Monthly Archives: January 2010

Mystery Review – An Incomplete Revenge

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An Incomplete Revenge
by Jacqueline Winspear
Picador – Trade Paperback – $14
Historical Mystery

An Incomplete Revenge is Ms. Winspear’s fifth installment in her excellent Maisie Dobbs series. I read this novel because the sixth novel, Among the Mad, came out in paperback in November, and I intended to review it during that timeframe. That plan went awry — I read it in plenty of time, but I’ve needed to write this review for a month now.

This is one of the more interesting installments. In it, Ms. Winspear resolves a long-term stymied love affair and takes the reader on a fascinating journey into Rom subculture.

I’m afraid I can’t write this review without referring to events in previous novels. So I have some mild spoilers, which I will confine to this paragraph. The long-stymied love affair is, of course, Simon. Ms. Winspear finally puts this storyline to an end, in a way that I really didn’t think was necessary, but turned out to be welcome. A tragic love-affair that can’t go anywhere can only be played out for so long. It was high time — in fact, it was beyond time — that the author moved on. The Ever Romance plot device that plagues the mystery genre is probably worth a post in itself, and Ms. Winspear is as guilty of this as any author I read. It works like this: two people are interested in each other, but certain things keep them eternally apart. Therefore, the romance progresses at an absolute crawl. In book one, they touch. In book two, they must enter each other’s social distance for some reason or another. In book six, they kiss, but both pretend it never happens. In this book, Maisie and Simon do everything but the Deed in book one (which is called Maisie Dobbs), but then, tragedy strikes. Maisie Dobbs (the novel) really is excellent and it rightfully won Ms. Winspear a laundry list of mystery awards. It was subsequent novels that occasionally got annoying.

I understand that it is hard to keep a romance interesting once they’ve had their happily ever after. But this is a mystery series, not a romance. The romance is like icing. Tasty, but not necessary. If you’re going to have one, resolve SOMETHING in every book, please.

Rant over.

This really was a very good book. I loved the glimpse into Rom life.  Maisie softens up a bit in this novel, even if she expects Billy to work through his vacation (don’t worry–he gets paid for it, and he still gets to go on vacation).  It had a very twisty plot. Maisie must investigate a land sale transaction, and she mainly needs to find out if there is anything undesirable about the property that her patron, James Compton, is to purchase.

What she finds is a long-unsolved mystery. During the Great War, a zepplin fired upon this sleepy England town and a family perished. Except things didn’t quite work out according to how they ended up in the history books.

One critique — Ms. Dobbs resolved a potentially troublesome plotline by having most of the people in the town do a sort of mass confession. It felt a trifle convenient to the plot. At the risk of another spoiler, the entire lot of them should have been hauled off to jail. With prejudice.

Overall, An Inconvenient Revenge comes close to the height that Ms. Winspear never quite achieved again after Maisie Dobbs. In my opinion, the other books have not been as good because they are more plot-oriented than character-oriented. And I do love character development novels. Maisie Dobbs was equal plot and character development. None of the other novels since has had this ratio, and although I enjoy them, I do end up wishing there had been more character development.

If you’re a historical mystery fan, then this is a series you ought to be reading. Back in November, in anticipation of writing this review, I wrote an overview of the Maisie Dobbs series that might help you decide if it’s your cup of tea.

Debut Showcase Next Week!

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I’ll have to delay this week’s Debut Showcase. Edelweiss, my number one source for debuts outside of my Debut Calendar, is undergoing an upgrade and the filters aren’t behaving. So I’ll work on a big catch-up post over the weekend. Their upgrade is supposed to be available by the end of the week, and it will be welcome.

Certain SFF publishers are not listed in Edelweiss. It really helps to have one publisher catalog to look through, so I’m hoping some bigwigs see this (yeah, right, Tia) and get on board.

Does anyone know of a more comprehensive catalog? I know about NetGalley and it isn’t QUITE what I’m looking for.

So since I can’t do my debut showcase, I think I’ll write a review instead. . . .

Debut Review: Dreamdark: Blackbringer by Laini Taylor

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Dreamdark: Blackbringer
by Laini Taylor
Firebird Books
Paperback – 9.99
Genre: YA Fantasy

Blackbringer is a Young Adult fantasy that both takes place in our world . . . and in a hidden land within it. It is about a young fairy and a band of crows who fight devils. Cool, huh? It seems that the stupid humans keep coming across the devils in the bottle prisons, and they keep opening the bottles and setting them free. Kind of as if they were genies. The heroine, Magpie, has an idol who she is trying to live up to: the legendary Bellatrix, who vanished without dying thousands of years before.

It took me a while to get into the story, mostly because of the dialog. Ms. Taylor makes uses of idiosyncracies and invented slang that took me a while to get the rhythm of. Also, I had a hard time connecting to the crows. I kept wanting other fairies to come into the story, which took a while. Eventually I did grow to like the crows, but mostly they blended together.

But once Magpie decides to go to Dreamdark, the faerie forest, things really pick up. The plot absolutely had me guessing from one scene to the next. I never expected most of the events, which is a quality that I love in a book, especially when they all make sense in a sort of “aah!” moment.

Several other faeries become important to the story. Talon is a faerie with stunted wings. He’s also a prince of one of the only warrior-like clans in all of Dreamdark. His inability to fly makes him frustrated, especially when his clan’s territory turns out to be the center of the Blackbringer’s operations. This is definitely a handicap in a society that takes flying for granted. Talon kicks ass. The next book features him on the cover, which makes me think he will have a much larger role. He is a fierce warrior with an interesting talent for a male — knitting. Except, he doesn’t just knit any old sock.

Oh, I haven’t mentioned the Blackbringer. He was one of those pesky devils released by a witless human early in the story. Except he isn’t a devil. Most devils are only slightly more malevolent than a rat, and are called snags. The Blackbringer is a djinn who had a hand in all of creation. Which, of course, makes him able to uncreate as well.

Poppy is another important faery, and she has a unique power as well. She also has unusually wide and beautiful faery wings.

Poppy and Talon are both illustrated, as is Magpie and a few other characters. As with many young adult stories, correspondence is depicted in handwriting. Each chapter heading has a pen-and-ink design.

This was a fun and different read. Other than my difficulty adjusting to the pacing and the dialog in the beginning, I can’t think of any critiques! I definitely recommend it. In upcoming books, I would love to see more interaction between human and faery. I’d also like to see Magpie leave Dreamdark again, especially if she brings her faery friends along with her. The publisher sent along the second book in the series as well as the first, so I expect to be reading it soon. Both are now available.

On Negative Reviews

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There was a bit of a controversy going on last week wherein an author mentioned his favorite quality in reviewers. And no, it wasn’t writing good reviews for him! His name is Mark Charan Newton (Yowza he’s young! Born in 1981! And what a cutie!), and he wrote a post entitled, What Makes a Good Book Blogger (From a Writer’s Point of View). Here’s point six:

6) You can’t love every novel. Loving everything diminishes the power of what you say. There is no way of possibly knowing what is good or bad if you recommend everything. Do not feel pressured to do so by publishers – remember, by reviewing, you’re doing them a favour. And if as a writer I come across your review of my book, I’m not likely to think a lot of it if you’ve loved every single book out there. We’re egoists! We want to feel special.

Another reviewer, Mark Chitty, responded, “. . . as a blogger myself, if I’m not enjoying a book I just put it down and pick up the next. I’m doing it because I love reading – but I love reading books I enjoy and that usually means my reviews are, more often than not, positive.”

I’m the same way, except I’ll usually offer the novel to Superwench or Raven (I also have a guest reviewer coming up, just as soon as I can mail her the book.) If they don’t want it, I’ll offer it to Kat of FantasyLiterature, who lives just down the road. If they don’t want it, well, maybe the library will.

So, that’s why my reviews are mostly positive. These are the books that made the cut. Sometimes, when I’m on a real train wreck of a book, I’ll continue reading just to see if it gets any better. But most of the time, I’m just not interested enough.

Do you think I should blog on unfinished books? I have not up to this point, mostly because of Amanda Ashby‘s You Had Me At Halo. If I had set that book down in the opening chapters, I likely would have written a “what the heck is this” kind of did-not-finish review. Since I wanted to see why other reviewers thought it was so special, I kept reading. And low and behold, it ended up my favorite book of 2007. However, if you want to know about the chaff, I’ll consider blogging on those as well. Maybe I can do a monthly round-up. So let me know!

2009 – Statistics and Year-End Favorites

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Here’s my review statistics for 2009. These numbers include my reviews at Fantasy Debut.

  • 18 debuts read by Tia
  • 14 other novels read by Tia (not counting 3 not yet reviewed)
  • 4 debuts read by Raven
  • 3 other novels read by Raven
  • 1 debut read by Mulluane
  • 2 other novels read by Mulluane
  • 3 debuts read by Superwench
  • 2 other novels read by  Superwench
  • 26 total debuts read and reviewed
  • 48 total novels read and reviewed
  • 32 total novels read and reviewed by Tia
  • 8 total novels read and reviewed by Raven
  • 3 total novels read and reviewed by Mulluane
  • 5 total novels read and reviewed by Superwench

I realize these stats aren’t mind-blowingly impressive. Some reviewers read 100 novels in a year. Even if I were to read that many, there’s no way I’d be able to review them all unless I significantly degraded the style of my reviews. So yes, I only read 32 books last year. That’s not even four books a month. Heck, it’s not even three. This is why I bring in other reviewers.

And now, the favorites. I am only selecting novels that were published in the past year. Plus, these are my personal favorites only. Some categories, such as Urban Fantasy and Science Fiction, are missing because I didn’t read many novels in those genres. I’m super-picky with urban fantasy and only got through one, The Better Part of Darkness by Kelly Gay, which was excellent.

All links are to my various reviews. Some titles may appear more than once, so be sure to read the whole thing!

Favorite Male Character

Arlen from The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett

Favorite Female Character

Tammy Jo from Would-Be Witch by Kimberly Frost

Favorite Fantasy Family

Hogan‘s family in Servant of a Dark God by John Brown

I loved Servant of a Dark God because the whole family is involved in the quest. Yes, there’s a young boy, but there’s also a young girl, and some full-grown adults in there as well. And they’re all working together, and they love each other (although they do quibble). I loved the idea of the whole family being drawn into the quest and I wish it was done more often. You don’t always have to get rid of the parents! The parents can kick ass too!

Funniest

Would-Be Witch by Kimberly Frost

Most Wonder-Filled

The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V. S. Redick

The ship. The ship is wonderful. Although this is a ship-based fantasy, it’s not a pirate fantasy. Most of it takes place aboard the IMS Chathrand, a huge sailing ship with a personality of its own. To add to the wonder, it is infested by the ixchel, a sort of wee folk, who are horrifyingly thought of as worse than rats.

Most Touching

Lamentation by Ken Scholes

How could I omit the wonderful servomechitor, Isaac, who is every bit (perhaps even more) as human as his companions? I loved him. Overall, Lamentation displayed great sensitivity on the part of the author as the characters grappled with terrible losses and challenges.

Best Debut Graduate

The Other Lands by David Anthony Durham

I loved my return to Mr. Durham’s world and once again, I can’t wait to read the next novel. Especially since The Other Lands took so many unexpected twists and turns!

Other Standouts

(Debuts not necessarily published the last year.)

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Slaves of the Shinar by Justin Allen

Zadayi Red by Caleb Fox

Best Epic Fantasy Debut

The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett

The Warded Man had some hard competition, as it was in the company of other excellent epic fantasy debuts such as Lamentation by Ken Scholes and The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V. S. Redick and Servant of a Dark God by John Brown. But as an overall favorite, I’d have to go with The Warded Man. I loved the concept, I loved the characters, I loved the pacing, I loved the sweeping scope and I loved the fight between good and evil.

Best Paranormal Romance Debut

Would-Be Witch by Kimberly Frost

Would-Be Witch was funny, touching and just an amazing start to a new series. I loved the love triangle she set up because I loved both men involved. When Kat at Fantasy Literature gave me the opportunity to read the second book, Barely Bewitched, I leaped at the chance and loved that book as well. I’ve since been recommending it to all my friends.

Congratulations to the above authors for writing such awesome novels!

Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year, everyone!

Among other resolutions, I have decided to go back to blogging on a schedule. Here it is:

Sunday – Upcoming events and chatter
Monday – Review
Tuesday – Debut Showcases
Wednesday – Writer Wednesday or discussion topic
Thursday – Guest, interview, or review
Friday- Off!
Saturday – Off!

This should help me focus. I’m afraid the Discovery Showcases are a casualty of this schedule. I will delete all unposted entries.

I will be writing most of my posts away from the computer so I only have to add images and links when online. And I will probably write them in advance during my time off on the weekend. Plus Superwench and Raven will continue to contribute, along with occasional guests.

I realize there has been something of a lull here recently. We had some lifestyle changes to adjust to. My iPod touch should be a big help.

What about you? Do you do the whole resolution thing?