Various thoughts on a variety of topics.
Following a nasty fall during a figure skating competition, Tazusa Sakurano awakes to find herself possessed by the spirit of a recently deceased stunt pilot. Now the two of them must find a way to co-exist while Tazusa redoubles her efforts to reach the Olympics.
Part ‘rise to the top’ competitive sports show and part romantic comedy. It’s a bit more of the former than the latter and has a particular focus on reaction shots.
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Kotarou Tennouji wakes from a dream of past memories and climbs to the peak a flower-covered hill where a lone girl awaits. There he dies, only to awaken again the next night to repeat the journey.
This is two shows in one. The first part is less a continuation of the first season and more the framework in which the first season took place (almost nothing that occurred there matters here, but you have to watch that first if you want to know who the characters are). The second part is a complete reset that begins in the 4th episode; it has little comedy and can be watched without having seen anything else.
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Wikipedia
The Mortal Instruments series originally ended as a trilogy, and it was a pretty good ending that felt like an ending… but then the author decided to extend it into a six-part series, the fourth and fifth of which (City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls) are something of a slog. They just feel completely extraneous, as if they don’t really have anything new to say; existing solely to drag the story out and ruin the conclusion of the third book. The sixth however (City of Heavenly Fire) is actually fairly engaging and almost justifies the existence of the two preceding books. The ending isn’t really an ending though and it handles the Simon issue rather horribly.
Hardship and Damnation are the final two books in Jean Johnson‘s Theirs Not To Reason Why series. The first of them is only so-so and seems a little forced and overly limited, but the second works quite well and wraps the series up nicely. I can’t say I’m not interested in a sequel that covers the future timeline that this series spends so much effort preparing for.
First the before, which was three books read back in August:
Jean le Flambeur – This trilogy by Hannu Rajaniemi reminded me of two other authors’ styles. The first book (The Quantum Thief) was reminiscent of Jack Vance, the second (The Fractal Prince) of R. Scott Bakker, and the third (The Causal Angel) a combination of the two. These books do not explain what’s going on. Rather, they show you what’s going on and trust that you’ll be able to understand/decipher the terminology and happenings on your own. It’s… certainly interesting.
And now the after, three books I just read yesterday. The first since the trilogy above:
The Winter Long – Seanan McGuire’s eighth October Daye novel apparently kicks off the ‘main’ plotline that’s been simmering in the background since Rosemary and Rue. Which is not to say that things have changed all that much, as it’s still fundamentally the same series it has always been… just with higher overall power levels.
Unbinding – This eleventh Lupi novel is focused on wrapping up the loose ends from the tenth and is told from the perspective of the mindhealer Kai. There’s not really much to say about it honestly, since if you’ve been reading this far into the series you already know what to expect and this doesn’t do anything in particular to shake things up. One aspect stands out though, and that’s the possible newfound focus on marrying off its characters. I don’t really like the message this appears to be trying to send; that somehow ‘officially’ being bound to your SO should be important for the relationship in any way, shape, or form. Of course I highly doubt anyone impressionable enough to have their views on the subject changed will be reading a series like this in the first place, so I suppose it doesn’t matter much.
Havoc – The second part of Ann Aquirre’s Dred Chronicles series is sort of so-so. I wasn’t really sure where things could go from the first book, and this one just feels like an excessive escalation. I also don’t remember the central government being so ridiculously corrupt in the Sirantha Jax novels (this takes place in the same universe), which caused some cognitive dissonance. It’s okay I guess, it just lacks solidity and doesn’t come across as particularly believable.
May as well get these out of the way while I’m updating things. Read them months ago and just couldn’t be bothered recording them.
I do not have a high opinion of web-based publishing sites. In my experience, most of the stories found on them are far below the quality of even the worst supermarket paperback you may pick up. I stumbled across a link a few days ago however which lead to two particular stories, Of Heroes and Villains and the sequel The Ties That Bind (both by the relatively new author Minikisa), which are fairly impressive.
I would say they are easily on par with your average paperback romance/paranormal romance novel and are indeed actually of a notably higher quality. I know, I know; low bar. Still, it’s something worth noting. Anyway you should judge for yourself. A few preliminary words of warning however:
The first of these stories is heavily focused on a Male-to-Female transgender, and so if you find that uncomfortable for whatever reason I do not think it would be a good idea to read it. While the setting and characters are very good, the gender identity conflict is rather central and so dislike of that aspect will probably result in dislike of the entire thing. The second story however just has some temporary body-swapping and so should be more or less fine for anyone. Oh, and yeah, there are a few sexual scenes scattered about (more in the first, though neither story makes them the focus).
Of Heroes And Villains
The Ties That Bind
Been procrastinating with adding these because it’s a pain. May as well get it over with now:
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.
There are several free novellas that take place in the Cassandra Palmer universe available on Karen Chance’s homepage:
The Gauntlet – Set long before the series proper starts this focuses on a young Kit Marlowe and some witches who don’t show up in the series until the sixth book (or if they do show up earlier I don’t recall them). It’s pretty good.
The Queen’s Witch – The sequel to the above; is also pretty good if you don’t mind the spontaneous attraction between the main characters.
The House at Cobb End – Focusing on Pritkin and also taking place before the parent series this is a very interesting short story about the origins of his house. A house that I cannot for the life of me recall appearing in the main books.
The Day of the Dead – This focuses on a character I do not remember ever seeing before (Thomas), though I do remember the main antagonist (Alejandro) getting mentioned in passing a few times. The story is okay… if a bit random and not particularly engaging.
In Vino Veritas – Part of the Dorina Basarab spin-off, this feels more like a low quality fanfiction than an author addition. That it was originally published in an anthology explains this to an extent; anthology entries have the disturbing tendency to be vastly inferior to their parent series.
A Family Affair – Set between books four and five of the Cassandra Palmer series and featuring Pritkin, Rosier, Casanova, and Cassie this deals with a trip through one of the hell dimensions. It’s a solid story that ends up referenced a bit in the sixth book.
Shadowland – A sequel to A Family Affair, this features most of the same characters. It’s more or less on par with the prequel, with the exception that the opening scene told from Pritkin’s point of view feels completely out of character.
Normally I do these three at a time… but, well… 
Cast in Sorrow (Michelle Sagara) – Completes the storyline started in Cast in Peril. I’m indifferent toward it. While on the one hand there’s some tangible progress on the Barrani front, on the other the general style and plot developments are starting to seriously trend into the abstract and hand-wavy. It’s hard to read some of it without feeling a deep sense of skepticism. Aside: For some strange reason I picture the Barrani as being similar to The Last Remnant‘s Sovani.
Chimes at Midnight (Seanan McGuire) – Not much to say about this really other than it’s just as good as the earlier October Daye novels. Well, one more thing: It seems to mark the beginning of shifting the overarching background conflict into the foreground.
Ritual Magic (Eileen Wilks) – It’s fairly amazing that this series continues to avoid the various and sundry paranormal romance pitfalls. Picking up right where Mortal Ties left off, it ends with what looks to be a good point to switch over to a different set of protagonists for a bit.
Steelheart (Brandon Sanderson) – The setting for this novel is very good and having a protagonist that seems to have either asperger’s or autism is an interesting choice. Unfortunately, those are the only things I can praise about it since the general character behavior and plot developments seem ripped right out of a summer blockbuster. It all feels so artificial.
Perdition (Ann Aguirre) – This beginning of a new series set in the Sirantha Jax universe is, for the most part, very engaging indeed. The only area in which it slips up a bit is the romance aspect. The relationship seems a little forced and does not feel quite natural. That said, it’s certainly not as bad as what you’d find in a generic romance novel.
Dancing with the Devil (Keri Arthur) – Speaking of generic romance novels…. I ordered the first three books in this series blind due to what I’m going to chalk up to sudden insanity. For some reason I thought this might be more like Arthur’s Myth and Magic series then her Riley Jenson/Dark Angels series. Again, no clue why I thought that, but this book is as generic paranormal romance as you can get.
Hearts in Darkness (Keri Arthur) – The first entry in this series is merely generic; this one is downright painful. Not only is the most by-the-numbers example of a paranormal romance still present and as vaguely embarrassing as ever, signs of power-level creep start to appear alongside a dash of internal inconsistency.
Chasing the Shadows (Keri Arthur) – While for the most part just as unpleasant to read as the second book, this does take an unexpected turn toward the end. The ‘good guys’ actually losing is a very rare thing to see in this sort of novel. Of course, considering the new suite of powers Nikki gains here that loss may end up being not much of a loss at all in the long run.
