Series Review - The Glamourist Histories by Mary Robinette Kowal

Several years ago, I started reading books by Seanan McGuire and listening to the Writing Excuses podcast. These things may not seem all that related, but they are, through one Mary Robinette Kowal. She is a regular part of the Writing Excuses podcast, and she is the audiobook narrator for Seanan's October Daye series. So when I heard that she was going to be publishing her first novel, I was interested. When I heard that the premise could be summed up as "Pride and Prejudice with magic," I knew I needed to find it. I have never been happier to have a book series cross my path.

The first book of the series, Shades of Milk and Honey, sets the stage for an alternative Victorian-era England, in which there is a kind of magic known as glamour. As it deals with light and illusion, it is frequently considered a woman's art, alongside embroidery and painting. The main character, Jane, is the eldest of two sisters and the "plain" one, so she tries to content herself with a future as a spinster, living with her parents and, later, her sister and brother-in-law. This is before she meets Vincent, a professional glamourist of some renown.

I realize that this is coming across as more of a traditional romance than what I normally recommend, and that's not inaccurate. However, the characters are well-developed, and there's more to them than simply a "will they or won't they?" storyline. The later books delve into the relationship between Jane and Vincent, as they struggle with the things most married people need to figure out when they're building a life with someone after living alone. There's also some wonderful world-building with regards to how having magic may have changed key elements in history and society as a whole, which is part of the reason why I love alternate histories.

I am exceedingly fond of these books, and they have been added to my regular rotation of comfort reading.

Series Review - The Sandman by Neil Gaiman

Lo these many moons ago, when I was in college, I was fortunate enough to have friends that led me to a wonderful resource my school had. It's called the MLLL (it used to stand for Multimedia Listening and Learning Library), or the Comic Books Reading Room. Such is the beauty of going to a college populated by geeks.

The MLLL was a tiny, windowless room, and you could only get in if somone gave you the code to the lockbox on the door. Once inside, however, you were surrounded by comics. Graphic novels, single issues, multiple single issues bound together on-site - it was the kind of thing to make a comic book lovers' heart leap for joy. And it was here that I discovered The Sandman.

I'll be perfectly honest - I was never much of a comic book geek. Superheroes have never really been my thing, and for a long time, that was the only kind of comic book I knew about. I wish I could remember who introduced me to Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, because it was truly a life-changing exxperience. I didn't know that stories like that could be told with such artistry. I was led to the MLLL at just the right time, too, as I was going through a major depressive episode and needed someplace to hide for long stretches of time. Being able to sit scrunched up in a beanbag chair and read through the stories of Dream of the Endless as he tries to rebuild his world after being away for long felt like a true escape.

Since those nights in the MLLL, I've found some other graphic novels and comics that I enjoy. None of them, however, hit me the way that the Sandman did. I own them myself now, and will occasionally reach for them when things are getting bleak. It's not just a matter of the story itself helping me out of the dark, it's the circumstances in which I first read them that remind me that I've hit rock bottom before, and managed to get my way out.

Series Review - Cecelia & Kate by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

Growing up, my father spent a decent amount of time travelling abroad. He was in the Air Force, and would have to go on temporary duty for a few weeks or months (twice, he had to leave for a year at a time). This was all before the internet was a big deal and easily available, so we communicated by written letter. The memory of coming home and finding a new letter waiting for me is one that I remember fondly, and I've always had a fondness for snail mail. When I found out that two authors had written a series of YA novels via letter, I knew I wanted to read them, and I'm glad that I did.

The first book in the series, Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Teapot, introduces two characters as good friends who are spending some time in different parts of the country. They are writing letters to each other, describing what's going on in their respective territories and asking questions about the other's predicament. Even though the tale is told only through letters from the two main characters, there's a wonderful amount of character development and world building.

I love that the authors wrote these letters without discussing the plot with each other, so each letter they received revealed something new about the characters, and referenced past acts that they might not have known about. The series goes on for three books, and they each have the charm and humor of the first.

Series Review - Incryptid by Seanan McGuire

I've been a fan of Seanan McGuire for quite some time, and when I learned she was doing a new urban fantasy series, I was tremendously excited. I had already read and loved her October Daye series, but I admit that it does have its moments of being really flipping dark, so I was looking forward to a lighter series. Plus, there are monsters!

The first book in the series, Discount Armageddon, introduces the family of Prices, who are cryptozoologists that make it their mission to study and, when they need to, protect cryptids, which are essentially the stuff of myths and legends. Sasquatches, dragons, gorgons, etc. - all of them exist, and most of them have integrated into society, though in hiding.

The main character of the books changes throughout the series - we start with
Verity, then move on to her brother Alex. There are several short stories available for free on Seanan's website, and they give a better sense of background for the family as a whole, as well as the society in which they grew up.

I'm not saying that everything is peaches and roses for everyone - there are several heartbreaking moments that come up, and it's to Seanan's credit that you care about the characters, even when they only appear in a short story. The novels tend to be a little lighter than the short stories, but they all build a rich world and characters that are worth investing in.

Series Review - Finishing School by Gail Carriger

I've recently been re-reading some of my favorite books, in part to get myself ready to read the most recent book in the series. It's one of my biggest habits as a reader, and one that I'm actually trying to work on - I'm trying to make sure that I'm reading more new books than re-reading old books in a year, and that can be difficult when all I want to do is curl up with an old favorite. At any rate, a series I recently finished was the Finishing School series (first book is Etiquette & Espionage) by Gail Carriger.

I had previously read the Parasol Protectorate series by the same author, so when I found out that she was writing a prequel, young adult series, I was very excited. It was lovely to see how some of the characters in the Parasol Protectorate books started out, and getting a better sense of where they came from makes re-reading the later books take on a new meaning.

The series are set in an alternate Victorian England, in which vampires and werewolves have been integrated into society. Sophronia is the main character of the Finishing School series, and she is a young lady who has been sent off to, well, a finishing school. She is under the impression that it will be the standard type of schooling, teaching her how to behave in society and hopefully marry well; however, she quickly learns that she will be learning very different skills, in addition to the standards.

Following young women in the early 19th century as they learn how to set up a household and also spy for Queen and country (or hive, or pack, or some other service) is a joy to behold. The characters grow over the course of the books, while still behaving believably as teenagers would. The language is appropriate for the time period, but doesn't hit you over the head with dialect.

Overall, I found the series highly entertaining, and light enough to make for a good afternoon's read while still tackling some difficult issues. I definitely recommend all of the series by this author.

Series Review - the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

Hello, my friends, and welcome to 2015!  Thus far, I have spent the new year fighting off a terrible cold, continuing in my plans to re-read the entirety of the Discworld series (I'm currently on Sourcery, so I've still got a long way to go), and working on a project for my Ravelry swap.  This project may or may not involve sparkly pink yarn and skulls.

This swap, in fact, is based on the Dresden Files, so it seems fair to give them a run-down.  I didn't start reading them until the last few years, but they hooked me pretty well.  My husband's best friend kept insisting I would like them, and curse him if he wasn't right.  (Of course, I got him hooked on the October Daye books, so I think we're about even.)  I'm actually kind of surprised that I like the books as well as I do, because generally, I don't handle books very well where bad things are constantly happening to the protagonist.

Harry Dresden is the only professional wizard in Chicago.  In the beginning of the series, there's a bit of the Humphrey Bogart, down-on-his-luck private eye feel about Harry, especially when you realize that there aren't many people willing to pay someone to do magic, because they don't believe magic exists.  Fortunately, the local police has a detective, Karrin Murphy, who is willing to put a little faith in magic when weird crap goes down.

Throughout the series, Harry gains allies and enemies, builds a family and a community for himself, and then has it all stripped away from him.  Things don't go well for Harry, is what I'm saying.  This isn't the case of a protagonist who has a lot of stuff thrown at them but they, through just being The Best At Everything, manages to survive with nothing more than a bruise - Harry's life gets straight-up ruined a couple of times.  He survives through skill, a talent for making incredibly bad decisions and bargains, and pure luck.

What I like the most is that, over the course of the 15 books in the series, Harry has changed and developed - he doesn't remain static though the experiences, and that part makes him feel much more realistic.  Not only that, but Harry's friends and enemies also adapt and incorporate changes in the status quo, so the next time Harry deals with them, it isn't just a rehash of the last encounter.  We discover later in the series that Harry's allies are capable of handling things without him (not particularly well, but they manage), and that isn't really something you see in a long series centered on one character.

Because so much happens to Harry, I find it hard to marathon these books.  There are some cases where I know what's going to happen, which just makes it worse.  However, they do stand up to a re-read, particularly when you realize that Butcher has been laying the groundwork for some of the later developments from the very first books.

Overall, five stars, and I highly recommend the audio books, narrated by James Marsters - his is the voice I hear now when I read the books, and I'm not complaining.

Series Review - Discworld by Terry Pratchett

Well, that last post certainly got more attention than I expected!  To any new readers, welcome to my little corner of the internet.  I'm a writer who's working on making writing a bigger part of my life, and will someday have a book or short story published, be it by a publisher or by my own hand (thank you, self-publishing).

Being a big fan of fantasy and science-fiction works, I read a lot of books in a series, and I've enjoyed seeing how different authors handle the overarching story lines.  My favorites are the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett, the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, and the October Daye books by Seanan McGuire.  Conveniently, I'm involved with craft swaps on Ravelry for two of the three series, so I've been going through the books again and reminding myself why I love them so.

The Discworld books were the first series that hooked me from the start.  They're not a traditional book series, in that you don't necessarily need to read each book in order, but they contain several overarching plot lines, as well as a few threads that are seen in the entire series.  For those of you who don't know the books, the series is set on a fantasy world that is flat (a disc, one might even say), which is carried on the backs of four elephants who ride through the stars on the back of a giant turtle.  There is magic, obviously, as well as some technology that resembles more modern tech.  Don't let the fact that there are 40 books in the series scare you - you can start anywhere.

The first few books are more or less a take on the standard sword-and-sorcery tales of old, with a whole lot of humor thrown in.  Pratchett is wonderful at taking the status quo of fantasy and looking at it from a different perspective.  He creates some characters that start with a standard archetype (wizard, barbarian, witch) and gives them enough unique personality traits that they become something more than a stereotype.

Later books in the series take breadcrumbs that were dropped in the early books and fleshes them out, building on stories and characters that could really only exist on the Discworld.  For example, there's a passing reference in an early book about using semaphore flags to signal from one police officer to another.  By the more recent books, this system (now known as the clacks) has become incredibly important politically, as well as essentially mirroring modern mobile phone services.

Personally, I enjoy the books that are about the City Watch, and those about the character of Death.  The character development for the Watch (particularly the character of Sam Vimes) is a master class in how to create interesting, complex characters, and Death is just a great voice in the series.  He appears in many of the books, even if it's just a cameo, but there are a few in which he has a starring role.

I give the series as a whole five stars, and not only would I read it again, I do on a fairly regular basis.