Witchling by Yasmine Galenorn
Sep. 7th, 2009 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
varjohaltiaI selected this book based on Amazon recommendations, and because it was supposed to be urban fantasy, have faeries, and a strong female protagonist. I think I'll have to start looking for urban fantasy that doesn't have a female lead. (Sorry, not a fan of Dresden.)
I got a bad vibe at the very beginning of the book as the main character described her enormous breasts, and it didn't much improve from that. The setting is actually quite interesting: faerie (otherworld) has shown itself again, and is a parallel world, reachable through newly activated portals. Creatures from there are now co-habitating in our world, and vampires and all those things have popped back up too. Ms. Galenorn takes pretty much any mythos she can get her hands on -- Finnish, Japanese, Celtic -- and tosses it into a pot and mixes well. I do kind of like this aspect of the book, despite the over-the-top fashion of it.
What completely ruins this book for me are two things. First, it really needed to be under the Harlequin brand. Second, the protagonist is insufferable. She keeps contradicting herself and being an arrogant, bossy, hypocritical thing that acts on animal instinct and then gets upset when people do the same or call her on it. This could be kind of endearing, but just makes me dislike her intently. That, and her knowing that she's sexy and don't you forget it -- except that most of the things she describes do not actually sound at all attractive to me.
Two out of five stars.
I got a bad vibe at the very beginning of the book as the main character described her enormous breasts, and it didn't much improve from that. The setting is actually quite interesting: faerie (otherworld) has shown itself again, and is a parallel world, reachable through newly activated portals. Creatures from there are now co-habitating in our world, and vampires and all those things have popped back up too. Ms. Galenorn takes pretty much any mythos she can get her hands on -- Finnish, Japanese, Celtic -- and tosses it into a pot and mixes well. I do kind of like this aspect of the book, despite the over-the-top fashion of it.
What completely ruins this book for me are two things. First, it really needed to be under the Harlequin brand. Second, the protagonist is insufferable. She keeps contradicting herself and being an arrogant, bossy, hypocritical thing that acts on animal instinct and then gets upset when people do the same or call her on it. This could be kind of endearing, but just makes me dislike her intently. That, and her knowing that she's sexy and don't you forget it -- except that most of the things she describes do not actually sound at all attractive to me.
Two out of five stars.
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Date: 2009-09-08 03:09 am (UTC)I HAVE, however, been enjoying the Fever series by Karen Moning. It's Fea focused without the scads of otherworldly lore thrown in just for the hell of it, a trend that seems to plague the "urban fantasy" genre. And while the heroine at first suffers badly from being raised pretty and clueless, she grows out of it eventually. And the hero (At least, I think he's the hero. One of those maybe he is, maybe he isn't things) is a sexy beast!
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Date: 2009-09-08 02:38 pm (UTC)I'll have to check out the Fever series, then. So far, oddly enough, I seem to have the best luck with young adult genre. The adult field of urban fantasy tends to be swamped with what Amazon calls "paranormal romance," and while I'm man enough to read some of them, most of that flood is utter garbage.
Also, I rather dig your icon!
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Date: 2009-09-09 12:22 am (UTC)Anyhow, yeah. The Fever series is quite good. It goes in order: Darkfever, Bloodfever, Faefever, Dreamfever (which just came out), and the fifth and last book in the series which will be out around this time next year.
It's classified as romance, but it really shouldn't be. There's hardly any adultnessness until the very end of the 3rd book, some at the beginning of the 4th, and then it stops again. So don't let the romance tag scare you off.
Fair warning, Ms Moning is cruel with her cliffhangers, too. She seems to enjoy leaving the reader screaming with frustration at the end of every book. Luckily, there's only one book left to wait for.
The Heroine, Mac, like I said before, is a bit of a brat through much of the first book. You'll hate the word "pink" by the end of it. But she quickly grows out of it, and the author does a good job of maturing the character into someone who is much easier to like.
Also, if you haven't read Graceling by Kristin Cashore (teen fiction, but just barely), it's an excellent fantasy read, and the prequel is due out next month. Glass Books of the Dream Eaters and it's sequel The Dark Volume are two books I adored as well. Can't wait for the third!
Enjoy!