So, I caved in and created another blog I can forget to update as often as I should. I have two others that remain semi active and a few defunct ones that I don't think even exist anymore.
For the really curious, I'm one of 6 contributors at Together We're Better, a shared blog started back in January to help track New Year's Resolutions, and my LiveJournal, which like most of em gets personal and frequently emo.
Anyway, I wanted to set up a blog to help track what I'm reading, particularly since a good majority of what I'm reading anymore is series Urban Fantasy, and I tend to lose track of which authors I'm actually reading, then finding out I missed a release date by several months. I do read a lot outside of that particular area, however, I find books with scantly clad heroines posed provocatively on the cover tend to make good reading over lunch and on the bus, which is when I actually get most of my reading done these days.
To be fair, male characters are starting to make inroads into the genre (see Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden and Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid), and many authors have long since written their series out of the box I'm labeling here (LKH's Anita Blake [OK technically she started the current iteration of genre, but she's since gone off the deep end into supernatural erotica] and Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan). But still, so many remain behind, gradually getting better to a point where they don't have to follow formula quite as much.
Which is where my current read is getting to.
Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire is Book Six in her October Daye series. October, the main character, started off as a relatively weak Daoine Sidhe changeling, born to a fey mother and human father. The first book turned her into a goldfish in a koi pond for 14 years at the very beginning. As the series has progressed, October has become much more powerful, learned more about her heritage, met increasingly more powerful and devious villains...fairly standard formula stuff, and fairly well researched into the old myths. It's a bit like reading a campaign from the old Changeling: The Dreaming setting.
Now here, in Ashes of Honor, we find October resolving two long standing not quite antagonistic relationships. One with Tybalt, the King of the local cait sidhe clan, with whom she's been flirting and fighting with since book one, and with Etienne, the Tuatha de Dannan knight of her current court. Tybalt, you could see some kind of romance with coming from book one. Etienne...Well, Etienne is more or less a textbook example of Lawful Stupid. The very epitome of Paladin. And now, here in this book, we find he does have weakness. In a brief and understandable bit of stress relief, it seems he sired a bastard changeling on a Folklore professor at Berkeley. A child he didn't know about until she vanished and her mother accused him of taking her. Which, of course, it turns out the daughter managed to get a full compliment of Tuatha de Dannan teleportation powers and no limits, so she's opening portals to places Oberon locked up eons ago...(Hey, have to have a plot somewhere...)
Basically, the series, while remaining within the formula, remains fun reading. You can usually predict some of the major outcomes, but most of the collateral stuff remains unpredictable and amusing. As the series has progressed, more of the author's voice is showing in the text, making it much more enjoyable.
I'll also mention she's started a new series, InCryptid. Book One, Discount Armageddon, came out earlier this year. It got around the necessity of having a half naked woman on the cover by making the main character a waitress in a supernatural strip club. Thus she's normally dressed like a dancer from an 80's Hair Metal video. Also a fun read, given how she's playing with things like Gorgons, Boogymen, and Dragon Brides. (It's like reading an old horror movie magazine, only with snark. Love it.)
So, anyway, Almost done with the current book. Not sure what's next in the pile, but I think it has to do with some guy kung-fu fighting demons.
No comments:
Post a Comment