Kim Harrison: Pale Demon

• ISBN-13: 9780061138072
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 11/29/2011
• Pages: 528

 Condemned for black magic, Rachel Morgan has three days to get to the annual witches' conference in San Francisco to clear her name. if not, she'll be trapped in the demonic ever-after...forever. 
 But a witch, an elf, a living vampire, and a pixy travelling 2,000 miles in one car is a recipe for disaster - not even counting the assassination teams waiting in ambush...or the demon they unleash on St. Louis.
 Now, after centuries of torment, a fearsome creature walks free, craving innocent blood and souls - especially Rachel Morgan's, who'll need to fully embrace her own demonic nature to survive. And even that may not be enough. 

 Oh, Rachel. You've done it again - managed to get yourself into a situation you can't escape without making your life substantially worse.
 We pick off a few months after we left off, with Rachel preparing to go bridesmaiding at her brother's wedding. Unfortunately, what with the events of the last novel, there is quite a bit of doubt as to whether she's actually going to make it. Then - surprise of surprises - Trent shows up asking for her help with something he needs done, but he's not going to tell her what it is. I'll pause to allow a moment of shock to sink it. Trent asking Rachel for help? Did the world end while I was sleeping? No, he just really needs her help. When Rachel (naturally) can't get through airport security because the Council is determined to make her life as difficult as possible, we have the perfect storm - for a road trip.
 Yes, you heard me. This novel is essentially a Lampoon Family Vacation in which all of the members of the family want to kill the annoying one. So basically a family vacation. Jenks, Ivy, Rachel, and Trent all bundles themselves into Rachel's mother's car and away they go, bickering all the way to the West coast. Of course, along the way they run into some nasties, including demons and mercenary elves, because whatever Trent wants, other people apparently want it, too. And when you find out what that thing is - hoo boy. I was shocked and I am so very anticipating what new developments that revelation will bring.
 Furthermore, Rachel is called on once again to use the very powers she is being crucified for. And she isn't going to get any thanks for it either. The difference is that this time, she doesn't care. Rachel is fed up with people trampling all over for something she has no control over, and I for one cheered raucously. Instead of trying to force her life into the shape she thinks it should be, she finally accepts that, for the time being at least, she is royally screwed and why waste energy trying to fight it? Accept it and make the best of it. You go, Ray-ray (oh, bad memories. Let's not call her that ever again).
 This one wasn't as action packed as the last one, and I liked it better for that. In my last review I mentioned that. Sometimes it just gets to be a little too much and you want some time to breathe between catastrophes. Harrison gave us that in this installment, and we got to remember why we liked the characters so much in the first place. Plus - road trip. Substantial time for hilarious dialogue and super-frustrating-bitch-Trent moments.
 Overall: A

Christopher Moore: Bloodsucking Fiends

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (March 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416558497

Jody never asked to become a vampire. But when she wakes up under an alley Dumpster with a badly burned arm, an aching back, superhuman strength, and a distinctly Nosferatuan thirst, she realizes the decision has been made for her.
 Making the transition from the nine-to-five grind to an eternity of nocturnal prowlings is going to take some doing, however, and that's where C. Thomas Flood fits in. A would-be Kerouac from Incontinence, Indiana, Tommy (to his friends) his biding his time night-clerking and frozen-turkey bowling in a San Francisco Safeway. But all that changes when a beautiful undead redhead walks through the door...and proceeds to rock Tommy's life - and afterlife - in ways he never thought possible. 

 I was at first reluctant to read Christopher Moore. My friend was pushing me to read Lamb, insisting that it was funny and wonderful. I was still hesitant because I wasn't sure it wasn't going to be a scathing degradation of the Christian faith. I can appreciate humor with regard to theology, but I loathe ideological attacks based on nothing but scorn and disbelief. I'm not Buddhist, but I don't knock it. And that applies to everyone and all religions. Now that I've gotten my little rant out...I wasn't sure that Moore was going to be funny but respectful. I was extremely pleasantly surprised. But that's the subject of another review.
 The point of all that is this: Moore is a good author. He's funny and irreverent but not offensively so. Sometimes you're astonished at the things that come out of his brain, but since it's usually pretty funny you can't help but laugh at things like necrophilia. In Bloodsucking Fiends we're dealing with the newly dead, or the newly undead more like. Jody is attacked and turned into a vampire in the dead of night on her way home, and must learn to deal with her new...talents. Enter Tommy Flood, pen-name C. Thomas Flood, an aspiring writer from small town middle America whose father's greatest ambition for him is that he safely join the union. Hijinks ensue as they try to not be framed for murders they did not commit. This is made a little more difficult by Tommy's often stunning naivete.
 Moore is also great at creating a supporting cast that makes you laugh almost as much as the events of the novel. From the Emperor of the city (who appears to others as a mere bum) to the large, angry, gay detective who is determined to lock Tommy up for the murders despite his cute butt, no character is too small for a humor treatment. Well done, Mr. Moore. Touche.
 Overall: A
 Moore's dialogue and writing style is fairly elementary, but he obviously does well with the low-level literary value of his work. You read these books for pure pleasure and laughs, not for any life-changing epiphanies or mind-blowing prose. His characterization is stunning though, and he is not as raunchy as he becomes in his other books. There are times when he crosses into "That's just nasty" territory, but this book has few of those moments, and I greatly appreciate it. This one definitely falls into my top three Moore novels.

Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov

• ISBN-13: 9781593080457
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Publication date: 8/1/2004
• Pages: 752

The last and greatest of Dostoevsky's novels, The Brothers Karamazov is a towering masterpiece of literature, philosophy, psychology, and religion. It tells the story of intellectual Ivan sensual Dmitri, and idealistic Alyosha Karamazov, who collide in the wake of their despicable father's brutal murder.
Into the framework of the story Dostoevsky poured all of his deepest concerns - the origin of evil, the nature of freedom, the craving for meaning and, most importantly, whether or not God exists. The novel is particularly famous for three chapters that rank among the greatest pages of Western literature: "Rebellion" and "The Grand Inquisitor" present what many have considered the strongest arguments ever formulated against the existence of God, while "The Devil" brilliantly portrays the banality of evil. Ultimately, Dostoevsky believes that christ-like love prevails. But does he prove it?
 A rich, moving exploration of critical human questions, The Brothers Karamazov challenges all readers to reevaluate the world and their place in it.
 
Whenever I review a classic, I am inevitably presented with the same problem: how does one review a classic that has stood for hundreds of years? Should I even try? Well, I like a challenge.
 The Brothers Karamazov is the story of a parricide, but that is only the culmination of events, not the driving plot of the novel. I would argue.  Rather, the story is a psychological survey of humanity centering on three brothers and their negligent father. I have a huge problem with separating fiction from reality - I just get too involved emotionally. So instead of taking a character's actions in stride, I become frustrated, or angry, or upset like I would in real life. Sometimes it gets really stressful for me and I need to take a break from whatever I'm reading. This was one of those novels.
 First of all, there's not a single character, aside from Alyosha and possibly Snegiryov and Ilusha, that you like. All of the other characters are ignorant, hateful, spiteful, willful, selfish, or rash, or a combination of any and all of those. Honestly, the ones that I wanted to throw under the proverbial bus most of the time were Mitya and Katya. Mitya because he caused all of his own problems and could have saved himself by being less incredibly stupid and rash, and Katya because she was just a hateful spiteful person.
 Dostoevsky's genius, though, lies in exactly that. As a study in humanity, the novel is brilliant. Human beings are frail and weak and often despicable. Then occasionally there are those moments of genuine compassion and the beauty of the human spirit. And the characters of Karamazov are perfectly formulated to showcase all the pathos of the human mind, in all its glory and despair. Forget the story - read it for that alone.
 The plot itself was not particularly well formulated as it was really more a vehicle for what I just talked about. The details of the murder and the characters' motivations were often convoluted at best, although the many monologues were formulated much like the speech of any person under severe duress. As a result, it was extremely difficult to explain why everything was happening. I found myself checking out mentally every so often just because they were babbling and I wasn't going to get much explanation out of their speeches. The truly excruciating speech was the prosecutor's final stand at the trial. All I can say is that the arguments he made based on the evidence they had, the evidence itself, would not hold up in a modern court of law, and so it was almost amusing how he presented his case. "He didn't have half of the money he supposedly stole on him - rather than believe that he's telling the truth and he really didn't have that sum to begin with, I believe he stashed the money somewhere in the walls of the inn. We haven't found it yet, but I'm sure it's there." I shook my head in disbelief.
 Overall: A-
 For pure readability, it wasn't great. The long passages that just seemed to be repeating the same thing over and over, the often incomprehensible dialogues and monologues, made you want to just skip to the important and interesting part. I recommend forcing your way through those particular passages, though. I think everyone should read this book at least once if you want to get a true view of the human psyche.

Oh my goodness

I briefly forgot I had this blog.

Oops.

Patricia Briggs: Bone Crossed

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Ace; Reprint edition (January 26, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044101836X

 As a shapeshifter with some unique talents, ace car mechanic Mercy has had to maintain a tenuous harmony between the human and the not so human within the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington on more than one occasion. But this time, she may be in over her head.
Marsilia, the local Vampire Queen, has learned that Mercy crossed her by slaying a member of her clan. Now she's out for blood. But since Mercy is protected from the vampire's direct reprisal by the werewolf pack - and her close relationship with its sexy Alpha - it's not Mercy's blood Marsilia is after...
It's her friends'.

 I really like Mercy Thompson. She's saucy, and fierce without being some uber-powerful super-being, and she's got a non-standard heroine job: she's a mechanic. How awesome is that? I will probably address her basic characterization in more depth when I go back and re-read the earlier books, but since this is the first I've done on this blog, I felt I should start with a little something about her.
 In this books, we're still dealing with the repercussions of the events of the previous books, obviously. One cannot suffer rape and forget it in a week. I'm surprised Mercy is doing as well as she is at this point, but that largely comes from being an incredibly strong individual and from having completely destroyed her attacker. Major kudos to Mercy. As a natural part of coming to terms with what happened, she is having difficulties becoming intimate with Adam. I love that Briggs didn't have Mercy run into the arms of the big strong man, and allow his tender love to heal all her wounds. No, she had to deal with the fear she suffered, even from someone she trusted as much as Adam.
 Aside from this, she's also dealing with the consequences of killing Andre, the vampire madam of the Tri-Cities' pet vampire. Granted, he was a total nutjub, but in this world vampires are not necessarily reasonable. Just incredibly territorial. In order to escape Marsilia's clutches and give the werewolves time to try to smooth out the situation, Mercy goes to help an old college friend with her ghost problem.
 Obviously there is a lot going on in this novel. Possibly too much. You start thinking that the ghost problem is connected with the vampire problem, then it turns out it's not. I'm sure we'll see that developing further in the coming books, but it's still kind of hurriedly thrown in there, almost like she didn't really have a plan for a stand alone plot for this book other than tying up loose ends from others. The ghost/vampire angle was her main plot for this book. While it became interesting at the end, it felt a little half-assed to me.
 The relationships are quite solidified at this point. We're all pretty sure that Mercy is going to end up with Adam, but it still remains to be seen how the emotionally unstable Samuel will deal with it. I also love that Ben and Mercy have bonded, and he's now kind of her biggest fan. Even though Ben was sort of an ass when we first met him, for some reason I still loved him, and I think it's because I saw the potential for this to happen. He really gave Mercy her spirit back in the last book, and we love him for it. Stefan also became massively cooler, I think. With his Mystery Inc. van, I always pictured him as sort of a hippie, but now he's a total badass. His loyalty to Mercy could bode a future interest in her romantically, if it's not there already, but since we know she's with Adam, it's not going to pan out. But doesn't it still make us feel good to have that person who loves us and would protect us without expecting anything in return? Stefan is that guy, I think, and I've become quite fond of him.
 Overall: A-
 Was this my favorite of the series? No, not really, no. Not at all actually. Yes, it was packed with a lot of stuff going on, but it wasn't really cohesive and it didn't all quite come together in the end. But Briggs did wonders with the relationships between characters, and I appreciate her all the more for that. So it's not getting an A or an A+ but it's definitely a solid A-.

Jim Butcher: Grave Peril

• Mass Market Paperback: 378 pages
• Publisher: Roc (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451458443

Harry Dresden's faced some pretty terrifying foes during his career. Giant scorpions. Oversexed vampires. Psychotic werewolves. It comes with the territory when you're the only professional wizard in the Chicago area phone book.
But in all Harry's years of supernatural sleuthing, he's never faced anything like this: The spirit world has gone postal. All over Chicago, ghosts are causing trouble - and not just of the door-slamming, boo-shouting variety. These ghosts are tormented, violent, and deadly. Someone - or something - is purposely stirring them up to wreak unearthly havoc. But why? And why do so many of the victims have ties to Harry? If Harry doesn't figure it out soon, he could wind up a ghost himself...

 In the third installment of Butcher's Dresden series, we have rather a lot of "Oh shit" moments. The start was, I think, meant to be a "bang" but it ended up being more of a "pop" unfortunately. I suffered through quite a bit of confusion in the first chapters as we were introduced to characters and circumstances that had developed in the time between the last book and this one. That's normally pretty well done, but in this case, there were just too many new things going on at once, and I was having real trouble trying to figure out if I should know these things and was forgetting, or if they were brand new. I'm going with brand new. For example - a faery godmother? Really? When did that happen? Oh, when he was a baby. Why have we not heard of this before now if she's been hounding him most of his life? (Pun intended - you'll understand later).
 So right off the bat, I was a little flabbergasted at the events. That is not to say, however, that they were not fun and immensely entertaining. The first thing we learn, in the midst of an all-out battle against what I think is one of the creepiest ghosts ever, is that someone has been messing with the ghosts of the Nevernever and all hell is about to break loose because of it - well, all the Nevernever anyway. Of course, we have to deal with that. Also, the vampires are acting up, probably because Dresden previously pissed off their head honcho in town, big time. His godmother is after him as well, making getting anything done in regards to the case extremely difficult. Lastly, there's a Nightmare thing running around that may have something to do with some dark sorcerer/demon summoner that he helped arrest (again in that interval between books - which means the reader has no idea what he's talking about). Oh yes, and there's some clairvoyant girl who somehow ties into one or all of these things. Confused yet? So am I.
 While there's a lot going on, Butcher has miraculously developed a talent for keeping all the plot points firing apace and preventing them from getting too convoluted. Thank God for that. His first book was a little iffy on that score, but he has significantly improved, and as the book moved along and there were more developments helping to tie things together, the confusion was dispersed. It was well written for the most part, although occasionally the inner (and outer) dialogue got a little cheesy. The only other thing that detracted from my enjoyment of this novel was the editor's outrageously poor editing. Please, I don't want to have to fill in the blank and guess at what you're trying to spell while I'm reading for enjoyment. Not Mr. Butcher's fault, but jeez, get some better proofreaders people.
 There wasn't a ton of character development going on as we were pretty centered on Dresden and Michael and their problems. That's okay though, not every book has to be about everybody. Murphy was strangely absent for the majority of the time, and Susan made just enough appearances to be annoying and then awesome and then sad. Annoying because she's a reporter who doesn't seem to comprehend that no, Harry cannot tell you all the things and when he's busy it's probably for a good reason so you should shut up, sit down and wait patiently. Awesome because she's pretty ballsy. And sad because...well, I'll let you get to that.
 Overall: A-
 I enjoyed the book, and I like that Butcher is taking Dresden down a darker and more emotionally fraught path. We're not just doing it for kicks now. And the writing improves with every book, even though this one got off to a rocky start.

Kim Harrison: Black Magic Sanction

• Mass Market Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Harper Voyager; Reprint edition (December 28, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061138045
• 
  

Rachel Morgan has fought and hunted vampires, werewolves, banshees, demons, and other supernatural dangers as both witch and bounty hunter - and lived to tell the tale. But she's never faced off against her own kind...until now. 
Denounced and shunned for dealing with demons and black magic, her best hope is life imprisonment - her worst, a forced lobotomy and genetic slavery. Only her enemies are strong enough to help her win her freedom. But trust comes hard when it hinges on the unscrupulous tycoon Trent Kalamack, the demon Algaliarept, and a lowlife ex-boyfriend-turned-thief.

I love Kim Harrison. I always have, ever since I first read one of her books, which was actually the third in the Hollows series, which was understandably confusing. I got through it, obviously, and enjoyed it. Part of what I love about Harrison's Hollows is that the world is so amazingly fleshed out. She's got pretty much every supernatural species one can think of, working in a fully functioning Cincinnati with its own history and complex political structure. She also has fully developed characters that come and go, but that always bring something to the table. She is able to handle multiple plotlines smoothly and they make sense. Sometimes it can get hard to keep track of what has happened and what's going to  happen next, especially when sometimes there are large gaps between readings, as is the case with me. However, Harrison does a great job of reminding us what has happened to get us to the starting point of the new novel without making it sound like a painful recap.
 In this edition, we have Rachel - surprise - running for her life. She has managed to piss off everyone at least once, but she's good enough at what she does that she eventually convinces them what a bad idea it really is to mess with her. She is, unfortunately, a victim of circumstance this time. Her previous battles have forced her into a corner, and instead of understanding that most of what she does is out of necessity and not choice, her enemies chose to punish her for what others have caused. Yes, Rachel made the choice, but when your other choice is death, becoming the student of a demon isn't all that bad of an option. Anyway, the point of all that is that she is being hunted for something that is out of her control. While she may be forced to practice black magic upon occasion and consort with demons, she still holds onto her morals, sometimes to the inconvenience or detriment of herself. I like that about her - even if it makes things harder, she still will do what's right. It's suitably frustrating when she sticks her neck out for someone (several times in this particular novel) and she catches crap from the person she's saving because they can only see the method. That's a personal rant, though.
 Harrison develops Rachel even further, and she finally accepts what she is. Furthermore, her relationships with Trent and Algaliarept are developing and I'm interested to see where it's all going. Honestly, I don't hold out much hope for her and Pierce, although he's funny and useful at times. We're heading to the end as the series is to end at thirteen books and this is number eight. Rachel's going to have to get her life together in five books, and it's going to be one hell of a ride. She got one demon mark off, she's only got one left and a boatload of smut on her aura. We'll see....
 Overall: A
 There wasn't much breathing room in this novel and it largely focused on Rachel's issues, naturally. At times it got a little confusing, especially the physics of ley lines. Still brilliant obviously.