13 posts tagged “contemporary fantasy”
The Premise: This is an urban fantasy which takes it's fantasy elements from Norse mythology. Mist is a once-grad student who was murdered and became a Valkyrie. Now she works on project NorseCODE to increase the number of warriors in Odin's army for Ragnarok, the Norse version of Armageddon. Meanwhile, Odin's wanderer son, the god Hermod is also working to prevent Ragnorak. Their two stories overlap in a series of odd adventures on Earth and elsewhere.
Excerpts: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3
My Thoughts: The book begins with an event amongst the gods which was believed to be the first sign that Ragnarok will come to pass, and then thousands of years later, we're in modern day United States and it looks like Ragnarok is right around the corner. At first I had a hard time figuring out where things were going (Mist suddenly decides she's going to rescue her sister from Hel, Hermod is off in California looking for wolf pups who will swallow the the moon), but once a mutual objective was decided, things got more interesting. Actually - I had no clue what Ragnorak was, Norse mythology is something I know very little about so that's probably why I was semi-mystified. I think I only know some of the big names like Thor, Odin, and Frigg, and most of those is from learning where the names for the days of the week came from sometime in middle school. Looking at wikipedia, the basic story of Hermod and his brothers, Höd and Balr used in Norse Code is taken directly from Norse mythology, so those more familiar with it would probably pick up the story faster than me, but I had no problems following once I did.
The other bit of confusion on the book may be the shifting points of view. Most of the book is told from the third person, focusing on first Hermod, then Mist and vice versa, but there are also chapters told in the first person from one of Odin's two ravens, who constantly fly everywhere and take note of what is going on. This gives the reader an opportunity to find out what other characters are up to while Mist and Hermod do their thing, and it does fill in the blanks which would otherwise be there, so I had no issues with this, but I can see other readers not particularly liking the multiple POVs.
There's a lot going on in this book. As soon as the adventurers jump out of the frying pan, they're into the fire, and no matter what they try, the next step towards Ragnarok happens. Yet Mist and Hermod keep trying because if they did, the world of humans, Midgard, would be lost forever. Because of this, the book is primarily an action-adventure as our heroes scramble to prevent the inevitable, and character development is produced in quick, hurried strokes. A look or sentence here and there throughout the story. If you don't pay attention, you'd miss the smidgen of romance or the nature of relationships between siblings. I found this OK, since the story itself was interesting enough, I didn't need to focus on the characters, but it would have been nice to get into the character's heads more. I thought that Hermod was the best-written character in the book, perhaps because he had the best lines. The humor in this book sneaks up on you. There's one particularly brilliant scene where Hermod reads a note from his father aloud, and rather than reading what it really said, he inserts his own version which made me want to laugh and cry at the same time.
This book is categorized as "urban fantasy", though I would nitpick a bit there and call it "contemporary fantasy", just because so much of the book doesn't even happen on Earth as we know it. There are a couple of books that it reminded me of, in a very cursory way: Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series, just because of the Valkyries, and Justina Robson's Quantum Gravity series just because of the use of interconnected worlds with some similarities (lots of 'heim's). Yes, people who have read these books, they are NOTHING like Norse Code whatsoever, but I like pondering how authors take a concept in very different ways.
Overall: I liked it in a "Oh, that's a clever idea" kind of way. I probably would enjoy it more if I knew more of Norse mythology so I could have fun identifying myths and gods, but I wasn't so confused I couldn't follow the story. There's a very readable writing style, and the moments of wry humor tickled me. I'd recommend reading excerpts to get a feel for the book before you buy.
P.S I think this is a standalone.
Buy it: Amazon | B&N
Other reviews:
Calico reaction rated it as give it away.
Scooper Speaks "interesting, but [..] a tad bit choppy"
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.
Once Upon Stilettos is the second book in the Katie Chandler series by Shanna Swendson. Katie is a nice Texas girl in New York City who discovers that she has a very rare ability - an immunity to magic. This means she can see through enchantment and illusions and she's offered a job at Magic, Spells, and Illusions.
Book 2 continues where book 1 left off - the company is still dealing with the same villian - an underhanded ex-employee bent on sabotage. Katie is tasked to discover the identity of a suspected spy in MDI's midst, while dealing with her own relationship issues.
As with book 1 I found the series charming and light, but I'm beginning to want some more depth to some of the periphery characters other than Katie and a few main players. The villains are cartoonish, and while there are some darker parts to this book, for the most part things are kept fun and light. Which is fine if that's what you are in the mood for. Probably the best part of this book was the developing romance. I think that it was more fully featured here than in the first book. I found the ending satisfying and a good stopping point. While there is a wide opening for the series to continue, we aren't left with a cliffhanger.
I snagged the last copy of this book at my Borders a couple of weeks ago. Wicked Game was released recently in trade paperback format. It centers on the life of Ciara Griffin, an older (26) college student who is majoring in marketing and has just found herself a job at a local radio station.
Being an urban fantasy, nothing is as it first seems - the DJs at the radio station are all vampires, and Ciara is a reformed (sort of) grifter. The author puts a nice spin on the conventional vampire myth - each of the vampires is stuck in the timeperiod they were turned, unable to move forward with the rest of the world into the present time. this means they all play music from their era only and develop a half-amusing, half-tragic case of OCD. This is the least of their problems. The radio station is threatened to be swallowed up by a huge media conglomerate, which would mean all the DJs would have to play what the Man tell them to, which is just not possible because of their natures. Ciara decides to help out by marketing the radio station as it is: run by vampires. This doesn't sit well with everyone, including other vampires in the area.
I really enjoyed this one and I read it everywhere I went. My week has been full with work followed by one appointment after another and I was seriously irritated that I didn't have much time to read it and irritated every time someone talked to me and made me put it down. I think that it's been a long time where I've had that problem. Usually even when I'm enjoying a book I can put it down, but this book made me want to just immerse and enjoy and I didn't feel like there were any places where I wanted to put it down or check how many pages there were till the end - it just flowed well. I was always curious what was going to happen next.
Haven't done this in a while. Bullet time:
- I liked that the vampires were scary sometimes and yet approachable at other times. There were personalities that came out with each of them along with feeling of "other", not human being, that came across in this book better than some other vamp books I've read.
- What happens after you stick a stake in a vampire is explained in disturbing detail. New one for me.
- Ciara has a budding relationship with a younger vampire in this book. THANK GOD there is only a 10 year age difference because I swear, I do sometimes have a hard time with the - "he's 50+ years her senior, what do they have in common?" suspension of disbelief thing.
- Sometimes the radio station was WMMP, sometimes WVMP. I guess I missed the part where they decide to change the name? and then call it by it's old name again? I was a bit confused.
- The book has a definite ending and I felt pleased with it, but there are some loose ties. I think there is the opening for a continuation and a series if they are explored. I'm happy with it as a standalone though.
- I like that this is not just about vampires. There is also a lot of music, Ciara's personal problems and her past, and a sweet romance. It reminded me of that time period between college and "the real world" quite a bit. And Ciara seems real. She really has gone through some tough patches in life and it shows. Plus she reacts more like a real person when a vampire tries to bite her: I won't ruin it for you except to say she did NOT swoon. Also I liked that that Ciara uses her experience grifting to get her through tough situations. Her run ins with her nemisis from school were highly amusing.
- Oh! Almost forgot - the book is in first person present. Don't see that often. Sometimes it was strange, but often I managed to get too into the book to notice.
If you liked the references to music in War for the Oaks by Emma Bull, I think you would like this one too.
My past Jeri Smith-Ready posts
I started reading this book because it was the book of the month at the League of Reluctant Adults' blog. On top of that, C. E. Murphy has been on my list of authors I wanted to read because I read a short story by her in Winter Moon and really liked the writing.
This is book 1 in a trilogy that centers around Margrit Knight, a hardworking lawyer working for LegalAid, and a gargoyle named Alban. At first Margrit lives in the "normal" world, unaware of any kind of paranormal happenings in New York City, but after Alban speaks to her, she suddenly becomes involved in not just Alban's situation (believed to be a murderer) but in others as well. I found Margrit's character believable as someone I'd meet in this world, and someone admirable as well. Margrit is just that type of person that's has strong convictions about helping others, and she is very good at that. There were several places in the book where despite the fact that she's in a position of weakness, she never allows that to be an issue when she speaks. She always manages to convey strength with whom ever she is dealing with, and I really liked that! At the league blog when we were discussing themes, I suggested that one of those was feminism, and tmthomas posted a really interesting comment about formal vs informal power. In either case, it was something refreshing to see. I felt like this is the kind of strong heroine I like.
On top of that, the secondary characters were quite well written as well. Margrit's on-again, off-again lover, her roommates, her boss.. they all played understandable roles of people concerned for Margrit although unaware of what was really going on. There were understandable conflicts that came out of this. Then there are the paranormal/supernatural/Other creatures. Murphy has some new twists to the conventional myths and also populates the world with some beings not usually found in urban fantasy. These "people" feel dangerous and unknown but also fascinating. Particularly during their interactions with Margrit. I'm looking forward to finding out more about them through Margrit's dealings with them in the next two books. And - the city. I have to say, it does feel like New York to me when I read this book. An everyday, yeah I live here, New York.
So basically - good, above average read. I wasn't staying up all night to read it, I took my time (about 5 days?), but the writing was skilled, I did enjoy myself, and I felt quite satisfied when I finished.
Ah, another butt shot cover. I liked this one.
This is book 3 of the Mercedes Thompson series. Mercy, a VW mechanic who can shapeshift into a coyote, can't help sticking her nose into things when her friends are in danger, even when they tell her to back off. Book 1 was Mercy helping werewolves, book 2 was helping the vampires, and in book 3 she's involved with the fae. This time the problem is that her mentor Zee is being charged with murder. Mercy feels she must prove his innocence to save his life, even though he tells her get her ass lost.
Lazy bullet time:
- There is a resolution to the love triangle Mercy is involved in since book 1. I was pleased with it. It felt like her decision was inevitable but I liked how her choice was explained.
- I think you can probably read this book out of order, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's a lot better knowing what happened in books 1 and 2.
- I was really looking forward to this book, and I think a lot of people loved the story, but I didn't feel the same way at the end of this one as the others. I don't think the end made me feel "satisfied", but this isn't the fault of the writing. I'm going to try to say this without spoilers. Basically - I found myself being chilled by what I was reading. It went past my personal comfort zone, which shows that the writing is good, but I don't think I want to reread it. At all. Meanwhile I would reread books 1 and 2. So basically, this was a different kind of book to me - more visceral, less escapist. I could go into why and blah but that would spoil so that's all I have to say.
- So good book, not sure if i could handle it again. I'm fragile.
- I love this protagonist.
- Wonder what book 4 is going to be like? I thought there were 7 of these books coming out, and since this book seems like it concludes, I can't tell if we are going to keep hearing from Mercy (I hope we do), or if we're going to get a book from another POV. I wonder if we're going to revist the vamps because Mercy was a little nervous about them finding things out after book 2?
This is a young adult novel was recommended as being along the same lines as Holly Black's Faerie series, so I went to look for it. Findabhair and Gwenhyvar (Gwen) are two cousins (one Irish, one American) who want to believe in Faerie and to have adventures. Gwen visits Fin one summer and they plan to tour Ireland together, centering around famous Faerie related places, but soon after their tour begins Finabhair is stolen by the Faerie, leaving Gwen to seek her. Gwen pretty much gets guided by helpful strangers to chase her cousin, the king of Faerie, and his court across Ireland.
While the writing was really lovely and magical, especially in describing the scenery, the story felt predictable - a quest story, sort of mirroring fairytales of snatched princesses and the brave journeyer who uses their resourcefulness to save them. It started to get repetitious - Gwen catching up with Fin, then losing her again, then following her again to the next site. The characters themselves were also a little flat. I found myself bored several times and putting the book down. What I felt redeemed this book were those beautiful descriptions (especially of Faerie) I mentioned and all the references to Irish myth. You could tell the author knew what she was writing about. Here's an example of a passage when Gwen is asked to dance with the fairies:
"Parting leaf from twig and eyelid from slumber, anyone and everything was awake in the night. To life we wake from the long forgotten dream, the beautiful mystery. The taste of existence is a drop of honey on the tongue. So very sweet and very old, we have gone to seed and run wild in the wind. It ws a dance of stars and flowers and souls. Gwen stepped into the chain to become part of the whole. How long she danced she couldn't know. Time branched like a tree and each bud was eternity. She could feel the world dissolve into myth."
Remember that post I made a while ago about this series (I was miffed because I heard they were chopping it off at book 4 instead of the complete 5)? I finally got around to reading book one.
The series is about Katie Chandler, a Texas girl who has relocated to the Big City (NYC) and discovered that she's normal. So normal that she's in fact rare - someone with no magic in her what-so-ever, which means that she is not fooled by enchantments and can see through them. She thinks she's just not jaded enough when no one else blinks at the girl in fairy wings or the gargoyles that aren't always in the same place. Then she finds out other people aren't seeing what she's seeing and she's so unusual she's offered a job.
In one word - the book was "charming". I think it has a sweet, uncomplicated appeal to it. Nice texan girl comes to New York and makes good using her common sense. I also like the idea of a secret side to the city, and the author does incorporate a lot of New York into the story. There is also a lot of interesting aspects to the magical world that the author included in the story (like how many frogs in Central Park really are princes and the hijinks that ensue when Katie gets talked into going to kiss some with her tipsy female coworkers). I'm having a little trouble categorizing the genre of this book though. The romance is so light I don't even know if I should mention it, but I think it's possibly going to come up more in following books. I think it comes closest to being chick-lit. Except ..I guess I'm used to chick-lit books being more stand-alone and something, than this book feels. Anyway: a pleasant read, I found it hard to put down. I'll be looking for book two.
In book one, Cassandra (Cassie) Palmer is introduced as a clairvoyant with the ability to see ghosts and see flashes of the future (usually bad things that she can't stop from happening). Raised by vampires with mafia-like attributes, she escapes their "care" and spends most of the book running around and being chased by different factions of mages and vampires while learning that the power of the Pythia (head clairvoyant for lack of a better description) is going to be hers. She doesn't want to be Pythia and to make things more complicated - others are trying their damnedest to make her Pythia or to kill her and stop her from becoming it. On top of that is a lot of action and some time travel that occurs when some of the Pythia's abilities start to transfer to Cassie.
Now in book 2 we have some of the same problems - Cassie has enemies and her supporters aren't very clear cut. She still spends her time running from one place to another and again we have people who want her to be under their control or dead. I think the goal here is Cassie wanting to track down two people who she knows are her enemies and want to kill her, but she spends so much time getting there it was ridiculous. Subgoal - she has a geas placed on her by master vamp Mircea, her guardian from childhood which binds her to him and she wants it off.
This was the book: Cassie is somewhere, suddenly 4 random characters appear and chaos ensues, Cassie gets/runs away or other character/s leaves. Cassie is somewhere else (it doesn't help that she gets pulled back and forth in time too). Suddenly 4 random characters mentioned in book 1 or new ones appear and chaos ensues. Cassie runs away. Cassie is somewhere else.. suddenly more characters appear, chaos, fighting, someone runs away.. Cassie is somewhere else.. SUDDENLY...
Oh my god. First of all: does it have to be this way? And how slowly does anything happen in between all the action? Sure its interesting to see the world building here and the neat new characters with cool abilities (moving tattoos, incubi, magic bombs, portals, talismans, zombies, gargoyles), and fights and action is fine, but don't overdo it so that it bogs down the story. Save it for the next book! Basically: too many characters, too much action without a break, too complicated. What really irritates me is that if the author cut down on her interesting ideas she would have a good story, but she has a tendency to just throw everything in there and mix. This COULD be a good book, but too much cool ideas = overkill. If there were less new characters added every scene or so, less action (does it have to happen every scene?), and less complications, the book would be AWESOME. Right now the pace is always high, and its tiring to read something with one pace. It needs breaks and it doesn't have any. Something is always happening and even when Cassie does her thinking and planning - she's doing this when she HAS to make a decision, so its all very forced march and it doesn't help that explaining her decisions is very complicated to read because the author adds a billion things to make things more complicated - mostly more and more characters with their own agendas. Cassie explains her thought process is this way: "If I d x, then this is how the vampires will react, this is how the mages will react, this is why its good for me, this is why its bad for me, this is probably the goal of the vamps, this is what the mages probably want.. blah blah blah". Very confusing and irritating that it has to be so complicated and take so long. I would like to see Cassie just make a decision and explain it in simple, straightforward, non wishy washy terms. What's sad is that because I see it could be awesome I keep reading, hoping the plot will get better. Another thing: I really don't like it when the author finds a plot device where sex is needed in order to complete some ritual or where the characters get all hot and bothered because of a spell, both which are used in this book. Not to have orgies or anything, there hardly any actual sex in here, but it hangs over everything and the plot revolves around it and I suspect will continue to revolve around it.
Siiiiigh. I just ranted on that one. And yet: I still want the author to get it right in the next book and I'm willing to read it to see if she does. I liked book one better, so maybe I'll like book three better. Or I'm a machochistic.
General feeling - 4.5 (it was ok. I think it can be redeemed)
Plot - 4 (didn't like it, made worse by it came close to being good)
Writing style - 7 (The writing is good. Nit: were some typos I noticed in the early pages that bugged me - quotes in wrong place, same exact sentence used twice in a couple of pages that were right next to each other)
