Midnight Riot - Ben Aaronovitch - Review

 

A fun read in an interestingly created version of modern London. Peter Grant is a rookie London cop who happens to see a ghost shortly after a murder. Peter intercepts the ghost and interviews him. Needless to say he's reluctant to admit how he got information on the murderer, but he's also a bit of a smartass so when one fellow asks him who he was talking to he makes it sound like a joke and mouths off that he's interviewed a ghost. The fellow reacts far differently than Peter expected, and thus begins Peter's sudden apprenticeship to DCI Thomas Nightingale, a special sort of detective in a special branch of the Met, oh, and as a practitioner of magic.

Interesting characters, and the mystery has enough twists to surprise. And I loved the whole concept of 'The Rivers of London.' Too bad the US publisher didn't keep that name for the book.

I look forward to reading 'Moon Over Soho'.

(I won this book through a DelReySpectra contest) (  )

Review - Elfland by Freda Warrington

Although Elfland begins slowly, it quickly expands outward in both scope and character development. The story follows two families, both Aetherial (Fay) living on Earth. But the gates that allow the Aetherial to travel between the world of men and the world of Fay are closed. The Gatekeeper senses a threat to the existence of both worlds and refused to allow anyone through. The consequences and the roots of that decision drive the book.

I enjoyed the book tremendously, particularly the second half. Well developed characters, an inventive view of fairies, and what the world might be like of they lived among us.

The plot is convoluted enough to hold your interest and the characters are drawn well and are conflicted and confusing enough for you to want to learn their fates.

Well written, exciting, recommended! (  )

The Dispossessed - A Non-Review

I woke up this morning and decided to abandon The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin.  I've read a third of it and find myself mostly avoiding it, which is not a good thing.

It isn't that I don't like it, exactly. It's more I'm indifferent to it. In all that third of the book, not a bloody thing of note has happened. The character does a lot of soul searching, and comparing of societies and that's pretty much all the action there is. Yeah, he leaves his own planet and goes to another, and for him that's a huge step, but for me it is pretty boring.

A 4 Star romp begins where Changeless left off. Alexia is preggers and her husband doesn't believe it's his.  Alexia, not one to sit around feeling bad, decides to invade Europe rather than sit around until Connell comes to his senses. He is a werewolf after all.


Everyone needs a Floote. And it wouldn't hurt to be rescued by Channing Channing of the Chesterfield Channings, either. And Alexia does need rescuing this time. She gets herself into quite a pickle - why, she can't even get a decent up of TEA! Oh, those damn Templars! Although she does discover pesto.

A spirited romp across Europe ends up with our heroine as prisoner in the catacombs of Florence. And where you may ask is Connell? Stuck in London, dealing with vampiric uprisings and disappearances, a brand new werewolf and Ivy Tunstell ne Hisslepenny. No wonder he's in a bad mood.  Also, he knows he's going to have to grovel; and soon.

 What's a girl to do? She's been pretending to be a boy so she could serve on the Darwinist British Airship Leviathan. And poor Daryn is scrambling to keep her secret, but things keep getting in the way!  One, most notably, being the escaped prince of Austria-Hungary who is aboard and is struggling to keep his own secrets.

Between the two of them, well, mayhem ensues. Look out Istanbul, you're in their crosshairs.

Another great read from Scott Westerfeld!  4 1/2 out of 5 stars

Quotes

'Gravity was something something you could beat: all it took was hydrogen, hot air, or even a bit of rope. But being a girl was a miserable, never-ending struggle.' - Behemoth - Scott Westerfeld

LOL.I know the feeling...

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N.K. Jemisin - Review

            4 1/2 of 5 stars

Yiene, whose mother abdicated her claim to the throne, is suddenly recalled to the capital by her grandfather and informed he's naming her heir. Yiene, knowing he already has two heirs designated - her cousins - is immediately suspicious. And well she should be. For from the moment she arrives she finds herself embroiled in palace intrigue.

Bad enough that the humans are plotting and jockeying for positions of power, but so are the bound gods the king and his family have control over. Yiene finds herself allying with one god, and incredibly sexually aroused by the most dangerous of them.

She's horrified at how everyone is treated, but mostly at how the gods are treated.  The gods, defeated in a War with the God of Itempas, are bound forever and enslaved,  to be used and abused by Yiene's family. But they've got a plan to end their slavery and she discovers she's at the center of that plan.

It's hard to review this book, as the plots are intricate and spoilers would result, so I'll stick with the basics rather than the plot.

Characterization is wonderful. Description is wonderful. The book gripped me from almost the first page and I found myself drawn in and swept up in Yeine's discovery of the horrors of the capital city Sky, the confusion Yiene feels as she discovers the city's secrets, the gods' secrets and the horrors her family have and still are perpetrating.

Can she survive this place?  Does she even want to?

A wonderfully exciting and memorable book.

Read for The Women of Fantasy Challenge