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Memento Mori

Book Review of Memento Mori, by Katy O’Dowd

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Memento MoriAuthor, Katy O’Dowd sent me a copy of her novel Memento Mori.

Description from Goodreads:
Take tea with the Victorian Mafia – organized crime has never been so civilized 

Revenge is a dish best served cold. At the Lamb residence, it is also served on fine bone china. 

The untimely demise of Thaddeus Lamb leaves his son Riley in charge of the vast Lamb empire, which imports tea, picks pockets, extorts, and keeps men warm on cold winter’s nights. And so the Lambs grieve for their father in the best way they know how… Retribution. 

Hired by the new head of the Fox Family, a position recently vacated by another untimely demise, the assassin O’Murtagh is tasked with the utter destruction of all the Lamb Family’s business associates. They learn the hard way that there is no better hit man than a beautiful woman with tricks and weapons up her finely coiffed sleeves. 

Treachery and deceit abound in the streets of London, and no one is safe. Honestly, it’s enough to make anyone drink. Would you care for one lump or two?

Review:
Memento Mori is an ambitious novel. Taken on by a less talented writer, I think it could easily have been a flop. So many intricately woven plot points going back and forwards in time and revealing small clues before tying them all together in the last few pages surely too immense skill to keep straight, let alone produce readability. But O’Dowd manages it.

While I had a hard time warming up to Sunday (she’s not exactly the warm and fuzzy type), she is a marvellous assassin. (I joked at one point that she is the assassin Celaena Sardothien, from Throne of Glass, wanted to be.) So often female assassins in literature are shown to be emotionally crippled by their work in ways male assassins never are. Even authors who set out to write kick-ass killer heroines seem to feel obliged to maintain some semblance of the feeble female who can’t quite separate herself like a man. I often find myself irritated.

Sunday’s professionalism trumps her emotions time and time again and I appreciated this about her. And O’Dawd also never excuses Sunday’s unladylike profession by ensuring all her victims are monochromatically bad. I came close to tears over a mark at one point and actually cried at another. Oh, how I love an author who lets likeable characters go.

Similarly, I have never come across more likeable villains than the Lamb brothers and their dandified muscle, Michaels and Davids. They’re seriously bad men, who you just can’t help but like.

Despite all of the unexpected ways these characters’ lives intersected and the amazing writing it took to bring it all together, I did think the book drug for a while. Everything is told in a sort of staid, mellow tone that flows nicely but never really grips a reader. You meander toward the end instead of race to it.

It ended well though. By which I mean there is an actual ending. It’s definitely open for more, but it’s not a precipitous cliffhanger. Having finished the book, I feel I’ve satisfactorily finished this part of the story too. Definitely worth picking up if you like Victorian mob stories with light steampunk elements.

Grown Men

Book Review of Grown Men (Hard Cell, #1), by Damon Suede

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I feel I should give readers of a more sensitive nature a warning that the short story I review at the end of this post is a little on the strange side and if you follow the link provided you’re likely to encounter some unexpected nudity. Just go in knowing that so no one is caught unawares. 🙂 I’m keeping things brief tonight, two short reviews for two shortish stories.

Grown MenI bought a copy of Damon Suede‘s Grown Men.

Description from Goodreads:
Marooned in the galactic backwaters of the HardCell company, colonist Runt struggles to eke out an existence on a newly-terraformed tropical planetoid. Since his clone-wife died on entry, he’s been doing the work of two on his failing protein farm. Overworked and undersized, Runt’s dwindling hope of earning corporate citizenship has turned to fear of violent “retirement.”

When an overdue crate of provisions crashes on his beach, Runt searches frantically for a replacement wife among the tools and food. Instead he gets Ox, a mute hulk who seems more like a corporate assassin than a simple offworld farmer.

Shackwacky and near-starving, Runt has no choice but to work with his silent partner despite his mounting paranoia and the unsettling appeal of Ox’s genetically altered pheromones. Ox plays the part of the gentle giant well, but Runt’s still not convinced he hasn’t arrived with murder in mind.

Between brutal desire and the seeds of a relationship, Runt’s fears and Ox’s inhuman past collide on a fertile world where hope and love just might have room to grow.

Review:
I thought that this was surprisingly sweet. Ox is this gentle giant that you can’t help but adore and Runt shows an amazing ability to trust and eventually love. (Though he does seem to do a lot of things “without thinking.”) Plus, the whole thing is set in a wonderfully vivid world with clear imagery made possible by sharp writing.

I was in love with this book for about the first 2/3s. The whole thing fell apart for me in the, frankly, strange sex scene. I knew it was coming. The whole latter half of the book built up to it and I knew, being as Ox is SO much bigger than Runt, something out of the ordinary was going to have to transpire. And I’ll even grant that it was hot in its own way, but it also didn’t particularly rock my boat. Oh well. I’ll forgive it that one flaw and call it much better than expected.

Seedy Business

Seedy Business is a free short story that chronicles the events leading up to Ox’s arrival on Runt’s farm.

Description from Goodreads:
Revenge can get sticky.

This prequel to Grown Men* is a crazy sci-fi short about sperm piracy and sibling rivalry gone seriously wrong.

When corporate mercenary Beirn agrees to a sleazy organ harvest job, he walks straight into his worst nightmare, a trap set by the twin brother he betrayed. Against his better judgment, Beirn teams up with a semen smuggler to save his own skin and hopefully make amends to the only family he has left.

Loathing turns to lust as the two men grapple with their violent impulses and their growing desire. In one terrible night, impossible feelings will force Beirn to understand the brother he betrayed and the mistakes he’s made.

Warning: doublecrosses, dirty sex, and designer testicles

Review:
That was…well…interesting. It’s about semen a pirate and a mercenary who happens to have sold his brother’s gonads. That should tell you something about the story. Actually that should tell you a lot about the story, maybe even everything you need to know about it. It’s just this side of gross, the sex is very similar to that in Grown Men, the MC has a whiplash change of heart (though he’s supposed to have had an epiphany as a result of his brother’s lesson) and the whole thing is just a little bit squinky. But if you’re in the mood for a little bizarro sex romp, the writing really is very good, so this one might fit the bill.

Book Review of Knight Errant & His Faithful Squire, by K. D. Sarge

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I purchased e-copies of Knight Errant and His Faithful Squire, by K. D. Sarge. At the time of posting, they were both on sale for 0.99 each.

Knight ErrantDescription of Knight Errant:
From pickpocket and con artist to little brother and trusted comrade is a tough transition, but Taro is making it. His new sister, former Marine Eve Marcori, promised his dead mother she’d look after him. To her that means family, home–her interstellar freighter–and a solid future. In four years she has trained Taro extensively; the next step is college. Taro would rather be shot, but he never forgets his debt to Eve, so he means to honor her plans or die in the attempt.

When Eve rescues former joy-boy and current layabout Rafe Ballard, death seems the likely outcome. Rafe is so apparently useless that Eve calls him ‘the baggage’ and appoints Taro his custodian. Irritated into disobedience by his carefree charge, Taro tries to get rid of Rafe. Instead he gets them both kidnapped by the jealous husband Rafe was fleeing. Though they are off-planet before Taro can act, his training may be enough to bring them safely through–but now he has bigger problems. Forced into partnership–and freedom–with Rafe, Taro begins to see him differently. Kind, funny, and caring, Rafe is everything Taro never knew he wanted. And all he can’t have. Eve’s plans leave no room for a playboy boyfriend who can never measure up, and Taro can’t let her down.

Caught between the sister he’d die for and the man he’s beginning to live for, Taro decides it’s time to start making his own plans. And if the new skills aren’t enough, he’ll give the old ones a try.

Review:
This was very cute in a shounen ai/Boy’s Love kind of way. (An impression that is, no doubt, helped along by the cover.) It’s a well loved plot, really—eminently capable and serious man is burdened with the care of an inept but goodhearted partner who eventually brings joy and levity to his otherwise dark life. But it’s one of my favourite, and Taro and Rafe fill the roles well.

I have to say the lack of sex was disappointing. Not just because I like a little summin’-summin’ in my reading but also because Rafe is a trained companion (prostitute, for lack of a better description), and the characters are having lots and lots of sex. Knowing it’s happening so often, but seeing none of it felt unnatural and forced.

Now I understand that to include it would take the book from a m/m YA genre to a m/m erotic novel, which is quite the jump, and I imagine there are people who would take issue with the graphic depiction of sex involving a 15-year-old, especially since Rafe is in his early twenties somewhere. But the truth is that I think the book needed some sex, and I really don’t think Taro’s age worked on the whole anyhow, so he could have been old enough to make it work.

He acts older, for sure, but he’s also supposed to be an accomplished brawler. He wins fight after fight. The thing about a 15-year-old boy is that they’re often not fully grown, and his character is on the small side anyway, so I can’t actually imagine him being so dangerous. What’s more, he’s treated as older, often invited to poker games and hanging out with ship captains and other marines. Being 15 just doesn’t fit. He desperately needed a few more years on him.

Having said all that, I adored both Taro and Rafe. I also loved that Eve, Taro’s sister, is so completely badass. I love me a strong bitch-queen. All the side characters, though not well fleshed, were fun too. The writing was witty, and the editing was good. An all-around satisfying read.

His Faithful SquireDescription of His Faithful Squire:
Former joy-boy Rafe Ballard likes living on the freighter Pendragon’s Dream. Under the watchful eye of Captain Eve Marcori, Marine veteran, no one beats him. He eats well, his life is rarely in danger, and – most important by far – he spends much of his days and all the glorious nights with his beloved Taro.

Energetic Taro, on the other hand, is eager to take on the galaxy without his sister the captain standing by. Rafe doesn’t mind – he’ll follow Taro anywhere. He’s learned enough to get a real job so he won’t be holding Taro back. Taro is beyond capable of keeping him safe. What could go wrong?

With a Marcori in the picture, lots.

Review:
Like Knight Errant, this was really quite cute, but it wasn’t as good (in a purely subjective way). I wasn’t a fan of Rafe’s first-person narrative style. I’m never really a fan of first-person narratives to start with, but I’m especially annoyed at them when the narrator makes a habit of addressing the reader. And that’s what it is, annoying. Plus, while I adore both Taro and Rafe, Rafe was always the less interesting of the two.

To be fair, one of this book’s primary themes was Rafe’s attempt to find himself outside of his dedication to another and become more interesting. Or rather, Taro’s attempt to force Rafe to do so, or even just notice that he needs to be making an effort in that direction. And that makes Taro about the most loveable man in the galaxy. He’s wonderful. So is Rafe for that matter, as is their indomitable love for one another. It’s all very, very sweet. It’s just not very exciting.

The book also isn’t as focused as the first one. Since Taro and Rafe’s love is the primary plot point, the book is essentially about them running around, encountering a variety of unrelated challenges and overcoming them. There is no overarching plot beyond how much they love each other. By the end it eventually just degenerated into sketching out events for the reader.

I do have to stress again, as I did for the first book, that for two characters said to be having soooo much sex, it’s annoying to see none of it. Yes, I understand that would drastically change the genre classification of the series, but both characters are over 18 now, and the book is full of references to sex, sexual innuendo, and plain old ‘we had lots and lots of sex’ type comments, so it feels like a glaring omission to see none of it.

Having said all that, the fact that I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first book isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it at all. I really did. Again, Taro and Rafe’s love is full of amazing ‘awww’ moments, and though I’m not a big fan of the hearts and flowers sort of romances, and they’re pretty thick here, even I melted a little. There is something about stiff reticent men speaking about love that does that to me. I also like Keen, the new addition to the crew, and still adore the cast of the Dream, though they play a reduced role here.

All in all, mildly disappointing simply because it didn’t stand up to its predecessor, but still a fun cute read full of humour, emotion, and good writing. I’ll definitely be up for more of Sarge’s books.