Monthly Archives: July 2016

Book Review of The Dragon Round, by Stephen S. Power

Leave a reply

The Dragon RoundI was granted an e-copy of The Dragon Round, by Stephen S. Power, from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
He only wanted justice. Instead he got revenge.

Jeryon has been the captain of the Comber for over a decade. He knows the rules. He follows the rules. He likes the rules. But not everyone on his ship agrees. When a monstrous dragon attacks the Comber, his surviving crew, vengeful and battle-worn, decide to take the ship for themselves and give Jeryon and his self-righteous apothecary “the captain’s chance:” a small boat with no rudder, no sails, and nothing but the shirts on their backs to survive.

Marooned and fighting for their lives against the elements, Jeryon and his companion discover that the island they’ve landed on isn’t quite as deserted as they originally thought. They find a rare baby dragon that, if trained, just might be their ticket off the island. But as Jeryon and the dragon grow closer, he begins to realize that even if he makes it off the island, his life will never be the same again. In order for justice to be served, he’ll have to take it for himself.

Review:
Nope, this one was not for me. Or rather the second half wasn’t. If it had continued in the same vein as the first half I probably would have liked it. But there is a definite difference between the first and second half and I found the second half excessively long and boring. About a billion characters were introduced out of nowhere, while the original two were basically dropped. One never reemerged until the last couple pages for no purpose but as a set up for a sequel. So there was no satisfying closure between them and the reader.

Even as unhappy as I was with the latter half of the book, I still would have called the book ok (just not to my liking). Then it reached the end and I was most displeased. I mean, the tagline of the book is he only wanted justice. Instead he got revenge. I don’t feel like he got either and the futility of it all left me feeling like I’d wasted my time reading it.

Add to that the fact that major, life altering events happened with so little fan fair that I occasionally had to read them twice just to be sure I should at least assume they held importance. And the fact that the mutiny happened so early in the book that I didn’t yet know or care enough for it to make sense in context of the characters and the town leaders were such Ebenezer Scrooge caricatures that I found them unbelievable. There were a lot of detractors here for me.

I did appreciate that the relationship between the Poth and Jeryon remained platonic and I thought the dragon had a lot of personality—as did the crabs, oddly enough. (Yeah, there are killer crabs, BTW.) But I’m just glad to finally be done with the book. At one point I thought it might go on forever.

The Night Circus

Book Review of The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern

Leave a reply

The Night CircusI picked up a hardback copy of Erin Morgenstern‘s The Night Circus somewhere. I’m not even sure where. I imagine I’m not the only one this happens to. Right? Right!?

Description from Goodreads:
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices plastered on lampposts and billboards. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

Within these nocturnal black-and-white striped tents awaits an utterly unique, a feast for the senses, where one can get lost in a maze of clouds, meander through a lush garden made of ice, stare in wonderment as the tattooed contortionist folds herself into a small glass box, and become deliciously tipsy from the scents of caramel and cinnamon that waft through the air.

Welcome to Le Cirque des Rêves.

Beyond the smoke and mirrors, however, a fierce competition is under way–a contest between two young illusionists, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in a “game” to which they have been irrevocably bound by their mercurial masters. Unbeknownst to the players, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.

As the circus travels around the world, the feats of magic gain fantastical new heights with every stop. The game is well under way and the lives of all those involved–the eccentric circus owner, the elusive contortionist, the mystical fortune-teller, and a pair of red-headed twins born backstage among them–are swept up in a wake of spells and charms.

But when Celia discovers that Marco is her adversary, they begin to think of the game not as a competition but as a wonderful collaboration. With no knowledge of how the game must end, they innocently tumble headfirst into love. A deep, passionate, and magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

Their masters still pull the strings, however, and this unforeseen occurrence forces them to intervene with dangerous consequences, leaving the lives of everyone from the performers to the patrons hanging in the balance.

Review:
This is one of those books that has been on my radar for a long time and a lot of my friends loved it. I thought it was ok, though I certainly see what its die-hard fans love so much. It’s very descriptive and has a pleasant, sedate narrative pace that is easy to fall into.

But as a reader, I most appreciate getting to know characters deeply and the only character I felt I knew well in this book was the circus. Every detail seemed to be described. And it’s pretty to read, but I wish the same attention had been lavished on the living, breathing, human characters and their interrelationships. I never felt I knew them well enough to care particularly about them.

Similarly, leaping back and forwards in time, which is just what this book does, personally always annoys me. There’s nothing wrong with either of these things. It just meant I wasn’t an overly happy reader, even if I could objectively see that it is a cleverly written book.

In the end, I thought it was a fine book, just not one that matched my own preferences well.

the parasol protectorate banner

Book Review: The Parasol Protectorate (#1-3), by Gail Carriger

Leave a reply

This post isn’t quite a normal book review post in the sense that I put reviews (if only short ones) for The Parasol Protectorate books on Goodreads. However, despite being a series I very much enjoyed and leading me to read several more of Gail Carriger’s books, I can’t see that I ever posted them here on the blog. I’m baffled. So, I’m bringing the reviews from Goodreads to the blog to patch the hole. (I’m approximating dates too.) This is a compilation of the first three books (not the only copy of them I own); I’ve, in fact, read all five.

the parasol protectorate

Book 1: SOULLESS
Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire — and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

Review:

Except for some annoying head hopping, I found this an amusing read of the totally ridiculous type.

Book 2: CHANGELESS
Alexia Tarabotti, the Lady Woolsey, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears – leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria.

But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. Even when her investigations take her to Scotland, the backwater of ugly waistcoats, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only the soulless can.

She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.

Review:

Still enjoyed the book—Alexia, her batty friends/family, the steampunkness, the narrative tone, etc. However, what I most enjoyed about Soulless was the byplay of Alexia and Conall and you just get so very little of that here. I missed it a lot.

Book 3: BLAMELESS
Quitting her husband’s house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season.

Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London’s vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.

While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires — and they’re armed with pesto.

Review:

Conall: “So, yeah, like despite doing nothing wrong, sorry, I immediately distrusted you, called you horrible names, disparaged your character, rejected you, threw you out of your home such that you were then turned away by your family, shunned by society, dismissed from your position, insulted, emotionally devastated, captured, experimented on, narrowly avoided vivisection and had to fight off numerous attempts at assassination. Tee-hee, my bad. But I’ve forgiven you now. So, hurry up and get naked so we can have some of that ‘bed sport’ you know I love so much.”
“Alexia: “Sure, ok.”

Really Carriger, this is what you offer us? No, thank you.

I still enjoyed Alexia, her friends (Floote & Lyall were the primary redemptive qualities of the whole book), and the sarcastic humour of the series, but Conall has proven himself to be such an ass I may not even continue with the series. And I do not at all feel that he in any way made up for the harm he caused (let alone the potentially fatal position he placed the woman he is supposed to love in).

Nope.

the parasol protectorate photo