varjohaltia | More Books (Reply)

Elizabeth Moon: The Serrano Succession

One more omnibus brick in Moon's space opera series. There's still a lot of attention on some of the non-Serrano characters, but overall it starts to bring the entire plotline back together. I found myself a bit disappointed by the lackluster solutions to some of the interesting speculative problems that had given rise to conflicts in the series. That aside, enjoyable space opera romp for when you want to park your brain and consume some feel-good prose.
Three and a half.

Seanan McGuire: Rosemary and Rue

Delightfully proper urban fantasy in the vein of War of the Oaks, modern day world with celtic and other mythology mixed in. Admittedly, the introduction of creatures began to sound like name-dropping, with no real substance given to the menagerie.
Unfortunately the main character is too deep in self-pity to really be enjoyable. I'll give the author the benefit of a little doubt here, since Kim Harrison started off with a similarly flawed protagonist in her books and proceeded to show that the character flaws were quite intentional and not just reflections of an emo Mary Sue.
What's less easy to forgive is the feeling that the style is safely copied from any number of other strong female protagonist urban fantasy / paranormal romance books. This is especially ironic in that the cover of the book claims that it is "refreshingly original." It isn't.
For an adventure with sidhe, kelpies, redcaps and other such fair folk, this is perfectly mediocre entertainment, but it doesn't stand out in any particular fashion.
Three.

Philippa Ballantine: Geist

I can count with the fingers of one hand the number of review copies I've received, and Geist would be one of them.
My first impression came from the cover, and since I'm a big fan of Jason Chan it was a rather good one. Remarkably, the cover actually reflects characters and events in the book.
Unlike Rosemary and Rue above, Geist actually IS refreshingly original. The world is an alternative history, there's a bit of technology, a bit of magic, and a bit of a mash-up of both, but all done in a way I haven't quite seen before. If anything, it reminds me of Scar Night.
Geist also features a strong if imperfect woman as the protagonist, and she is one of the best ones of her kind I've seen yet.
The prose is Ballantine's own, and she spins her world and characters with the kind of professional confidence lacking from so many of the other works I've recently read. She picks a good balance between explaining things that need to be explained, and leaving mysteries left in the world; between letting the heroes be heroic and leaving powers beyond and above them.
Four and a half, recommended.