Not Sure That’s A Word…

Dark Debt, by Chloe Neill. Book eleven of the Chicagoland Vampires series.

Why did I read this? Because sometimes you just have to read a trashy romance novel, and they’re more bearable if characters have multiple opportunities to be dismembered. That’s my quota for the year, I think.

Anyway, the series follows Merit, a vampire, and member of a “House” of vampires (one of three in Chicago). In this book, a mysterious figure from another character’s past shows up and causes havoc! Excitement! Drama! Kissing! Fight scenes! The Mob! Everything a good romance needs! In all honesty, the plot’s not that deep, but I’ll stick to my no-spoilers rule and say only that it could have gone in an interesting direction, if there weren’t two (seemingly unconnected) parallel main plots.

Anyway, as you probably know I’m quite invested in the various systems of magic and the supernatural in books. I like them to make sense (or specifically not make sense). Now, this series has magic, fairies, werewolves, and so on in addition to vampires, but I’ll leave them be since they’re not really expanded upon. Vampires, on the other hand…

Super-speed, super-strength, super-senses, mind-control, drink blood, disintegrate in sunlight, rapid healing, vulnerable to wooden stakes. You know, the usual. Vampires are displayed with varying levels of each power. Except Merit, obviously. As the main character she’s special.

However. A vampire chasing a human through the streets fails to gain any ground. Super strength isn’t enough to do more than barely overpower human antagonists. Mind control can apparently just be ignored (except when it can’t). Blood must be drunk, but comes in a can, and can be supplemented with normal food and drink. The only impact of sunlight is to invert the times that the story occurs at. One character has been staked during the series. Sigh. I guess this is what happens when you have a setting where vampires are pretty common, rather than rate and terrifying creatures.

Maybe the series seems worse when I think back on it, but I’m not sure. Also the title makes no sense. Arg!

Overall, I can’t recommend this series. If you want strong characters and an interesting story set in the modern day USA, with vampires, werewolves, and the like, you should read something else. The Dresden files, for example (assuming you’re not too interested in the romance aspect).

Next up, something completely different. And less fantasy.

A Grand Finale

The Dying of the Light, by Derek Landy. Book 9 of the Skulduggery Pleasant series.

It’s been a long time coming, and Skulduggery and Stephanie have been through a lot, but here’s the conclusion to one of my favourite series from the 9-12 section of the bookshop. For those unfamiliar with the series, it’s summarised in my review of the short story collection Armageddon Outta Here.

Honestly, there’s not much point in reviewing this one. If you’ve made it this far through the series you owe it to yourself to see how it ends. If you’re just starting out, reading a review of the final book is a bit odd. I’d say I won’t judge you… but that would be a lie. I’m totally judging you.

Anyway, on to the review. I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but some are almost certain to sneak in for previous books. You have been warned.

The book does a good job of wrapping up loose plot threads over its course, which is something I appreciate a lot. It seems that every (surviving) named character from the series so far has some part to play in the story too, which is pretty cool. However, it does seem at times that there’s just too much going on. That may well have been the intention of the author, given that the world’s under threat from multiple unrelated sources. It’s never hard to tell what’s going on, but some plot points do seem to come out of nowhere, due to having only just become relevant to the viewpoint character.

The story is broken up by chapters from another time (it’s unclear for most of the book exactly when they’re set), which is a pretty cool idea, and the final chapter of that bit is pretty awesome. Unfortunately, they only seem to have a tangential relation to the main plot (again, until near the end), which makes them less exciting to read through.

Overall, I was a little disappointed with this book. It’s well written, coherent, and the antagonists are legitimately threatening. There are so many awesome moments that I couldn’t list them all even if they weren’t spoilers. It ends the series at a reasonable point without leaving you wondering what the heck’s going on. But still, I’m disappointed.

Maybe it’s the lack of progress that the heroes make towards saving the world. A lot of things crop up in the way and are dealt with, but as for the two world-threatening calamities, one’s resolved with a cunning plan that seems to come from nowhere (actually kept secret for security, I seem to remember), and the other’s resolved offscreen (though I should say I’m totally fine with that. It’s resolved awesomely.).

Maybe it’s the anticlimactic use of a prophetic vision which has shaped most of the series, or the gratuitous (and unnecessary) use of alternate dimensions. Who knows. I’m veering really close to spoilers here, so I’ll stop, but something left me not entirely satisfied with this book, and I don’t know what.

Actually, I’m pretty sure I do know what, but that’s a massive spoiler.

In short, it’s a decent conclusion to the series. If you’ve enjoyed the first few, keep going. This is not a bad book. It’s just not everything I wanted it to be.

Next up… oh. Right. That.

Birds Of A Feather…

The Girl At Midnight, by Melissa Grey. Book one, of The Girl At Midnight series.

I picked this book up on a whim, based on the title and the cover. It’s about a human thief, Echo, raised by supernatural bird-people. There’s some neat magic, and some of the characters are pretty cool, though it’s not perfect by any means.

Hmm, that was basically the length of review I was planning when I started these things…

Anyway, the core conflict of the story revolves around a war between the bird people and the dragon people, set to a backdrop of the modern world where nobody is any the wiser. This works well enough, though doesn’t really seem to impact on the story – everyone seems to use magic or historic weapons in combat, though modern medicine is a thing.

One thing that was cool was the mechanics of transportation magic – it’s not enough to know how to use it, you need to be in the right place too. A doorway, for instance. It’s a neat touch that adds some personality to the world.

Of course, it can’t all be good, and in this case it’s the secondary characters who showcase that. They’re not bad as such, they’re just less, well, characterful. The exception here is an old acquaintance of Echo’s, Dorian, who just seemed spot on

My one other nitpick is that the romantic subplot was a little predictable. I won’t spell it out here, but I called most of the romance-related twists as soon as the characters involved showed up. Ah well, such is life. In the book’s defense, there were some good reasons for everything that happened, so I foresaw what, but not how.

Overall, not a bad read. Not up there with the greats, but good enough that I’ll look out the next in the series when it comes out this time next year.

Next up, the finale of a series, and one that I’ve been looking forward to reading for a good few years now!

More Epic

Words of Radiance, by Brandon Sanderson. Book two of the Stormlight Archive.

Continuing almost exactly where The Way Of Kings left off, Words of Radiance follows the same characters, but with a slightly different focus. For one thing, Adolin gets more of his own plot line, rather than primarily supporting his father.

Another difference is that we learn a lot more about Shallan’s background in this book, much like Kaladin in the previous book. There are some surprises in there, and that’s all I’ll say on the subject. The “protagonist effect” that I mentioned before is less pronounced this time around, perhaps because the various characters’ stories are beginning to overlap.

Once again, the world building is consistently great, as are the illustrations. But I covered them last time, so let’s move on!

The between chapter interludes make a return, and their purpose (beyond world building) is beginning to become more apparent. Suffice to say, it’s tied heavily into the plot, and I don’t want to spoil that. The merchant apprentice I mentioned is one of the few interlude characters who appears again (awesomely), and there are another couple who I’m hoping to see again too.

One thing I didn’t mention in my review of The Way Of Kings is the system of magic in this setting. The reason for that is that while it’s a massive part of the world, it doesn’t define any of the characters. Still, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention it this time around. There are two kinds of artifacts which make up the magic of the world. Shardblades, impossibly sharp blades which can cut through any non-living matter like air, and kills living matter that it passes through; and Shardplate, a kind of magic power armour which cannot be cut by Shardblades. A man with both dominates any battlefield, and thus a lot of politics revolves around acquiring more of them.

Overall, a great followup to the first book, and I’m looking forward to the next one!

The Beginning Of An Epic

The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson. Book one of the Stormlight Archive.

First things first, The Way Of Kings is split into two books, but the afterword from the author at the end of Part One makes it very clear that this is indeed one story split in half for logistical purposes. As such, I’m reviewing it as one book.

The Stormlight Archive is set on Roshar, a world blasted by frequent mega-storms which influence every aspect, from the flora and fauna to the culture and civilisation of the various countries. I feel this is important to mention, even before any hint of the subject matter, because of the amount of detail which has gone into designing every aspect of life and nature in the book. This is world-building at its finest.

So, the plot! There are three major viewpoint characters, Kaladin the soldier, Dalinar the general, and Shallan the scholar. Dalinar’s son also gets some spotlight time, but his sections serve to complement his father’s. Each character has their own plot, and as the story goes on the reader begins to see the connections between them.

In addition to the individual stories of the characters, we also get to see Kaladin’s backstory in detail. The history of all the major characters is mentioned, but only Kaladin gets historic chapters, perhaps making him the book’s protagonist?

Even further, between the various sections of the book there are interludes, which are from other characters’ viewpoints. The memorable ones for me are an assassin who plays a major role in the setting’s background, and a merchant apprentice who appears only in one interlude but develops a lot about a country that none of the protagonists are in. These interludes mostly serve to bring the world of Roshar to life, though some of them are definitely foreshadowing for thing that will happen in the future.

One last thing that impressed me about this book was the illustrations. There are several styles, spread throughout the book, but my favourites are the nature studies by Shallan. They really bring to life the creatures which are mentioned over and over in the text, but the appearance and behavior of which might not be apparent to the reader. They also give a small peek into Shallan’s thought process, which is pretty neat. Other art includes sketched maps, or historical artworks, and they’re great too, but I wasn’t as likely to spend several minutes taking in every detail of those.

Overall, this book is great. It’s clearly the start of something massive and awesome, but it does have its own self-contained stories as well. Obviously not everything is wrapped up by the end, but nothing is left hanging that feels like it should have been resolved. The characters’ stories have completed their first arcs, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to the continuation.

Next up, book two! Look, I’m behind, okay?

Last Wizards For A While

Skin Game, by Jim Butcher. Book fifteen of the Dresden Files.

Well, this is the most recent in the Dresden Files, meaning that I’ll be reviewing something different next time! So let’s get cracking!

Skin Game, unlike the previous few books, is a bit of a breather in terms of the overarching plot. Honestly, I think that’s a good thing. This is classic Dresden, with all the chaos, mystery, and explosions which that entails.

There are a lot of antagonists in this one, both old and new, but the rules of the game have changed for Harry. In other words, play nice, and no exploding anybody. It’s interesting to see Harry’s more diplomatic side, even if it mostly boils down to just not throwing quite as many fireballs.

Come to think of it, this whole book is structured like a heist movie. There’s getting the team together, learning to trust each other, planning the plan, executing the plan, and retiring to the Bahamas. Okay, some of those happen to a greater or lesser extent, but the structure is there.

As this series has gone on, it becomes more and more obvious just how much Harry Dresden can get away with, and how much he’s grown. Looking back on the earlier installments, the challenges which seemed near-insurmountable at the time would now be little more than speed-bumps, and creatures who would previously have been offered some serious respect now receive just as much snark as anybody else.

Before I sign off, I should mention that this book has one of my favourite endings in the series, for reasons which I would hope are apparent to anyone reading it. I’m still waiting on some of the fallout from the last book though. Maybe in the next one?

Up next, more magic (but not wizards).

Getting Behind…

Cold Days, by Jim Butcher. Book fourteen of the Dresden Files.

I’m slow at getting these reviews written, and I have a feeling that the my growing book backlog is caused by a combination of my desire to not get too far behind on the reviews and the fact that most of my favourite series just got new installments. Bah! I might be making these reviews shorter in future to compensate, especially if they’re for a series that I’ve reviewed before.

Anyway, Cold Days is good. Revelations in this book explain a lot of stuff that I simply took for granted in the previous books, and shake your perception of both characters and events, and I can’t talk about any of them because every single one is a massive spoiler.

Perhaps the most interesting (non-spoilery) thing about this book is… hmm, nope, spoiler.

…

Dammit, I think this book might be one big spoiler for both itself and the rest of the series.

Ah! The Erlking shows up in a much more prominent role in this book than he has previously. The Lord of the Hunt is a fairly major power in the series, and it’s great to see a side of him which isn’t, well, hunting. Not always, anyway.

Actually, something I really like about this series is how non-monster problems take a realistic length of time to resolve (monster problems also take a realistic amount of time to resolve, but fighting a monster takes less time than recovering from a crippling injury, for example). The impact of events in Changes is the most obvious case in this book, but it’s a common theme with the series, and something that I really appreciate.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and while the implications of the plot revelations have left me a little afraid for the characters, there’s no denying that this is something that the series has been building up to for a long time. Kudos, and on to the next!

A Haunted City

Ghost Story, by Jim Butcher. Book thirteen of the Dresden Files.

Look, I know I said I was leading up to book fifteen, but Side Jobs only got me so far. There’s still a couple more I want to read, okay? I’ll forgo the series recap this time, since it’s been done.

Ghost Story deals with a lot of things that we haven’t seen before in the Dresden Files, some because they’re new as a consequence of events in Changes. This time, the focus is ghosts (the title being a reliable indicator of story contents in this series at least fifty percent of the time).

Throughout the book, the rules governing spirits are revealed. They’re different from what’s been revealed of the mortal world, but they still make sense. They also lead to some very awesome scenes indeed.

Ghost Story also introduces Mort, an ectomancer. I feel he deserves special mention based on the fact that you could almost see this as his story rather than Harry’s. Almost. I’m hoping he’ll make a comeback in a later book, since his abilities and personality are pretty unique amongst the usual crowd of supporting characters.

The villain of the piece returns from a previous book (as villains are wont to do), and does not disappoint. There’s also a lot of setup and foreshadowing for the future of the series, as the overarching plot slips from the shadows and prepares to rear its head.

Interestingly, the villains from Aftermath (the final novella in Side Jobs) are still around and, while they’re not really a threat to the Harry at this point, still seem to be building up to something terrifying in a few books’ time.

Overall, a very different book to others in the series. Thoroughly enjoyable, and though it ends on a cliffhanger the events of the book which aren’t threads for plots in later books are wrapped up nicely. I enjoyed it more on a re-read, I think.

Up next, the next book.

Catching up

Side Jobs, by Jim Butcher. A collection of short stories and novellas from the Dresden Files.

Harry Dresden is a wizard. He is also a PI. Not a skeleton though. Working out of Chicago, he also fights off supernatural threats and villains in his spare time. The series does have an overarching plot, though it’s more about the growth of the various characters than events transpiring. At least at first.

In this series, magic is all about willpower and emotion, at least for humans – various supernatural beings play by slightly different rules. It’s not simple, and much is made of the training required to both be good at it and not blow yourself up.

I’m reading Side Jobs again again in lieu of reading the first twelve books in the series again. Book fifteen’s been on my reading list for a while, and I wanted to reacquaint myself with the world and events before diving straight in. This book managed that wonderfully, and also saved you having to read fifteen reviews in a row about the same series.

Rather than a timeline, each story is labelled as to where it appears in the series, making it nice and easy to read the whole series in order should you want to. I also really appreciate the author’s comments before each one, saying where it was first published and why it was written. Anyway, onto the individual stories!

A Restoration of Faith – Takes place before the series, while Harry is still training for his PI licence. A nice piece of background and kind of heartwarming. Shows that it’s the author’s first work.

Vignette – A very short story, consisting of a conversation between Harry and his research assistant. Amusing, and as long as it needs to be.

Something Borrowed – Covers the wedding of two side characters, and everything going wrong (of course). This one’s a good story, and I’m not sure what else to say about it.

It’s My Birthday Too – The irony in this story is strong. Very, very strong. Adding a lot of normal humans into the mix lends itself to making a situation which is both funny and tense at the same time.

Heorot – A kidnapped newlywed, missing mead, and a race against time! This one’s a little dark, but also very awesome. As a bonus, we learn a bit more about a minor character, which is… well, that’s where the awesome comes in.

Day Off – The funniest story in the collection by a long shot. Also probably my favourite. Poor Dresden…

Backup – The viewpoint character for this one isn’t Harry for once. This gives a unique perspective on the world, and hints just how much the perceptions that he reader has are influenced by Harry’s opinions. It also introduces the concept of the Oblivion War, which is one of the coolest bits of universe background that I’ve read in a long time. Plus the story’s really good.

The Warrior – A hunt for the man threatening one of Harry’s friends is interspersed with a bunch of seemingly innocuous encounters. It’s a good story about the consequences of actions, and how even the smallest act of kindness can change the world for the better.

Last Call – A lighthearted story about spiked beer, mass injuries, and a threat to the safety of hundreds of people. Not much more to say for this one, except that the villain is taken out in a way that made me chuckle.

Love Hurts – I’m not sure what to say about this one. I guess it left me a little sad, given that the evil plot made a lot of people very happy. A good story, though I’m not entirely sure whether the villain thought their plan through…

Aftermath – Takes place after Changes. There’s a different viewpoint character for this one again, with the advantages that brings. This also introduces the paradigm shift that Changes brought about. I’ll say no more here, save that this story is an excellent conclusion to the collection.

So, conclusions. Go read this series. Start with book one, Storm Front, and go from there. I’m not sure I’d advise reading Side Jobs along with your first reading of the series, but it couldn’t hurt. Just remember that each story is likely to contain spoilers for those in the main series that come before it.

Next up, the next three in the series. And then something completely different, I promise.

Crime. Magic. Skeletons.

Armageddon Outta Here, by Derek Landy. A collection of short stories and novellas from the world of Skulduggery Pleasant.

I think the last collection review went okay, so here we go again! First, I’ll give a quick overview of the series, and then I’ll dive into the individual reviews.

The Skulduggery Pleasant series is set in Ireland, and focuses on the adventures of Stephanie Edgley, and her immersion in the world of magic. They also focus on Skulduggery Pleasant, the Skeleton Detective. They Fight Crime. Things escalate rather quickly from there, of course, but that’s not important for the purposes of this review. Suffice to say that the world is often at stake, and that the series gets much darker as it goes on. Fun times, and genuine tension!

Because it’s important to me, I’ll also say that the rules of magic are fairly clear-cut in this series. I mean, it’s apparently possible to specialise in anything (from laser eyes, to mind reading, to sword fighting), but the process of using magic is described whenever a viewpoint character does it.

There’s a timeline at the start of the book, listing its contents, the main series, and The Maleficent Seven (bad-guy focus, very good), which would make reading the whole thing in order both straightforward and something I might do at some point. Anyway, let’s get on to the contents!

Across a Dark Plain – A western. I was very impressed that Landy was able to write a story in the style of an old western while still keeping the humorous tones which fill the series. This one also explains the animosity between two characters later in the series. Pretty good.

The Horror Writers’ Halloween Ball – Gordon Edgley tries to have fun at a party, and things go south from there. Entertaining, and we get to see more of a character with not nearly enough screentime in the series (what with being murdered before the start of book one). Probably the lightest story in the collection.

The Lost Art of World Domination – The other contender for the lightest story in the collection. The protagonists accidentally wind up captured by a villain bent on world domination while trying to capture someone completely unrelated. Not complex, but funny.

Gold, Babies, and the Brothers Muldoon – Rescuing babies from monsters! Heroic stuff! Also raises the question of why non-magical people in the setting are called “mortals”, when nobody is really immortal. This question is never answered. Has its moments, but nothing special by the standards of the series.

The Slightly Ignominious End to the Legend of Black Annis – Not much to say here, really. It fills in a gap in the series, where we were told something happened but weren’t shown.

Friday Night Fights – Fills in the major missing link of how two characters meet between books three and four, and does it in style. Has enough tension that you don’t know how it’s going to end until it does. Very good.

Death and Texas – One of the bad guys plays hero while his magic is crippled. It’s actually… really, really cool. I think this might be my favourite in the collection.

Myosotis Terra – The titular character’s power is to be immediately forgotten as soon as she can’t be seen, which is both awesome and incredibly lonely. The story is pretty good, but mostly it just made me want to see more of Myosotis in the series.

The Wonderful Adventures of Geoffrey Scrutinous – Trying to solve the mystery of how a man was hit by a train in his own living room. That’s all that really needs to be said about this one. Pretty funny.

Just Another Friday Night – Minor characters trying to solve a zombie problem in Australia. Gives a nice perspective on what it’s like to be the minor characters left in the dark by the protagonists.

The End of the World – The first of two novellas in the collection, this story covers the resolution of a minor crisis (i.e. the end of the world) from the perspective of a new character tagging along with Skulduggery and Valkyrie. Plenty of threat, fighting and plot twists! Most exciting!

Trick or Treat – Bad guys interrogating a psychic on Halloween. Ends poorly for everyone except the kids who come around trick-or-treating. Pretty funny, in a gruesome kind of way.

Get Thee Behind Me, Bubba Moon – A departure from the usual in the setting, this novella focuses on spooky supernatural events purely from the perspective of a normal human being. It’s so different from the usual I forgot that it was part of this series. That’s not to say that it’s bad, just different. It takes on more of a horror style than usual, with the protagonist not having superpowers of any kind. Very well done indeed.

Theatre of Shadows – A serial killer, mysterious ghost, and parallel dimension. What could possibly go wrong? Short and straightforward, but doesn’t really come to a conclusion.

Eyes of the Beholder – Billy-Ray Sanguine looks for an engagement present for his fiancee, murders a bunch of people, and finds a terrifying gift. I wasn’t that keen on Billy-Ray when he first showed up, but as the series has progressed he’s had more characterisation and really grown on me as a character and a villain. This tale gives a little of his backstory in addition to the murder, which is nice.

The Button – Preventing the apocalypse, from the perspective of the man who’s going to unleash it. This story manages to capture the mind of someone on the edge of insanity very well, and ends with a thoroughly unexpected twist. Good, overall.

And that’s the lot. Phew. Overall, I’m fond of this collection. If I seemed a little ambivalent or repetitive it’s because I’m not sure that all of the stories add anything to the overall series. It doesn’t stop them being good reads, just from sticking in my mind the way that “Death and Texas” and “Get Thee Behind Me, Bubba Moon” did.

This series is absolutely worth a read. I started with book two (thinking it was the first), then went back to the first and read them in order. Definitely start at the beginning, since characters don’t tend to get introduced in as much detail in subsequent appearances. Also, since the series is very much in Anyone Can Die territory (unusual for a children’s series), there are major spoilers later on. If you’re unsure, the first book stands alone pretty well, and the first three make up a pretty much complete story arc. Give them a shot.

Next up, an actual wizard! Really!