Eyes to See by Joseph Nassise (REVIEW)

With a cover like that, how could you resist picking up EYES TO SEE? Well, the story behind it might fall a bit flat from the amazing promises the book sets out. A decent urban fantasy book, it suffers from a few issues that bring it down a notch.

EYES TO SEE by Joseph Nassise
Published October 11th, 2011 by Tor
318 Pages
Hardcover received from publisher for honest review
Order from Amazon

In an urban fantasy that charts daring new territory in the field, Jeremiah Hunt has been broken by a malevolent force that has taken his young daughter and everything else of value in his life: his marriage, his career, his reputation. Desperate to reclaim what he has lost, Hunt finally turns to the supernatural for justice.

Abandoning all hope for a normal life, he enters the world of ghosts and even more dangerous entities from beyond the grave. Sacrificing his normal sight so that he can see the souls of the dead and the powers that stalk his worst nightmares, Hunt embarks upon a strange new career—a pariah among the living; a scourge among the dead; doomed to walk between the light of day and the deepest darkness beyond night.

His love for his departed daughter sustains him when all is most hopeless, but Hunt is cursed by something more evil than he can possibly imagine. As he descends into the maelstrom of his terrifying quest, he discovers that even his deepest fears are but prelude to yet darker deeds by a powerful entity from beyond the grave…that will not let him go until it has used him for its own nefarious purposes.

 

The back of EYES TO SEE promises a lot. A scary, thrilling, dark urban fantasy novel that will leave you wanting the lights on while you sleep. For me, it didn’t quite reach that level. With 275 pages of buildup to a climax that was extremely convenient, EYES TO SEE doesn’t live up to the aspirations I had for it when going in. It’s a decent beginning to a new urban fantasy series for adults, particularly fans of THE DRESDEN FILES and CSI, but it could have been so much better.

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel (REVIEW)

Zombies, science fiction, steampunk, AND Victorian you say? DEARLY, DEPARTED delivers in some of these areas, but falls short of really delivering on all its promises.

DEARLY, DEPARTED by Lia Habel
Published October 18, 2011 by Del Rey
480 Pages
eARC received via NetGalley
Order from Amazon
Lia Habel's website

Love can never die.

Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead—or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie?

The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses.

But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead—and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.

In Dearly, Departed, romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.

When I saw DEARLY, DEPARTED by Lia Habel on NetGalley, it automatically became my first request. Science fiction-meets-steampunk-meets-zombies?! You had me at hello! My own hype for this book became an undeniable and overwhelming force in my head. When I dug into the book and started reading, I found myself growing disappointed. The writing is nice and the plot is very original and unique, but there was just something…missing, I guess you could say. Or maybe it just had way too much to deal with.

French Lessons by Ellen Sussman (REVIEW)

J'adore Paris! Get lost in Paris with FRENCH LESSONS, but don't expect to connect with the characters or their plights as they navigate the City of Lights.

French Lessons by Ellen Sussman

Published July 12, 2011 by Ballantine

256 Pages

A single day in Paris changes the lives of three Americans as they each set off to explore the city with a French tutor, learning about language, love, and loss as their lives intersect in surprising ways.

Josie, Riley, and Jeremy have come to the City of Light for different reasons: Josie, a young high school teacher, arrives in hopes of healing a broken heart. Riley, a spirited but lonely expat housewife, struggles to feel connected to her husband and her new country. And Jeremy, the reserved husband of a renowned actress, is accompanying his wife on a film shoot, yet he feels distant from her world.

As they meet with their tutors—Josie with Nico, a sensitive poet; Riley with Phillippe, a shameless flirt; and Jeremy with the consummately beautiful Chantal—each succumbs to unexpected passion and unpredictable adventures. Yet as they traverse Paris’s grand boulevards and intimate, winding streets, they uncover surprising secrets about one another—and come to understand long-buried truths about themselves.

I was lucky to receive an ARC of FRENCH LESSONS from a Goodreads contest, and being the sucker that I am for chick lit and France, I was eager to read it. I finally found myself picking it up and jumping in, and the first thing I noticed was the writing style – third person, present tense, and a distinct leaning towards the poetic and literary. The immediate problem – this style of writing immediately seems more forced than effortless. In my experience, this literary lilt is much harder to pull off than your normal, everyday prose, and I feel that Sussman didn’t pull it off like I hoped she would.

The story follows three French tutors and their American clients over the course of a day in Paris, further linked by the filming of a movie on the Pont des Arts in Paris. The story is told mostly in the form of three linked vignettes connected with two short before and after scenes amongst the tutors Nico, Chantal, and Philippe. Their clients are Americans Josie, Riley, and Jeremy, in Paris for various reasons, but all suffering from relationship issues, person problems, identity crises, etc. Having visited Paris in January (for 12 hours on a day trip from London) and having taken two years of French in high school, I wanted to love this book. Instead, I only kinda sorta liked it.

Why, you ask? I felt no connection with the characters. Any of them. They all seemed like two dimensional characters that I couldn’t see as real. I didn’t feel them or believe in them. And, being so short, the story didn’t really give us any closure for many of the characters, and happy endings were in short supply.

Sussman has a tendency to use French language to convey things to other characters, except one teensy weensy problem… The characters understand, but the reader who hasn’t had a French class since 2002? Ehm… I had Google translate open on my computer ready and waiting and I was still confused.

But something about this book kept me intrigued and I finished it relatively quickly considering I was reading other stuff at the same time. It was interesting, the imagery of Paris stunning and alluring, but I couldn’t connect with the characters and their stories. I was more invested in discovering more about the City of Lights than the people inhabiting it. I think Sussman might have missed the boat a little on this, but she still delivers an interesting, light summer read that mixes literary fiction with a beachy flair that makes this ideal for the pool.

VERDICT: With characters that aren’t easy to connect to but a fascinating story to set the scene, FRENCH LESSONS doesn’t quite achieve what it sets out to, but for a beach read, it’s fairly good.

♥♥♥ - THREE HEARTS

Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan (REVIEW)

GLOW undoubtedly has a great cover and a great marketing scheme (the next Hunger Games? Yes please!) but a plot heavy on religious sentiment and unlikable love interests weighs down a good plot and writing.

GLOW by Amy Kathleen Ryan
307 Pages
Published September 27, 2011 by St. Martin's Griffin

What if you were bound for a new world, about to pledge your life to someone you'd been promised to since birth, and one unexpected violent attack made survival—not love—the issue?

GLOW was a book where the cover and synopsis had been hooked. I put other books aside to read it. They say don’t judge a book on its cover, but I did anyway, and this was one of the few cases where I ended up being disappointed. This review has taken me several hours to write, something so unusual for me, because it alternated between being a great book for me and pissing me off.

Many YA books recently (see my review of DROUGHT by Pam Bachorz) have tackled religion as a key plot point. GLOW’s depiction of Christianity was what almost ruined this book for me. It was almost a fallacy, using Christianity as an excuse for evil actions. The antagonist of this story is the Pastor/leader of the other ship, the New Horizon. They come to the Empyrean, home of our protagonist Waverly, and kidnap all the girls to solve their fertility issues while sabotaging the ship, killing the adults, and leaving the boys to run the ship once the remaining adults sacrifice themselves to prevent a meltdown.

SPOILER WARNING!!!

The logic of the ship states that the religious people were put on one ship and the secular (and Muslims) on the second, yet Kieran, the main male character, becomes a religious leader on the Empyrean at the end. His family was noticeably religious and by the end he has converted the boys in one fell swoop – after one SPEECH – to Christianity and calls his work God’s work, basically mimicking what happened on the New Horizon. The logic here was…not really present.

SPOILER HAS ENDED

There is a love triangle in this book, but not so much instalove – it has been set up that Waverly and Kieran were a couple beforehand, more so out of expectation than true love. At the beginning their relationship is almost refreshing, showing Waverly’s doubts about their relationship but setting up a scenario that is believable. However, Kieran becomes increasingly week and possibly a little unstable (crazy). The other love interest, Seth, is just purely insane. His methods are sadistic and his excuses are lies. He beats, tortures, imprisons, and almost kills people. Of course, it is expected that Waverly will pick one by the end, but I honestly think she shouldn’t based on book one.

What saves this book? The writing. I am honestly not one for frilly, overwrought literature. I like some description and florid enhancement, but I had it beaten over my head by my lit professor that purple prose was Satan’s work. This is my kind of writing – a little lyrical at times, but mostly straightforward, to the point, and eloquent. Ms. Ryan is my type of author for sure. It’s just the plot that falters. Waverly is also a strong protagonist that I enjoyed. She was smart, she was a strong leader, and she knew what she was doing. She risked herself for others and had a mission. I loved her as a character while I quite hated her potential suitors.

This book needed to tone down the religion a great deal. I am not sure if I will read book two based on the fact it implies that religion will be a strong point in the second book. Also, Waverly’s love interests were unlikable.

I could go on about this (and I will on Goodreads – check out my review there for more), but overall, this book was likable, but nowhere near as good as it could have been.

VERDICT: The overuse of religion in this book overran the interesting plot and the good writing from Ms. Ryan. If you are not big on religious bashing and/or preachiness, steer clear of this book

♥♥♥ - THREE HEARTS

Book Brats Guest Review - Katie's Hellion by Lizzy Ford

Book Brats would like everyone to welcome our UK Correspondent Rebecca to the family! Rebecca will be guest blogging some of her finds from across the pond and giving her opinion about books and reading. She's a great addition to the Book Brats family, so make sure to welcome her!

KATIE'S HELLION by Lizzy Ford
Published May 27th, 2011 by author

Katie’s having the worst day ever: she’s been dragged down to the police station for abandoning her son, a cute kid with big brown eyes. Only Katie doesn’t have a son. She’s never seen the five year old boy in her life, despite the insistence of the police, her doctor, even her own sister. She thinks she’s gone completely crazy until the five year old living in her house tells her his secret: he’s a baby immortal, and his guardians were supposed to wipe her mind so she’d forget he didn’t belong to her and raise him as hers. But Katie is immune to the power of immortals, and they don't react well to this discovery. Katie winds up in Hell, where she meets Rhyn, who recognizes her as an immortal's mate - and his key out of Hell.

Rhyn is a misunderstood immortal, the youngest of the seven Ancients, sentenced to Hell after accidentally almost destroying the world. Katie’s immunity to immortals creates an opportunity for them to escape Hell, so he snatches her and flees. At first, Katie despises the man who treats her like a portable food source, until she finds out he’s the only one willing and able to protect her from the dangers of the immortal world. Rhyn discovers that his little human has heart. With horror, he discovers she’s not destined to be any immortal's mate- she's destined to be his mate. He has no idea how to care for someone else let alone control his power, but he must learn, as his little human is endangered by both good and bad immortals determined to use her to their advantage.

Katie is our 22 year old heroine whose world is changed by the sudden arrival of a five year old who claims to be her son, Toby. Despite being a clearly unfit mother, the ‘authorities’ insist that Katie take the boy home with her. A visit with here psychologist informs her that she was raped five years ago, which caused her amnesia of her son’s existence (a surprisingly well researched account, considering the genre of the book). This is when we discover that Toby is a baby angel, who has been handed through surrogate mothers who have their memories altered for years, while our heroine is apparently immune to the powers of the Ancients. An immunity that, for some reason, makes Katie irresistible to them. The youngest of the Ancients, Rhyn, has been locked up with only Death’s main squeeze to lean on for company and support. The moment he sees Katie, he too lusts for her and decides that she is the mate for him. Yes, it is that kind of book. Throw in a reality/world breaking family feud and some magic and you have the entire plot of Katie’s Hellion.

I’m going to go with eehhh. Let’s be honest here, I got this book for my kindle because it was free. Don’t let that cloud your opinion of it; it’s actually not a bad fantasy novel, so far as self-insert female leads go. I say this, because it is clearly what Katie was written to be, or at least I hope she was; a character that flat can only hope to be a one-size-fits-all girl, especially when coupled with a man for whom she cannot contain her overwhelming lust and vice versa. A staple, so far as I am concerned, in non-Mary Sue popularised fantasy romance novels.

Not that Katie is more of a complex character. I mean, seriously, this chick just stands there and takes everything that is thrown at her and then goes back to the dick that caused it. Fine, go down the Stockholm syndrome explanation if you want to, but Katie’s entire being seems to gravitate around accepting all of the crap the world throws at her while chugging down whiskey, chomping on pills and bitching about it in an inner monologue. Then we come to Rhyn. No, let’s not come to Rhyn. We should focus instead on the side characters, who appear to be more fully developed, despite their relatively short screen time.

Moving away from my severe dislike of the main characters, the dialogue is some places seems forced and I would very much like to know why magical inmates of a multidimensional prison talk like teenagers on an American sitcom where the screenwriters are bouncing off Saved by the Bell. I shall endeavour to ignore them, for the sake of the positives. Lizzy Ford is not an author who wastes description. And I mean that as a compliment; Ford’s descriptions are in fact the saviour of this novel. She deals them out in such Spartan amounts that their appearance is as far from the purple prose that I normally expect to come out of this genre. It is a pleasant surprise.

All in all, I’d giving Katie’s Hellion 3*. It’s not the most well written book out there, but as a bit of escapist fluff, it’s not so bad. While Katie’s Hellion isn’t going to be pushing back any boundaries, you can find much worse in search of a fantasy romance.

VERDICT: A thin plot barely sustains this lackluster addition to the urban fantasy/paranormal genre, especially given the soundly cardboard characters presented.

♥♥♥ - THREE HEARTS

Thanks, Rebecca!
Look out for more from Rebecca in coming weeks.

Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari (Review)

REVIEW: ASHES, ASHES by Jo Treggiari

Post-Apocalyptic New York meets I Am Legend - but sadly nowhere near as fun and thrilling as it could have been.

A thrilling tale of adventure, romance, and one girl's unyielding courage through the darkest of nightmares.

Epidemics, floods, droughts--for sixteen-year-old Lucy, the end of the world came and went, taking 99% of the population with it. As the weather continues to rage out of control, and Sweepers clean the streets of plague victims, Lucy survives alone in the wilds of Central Park. But when she's rescued from a pack of hunting dogs by a mysterious boy named Aidan, she reluctantly realizes she can't continue on her own. She joins his band of survivors, yet, a new danger awaits her: the Sweepers are looking for her. There's something special about Lucy, and they will stop at nothing to have her.

Published June 1, 2011 by Scholastic

343 pages

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ASHES, ASHES by Jo Treggiari appealed to me because I was growing tired of dystopias, or more correctly, dystopias that are not really true dystopias. BRAVE NEW WORLD is my favorite book ever, so anything that uses the term dystopia in the description is automatically under more scrutiny for me, and sadly, a lot of YA authors, publishers, and bloggers apply the term where it doesn’t fit – and this isn’t really their fault. The definition has been really muddled as of late. Some people have even described the post-apocalyptic world of ASHES, ASHES as dystopian when it isn’t – there was nothing supposedly utopian about it to begin with, nor was there suppression of thoughts or personality or beliefs. Likewise with my other recently reviewed book, DROUGHT – the situation is bad, yes, but it just doesn’t fit the qualifications to be a dystopian society.

And is it just me or do a lot of the bad guys in dystopian novels actually have a point in their evil machinations? They might be Machiavellian, but they’re often times not stupid and actually might possibly be doing the right thing in the wrong way…

But less rant, more review! And there may be minor spoilers, but nothing more than you'd get from reading the synopsis above.

ASHES, ASHES is the story of Lucy, the last survivor from her family who has trekked from New Jersey to the remains of New York City in an attempt to survive. She’s survived floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, and a plague to make it this far, but she’s alone. Lots of bad stuff happens to her, and we are introduced to this as we hear about her back story – she was a loner, forgotten by those around her, and lucky. In New York, living on the edges of the Hudson Sea, she is fending for herself as best as she can. Note, I had some problems with the geography of this book, but since I lived in New York City for two years, this could be why. Unless these earthquakes drastically changed the landscape of New York by thousands of feet… I’ll get to that. And the smallpox vaccine loses its effectiveness after 10 years, so another plot hole. Okay, there were a lot of plot holes.

Lucy has been out on her own for a long time when suddenly, after a year of surviving well on her own, she is discovered by the designated love interest Aidan. I have to admit, he was rather bland in the characterization department, but he draws her back with him towards an encampment halfway into the novel. This is when the action really begins after a slow, somewhat plodding start. It was, though, promising and left me wanting to read more. By the time we meet the other characters, though, the story devolves into obvious turns that can be seen a mile away, and these new characters turn into either shells, forgotten tertiary scenery, or stereotypical foils.

But I give this book one thing. It got me involved in a fun conversation with a friend about guessing where the book was going next, and more often than not, I was either right or came up with something that really would have been more fun.

By the end, I found myself rooting for Lucy to buck convention and go for the much more interesting secondary male character over Aidan. Del, the designated foil of the story, was trite and possessive, but I felt like she was angry at Lucy for trying to claim her boyfriend after a few days of showing up in the camp. I quickly found Lucy to be bratty and hard to connect with because of her actions and her instant attraction to a guy she met while escaping dogs in a tree. And he might have been stalking her. Maybe. There were cat fights over a boy within moments of Lucy’s arrival at the survivor camp, which was stupidly placed two miles away in plain sight from the big bad’s lair. They could have easily left the city, but instead they just set up shop right where the much better equipped devilish scientists could pick them off whenever they needed a test subject.

After ill-conceived escapades, I never felt any connection to the main characters. In fact, I was still hung up on Henry, who we were supposed to believe was just there to flirt until the end of time. He had personality! The author also has a tendency to end the chapter on a cliffhanger, and then completely forget that the cliffhanger happened. I thought this was a bit…odd. By the time we reach the end, our special snowflake Lucy has the chance to save the world…and doesn’t want to. Really? Oh, that might be because the villain is being unreasonable for no conceivable reason. She’s bad for the sake of needing a bad guy.

The ending is wrapped up with neat, convenient little bows, giving a good conclusion but not the one it could have been.

VERDICT: A slow, meticulous buildup leads to catty drama and a dull climax, but if post-apocalyptic girl drama is your thing, don’t miss it. Also suggested for lovers of the words hummock and hillock, they’re used about every other page.

♥♥♥ - THREE HEARTS

PS. A small cover quip, but the characters and world described look nothing like what the cover portrays. A small nitpick.

EDIT: Okay, I think they must have edited the cover because I have one version here on my page (a good representation of Lucy) and another on my Kindle copy which looks like generic YA heroine. Weeeeird.

Manhunting by Jennifer Crusie - REVIEW

objective: Find a Rich, Handsome and Successful Man

Kate Svenson may be a dynamite businesswoman—but after three failed engagements, she's decided she's hopeless at romance. What she needs is a Business Plan to help her find Mr. Right.

The Cabins resort is ripe with eligible bachelors, all rich and ambitious—just her type. But they're dropping like flies, and after fishing Kate's latest reject out of the swimming pool Jake Templeton is convinced that Kate is nothing but trouble. Especially for him.

A man who's sworn off ambition and a woman hanging from the top of the corporate ladder don't have much in common. But in that unpredictable territory known as the heart, anything can happen….

Published by Harlequin, December 2007
288 Pages

Read April 2010

Okay, cheesy goodness, but not an impressive book - even for chick lit

NOTE: This is a review from the Book Brats Archives since I've been slacking this week. Thought you might want to read SOMETHING.

I will try to make this as spoiler-free as possible for the enjoyment of everyone who wants to know my review without having read the book, but probably you already know what happens anyway by just reading the book jacket.

Kate is a 35 year old businesswoman/workaholic who wants a man, but not just any man. She wants the perfect husband after failed engagements and the fact she sets her bar too high to get anything besides failed relationships. So her friend suggests she goes to a...moreI will try to make this as spoiler-free as possible for the enjoyment of everyone who wants to know my review without having read the book, but probably you already know what happens anyway by just reading the book jacket.

Kate is a 35 year old businesswoman/workaholic who wants a man, but not just any man. She wants the perfect husband after failed engagements and the fact she sets her bar too high to get anything besides failed relationships. So her friend suggests she goes to a resort in the middle of nowhere Kentucky where she is sure to find the man of her dreams. Cue the entrance of Jake, a man who used to be rich and powerful in the world of business before he got tired of it and gave all his money to his brother Will to open the resort. Now he manages the landscaping crew for all intents and purposes. He's a simple man who isn't looking for a relationship, least of all marriage!

See where this is going? Yeah, so did I. But this is a romance book, so I will forgive that. What I won't forgive is how the author finally decides to hook them up. The first 200 pages were pretty good, four star material stuff, and then all of a sudden the characters have the sudden urge based on conversations at a bar with other people that they must have sex THEN RIGHT THEN OH MY GOD NOW NOW NOW. Then the rest of the book is filled with them hooking up, breaking up, crying, screaming, and getting back together. Don't worry, not a spoiler, I would hope if you were interested in a romance novel that you knew that was a given eventually.

Manhunting is your average romance novel by Jennifer Crusie. It wasn't as good as Welcome to Temptation which is my all time fave Crusie novel, but it wasn't as bad as some. As a 23 year old, I didn't really identify with Kate, but that didn't stop me from reading. I enjoyed the majority of the book, but it was as if Crusie got to page 200 and said to herself, "Great, now they need to hook up." It was just sudden with no real purpose. I also had trouble at times believing that Kate would ever do what she did.

All in all, I give this book three stars. It was cheesy goodness, and only the last few pages really threw me off.

VERDICT: If you want a good dose of Jennifer Crusie romance (which I suggest), skip this one and head for Welcome to Temptation - my favorite. Read this only if you're 40.

♥♥♥ - THREE HEARTS

Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner

Today we are reaching back into the archives for a classic Book Brats Snarky Review! Maybe I should make this a First of the Month tradition, eh? Note, this was written while I was in a MA program AND working on an internship with an hour commute each way dedicated to reports and researching Chinese foreign affairs. Not good times. Now I'm free! Well, kinda - I'm looking for jobs.

Good in Bed? More like implausible relationships, pregnancies, and life as we know it!

376 Pages
Published 2002 by Washington Square Press
Read April 2011

Being bogged down with work and with school, I have gone from reading six books a month to reading six books a year (other than academic journals and books related to the politics of East Asia). Good in Bed somehow managed to pique my interest, so I downloaded the kindle edition and started reading. I have to admit, for the first 2/3 of the book I found myself easily identifying with the main character Cannie, minus the boyfriend issues (I'm single) and family problems. She was likable, enjoy...moreBeing bogged down with work and with school, I have gone from reading six books a month to reading six books a year (other than academic journals and books related to the politics of East Asia). Good in Bed somehow managed to pique my interest, so I downloaded the kindle edition and started reading. I have to admit, for the first 2/3 of the book I found myself easily identifying with the main character Cannie, minus the boyfriend issues (I'm single, ready to mingle, but I don't see any men knocking down my door) and family problems. She was likable, enjoyable, and well written. The last 1/3 of the novel, though, was where things went off the deep end.

The book went from plausible to being one unlikely scenario to another, from meeting and becoming BFFs with the number one Hollywood celeb in a bathroom to her screenplay being sold to her ex's new girlfriend being the cause of her baby's premature birth (maybe). Cannie became unlikable and quite frankly annoying, but by the very end I saw the return of the Cannie from the beginning. But by that point she had the man of her dreams, the baby of her dreams, the life of her dreams, the friends of her dreams, etc etc etc of her dreams. For me, it was like losing the Cannie I cared about on page 50 and replacing her with some Cannie that had been turned into a sterilized Hollywood version of herself that had to be rescued by the handsome love interest who is rich and handsome and kind and smart (so on and so on) instead of saving herself like we had hoped.

This book is good mindnumbing fun when you are riding the train to work every day, suffering through writing a Masters thesis while trying yourself to write a novel. But is it a great novel? Absolutely not. Just a little fun. But yeah, I might be putting the sequel on my TBR pile right now as we speak...


♥♥♥/5

Verdict: Numbs your mind from reality very well, but otherwise is too unrealistic to be fun.

Embassytown by China Mieville

Are you into wordy science fiction? Embassytown is just for you!

Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe. Avice is an immerser, a traveller on the immer, the sea of space and time below the everyday, now returned to her birth planet. Here on Arieka, humans are not the only intelligent life, and Avice has a rare bond with the natives, the enigmatic Hosts - who cannot lie. Only a tiny cadre of unique human Ambassadors can speak Language, and connect the two communities. But an unimaginable new arrival has come to Embassytown. And when this Ambassador speaks, everything changes. Catastrophe looms. Avice knows the only hope is for her to speak directly to the alien Hosts. And that is impossible.


352 Pages
Published by Delray
May 17, 2011

Read June 2011

I'm conflicted about how I feel about this book, whether or not I should have loved it or just been confused out of my mind. In the end, though, I think it will suffice to say that I loved it but I have no clue what I loved. The writing was lovely and florid, but there were times where I didn't understand the plot, side plots, character motivations, turns of events, etc. Sometimes it would be more than a 100 pages before it hit me about something that I had already read. The book also had points where it was slow and tedious. I know from personal experience that sometimes China Mieville's works can take persistence to get through, but The Scar is still one of my favorite books. Will Embassytown be on that list? Probably not.

I fancy myself well read and able with the English language, but there were still times I had to look words up and I then asked myself at one point, "Would Avice really know these extremely obscure words applicable to events that happened on 16th century Earth?" Avice was a smart cookie, but I don't think she was that smart. I had trouble following Avice's progression and how she got to the point where she did at the end. It seemed unlikely, forced, and I'm not really sure how it ended up there at that point. Same with her husband's motivations and his progression as a character. By the time we've reached the ending, I felt as if the final 20 pages were just tacked on. They didn't really fit with the flow of the book at all.

What did this book have going for it? I really don't have any clue. Whatever it was, I was interested and hooked but I'm just not sure on what. Avice was an okay narrator, not my favorite. I liked some of the human characters surrounding her more and found myself wishing I knew more about them. I personally disliked some of them (Bren). At times, I strongly disliked Avice and what she was doing, mostly because I had no clue what she was doing. I felt left in the dark at times, but in the end, I was glad I slogged through. The ending was okay but the journey there was great. The reason why I didn't give this a higher rating was because I had no clue what I was reading 1/2 of the time.

It's worth reading, but not as satisfying as some of China Mieville's other works. And I look forward to finding a detailed plot write up on Wikipedia one day.

♥♥♥/5

Verdict: Read with a big dictionary!