Burnt Offerings by Laurell K. Hamilton

Burnt Offerings is, ah, interesting. It further builds out the world in some fun and not-so-fun ways. Really drives home just how monstrous vampires can get while at the same time exposing just how petty they really are. I really did not remember much about this book despite how actually quite important it is in terms of character and concept introduction. The details simply slipped my mind.

Asher giving off Constantine vibes right at the beginning there. I quite like Asher here. He's got his reasons for being the way he is but hasn't yet gone completely off as he does in later books. I won't get into that, though. The point is: Asher's introduction is neat and I like him. I also quite enjoy Warrick. He reminds me some of The Wicked Truth from later books. Warrick doesn't get a lot of "screen time" here, but what he does get is quite impactful. I feel much the same with Gideon and Thomas. I like them in the small amount of "screen time" they're given. And oh yes, last, but ultimately not least, Nathaniel is introduced here. I love Nathaniel and he shall be protected at all costs.

I do believe this book begins the “vampires are really just people on dang power-trips” thing that bugs me soooo much about things like Vampire Councils. The Council members and affiliates get butt-hurt when Anita won’t play ball and be “properly” intimidated or kow-tow to them because they said so. I like how she manages to play them within their own rules, though, once she's properly informed as to what the rules are. The fairly arbitrary rules, it seems like to me, to be honest. Again, vampires are humans with extraordinary powers who could just as easily decimate each other if they didn't have their rules so... that's super fun.

At some point when I was recommending this series to a friend via Threads, someone else said something about Anita being homophobic in the early books. I’ve been on the lookout for evidence of this… doesn’t seem to exist from what I can tell. Even here, she tries to get The Traveler to vacate Willie’s body because Willie doesn’t like men and The Traveler does. She isn’t insulting about it, just matter-of-fact about respecting someone else’s preferences. She also doesn't say anything about Gwen & Sylvie. At this point, I'm largely finding any homophobic comments are in the context of the cops and are on par with what they say about the "monsters" as well. That doesn't make them right, of course, or the comments non-existent, but so far... nothing entirely shocking or out of the ordinary for the context. I'd also like to make it clear that I don't condone these comments any more than I condone what was said to Detective Perry in an earlier book.

Interesting discussions here about the nature of the monsters, leadership, and what it means to be part of society. I think it’s interesting that vampires, or at least The Council, think themselves apart from human society still. What Anita tells The Traveler is correct on all counts: leadership comes with a responsibility to those you lead and letting yourselves become legal in society also means responsibility toward that society. Of course this discussion also comes as part of an issue with trying to save what, just four years ago in-world, would have been deemed monsters and not worth saving. Add to that the whole thing with the lycanthropes at the hospital… I wouldn’t quote me on this at all, but what happened to Lorraine has to have happened irl to Black men in the past when they saved the lives of White people (at least I hope that kind of thing is past… the world today… smh).

“There’s the possibility of disease contamination if there are bodies floating in the basement,” - Lieutenant Wren — misconception. Dead bodies do not carry disease and I HIGHLY doubt anything carrying disease would have had time to get to these particular bodies. If you'd like to know more about this stuff, I highly recommend checking out "AskAMortician" over on YouTube. This isn't super relevant to the plot, but clearly jumped out at me to mention.

If it weren't for the inclusion of forcing the Vampire Council to do some actual leadership, I would say the police stuff felt quite tacked on. It came at a point in the book where it felt very sudden, which I suppose any terrorist activity does. Make no mistake, what Humans First did was terrorism. It also ended up giving Dolph another opportunity to lecture Anita about dating "the monsters," which I don't think she needed after Ronnie essentially said the same stuff. I personally find the third party lectures about the whole thing annoying at best.

Speaking of the whole thing and third parties... Richard is a giant turd here. Just the whole book until the very, very end, Richard is too wrapped up in his own pity party. I get taking it out on Anita, since they're exes, but it's highly inappropriate in a majority of the situations he does it in. Stop parading your shit in private while people are literally bleeding around you. Geez.

So yeah... Burnt Offerings is interesting. Much drama. Gorey vampire shenanigans. World-building. Ultimately quite fun.

Favorite Lines

"Just because it doesn't have fangs doesn't mean it can't kill you." - Anita Blake

"Love is never free, Jean-Clause. It is the most expensive emotion we have, and I am going to see that you pay it in full." - Asher

"Love isn't the most expensive emotion, Asher," I said. I took another step forward, and he retreated another step. "Hate is. Because hate will eat you up inside and destroy you, long before it kills you." - Anita Blake

"Leadership doesn't just mean privileges. It has a price tag." - Anita Blake

"It's their job to do this. You don't bargain to get someone to do what they're supposed to do in the first place." - Anita Blake 

In Other News

Yet another OviPets project done! These are an approximation of the Digimon "Sakkutomon" for my "Village of Beginnings" project line. They took me about 4 months to do.

Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

Well, I had barely remembered anything from Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern from when I read it at 12… I think I was 12, anyway. The librarian who recommended it to me was a little apprehensive because of the absolute nothing of a sex scene. Speaking of, the thing I did remember was Moreta and Alessan being a thing. The rest… not a lick of memory.

Oooofffff, this epidemic storyline hits differently now. I find it really interesting that Pern manages to do such a better job at getting everyone vaccinated than we seem to be able to do with much more advanced tech. I mean, this was Sci-fi from the 80s, so McCaffrey was clearly more hopeful and hadn’t experienced the ridiculousness that was COVID, but still… This is also the third storyline of the Pern chronology to deal with an epidemic. The last two were written well after this, but it is worth noting.

The speed at which this disease jumped species, even if they’re all Earth-ancestry species is super concerning… not that anyone has brought that up at all. Though maybe it was something the Colonists brought with them, jumped species to the cats, then was able to jump back fairly quickly… still really concerning and not talked about at all. Just waved away with a “it’s zoonosis.” Okay then.

First time in the chronology there’s actually a queen’s wing. That was fun to see. Actually, getting more with the queens was fun. I don’t remember Lessa, for example, having to sleep off the Hatching Grounds due to Ramoth clutching. So that was neat. I love Orlith.

I actually quite liked getting more info on Falls and the aftermath. Taking care of injured dragons is more interesting than Plagued ones or humans. Very glad Moreta was able to pass some of her dragon healing knowledge on.

What is it with Fort Weyr producing surly Weyrleaders?? Sh’gall, D’gan… wtf. Although the real curmudgeon of this book was M’tani of Telgar, so that’s a bit of a difference.

Not sure this late-introduced mystery of Rill needed to be a thing. Although what might have been a typo already gave away who it is… if it’s relevant in later books, chronologically speaking.

Anyway, Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern was a lot of fun. The characters were engaging, the pacing was good, and the ending was surprising.

Surprise Baby Review!

Adulthood Is a Myth by Sarah Andersen

I knew this collection was going to be 99% relatable and it was. I’m gonna go hide in a blanket pile with my books now. 

GoodReads Reading Goal

Happy New Year! Just wanted to note that, as it is January 1st, I have set my Reading Goal at 100 books. the last couple of years, I've read well over 100 books, so I feel this goal is achiveable, even without an injection of 20 anthologies. 😜

Also, my reviews for today and tomorrow are from 2024 and don't count toward this year's goal. ✌

Dragonheart by Todd McCaffrey

Dragonheart is honestly the slowest Pern book I've read to date. The absolute minutiae of Weyr life is explored here, along with the challenges of "timing it" through three years at an otherwise abandoned Weyr. By the end, I was reading every other page and missed nothing. Just so... much... superfluous... detail... and the tantalizing stuff isn't even explained!!

So, Dragonheart does start out during the Dragon Plague. However, since everything interesting about the Dragon Plague is happening over at Benden, instead of Fort, there's nothing out of the ordinary going on. Just day-to-day Weyr stuff and Fiona getting accustomed to it. Cut to the "timing it" portion of the story and it's more of the same, only with Fiona as The Weyrwoman rather than the youngest. Fiona's not a bad character, but this storyline just goes on forever. The pacing is horrendous.

Also, the "timing it" is not at all a spoiler if you've read any of the previous Pern books in the chronology. Just the way Fiona and her fellow Weyrlings act... it's really obvious what's causing it. Especially with the length of time it affects them for. I'm honestly over "timing it" basically being the story, especially with it being as uninteresting as it was in this book.

I did enjoy parts of Dragonheart. Bright spots included the Traders and Nuella. I kind of liked getting a bit of alternate cultures being explained. A good chunk of my Pern experience has been in and around Benden Weyr, so finding out that Igen was definitely more Southern in climate and culture was nice. Kind of would have liked to see Igen Weyr at it's prime, though not under D'gan... but that's neither here nor there. Technically, the "culture" bits were centered around the food and switching up sleep schedules, so it wasn't that deep per-say... but yeah. Nuella continues to be a delight. I've enjoyed her character from the get-go.

But anyway, I'm very glad to be done with Dragonheart. It wasn't exactly bad or badly written, just tedious.

Favorite Line

"Every day is a test," Cisca replied soberly. "But we'll never learn new ways of doing things if we insist on telling everyone what they should be doing."

All Just Glass by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes - Reread

This is a short, mostly spoiler-free reread review. You can, and honestly probably should, read my last reread review of All Just Glass as it will inform on this one. You can find that HERE.

This time around, I really don't feel as annoyed at the sudden influx of characters. There are still a lot of them in play at any one moment, but it doesn't feel as overwhelming. I also feel like I paid more attention this time, despite reading it in about 24 hrs. Dominique's past was a bit more fleshed out than I thought originally, but it's still only completely revealed in the Epilogue, so it does feel somewhat tacked on.

I liked the whole bit where Nikolas took Sarah hunting for the first time. It was really well done and well explained. Other than this, I feel like Sarah's part of the story took more of a backseat to her "siblings," which I think annoyed me on the last reads. After all, Shattered Mirror was so focused on Sarah. It felt like All Just Glass should have, as well, but I see how that would have not worked as well.

I actually like Zachary a bit more, this time. His motivations make more sense to me, though they really do hammer home how much therapy these Hunters need. Zachary's story was another big nail in the coffin of the "Vida Perfection" thing all the Vidas cling to and ultimately don't hold to.

Favorite Lines

"And you've never said anything in a moment of anger that you couldn't follow through with?" - Kristopher Ravena

"The one thing I know for certain is that after you are gone, you lost any power to decide what other people do. Will they kill for you? Will they die for you? Will they fight to avenge you? That is never your choice." - Nikolas Ravena

Cruel Fate by Kelley Armstrong

Honestly... I was bored through most of this. Most of the character stuff was just rehashing things that had already been "taken care of" earlier in the overall narrative. The mystery was just kind of "bleh." There was no way Todd was going to end up back in jail after pretty much the entire Cainsville series was so focused on him getting out. Even the Fae stuff was just "meh."

Doubletake by Rob Thurman

I am not a fan of Doubletake at all. It could not hold my interest for even the very short bursts I was originally reading it in. Pure, stubborn, completion-ism kept me reading. Worked better reading in a longer chunk of time, but I was definitely skimming for a good chunk of that. I don’t think it’s great when you can skip a whole page and lose absolutely nothing.

Everybody’s got family coming into town this time… except Promise. No one’s family is interesting. Kalakos is just whatever. Grimm is a nasty piece of work, but also just whatever. The pucks… definitely a blip. And we’re really calling Grimm’s offspring “Bae”? Really? This was lamp-shaded/explained by Robin and Cal and it’s still bad.

I’m so not into this book I didn’t even enjoy the black market scene. A scene which was full of entirely too much in the way of random world-building. Normally, I like me some world-building. Normally, I’m not wanting the end to come so much that I’m skimming.

I have not touched on Kalakos and Janus, other than mentioning Kalakos’ “meh” existence. Still is very “meh.” Janus as well. I didn’t actually feel that much of a threat from either. I guess knowing there are more books after this and already having had Cal almost die enough times just takes the interest out of it.

So… yeah. Doubletake. Not great. Meandering basically for page count, it felt like, especially with the reveal at the end. I don’t like Grimm. I’m honestly smacking myself in the head right now for buying the rest of the series because I really don’t feel like finishing it at this point.

Favorite Lines

"We were a Hallmark card dipped in blood and made of unbreakable steel." - Cal Leandros

"You engage in one bonding incident of cannibalism to save your life from a pissed-off pack of native and you never live it down," Robin muttered

"All Greek legends end up insane sooner or later. It must be something in the water." - Robin Goodfellow

"Don't bounce the weapons of mass destruction." - Niko Leandros

Sunstone: Volume 5-7 by Stjepan Šejić

Volume 5

Well, this one is the “end” of Lisa and Ally’s story-arc. It’s very satisfying. “Our story” had me in tears, not gonna lie. Fuckin-A. I wasn’t expecting to be in tears, given I’ve read this before, but man… “Our Story” is just awesome.

I feel like Lisa’s plan to write her feelings to Ally was a good idea, just definitely flawed in the execution. After all, it took Anne explaining to Ally about the texty subtext for Ally to get it. And that was only because Lisa explained it to Anne during that apology.

But yeah, Volume 5 was really good. I love the story and the art.

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

A Spoiler Free Reread Review

So, Alanna: The First Adventure is actually quite a quick novel. It’s really easy to read and breezes through three years worth of Page training. Like, really breezes through it. I noticed there was rarely time to actually sit with any of Alanna’s issues, aside from the notable exception of the Ralon thing.

Speaking of, this whole “we don’t report our bullies” thing is some bullshit… carries on into the next generation, too. So dumb. I know this well because, I was honestly far more invested in Protector of the Small than I ever was in Song of the Lioness. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, but I guess I just didn’t find it as satisfying. That’s actually exemplified in Alanna. Aside from Alanna herself, there’s not really much to get invested in, I don’t think.

The random swapping of POVs gives me a bit of whiplash. The entire lack of detail here versus the Beka Cooper books also is giving me a bit of whiplash, though it is very welcome. I do not need super detailed accounts of Alanna’s day to day. That’s not to say I wouldn’t have enjoyed more detail… Alanna’s story thus far is just not memorable. Like, I literally did not remember anything from it aside from Jon, Gary, and George being Alanna’s friends. I’d still be a little hard pressed to come up with even an outline of what happened despite having just finished the book.

Roger of Conte suffers from a bad case of “obviously the bad guy.” He’s not even super subtle about it himself, Alanna’s feelings about him notwithstanding. “I am not often kind, Alan.” Really, dude? I also very much agree with Alanna’s assessment of his motives at the end. I don’t remember any details at all about Roger from my past reads, but he definitely has “super obvious bad guy” vibes, even without Alanna’s feelings about him.

I’m pretty sure I’ve only revisited Alanna once since my first reading. Having her entire four years or whatever as a Page all compressed into one book is interesting. Seems as thought the time just flew by, which is probably part of the realism, really. If you’re so consumed with work or schooling or whatever, the time just flies by. I honestly don’t know if it really works in the book’s favor, though. Like I’ve said, I literally remembered nothing about Alanna so… yeah. It was a fun, breezy read that didn’t leave anything stuck in my brain for later.

An After-Thought

In the 2014 Afterword, Tamora Pierce notes that she originally wrote Alanna's story as an adult novel. I think that is probably why Alanna is the way it is. The teenage years of a protagonist's life wouldn't really be that interesting to an adult audience and so aren't super fleshed out.

Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs

A Spoiler Free Reread Review

Okay, I’m all for sudden changes in the status quo, however, I feel like something as big as the Fae essentially disappearing would get more than a “oh hey, this happened off screen between books.” Especially given how big the Far have been in Mercy’s recent life up til now. I assume since it actually has nothing to do with Mercy personally, that’s probably why it’s in the category of “this happened off screen between books,” which, again, is fine. I am just shocked. Shocked, I tell you! The only thing I remember from my first read of Frost Burned was that Mercy and Jesse went Black Friday shopping.

I don’t know if it’s just my mood or lack of sleep, but Frost Burned has me tearing up at random points. They’re clearly tear-jerking points, but I’m not sure I was so teary on my first read. It’s really the little things: Tony showing up, Kyle hiring Hauptman security, etc. Mostly happy tears. Frost Burned has a bit of a feeling of a finale book. Just about everyone Mercy knows showing up somewhere.

If I didn’t love Kyle already, this book would have done it. It takes a very special person to stand up to kidnappers the way he did and then he took care of Mercy after. So great. Love him. I also quite like Asil. He’s my brand of ancient, dangerous, and amusing at the same time. Kind of reminds me of Laurel K. Hamilton’s Wicked Truth.

It really very much sucks that Mercy had another will-stealing Fae artifact used on her. Sucks big time. Again, though, I’m both happy and not that her trauma continues to be an issue, if only for the realism.

Despite the fact that the late villain of the piece was actually behind the plot the whole time, he did still feel exactly like a sudden third act villain. I did find him a little bit interesting, for all his entire story was info-dumped by Marsilia, Stefan, and Hao. I did manage to remember a bit about that last battle, mostly about the ice, as that whole scene started… but that’s where I’ll leave it for spoilers sake.

Frost Burned really does have the feel of a finale. That’s not a bad thing and probably helped me leave the series alone for so long. That said, it’s also a lot of Mercy running around, trying to keep those she could safe. Also our first real run-in with the government vs the werewolves, since that bullet was dodged earlier in the series. It’ll be interesting to see how or if that shakes out in the rest of the series.

Favorite Line

"I am always careful with the truth. It is a powerful thing and deserves respect." - Tad Adelbertsmiter

Reviews Batch 9

I had a lovely bit of trouble while putting this post together. Apparently GoodReads had a weird fart where it wouldn't recognize a logged in account on individual book pages... which is where you have to go to follow a small path of links to get to the HTML copy of the reviews, which is what I re-post here. There really needs to be a better way to get to your own review not in edit mode. Anyway, enjoy these very short, old reviews of mine.

Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce

Originally Posted to GoodReads: July 28, 2014

For some reason I was expecting Battle Magic to focus as much on Evvy as it did.

I thought the new characters and lands introduced were quite interesting. I kind of wish there could be some more books set in them rather than back in Emelan.

I pretty much blew through this book and very much enjoyed the ride.

Wizard's Holiday by Diane Duane
Originally Posted to GoodReads: July 29, 2018

Fun and a hell of a lot more fast paced than the last one, or maybe the last one was just hard to get through... anyway... i enjoyed the look at wizards beyond humans and planets beyond Earth.

 

Doctor Who: The Legends of Ashildr by Justin Richards
Originally Posted to GoodReads: July 31, 2021

It was alright. The first story was kinda crap, not gonna lie. Didn’t like it or, essentially the framing device, i guess. The rest of the stories were better. The plague one would probably have been more heartbreaking without the addition of aliens, who i thought didn’t need to be there at all. But yeah, pretty alright.

 

In Other News

I've finished another OviPets Project! Introducing: Puyoyomon!

Puyoyomon took me just about 4 months even to complete.

Tricks for Free by Seanan McGuire

Tricks for Free was pretty fun. Antimony was less annoying as she wasn't constantly referring to Verity and how much she hates Verity and actually settled into being her own person, even if that person was Melody West. I feel like Melody definitely has more Antimony inherent in her than Antimony really wants to think. That sounds a little confusing, but the differences in her aliases is something Antimony thinks about at some point so... yeah. Antimony also manages to gather her own little found family while facing down a villainous cabal of magic users. It was a lot of fun.

I pretty much pegged the cabal as bad from the beginning. Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series had several sorcerer run Cabals so this group of magic users pinged my "bad guy" radar pretty hard. That said, it was nice to learn all about the different types of magic users. Routewitches were mentioned and encountered in previous books, but I didn't really get a good grasp on what they could do until Tricks for Free. I liked the addition of ambulomancers and trainspotters as well as the more traditional sorcerers and witches. I do feel like having such specific forms of magic is limiting to the users, but since I guess they can't really help what they get, so much shrugging.

I also enjoyed hurting my brain trying to parse all the stuff about luck we got from Cylia the jink. Pretty cool, if sometimes brain-breaking. I was relatively happy with the implicit "read the terms and conditions" thing. It's a semi-fun conceit that I hope doesn't get overused. I was also intrigued by the crossroads stuff we got. Couldn't help but imagine the crossroads creature as having Mark Shepherd's voice, because, ya know, Supernatural and Crossroads Demons. Not quite the same thing here, but it's kind of fun to imagine some kind of crossover where Sam and Dean had Mary hanging off their shoulders brokering deals with Crowley. Antimony's magic issues were less interesting to me, really. I still have very little clue as to what a sorcerer can actually do, aside from deal in pyromancy and power-theft, so... yeah. Much blah.

I mentioned Antimony's found family in my opening paragraph and they were honestly the highlight of the book. I clocked Fern showing up at Lowryland as hinky to begin with. That was just too convenient to be random coincidence... and proved not to be. Thanks Cylia, who I love, but not as much as I love Fern. Fern had me tearing up in places just because she's so sincere about how much she loves Antimony as a friend. Also, Fern and Sam's rapport was hilarious. Megan was a nice addition to the crew and I'm a little sad she's not going on the epic road trip they're going to have, but we can't keep everyone around all the time. Besides, Antimony has enough snark to make up for the loss of Megan's particular brand. Sam has grown on me, though he still seems mostly flat as a character. There to fill Antimony's need for a partner.

Overall, I was very pleased with Tricks for Free. Despite Antimony needing to be undercover, she felt a lot more herself than in Magic for Nothing. I've definitely grown to like her more as a character.

THE RECITATION OF THE MOST HOLY AND HARROWING PILGRIMAGE OF MINDY AND ALSO MORK was included in my copy of Tricks for Free, so this'll be a short review of that as well. The Mindy and Mork parts were pretty cute. I'm glad we got something from an Aeslin POV. The Sam bits... well, they were alright. I didn't really have any questions about what he was doing or how he dealt with his grandmother while waiting for news from Mary about Antimony so Sam's bits just kinda felt tacked on, to be honest. It does vaguely figure that Emery would have at least attempted a crossroads deal at some point, but it also has no real bearing on the overall plot that I can tell so... yep. That was a thing. It was overall a pretty cute novella.

Favorite Lines

"There are people who say you never really escape from high school, you just keep finding it in different forms, over and over again, until it finally kills you. Those people are assholes, and should not be allowed in polite company." - Antimony Price

"There are days when I want to punch absolutely everyone around me, and keep punching until they're no longer capable of fighting back. I'm told those desires are antisocial. Sometimes, I really don't care." - Antimony Price

"Megan made a clucking noise with her tongue. 'Whoever he is, marry him and keep us in the style to which we'd like to become accustomed.'

     'He works in Public Relations.'

     'Whoever he is, murder him and make it look like an accident, but make sure you get away with his wallet.' Megan ammended.

     'Thanks for the vote of murder-confidence,' I said.

     She flashed me a bright, toothy smile. 'I always have faith in you when it comes to murder.'" - Antimony and Megan

"Your family, your real family, will always welcome you home with open arms. Anyone who says you can lose their love isn't really family, no matter what blood says." - Evelyn Baker.

"All the safeguards in the world won't stop something that really wants to break." - Antimony Price

"It's easier to fight a person than an accident." - Antimony Price

"Murder is always on the table for later." - Antimony Price

"Love is love. If anybody tries to tell you your love's not worth having, shoot them in the kneecaps a couple of times. It won't change their minds, but it'll make you feel better." - Frances Brown

"People are why we can't have nice things." - Sam Taylor

All Just Glass by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

A Reread Review

Originally Posted to GoodReads: May 11, 2017

On first read, I didn't like this one. Didn't like it at all.

On second read, I figured out why:

This book is all over the place, no least of which because the characters are dealing with losing a family member. Also, there are just too many characters to keep adequate track of. Adia, Sarah, Zachary, Jay, Dominique, Christine, Heather, Kaleo, Kristopher, Nikolas, Kendra, etc... Just so many. So many differing viewpoints that the actual story gets rather lost.

The resolution... it's too quick. Too quick and too utterly easy. Everything just seems to collapse around two moments and then it's sort of explained what actually happened in the epilogue. I didn't feel connected to anyone in that room aside from Sarah and Jay and that's because of the previous and future books. There was no emotional resonance with any of the other characters. No real sense of relief. Too easy and too quick.

All that said, seeing the dissolution of the "Vida perfection" was nice. But that's all it was. We didn't really spend enough time with any Vidas besides Sarah and maybe, maybe Zachary but I wasn't at all invested in him so it ended up not mattering so much. Granted, there also aren't any other Vidas besides Dominique and Adia to try to connect to and I just don't to either of them.

It would have been nice to get maybe two books instead of this one or a longer book. Really deal with what was going on with the characters and Dominique's past, which is barely alluded to and barely explained and yet is really the lynch-pin to how the book ends up.

Magic's Pawn by Mercedes Lackey

A Semi-Spoilery Reread Review

A fairly good story of love and loss and abuse and recovery, I thought. Not the best representation of any of the above, but fairly good. Gets the ideas across, anyway. Also an interesting way to properly start a Valdemar journey.

I’m not really a fan of the Vanyel/Tylendel romance. It never really felt super real. It did feel rushed, though, which makes sense given that their relationship is really more of a mid-season finale type thing than a season finale, if that makes any sense. Tylendel needed Van to get to a certain point in his abuse recovery in order to ultimately serve his purposes… though the way I just put that makes it sounds like getting Van to that point was Tylendel’s plan all along. It was not. Guess that’s more the author’s hand at work. Anyway, Van needed to get to a certain point in order to have his powers and things activated in order for the later part of the story to happen. So instead of spending an entire book on Van and his relationship with Tylendel, the story had to fast forward through the relationship.

Although it is technically a spoiler, I feel like I have to discuss Tylendel’s fate, or at least the aftermath. It really sucks that his not-very-fleshed-out character wasn’t given a chance to do much besides care of Van and then go off and conduct revenge for his brother’s death. The aftermath of which brought me to tears, but not because of Tylendel. All the Heralds helping to get Van better was just… heartwarming isn’t quite the word, but it will serve. There were tears shed.

I am very glad Withen gets summarily told off by Savil, Lissa, and Van. He totally deserved every bit of it.

All of that stuff said, I feel like some of the early chapters are very choppy. They basically jump away from Van’s POV and into another character so we can get both some outside perspective but also character development for other characters. This happens most glaringly with Savil so we can get some Tylendel development. I think that’s actually part of what makes me not connect with Tylendel. We don’t get anything specifically from his perspective and mostly get told what he’s like and what his motivations are. I do feel like Savil was the character to go through for that, but it still felt weird.

The later part of the story with the Tayledras is interesting, I guess. We get some of how their society is set up, but not a lot. There don’t seem to be any overtly friendly hertasi about, which I felt was a little odd given how we got at least one in The Mage Wars and, if reading in chronological order like I am, Into the West. That’s really not a detriment, just something I noticed. Van’s training in this part of the story is alright and then his kind of Heraldic awakening, as it were, was okay. The villain here was mostly just a stock villain, so there’s that.

Overall, Magic’s Pawn is a serviceable intro to Vanyel. The story works on a surface level, but is somewhat packed.

Reap the Wind by Karen Chance

A Semi-Spoilery Review

I honestly found myself very frustrated with Reap the Wind. This largely has to do with how the entire book is structured, but also for a lot of the same reasons Cassie herself is frustrated. I rolled my eyes and actually shouted at the book at certain times. My semi-spoilery, detailed thoughts are below.

So… what exactly happens if you encounter past Pritkin and tell him what needs to happen in order to save his life? Are we even going to try that route or just keep with the jumping around and ambushing him? And, given how Reap the Wind basically ends on this front, why the fuck won’t the other Pythia’s listen to Cassie trying to tell them what the fuck is going on? I understand she’s kind of fucking with the timeline, but still, she’s ALSO a Pythia so why not give her a minute to explain herself? No one seems to want to TALK to each other in this universe. It’s frustrating as all get out.

I LIKE that Cassie is FINALLY learning about her powers from someone who knows shit about her powers. I LIKE the Cassie vs The Circle thing they have going on because Cassie’s got Rhea telling her shit. I LIKE that Cassie is sort of getting the house in order. Would like it more if she actually mananged to do so, but, ya know, chaos reigns in the Cassandra Palmer-verse.

I DISLIKE having the main storyline COMPLETELY SIDELINED to deal with Mircea’s crap. Doesn’t help that I’m not into reading sexy-times anymore and at least the first part of this chunk of story is Mircea/Cassie sexy-times. Kit was amusing, as he usually is, in my eyes. But still, put off that whole “GOTTA GET TO PRITKIN AND SAVE HIS LIFE” storyline and jump to “MIRCEA’S DOING MIND-SEX AND APPARENTLY WAR” thing. Though I am glad Cassie FINALLY realizes her relationship with Mircea is fucked up in ways she hadn’t thought of.

A big problem I’m having at this point in the Cassandra Palmer series is that Cassie has zero consistent confidants. Pritkin’s ostensibly been killed. Mircea doesn’t respect her and her bodyguards are ostensibly loyal to him, not her, unless they’re temporarily not because reasons. Jonas, it turns out, is selfish about her power and won’t help her unless she does what he sees as important. Not to mention his apparently Agnes grief he’s still working through, I guess. Rhea and the rest of Cassie’s “court” are too not-powerful/literal children. Tami is basically a glorified babysitter for Cassie’s “court.” The witches apparently fucked off after helping rescue the “court.” Even anyone in the “Ally” camp is dubious, at best. Cassie’s basically on her own, STILL, and that’s super frustrating to me.

So, while we’re jerked back into the “Saving Pritkin” part of the storyline, we get crazy faerie battles. Battles I didn’t really follow, by the way. Too much happening and once and not a good sense of where anything was. And then we have Pritkin dumping a bunch of lore on Cassie, who does very little dumping back. Would have been a perfect time to, I dunno, explain a shortened, non-spoiler version of why she was there in the first place, but no… just a big old Pritkin/Faerie lore dump interrupted by more incomprehensible faerie battle.

The ending of Reap the Wind is yet another of Cassie’s “I’m finally gonna battle a villain I have very little investment in aside from they’re the villain” battles. I mean, it was at least a bit more comprehensible then the faerie battles, but still… the final acolyte doesn’t even have a name as far as the narrative is concerned. It’s… uh… not a great look, really. I was unimpressed.

And finally, Dory and Cassie come face to face… which, ya know, I knew was coming because of Fury’s Kiss. Just really makes me want to shake Cassie, though. She knows absolutely nothing about Mircea in comparison to how much she should if they’re going to make an actual relationship work.

So yeah, I largely found Reap the Wind intensely frustrating. I had the thought at several points that I might drop the Cassandra Palmer series altogether at this point. However, I do have a copy of Ride the Storm waiting in the wings, so I’ll give it one more book, at least. Well, two, if you count Lover’s Knot, but the Dory books haven’t frustrated me as much as the Cassie ones do so… yeah.

Hunt the Moon by Karen Chance

A Spoiler Free Review

Hunt the Moon is backstory city mixed with what basically amounts to car chases and mixing mythologies. It was pretty good, exciting for a good chunk and satisfying in other chunks.

We get more backstory for Pritkin, which I guess gave more insight to his character but really served as long setup for the Netflix-like hook into the next story line. Well… and helping Cassie understand things for the finale. We got a wider version of Mircea’s backstory. I personally never gave a second thought to Mircea’s parents, but I guess it kind of mirrors Cassie’s parents… or at least that information coming to light as well. Speaking of which… While I didn’t exactly call that reveal, I kinda called half that reveal while Cassie was talking to Deino and half when Mircea mentioned it at some point earlier in the book.

The chase scenes were fun. But less chaotic that Cassie’s usual forays into fight scenes. The dragon fight was definitely a dive into that chaos.

So, important point here: I really, really hate the mixing/equating of mythologies. I mean, getting the gods all together is fun and all, but actually equating them across mythologies… more annoying than anything else. I understand how it’s a thing people do, but it’s some bullshit. The people the mythologies belonged to in the first place didn’t just go traipsing around like “Apollo is definitely also Thor.” That’s a more modern thing. That’s not to say these things didn’t happen, at least in terms of the Mediterranean mythos-es building off each other and mixing some (Greek, Roman, and Egyptian being the big three there), but Norse wasn’t included there so… this bugs me. A lot. It’s like the ancient aliens theories… kind of fun to think about but not actually a thing most scholars seriously contemplate.

But yeah Hunt the Moon was pretty okay. A better mix of the downtime and action scenes than usual, I think.

Favorite Lines

"They always are. Anyone who can only see their point of view is. Once a group decides that their way is the only way, it is an easy progression to vilifying anyone who doesn't agree with them. And once someone has been demonized, has been characterized as opposing the good, killing him becomes virtue." - Mircea Basarab

"A legend is merely a man history decided to bugger," Pritkin said harshly.

In Other News

I have finished my Falcomon project over on Ovipets! Part of my Child Digimon project.

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer

A Semi-Spoilery Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: 8-1-22

Welp, Colfer opted for more “script padding” here. Spending a lot of time explaining things that were already quite plain and giving us a lot more insight into characters I’m pretty sure we didn’t need the insight into. This weird third-person limited but limited to whoever I want at any given moment mixed with third person omniscient with a wannabe in-universe narrator thing Colfer does is really not the best. It’s kind of like he’s trying to imitate Douglas Adams and failing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s alright at times, but at other times it’s super distracting and often times feels like he’s talking down to the reader. This writing style also completely leeches any sort of urgency out of the text. I am definitely not a fan.

Orion Fowl is the worst. I didn’t like the Artemis/Holly thing that started in The Time Paradox and I like it even less now. The age gap is still gross. Will always be gross. Orion’s ridiculously flowery language in Holly’s direction is gross. They need to just be friends and firmly stick to that. There’s zero reason for romance between them. Zero.

So, Butler… why the fuck didn’t he attempt to contact Juliet at any point BEFORE showing up at her wrestling match? Turnball’s entire Butler plan hinged on no one actually attempting to figure out what was going on by any other means than in person... and Artemis apparently straight up lying to Butler due to his paranoia. Still not entirely sure how that last bit managed to work out or how Turnball found out about it... but he got what he wanted, but again, this brings up Butler’s incompetence. If he’d maybe tried to ask Juliet for some details, there’s no way he’d have gone to Mexico. Just… ugh. This trope of people not talking to each other needs to fucking die. It's lazy. Especially when pasted onto a character like Butler. Butler is frequently shown to be checking out all the angles of attack and making sure exits are clear and being generally worried about anything involving Artemis being in a crowded area. But to basically NOT do any of his apparently usual prep work when it involves his sister... like, why? Oh, convenient plot development? Cool. Not cool. Not remotely cool. Annoying.

Turnball Root is… I don’t know. Interesting isn’t the right word, even if used sarcastically. He’s not stupid, either. I mean, he somehow figured out how to get the barest bit of magic and mix it with some previously unknown rune thing... He's unhinged, definitely. Not sure how I want to categorize him, but it’s definitely not up there with the great villains. I really don’t understand why anyone who ostensibly works for him does so. He’s condescending and just ridiculous. Not going to lie, I skipped his backstory with Leonor. I’m sure it was properly touching, but as I’m not a fan of the writing style of The Atlantis Complex… I just felt it was going to be eye-roll inducing, so I skipped it. I understand that. Colfer was attempting something different here with Turnball, but I really wasn’t invested and it fell pretty flat for me.

So, the Atlantis Complex as a mental illness is patently ridiculous and treated horribly. I understand that there were circumstances, but ultimately, it’s a plot device that I did not appreciate in the least. I did like that we weren’t privy as to what was going on with Artemis in the first part of the story, even if I was admittedly annoyed by it. However, that does not change the fact that a magical disease caused by remorse, of all things, is not great as a representation of mental illness. It actually kind of reminds me of J.K. Rowling’s short story “The Warlock’s Hairy Heart” from The Tales of Beadle the Bard in that remorse ultimately causes the warlock’s death. Also this representation of some form of Dissociative Identity Disorder is annoying at best and not actually how that works at all. Atlantis Complex just mixes a bunch of stuff together basically to sideline Artemis unless it's convenient. Did not enjoy.

Anyway, time to finish out this hit-and-miss series with The Last Guardian. Here’s hoping it’s less eye-roll inducing than this one. Crossing my fingers because I really want to ultimately come out positive on this series.

Favorite Line

"It was more expensive in the long term, but the politicians reasoned that by the time the long term came around, somebody else would be in office."

Haunted and No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong

 Haunted by Kelley Armstrong

A Spoiler Free, Reread Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: March 24, 2022

Pretty interesting take on the afterlife. I like that The Fates run the Supernatural side of things. Eve’s a fun character. Enjoyed seeing her again and getting inside her head. Trisiel is… yeah, he’s there. Not nearly as interesting as he could be, I think, but I also think Supernatural spoiled me for angel characters so… yeah. Anywho, Kristof getting more fleshed out was definitely good. Don’t really feel one way or the other about him, really, but I appreciated more character building.

The Nix as a villain was alright, I guess. Didn’t feel any real peril with her and didn’t remember her from the last time I read this so… eh.

 

No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong 

A Spoiler Free, Reread Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: April 17, 2022

Another book I’d completely forgotten but really enjoyed upon reread. I actually quite like Jaime. Her character just jumps off the page at me. The climactic scene honestly had shades of Anita Blake, though Anita’s never gone into battle with those particular tools before. I was along for most of Jaime’s ride, though I will admit skipping the sex scenes almost entirely… too many flashbacks to bad fanfiction, personally.

Anyway, not sure I have anything exactly reviewish to say about the book. I just enjoyed it. Enjoyed the characters. Enjoyed the ever expansive universe of The Otherworld that just feels lived in.