Tainted Blood by M L Brennan
5 January 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: A Generation V novel, M L Brennan, Tainted Blood
Do I love this series or what! Let me count the ways in which I love it. Well, firstly, I seem to have gobbled up the first three books in fairly short order, secondly, it’s got two very likable leads – one of which is a very cool Kitsune, thirdly, it’s fast paced, action packed and pretty funny, fourthly it brings something a little new to what could be deemed as a genre that is becoming a bit jaded, fifthly – what the hell, do you need any more, really – a Kitsune people!!
(Note: obligatory spoiler statement – I do try and avoid spoilers but it you’re new to this series it’s probably best not to start reading here! So, for the record ‘I told you so!’). The series revolves primarily around a young, not-yet-grown-into-his-teeth vampire called Fortitude Scott and his family, it’s set in our world but populated with supernatural types that most of us regular folks are thankfully oblivious to – at this point we’ve only been introduced to a number of these supes and this installment focuses on the werebears. At the start of the story the Head of the local were pack is murdered and the Scotts are called in to investigate! Fort has to step up to take on the task as he’s currently covering the role for his brother who is somewhat distracted. I may have mentioned this but the Scott’s come across a little like the Mob of the fantasy underworld. They, ahem, offer ‘protection’ to the others and closely regulate their territory to prevent action that draws too much attention to their kind!
Now, I’m not going to go specifically into the plot here – you have your basic investigation taking place and the usual drama that follows Fort and Suzume around as huge critters chase them around the woods! The storyline is fast paced and compelling as ever but more importantly than that (to me at least) is the underlying shift in balance that seems to be taking place between the Scotts and the rest of the supernaturals together with the change in the family dynamic. Clearly, things are going to come to a head and in this installment you can feel the tension not only within the family, where there will clearly be a struggle for dominance as certain events transpire, but also in the community where lines in the dirt are already being drawn.
Let’s face it, some of the supernaturals who fall under the Scott’s control aren’t happy with their lot and with a change looking imminent they’re keen to set out their stalls early. Fort is young, he isn’t set in his ways and he’s clearly willing to listen and, more than that, sympathise with people who feel they have an axe to grind. It’s going to be very interesting to read No.4 in the series. There is definitely the potential for so many things, in so many ways, to just blow up and become either completely unmanageable or to cause a major rift!
What I particularly like about this series is the way the author is introducing us to things at the same pace as Fort. It’s like we’re all learning about his world with him and I think this is so clever to be honest. Importantly, she establishes a link with the reader and Fort (and Suzume) really early on and then she builds with each installment providing another little piece of his world. On reflection, it’s easy now to look back at Fort’s early impressions of his family and think that he’s perhaps an unreliable narrator when it comes to his family – but this is based more on the fact that Fort has been largely brought up in the care of regular humans, he hasn’t spent much time with his vampire family and consequently he’s only just learning about them and about the boundaries – just like us! Fort is definitely a character who will grow on you without a doubt. Suzume – won’t grow on you – it won’t be necessary for any growing-on at all, you’ll simply read her and love her immediately. She’s just fun, confident, cool, cocky – what can I say – she’s an excellent work of fiction!
Anyway, that’s it for me. If you like urban fantasy and you’re looking for a new series give Generation V a shot. Credit where it’s due: I have the lovely Mogsy at The Bibliosanctum to thank for putting me onto this series!
Vital Statistics!! And other random information
Just for curiosity’s sake I thought I’d have a look at my reading for 2014 and run some figures (I will point out that mathematics is not my strong point so there could be discrepancies!!)
Out of the books I read:
- Total No. of books read 100
- Bought – 38% (this only includes those read to date!)
- Gifts – 6%
- Publishers/authors direct – 12%
- Netgalley – 32%
- Library – 12%
- Female authors – 45.5%
- Male authors – 54.5%
Challenges/Events:
- 100 books in a year – complete
- Vintage Sci Fi (Little Red Reviewer) – books read – 2
- Sci Fi 2014 (Stainless Steel Droppings) – books read – 3
- Classics Book Club – books read 3
- Once Upon a Time (Stainless Steel Droppings) – books read – 13
- Readers Imbibing Peril (RIP) (Stainless Steel Droppings) – books read – 7
- Readalongs: Maze Runner, Way of Kings, Words of Radiance
Them’s my numbers for 2014.
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
3 January 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: 2015 Sci Fi Experience, A Princess of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Little Red Reviewer, Stainless Steel Droppings, Vintage Sci Fi
I finished reading A Princess of Mars just before New Year. I’ve read this book as one of my reads for the Little Red Reviewer’s Vintage Sci Fi event and also Stainless Steel Droppings 2015 Sci Fi Experience.
I’m glad I finally got round to reading ERB and whilst I don’t think this is going to be one of my all time favourites it was a good read.
This is like an adventure story really, there’s plenty of action and fighting, a damsel in distress, aliens and war – all set on a different planet that is slowly dying.
The plot – in a very summarised way is: John Carter is a gentleman and soldier out of Virginia who, at the conclusion of the war turns to prospecting and then in the most unusual circumstances finds himself transported to the planet of Mars (Barsoom). Here he falls into the captivity of a strange race of aliens called Tharks. The Tharks are a tall race, up to 15 feet apparently, with green skin. They value fighting and strength above all and have little value for feelings, compassion or love. Carter befriends one of this race called Tars Tarkas and in fact begins to gain a reputation as a warrior as his muscles and strength are greatly increased upon Mars due to the change in gravity. Carter, at first bides his time. He learns a little more of this race from Sola – a member of the race who is charged with looking after him, and also guarding him along with a strange, dog like creature called Woola. As time progresses Carter’s standing within the community changes and he almost has free will to roam (within reason) but all changes when the Tharks capture a young woman, a princess of Helium called Dejah Thoris. Helium is populated by a human like, red skinned race who appear to be the dominant factor on Barsoom. They live in great cities and appear organised unlike the Tharks who are portrayed as uncivilised, savage and warlike. Carter finds himself rather enamoured of the Princess and following this the main thrust of the story is one of rescue, escape and recapture! I won’t go overly much into the plot as it’s already fairly well discussed elsewhere.
The story takes the form of a travelogue narrated by Carter. I enjoyed the writing and particularly the detail concerning the planet and it’s inhabitants. There was certainly never a lack of action and the story was taken forward at a fairly rapid pace swiftly moving from one fairly unique situation to the next.
In terms of the characters I confess myself a little perplexed. I wouldn’t say they made a great impact on me really which is an unusual feeling to have – particularly when the main aim of the story revolves around our hero of the piece rescuing the object of his affection – I just felt oddly detached from both characters. I’m not saying I disliked them, because I didn’t, they just came across a little bland somehow – in fact that’s probably a little harsh sounding as I think that the plot and the adventure feel definitely took centre stage. For me personally, I felt like Tars and Sola came across with more personality and I found I enjoyed their personal stories. Curiously I also found myself liking and caring for the strange dog like creature called Woola who had become very attached to Carter during the time he was in the Thark’s captivity.
On the whole I found this an enjoyable and easy story to read. I think you need to pick this up with the age it was written clearly in mind as the writing and storytelling that we are now used to has definitely evolved. And, curiously, if you normally avoid sci fi stories – as I tend to do a little, usually because I think they’ll go over my head! – well, you’ll have to forgive me for saying the sci fi element is a tad skimpy, I mean, okay, it’s set on Mars and there are different races involved but if you’re expecting any eye openers in terms of different technology – or for that matter the whys and wherefores of how and why Carter found himself mysteriously transported to Mars – then you may be disappointed. I can’t say I suffered the lack of such detail but just thought I’d chuck this in there for your general consumption.
Overall I thought this was an entertaining read, I didn’t love it but I enjoyed the narrative style and I certainly had no problems in completing the book. I would definitely recommend this – I think it’s worth reading for a number of reasons, not least of all the impact it has since had on sci-fi fiction.
Blood Oranges by Kathleen Tierney
2 January 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Blood Oranges, Kathleen Tierney, Urban Fantasy, Vampires and Werewolves
Blood Oranges was one of my latest reads that I’m catching up on reviews for. I loved this book and must start with all due credit – thank you to Nathan at Fantasy Review Barn for putting me on to this book. Really, I loved it!!
I will just add a proviso to my gushing (not for myself obviously, as I know how I feel about it already, but for you) – this book should probably come with a warning – this is the grimdark of the urban fantasy world (not to mention a little grimysnark!)
So, the story is told by Siobhan Quinn. She’s basically an unreliable ex junkie turned vampwere – okay, slow down – at the start of the story Siobhan is a kick ass hunter on a stakeout to catch a werewolf who has been having a few midnight people popsicles in her territory. Unfortunately, due to miscalculations Siobhan finds herself being attacked by the were and saved by a vampire (the notion)! Or – in other words, she’s no slayer although she has been taken on as a sort of wannabee and has a bag of tricks to prove it, and, on above mentioned stake out, and due to her inabilities with said bag of tricks (not to mention probably being a little high at the time) she gets herself bitten by a werewolf and a vengeful vampire all in the same night. (This is what I mean about an unreliable narrator!) Anyway, she now has a serious case of dog breath and bloodlust. On the plus side, she no longer craves drugs – on the downside, not only has she gathered a seriously erroneous reputation as the next super slayer, not to mention an object of both wonder and disgust simultaneously in the supernatural world, she’s moved to the top of a few people’s most wanted lists and has developed some serious hunger issues involving lots of blood and also a few guts and other unmentionables.
The plot- it’s your basic circle of revenge type affair. Siobhan killed a baddie so now she needs to pay the price. However, said price is more hellish than simply being killed in return. She’s become the freak pet of a strong and incredibly old vampire – a very creepy doll like with child like voice vampire. She must feed every two days (not to mention cover up her actions) and she has definite mood swings depending on where the moon sits in the sky on any given night. You could say she has a motive for revenge herself – hence the ‘circle’ comment.
Why I liked this. It’s definitely grim dark and a bit brutal. The writing is choppy and jumps about with breaks and back tracking and the narrator should definitely not be likable – and there’s the rub. I liked her. She’s had a rather sorry existence so far but she doesn’t winge about it just gets on with things. Even after her pitiful state goes from bad to worse there is no moping about! She isn’t a superhero – she can’t pull a graceful backflip whilst wrestling with a beastie and she’s definitely not a romantic! She’s a no-nonsense, get on with life and deal with it daily type of girl who has been frankly living by the seat of her pants and is pretty lucky not to be six feet under. Also, so far – there appears to be no bonus to being turned into the undead. She hasn’t become inexplicably gorgeous, a lot of the myths are just that, and she’ll probably live for a good few years but will be rotting away during that period. So, nice.
I find that this is urban fantasy as I like it, warts and all. it is gritty and dark and maybe, for some unpalatable. In a world of fantasy it just feels like it’s a little more real – in the smaller, day to day ways. There’s dirt under the fingernails and sweat and mud. It’s the difference between an old fashioned western and a spaghetti western! The characters are not clean cut, neat and tidy. They’re not all about appearances and they’re not always nice. It’s like the first time you watched a horror movie that broke with tradition – and the baddies won! It just puts everything on it’s head and means you can’t just anticipate that ‘all will be well in the end’.
Literally with Blood Oranges I never knew what to expect. Siobhan is an interesting character not to mention pretty funny to read about at times. She’s not girly or bothered about the latest lip gloss but this doesn’t mean that she’s all warrior chick. She’s just fairly regular really. A regular girl in a fantasy universe – one populated by all sorts of critters ranging from talking seagulls to bridge trolls – tell me you don’t like the sound of that!
Very entertaining and for me fairly unique feeling. In case you haven’t guessed – I really enjoyed this and if you’re looking for a new UF which is frankly a little tongue in cheek with a fast moving plot, a few laughs and a dose of reality mixed in then this could be for you. Highly recommended and don’t be too distracted by the ex junkie grim dark description – yes it is all of that, but, it’s, strangely, and almost against it’s or your own will, quite compelling. I urge you to give it a shot.
Werepyres!
2 January 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Art It Up, Blood Oranges, Kathleen Tierney, Not Yet Read
Art it Up. This is a weekly meme hosted by Tabitha over at Not Yet Read. The idea being to see if you can come up with some 
inspiration for a little sketch or doodle from your last week’s reading or just anything else in general. this week I’ve read quite a lot (not yet reviewed), in particular A Princess of Mars, Fahrenheit 451 and Blood Oranges by Kathleen Tierney. The fan art is from Blood Oranges in which the main protagonist is both a vampire and a werewolf!
