2009 March 28 » Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

Review: Blood Engines by T.A. Pratt (2007)

Posted by Anastasia on March 28, 2009 4 Responses »

Mar 282009

Blood Engines by T.A. Pratt
Publication: eBook / ISBN 0553589989
Genre: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy
Rating:
Find free ebook @ Suvudu or paper book @ Amazon
First sentence: Marla Mason crouched in the alley beside the City Lights bookstore and threw her runes.

I read a review recently where the author said that “there’s also a frustrating place between good enough to enjoy and bad enough to put down without guilt or curiosity,” and that’s exactly how I feel about Blood Engines.

Summary from RandomHouse:

Meet Marla Mason–smart, saucy, slightly wicked witch of the East Coast.…

Sorcerer Marla Mason, small-time guardian of the city of Felport, has a big problem. A rival is preparing a powerful spell that could end Marla’s life–and, even worse, wreck her city. Marla’s only chance of survival is to boost her powers with the Cornerstone, a magical artifact hidden somewhere in San Francisco. But when she arrives there, Marla finds that the quest isn’t going to be quite as cut-and-dried as she expected…and that some of the people she needs to talk to are dead. It seems that San Francisco’s top sorcerers are having troubles of their own–a mysterious assailant has the city’s magical community in a panic, and the local talent is being (gruesomely) picked off one by one.

With her partner-in-crime, Rondeau, Marla is soon racing against time through San Francisco’s alien streets, dodging poisonous frogs, murderous hummingbirds, cannibals, and a nasty vibe from the local witchery, who suspect that Marla herself may be behind the recent murders. And if Marla doesn’t figure out who is killing the city’s finest in time, she’ll be in danger of becoming a magical statistic herself.…

I’ve been steadily working my way through the fantasy offerings at Suvudu, and for the most part I’ve found them ranging from SUPER AWESOME to very good. Blood Engines falls a little bit lower on the scale, unfortunately, though I don’t mean to say it wasn’t entertaining.

It took some getting there, but I eventually stopped gripping about the things I didn’t like (well, for the most part) and got into the story. However, I didn’t reach that point until chapter 10, when things started actually picking up and getting interesting. I nearly gave up around chapter 8, but decided to keep going for rather lukewarm reasons. Blood Engines is in that gray area between “good” and “bad,” and I tend to get trapped in it pretty often.

My biggest problem was unfortunately with the writing. It’s not horrid, but Pratt gives us these infodumps like it’s stuff we should already know from a previous installment, except that this is the first book! I constantly felt like I was playing catch-up and it got really annoying really fast.

And it’s also really weird that Marla keeps going on and on about how much she loves the town she runs, except the entire book is spent in San Francisco! All we get about town-that-I-already-forgot-the-name-of is unflattering second-hand descriptions from various characters, and for something that seems to be such a big part of Marla’s personality, it’s…strange that the first book in a series would take place away from it. Again, had to keep going back and seeing if I had missed a previous book or something. GAH.

The whole book is typical urban fantasy fare, with nothing really new or exciting except maybe the characters; heck, even the scenes spent at a BDSM sex party were boring. Not that I was expecting erotica or anything, but if I’m going to spend one or two chapters reading about people wearing saran wrap as clothing, I’d like a little something more…interesting. Less blasé, for sure.

So why did I keep reading it ’til the end? Dunno. I think it was partly because I liked B, the gay ex-actor/super-seer, and I wanted to read more about him. In an vague sense I admired Marla, who’s feisty and kick-ass and has a surprising talent at bullwhipping her name into dudes’ buttocks. And though I didn’t particularly like the writing I wasn’t repelled quite enough to stop reading. I may not have enjoyed myself all the time, but I don’t think I necessarily wasted my time, either.

I do kinda wanna read the next few books in the series, mostly because I want to see if B shows up again. Love him! But I don’t think I’ll be buying them, and I don’t think it’ll be anytime soon.

In summation: I didn’t hate it, but neither did I get all OMG AWESOME. Most worth reading for the unusual characters (plus, it’s free).

Other reviews: Books Worth Reading/Places Worth Going (or NOT) | Strange Horizons Reviews | MentatJack

Review: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan (2006)

Posted by Anastasia on March 28, 2009 6 Responses »

Mar 282009

Percy Jackson #2 The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Publication: Miramax (March 20, 2007), Paperback, 304 pages / ISBN 1423103343
Genre: Adventure, Urban Fantasy, YA
Rating:
Find @ Amazon or IndieBound
Challenges: 2009 Support Your Local Library Challenge (#9)
First sentence: My nightmare started like this: I was standing in the middle of the street in some deserted beach town.

Series: Book #1 | Book #2 (you’re here!) | Book #3 | Book #4

Note: There’s some possible spoilers in here, mostly just character related.

The second book of a series that has such a kick-ass beginning will inevitably never be quite as awesome as the first, and that’s unfortunately true here. It’s not as bad as some other second books, but the repetition of themes from the first book and weird plot points that go nowhere were disappointing. Overall, though, I had fun reading it, and despite my disappointments it’s nowhere near bad.

Summary from Amazon:

Percy Jackson’s seventh-grade year has been surprisingly quiet. Not a single monster has set foot on his New York prep-school campus. But when an innocent game of dodgeball among Percy and his classmates turns into a death match against an ugly gang of cannibal giants, things get . . . well, ugly. And the unexpected arrival of Percy’s friend Annabeth brings more bad news: the magical borders that protect Camp Half-Blood have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and unless a cure is found, the only safe haven for demigods will be destroyed.

My main problem with the book was that it didn’t seem as tightly-woven as the first book. Tantalus, who briefly replaces Chiron as activities director, is mean and evil and I don’t get the point of him being there. He doesn’t do anything except cause hurt feelings, and it’s never really explained if he’s actually a spy for the baddies or just a grouch. He’s pointless.

Little things like that, things that seem to have no point and are just there to take up space, seriously annoy me and unless they pop up again in a later book, I don’t want to see them in this one. Bah.

Other things, instead of showing up only once, are repeated from the first book: Percy at new school, Percy getting into trouble for something a monster caused, Percy’s new friend actually being a monster, Percy going on a quest to fight a thing that can’t be beat, etc. etc. The repetition isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just frustrated me that there wasn’t anything new except the situations surrounding them.

But there’s a lot of things I liked, too! Like I said, even though the structure is the same as the first book, the details are different and it turned out to be just as exciting as the first book. I really do like the new character introduced, Tyson-the-nice-cyclops. He’s so cute! The contrast between him and the evil cyclops was interesting, especially considering how everyone except Percy considered cyclopses to all be evil and eat people, etc. Tyson doesn’t have a mean bone in his body, and it was quite refreshing to see a monster not actually act monster-like.

I also liked that we got a closer look at Clarisse, Ares’ daughter who previously bullied Percy (and isn’t all that nice in this book, either). She’s mean, but I kinda like her and I think there’s more to her than just “bully.”

And there’s new mythological creatures whose names I can’t pronounce, ghosts, sword fights! Lots of danger! More prophecies that don’t make sense until after everything’s done! Lots of fun, yay! And like the first book, this one really moved. I think I read it in an afternoon, it went by so quick.

To sum up: less tight than the first book, but still a lot of fun to read.

Get your own copy from Amazon or your favorite indie bookstore!

Other reviews: Wands and Words | Rainy Books | Reading Sarah