Someone’s Read it Already

The Mercy Thompson series is still getting good reviews elsewhere on the reviewosphere, and every time I read about Briggs’s works, it reminds me that I’ve only read one book of hers. So I read a second — the sequel to the first — and I do still have plans to read stuff she’s written in related genres. Considering how much I enjoy these, it should be a treat.

Mercy Thompson is an auto mechanic, specializing in German cars. (Don’t make a joke about her first name, which is actually Mercedes.) In addition to that, she’s a walker — she can turn into a coyote, unrelated to the moon and its phases. She’s not a were-anything, but she was raised by werewolves and has strong ties to the community. Her next-door neighbor, for example, is the local Alpha. In any case, when her vampire friend Stefan, whom she owed a favor from book 1, shows up, she willingly helps him. He needs her as a witness, and also a sort of prop when he goes to confront another vampire. Well, things go spectacularly wrong, and now Mercy is hunting something that’s crazy and evil and causing other people to be crazy and evil in her hometown. (more…)

Earlier this year I read Ms. Mead’s Vampire Academy, reviewed here. It was her first foray into YA territory, and while I wouldn’t say it was the best book I’ve read this year, it definitely made me search out other books she’s written. Turns out she’s currently writing three series: the Vampire Academy series, the Succubus series, and a third one about a shaman called Dark Swan (the series, not the shaman) due out at the end of the summer.

Georgina Kincaid works in a bookstore in Seattle during the day, and at night she goes out, has sex with men, and steals their life-force. No, really — a succubus needs a day job, after all. She’s been a little dissatisfied with her lot for a while, but if she doesn’t steal their life-force, she’ll die. The immortals have a hierarchy of sorts, and Georgie’s boss is Jerome, a demon who chooses to look exactly like John Cusack. Anyway, one night, Georgina’s out doing a favor for an imp friend of hers (he’s a plastic surgeon by day) when she gets accosted by a vampire she can’t stand named Duane. Unfortunately, that night he ends up dead. In the next few days, a surprising number of immortal-type people Georgina doesn’t like that much turn up dead. While she was cleared of any suspicion very early on (a succubus cannot kill a vampire), what’s actually going on? (more…)

I had, to my knowledge, not read anything by Margaret Mahy prior to this, although her name always comes up on lists of good, award-winning books. To be precise, she’s won the Hans Christian Andersen award, and the New Zealand Children’s Book Foundation NAMED their award after her. That’s a pretty good pedigree, no? It appears she also writes children’s picture-type books; I may, many years ago, have read one or more of those. She’s published quite a bit, and I’m glad I picked this volume up on a whim at a library book sale.

Roland is in his last year of secondary school (a senior in high school, in US terms); he’s popular, has a gorgeous girlfriend, gets along with all his teachers, is doing exceptionally well in school, was named a prefect: in short, his life is just about perfect. One day, however, on a whim, he shoplifts a pie, a notebook, and three felt-tipped markers. He isn’t even sure why, but one of his teachers — Mr. Hudson — uses that knowledge to blackmail him. Just a bit, though — he wants Roland to find out what’s going on with Jess Ferret, one of Roland’s classmates. Well, if Roland is the top of the popular list, Jess is the bottom. Even being seen with her in public is social suicide. Unfortunately, if knowledge of the shoplifting gets out, Roland will be in even worse shape. So what does he do? Goes to talk to Jess, of course. But what’s going on with her runs even deeper than he would have guessed . . . (more…)

A few weeks ago, I reviewed the first book in this trilogy (here). Marianne Curley is Australian; these books are not her first, although they are her first trilogy (or, for that matter, sustained work over any grouping of novels). She is considering writing a fourth volume in this trilogy, although she is not sure and has not said one way or another. Yes, that would make it a quartet. Or she could write a fifth volume and pretend she’s Douglas Adams.

Ethan and Isabel are members of the Guard; the Guard saves time. That is, the Guard makes sure that history happens in the way it is supposed to, and they are fighting against the forces of Chaos (the Order). In the first volume, Isabel got trained by Ethan; now she is a full member of the Guard, and Ethan has another apprentice. However, Arkarian (the violet-eyed near-immortal from the previous volume) has been kidnapped, and he is now in the Underworld. Isabel and Ethan and Ethan’s apprentice have to save time, as well as Arkarian — and Ethan’s mother, for that matter, who is quickly descending past the point of no return. Will they be able to do this? (more…)

Award-winning author A. M. Jenkins was not one I’d heard of prior to receiving this book for review, although it seems to be her third book. This novel will be released on May 20, 2008 in the U. S., and she received the PEN/Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Working Writer Fellowship to write it. She apparently lives in Texas, with three children, two cats, and two dogs. Unusually among writers nowadays, she lacks a website, so I can’t tell you much else about her.

Cole is a hemovore — a human who drinks blood. (Don’t call him a ‘vampire’.) He’s been a heme for over a hundred years, now, and he has so many aspects of the life down pat. Of course, being a heme (regular humans are called ‘omnis’, omnivores) is a rather solitary existence; even more so because Cole has a Secret. However, he visits the hemovore safe house in New York City, and discovers an omni who has been turned recently and who hasn’t been trained very well. Cole sighs and hems and haws and eventually agrees to train Gordo, the new heme. To do this, they must leave town, and (basically) go on a road trip. (more…)

I’ve reviewed the previous three volumes in this series here, here, and here. This volume, obviously the fourth, was released on Tuesday of this week in the U.S., and Barnes and Noble was nice enough to send me a 30% off coupon. Unfortunately, although I purchased it the day it came out (as did a lot of people; I got the second-to-last copy at my store), my schedule did not permit me to post the review of it until today. Anyway, Riordan is a former schoolteacher; these are his only books for younglings.

Percy Jackson is a hero, in that half-Greek-god sort of way. In the previous books, we learned that Kronos, Zeus’s father and Titan, has almost escaped from his prison, and is planning to overthrow the gods. Percy and the other heroes at Camp Half-Blood, along with the gods themselves, have been fighting against his minions for years, and now they must prepare for a full-scale attack on the camp. This means that Percy, along with Annabeth and others, will be sent on their most dangerous quest yet — into the Labyrinth. Can they save the camp and fullfil the prophecy without losing anyone? (more…)

Tim Powers is a Californian by way of New York; he is apparently good friends with Philip K. Dick and James Blaylock. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Dick’s novel that was loosely adapted into the movie Blade Runner, was dedicated to Powers. All of that I learned two minutes ago on Wikipedia. When I actually started reading this novel, I only knew that I’d gotten an ARC (just after the book was released) from Subterranean Press. Apparently the book was originally published in 1988, by Ace, but was reissued by another small press in 2006. Subterranean Press’s version came out mid-April; you can get the $18.95 cloth-bound hardback, or the $75 limited edition, or the $250 lettered edition. I’ve done my ode to their bookmaking skills before, but I’ll repeat it here: Subterranean Press makes the prettiest and most satisfying book-objects I’ve ever had the pleasure to read.

In around 1718 or so, John Chandagnac, a puppeteer by trade, was heading to Haiti to confront his uncle who stole the family fortune when his ship was hijacked by pirates. Captain Philip Davies gave him the choice of death or becoming a pirate, and Chandagnac (renamed Jack Shandy) naturally chose to become a pirate. The hijacking of the ship was somehow coordinated by a man named Benjamin Hurwood, who has a pretty daughter named Beth; she and Jack hit it off, and end up seeing quite a lot of each other over the next few months. Her father, though, is involved with some strange things — magic, actually; primarily voudoun (voodoo). Magic is stronger in the New World; it’s apparently been used up in Europe. Davies, Hurwood, and his men are eventually to head over to Florida, to meet up with one Ed Thatch, commonly known as Blackbeard, to help him with his quest — which also happens to be Hurwood’s quest. Eventually Jack figures out that there’s something strange going on involving Beth, voudoun, and her father. Can he get his family fortune back from his uncle and rescue Beth, all while not losing his life? (more…)

Astute readers might remember that sometime last week I complained that Cory Doctorow had not yet gotten around to releasing his latest work for free on the internet. Well, he promised it to us Monday, and by gum, we got it on Monday. Unfortunately I’d already cued up a review for Tuesday, so you get it Wednesday. Most won’t complain. Cory Doctorow is not the Ragtime guy; that’s E. L. Doctorow. Cory is the BoingBoing.net guy as well as the guy who wrote this other book that I reviewed a few months ago.

Before I get into the plot, I should say that this novel’s anti-draconian-copyright-laws essay is different, and contains some wonderful ideas.

I recently saw Neil Gaiman give a talk at which someone asked him how he felt about piracy of his books. He said, “Hands up in the audience if you discovered your favorite writer for free — because someone loaned you a copy, or because someone gave it to you? Now, hands up if you found your favorite writer by walking into a store and plunking down cash.” Overwhelmingly, the audience said that they’d discovered their favorite writers for free, on a loan or as a gift. [...]

Neil went on to say that he was part of the tribe of readers, the tiny minority of people in the world who read for pleasure, buying books because they love them. One thing he knows about everyone who downloads his books on the Internet without permission is that they’re readers, they’re people who love books. [From the introduction to Little Brother, retrieved from Craphound.com on May 5, 2008.]

Now, I am hardly advocating book piracy, but I love this quote. However, I’ll get on with the review and stop discussing politics. Or can I?

Marcus, a.k.a. w1n5t0n or m1k3y, is a techno-savvy 17-year-old kid living San Francisco, in a world only a few years removed from our own. (Actually, by simple addition, it’s around 2010 or 2011. See the ‘Sega Dreamcast’ reference for my dating.) Computers monitor everything from your car to your schoolbooks via RFID (”arphid” — radio frequency identification) tags, and Marcus knows how to get around every single one of them. One day, while playing an ARG (sort of like a combination of a computer game and a scavenger hunt; there was an interesting episode of Numb3rs about these), Marcus and his best friends are caught outside when terrorists bomb San Francisco, blowing up the Bay Bridge. The four of them are arrested and thrown into a prison. Naturally the Department of Homeland Security is using ‘national security’ as the bugbear to scare everyone into complying with horrific laws, including ridiculous amounts of surveillance and arrests if you don’t fit their definition of ‘normal’. Also naturally, Marcus (once he is no longer imprisoned) decides to fight it. Yes, the DHS. (more…)

[First, an announcement: this is my hundredth book review over here! I'm not sure that actually means anything, but a hundred! That's a big round number! Whee! --S.]

A week and a half ago, I reviewed the first book in what will be a trilogy by Alma Alexander, a woman who’s had an interesting residential history. She also has two of the most adorable cats I’ve seen, and I’m not just saying that because her tuxedo cat looks almost exactly like my tuxedo cat. (Mine is approximately twice the size of hers, though.) This review is (obviously) of book 2; book 3, I believe, will be published in 2009.

Thea Winthrop is a Double Seventh: the seventh child of two seventh children. Unfortunately, for the first fourteen years of her life, she was a magidim: no magical abilities. All that changed in the first book of this series; in order not to give things away, I’m cutting all further plot discussion. (more…)

A few weeks ago, I found books 1, 3, 4, & 5 of this series at a Borders outlet. Naturally they were all very nice hardbacks, and the only copy I could find of book 2 on a shelf was a paperback. That, of course, wouldn’t do, so I ordered a copy of book 2 from a used bookseller in Maine. It took a ridiculously long time to get here, and considering how much I enjoyed the first book in this series, it was difficult. Of course, right after the book got here, I’d locked myself into reading nothing but ebooks for a week. So here it is: the long-awaited (on my part, at least) review of the second Jacky Faber book. The first one is here.

Due to the novel being set immediately after its preceding volume, I’m cutting the plot discussion. (more…)