Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey, readalong week No.6
14 June 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Dart, Readalong week No.6
Today is the sixth week in our readalong of Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart. Week five is being hosted by Grace at Books Without Any Pictures. The questions and answers for week No.6 are below. If you haven’t read this book already be aware of spoilers in the following text. If you have read and want to jump in with your own answers then please do so. If you want to join in with the readalong then leave a comment – the details are here.
Chapters 46-54 are covered below:
One of the questions from last week dealt with initial impressions of Waldemar Selig’s steading. Now that we’ve finally met him, what are your thoughts about him? Do you think he suspects that Phedre knows anything, and will he continue to play a role in the story?
I think he will definitely continue to play a role. My thoughts about Waldemar – well, I think he’s nobody’s fool, I don’t think Pherdre will be entrancing him with her wiles, or, more to the point, I think he would have no hesitation in killing her or anybody else who gets in his way, In fact, although he might not be as polished and sophisticated he’s very much like Melisande – both ruthlessly ambitious and won’t hesitate to do whatever they need to do in pursuit of their own goals.
What did you think of the visit to Lodur? Do you think it will impact how Phedre thinks of herself?
This was really interesting in fact I was totally intrigued by that visit and Lodur himself. Really quite fascinating. His comment about Phedre being a weapon was insightful – a dart can be a weapon after all and if you think about the dart as a weapon is something where you have to be a bit more cunning and also be a little bit closer to your target – which kind of describes Phedre. Maybe she doesn’t see herself as a weapon but she’s been trained by Delauney after all and he always had a game plan.
Phedre and Joscelin have both gone through some harrowing experiences in the past few chapters. How do you think it will change them going forward?
They’ve spent a lot of time together and been through thick and thin – I think this will give them a very strong bond moving forward. Their experiences are not something you can shrug off after all. On top of that they’ve got a little bit past their ‘pride and prejudice’ to see each other in a better light.
If you were in Phedre or Joscelin’s place, would you have acted the same way in crafting your mastermind escape plan? What are your thoughts on how it worked out?
I thought it was a good plan, especially considering the short notice Phedre had to come up with it. It was definitely risky and I was tense reading it but it was good. Hiding Joscelin in plain sight dressed as one of the Skaldic, nobody would be looking for it or expecting it – and the timing, I don’t think they would have found escape so easy with a full camp and especially under the close scrutiny of Waldemar. So, yeah, I have to hand it to Phedre, it was risky but it paid off and even though making a get away during winter isn’t ideal it’s also tough on anybody trying to catch up with you.
We’re finally getting to observe a budding romance between Phedre and Joscelin. How do you see this playing out? What do you think of it?
Well, it was really very touching wasn’t it. And then they sort of blew it off, or at least Joscelin did – I think it will take a little bit more time before either of them would be comfortable with any more. Even Phedre admits it was more akin to a dream.
Other participants:
The Devil’s Only Friend by Dan Wells (John Cleaver book No.4)
12 June 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Dan Wells, Horror, John Cleaver No.4, Mystery, The Devil's Only Friend, Thriller
The Devil’s Only Friend is the first in a new Trilogy starring John Wayne Cleaver. There have apparently been three earlier books but The Devil’s Only Friend can be read as a standalone and indeed it’s not difficult to pick up on what took place previously. Having said that I really enjoyed this and to a cetain extent wish I had picked up the previous books, even though I admit that I probably won’t do so now, but just purely from a character development perspective.
In The Devil’s Only Friend John is now working with the FBI. His prior experiences dealing with, and by that I mean killing, demons (or the withered as they’re called here) make him a necessary part of the team. He’s not completely trusted by his colleagues of course, and let’s face it that’s hardly a surprise given his personality. John definitely suffers from an antisocial personality disorder – I would say that he is a sociopath (or maybe even a psychopath)?? and maybe his backstory would have been a bit more definitive in that respect. For now I’m going with sociopath. He fantasises, in a fairly calculated manner, about killing people and animals and he seems to have a set of rules by which he keeps his tendencies under control – including counting sequences. Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself.
The world we’re dealing with here is a modern, everyday setting, the difference being that demons live amongst the humans. They, for the most part, look human and integrate into society. They’re very strong and dangerous though and for the purpose of this story they’re called the withered – because they lack something, something that they need in order to survive and something that they usually have to take, forcibly, from others. John’s role here is to find out what that special ‘something’ is in each particular case so that the FBI can, in as carefully controlled and safe a setting as possible, kill the withered they’re currently tracking. Now, the FBI, may finally be aware of the withered but that doesn’t mean that there doesn’t exist a LOT of doubt and skepticism and the team John works with is relatively understaffed and under resourced as a result. A situation which isn’t going to help when the enemy becomes aware of their existence and decides to bring the war to them instead of remaining as sitting ducks.
I thought this was a really good read. When I first picked it up I wasn’t sure if it would all be horror and whilst there is horror involved this is a bit deeper than that. We of course have the withered – but these creatures are not simply evil – they’re driven themselves by whatever it is they lack. Then we have John, and it’s difficult to really know yet whether I really like him or not as some of his internal thoughts are frankly a bit scary, who suffers from his own personality disorder and would be considered to be damaged or maybe even missing something fundamental to human nature himself.
There are a number of characters involved, none of them are really particularly well expanded upon – and I don’t mean that in a negative way but just more that they play a lesser role that John – and I will also just mention that the author is fairly ruthless with his cast so you might want to bear that in mind.
The one constant in John’s life, carried forward from his past experiences is Brooke – a previous friend/girl next door who has rather unfortunately become the hidden weapon in John and the FBI’s arsenal against the withered. I won’t go too much into that other than to say she is an interesting character to read and I would enjoy more involvement from her.
The Devil’s Only Friends was a great start to this new series. Part murder mystery, part horror, part psychological thriller with an unusual main protagonist. I’m definitely interested in seeing how John develops. Like I say, I’m not sure what to feel about him just yet although, in spite of his inner turmoil, he’s clearly not all bad and at least wants to be ‘better’.
I will definitely read on with this series.
I received a copy of this from the publishers via Netgalley for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
‘Holy Tough Travels….
10 June 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Fantasy Review Barn, Orphans, Tough Travelling
Today’s Tough Travels takes us once again wandering through the tropes of fantasy, ably led by our fearless leader Nathan over at the Fantasy Review Barn. This week the topic is: ORPHANS
No one in Fantasyland amounts to anything if they still have both parents. Rule number one. Thanks to Stephanie for the suggestion (and let us all be surprised together that it isn’t in the Tough Guide).
- Nobody – or ‘Bod’ – Owens. Who at the start of Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book becomes orphaned. “There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife”
- Harry Potter – You couldn’t ask for a more famous orphan so I just had to pick him (plus he definitely lives up to Rule number one!)
- Daenerys Targaryen from GRRMartin’s Game of Thrones. Well, she may be an orphan – but she has 3 dragons! Three!!
- Locke Lamora – never miss an opportunity to get Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastards onto a list – that is my motto.
- Sookie Stackhouse from Charlaine Harris’ True Blood.
- Kvothe from The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
‘I give Pirrip as my father’s name on the authority of his tombstone’…
I guess Dickens liked his orphans – Pip, Oliver, Little Nell…
Hidden Huntress by Danielle L Jensen (No.2 of the Malediction Trilogy)
10 June 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Danielle L Jensen, Hidden Huntress, The Malediction Trilogy
Hidden Huntress is the second instalment in the Malediction Trilogy by Danielle Jensen, following on from Stolen Songbird. (Beware of spoilers below).
At the start of the story Cecile is now living with her mother in Trianon, performing opera each night on the stage. She has recovered from her injuries and is intent on her search to find the witch that cursed the trolls (and her husband Tristan) to live beneath a mountain for the rest of eternity. However, although she may have escaped Trollus the King beneath the mountain has a long reach and he’s still able to contact Cecile. Unfortunately, having agreed to see the King, in the hopes of seeing Tristan, Cecile makes a promise to find Anushka and do all within her power to help free the trolls. Little does she realise that the King will now be able to drive her almost to the brink of insanity in order to fulfil her promise.
Hidden Huntress has a very different feel from the first. The story focuses much more on Cecile and although we spend some time in the fascinating world of the trolls most of the story takes place in Trianon where Cecile struggles to uncover anything in relation to the long lived witch who cursed the trolls. Her search is going to turn her towards the dark arts of magic and will eventually place her in great danger as it becomes clear that time is running out.
I can’t deny that I have slightly mixed feelings for this book and in fact have left my review for a few days whilst the dust settles. To a certain extent I think this is a fairly solid second instalment, it’s well written and has a dramatic finale. However, on the other hand, I felt like this could have been somewhat shorter. I definitely experienced moments where I felt the story dragged and on top of that I found myself increasingly irritated by the fact that the outcome was so obvious. I felt like I was at a pantomime shouting to the character on stage ‘he’s behind you’. And yet the characters in the story remained totally oblivious. Okay, I suppose once they’d gone down a certain track their minds were made up but for me personally I never had any doubt about which direction the story was going in. Should that bother me – maybe not. Sometimes the story isn’t all about the mystery or the twist at the end but in this particular case I felt like the ending was supposed to be something of a shock – and so that felt like a little bit of a let down.
In this story we have Cecile and Tristan narrating. I enjoyed that aspect very much and in particular the fact that although they share a special bond they can still misunderstand each other to such a large extent that they sometimes seem to be at cross purposes. I like the character Tristan. He tries much harder in this book to be conciliatory and offer olive branches to those who feel he betrayed their cause in book No.1. He is used quite appallingly by his father and yet in spite of this I feel like there’s something about the King that we haven’t quite yet discovered. That aside Tristan manages a fair amount of sneaking about and trickery.
In terms of Cecile. I don’t dislike her as a character but do find her a little bit annoying in some respects. It just feels that in spite of her efforts she never really moves the story forward a great deal. Well until the last third of the book – and even then she makes some questionable decisions. Strangely and conversely I think Cecile’s mother makes an excellent character as the strict mother figure.
On the whole I enjoyed No.2. I did think it suffered a little with the pacing and also with the predictability but I have to admit it’s an excellent set up for what promises to be a revealing conclusion.
I received a copy of this courtesy of the publishers through Netgalley for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
We wants the precioussses
8 June 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: SFF, The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Anticipated releases for 2015, Top Ten Tuesday
This week over at the Broke and Bookish the topic for Top Ten Tuesday is:
Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For the Rest of 2015
So, not in any particular order of release my choices are as follows:
- Armada by Ernest Cline
- The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milan
- Twelve Kings in Sharakhai, The Song of Shattered Sands book one by Brad Beaulieu
- Queen of Fire by Anthony Ryan
- Time Salvager by Wesley Chu
- The Thorn of Emberlain by Scott Lynch
- Tower of Thorns by Juliet Marillier (Blackthorn and Grim No.2)
- Cold Iron by Stina Leicht
- The Hunter’s Kind by Rebecca Levene
- The Flux (Mancer) by Ferrett Steinmetz
