The Empire of Ashes

Sorry I've been incredibly slow at reading and reviewing this summer, but I'm going to try to pick up the pace this month. This is my latest review:

The Empire of Ashes by Anthony  Ryan

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong Language


For hundreds of years, the Ironship Trading Syndicate was fueled by drake blood--and protected by the Blood-blessed, those few who could drink it and wield fearsome powers. But now the very thing that sustained the corporate world threatens to destroy it.

This is the conclusion to The Draconis Memoria trilogy and I liked it quite a bit. I gave the first two books in the trilogy 4 stars each, but this time around I didn't enjoy the reading journey quite as much. I think some of it had to do with pacing. I felt this book was very slow to get to it's conclusion. There were several places that it dragged and I just wanted the story to move on. Another thing was, I really wanted to see more at the end of the book about what happened to certain relationships and how they end up. There were mostly hints about romances, but nothing more. The characters in general could have used a little more work. I think that there being so many characters in the series, it made it harder to really get to know them as well as we could have. Because there were so many, I would forget who a person was now and then, or get them mixed up, but for the most part the author does a good job at juggling them all.

One of the best things about this series as a whole is the magic system and the portrayal of the dragons. Anthony Ryan did a great job with the world building. Another thing I loved about this book in particular were the airships. I guess I have a thing for those. While I enjoyed reading this trilogy, thought it was very well written, and gave the books high ratings, I still do not count it as a favorite. I think the reason is simply that it was not as easy to connect with the characters as I wanted and the story is more plot driven than character driven. I still highly recommend this trilogy to anyone that likes dragons or steampunk inspired fantasy though.

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing me with a copy of this book.

My Brother Michael by Mary  Stewart

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Content: Clean
 

Camilla Haven is on holiday alone, and wishes for some excitement. She had been sitting quietly in a crowded Athens cafe writing to her friend Elizabeth in England, "Nothing ever happens to me..."

Then, without warning, a stranger approached, thrust a set of car keys at her and pointed to a huge black touring car parked at the curb. "The car for Delphi, mademoiselle... A matter of life and death," he whispered and disappeared.

From that moment Camilla's life suddenly begins to take off when she sets out on a mysterious car journey to Delphi in the company of a charming but quietly determined Englishman named Simon Lester. Simon told Camilla he had come to the ancient Greek ruins to "appease the shade” of his brother Michael, killed some fourteen years earlier on Parnassus. From a curious letter Michael had written, Simon believed his brother had stumbled upon something of great importance hidden in the craggy reaches of the mountainside.

And then Simon and Camilla learned that they were not alone in their search...

This is the 8th book I've read by Mary Stewart and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I was pleased that it was set in Greece like her book The Moonspinners, which happens to be my favorite out of all her books so far. Mary Stewart was once again able to capture the essence of a place and make me feel like I was there, which is one of the strong points of her novels; that is when it doesn't interfere too much with the storytelling. Most of this book is set in beautiful Delphi which I would love to visit someday among lots of other places in Greece.



It's always interesting to read books that were written in this time period (1959). I love picturing the cars and the clothing from that time as I read. Can you imagine hiking through the mountains in a dress? Also there were so many cigarettes smoked that I'm certain every one of the characters eventually die from lung disease, but back then it was the thing to do and they didn't yet know the devastating health issues smoking could cause. It did seem like there was more smoking in this book than in most of her other works though.

This book managed to be good once the story really got going, but it did take a bit too long for that to happen, which is why I can't give this one a complete 4 stars. There was mild romance and quite a bit of suspense before the end which was all good, and a murder that takes place on the page instead of just being discovered. I admit I found the way it was done a little disturbing. As for the characters, the protagonist was easy to like and so was the love interest, and Stewart managed to write a character in this book that I found downright irritating, but that's the way she was supposed to be so it was all good.

This book also involved ancient Greek art, namely statues that were very rare because few of them survived the war. One in particular, The Charioteer, is featured in this book and it was described so well that I had to look it up to see what it looked like, especially when the eyes are described.





Overall this was a good read, if slow to get going and I would rank it 5th on my list of Mary Stewart books, pretty much even with Wildfire at Midnight. I liked the protagonist better in this one, but Wildfire at Midnight was more suspenseful.

1. The Moonspinners
2. Nine Coaches Waiting
3. Madam Will You Talk?
4. The Ivy Tree
5. My Brother Michael
6. Wildfire at Midnight
7. Airs Above the Ground
8. The Stormy Petrel

Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge by Lisa Jensen

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fairy Tale
Content: Rape, Attempted Suicide, There could be more but I did not read the whole book.


They say Château Beaumont is cursed. But servant-girl Lucie can’t believe such foolishness about handsome Jean-Loup Christian Henri LeNoir, Chevalier de Beaumont, master of the estate. But when the chevalier's cruelty is revealed, Lucie vows to see him suffer. A wisewoman grants her wish, with a spell that transforms Jean-Loup into monstrous-looking Beast, reflecting the monster he is inside. But Beast is nothing like the chevalier. Jean-Loup would never patiently tend his roses; Jean-Loup would never attempt poetry; Jean-Loup would never express remorse for the wrong done to Lucie. Gradually, Lucie realizes that Beast is an entirely different creature from the handsome chevalier, with a heart more human than Jean-Loup’s ever was. 

*This review contains a few spoilers*
 
This is a different sort of version of Beauty and the Beast, and I was really into this book in the beginning, but then at around the 12% mark the prince who later is turned into the beast rapes Lucie. It was rather shocking and unexpected and I just couldn't see how he could ever be redeemed. How was Lucie supposed to later fall in love with this person? So I put the book aside and looked at some reviews that other people had posted. After reading quite a few of them I was able to understand how Lucie falls for the beast. This is a situation where the prince and the beast are two different people. The best comparison I can think of right now is when Dr. Jekyll becomes Mr. Hyde. Only in this book the beast is the true form and the handsome prince is the monstrous imposter.

I did pick this up again and skim through it near the end, but I just didn't really care for this version of the story very much. I wasn't crazy about the idea that "Beauty" -Rose in this book- was not the person who ended up with the beast, and I wasn't crazy about the idea that a human woman ends up with a beast either.

Thanks to NetGalley and Candlewick Press for providing me with a copy of this book.

Age of War by Michael J. Sullivan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Clean

"Heroes are those who refuse to create or become victims. I failed to see it then, but I lived among many heroes. I think maybe everyone does." --THE BOOK OF BRIN

In this third book of the Legends of the First Empire series our heroes are lamenting losses, but also preparing for war. Quite a few of them are hit with some pretty tough choices in this book. Persephone in particular did some things that I didn't like at all. I understood the reasoning behind her choice, just not the way she handled it and treated someone. This resulted in me liking her far less in this book. I was honestly disappointed in her.

That being said, I can't really think of any other negatives about this book. All my favorite characters were there and each contributed greatly to the story. There were twists that I didn't see coming and heartbreaking things that happened. Chapter 28 had me crying, but as I always say, the best fantasy stories break your heart a little. Each installment of this series has had a way of tugging at my heartstrings. The characters feel so real to me, and even though some of them have special gifts, they feel like ordinary people just doing what they have to do. Those are the best sort of heroes.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with a copy of this book.

The Girl in the Green Silk Gown by Seanan McGuire

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Content: Strong Language

For Rose Marshall, death has long since become the only life she really knows. She’s been sweet sixteen for more than sixty years, hitchhiking her way along the highways and byways of America, sometimes seen as an avenging angel, sometimes seen as a killer in her own right, but always Rose, the Phantom Prom Date, the Girl in the Green Silk Gown.

The man who killed her is still out there, thanks to a crossroads bargain that won’t let him die, and he’s looking for the one who got away. When Bobby Cross comes back into the picture, there’s going to be hell to pay—possibly literally.

This is the second book in the Ghost Roads series and while it was pretty good, it lacked something that could have made it great for me. I enjoyed the first book more. Maybe that's because it was a compilation of several different stories and I didn't mind reading about Rose in shorter stories. This book was one long novel that didn't feel like it needed to be as long as it was. It started to drag in places before I even got halfway through. Certain things are repeated too much, and there is also a whole lot of exposition in this book, so much at times that it feels like the author is going off on tangents. Rose was also less likable for me this time around because she was really whiny, but at least she knew she was.

Parts of the story were compelling especially when Rose is trying to evade Bobby and the parts in the underworld. There are a few unresolved things at the end of the book, like Gary and his situation, and there is definitely more to explore there with his and Rose's relationship. I initially thought this was going to be a duology, but it's a series with, at this time, an undetermined number of books. While I like this ok, I really don't feel like I'm enjoying this enough to keep reading a whole series, so I'm good with stopping here.

Thanks to First to Read for giving me a copy of this book.