Steampunk loosing steam?

Ok, so I don’t have a huge bank of experience reading steampunk. But, from the series I have tackled so far on this little site, you can see I have read some (and I have read more than I have chronicled here). The more I read of this, and the more YA authors cross into steampunk, and PNR authors cross into YA, and YA authors cross into PNR and PNR authors cross into “urban fiction” (ack! with that last cross over being the most heinous cross over, in my opinion, since it has ruined a lot of great steamy PNR series and made them merely luke-warm water vamps stories)… get the idea… the more I struggle with how very predictable and formulaic some of these stories have become. The formula is one thing in the PNR – since we all know that the idea is to take two people and put them together and have them fall in love despite some obstacle. But in the YA, my hopes are for so much more diversity, excitement and creativity. And those hopes seem to be getting dashed so much more often lately. Maybe it’s the pressure to rush to the next installment; maybe it’s the pressure to write multiple series at the same time; maybe it’s the pressure to extend stories well past their natural conclusion (I can’t tell you how many series I have started that should have ended with installment 4 or 5 and just keeps getting stretched, well beyond its elastic limit). But whatever the cause, it is getting harder to keep reading beyond the point where the series jumps the shark – and it is unfortunately typically very obvious where this point is (enough so that I am wondering where are the editor’s and what are they reading that makes these stories still marketable?)

To prove a point, here are some facts about the two most recent reads: Girl with the Iron Touch by Kady Cross (which I really enjoyed) and Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare (which I am thankful is the last installment in that series). See what you think:

• Big bad evil mastermind: Magister vs Master
• Main plot device: Kidnapping of a key character drives the plot (Tess vs Emily), then one of the guys goes after her (Will vs Sam) then the whole group tries to rescue them
• Paranormal element (besides the steampunkness): A ghost is hanging around, and the ghost was someone who previously betrayed one or more of the group (Jessamine vs Mei)
• Ending: the evil doer is killed
• Primary steampunk characteristic: lots of automatons and other machines that carry out an evil plan under the direction of a master. The clockwork machines become more then machines, they start to be sentient (evolution vs demonic influence); Automatons which are the bad guys, but they are manipulated/controlled by another who is human (Magister vs Girabaldi)
• Romance element: Love triangle that isn’t really a triangle (Tess/Jem/Will vs Finley/Griffin/Jack)

See any similarities? Unfortunately, there are way too many. And I am sure that I could draw similar comparisons with other things from the series, with other series in the genre, and even with the characters themselves. And, while one story was much better written than the other (see the pages for GWIT and CP reviews for details), there were moments when I was reading the second book and I had to stop to remind myself which story I was reading. That is NEVER a good sign. The next book on the top of the to-read pile isn’t steampunk, it’s not even YA, so here’s hoping that a little time between these two books and the next venture into steampunk temper the disappointment. Of course, anyone with suggestions for a series that will assuage this disappointment, you are welcome to leave the suggestion in the comments!

The infernal conclusion of the Infernal Devices

Clockwork Princess (CP for short) by Cassandra Clare is yet another disappointment. Given how strong the Mortal Instruments series started (but quickly faded and the series should have ended at the end of book three, before it jumped the shark), I had high hopes for the Infernal Devices series. While there were some good moments in this series, this latest installment really wasn’t worth the effort of reading.

Like in the PNR genre, many of these YA series are becoming so very formulaic and predictable. It is disappointing. I have started to venture into the Steampunk sub-genre in the hopes that I will discover something new and exciting, but it seems that as the YA authors also venture into that area, they bring staleness and predictability and they let that guide the plots, instead of finding a fresh take or the excitement that this new area should provide. (To prove a point, my next post will be a comparison of CP and Kady Cross’s latest since I read them back-to-back.) And CP suffers terribly from this. I think the only good news is that it appears that this might be the last of this particular series.

The other malady that this book suffers from is the romance. It is so over done and under done at the same time. The romance between Tess and Will is so boring. And the author’s desire to couple every character takes away from the romance of Wll and Tess and makes the romances pretty boring as they are not given time or page space that they need to develop and to make the reader feel invested and to want to root for them.

Then there is the silliness. About what, you might ask. Well, it is hard to read the story with a straight face when one of the two biggest battle scenes in the book talks about battling a giant worm. Yes, i said giant worm. Since the worm is supposed to be something one of the characters turns into, couldn’t the author have found something more original, more demonic, more menacing and scary, than a giant worm? Every time I read the phrase “giant worm” I chuckled. And not because I think it was intended as comic relief but because it felt ridiculous to imagine the scene in my head of the Shadowhunters and a giant worm. And something more demonic could have made the story so much better.

Finally, after the climax of the takedown of Mortmain, there were too many chapters of cleaning up the coupling. When the epilogue came around, my first thought was “what else can there be to tie up?” The only redeeming part, really, was the revelation of a few of the details including what the clockwork angel really was and its intention. It was a relief to get the details as to Tess, her origin, and why she is different. But even getting all these facts filled in couldn’t save the overall story and the predictability.

When all was finished, I was left with a sense of relief that I had finished what seemed like a silly master of time. I will be glad if this was the last we see of the Infernal Devices series.

Beauty Awakened: Actually a recipe for putting me to sleep!

Beauty Awakened is the second in the Angels of the Dark series, a spinoff of the Lords of the Underworld series by Gena Showalter.  And, well, it wasn’t exactly a source of warm shiny light.

As we learned previously, Zach was given a year to reform his band of angels.  The upcoming war between the titans and Greek gods and the Diety will require the services of all.  We also knew that Koldo’s mother cut off his wings, but we didn’t know why.  Now we do:  Koldo is only half angel and his other half is demon because his mother was raped.  So, his mother hates him.  We open with a chapter where Koldo is a young boy, just trying to get some attention and love from his mother, but she is a hateful awful angel.  I think its enough to say that she cuts off his wings and dumps him with his father.  And his father is pure evil.  So… now he is in the Army of Disgrace and faced with fighting demons.  He happens upon Nicola and her sister Laila in a hospital and Koldo can see that they are both being directed by demons.  He instantly feels a connection to Nicola and he decides to try to save her – and by extension then he needs to try to save twin sister Laila.  Meanwhile, during his teaching he and Nicola fall in love.

The cut to the chase is the same here as with all in this genre – Koldo and Nicola do find a way to be together.  He manages to teach her how to fight off demons.  So well in fact, that she too becomes part of the “good army” – sword and all.  Lalia on the other hand, succumbs to the demons, in part because Koldo who has now sacrificed his wings for Lalia (because of Nicola’s begging) is captured and looses the water of life he sacrificed his wings for.

This preachy, not-at-all-steamy, lame reason for less steaminess (really, Nicola passes out because of her heart condition?  REALLY???), all sorts of attempts to show off what must be the author’s new found religion… is, well… mediocre at best.  Where’s all the great stuff that the LOU brought us and made me love to read Showalter’s stuff go?  If this is what’s in store for the next LOU or AoD installment –  yikes!

This is terrible.  I adored the Lords series.  And I liked the first installment here.  But what seems to be happening here is illustrative of a trend in the PNR category – these books are getting softer, less steamy, more preach, more theological, and less fun.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s romance.  And since there are angels involved, there is a certain expectation that there will be some theology.  But the preachiness and PG rating are getting to be a bore.  Not to mention, I felt like I was in Sunday school, being not just lectured but hit over the head with the notions of how to keep demons at bay.  Where’d the Gena Showalter I used to love go?  Ack!

If you want a weak female lead, a ton of bible thumping, action so quick its over before you notice it, a lot of build up to virtually nothing (talk about frustrating!!!), then this installment is for you!  There are hints and tie ins to what will presumably be other installments down the line (which everyone knows I will probably read anyway since it take a lot of terrible in a lot of installments to get me to finally quit a series) but I am not betting on improvement since a lot of these PNR authors (especially those who are trying out YA too) are totally loosing their edge.   And there are sooo very many little did-bits to have to keep track of, I am grateful for my own blog (how shameful is that) because I am absolutely positive I would not remember any of these little details later.   The quips between the male characters made me chuckle but that was the only thing to keep me awake and remotely interested, and that’s sad.  PNR should have other things to keep my attention too.  Koldo was interesting and had promise, but he too came across fairly flat and boring, even with his tortured history.  To have him passed out throughout most of the end of the book – totally lame.

This book was yet another reminder as to how much I miss the “old” PNR stuff (and old is relative because this really all started about 2 years ago I guess).  I miss the  things the first few LOU books had to offer.  I was hoping that would carry through to this series – but maybe the author got stuck in the YA genre she entered into with the  Intertwined series (which I admit I have not read, but it is clearly in the “YA” category).  I can only hope that the references to William (whose appearance was a nice treat) might signal a return to the things that made the LOU universe so awesome.

Stop with the blogging! And the Sniffing! #Ihatetwitter

Vicki Lewis Thompson has provided us with another Wild About You novel.  I read most of the latest installment over my lunch hours, so it seems fitting I take a lunch hour to do this review! 

The latest installment takes place where?  Well, like with all the books in this series, the title gives it away.  We find ourselves and our supernatural cast in Denver at a resort where there is a conference about to begin.  It will be historic (or so Angela Sapworthy, reporter and Rita Skeeter wanna-be tells us in one of the few really annoying aspects of this installment)!  It is the first get together of international Werewolves and they are going to discuss things like working with humans and mating with humans.  Kate Stillman, leader of the group that believes in were-only coupling is at odds with Duncan (I always want to say Duncan MacLeod) McDowell the leader of the group that is pro-intermixing with humans.  They get snowbound, have a steamy night together despite all the cold snow, and we go from there.

Very formulaic in nature from the romance perspective.  Boy meets girls, they have some sort of obstacle to overcome, they get together anyway because true love trumps all.

I have appreciated Thompson’s sense of humor and light hearted approach to even the obstacles.  They aren’t usually the life threatening issue (at least not what is keeping the couple from coupling) that are in some of the other PNR books, and they aren’t the save the world scenarios either.  While there is action, which is sometimes life threatening, there is still humor and a lot of chuckles balanced with the steam.  This book continues that trend.  But…

I was not a fan of all the buzzing, barking, howling, woofing, or what ever the “tweet” equivalent was supposed to be (Sniffing apparently, yikes!  That’s just an awful “equivalent”).  The blogging by the nosy reporter got old fast.  I am not saying an author should ignore the world they live in and not adapt and use lingo or acknowledge or reference the current state of technology.  But if I wanted to read a blog, I would read a blog (and the irony of the fact that I am blogging about this is not lost on me!).  I sat down wanting to read a book – wanting to get away from the blogging, tweeting (which in concept annoys the daylights out of me).  And the characters obsessive need to bark (again, or what ever it was) made me roll my eyes and lead eventually to me skipping some of the book because I didn’t really need to read the Wild About You version of Rita Skeeter’s ramblings.  And I certainly didn’t needs all those ridiculous “Sniff” hash tags – which were just as silly as all the acronyms.  And they were silly – not funny or humorous – just silly and not worth the effort to read.

Where does that leave me?  Hoping that my lunch time reading (which is when I read this book) Summer of 2013 when installment #5 comes out is free of this silliness.  Occurring in remote Alaska, where Jake has already said internet coverage is spotty, leaves me hopeful that it will be Sniff-Silliness-Free!

e-only short stories. Marketing genius or a waste of reader’s time?

I don’t normally write little reviews of all these “.25″, “.5″, “1.5″ (blah blah blah) stories (and if you are confused, check out good reads and they way they number series and the little “extras” that are offered between installments) but these two latest were such a waste of time it’s hard to ignore.

It’s nice of the author to give us little shorts.  And some authors are better at it then others.  Michael Scott did it right – with the Joan of Arc and Vampire of Vegas shorts, which were long enough to be actual stories and warrant the $0.99 (total tangent – what happened to the cents character on the keyboards?  I miss it!!!) asking price.  And while one might argue that since many of them are given away freely, like the two that I just read, that it’s not fair to judge too harshly.  BUT…

Many of them are e-only format.  Not all – and the ones that are “Barnes & Noble edition exclusives”, frankly just piss me off because I am not buying 3 versions of the hard cover of the same book just to get the short story.  So very many of the ones that are e-only though have a tendency to be… well… just bad.

Let’s take for instance the two I just read.  The “prequels” to Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan.  First, let me say that I liked the first full installment.  There were some drawbacks, sure, but on the whole I liked it and am looking forward to the next installment.  So, this isn’t just sour grapes at another let down at a start to a series.  These were two shorts – billed by goodreads as “.25″ and “.5″ in the series.  The first, The Spring Before I Met You, and the second, The Summer before I Met You are extraordinarily short and seem to be brief intros to two main characters more than really prequels.  In the Spring Before I Met You, told from Jared’s perspective, we get a little more background about Jared and we learn that he talks to Kami.  In Summer, we see Kami working a summer job but we really don’t get the same background or set up – it is really just a brief introduction to her and Angela.  In fact, Jared’s name is not mentioned once in that story.  We learn a tiny bit about Kami’s grandmother, and we get the cute fact about her one little brother’s love affair with lemonade.  But we don’t get much more than that.  When I finished the last page of the second story I really felt like it was an unnecessary waste.  A cute marketing technique to find and suck in new readers, but not worth the time of a serious reader, who would have read Unpoken anyway.  And, there really wasn’t any key detail that we don’t re-learn in Unspoken.

Many of these little shorts are just like this – and many are really deleted scenes (I guess nice for the author to share those) like Cassandra Clare’s City Extras.  Some are interim short stories like Dream Dark (Caster Chronicles “2.5″) and some are truly prequels like the Lords of the Underworld, Darkest Fire (we learn how the demons got into Pandora’s box in the first place).  But, with the few exceptions (Michael Scott’s Secrets shorts in particular), I feel that these little e-book extras aren’t worth the effort.  If they warrant a story, give me a story in an installment.  If they don’t warrant that much effort, don’t bother.  There’s plenty of other series and installments to read while waiting for the next fully developed story.

Unspoken’s unfound romance

I just finished Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan. This is another first in novel in a series that is bent towards YA paranormal romance. At least I think the romance part is part of the series… But we will get to that.

Kami Glass is a smart high schooler in a small little place in England called Sorry-in-the-Vale. She’s just convinced the school to let her start a school newspaper and she wants to go to Cambridge to study journalism. This has happened just in time for the Lynburn’s return to the town. And with their return, comes all sorts of secrets, strange happenings and sorcery.

Ash and Jared are cousins, Lynburn’s and sorcerers. Yep, they deal with magic. And bad things happen when they are around. But the strange things didn’t really start with their return as there was something strange about Jared and Kami from the beginning. Kami has an imaginary friend named Jared. Jared has an imaginary friend named Kami. And when the Lynburn’s return, we discover that the imaginary friends weren’t so much imaginary as a psychic connection between Jared and Kami. She is never alone as he is always there in her thoughts and she is always in his. And of course the link is uber-important to the story in more ways than one.

Now, without spoiling everything in the review (it’s sort of a big enough spoiler to know that sorcery is the brand of magic we are dealing with here, since the reader is pretty far into the book before this is confirmed), Kami, Ash, Jared and some of Kami’s other girl friends are off to solve a mystery that has timed itself quite coincidentally with the Lynburn’s return. Dead animals, dead school girls, attempts on Kami’s life, and of course the mystery as to who or what the Lynburn’s are and why they are important and whether they are good or evil are all tied up in the mystery.

But, the biggest mystery is where is the love story. The blurb (and I know, I am so very often disappointed by the expectations the back cover, amazon blurb, etc. sets) says: “Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born.” But she doesn’t really seem to feel that way. She goes on a date with Ash and she has a few thoughts about severing the link with Jared so she could be a regular girl to him, but that is really it. And for readers of the two short stories about the summer before they meet… Well, they set up much more of a relationship than we see. There is just the mere morsel of romance, sort of, thrown in. Kami seems to like both Ash and Jared, Ash seems to like her, and Jared can’t live without their link but doesn’t really seem to want Kami like that.

As characters go, I like the cast we are given. Kami has great wit and they all seem to be written well enough that I can imagine the group of friends that they are. I also like the little morsels about the characters, even the peripheral characters like Kami’s brothers Ten and Tomo and the obsession by one of them for lemonade. I read a review or two complaining about how mature Kami is – but she’s 17… not exactly a young teenager. And she is smart and witty – I think she’s a perfect protagonist and a nice smart young lady – I am happy to read her point of view throughout the series.

The one other thing that seems to be missing are some of the details around the ending. If you blink you might miss it. What is there is heart breaking and happens fast enough that I read it three times and am still not quite sure what happened. Maybe it just means I need to wait for the next book. There is a nice basis for a different type of magic story, so I am looking forward to Lynburn Legacy #2, when ever it comes out.

Furious Over Tempests’s Fury

Tempest’s Fury, the fifth installment of the Jane True series by Nicole Peeler packed another powerful punch.  Unfortunately, the end left me fuming.  Why?  Because I have what I think is going to be a very long wait until the next installment so that I can find out what happens next!!!

We pick up where the last one left off with Jane, Blondie,  Anyan and friends having defeated some of the bad guys as a result of Jane’s interactions with the creature.   Jane now has discovered how very powerful she and she can telepathically communicate with the creature as she is the creature’s champion.  She has a magical weapon – an awesome axm-  and she and her pals are headed to England to fight a war.  We meet a new cast of characters and learn that the politics of the territories and the Alfar in the US in some ways are child’s play compared to what’s going on in Great Britain.  Jane finds herself faced with a historical enemy u like the Alfaro because it is much more powerful. It is actually a pair of creatures called the Red and the White.

Now here’s one of my favorite parts… we get Dragons!  Yippee!Unfortunately, the dragons are the Red and the White and they were chopped into tiny bits years ago and are  out to get resurrected.  They want to take over all of the planet and crush humanity.  And, once we learn that, we are off to the races.Orr really, the race since our crew is racing Morrigan to stop the White from being resurrected while she is trying to find the necessary pieces to do the resurrecting.

I wasn’t disappointed by the pacing, the plot, the development of the relationship between Jane and Anyan, the politics of the rebels versus the Alfar (which are the leaders here) or, of course, the dragons!

James libido has only gotten more awesome in this series and now we see not only her libido but more of her virtue.  The interplay between the two of them bring some great comedic relief to all of the action that is seen.  Throughout the story Jane continues to also have a great quick wit, always cracking jokes at inappropriate times.   The way she references other characters is pretty awesome, let’s face it for the original to be referenced as Blondie throughout, is a great expression of Jane’s personality.

And the relationship between Jane and Anyan has progressed in an interesting way too.  There is quite a bit of steam in this particular installment that i found myself wondering why these books aren’t in the romance section like the rest of the paranormal kind of stuff that I love so much (especially now that so much of the paranormal romance stuff is really urban fiction with a few steamy scenes showing up here and there).  Jane True can certainly hold her own in comparison of those other series.

This series, and this installment, I think are best appreciated by PNR fans looking for a little change to the standard formula. It’s not all vamps and Weres in this series, but lots of very different types of paranormal creatures populating universe that we don’t typically see.  Jane is also a sarcastic little bundle who is so totally spunky that her wit and humor seep throughout the book into every scene. It makes her such a joy to rEd – even when she can be annoying!

We’re also certainly not short on action in this installment.  We get explosions and destruction galore!  There is a killer kick ass scene in Paris where we got to see the destruction of Notre Dame (I wonder what it is about my luck that I seem to keep finding books and series where Notre Dame takes a beating?) There is magic, death, death by magic, oh, and did I mention explosions and the destruction of some famous sites?

Jane continues to be an awesome hero.  She doesn’t really want the title but recognizes that to save the world there’re things she just might have to do.  And who doesn’t love a hero who wields a magic axe?

So why am I furious?  Because with an ending like the one we get here, I don’t want to wait for the next!  And I couldn’t even find an expected publication day so I assume it will be a while. NOOOOOO!  I need more Jane True!  I need to see what happens to Anyan!  I need to see how Jane saves the world!  I need Jane!  **stomps feet** So, I am furious that with a cliff hanger like the one we get at the end of this book I have to wait.