Books read in early November

[ladyofastolat]

Hubble Bubble by Jane Lovering

Accidental chicklit. This was another book where I made the deliberate choice not to find out anything about it beyond the blurb. It turned out that I'd only read the first paragraph of the blurb, too, which made it look like a quirky tale of magical misadventures in the modern world. As I would probably have realised had I read the rest of the blurb, this was chicklit wrongly classified as fantasy, concerning some women doing a "spell" to make their wishes (mostly involving men) come true. Most of the wishes were phrased sufficiently vaguely for the subsequent developments (mostly involving men) to be interpreted as the wish coming true, though whether this was because of real magic, coincidence or their improved self-confidence was left unanswered. I stuck with it, skimming through quite rapidly in an hour, since I didn't want to dismiss it out of hand once it became clear that it was in a genre I don’t normally like, but ultimately it wasn’t for me.

Seraphina and Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman

Fantasy duology with interesting dragons. 40 years ago, a treaty was signed between the dragons and the human kingdom of Goredd, but old hatreds die hard, and there are many on both sides that resent the peace. When the heir to the throne is murdered in a way that suggests the involvement of dragons, tensions rise sharply. Caught up in it all is Seraphina, assistant court music mistress, a young woman with a secret...

I'm not a hardcore dragon fan. I like some of their incarnations, but I'm not one of those readers who thinks they're awesome, full stop. But I did like these dragons very much indeed. They can fold themselves into human form, but their whole way of thinking remains very not-human. They're rather Vulcan, really, fascinated by advanced mathematics and prizing reason and order above all things. Their hoards were organised and classified, but now that hoards are illegal, some of them have transferred their hoarding instinct to a fascination with libraries. In human form, they are sometimes prone to develeping regrettable "monkey brain" tendencies, such as emotion, but that's nothing a little brain surgery can't fix.

It wasn't just the dragons. I liked the world-building a lot, and the writing, and the characters. In fact, I thought the first book was excellent. The more lukewarm reviews online are from people who felt that it was very slow for the first half ("nothing happened") before it picked up pace near the end. Perhaps this is true, but if so, I had the exact opposite opinion. I loved the slower first half, but I felt that when events happened, they happened too quickly, with big plot-changing, character-changing events racing past in too few words. But that's only a small complaint, really.

There were more big events, sometimes over-hasty big events (in my opinion), in the second book, which is one of several reasons why I didn't like it as much as the first one, but I don't want to say more about that here, since it's hard to talk about a book 2 without spoiling book 1. I did still like it, but I wasn't using the word "excellent" about it, as I was with the first book. Still, I'm glad I read it, and if this author writes more in this universe - especially more about the fascinating dragons - I'll definitely read it.

Street of the Five Moons: a Vicky Bliss murder mystery by Elizabeth Peters

Mystery set in the world of art fraud. I read this thanks to a recommendation on the Sounis LJ community for fans of Megan Whalen Turner's Queen’s Thief series. This is actually the second in the series, but many reviews online said that the first wasn’t that good, and the charming thief character – the reason for the recommendation – didn’t appear until the second book.

Vicky Bliss – very intelligent (supposedly) but with the "body of a centrefold" – is an art historian with a sideline in solving mysteries. When a dead man turns up, carrying an exact replica of a unique historic jewel, she starts to investigate. Her first hunch turns out to lead her to exactly the right place, and soon she is a house guest of a chief suspect, an Italian count straight out of a Gothic novel, whose "secretary" – another suspect – is a particularly infuriatingly charming Englishman...

I didn't really take to this. As with many "real life" books I’ve read, it seemed more full of implausibilities than any fantasy novel. I also didn’t take to the main character, who is supposedly intelligent, but just keeps blundering her way incautiously into situations, or resorting to her sex appeal to get what she wants. I didn’t particularly take to the charming thief character I was supposed to like, either, so no more Vicky Bliss books for me.

Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan

Flintlock fantasy, first book in the Powder Mage trilogy, set in a world with a Napoleonic era feel to it, where there are elemental sorcerers, but also powder mages, soldiers whose power derives from gunpowder.

Field marshal Tamas has just led a coup against the king and purged the nobility, who have feasted in splendour while the people starve. Just before they died, the king’s cabal of sorcerers gave an urgent warning not to break a "Kresimir's promise," Kresimir being the country's god. As Tamas tries to build a new government out of the bloody collapse of the old one, his son hunts down a rogue sorcerer of immense power, while an ex police inspector is employed to investigate this promise. War looms with a neighbouring power, there are traitors in the new Council, and rumours are spreading that the gods have started to return...

I didn't dislike this as such, but two thirds of the way through the book, I suddenly realised that if I stopped right now, I wouldn’t care if I never found out what happened. I would have persisted had it been a single book, but couldn't face 1200 more pages. It wasn’t hugely grimdark, but it just wasn't light. There was a lot of death, a lot of battlefield action, and no smiles and warmth or laughter. Most imporantly, after 350 pages, none of the characters had come to life for me. I also sensed that was going to be one of those books in which a series of progressively stronger, well-nigh unkillable godlike beings manifest, and even if you drop a mountain on their heads, up they pop again to battle you again 100 pages later. I hate having to kill the same boss twice.

Many people will doubtless love this series, but it just didn't engage me enough for me to persist.



I am now re-reading The Dark Lord of Derkholm, which is a LOT more fun. :-D

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

We have read Seraphina and Shadow Scale, and enjoyed them, but with much the same reservations as you.

adaese has read (and recently bought and re-read) The Dark Lord of Derkholm; it is one of the DWJs I haven't read yet, having been rather put off by my abortive attempt at Year of the Griffin.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

It took me two attempts to get into The Dark Lord of Derkholm - although why, I have no idea, since poking fun at Dark Lord tropes is so much my thing. I do generally feel that DWJ's adult books are less succesful than her children's and YA ones - although I do love Deep Secret. That's one reason why I'm re-reading it at the moment, actually. Most of her other books I've reread loads of times, so I chose this one because I've only read it twice or so, and forgotten a lot of it. At least there will be SOME surprises ahead.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I think Deep Secret was the first DWJ I read (in manuscript, when adaese was working at BCA). I have read quite a few of her books since then (but probably only a small part of what she has written); Year of the Griffin is the only one I have started but not finished / enjoyed.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

I liked Seraphina - it was very well done - even though dragons/vampires/sparkly boyfriends aren't usually my cup of tea.

Never got past the first chapter of the first Vicky Bliss book - I would have hurled it violently against the wall if hadn't borrowed it from the library. Yet I quite enjoyed Elizabth Peters' Amelia Peabody books.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

At least there were no vampires or sparkly boyfriends in Seraphina. I found the love interest pleasingly sensible and the romance refreshingly low-key, given that YA fantasy is prone to having all-consuming passions with brooding, angst-ridden hunks.

I've not read the Amelia Peabody books. I might try them one day, although I'm not in any hurry to do so. Good to hear that they're better than the Vicky Bliss ones, though.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

I read a few of the Vicky Bliss books in the period 2 to 3 decades ago when I was reading quite a lot of mysteries. The only one that really sticks with me is Trojan Gold, and that is less because of any intrinsic merit in the characters or writing and more because it featured a real-world mystery which was a personal interest of mine. Then a few years after reading it, the so-called kredemna of Helen and all the rest turned up in a Russian museum (which really was always the likely scenario!) so perhaps it wouldn't have caught my imagination so much after that :-) Agree with previous commenter that the Amelia Peabody books are much better!

Seraphina sounds interesting, I might give that a try, thanks for the review.