Sunday Soup - October 18

In The Soup This Week... Marjorie Liu, Jeanne Stein, Jeffe Kennedy, Barbara Freethy, and more.

Soup Dish:  ok, so I actually have a few links this week. Some tasty bookish articles that caught my eye recently:
✽Marjorie Liu... she is one of my favorite paranormal writers anyway, but this? I'll I've got is WOW. I'm not really a graphic novel kind of girl, but I think I'll have to make an exception for Monstress. Here is Vox's amazing writeup.
✽You know how I love lists: 20 Books that Offer a Perfect Blend of Sci-Fi and Romance. I tend to prefer fantasy over Sci-Fi... I can't say that I've read any of these.  Maybe I'm ready to try Romance in Space.  If we include fantasy in the category, I'd add Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies, and yep, Jeffe Kennedy's Twelve Kingdoms trilogy. Just yummy.
✽Nora Roberts on the post-draft process of publishing a book. I don't think I'm one of those people that would pester an author to hurry up or let me see something before it's done.  If I say "I can't wait for the next one," that's meant to be a compliment, not a "hurry up!" sort of imprecation. Honestly, the anticipation can be a good thing. I do wonder about this though:

Meanwhile, the editor is working with the art department on a cover. With Sales and Marketing on how the book will be sold in, how it will be marketed. It has to be scheduled, and this book is one among many. Accounts–bookstores, chains and independents, other venders like WalMart, Target, Costco and so on, have to be addressed–so there are book reps who deal with that. Catalogue copy must be written, Publicity has their meetings on the book–what to do there? Back cover copy, flap copy must be written. That cover has to be produced, maybe revised, produced.

None of this happens in five minutes. Or five days. Or five weeks. Or five months.

Maybe it's because Nora has some serious volume going out, but really? Five months? Coming from a background of industrial/process engineering, where there is always pressure on production cycle times... that seems like a lot. That seems like maybe where some indie publishers are seeing some opportunity.  I understand that creative products cannot be totally optimized, but let's face it, distribution contracts are not really a creative product. Hmmm.  Anyway, the article is worth a read, if only for the photos of the marked up manuscripts at the end. 

What I'm reading
✽The Becoming, by Jeanne Stein. I read this because the author was signed up for the Reading Until Dawn Con. Really enjoyed the book. The bounty hunter heroine has a good "origin story" and I enjoyed the way the various characters developed and revealed themselves.

✽The Tears of the Rose, by Jeffe Kennedy. Jeffe is also a RUDC author, but I was reading her stuff anyway. You should too. I'm currently reading the third book in the series and taken as a whole they are just really really good. Individually, they are lovely romances with tons of adventure, magic, and emotional tension. This one in particular was sort of a tardis-book: given the word count, it should have taken me much longer to read. The pacing apparently has a touch of magic too.  Character wise, I loved how Amelia went from being a pampered baby sister princess to truly a queen in her own right, with agency as well as an agenda. There is a bit of a cliff-hanger in this book, which I sort of think will not be resolved in book three. According to the author, there is a new related series in the works, which - this is my speculation only - may take that as a jumping off point.  I'm hoping/planning to do a series review for all three when I finish Talon of the Hawk.

✽On a Night Like This, by Barbara Freethy. I think I picked it up as a freebie or 99-cent special; it's priced at $3.99 now. First in the Calloway series, this is a nice "reunion" contemporary about a firefighter and a lawyer with daddy issues. Sara is the literal girl next door, and Aiden knew about her epic crush on him back in the day. They shared one teenaged kiss, but the timing wasn't right. I enjoyed this quite a lot -- it's a sweet, low-conflict romance with some really good kissing.

✽The Nymphos of Rocky Flats, by Mario Acevedo. Another RUDC author, I've seen his name around for quite a while. I have really enjoyed most of the authors who have written for the League of Reluctant Adults, off and on. And I want to say that Mario was a great sport at the conference, vastly outnumbered by women. (His choice for, and execution of, the erotic reading session was impeccable. And memorable.) Unfortunately, the book didn't really work for me. An interesting premise, great action, a vivid military backstory were soured for me by the casual misogyny of the male characters:

"So what'd you do?" I asked. "Let these women screw their brains out on government time?" 

"What was the alternative?" Gilbert replied. "Fire fifty percent of our workforce? DOE wants full disclosure of our activities - except for the embarrassing stuff." He fidgeted with the knot of his tie. "At first we thought we'd just let the women get it out of their systems. To accommodate their needs, as it were," he cleared his throat. ... "Fortunately, we discovered an ally among the pharmaceuticals." Gilbert opened a side drawer to his desk and produced a small plastic bottle. he shook the vial, rattling the green-and-white pills inside. "A daily dose of sixty grams of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Fluoxetine hydrochloride. Prozac."

Gilbert put the bottle away. "Now we have plenty of happy women and very few horny ones. Rumor has it the holdouts were tramps to begin with."

Yeah, that last line was kind of a dealbreaker for me.  If it was meant to be humorous, it didn't work. (Also, I really hope the dosage was meant to be in milligrams.) So I think this particular protagonist is not for me.

So that's the soup this week.  What's going on with you?

Scattered Thoughts

I mentioned earlier that I've had the cold from hell. Seriously, I feel like I've been sick for months, and not just a little sniffly. It's been distracting and tiring and unfortunately the blog is behind kids and job in priorities, and there hasn't been much left over. Fortunately, I'm finally starting to cautiously think that maybe I'm almost better. Almost. I mean, I am much better, but not quite all the way better. You know?

As I look over my last few posts, I keep thinking of things I meant to talk about but forgot while I was actually writing. Rather than go back and do a lot of editing, I thought I'd do a little round up.

Giveaway Deadline
First order of business is my giveaway. I uh, forgot to put a deadline on it. How about, midnight Friday (the Thirteenth!) and I'll announce winners over the weekend. Sound good? OK.

Linkages
I really wanted to get some posts up but I was lazy about linking in the last several posts (as they say in the scrapbooking world, "Done is better than perfect" -- and I got them done!). I've got nothing to Amazon, nothing to the author sites, nuthin' to nowhere. I'll go ahead and add in links to reviews around the blogworld, and as always, if you have also reviewed the book, please feel free to leave your perma-link in comments.

More Thoughts on Demon Forged
Next up, I wanted to go back to the Demon Forged review for a minute. I meant to point out a couple things about Irena's names. So first of all: Irena... Iron... get it? I got it. <grin> . And while I was reading about her talent for metalworking, my mind did wander over for a moment to the Dirk & Steele story about another heroine with a psychic metalworking ability -- Dela Reese, from Tiger Eye. Short snip, pulled from Marjorie Liu's webpage :

Those weapons offered her nothing. She knew quality when she saw it, age and history when she felt it. A simple thing, when one worked with steel as much as she did. When it sang its secrets inside her head.

I had the pleasure of hanging out with Ms. Brook one evening recently, and one of the things we talked about was Liu's writing and worldbuilding, so I know she's a fan. And you know how sometimes rockstars give each other little nods in their songwriting? Like how the line in Hotel California that goes "they stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast" is supposed to be a tribute to Steely Dan? Anyhow, it made me wonder if Irena's fake FBI identity -- Irena Steele -- was a little shout-out to Marjorie Liu. It made me smile, anyway, to think it might be.

More Thoughts on Just One of the Guys
You may have noticed that that particular review is a bit of a stylistic departure for me. I asked a couple of friends to look it over for me and tell me if my faux grouchiness was obviously faux or if it just seemed kind of asshole-ish, cuz I can be a little insecure about my attempts at humor (it cracked ME up, but, you know. I can hear my tone in my head, and it's not always a sure thing that you all can, too). Anyhow, I was reassured on that front, but one of them mentioned, um, Nicola? What the hell is the story about?

As a rule I don't spend a lot of space on synopses, but hell, I didn't even put any links in that one. So here ya go. Jeez--I didn't even get the title quite right. In case you were undecided by my review and would like to know more about the book in my own personal words, this is what I told her:

The protagonist is a woman with 3 older brothers, plus a foster brother. Her dad and all the boys are firefighters. She also rows, faints at the sight of blood, has a huge lazy part bloodhound mutt (I don't know whytf there's a beagle on the cover) and works at their local hometown newspaper.

She's had a longtime crush on the foster brother but neither of them think they should act on it.

The secondary romance is about her mom finding someone other than her dad, who is a workaholic and refuses to retire.

I also meant to say but forgot, that the third wheel in the secondary romance? Bowed out with such grace and fineness of character... well. Again with the tissues.

Bringing It Around
Sunday I was at our local grocery store and wanted a magazine to flip through while sipping at my pre-shopping, fortifying latte. And they were having a 3-for-2 sale on paperbacks. AND they had Tessa Dare, whose first book I finally picked up (and loved) so OF COURSE I need the other two. I noticed that a couple of the Guardian books were on the shelf and I was glad to see they were getting shelf space even though I was already caught up. And then I saw Blaze of Memory by Nalini Singh and thought the same thing. It took me two more circuits of the paperback section before it dawned on me that THIS IS THE NEW ONE AND I DON'T HAVE IT YET!! D'oh! Scattered thoughts, people, I'm telling you. Anyway, I started it today and hey! I haven't quite figured out what's going on yet, but there's another psychic metalworking thing going on:

Gritting his teeth, he sought out all the metal in the house. The cool kiss of iron and steel brushed his mind, invaded his limbs. It wouldn't last long, not with Katya's slight form resting trustingly against him--but he'd use the calm while he had it...

I don't know what this means! But I'm intrigued. I'm amusing myself with imagining a reality show where these three characters would get together and have some kind of sculpt-off, or forge-off, or something-- like, one big lump of metal and they have a psychic battle to shape it their way. (Welcome to my brain: it's mostly harmless but mind the gaps). And I'm also wondering if any psychic metalworker could ever possibly top Meljean's scene with Irena's statue. O__O

That's It For Now
There's a strong likelihood that shortly after I post this, I'll think of two or three other Very Important Things I meant to share with the internet. For that moment though, I think that's everything. Thanks for bearing with me!

_________________
photo credit goes to Mary Elizabeth Williams. Isn't she awesome?

The Fire King, by Marjorie M. Liu - Review

The Facts
Title: The Fire King
Release Date: July 28 (eek, I thought I had more time for this review!)
Liu's Site (with a nice meaty excerpt)
ISBN: 08439-5940-1
307 pages

Short Answer
Loved! One of the best in the series.

Tell Me More
OK, but remember, you asked for it.

You know how, when you're on a job interview or at your performance review... or maybe the marriage counselor's office, heh, and they ask you those questions: "What's your greatest strength? And what's your greatest weakness?" and sometimes, the answer is the same thing?

One of the best things about Liu's universe is the endless variety of talents and mythologies she draws from. I think that in this way, she takes more chances than some of the paranormal authors out there who have a more tightly-focused world. And there have been some books that didn't appeal to me that much. This one though, just hit every note exactly right for me.

The World
For the most part, this is a book that answers more of the existing world-building questions rather than raising new ones. It's built on shades of gray and uncertain alliances. What really happened to all those shape-shifters? Previous books have alluded to a far-different-looking pre-history, where creatures of myth and legend were not only real but plentiful and played an equal role with humans when it comes to the question of "who's in charge here, anyway?" Most interesting to me was the absence of the Consortium, which has played the role of the villain in most prior books. Here, Liu introduces fractures within the hierarchy of the shape-shifters, and a new group which occasionally aids the Dirk and Steele team, but more in the spirit of a shared enemy than of a shared moral compass. Teensy spoiler: watch out for the double-cross!.

The Hero
Karr is a chimera, the first of these that we've seen in the series, and the discovery of his kind plays a pivotal role in the world-building. He's among Liu's oldest creatures and has an unnatural immortality, which is a mystery that is unravelled in the course of the book. He's isolated and lonely; heroic but with an undeniably brutal side. Able to shift into lion or dragon form, Liu's heroine finds herself thinking of CS Lewis' Aslan, and the Christ analogy isn't entirely off-base. He's a bit of an unlikely hero, but Liu brings them together, bit by bit. I can't say that Karr is my favorite hero; he's a bit more aloof than suits me, but he suits Soria, which is far more important.

The Heroine
Soria is one of the most interesting heroines you're going to see, ever. Shell-shocked, recovering from a major trauma, attempting to escape the shadowy world of Dirk and Steele and the adventures that she no longer feels up to, she is pulled back into a new mission with little choice. I love the way that Liu feeds us information about Soria-before, and Soria-after her trauma. I was frequently surprised, never bored, and yet the heroine's actions never seem out-of-character, perhaps because so much of the interior story is about her reclaiming and redefining herself.

She's got a don't-let-the-bastards-grind-you-down core (though it's been AWOL for a little while when the story opens) and a grim sense of humor that doesn't quit. This bit made me snort at an unladylike volume:

...given the circumstances, a paper trail seemed like a rather poor idea, right along with using a credit card, or writing her name across the sky with big giant arrows pointed down at her ass.

And when you learn about the trauma? whooee. It will set you back on your heels. Liu delivers a depth of horror with this matter-of-fact style that has you absolutely believing. It's more than a bit creepy that within her sky's-the-limit fantastical universe of magic and myth and super-powers, often the elements that are the most profoundly disturbing are the ones that we can find in true headlines. (My husband, the comic-book fan, reminded me that the major theme in the X-Men series is that the monsters are NOT the mutants.) Soria's character is my favorite part of this book -- the way she triumphs through the strength of will is an utterly gorgeous progression. And Karr's best moment is how he listens to her story, and gives her exactly what she needs. The scene is too long to excerpt here, but it's pitch perfect. Every word, every gesture.

And isn't that one of the purest romantic fantasies? A partner who can give us-- who can be-- exactly what we need?

Other Reviews
I'm seeing lots of articles announcing the release, but not too many reviews. Be sure to leave your link in comments if you have one, or know of one, and I'll add it into the post later.

Michelle Buonfiglio at B(u)y The Book

Hotter Than Hell – Anthology – Review

I picked this anthology up because I’ve recently been hooked by Kim Harrison’s Hollows series, and Marjorie Liu’s name on the cover sealed the deal. Interestingly, many of these authors, including editor Kim Harrison, are usually shelved in Horror or Sci-Fi/Fantasy, but you’ll probably find this anthology in the Romance section. Like their authors, the stories range from erotic horror to erotic paranormal romance to mostly just erotic. Notice the common denominator? I’m thinking that’s how the title happened.

Of the thirteen authors featured, I’d only read a few before. I looked at this smorgasbord as a way to find some new authors. Now, I can’t do a full-on review of all 13 stories or we’ll be here all day, but here are some highlights:

1. Tanya Huff – a fun, clever story about modern day Sirens and outwitting the bad guys. I love that.

2. Marjorie Liu – actually didn’t love this Minotaur story as much as I do some of her books. Like my thoughts on The Last Twilight, I had similar issues with this story – it just seemed a little too fuzzy around the edges for me. Neat premise though.

3. L.A. Banks – honestly? This one just seemed a little silly to me: Artemis wakes up and sees the current ecological devastation, and starts picking off CEOs, first turning them into stags and then hunting them.

4. Keri Arthur – I loved the writing and characterization in this little werewolf story. While I think the short story might not be Arthur’s best format, as the story seemed kind of unfinished, the stuff that was good makes me want to try a full length book.

5. Lilith Saintcrow - <shiver> - wins the prize for the creepiest story in the book. Love the writing. I suspect it might be a little too dark and cold for my taste, leaning farther into horror than I generally like to go. But I might have to read a full book first, just to make sure.

6. Harrison’s contribution had an O. Henry-like twist at the end that I had to go back and re-read before I “got” it. I’ll just say: whoa.

There are 7 other stories here to sample, but these are the ones that stood out the most for me, good and bad. Overall, if you like hot paranormal romance, this is a nice compendium for your nightstand. Harrison has a number of other anthologies out with the “Hell” theme, too, if this one hits all of your RAVE buttons.

Also reviewed by:

Literary Escapism
Amberkatz
The Good, The Bad, The Unread
TechnoMom
Urban Fantasy

The Last Twilight Addendum

OK, so I went back to the book to see if the plot point I mentioned was covered, and technically it was, but in kind of a hand-wavy, nothing really to do with the Rikki Kinn we came to know sort of way. It is also one of the points you probably wouldn’t get if you haven’t read the prior books.

One potential flaw, if you will, in Liu’s universe, is the rather black-and-white set-up. Shades of gray tend to be more interesting, and the end of Twilight hands us a can of worms that has a lot of potential for adding some nuance to Liu’s Justice League.

That is all.

Marjorie M. Liu - The Last Twilight

I really love the Dirk & Steele series by Marjorie Liu. I even love the name “Dirk & Steele,” because, come on—how can you not? If you’re going to go there, you might as well go big (and hard and phallic-shaped). In Liu’s world, the “Others” among us include shapeshifters plus folks with a multitude of paranormal abilities: mind-reading, healing, metal forming, genies, that thing where you can sense something about an object by touching it (which has a name but I can’t remember it), a very interesting talent (Blue) for controlling electrical devices… all kinds of cool stuff. As might be expected, there is the Justice League— err, I mean, Dirk & Steele – for wearing the white hats, and the ominously-named Consortium, organized to exploit these talented folks, to the potential End of The World As We Know It. I was delighted to learn that Liu’s early writing career included a couple of X-Men titles – how cool is that for a cross-over to romance?

The Last Twilight delivers high adventure in an exotic, dangerous locale; it’s a densely-plotted, fast-paced, high-stakes move/counter-move story. The main character of Dr. Rikki Kinn is wonderfully different from our typical romance heroines – she’s smart and tough as hell, and while we eventually uncover her vulnerabilities, Liu manages to avoid making her seem like a stereotypical heart-of-gold character. Amiri’s human form is Nigerian, so this also qualifies as a multi-racial romance, although what with the shapeshifting and the particular evilness of the bad guys, that hurdle is pretty small potatoes in their relationship. I found that minimalist approach rather appealing.

Unfortunately though, I thought this book didn’t quite live up to expectations. Amiri, the hero, just didn’t quite click for me – I think that his voice just wasn’t quite right; it seemed a little too fragmented and dreamy. (There, I’ve used up my quota of “quites” for this piece.) There is a big plot point that I either missed or turns out to be a hole: without spoiling much, it turns out that the Bad Guys are after Kinn for her DNA, but I never did figure out what was supposed to be so amazing about her that the Bad Guys moved mountains (figuratively) and killed hundreds or thousands of people trying to get to her. I sped through to the end but this dangling thread left me thinking “Whuh--?”. I also got a little tired of waiting to find out what caused Kinn's scarring -- they payoff was all it was built up to be, I think, but (and you've seen this from me before) I can only take so many references to some awful event/secret before you need to tell me what it is.

If you haven’t checked out Dirk and Steele yet, do so at first opportunity. Reading them in order is good but not completely necessary—I haven’t been. My favorites so far have been Tiger Eye (#1) and Soul Song (#6). If you already like the series, you'll probably like this one just fine-- but if you haven't read any yet, do try at least one of my faves before you make up your mind.