janicu’s book blog

Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake

nobody@vox.com(janicu) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:12:48 -0700

Jocelynn Drake

I got this ARC of Nightwalker from EOS Books just last week and I already finished it. I love long weekends.

The book came in unbound manuscript format so I walked over to Kinko's to bind it after I finished reading it. This was a trial. It was $2.66 to bind (cheap), but I had to deal with some VERY grumpy Kinko employees! This skinny european dude with a french or russian accent was annoyed that the machine wasn't warmed up yet and kept telling me: 'You have to wait 10 minutes, OK'?! He repeated this 3 times, even though I was telling him that's fine, I can wait. Why was he so upset? I'll never know. I swear I did nothing to provoke this. Meanwhile another girl was bitching at a customer and he was laughing nervously and turning around to look at me, but I kept a completely blank face - not joining in on conversations with crazy people.

On to the review.

Nightwalker is a debut novel by Jocelynn Drake, and the first book of the Dark Days series. This urban fantasy has vampires, or nightwalkers as they call themselves, as the main supernatural creature. Our protagonist Mira is an over 600 year old nightwalker, not a newbie to the scene, the guardian of the city of Savannah, with the special ability with fire that no other nightwalker has. Although the descriptions of scenery sometimes tends towards dramatic metaphor, the book has a great, suck-the-reader-in beginning, and the action just keeps coming. I felt like the book shines during the action, and there is a lot of action here. At the start of the book Mira is following a vampire hunter who has been killing off some of the younger vampires in her domain, but that doesn't seem to be the whole story. After facing and fighting Danaus, the hunter, she learns about the possible return of the naturi, creatures the nightwalkers banished from the world about 500 years ago in a face off that still gives Mira nightmares. The naturi are a race of beings described as the root of myths about elves and pixies, but much darker and bent on exterminating both humans and nightwalkers. Danaus and Mira have an uneasy alliance as they work together towards fighting the naturi. Both are bent on killing the other once this task is done.

This is an urban fantasy and most of the focus is on action, so there is a lot of fighting and swordplay; but there is also an underlying something between the two main characters. This relationship seems to be the slowly-growing kind because they are natural enemies, with Danaus believing all nightwalkers are evil and kill humans despite what Mira says. There are also beyond just professional shades in the relationship between Mira and her two human bodyguards (who protect her during daylight hours). So some interesting interactions going on between all the fighting, but still I would say although there is sex, there is no romance. At least in book one.

The main focus is on the problem of the naturi, but there is some emphasis on the mystery of Mira's powers, on what Darius really is, and Mira's place amongst the older, more powerful vampires who oversee all their kind. Mira has an old child-like relationship with a couple of them, Jabari and Sadira, where Mira goes back and forth between being an estranged, rebeling daughter, to running to them for comfort and help. I wasn't sure what to make of it since she's supposed to be 600 years old and is Keeper of her own city, but the other vampires are older than that by hundreds more. Theirs is not a human viewpoint of time, and not a human relationship. I felt like the older nightwalkers had hundreds of year old mechanisms going on which involved Mira and I need to find out what that is about. I hope more is revealed.

I found the book quite a page turner and I expect it to do very well. There are a lot of interesting characters and factions involved with the story, plus some dark creatures to battle, so I think the author has plenty more to write about. The book was enjoyable and I'm looking forward to the rest.

This book comes out July 29th, 2008.

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Frederica by Georgette Heyer

nobody@vox.com(janicu) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:57:15 -0700

Frederica

Georgette Heyer

Frederica is my second Heyer read, the first one was Black Sheep which I reviewed here. I enjoyed Black Sheep so I was expecting a similar read, but surprisingly - I actually liked Frederica even more! Maybe it was because this novel was more funny in many aspects than Black Sheep was, so I was smiling more often.

Frederica Merriville is the oldest daughter in the Merriville family and used to raising her siblings and running the household. In this story, her sister Charis is about to have her first season. Frederica is determined that because Charis is so beautiful and unaffected, she should come out in London, so she appeals to the Marquis of Alverstoke, a distant relation. Alverstoke is used to people asking him for things and saying no, but on a whim decides to pretend he was charged my Frederica's dead father to be a guardian to her younger siblings. Alverstoke believes with little work on his part, he'll have some fun, irritate his sisters and go back to his life. What ends up happening is that he gets sucked into the crazy Merriville family antics, and surprisingly finds himself caring for them, especially Frederica, except for the very first time, he's dealing with a woman who is more concerned about her family than his attentions.

This book seemed to be an easier read for me than Black Sheep, but I think it's because reading the first book made me more experienced with Heyer's regency slang, so this time it didn't take me as long to understand what someone was saying! The only confusion I had was sometimes forgetting who was related to who how, but I discovered this useful family tree online (now that I finished the book of course it's useless to me, but may be useful to someone else).

So there were a few funny moments in this book, and I think I'm with many people when I say I enjoyed the scene(s) with the dog (Baluchistan Hound!), and most scenes where Alverstoke finds himself being manipulated by Frederica's younger two brothers. I can understand why this is many people's favorite Heyer novel. Glad I picked this one!

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July Book Blowout Challenge

nobody@vox.com(janicu) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:13:52 -0700

july 2008

So, I've been lazy with following the weekly geeks but week 9's one was participating in a challenge, and it just so happens there's a challenge I wanted to join. The July Book Blowout challenge was just to read more books in july: "The rules are simple - read as many books as you can between July 1 and 31 - and then by August 7 post a list of all of the books you read on your blog. Reviews are not required to take part."

So far this year I've read only 34 books. I think around this time last year I was at around 60. In June I read 7 books which was pretty good compared to the piddly 3 I read in May. So for July my goal is to read at least 7. Maybe this isn't such a good idea since it is the month before my wedding, but falalala, let's try.

By the way, my favorite book of June was Wicked Game by Jeri Smith Ready. I recommend it.

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Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder

nobody@vox.com(janicu) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:41:16 -0700

Magic Study (Study, Book 2)

Maria V. Snyder

Magic Study is a fantasy novel and the second book in the Study trilogy.

In book 1, Yelena, our protagonist and narrator, is a woman imprisoned for murder who was given the choice between death or being the poison taster for the Commander of Ixia. Yelena chooses to become a poison taster, learns a lot about poison, and soon becomes involved with the political intriuge around her. The story was gripping because to keep Yelena in check, Valek, the Commander's assassin and spy-master has poisoned her. Yelena and must take a daily dose of the antidote to stay alive. In Magic Study Yelena has been freed and sent to Sitia to meet her family and to learn to control her magic.

I found Poison Study so compelling because of Yelena being on the edge of death every day while dealing with the intruige and the growing romance with Valek. It was difficult not to compare Magic Study to the previous book, and while it was still well written and compelling, it didn't seem to be on the same level as Poison Study (I'm not sure it COULD be, because the same situations that made Poison Study such a page-turner can't really be repeated again in a second book). On the other hand there were relationships which were interesting (when she meets her brother for the first time, he hates her on sight and is sure she is a spy), and a magical serial killer on the loose, and Yelena is still learning her magic so there are enough things going on to keep me reading. It just didn't feel the same. Maybe because I wanted there to be more of Yelena learning her magic than running headlong into trouble and trying to save people, and there sure was a lot of disastrous situations happening one after another - it started to feel manufactured that as soon as one thing is dealt with, something else happens. The plot felt like a string of Yelena solving everyone's problems, and that made the story as a whole suffer, despite it being well written. I think taking out one or two "Yelena runs into trouble and figures out some new thing with her magic to save herself/someone else" scenes and adding some more character depth scenes (like the resolution with her problems with her brother needed more than what it got), I would have been happier with the story. In any case, the fact that there are grey characters that had competing views they had of the same situation and their attitudes change as they grow is something I liked. This still is a keeper for me.

Side note - Opal, Cowen a glassmaker who has a small part in this book is getting her own series starting with Storm Glass which comes out in 2009.

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Giveaway

nobody@vox.com(janicu) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:57:43 -0700

calico_reaction over on livejournal is having another giveaway. Winner gets to choose one of the following 6 books (links are to her reviews of each):

1) Daniel Abraham: A Shadow in Summer
2) David Anthony Durham: Acacia
3) Guy Gavriel Kay: Ysabel
4) Ellen Kushner: The Privilege of the Sword
5) Scott Lynch: The Lies of Locke Lamora
6) C.E. Murphy: Urban Shaman

So go here if you want to enter. I also rec her blog, she always writes thoughful book reviews.

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paperback to hardcover

nobody@vox.com(janicu) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:28:08 -0700

Bone Crossed - potential cover

Zeek from the blog The Way I See It posted that book 4 of the Mercy Thompson series, Bone Crossed, is going to be hardcover!

Uggg.

You know, I'm a big fan of this series, but I don't like hardcover. I think the last fiction book I bought new in hardcover was back in 1996. If an author I really like comes out in hardcover I will wait a whole year or more to get the paperback. I will choose trade paperback over hardcover. I am not a fan of waiting, but I'll wait. If the series started out hardcover, i feel ok, it's my choice to wait till paperback since I prefer paperback. But when the series started out paperback and then went hardcover - so now I have all these paperbacks, and you want me to buy a hardcover mid-series? I can see how this benefits the writer and the publisher, like it's a big deal to get a hardcover rather than a paperback, and I think the author makes more royalties on hardcover and so if the author can keep writing it helps the reader. All good in theory, but on a personal level it doesn't really make me happy. I don't like buying hardcover.

I might have bought it if it was trade paperback. I might have bought it if it was the first book in a new series. But hardcover mid-series when I already own all the books in paperback ...I'm probably going to have to get it at the library and buy it when it comes out in paperback. But I feel disappointed I have to wait.

Other people complaining about this hardback issue.

The flip side of the coin. And a debate.

Sigh.

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Goodreads

nobody@vox.com(janicu) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:52:03 -0700

Ok, I had a goodreads account for a while but there was nothing in it. I just put all the books I had in my paperbackswap lists in there so now it has the books read in the past 2 and a half years and the up to date TBR. Vox lets me put a goodreads widget on my sidebar but LJ does not. Oh well.

Cut down my TBR by ten in the past couple of days - I just took out some books I didn't think I was ever going to read.

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Urban Shaman by C. E. Murphy

nobody@vox.com(janicu) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:50:12 -0700

Urban Shaman (The Walker Papers, Book 1)

C.E. Murphy

I started the second of C.E. Murphy's series (the Negotiator trilogy) earlier this year, but her first book, Urban Shaman was on my TBR as well. I just read it, and I think I may actually like this series even more.

Joanne Walker is a mechanic with with the police force with both a Cherokee and a Celtic background. She went through the police academy but never used her training as an officer, content to use just her mechanic skills. At the start of this book, she was on the plane coming back from her mother's funeral when she sees a woman in trouble. As soon as she's off the plane, she grabs a cab to help the woman and runs into the Wild Hunt. This sets off a series of events which reveal Joanne's shamanic powers and a whole supernatural world.

This was action packed - one thing follows another story and Joanne goes through a lot - battered from one side and another, and drawing on her new powers to heal herself. I liked how Joanne uses her mechanic background with her powers - imagining her body like a car and fixing things by using car analogies. It was engrossing to see what would happen next, but there was also some hints of Joanne's past and what Joanne is that was interesting as well. Another strong aspect was the secondary characters - they all had depth and interacted in believable ways with Joanne, from her sidekick cabbie, to her annoyed boss, to her coworkers. It will be nice to see how these relationships develop throughout the series. Looking forward to reading the next two books.

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Vampire High by Douglas Rees

nobody@vox.com(janicu) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:44:07 -0700

Vampire High

Douglas Rees

This is another book I picked up at Goodwill. Vampire High is a young adult novel, probably appropriate for ages 10 and up. While I was reading it I thought that this might be the kind of book to give to a kid who doesn't like to read. It reminded me of the Phantom Tollbooth in a way because there is a lesson in here about at least making an effort in life.

Cody is an underachiever because he's unhappy that his parents moved to New England, and after he fails all his classes, his dad transfers him to Vlad Dracul. This school is amazing but mysterious - there huge buildings, high ceilings, marble, chandeliers and oil paintings and silent, tall, super-smart and super-strong students. Cody is amazed he get in right away just for agreeing to try out for the water polo team. It isn't long before he learns the reason why - his classmates are vampires, and they don't like water. Cody is one of a handfull of human students in the school, and he'll be guaranteed As and cruise through life, but it also means he's mostly ignored and nothing he does matters. This doesn't sit well for Cody, but when he actually wants to earn his grades he meets resistence from the vampires and the other lazy human students. I thought this was a fun, engrossing book and a pretty fast read. This felt like it could be the beginning of a series but I didn't see any other books out.

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Thunder Moon by Lori Handeland

nobody@vox.com(janicu) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:32:59 -0700

Thunder Moon (A Nightcreature Novel, Book 8)

Lori Handeland

To be honest I didn't expect to like this book. I picked it up at Goodwill because I recognized the author as a popular one and I noticed that the published date was January 2008, so I thought I would swap it on paperbackswap. The only thing I had read by Lori Handeland was in the Dates from Hell anthology and the story in there didn't do it for me (my review of that is here).

So I was pleasantly surprised that I ended up sucked into this book. The heroine is a small town sheriff, with Cherokee blood. Grace McDaniel is capable and independent, and I liked her. She's tired and overworked but also irreverent and snappy. This is a supernatural romance, but instead of werewolves which I was expecting because of the world "Moon" in the title, the night-creature in this instance was one I'd never heard of before, so there were elements of Cherokee folklore that was new to me. The book looks to be part of a series, with references to Claire, who is the mayor, Grace's best friend, and probably the heroine of her own book, but I had no problems following it. A pretty decent read and while I sort of guessed the identity of the creature terrorizing the town, I wasn't completely sure about it till the end, which I liked. The only thing I found jarring was the sudden sex scenes in this book, which seemed to be incongruent with Grace's wary nature regarding men. I found myself saying out loud: what the hell, you're the sheriff, what are you doing?!! which brought down things a notch for me. Still, couldn't really stop reading.

Here's a review at Dear Author which meshes well with my opinion.

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