Zach
If you have read a tie-in novel, you have probably read a book by Keith DeCandido. He is the unmatched master of cheesy professional fanfiction. And that's what it reads like. This is not a complaint, though. The silly, not-entirely-in-character, but entertaining plotlines are things that draw me to both fanfiction and tie-in novels in a way that ‘original fiction' can't. Being a professionally published author, DeCandido reigns in some of the wilder impulses of the genre, while still delivering an entertaining between-episodes story.
2/3/2017: REREAD BECAUSE I NEEDED TO. This book is so charming. And now that I'm a little farther away from Marvel!Loki, Lain is definitely a really fascinating character on his own.
Original review:
I don't know what I was expecting when I requested this book off of NetGalley, but I don't think this was it. I noticed it was listed as an LGBT book on the site and promptly forgot about that listing, so I was somehow startled to realize that, yes, this was, in fact, a book about a young Black (and Jewish!!!) boy being the reincarnation of a goddess and falling in love with Loki. Not that I was particularly bothered– Loki in this book is definitely a woobie-Loki in the vein of some of the more recent Marvel depictions (I'll admit that Loki: Agent of Asgard heavily influenced my mental images of both Loki and Sigmund), but my “that's not historically accurate behavior” was soothed by the fact that the woobiness was actually plot relevant for once. Gosh. If I had a quibble, it's that the pacing was a bit uneven at times– I was glad that Sigmund's friends were brought into the main plot, but their integration was somewhat awkward, and didn't progress their character development as well as I would have liked. That aside, it was an entertaining book, that I have no problems recommending to people who enjoy comic book-y, queer reinterpretations Norse mythology.
This is probably not going to take the world by storm– but there will be mid-grade or preteen readers who read it and connect with it and it will be their quiet favorite even into adulthood.
The blurb compares it to The Hunger Games but this more Lord of the Flies– if Lord of the Flies was about a multicultural, multi gendered group of amnesiac kids. (And I have to note that the Aztec cultural nods gave a note of world building in a book that is mostly bereft of in-universe cultural touchstones).
There was repetition and a few plot holes that caught my attention, but this is a book for someone less than half my age and I can see 12 year old me loving it to pieces.
Man, I honestly really missed reading Cassie Clare's HP fanfiction. I'm glad she's gone back to writing it.
I have two quibbles, neither of which docked the book very much— first, it's a lot more dense than I was expecting (not bad, just more), and second, I really wish there'd been more follow-up with the kids other than Rachel because theory is good, but as a trans adult I want to see how the theoretical impacts the practicality of young trans life.
How I wanted to like this book. The concept is great– historical fiction set in the middle east around the time of the destruction of the temple, and the rise of the Rabbis as a force to be reckoned with in Judaism, focusing specifically on the magic-practicing daughter of one of the great amoraim. And if the focus had stayed on Hisdadukh's learning how to use magic, and dealing with the politics of the era (Roman, Persian, Rabbinical and magical) it would have been great– there are certainly moments of it. But the author focuses so hard on the romance between the protagonist and Rava (another prominent rabbi of the era, who historically married Rav Hisda's daughter) that all the actually interesting plot developments fall by the wayside. Like– the main villain is seen once at the beginning of the novel, or maybe it's not her, but it never really comes up again. Rava slits someone's throat in a drunken fit during Purim, and then resurrects the guy, and it's NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN. The head enchantress turns out to be a lesbian, but it's hinted at once, is revealed and all the protagonist says is “oh, that's why Asmodeus' manly manly bits don't distract you.”
So, basically, it have the potential, and never lives up to it, much to my disappointment. On the up side, i learned that during that era the smaller a guy's dick was, the more ideal it was considered. So there's that.
Oh my sweet everything, this is super cute. Don't expect anything in-depth, but an adorable introduction.
3.5 Stars.
Definitely better than the most recent Dresden books, that's for sure. Starts out as a fairly bog-standard steampunk, with at least one character that made me pause and go “oh, I see you saw someone's Steampunk Lolita outfit”. Still, the characters grow on you, and the plot is strong once you get past the “lol aristocratic assholes in school” bit.
You can definitely see Butcher's character preferences, though– Despite the POV sections for Gwen, Bridget and Folly (and to a lesser extent, Rowl), Captain Grimm is the Main Character in what appears to be a pirate-y war steampunk book, despite all of the above being way more interesting than him and his drama.
It's a Harry Dresden novel. I feel like it was a return to the format I enjoyed in the earlier books– Harry is a detective and vaguely smart but in over his head, and there's a caper. It had the political complexity of the more recent books combined with the detective mystery and sardonic humor of the early books, which combined to make it one of the more enjoyable Dresden books in a while. I fully expect the humor to drop back out of the series again at any moment, but I'll take the reprieve.
I love this book. Well researched, eminently readable, and fun for people with any level of experience with Greek mythology.
The first book in the series to focus on the male love interest, I found Iron Knight to be a fascinating exploration, after getting frustrated at Megan for being a moron so often, I got to get annoyed at Ash for being a moron. I think my main quibble with the book series in general, and this one in particular is that Ash is several centuries old and Puck at least a millennium, but neither of them act more than seventeen. It gets frustrating.
That said, it was fun in a way that I sometimes didn't find the earlier books. Megan was often held back by her insecurity about her abilities, but neither Ash nor Puck are inhibited that way, so there's a certain amount of action hero agency that the male characters were allowed that Megan didn't always get.
All in all an enjoyable end to the series.
It's a Harlequin TEEN novel about a half-human fairy princess, there's not much to say. I like the characters (albeit some more than others). Being a paranormal romance, the plot occasionally drags for long drawn out “woe is me, I want him to love me, and oh by the way, Puck loves me too WOE”. But when Megan does get down to business, it's a pretty great little romp.
The last shaman of the Tlingit village of Yanut is in a retirement home in Seattle. An archaeologist digs up the mask containing the one god who must never be released into the world– and sets off a series of brutal murders as the mask makes its way to its chosen wearer. I don't know the last time a book creeped me out so thoroughly. While I tend to be a little wary of books featuring native mythology, The Faceless One treated the characters and their beliefs with sensitivity, and also used those beliefs to create a really, truly scary story. The characters were well-rounded, the plot and pacing were strong. I was honestly surprised at how much I enjoyed the book.
My god, the prose was dreary dull. A fatal flaw in a gothic horror about immortal lesbian vampire poets. I could not bring myself to care, it felt like B movie dialogue at best.
DNF because I got spoilers that deeply triggered me
The borough who “betrays” them is an abuse victim and I'm really not good with... that
I was so close to dropping this book multiple times. The mystery itself kept me going, which is why it was such a disappointment that the protagonist never actually solves it, spending most of his time hyper fixated on food, wine, and the “heaving breasts” of women in his vicinity. (It's solved by Scotland Yard mostly offscreen, with the police detective composing a final denouement in the vein of Poirot). The constant sexism/sexualization of women, off-handed racist comments about “oriental” music and food, and a solitary vitriolic comment about another character being a “boozy dyke” left me very happy to get the book off my e-reader .
Useful, if dense. It's fairly clear the author's specialty is in diasporas, as the focus on the multitude of hinduisms detracts somewhat from establishing the basics.
Still, if you are curious about the main streams of thought, it's a helpful intro.
I feel like the book was pretty mixed up– there was a romance, and a sci-fi dystopian government plot, slavers, and fairies and a dragon? While it could have worked, I felt like the plot and worldbuilding gave me whiplash at times.
From what I can tell a decent translation. After the first couple of sections I started skipping the commentary at the beginning, though.
Docked a star for the heterosexually every after ending. If you're given me a genderfucked Bluebeard story with essence of Blodeuwedd, this ending didn't do it for me. Not gonna lie, as a story with a Blodeuwedd under current, it felt like the resolution was more like Owl Service than anything with real talons.
Otherwise, a generally entertaining mystical twist on what might have otherwise been an obvious thriller plot.
Minus a star for the weirdly ham-handed misogyny cult (I feel like a cult like that would have rules about daughters. Maybe I'm overthinking things,,,,)
But otherwise a genuinely interesting and creepy story about being a queer teen girl
I know everyone ‘s gushing over it but I. Didn't like it that much. The characters are interesting and the plot was cool, but I can't help but feel that there was plot development that was dropped (the man in the tan jacket running, most of anything with Josh, the flamingos, Old Woman Josie).
And their reliance on the “eggs, milk and squick” trope (normal thing, normal thing, absurd or creepy thing) just got really tiring after a while.
I think this is why half an hour every couple of weeks is all I can handle of night vale. It stops being comically creepy and begins to be boring after a while.
There are a lot of things I liked about this book– queer characters, interesting setting, the fact that the expected romances were circumvented (can we have a whole book about Riley?)
And then there was the “barren” plot line. Because g-d forbid a book handle a young woman dealing with her body's issues without it turning out to be fucking MAGIC. And g-d forbid a book handle a female character's ostensible inability to have kids as anything other than a fucking “deficiency”.