Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance #2

[Lyanna Stark]

 

I thought this was awful stereotypical heroine, pedestrian mystery... I only got halfway through the book and I'm usually a sticker.

 

Such a come down after the Kushiel series...

 

Oh my. I dropped "Kushiel's dart" some 2/3rds through since I could not stand its purple prose, super-beautiful people (everyone is super-beautiful because...) and lame plot. Not to mention having some RL experience with the BDSM scence, that part of the novel was extremely off-putting as well. I think it managed to basically tick almost all fail boxes it could when I was concerned. If something can be qualified as *worse than Kushiel* I would not waste even 1 Eurocent on it. Eugh.

[C.T. Phipps]

Interestingly, I'd like to recommend, The Laundry Files by Charles Stross which is kind of a funny story behind it. I love every single book in the series but the second one, The Jennifer Morgue which I hated. SO VERY MUCH, that I started writing a book specifically designed to be as least like it as possible. Which became Esoterrorism after a bunch more influences.

 

The Laundry Files is the adventures of computer programmer Bob Howard who has, at the start of the novel series, worked as a cubicle drone and code monkey for the British government's department of the supernatural. The titular Laundry is pretty much designed to be the least glamorous, most drudge-work spy agency policy which happens to deal with the CTHULHU MYTHOS.

 

While Stross makes the Mythos his own, the setting is pretty explicitly Lovecraft with ancient alien horrors being the "Gods of Man" and the world slowly ticking toward destruction due to the fact humanity's population growth is going to cause a net-rise in supernatural energy on the world which will allow the alien gods to eat everyone and everything. You can't reduce even reduce the population via nuclear war or anything because that number of deaths will trigger the apocalypse too.

 

Pessimistic premise, huh? Yes. However, Bob is HILARIOUS.

 

Each of the books, at least the start, parodies a different kind of spy genre until just the last couple which move on to other genres like vampire and superhero novels. You can tell Charles loves parodying a lot of fiction tropes from the Damsel in Distress to plucky red-headed love-interest.

 

The best of the novels, IMHO, is The Apocalypse Codex which is simultaneously a straightforward Call of Cthulhu, prevent the End of the World via evil cult ritual, a pastiche of Modesty Blaise, and a gigantic relentless take that at fundamentalist Christianity in the United States (which, speaking as a liberal Christian coming from such a background to Stross Atheist foreigner--is a very worthy target and he nails wonderfully).

 

It might not be for everyone and, as stated, the second book BLOWS parodying Ian Fleming's works, IMHO, let alone the Bond franchise (basically being "Bob does Austin Powers" more than anything) but everything else is gold.

[C.T. Phipps]

 

Oh my. I dropped "Kushiel's dart" some 2/3rds through since I could not stand its purple prose, super-beautiful people (everyone is super-beautiful because...) and lame plot. Not to mention having some RL experience with the BDSM scence, that part of the novel was extremely off-putting as well. I think it managed to basically tick almost all fail boxes it could when I was concerned. If something can be qualified as *worse than Kushiel* I would not waste even 1 Eurocent on it. Eugh.

 

Lyanna, Lyanna, everyone is beautiful in Terre d' Ange because they're the descendants of the Angel of Free Love who was made from Jesus' tears. This means they're ALL ridiculously beautiful until death, bisexual, and open-mindedly good natured about all forms of consensual sex.

 

They also live in Not-France.

 

:)

[Mars447]

So I caved and bought Esoterrorism by our very own CT Phipps.  It's good and funny at points, but flawed, especially in the second half of the book.  The subplot involving the setting's Mahogany Row and SPOILER REDACTED is completely unnecessary and pretty bad.  I really did not like a character who is introduced just prior to the final act, because 1) he came out of nowhere and 2) he's the instigator of so many awful namedrops (they don't even qualify as Noodle Incidents or anecdotes) that could theoretically have worked if there were fewer of them and more time spent on each one but instead come off as a horribly misguided attempt to seem cool or glib.  

 

The main players are good enough, although the central romance between the main character and his partner is incredibly rushed.  That said, said partner is sufficiently capable outside of the male lead's shadow and is independently developed.  Having read Craig Schaefer's Daniel Faust series I did have a laugh at another book having a gorgeous redheaded succubus from the UK as a lead female character.

 

Overall, I'd give it a 7/10.  I imagine it's a standalone.  If not for the Mahogany Row thing I'd say the setting and characters have potential as part of a continuing series.

[Puntificator]

 

  I imagine it's a standalone.  

It says on the title page of my copy, "Book One," so I don't think it's a standalone.

[Mars447]

It says on the title page of my copy, "Book One," so I don't think it's a standalone.

Ah, true.  Well, my Kindle reader usually starts me off at the first page of the story, so I missed that.  And that just makes the Mahogany Row stuff even more dumb.

[C.T. Phipps]

So I caved and bought Esoterrorism by our very own CT Phipps.  It's good and funny at points, but flawed, especially in the second half of the book.  The subplot involving the setting's Mahogany Row and SPOILER REDACTED is completely unnecessary and pretty bad.  I really did not like a character who is introduced just prior to the final act, because 1) he came out of nowhere and 2) he's the instigator of so many awful namedrops (they don't even qualify as Noodle Incidents or anecdotes) that could theoretically have worked if there were fewer of them and more time spent on each one but instead come off as a horribly misguided attempt to seem cool or glib.  

 

The main players are good enough, although the central romance between the main character and his partner is incredibly rushed.  That said, said partner is sufficiently capable outside of the male lead's shadow and is independently developed.  Having read Craig Schaefer's Daniel Faust series I did have a laugh at another book having a gorgeous redheaded succubus from the UK as a lead female character.

 

Thanks for purchasing ESOTERRORISM, much appreciated man.

 

I'm now intrigued by the DANIEL FAUST series and may have to check it out.

 

(Though she's not a real redhead :))

 

 

Overall, I'd give it a 7/10.  I imagine it's a standalone.  If not for the Mahogany Row thing I'd say the setting and characters have potential as part of a continuing series.

 

Present plans for the books are for a trilogy which will tell a complete story of the House's dealing with the changing world and the major issues raised in the first book about how the status quo is unsustainable. But, as any reader of ESOTERRORISM will be able to tell, our protagonist's situation at the end of the novel is one he's dramatically unsuitable for.

 

Hehehe.

 

Derek thinks his story is over but, in fact, if you're going to swim with sharks then maybe you should carry a harpoon.

 

Edit:

As for Ben Talbot, the aforementioned character at the end, I wouldn't take everything he says as actually have happened. At all.

[Richard Writhen]

I hardbody want to read Bloodlines, The Iron Thorn, Beautiful Redemption.

 

Gonna finish Beautiful Chaos first tho.

 

I've also been eyeing Marie Lu's stuff on the shelves...

[Mars447]

Since people are talking about Bitten in the "Gender Roles in Fantasy" thread, what the hell is up with the "Protagonist is the only female werewolf EVER" thing, anyways?  How does that even work, and what's the point of playing that card anyways?  I tried out the Jessica McClain series (it's extremely mediocre) and the protagonist is the same.

[C.T. Phipps]

Since people are talking about Bitten in the "Gender Roles in Fantasy" thread, what the hell is up with the "Protagonist is the only female werewolf EVER" thing, anyways?  How does that even work, and what's the point of playing that card anyways?  I tried out the Jessica McClain series (it's extremely mediocre) and the protagonist is the same.

 

Happy to oblige, Mars447.

 

1. Only males survive the transformation into becoming a werewolf. Which, amongst other things, means that male werewolves are lonely, brooding, tragic figures who can never have a partner who they love completely due to the insurmountable nature of werewolf-human relationships and its power dynamic therein. Except, of course, for our heroine's brooding boyfriend.

 

Our heroine, you see, survives the transformation where no one else does because well, she's just that awesome.

 

2. The point of playing that card is, largely, Gender Exceptionalism which is where a character, usually female, is the one woman or one man in all of the world who can do something which is traditionally only capable of being done by a man or woman. On a basic level, it allows the female character to have a position of uniqueness and importance simply by her very existence. Whereas in, say, Equal Rites, learning a craft dominated by men like magic in the Discworld opens up the possibility to new female members of said group, this sort of thing tends to be dominated by the women for the rest of their lives.

 

I think of it as similar to a lot of feminist fiction where, "woman finds herself in patriarchal institution where she's an outsider" but has the alteration that men tend to be actually supportive or somewhat in awe of their lone female member.

 

Mercy Thompson doesn't play the "one female werewolf" card completely straight but women are outnumbered by men in werewolfdom by a factor of 10-1 for much the same reasons as in Bittern. Likewise, Mercy is a (Skin)walker/Werewcoyote so her uniqueness means that the other women in werewolfdom reject her even as the men in the pack dote on her.

 

3. There's also a certain element of follow-the-leader, which is an inherent danger in all of fiction. Laurel K. Hamilton writes ANITA BLAKE, lots of women read ANITA BLAKE and decide "I could do that." Then they proceed to write their own stories influenced by that sort of setting and conceits. Which is to say BITTEN was one of the original Paranormal Romances at the start of the 21st century (2001) and writers have been influenced by it ever since. It's why every Dragon Age is basically The Wheel of Warhammer Rings.

 

And why it's awesome.

:)

[emberling]

In a queer reading of Bitten (for those unfamiliar with critical theory, this is a sort of highbrow version of headcanon - deliberately going against the "correct" reading of the text in order to get a different perspective on it, often allegorical rather than literal), Elena's exceptionalism is a powerful part of the novel's allegory. Elena feels a deep need to express herself in a way that she feels is shameful and immoral. She struggles not to give in, driving herself to untenable levels of stress. She tries as hard as she can to live a "normal" life, but she knows she's not able to, it's just for pretend. She also knows that there are other people out there who aren't normal. She's met them. She's friends with some of them. But what she tells herself is that she's not like them. She's not normal, but she's different from them too. She isn't as shameful as they are, isn't as radical as they are, doesn't reject normality like they do. They're dangerous and she doesn't want to be.

This was literally my life for years! And for a lot of that time I thought I was alone. I thought I was the only one who felt like I did. (Other times I thought everyone secretly did but nobody would ever admit it.) That's what "only female werewolf" does: it actualizes Elena's difference from the Pack; it also makes the prospect of fully joining the Pack seem dangerous, like presenting herself as an object for predators to chase. This is again very familiar if the novel is read as an allegory for anxiety before first presenting oneself openly in a queer or kink space, where one would feel like a sore thumb and fear/desire/fear being sexualized.


On a traditional reading (one might say "honest" reading), it is just sexist bullshit. But I do think it comes from a desire to convey a sense of alienation or angst: both the feeling that there is no one who quite understands the protagonist (until the inevitable meatman shows up and understands her better than she understands herself, because of course, he's better at everything) and the ability for the protagonist to slip across political boundaries and be beholden to no one. Bitten plays up the former; Mercy Thompson plays up the latter.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

What about Nancy A. Collins's [url=https://www.goodreads.com/series/41942-sonja-blue]'Sonja Blue' series[/url] ? Would anyone here recommend these books ?

[Richard Writhen]

That show. Like Lancel it's so hot right now...

 

Bitten I mean. Cool that its canadien...

[lady narcissa]

Has anyone read "Shadowshaper" by Daniel Jose Older? It had a good NY Times review and since then I've seen it mentioned by a few people as worth reading. It's YA Urban Fantasy set in Brooklyn.

[DreamSongs]

I'm considering going back and rereading some of Charles de Lint's books.

[Mars447]

Craig Schaefer's Daniel Faust series is incredible urban fantasy, and all five books are on Kindle Unlimited no less.  Craig Schaefer breaks from the standard Dresden mold by introducing a darker anti-villain in a series that is refreshingly light on sexual creepiness or male gaze.  Daniel Faust is a grifter, one time mob enforcer, and sorcerer-for-hire living in Las Vegas who is hired to track down the murderer of his client's granddaughter, and finds himself embroiled into a much larger plot that reaches into the very depths of Hell itself.  One of the things that is so great about Daniel Faust is that he's not the best or more powerful sorcerer ever.  What he has are a bunch of card tricks, some ritual magic, good friends and connections, and a great nose for the long con.  He's still a badass, but he's not one to go about slinging fireballs or waving around a wizard's staff at the baddie du jour.

 

Oh, and there's Caitlin.  Caitlin is utterly fucking terrifying.

 

Also coming out in January 2016 is Craig Schaefer's Harmony Black series.  Harmony is a recurring antagonist of Faust's and an FBI Special Agent, so that's probably going to be awesome as well.

[Jo498]

I might have missed it because I am not so good with the google site search and there are alternative spellings but what about the "Night Watch" (Nochnoi dozor) series by Sergey Lukanyenko (Lukanienko)? (I found only a few mentions in passing.)

I am 3/4 through the first book and while I cannot quite understand that this was apparently the greatest fantasy seller in Russia ever it's not too bad. The setting itself may not be terribly original but the mood is certainly quite different from "western" mainstream. (Although I have the feeling that the (German) translation I am reading is not very good.)

[Richard Writhen]

I have to finish Beautiful Chaos. Been putting it off and putting it off. Then Bloodlines series by Richelle Mead...

[Mars447]

Both Magic Shifts (Kate Daniels #8) and Dark Ascension (Generation V #4) are out today.  Now which to read first...

[Maester Llama]

Re Older's Shadowshaper: I haven't read it I'm afraid, but I've read Older's previous novel [which is not ya] and liked a lot of things about it. The plot is loose and kind of baggy and lacking in urgency, for me, but his Brooklyn feels like a living breathing place where people live [to someone who very much does not live in Brooklyn], his characters are wonderful and his dialogue rocks. So in general terms I'm very excited about him as an author even though I haven't yet read this one. I've got Shadowshaper on hold at the library.

 

As mentioned just above today is a great day for humankind, for today M. L. Brennan's new Generation V book Dark Ascension is released, and the world is a brighter place more stained with gore and tears. I am stoked.