Tag Archives: Orbit

Strange Practice

Book Vivian ShawReview of Strange Practice (Dr. Greta Helsing, #1), by Vivian Shaw

Leave a reply

I borrowed a copy of Strange Practice, by Vivian Shaw, from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Greta Helsing inherited the family’s highly specialized, and highly peculiar, medical practice. In her consulting rooms, Dr. Helsing treats the undead for a host of ills – vocal strain in banshees, arthritis in barrow-wights, and entropy in mummies. Although barely making ends meet, this is just the quiet, supernatural-adjacent life Greta’s been groomed for since childhood.

Until a sect of murderous monks emerges, killing human and undead Londoners alike. As terror takes hold of the city, Greta must use her unusual skills to stop the cult if she hopes to save her practice, and her life.

Review:
This was one of those books I generally enjoyed, then say back and thought about and decided I had a problem with it. I’ll start with what I enjoyed. I thought the vampire mythos was interesting, as was the idea of a supernatural doctor (that’s a doctor to the supernatural, she’s not herself supernatural). There was quite a lot of humor and the writing is pretty good. All in all, enjoyable.

But…BUT it’s just so classically and problematically male. It’s a Greta Helsing novel, granted, but why is she essentially the only female? The gang was comprised of Greta, two vampires, a demon and a research fellow. There just isn’t any reason at least one of those couldn’t be a woman. But no, Greta is surrounded by, taken care of by and takes advice from only men. At least one of which (the one she’s attracted to) thinks it’s not really appropriate for a woman to be a doctor. She’s constantly wishing for her father and his advice, her mother wholly absent. (I can’t remember if it even said how she, presumably, died.) Even the villain’s henchmen are all male. Why do authors (especially female authors) keep leaving women out of their worlds? Here, I noticed it and as the book went on it just got more and more noticeable and more and more irritating. Because the series may be named after Greta, but it’s a book about the men around Greta. Bah! Forget that.

Book Review of The Rule of Luck (Felicia Sevigny #1), by Catherine Cerveny

Leave a reply

I borrowed a copy of Catherine Cerveny‘s The Rule of Luck for my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Year 2950. Humanity has survived devastating climate shifts and four world wars, coming out stronger and smarter than ever. Incredible technology is available to all, and enhancements to appearance, intelligence, and physical ability are commonplace.

In this future, Felicia Sevigny has built her fame reading the futures of others.

Alexei Petriv, the most dangerous man in the TriSystem, will trust only Felicia to read his cards. But the future she sees is darker than either of them could ever have imagined. A future that pits them against an all-knowing government, almost superhuman criminals, and something from Felicia’s past that she could never have predicted, but that could be the key to saving — or destroying — them all.

Review:
Generally enjoyable, I liked how much Felicia stood up for herself and showed anger for her mistreatments at Alexei’s hand. And there were a lot of them. So many in fact that, even by the end, I had a hard time letting go and rooting for them as a pair. This was exasperated by the fact that the sort of love/lust developing is based on something other than who they are as people. (Think fated mates, but not.) This always annoys me, because it makes them interchangeable with anyone else who fills that demographic.

All in all, however, I liked Cerveny’s writing and the book itself. I’m not sure if I’m up for more of this series, but I’m sure interested in more of Cerveny’s writing.

The Way of Shadows

Book Review of The Way of Shadows (Night Angel #1), by Brent Weeks

Leave a reply

I bought a copy of The Way of Shadows, by Brent Weeks.

Description from Goodreads:
For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art-and he is the city’s most accomplished artist.

For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he’s grown up in the slums, and learned to judge people quickly – and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint.

But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins’ world of dangerous politics and strange magics – and cultivate a flair for death.

Review:
Having hit my 300-books-read in 2017 goal with 2 days to spare, I decided to splurge with a long book. The Way of Shadows is 659 pages long and fit the bill. Considering I bought it in October of 2014, I was confused about why I hadn’t read it before now. They I discovered (or rediscovered, because this is undoubtably why I set it aside and forgot about it) that it is the first in a SPINOFF series.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve picked up a ‘book one,’ only to realize it’s not actually a first book at all, and I’m starting to get a little sensitive about it. I stuck with it though, since I’d already started it when I made this rediscovery. For those in the same boat, it’s readable. Though you certainly feel you’re missing some history.

Overall, I felt this was overly long but other wise pretty good (with one major exception). I liked the characters, the world, the writing, the magic system and the story. I’m interested in going back and picking the series up at the beginning and reading the rest of it. All good things.

Here’s my one BIG exception. I understand that throughout history the age of majority has not always been what it is today and that people often married a lot earlier than we do now, which means having sex earlier. I even understand that in certain parts of the world this is still happening. I’m not a prude about sex and I get that this book is meant to be gritty. But after the 11-year-old boy gets repeatedly raped (one of many), another uses sex as bait, 2 8-year-old prostitutes offer debasing sex acts, the 15-year-old’s sexy body is described in detail as she attempts to consummate her marriage, and the mere existence of child brothels as a practice, as well as several other vaguer references, I just started to feel a little contaminated and dirty. It was just constantly there. Never told in glorified, titillating detail, but always present. And that was just sex, there was of course the constant reality of violence and starvation too. It was too much for me.

Similarly, no female characters exist outside of their sex. They’re either prostitutes, mistresses, exceptional virgins, or being used for political bargaining chips. Epic fantasy has a long history of this, but it’s still aways disappointing to find.

Outside of that one biggy, I consider this a win and look forward to reading more of Weeks work.