This is the sequel to Blood Oath, which I liked despite it being high suspense, which I usually don't enjoy.
The President's Vampire, on the other hand, did not work for me. Again, it is a work of high suspense--spies and the White House and shadowy CIA conspiracies. I read 3 chapters and then threw it across the room.
Oh, well.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch
Touched by an Alien is sort of like urban fantasy, except it's science fiction, if you see what I mean. It has the typical storyline with the attractive single woman in her 20s who one day gets pulled from normal life and thrust into a secret war she knew nothing about, and meanwhile has a couple of hot superpowered hunks panting for her. You see what I mean about it being like urban fantasy? Except that instead of them being paranormal creatures with magical powers, they're aliens with technology that substitutes fairly well for magic.
Now, I'm not knocking urban fantasy or the fiction that can be lumped together with it, justly or unjustly. I read and enjoy some urban fantasies, and what I really have a soft spot for is a good gay werewolf romance. Though it doesn't even have to be werewolves, really--shapeshifters of other sorts usually work, too. Anyway, the point is that I'm not much of a reading snob and I'm quite capable of enjoying a good example of this variety.
In Touched by an Alien, our heroine, Kitty Katt, sees a man on the street transform into a hideous creature and start killing everyone in sight. She manages to kill the creature by stabbing it in the right spot with a pen. She is then swept away by a carful of extremely handsome men in designer suits who claim to be from a worldwide government agency. They want to recruit her, and thereafter follows about 100 pages of infodump relieved by one action scene in which Kitty stands up unbelievably well against a superpowered rampaging monster. We then discover that, unknown to her, Kitty's parents are both government agents, and her mother is an antiterrorism expert who reports directly to the President.
The tone of Touched by an Alien is deliberately light. It's not supposed to be gritty, believable, or realistic. It's practically a spoof. I am aware of that, and yet still found it too ridiculous and occasionally irritating.
Kitty may be the biggest Mary Sue I have ever encountered. For those who aren't familiar with the term, it comes from Star Trek fan fiction, to mean a self-insertion character who is too exceptional. They're so smart, and capable, and everyone loves them, and they figure out things no one else does, and save the day, and sometimes attract the romantic interest of at least one desirable male character, unless it's slash fiction. The male version of the character is called a Marty Stu.
Kitty is that character. From the moment she is whisked away from the opening scene, two incredibly handsome aliens, who also happen to be the most talented and therefore the leaders of their operations, are instantly attracted to her. They immediately invite her to join their agency, but unlike the other humans she isn't relegated to merely being a driver. She is also the only woman on the fieldwork side of their operation. And she alone seems to be able to face down the big bad guy who is trying to kill them and take over the planet. And she marches into their operations and on her second day tells them they're all wrong and she has the answers, and they let her take over operations. On her second day! Or maybe it was her third. And when faced down with all sorts of ugly dangerous monsters for the first time, only she can figure out how to kill them. And she gives all the orders, and she's the one who figures out who the traitor is, and she leads a crew of Navy pilots in to retake the facility that's been taken over by terrorists. And the two most powerful aliens are trying to kill each other over their jealousy because they both want her.
Give me a fucking break.
Which isn't to say that the book isn't readable--it is. Even as my eyes were glazing over through the hundred page infodump, and rolling as she confidently pulls right answers out of her ass every. single. time., I never had the urge to abandon the book. Even when she spouted bullshit about artists feeling emotion more deeply than normal people. I know a lot of artists. Believe me, most of them aren't any more emotional than the rest of us, and the ones that are are a pain in the ass you don't want to have to deal with. Oh, and even worse -- the highly empathic love interest who nevertheless is under the mistaken impression she's not that into him. Uh, yeah, right. Because romance must have a Big Misunderstanding? Sigh.
So, though Touched by an Alien is, quite deliberately, supposed to be a fun romp that doesn't take itself too seriously, it failed to strike the right tone to work well for me. Writing comedic material is hard, and not all readers will respond to it. Touched by an Alien doesn't misstep horribly, I read the whole thing, but I can't help but feel that lurking under the breezy Mary Sue-ishness is the raw material that could have been a different book I would have liked better.
Now, I'm not knocking urban fantasy or the fiction that can be lumped together with it, justly or unjustly. I read and enjoy some urban fantasies, and what I really have a soft spot for is a good gay werewolf romance. Though it doesn't even have to be werewolves, really--shapeshifters of other sorts usually work, too. Anyway, the point is that I'm not much of a reading snob and I'm quite capable of enjoying a good example of this variety.
In Touched by an Alien, our heroine, Kitty Katt, sees a man on the street transform into a hideous creature and start killing everyone in sight. She manages to kill the creature by stabbing it in the right spot with a pen. She is then swept away by a carful of extremely handsome men in designer suits who claim to be from a worldwide government agency. They want to recruit her, and thereafter follows about 100 pages of infodump relieved by one action scene in which Kitty stands up unbelievably well against a superpowered rampaging monster. We then discover that, unknown to her, Kitty's parents are both government agents, and her mother is an antiterrorism expert who reports directly to the President.
The tone of Touched by an Alien is deliberately light. It's not supposed to be gritty, believable, or realistic. It's practically a spoof. I am aware of that, and yet still found it too ridiculous and occasionally irritating.
Kitty may be the biggest Mary Sue I have ever encountered. For those who aren't familiar with the term, it comes from Star Trek fan fiction, to mean a self-insertion character who is too exceptional. They're so smart, and capable, and everyone loves them, and they figure out things no one else does, and save the day, and sometimes attract the romantic interest of at least one desirable male character, unless it's slash fiction. The male version of the character is called a Marty Stu.
Kitty is that character. From the moment she is whisked away from the opening scene, two incredibly handsome aliens, who also happen to be the most talented and therefore the leaders of their operations, are instantly attracted to her. They immediately invite her to join their agency, but unlike the other humans she isn't relegated to merely being a driver. She is also the only woman on the fieldwork side of their operation. And she alone seems to be able to face down the big bad guy who is trying to kill them and take over the planet. And she marches into their operations and on her second day tells them they're all wrong and she has the answers, and they let her take over operations. On her second day! Or maybe it was her third. And when faced down with all sorts of ugly dangerous monsters for the first time, only she can figure out how to kill them. And she gives all the orders, and she's the one who figures out who the traitor is, and she leads a crew of Navy pilots in to retake the facility that's been taken over by terrorists. And the two most powerful aliens are trying to kill each other over their jealousy because they both want her.
Give me a fucking break.
Which isn't to say that the book isn't readable--it is. Even as my eyes were glazing over through the hundred page infodump, and rolling as she confidently pulls right answers out of her ass every. single. time., I never had the urge to abandon the book. Even when she spouted bullshit about artists feeling emotion more deeply than normal people. I know a lot of artists. Believe me, most of them aren't any more emotional than the rest of us, and the ones that are are a pain in the ass you don't want to have to deal with. Oh, and even worse -- the highly empathic love interest who nevertheless is under the mistaken impression she's not that into him. Uh, yeah, right. Because romance must have a Big Misunderstanding? Sigh.
So, though Touched by an Alien is, quite deliberately, supposed to be a fun romp that doesn't take itself too seriously, it failed to strike the right tone to work well for me. Writing comedic material is hard, and not all readers will respond to it. Touched by an Alien doesn't misstep horribly, I read the whole thing, but I can't help but feel that lurking under the breezy Mary Sue-ishness is the raw material that could have been a different book I would have liked better.
Monday, June 20, 2011
The Stranger's Woes by Max Frei
The Stranger's Woes is the second in a ten-volume series of fantasy novels originally published in Russian. Max Frei is actually a pseudonym of Svetlana Martynchik, if Wikipedia is correct. The novels are told in first-person by a character named Max, though we don't learn his last name.
In the first volume, The Stranger, Max manages to travel to another world, a place he has frequently dreamed of. He is hired by Sir Juffin Hully to serve as the Noctournal Representative of the Most Venerable Head of the Minor Secret Investigative Force of the City of Echo. Max, a natural night owl, gets a job working as the night shift for the city's magical police. Max says he was a bit of a loser in our world, and is surprised and pleased to find that he is happy, comfortable, and successful in his new home. As a native of a different world, he finds that he has a powerful and instinctive grasp of magic, which sometimes works to his advantage and sometimes causes him problems.
I loved The Stranger, and spent a year impatiently waiting for this volume. When it arrived on Saturday, I dropped the book I had been working on so that I could read this one first. I was a little underwhelmed by it.
It has the same cast of characters, and again they are dealing with the problems that arise for the magical police to handle, but it didn't have the same spark as the first volume, at least for me. When I read The Stranger, I eagerly absorbed every detail, wanting to know what happened next. In The Stranger's Woes, on the other hand, the material wasn't as fresh. The characters felt more like a collection of tics and attributes than real people. Max is always tired and hungry and begging for coffee. His coworker Lookfi Pence is bumbling and absent-minded. Melifaro must constantly tease Max, to the point of not being even slightly funny. We see very little of Shurf Lonli-Lokli, who was featured prominently in the first volume. It felt like they were just going through the motions. On one occasion Max spends the night at Juffin's house, and yet there is no mention of Juffin's dog Chuff, who is a great friend of Max's, and would certainly have greeted him and crawled into bed with him. Likewise Max's pet cats, Ella and Fitzgerald, are basically forgotten. The whole thing just felt a bit spare and like not all the details had been painted in where they belonged.
The plot itself has all sorts of good stuff -- murder and kidnapping and revenge and wizards rising from the dead, as well as the question of how to get rid of an annoying house guest, and an important development in Max's social life. We discover that buriwoks are more powerful than previously understood. Max becomes a king, sort of. Melifaro pines romantically and gets drunk.
And yet this volume, to some degree, lacked the sense of wonder I got from The Stranger. It also is not a good place to start -- if you're interested, get The Stranger first. It's out in trade paperback now. The Stranger's Woes just thrusts you into the setting with little or no attempt to explain or introduce anything to a reader who starts with the second volume.
I will say, however, that the translation of The Stranger's Woes seems smoother than with The Stranger--that one at times felt quite clumsy in its use of language. This one flows more smoothly, but lacks something in charm. I do not know if the blame for that lies with the author or the translator.
However, though I suppose that this review mostly boils down to me trying to put my finger on why this one lacked some of the magic that the first book had, clumsy translation and all, I still enjoyed it enough, and can't wait for the third one.
In the first volume, The Stranger, Max manages to travel to another world, a place he has frequently dreamed of. He is hired by Sir Juffin Hully to serve as the Noctournal Representative of the Most Venerable Head of the Minor Secret Investigative Force of the City of Echo. Max, a natural night owl, gets a job working as the night shift for the city's magical police. Max says he was a bit of a loser in our world, and is surprised and pleased to find that he is happy, comfortable, and successful in his new home. As a native of a different world, he finds that he has a powerful and instinctive grasp of magic, which sometimes works to his advantage and sometimes causes him problems.
I loved The Stranger, and spent a year impatiently waiting for this volume. When it arrived on Saturday, I dropped the book I had been working on so that I could read this one first. I was a little underwhelmed by it.
It has the same cast of characters, and again they are dealing with the problems that arise for the magical police to handle, but it didn't have the same spark as the first volume, at least for me. When I read The Stranger, I eagerly absorbed every detail, wanting to know what happened next. In The Stranger's Woes, on the other hand, the material wasn't as fresh. The characters felt more like a collection of tics and attributes than real people. Max is always tired and hungry and begging for coffee. His coworker Lookfi Pence is bumbling and absent-minded. Melifaro must constantly tease Max, to the point of not being even slightly funny. We see very little of Shurf Lonli-Lokli, who was featured prominently in the first volume. It felt like they were just going through the motions. On one occasion Max spends the night at Juffin's house, and yet there is no mention of Juffin's dog Chuff, who is a great friend of Max's, and would certainly have greeted him and crawled into bed with him. Likewise Max's pet cats, Ella and Fitzgerald, are basically forgotten. The whole thing just felt a bit spare and like not all the details had been painted in where they belonged.
The plot itself has all sorts of good stuff -- murder and kidnapping and revenge and wizards rising from the dead, as well as the question of how to get rid of an annoying house guest, and an important development in Max's social life. We discover that buriwoks are more powerful than previously understood. Max becomes a king, sort of. Melifaro pines romantically and gets drunk.
And yet this volume, to some degree, lacked the sense of wonder I got from The Stranger. It also is not a good place to start -- if you're interested, get The Stranger first. It's out in trade paperback now. The Stranger's Woes just thrusts you into the setting with little or no attempt to explain or introduce anything to a reader who starts with the second volume.
I will say, however, that the translation of The Stranger's Woes seems smoother than with The Stranger--that one at times felt quite clumsy in its use of language. This one flows more smoothly, but lacks something in charm. I do not know if the blame for that lies with the author or the translator.
However, though I suppose that this review mostly boils down to me trying to put my finger on why this one lacked some of the magic that the first book had, clumsy translation and all, I still enjoyed it enough, and can't wait for the third one.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth
Blood Oath is a secret history and high thriller. The premise is that supernatural creatures exist and most of humanity doesn't know about it, and that over 100 years ago a young vampire was captured, pardoned by the president, and pressed into his service. Being nearly immortal, the vampire is still serving, and is sent out by the president to deal with really serious shit, especially supernatural stuff.
At the beginning of Blood Oath the vampire gets a new liaison, an ambitious young political shark named Zach Barrows. He is not given any choice about this assignment, and is not very happy about it. Cade, the vampire, scares the hell out of him, and he feels singularly unprepared for the work. Zach was occasionally annoying, as he swerved between being clever and suicidally stupid.
It comes to their attention that someone is assembling piecemeal creatures using parts from dead bodies. Cade focuses on the only man he knows of who is capable of animating the reassembled corpses, and both of them are nearly killed. And then things get really violent.
I liked Blood Oath more than I should have. I usually don't care for thrillers, and I don't usually like flashbacks, and I hate novels with conspiracies, especially those involving the CIA. And those elements certainly annoyed me a bit, but I enjoyed the book anyway. Blood Oath is compulsively readable. I had to make a conscious decision last night to set it aside and turn out the light so I could get some sleep, because it's the sort of book I could have stayed up all night to finish. You (or rather, I) just plunge forward through the text in a rush of narrative lust, wanting to find out what happens next. I don't think there's really any question whether Cade will manage to save the day in the end, but I still wanted to see how they got there. Great fun, and I look forward to reading the sequel.
At the beginning of Blood Oath the vampire gets a new liaison, an ambitious young political shark named Zach Barrows. He is not given any choice about this assignment, and is not very happy about it. Cade, the vampire, scares the hell out of him, and he feels singularly unprepared for the work. Zach was occasionally annoying, as he swerved between being clever and suicidally stupid.
It comes to their attention that someone is assembling piecemeal creatures using parts from dead bodies. Cade focuses on the only man he knows of who is capable of animating the reassembled corpses, and both of them are nearly killed. And then things get really violent.
I liked Blood Oath more than I should have. I usually don't care for thrillers, and I don't usually like flashbacks, and I hate novels with conspiracies, especially those involving the CIA. And those elements certainly annoyed me a bit, but I enjoyed the book anyway. Blood Oath is compulsively readable. I had to make a conscious decision last night to set it aside and turn out the light so I could get some sleep, because it's the sort of book I could have stayed up all night to finish. You (or rather, I) just plunge forward through the text in a rush of narrative lust, wanting to find out what happens next. I don't think there's really any question whether Cade will manage to save the day in the end, but I still wanted to see how they got there. Great fun, and I look forward to reading the sequel.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Stop telling me to cheer up, damn it
Evidence suggests that having a positive attitude does not help you.
The Negative Evidence About Positive Thinking and Health
The Negative Evidence About Positive Thinking and Health
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
The Huckleberry Murders by Patrick F. McManus
This is the fourth in McManus's series of mysteries taking place in Blight County, Idaho. Sheriff Bo Tully takes a day off to go out and pick huckleberries and he encounters four screaming and out-of-breath pickers who have just stumbled across three corpses in the huckleberry patch. Bo calls in Lurch the CSI, Dave the tracker who thinks he's an Indian, and his ex-girlfriend Susan, the medical examiner.
They decide that there was an intended fourth victim who escaped, and Bo sets about searching for him. He also finds himself partnered with an FBI agent who is annoyed because the bodies were found on federal land, and Bo didn't bother to notify the FBI, under whose jurisdiction the crime should have fallen. And he is investigating the disappearance of a farmer whose remains may or may not be hidden under his house.
I find these mysteries very entertaining. They strike a good balance by being light and fun, but not too far into cozy land. I just abandoned one of Laura Child's tea shop mysteries because I couldn't tolerate the twee characters and their twee little lives. Ick, ick, ick. Bo and his constituents are odd and funny but the novels show small town and country life with a jaded eye, not rose-colored glasses. I appreciate that. I love the tone McManus strikes, and could happily enjoy a steady diet of them, if only he wrote more quickly.
They decide that there was an intended fourth victim who escaped, and Bo sets about searching for him. He also finds himself partnered with an FBI agent who is annoyed because the bodies were found on federal land, and Bo didn't bother to notify the FBI, under whose jurisdiction the crime should have fallen. And he is investigating the disappearance of a farmer whose remains may or may not be hidden under his house.
I find these mysteries very entertaining. They strike a good balance by being light and fun, but not too far into cozy land. I just abandoned one of Laura Child's tea shop mysteries because I couldn't tolerate the twee characters and their twee little lives. Ick, ick, ick. Bo and his constituents are odd and funny but the novels show small town and country life with a jaded eye, not rose-colored glasses. I appreciate that. I love the tone McManus strikes, and could happily enjoy a steady diet of them, if only he wrote more quickly.
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