </b>Urban Fantasy set mostly in the Pacific Northwest. Same world as Mercy Thompson, but it focuses much more narrowly on werewolf life. The romantic story line is strong enough that I'd almost call it paranormal romance, except it's about the relationship that happens after they get together, not how they get together in the first place.</li>
<li><b>Why I love it:</b> They two lead characters get together in the introductory short story, but rather than jerking us around with artificial relationship woes, Briggs tells the story of their relationship growing while they have these adventures. She makes it work for me that this very wise 200 year old creature could have an even partnership with this very young woman recovering from abuse. It's surprisingly romantic, and I think I actually like it better than the Mercy Thompson series, although it's a hard call. Delicious.</li>
<li><b>Native American-ness: </b>Charles is a 200 year old half-Flathead Indian/half-Welsh werewolf whose grandfather was a shaman. He has native magic as well as the memories of growing up as part of a 19th century Native American tribe. </li>
</ul>
<h4>
The Flash Gold Chronicles (series)</h4>
This series of novellas by Lindsay Buroker includes <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004UGMVP2/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004UGMVP2">Flash Gold</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004UGMVP2" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005H5T84M/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B005H5T84M">Hunted</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B005H5T84M" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> 19th-century western-style steam punk adventure set in the Yukon. With home-made animatronics, airship pirates, and sword-wielding, bounty hunting love interest. Yee haw.</li>
<li> <b>Why I love it:</b> It's sort of a pulpy action adventure story in a really fun world with this quirky mechanical-genius tinkerer protagonist, but she acts like a real engineers do act. She does smart things and depends on her knowledge of science and engineering to solve problems for her.</li>
<li><b>Native American-ness:</b> Kali is a half-Hän/half-white. The first book really only dealt with her ethnic heritage as a source of prejudice against her, but she could have just as easily been any brown. In the second we get a couple tidbits of her Hän mother and her early life with the tribe, and the hint that it may be tied into Flash Gold, which is the alchemical substance whose existence is fueling much of the main plot line. I'm hoping it that since we've seen a bit of town and life in the mining camp, we'll get to see learn about the Hän magic in future books.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Svaha (Novel)</h4>
I've only read a few Charles de Lint books besides <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312876505/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0312876505">Svaha</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0312876505" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, but from what I understand, de Lint has written lots that incorporate Native American mythology. He may have also written others with a Native American protagonist, but I'm not aware of them. This one is a stand-alone novel. <br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> Cyberpunk with a solid infusion of dream-like urban fantasy. Much of the earth has been destroyed, so you have basically three types of areas. Road warrior-type areas, clustered corporation-cities with a strong divide between the haves (mostly Chinese and Japanese corporations) and the have-nots (everyone else), and the cloistered edens for the technologically superior indigenous peoples.</li>
<li><b>Why I love it:</b> I really liked the protagonist, Gahzee, and the story has interesting and engaging bits, but mostly I like that it let's me indulge my fondness for post-apocalyptic and cyberpunk milieux while still getting a happy, feel good ending.</li>
<li><b>Native American-ness</b>: I haven't read it in a while, so I can't remember which tribe Gahzee is from, but the premise is that indigenous people throughout the globe banded together and have formed a sort of melded cultural, political, and technological base with regional variants in each enclave. Gahzee is from this future indigenous world, but as he leaves it, he brings his knowledge, values, and his ability to enter the dreamtime with him.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Walker Papers (Series)</h4>
This urban fantasy series by C.E. Murphy includes <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0373802986/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0373802986">Urban Shaman</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0373802986" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0373803036/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0373803036">Thunderbird Falls</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0373803036" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0373803052/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0373803052">Coyote Dreams</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0373803052" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
. The series itself continues with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/037380301X/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=037380301X">Walking Dead</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=037380301X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0373803141/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0373803141">Demon Hunts</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0373803141" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0373803257/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0373803257">Spirit Dances</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0373803257" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, but I haven't read them yet.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> Urban Fantasy, but with a focus on shamanistic (and druidic) magic.</li>
<li><b>Why I love it: </b>It's urban fantasy, but Murphy takes a more methodical approach to building a magic system, closer to what you usually see in more traditional fantasies, rather than being a book with vampire and werewolves and fae. Plus, there's a slow-burn approach to her romance that feels deliciously torturous, with realistic problems.</li>
<li><b>Native American-ness:</b> Joanne is Cherokee/Irish and her magic is strongly based on Cherokee culture. </li>
</ul>
<h4>
Inhuman (short story)</h4>
This short story by Eileen Wilks was published in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0425216594/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0425216594">On the Prowl</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0425216594" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> (anthology), and is part of her World of the Lupi series.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Sub-genre:</b> Urban Fantasy, with psychic gifts and inter-planar travel by god-like beings.</li>
<li><b>Why I love it:</b> The relationship between Kali, the main character, and Nathan, the love interest, is really sweet and engaging. Although it's a short story built off of a well-established series, it works as a stand alone story since it's off the main plot line and introduces new characters. This was actually the first book I read in Wilks' World of the Lupi, and got me started on the rest of them.</li>
<li><b>Native American-ness:</b> If I remember right, she's hald-Dine/half Polish. Her ethnicity is just general character flavor except at the end.<br />
</li>
</ul>
<h3>
Honorable Mention</h3>
Here are some stories that I've never read (but lots of other people have), but who appear to have Native American leads:<br />
<ul>
<li>The Wizard of Earthsea (At the very least, I understand the main character has red-brown skin, which I'm considering to be Native American as a guess.)</li>
<li>The Jane Yellowrock Series by Faith Hunter</li>
<li>The Stormwalker Series by Allyson James</li>
</ul>
<div>
Okay, if anyone can recommend stuff that's not on this list, let me know, and I'll update it, as well as probably read and review it.</div>
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</noscript>Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-65857410409583941452012-01-21T21:19:00.000-08:002012-04-16T21:48:47.985-07:00Non-white Protagonists in Sci-Fi/FantasyI was thinking recently about non-white protagonists in genre books I'd enjoyed. One of the first things that struck me is that I'd probably seen an order of magnitude more books with non-white main characters in romance novels than in sci-fi and fantasy.<br />
<br />
Which struck me as a bit odd.<br />
<br />
Note, I was trying to recall stories with either a non-white protagonist and or non-white main love interest or both. I didn't count stories with paranormal or alien races which have, say, yellow skin but which have cultures based on a European culture.<br />
<br />
Anyway, I came up with a bunch of possible reasons for the romance vs sci-fi/fantasy discrepancy. Many have to do with my less-than-awesome powers of observation and with basing conclusions on half-remembered anecdotal evidence. Here are some others:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>There are just more romance books written total, so even if percentages are comparable, absolute numbers won't be.</li>
<li>Romance series where each book centers on a different couple are really popular. Readers tend to become fans of the series as a whole, not of a particular book. So with this sort of format, you have a wider total main cast for the series and can make some of them non-white without making the whole series look too scarily "Ethnic" for those who might be put off by that sort of thing. Of course, I don't see a lot of non-white main POVs in fantasy epics, which you'd think would be the same sort of situation.</li>
<li>Having a protagonist or love interest who looks like you is more important to romance readers, so publishing houses take the time to solicit/encourage books that specifically appeal to various ethnicities in the same way that they solicit particular story tropes. Sci-fi and fantasy are supposed to be less formulaic so publishers don't even try to do it there.</li>
</ol>
<div>
Regardless of the reasons, I don't entirely like the result. OTOH, I really enjoy the books I already read, so it's not like I have anything to complain about other than a vague, existential dissatisfaction with the situation. I guess, rather than complain about the ones that I haven't read (all those sci-fi fantasy books with non-white protagonists that could have been there but which weren't), I've decided to celebrate the ones that I have enjoyed. And maybe go out of my way to read some more over the next year or so.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In any case, over the next week or two, I'll be posting a series of lists about<i> </i>sci-fi and fantasy books that I've really enjoyed and that have non-white protagonists. </div>
<div>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/01/sff-stories-with-native-american-leads.html">SFF stories with Native American protagonists</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/01/sff-stories-with-asian-leads.html">SFF stories with Asian protagonists</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/02/sff-stories-with-black-leads.html">SFF stories with black protagonists</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/04/ssf-stories-with-middle-eastern-leads.html">SFF stories with Middle Eastern protagonists</a></li>
</ol>
<div>
I sadly haven't read enough books to create sci-fi/fantasy lists for Native Australians and Pacific Islanders or Latinos. It's doubly frustrating because I'm Latina, so I would have thought that I would have kept an eye out more for that. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Anyway, if anyone wants to recommend books for me to read to add to the lists, just let me know. </div>
</div>Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-38021944366257584292012-01-20T08:19:00.000-08:002012-01-20T08:19:15.010-08:00Review: Coexist by Julia Crane<b>I really wanted to like this YA paranormal romance. The heroine is an elf that blends into human society, and the story looks like it has yummy romantic tension with less emo angst than the typical vampire YA PR. But in the end, I couldn't suspend enough disbelief to enjoy it. It may work better for younger teens.</b><br />
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<b>Coexist</b>, by Julia Crane, is the first book in a YA contemporary paranormal trilogy. It's a story told mainly through the POV of sixteen-year-old Keegan, the light elf heroine, although the story does show scenes from her brother Thaddeus, friends, and her Chosen (soul mate) Rourke. <br />
<br />
The way Chosens work is that each elf has someone that's chosen for them when they're born (in a mysterious way that isn't explained), but they are not allowed to meet until they turn eighteen (it's also not explained who makes that rule). Once they're both eighteen, the Chosen bond flares to life, and they instantly fall in love and can sense each other from far away et cetera. At the beginning of the book, Keegan's learned Rourke's name, so every time she thinks about him, he feels it and can see of what she's doing. Of course, being a teenage girl that knows she has a perfect soul mate out there somewhere, she thinks about him<i> a lot</i>, so he's constantly being distracted by her and desperately wants to meet her, but knows he should wait until she turns eighteen.<br />
<a name='more'></a><div>
<br />
Rourke is mature and a bit of an unwilling stalker, and Keegan is somewhat spoiled and shallow, but also fundamentally good and lively and sweet. I liked the way the author described the relationships between Keegan and her family and friends (OMG, a happy home life in a YA paranormal book!), as well as some of the opening scenes that established her character and environment. And the book has the ingredients for some really delicious romantic tension and character growth.<br />
<br />
<b>** Warning - I'm going to do big spoiler through all the rest of this review, so read at your own risk**</b><br />
<br />
But pretty soon, Crane introduces an epic prophecy of a giant battle that will determine the which of the elves (light or dark) survives and which is exterminated. Now I like world-building and epic-ness and battle as much as the next person, but the way it played out in this book just didn't work for me. <br />
<br />
For example, throughout the story, Keegan is told about all kinds of very important things, most of which are known to everyone but her (e.g. Dark elves can look in your eyes and read your mind! There's an epic prophecy! Your brother is the chosen one of the prophecy! Your father leads the army! The big battle is coming in a couple months! etc.) I had some trouble believing that she's so oblivious that she never catches on to anything until someone thinks its time to reveal the next tidbit. I rationalized it by thinking that she was self-centered in the unconscious way many teenagers are and so didn't notice things around her that she wasn't interested in. I didn't like her as much in this light, but I could talk myself into believing that this was part of her personality/intelligence/maturity level.<br />
<br />
But I had more trouble believing that everyone thought it was a really good idea to keep her ignorant about so much. Crane has various reasons for hiding information. For example, she wasn't told about the prophecy because her family was being protective and wanted to give her more time to be a kid without worrying. But not all the reasons made sense to me, and since it happened so often, I had to either re-envision her character as progressively more and more clueless or stretch my suspension of disbelief.<br />
<br />
Plus, Keegan continues to have revelation after revelation through the book, and she just accepts it with, at most, some momentary dismay. No lasting effect or maturation of her character. Which was disappointing. I felt it was a lost opportunity.<br />
<br />
And there were aspects of the background that didn't make sense to me. For example, it seemed like most of her friends and a lot of her classmates are various types of supernatural creatures pretending to be human, and they all knew she was an elf, but she was clueless that they were anything but straight human. That's just a random mystery that's introduced but never explained. Are "humans" really rare in their world, but nobody realizes it because there are so many pretending to be human? Or is this a really special school that the supernaturals know to send their kids to? If so, then you'd think that her parents would have known it was teeming with supernaturals and just decided to keep Keegan in the dark about it for...I don't know. Kicks and grins, I guess. <br />
<br />
And why is it a Catholic school? You'd think that wouldn't be the most obvious choice for magical pagans, you know? BTW, I came up with the assumption they're pagans because they mention honoring "gods" so, I'm assuming some sort of paganism, although that's not really elaborated upon either.<br />
<br />
And how do all her friends know she's not human when she can't tell they aren't? <br />
<br />
These questions aren't fundamental issues to the story, but it seemed like there were mysteries in the world-building like this everywhere in the book. If I have these sorts of questions in a story with an author I trust, I usually assume that the author has an overall plan, and I enjoy theorizing what the meaning of it is and how it's going to play out in some later part of the story. But since there were so <i>many</i> places where I couldn't make the pieces fit, I had big suspension of disbelief issues. It made the world feel very shallow.<br />
<br />
A more fundamental issue for me deals with the magical bond between Rourke and Keegan. Late in the book, she briefly dies, and the bond goes away so that she can't feel Rourke anymore. She also forgets all the interaction she had with him in the last couple months (apparently her parents have the authority to change the Chosen bond rules and they allow them to meet up early after all). She was brought back to life by black magic, and there's supposed to be a downside to using it, so I inferred that the downside here was the losing of the bond and memories plus some ill-defined changes to her. (For example, she becomes a vegetarian now that her soul is darker, although the rest of her family eats meat just fine even with Chosens and no black magic, so I'm fuzzy on how that's related.)<br />
<br />
She remembers wanting her Chosen and thinking about him, but not meeting him, and she isn't feeling the instant chemistry that she expected when they're supposed to meet (although she's still a year early for that). So the book ends with her obsessing a bit over another boy from her school. The sneak peek of the next book has her acting like she's getting a crush on a new boy at school and grudgingly trying to give Rourke a chance even though she's not terribly interested in him. It's not part of this book, but it really bothered me. It made me feel like the only thing she and Rourke had before was a magically-induced bond. And if that's the only thing that kept them together, then that means they weren't really such a great match after all. It invalidated the authenticity of their connection to me. Since the relationship between them was the strongest part of the book for me, I felt like it ruined the story even though I imagine he'll probably put enough effort into it to woo her back sometime in the next book or two.<br />
<br />
But the biggest thing that bugged me was how Crane handled the big battle. <br />
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Apparently the elves used to get along once upon a time, but (as her parents explain to Keegan) at some point, for reasons no one can remember, they started fighting. By now the fighting has been going on so long that they can't stop. And so there's a prophecy that says they're going to meet in a big battle and the survival of the light elves will hinge on the outcome of the battle. Thaddeus gets a vision showing him exactly when and where the battle is going to happen, and it's a few months in advance. So Keegan's father, the leader of the armies, goes into prep mode and trains his troops hard and then, with the stellar advance warning, has them show up ONE DAY in advance to scout things out and get the camp set up. The dark elves apparently have seers, too, although not so powerful, because they also show up to fight, although their seers aren't as good so they show up to late to get the really good camping spot.<br />
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So I'm thinking, "Really? You arrive one day early?" I mean...I'm no military expert, but even <i>I</i> can think of some useful things to do with the time if I had perfect knowledge of exactly when and where everything would happen. They agreed a couple hundred years ago not to use guns or anything but they can still lay traps, set up earthworks, run through scenarios on the ground, etc. Or, you know, maybe call in some allies? It's implied that a the other creatures of light that show up are all friends of Keegan who overheard her thinking about the battle mentally and decided to help out. Maybe keeping to themselves is just a part of elven character? I'll just ignore the fact that if the fate of my race and family were on the line, and I had centuries of general warning and months of detailed warning, I'd totally cheat and use guns and try to make as many allies as possible. Maybe they're just more noble than me. Even the "dark" elves.<br />
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And even worse, they fight for days, with lots of warriors dying on both sides (and you have to imagine that's especially devastating since that leaves the warriors' Chosens insane with grief, right?), and it's resolved when the twelve-year-old seer basically walks into the tent of the dark elves and basically says "I'm a seer, and I can see that if we keep this up, both sides are going to die. Let's just call a truce." And the dark elf commander essentially says, "My son didn't want to fight either, but now he's dead, and I'm sad. I hate light elves, but I see your point. I'll trust your vision. Truce." Aaaand that's it. BTW, there was no vision, just the kids implying one. What a let down. And what implied idiocy on the parts of the entirety of both the races that they killed so many for so little and then ended it so simplistically. It made me feel like she wanted to make Keegan and Thaddeus act like believable 16 and 12 year olds, but she also wanted to make them seem smart and special, so she dumbed down the entire rest of the world to make it work. Gah.<br />
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This is a trilogy, so I looked at the ratings and reviews to see if maybe the things that bugged me about this book would be resolved in future ones, but it looks like the people who rated the next books liked them more than this one, but Keegan herself gets more spoiled and they spend a lot of time hanging out and shopping and doing teen-angsty stuff. So, I don't think I'll continue. I have much surpassed my shallow-immature threshold.<br />
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I get the impression that if you liked the first one, you'll really like the rest of the series. It's like this, but more so.</div>Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-36240183374971519472012-01-18T06:33:00.000-08:002012-01-20T08:20:53.611-08:00Review: The Assassin's Curse by Lindsay Buroker<b>This is sort of like a yummy little snack to tide over fans of the "Emperor's Edge" series until she publishes the next hearty helping of bookiliciousness. Recommended. </b><br />
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<b>The Assassin's Curse</b>, by Lindsay Buroker, is a short story set in Buroker's steam-punk fantasy series, Emperor's Edge. If you're not familiar with the series, start with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004H1TDB0/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk">The Emperor's Edge</a> before you read this one. Right now, at least, the first book is free, which is crazy, because it's a great book and a great series.<br />
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In any case, The Assassin's Curse starts off with Amaranthe and Sicarius training hard, but pretty soon Amaranthe finds a reason to investigate some suspicious smoke in the distance rather than finishing training. Of course, this soon snowballs into an mini-adventure which takes place over the course of a couple of hours.<br />
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The story doesn't move any of the main plot or character development arcs forward, and it doesn't show us any new facets of their personalities, so you can skip it without worrying about whether you're going to miss out on part of the series. OTOH, if you like seeing the Amaranthe interacting with Sicarius and getting herself in and out of scrapes (and who doesn't, really?), then you're guaranteed to like this, too.Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-7710925448924091542012-01-16T11:20:00.000-08:002012-01-20T08:21:52.998-08:00Review: Telesa - The Covenant Keeper by Lani Wendt Young<b>Great world-building and three-dimensional characters help this YA paranormal romance stand out in this crowded sub-genre. And I have to give the author extra kudos for basing the paranormal part of her story on Samoan mythology instead of just having the typical vampires and werewolves (not to say I don't love werewolves...). Recommended, and I'm looking forward to the sequel.</b><br />
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<b>Telesa</b>, by Lani Wendt Young, is the story of Leila, teenager who travels to Samoa to get to know her long-deceased mother's family and heritage. She also is trying to escape her very rich, very white grandmother, who is her guardian now that her beloved father passed away. She starts to get settled into her new environment, but strange things start happening to her and pretty soon she falls down the rabbit hole of the exotic paranormal.<br />
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It's a good set up. By having the main character come recently from the States, Young introduces us to Samoa very smoothly. And she does a great job of immersing the reader in the locale - sounds, smells, speech patterns, attitudes, etc. - without it feeling like a flowery travelogue. The book is rooted in a sense of place that I found almost as appealing as the characters and plot. And I found the characters and plot pretty darn appealing.<span style="background-color: white; color: white;">
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The heroine was strong, physically, emotionally, and morally, but not a Mary Sue. The love interest was absolutely delicious. I also liked what she did with the secondary characters. Even though they were generally static, they were all distinctive and had their own understandable motivations and information. In fact, there was only one really heinous person. Most were just people, variously flawed and well-intentioned, and sometimes working at cross-purposes. I think I went "Aha, that's the villain!" and then "No, that's not really a villain, I just didn't understand her until now." and then "Okay, THAT's the villain!" etc. at least three or four times. <br />
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One word of warning: the book ends with a mighty climax, but with very loose ends. I imagine it's to lead us up to the sequel, <b>When Water Burns, </b>due out March 2012. I looked up her blog and saw that this is billed as a trilogy (no date or name for the third book) and that there may be some books after that with other Telesa as the main characters. So, if you are all about the immediate gratification, take heed! Otherwise, purchase and proceed!<br />
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<b>Update:</b> Okay, I stepped away from my computer and then realized something else that Young does really well. You see, there are four important and powerful female authority figures in this book, and they're all very different. Plus, the main character is female, other secondary characters are female, and it deals with issues of sisterhood and the mother-child relationship and femininity. So, it deals with a lot of female issues, but in so natural a way that I forgot that when I recalled the book, it was the main plot and setting and relationships that came to mind, not feminism. <br />
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It also at least touches on racism, colonialism, organic and local food, natural medicines, environmentalism, science, vigilantism, and chastity. And that's just what I can recall off the top of my head. You'd think it would read like an "issues" book, but it really doesn't. I didn't feel lectured to, and she injects some nuance and complexity into the subjects. That's got to be a hard balancing act to accomplish. Brava.Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-27332613827212133722012-01-15T16:53:00.000-08:002012-01-20T08:22:18.371-08:00Review: Dragonswarm by Aaron Pogue<b>This engaging sequel to <i>Taming Fire</i> mostly lives up to the promise of its predecessor. I recommend it for anyone who read the first book, and recommend the series in general for anyone who's looking for a good heroic high fantasy.</b><br />
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<b>The Dragonswarm</b>, by Aaron Pogue, is a straight-forward high fantasy adventure that's tightly focused on the protagonist. The first book was a really good coming-of-age of a hero sort of book, and this one continued by not only upping the ante in terms of magic and impact on the world, but also having him continue to grow emotionally.<br />
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The premise is that Daven, the main character, gets some dragon blood in him through an accident that happens in the first book. This gives him crazy powers that other humans don't have. He's also street-wise and an accomplished swordfighter with an intellectual bent. No small-minded anti-heroes here! Unfortunately, he's wanted by a tyrannical king (where wanted = wants to kill him), hated by powerful wizards, in love with a beautiful girl, but is mostly concentrating on the imminent dragonswarm apocalypse. A guy has to have his priorities, after all.<br />
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This is not one of those gritty fantasies that have gotten so popular. It reminds me more of some of the classics I read in the eighties, like Pug's part of the Riftwar Saga or, to a lesser extent, the Belgariad. It feels mythic, with the protagonist being larger than life and so full of determination that he makes John Mcclane look like a quitter. Plus, you have death by dragons!<br />
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It's really focused on the hero though. There's really only one plot arc, it's single POV, and all important events in the world revolve around the main character. The action is fun, I think he did a great job developing the protagonist, and I really loved the secondary characters in this. He ends up with some surprising second-in-commands, and the relationships between them were fascinating. The scale of the magic and impact on the world is fairly epic, but style-wise it's more the labors of Hercules rather than the Illiad. For the most, part I didn't mind this. Having him be the focus of everything didn't break suspension of disbelief, and I don't require all books to be copies of Sanderson, Martin, and Jordan, et al. <br />
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I have only one nit, and that's that, after the first book, I expected there to be more of a romantic arc. I really liked Isabelle, and I like what he did with the relationship between them in general, but it felt more implied than explicit to me, and I missed the opportunity to see them interact more. She's omniresent as a motivation, and I can infer how the relationship between them develops from through the two books, but that development is mostly off-screen. I think there was an opportunity to wrench up the emotional investment for me if that arc was more on-screen. But, maybe it would have slowed down the pace of the book if he added it in though, I don't know. <br />
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To Aaron Pogue, should you ever read this: I'd pay money and/or chocolate for scenes between Daven and Isabelle. Maybe a novella set in the six weeks between the books where they really get to know each other and fall in love? I mean, it would essentially be a romance in a fantasy setting rather a true fantasy than the rest of the series is in, so you'd be really limiting your audience to fans of your series who are also romance nuts, but we'd be such happy nuts if you'd only consider it. Anyway, just saying.<br />
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<b>The Dragonprince Trilogy:</b><br />
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0056IVLRM/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0056IVLRM">Taming Fire</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bookeracy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0056IVLRM" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> - really great.</li>
<li>Dragonswarm</li>
<li>Dragon Prince - coming sometime in 2012</li>
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background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;goog&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;bookeracy&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;-20" alt="" /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;
</noscript>Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-28942611365805410662012-01-14T19:25:00.000-08:002012-01-20T08:22:39.278-08:00Review: Time Mends by Tammy Blackwell<br />
<b>Time Mends takes up where Destiny Binds left off, both chronologically and emotionally, so read that first, then come back for this riveting and rewarding read. </b><br />
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<b>Time Mends</b>, by Tammy Blackwell, is the second book in the The Timber Wolves series, it reminds me a little bit of the Empire Strikes Back in that it's an emotionally darker story that is clearly serving a different purpose than the first one. This is Act II, not more of the same as we saw in the first book.<br />
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At first blush, the Timer Wolves series looks like it would be just another Twilight-wannabe, with its beautiful-yet-unpopular girl, slow introduction into a paranormal world, and a love triangle between the the girl, a longtime friend, and a mysterious new comer. It gets beyond that quickly though, by having a strong heroine with both agency and integrity and a plot that gets away from the manipulative "team this" vs "team that" and into a riveting star-crossed lovers story.<br />
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Time Mends starts with Scout slowly healing physically, and still depressed and grief-stricken from Alex's death. She keeps dreaming of him and doesn't really believe he's dead, and I was right there with her. I also had hoped that somehow it was all a big mistake or plot twist and that he'd be alive. How the author handles that - the anguish and healing and love and transformation - was emotionally layered but (surprisingly) not depressing.<br />
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In the meantime, Scout is also dealing with all sorts of other developments. Warning - spoiler! She somehow turns into a shifter. Since in this world, that shouldn't be possible, her mysterious transformation draws problems from the other shifters with serious consequences. The core group of Scout, Tammy, Jase, and Charlie stick together to protect each other, and the author takes the time heal and evolve Scout's relationships with all the secondary characters.<br />
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The end of the book is a major cliffhanger. We have more mysteries than we started with and now she's in danger, on the run, and separated from her pack. I have only vague guesses about how the author plans on resolving it all. This is not turning out to be the pat YA paranormal romance I thought I was reading when I started. BUT, the journey so far has been so involving and rewarding that I'm willing to put myself in her hands for the next book and see how it all shakes out.<br />
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Recommended.Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-2157490742075085342012-01-13T11:17:00.000-08:002012-02-29T19:25:19.058-08:002012 Self-Published Reading Challenge!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've decide to participate in the <a href="http://www.workadayreads.com/2011/11/2012-self-published-reading-challenge.html">2012 Self-Published Reading Challenge </a></div>
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*blare of trumpets*</div>
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At this point I'm going for <i>Short Story Level - 75 Books</i>, which means I'm going to read and review about 75 self-published books over the course of this year. I'm behind in writing up reviews though, so we'll see how the year goes. I'll fill in the list as I read the books.</div>
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<li><a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/01/soul-linked-saga.html">Katre's Summer</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/01/time-mends.html">Time Mends</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/01/dragonswarm.html">The Dragonswarm</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/">Telesa: The Covenant Keeper</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bookeracy.blogspot.com/2012/02/review-twist-by-dannika-dark.html">Twist</a></li>
<li>Priscilla the Great: Too Little Too Later</li>
<li>The Spinster & The Beast</li>
<li>Suspicious Hearts</li>
<li>A Lady's Point of View</li>
<li>The Assassin's Curse</li>
<li>Coexist (? Maybe self-published?)</li>
<li>Blood Will Tell</li>
<li>Blood Past<br /><a name='more'></a></li>
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</div>Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-48405686713028293272012-01-06T14:29:00.000-08:002012-01-20T08:23:36.528-08:00The Soul Linked Saga<b>If there were a literary equivalent of the walk of shame for book reading, then this review would be me doing it. These books are the craziest wish-fulfillment excuse for a series I have ever read. The premise for this science fiction romance series is farcical. The writing is mediocre. But somehow I couldn't keep myself from reading all three. It's my crack! Be warned.</b><br />
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OK, so, here goes. <br />
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The premise is that among the thousand worlds there is a mysterious race, called the Jasani, who are born as triplets (called male-sets) and that each male-set does everything together, including sex, because they share a soul. The Jasani are also magic-wielding shape-shifters (the first book is about the dragon-ish triplets, the second is the wolf-ish, and the third is great cat-ish).<br />
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The Jasani home world is modeled after an old west theme except on a world of lavendar skies and blue grass. It comes complete with a horse and cattle ranch owned by the first set of triplets, and a small local town for shopping when they need the change of scenery. Oh, and the first heroes are also the ruling royalty of the Jasani.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The women in their race died out long ago, so they have to send away for their human brides and make due with less-than-ideal matings, since only mates of their own species can perform the soul link ritual which will bind their souls together and be their perfect match. Each males set spend his lifetime (thousands of years) celibate until they marry or find their soul mate, whom they recognize because then they scent her, their mating fangs descend. The mating ritual involves all three biting her with their fangs while having a four-way.<br />
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You'd think it would be kinky erotica, right? But somehow it didn't end up feeling that way. Despite the explicit group sex scenes, it's a strangely idealistic series of books. And actually, it's not nearly as explicit as I expected it to be. There were several times where the author would have everyone get into position, then the sex itself would be about a sentence or two, and then we'd be onto to the happy aftermath. And in the third book, they didn't even get to the first kiss until close to 2/3 of the way through the book.<br />
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So, OK. So far in the first book we know the heroes are rich, chaste, honorable, slavishly-devoted, muscle-bound, near-immortal, magic-wielding, psychic high-tech, dragon-shifter, cowboy, soul mate, prince triplets. And when they get soul linked, the women turn into Jasani, too, so they also can be near-immortal shapeshifters. She even manages to sort-of satisfy the vampire and BDSM fetishes the with mating fangs and a little bit of light bondage/submission going on here and there. The later books feature the head of security male set and the leaders of the military too. No pirates, vikings, angels, demons, or kilts though. I imagine they'll be worked in in later books somehow, since I can't imagine her missing a hero archtype altogether with the streak she has going.<br />
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The heroines are just your every day garden-variety humans (of the slightly-unpopular subtype). Who turn out to have psychic abilities and be the culmination of a many-thousand-year prophecy. AND the plot includes ancient racial enemies, kidnapping slavers, nanobots, espionage, a sweet country doctor, a dog-beating meanie, and shopping porn.<br />
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Shopping porn! I didn't even knowthat there was such a thing until I was talking about the book to a friend. You see, apparently on future-Earth, all the stores have ugly, slutty, garish clothes. So when the heroes take the heroines shopping (to replace the clothes that were taken by the evil slaver aliens, of course), the heroines aren't expecting much. Especially since there's only one clothing store for women in a small town. BUT everything in that store is flattering and comfortable and sexy-but-not-slutty, and when the women try to be conservative in their spending, the men (who, of course, went along for the shopping) sneak extra things to the store owner so she can ring up a huge pile of clothes for the heroines. And then the heroines notice, through their psychic powers, that someone/thing is being hurt, so they rush off to save them right as they're wrapping up. Yes, this happened in each of the first two books. The third had a slightly different scenes, however. I think the author is growing and trying out new things.<br />
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Of course, at the then of the first two books, the women get pregnant with triplet girls who are the focus of adoration for the entire race. The third book didn't have a pregnancy, but I figure we'll find out about it in the beginning of the fourth. Which means, oh god, and there's another book in the series coming out soon, this time focusing on the bear-ish shifter male set (security force leaders).<br />
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I thought I'd be done after the the third book, but there's a new prophecy now saying that there are nine clans that all must be restored, so I'm thinking six more books. Gah. I know I'll get them all as soon as they comes out. Gah again!<br />
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OK, read at your own risk. The male-sets are pretty much set paper-thin set pieces, the plot has an awful lot of happy coincidences/deus ex machina, the science fiction is pretty much just futuristic fantasy, and there are cliches everywhere you look. It's pure wish-fulfillment. You just have to sort of roll with it.Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-39240353223352881082012-01-04T22:17:00.001-08:002012-01-20T08:23:36.523-08:00Graceling<b>Fabulous. This inventive, romantic fantasy has taken an interesting conceit and turned it into a deeply touching, character-driven adventure. Part-way through writing this review, I had to stop writing to read the book again just because I remembered how much I enjoyed it.</b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Graceling</b>, by Kristin Cashore, is set in a fairly standard, low-magic fantasy world, except instead of traditional magic, the world contains people who are very occasionally born with a grace. A grace is a preternatural ability for anything from baking bread or whistling to fighting or mind reading. Gracelings are recognized because at some point in childhood, their eyes change so that each eye is a different color. Once that happens, in the country</span><span class="Apple-style-span"> of Middluns, they become the property of the King. </span><br />
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This story is told from the point of view of the King's niece, Katsa, who has a grace for killing and has been used as the King's enforcer. It's definitely a twist. She's both the beautiful damsel and the brutal, antisocial thug.<br />
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When the story starts, she is getting tired torturing and killing, but continues to obey the king, even though she knows the things he asks her to do are wrong. She's goes on secret, self-appointed missions to do good in ways that don't conflict with explicit orders. On one of them, she meets another graceling fighter, Po, who is a catalyst for her to wake up, both in terms of gaining agency and also developing her emotions.<br />
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In the beginning I thought the plot would be a revolutionary tale with the evil king as the obvious villain, but Cashore avoids that, and the story unfolds in a different direction. The adventure is great though. I can imagine that decades later, the story of her crossing the mountain will become legend. And the the romance arc is exquisite.<br />
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It's a very atypical coming of age story, especially for a female. She already has all the skills she needs she needs in terms of swordplay or survival. There's no powering up on this adventure. And she doesn't go from naive to experienced. She starts out the story both streetwise and politically savvy.<br />
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But she definitely grows and learns throughout the book, and the growth is really focused on her agency. She starts off passively-aggressively hating the role into which she'd been placed, but unable to really even imagine the possibility of changing it. The first part of the book is her really waking up and understanding that she is able to choose her own path. As she starts to carve out her own path, she also grows emotionally, learning to understand her own emotions and later fall in love. It's not easy for Katsa. She achieves each incremental bit of emotional growth with dogged determination and a fair amount of struggle. She's really a physical, practical character though, so the emotional arc never devolves into an internal emo pity party. Yay.<br />
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And I have to say - I really enjoyed Po. He's charming and wise and patient and humble and cocky all at the same time. He is a perfect match for her and does some growing, too, which saves him from being too perfect.<br />
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<b>More in the Graceling Series</b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014241591X/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=014241591X">Fire</a> - prequel with King Leck as the only shared character</li>
<li>Graceling</li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0803734735/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bookeracy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0803734735">Bitterblue</a> - (May 1, 2012) takes place a decade later with Katsa and Po as secondary characters</li>
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</noscript>Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-14837689741180228932012-01-04T22:17:00.000-08:002012-01-20T08:23:36.495-08:00Satisfaction Guaranteed and Perfectly Satisfied<b>I liked the characters and was in the mood for a friends-to-lovers contemporary romance, but they felt sketched in to me rather than fully fleshed out. Meh.</b><br />
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<b>Satisfaction Guaranteed and Perfectly Satisfied</b>, by Tori Scott, are the first two of a planned trilogy.<br />
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They weren't horribly written, but the first one squicked me out at first when it seemed like the love interest was going to try to force or manipulate the female lead into having sex with him. It got less squicky later, but I felt it still went too fast to be emotionally believable. When they started, they had fallen out of touch and she had never really thought of him as a love interest. A few hours later, they were passionate lovers. A couple more hours and they were engaged and the book was over.<br />
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I liked the secondary characters better and they got together in the second book, which was a still too short for the story, but better than the first.Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-29247121161166339262012-01-04T22:16:00.000-08:002012-01-20T08:23:36.512-08:00The Hedgewitch Queen<b>I really enjoyed this romantic fantasy novel. It's a palace intrigue with some adventuring around the countryside thrown in. Be warned - the main plot arcs aren't resolved by the end of the book.</b><br />
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<b>The Hedgewitch Queen</b>, by Lilith Saintcrow, is set in a world that felt a bit like a magical three musketeers, but told from the point of view of an idealistic young royal who has to flee with her musketeers (or, in this case, the Queen's Guards) after a palace coup. The guards, of course, are led by a loyal, hot, mysterious captain of the guards.<br />
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Towards the beginning of the book, I thought I knew where it was going. Saintcrow uses some pretty familiar cliches, such as a magical jewel that proclaims the rightful ruler, hedgewitchcraft being less prestigious than court sorcery, etc. However, she ended up surprising me a bit towards the end. She manages to put in enough moral complexity that I'm still not sure how certain things will - or should - be resolved in the next book. Kudos if she manages to wrap things up with an HEA without resorting to a deus ex machina.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The heroine, Vianne, is a bit of a martyr, especially at the beginning, but also she's quirky and clever and resourceful and quietly brave. She starts out pretty sheltered, but she has her eyes opened repeatedly through the course of the story. She comes into her own, especially as a leader, which is always refreshing to read with heroines. I like her for the most part.<br />
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I also liked the slow-burn romance that forms a core of the story.<br />
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But there there were a couple points in the story where I feel the author had characters do things out of character for what I can only assume to be convenience-to-the-plot reasons. <br />
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The first was that she was supposed to have grown up in court and have been sufficiently adept at politics that part of her role was to catch potential scandals and take care of them quietly before they became problems. So, presumably she's very good at gossip and understanding people, right? But we're supposed to believe that *Spoiler - highlight to read <span style="background-color: white; color: white;"> the Captain of the Guards has been in love with her for years and everyone else at court knows it, but she never notices?</span> *End of Spoiler* <br />
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Also, by the middle of the book, *Spoiler - highlight to read* <span style="background-color: white; color: white;"> she's already almost died a couple times, her troop of<i> loyal and professional guards </i>know the woods are dangerous, and they know she's their divinely chosen ruler as well as the last legitimate candidate for the crown. And the captain of the guards is supposed to be strategically gifted as well as overprotective of her sine he's in love with her. So then when they find out that one of the evil villains is in the woods with a large contingent of soldiers and that he's looking to abduct her, what do they do? They leave her with only one guard and then go hours or days away so that they can try to track down where the villain may be. AND as soon as the encampment is attacked, her only guard thinks the best thing he can do get her to hide in place and then rush off to look for his fellow guards in hopes of tracking them down?</span> *End of Spoiler* I don't buy it. That's definitely a case of the author wanting the plot to work out a certain way and shoving the characters toward it.<br />
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Gah. These believability issues lessen an otherwise really enjoyable read for me. Anyway, I'm still looking forward to the the followup book "The Bandit King" (due out February 1, 2012).</div>Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-67115772570662918242011-12-30T00:00:00.000-08:002012-01-20T08:28:50.456-08:00Review: Darkness Dawns by Diane Duvall<b>I had some issues with this vampire-type paranormal romance, but I've definitely read worse.</b><br />
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First the good.<br />
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I liked the characters. <br />
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I liked the heroine and how she's introduced. She's strong in a regular human way, not in the sense of having special powers. <br />
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I also liked the hero. He's dark and brooding in a humanizing "don't always know the right thing to say" kind of way rather than in the overly melodramatic kind of way. There are also a bunch of secondary characters and the author seems to be trying to breathe some life into them. <br />
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I also liked the arc with the head good vampire and the mystery woman. It isn't resolved by the end of the book, which bugs me a little, but I think overall the author does a good job of juggling different arcs in the book.<br />
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I'm on the fence about the setting. It's essentially good vampires vs bad vampires, which is never to my taste, but this implementation of it isn't odious.<br />
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Now for the bad. <br />
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The first thing sounds nit picky, but, honest to god, it really bugged me. The heroine and all good vampires are health food nuts (there's an explanation about how it minimizes their need for blood) and the writing sometimes feels like it's trying way too hard to show how everything they have is healthy and organic. E.g.<br />
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"Ignoring the club soda, organic fruit juices, and natural salad dressings, Sarah bent and pulled open what looked like a modified meat compartment drawer." </blockquote>
Bah.<br />
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Also, the ending was a let down. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: white;">*Spoiler - highlight to read * The author builds up a good part of the book saying how most people can't be turned into immortals, and how all the immortals look the same, and how it's going to be this great tragedy for the main couple since they can tell she doesn't look like any of the other immortals. And then at then end, the main guy takes one look at her and essentially goes "no one else knows this, but the look of the immortals has been changing lately, so...good news you're an immortal, too." </span><br />
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I mean, I know that I want an HEA, and the author knows that I want an HEA, but I want it to feel like it's a natural outgrowth of the story, not like she's pandering to me. Which makes me feel like a typical passive-aggressive of girlfriend ("I want you to do it, but I don't want you to do it because I ask you to.")<br />
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Oh, and the other thing that seemed hinky to me was that the hero had lived eight hundred years, but in all that time he had only found one or two women who are willing to be with him, and they all betray him? And all the women get grossed out by the blood except other immortals and the heroine? No friendly barkeep that's kept his secret or soldier girl who was saved by immortals as a child? Nothing? I find that unlikely.<br />
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Anyway, it feels good to get that off my chest, but overall the book has some good things going for it, so I think people who like vampire romances and like idealism will probably enjoy it as long they can deal with the nits.Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-82345079068340262772011-12-28T00:00:00.000-08:002012-01-20T08:23:36.555-08:00Wilder's Mate<b>Smexy, paranormal steam punk romance set in the wild west. The premise is hot, but the execution left me wanting. </b><br />
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<b>Wilder's Mate</b>, but Moira Rogers, is the first in a series. It tells the tale of the inventor Satira, whose mentor has been kidnapped and taken into lawless vampire country. She's aided by Wilder, a werewolf (in this universe called bloodhounds). Bloodhounds are created to combat vampires and are governed by a quasi-governmental guild. They have their furry couple of days in the full moon as expected, but they also have a few days of sexual frenzy during the new moon. <br />
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I liked the setting and the overall plot. For some reason, though, I just didn't enjoy the relationship. It was one of those stories where they instantly lusted for each other, but it just felt jarring. I liked her and I mostly liked him, but being inside their head when they thought of each other didn't do it for me.<br />
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* Mild spoiler next*<br />
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I also didn't entirely buy that bloodhounds mate for life, but the guild forbids them taking mates. Since they have to have crazy sex every month, it's not like they can keep bloodhounds away from women they might mate with. And since, as Wilder points out in the story, the guild needs the bloodhounds a lot more than the bloodhounds need the guild, it's unclear how they're able to enforce such a rule. I mean, only bloodhounds can bring another bloodhound to justice so you would think they would have a stake in ignoring the rule.<br />
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Anyway, I like the idea of the book and think it has some promise, but I'll probably wait until she's written a couple more books before I check her out again. YMMV.Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6763901908347718526.post-16912857517432354222011-12-22T00:00:00.000-08:002012-01-20T08:23:36.501-08:00The Storm That Is Sterling<b>A decent read. If you liked the first Zodius novel, The Legend of Michael, you'll probably like the second one too. In terms of tropes, you're looking at a special-ops/soul-mate/genetic experimentation romance thriller series.</b><br />
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The premise for the series is that a group of soldiers were inculcated with an alien virus (against their knowledge) that gave them special powers. They're all called GTech. They can all wind-walk and heal extremely fast, and some of them also get additional unique powers. Each book features a new romantic pair as well as movement in the various plot lines.<br />
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In the first book, some of them turned evil and then the evil group split up and the government doesn't trust any of the turned super soldiers, so we're looking at a setting that includes at least four major factions: US government, Zodius (bad supernatural soldiers), Renegades (good supernatural soldiers), and General Powell's camp (he who started the mess in the first place). It has a definite soap opera complexity to the story arcs. <br />
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Sterling, the titular hero, was portrayed in the last book as technically gifted, laid-back, charming, and a trusted lieutenant of the Renegades. As a character, he was a nice foil to the previous hero, who was all dark and brooding. In this one, we find out that behind the charm is a troubled past (broken home life) and current baggage (insecurity because his powers aren't as strong as the other GTechs). I know, you're shocked to discover the angst. The heroine is his high-school crush. She's also a brilliant geneticist wanted by at least two of the sides. And she's dying dying from cancer. Oh, the humanity! Of course, they're soul mates (called life-bonds in this series), and there are hurdles of both the emotional and action type to overcome before HEA and defeating of the bad guys. <br />
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Anyway, I know there are other series out there with the same combination of tropes, but the only one I can recall right now is Lora Leigh's Breeds series. I think the science is pretty comparable in terms of believability. Which is to say, hold your nose and chant "suspension of disbelief" a few times before contemplating any scientific explanations or plot points. So far, at least, Jones writing is more even than Leigh's in terms of quality, and her approach to sex is more mainstream (e.g. less porno-with-a-side-of-plot).<br />
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I don't think I'll be able to remember much about this book a week from now - there's nothing that distinguishes it from similar series. But, if you're addicted to series like this, then this seems like a good one to be your fix.Overprepared GMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469475826510309004noreply@blogger.com0