• Tag Archives Kelley Armstrong
  • Relatively Recent Books

    Been procrastinating with adding these because it’s a pain. May as well get it over with now:

    • Sealed with a Curse (Cecy Robson) – Real bad. Basically all the worst Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance tropes/stereotypes mashed together. One of the characters having a surfer-dude accent for whateverthehell reason just made it all the more aggravating.
    • Allegiant (Veronica Roth) – Honestly, it’s been so long since I read this that my only recollection is liking how Tris’ story turned out while disliking the somewhat circular nature of the plot developments.
    • The Razorland Trilogy (Ann Aguirre) – The first book starts out good but seems to lose its way toward the end when the protagonists start picking up party members like a RPG. The second shifts between being interesting and being annoying (the latter mostly caused by the whole gender roles focus), and the third is readable enough even though it wraps everything up a little too neatly.
    • Red Delicious (Caitlín R. Kiernan) – Usually when people dislike something, they’ll just make a blog/forum post about it. Kiernan (as Kathleen Tierney) goes the extra mile and writes a book about it. This reads like an open letter regarding all the sorts of books/genres and literary criticisms she hates and frankly just comes across as rather sad posturing.
    • Wild Justice (Kelley Armstrong) – Fairly interesting continuation of the Nadia Stafford series that focuses on both Nadia’s past and her current relationship with Jack. There are a few things off about the ending stretch that sort of dull its sheen though.
    • The Undead Pool (Kim Harrison) – A more or less solid continuation of the series focused on vampires, elves, and Trent/Rachel’s relationship.

  • Tempt the Stars, Omens, & Parasite

    The sixth book in Karen Chance‘s Cassandra Palmer series is a lot like the previous entries, so you should basically know what to expect. Its three notable features are exploring the hell dimensions a bit, introducing the Covens and touching on the Pythia’s court, and giving practically no page-time to Mircea (focusing instead on Pritkin and retrieving him from his father).

    Kelley Armstrong‘s new series (Cainsville) begins with a fairly infuriating opening segment showcasing the horrors of unwarranted tabloid-fueled reputation assassination. Once it gets past that setup and arrives in the town of Cainsville things begin to get quite good indeed. The supernatural aspects start off mostly subdued and only gradually begin to make their presence known, which works fantastically. And the variety of supernaturals being dealt with here? It’s not explicitly stated, but seems to be a combination of inherent psychic abilities with some Fae thrown in for good measure.

    Parasite is the first novel in Mira Grant’s (Seanan McGuire‘s) new Parasitology series. It’s something of a combination between the renegade scientist parts of her Newsflesh trilogy and Stephenie Meyer’s The Host. It’s a little shaky due to both the characters’ tendency to monologue exposition at you and the awkwardness inherent in the protagonist not being legally in control of her life. I’m also not sure if the reveal just before the “to be continued” is supposed to be a surprise or not; it’s telegraphed so heavily that it ends up rather anticlimactic.