Speed-Reading Book Nerd Reviews

Summer Knight

By Jim Butcher.

Previous book here.

Harry hasn't been doing so well for the last six months or so...and adding to the fun, the White Council's senior members are voting on whether or not to kill him for what he did in the last book. The only thing saving his butt is a job offer...from Queen Mab, wanting him to find out who killed the Summer Knight, a mortal man working for the Summer Court. Why's she hiring someone for this job, you ask? Well, two emissaries were chosen, one for each side...and the other side's emissary is Elaine, Harry's first girlfriend who he thought went evil and died. (Not so much.)  Their job is to investigate both sides's faerie royalty and try to prevent a war that will start if the power balance isn't restored...

While I don't feel like the investigative side of this is handled in the best way ever (essentially Harry finds the various queens and asks if they did it, and then just kinda comes up with the whodunit), it does end in a pretty explosive manner, and it's certainly gripping at the end.

Four stars.

Grave Peril

By Jim Butcher.

Previous book here.

There's a lot of tricky ghost stuff going on in Chicago lately, and Harry's had to recruit some help with that. Specifically, a Knight of the Cross named Michael Carpenter. What's that, you ask? One of three God-chosen knights given big-ass holy swords to do good with. Harry finds out that the ghosts (and later, the spirit of a guy he knows) are being tortured. And THEN he gets an invite to a vampire ball...Bianca the Red Court vampire is ascending somehow and Harry's the local White Council representative, so he gets an invite, like it or not. With a guest.

Who wants to be Harry's guest to this? His reporter girlfriend Susan, who Harry hasn't had much time to spend with lately due to the ghost-busting and all. This turns out to be A Problem when a giant showdown goes down at Bianca's party...

Harry also makes a new and unexpected alliance with Thomas Raith, a White Court vampire who seems oddly friendly towards Harry. Hm, I wonder why that is?

Anyway, this book kicks off some grave consequences for Harry for the rest of the series. It's gripping.

Four stars.

Fool Moon

By Jim Butcher.

Previous book here.

You gotta give it to Jim Butcher: when he writes a book about werewolves, he comes up with TONS OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF WEREWOLVES. Holy crappity!

Anyhoo, werewolfy murders have been going down around Chicago, including taking out some of local mobster John Marcone's men. Harry finds out that an apprentice of his has been trying to help a cursed werewolf, Harley MacFinn, from getting out during the full moon and killing people. Are these things related? When that goes wrong, Harry is approached by Harley's mysterious fiancee Tera West, who isn't human, to save him. Soon we've got werewolf packs, werewolf in the police station, Harry getting into all kinds of painful trouble (and pissing off his cop friend Murphy for not telling her what's going on), and more fur than you can shake a blasting rod at.

I have to say that I love Butcher's take on werewolfiness, and the different kinds of them kept things hopping! I also really liked Tera, who's quite interesting.

Four stars.

Storm Front

By Jim Butcher.

Hm, I seem to have neglected to review the earlier books in this series. Perhaps this should be remedied. It is very strange reading this book after so much time because I keep thinking, "Oh, look how young and innocent Harry is! He hasn't been beaten all to crap yet!"

Anyhoo: young Harry Dresden has a wizarding business in Chicago, where he's not doing so well. He takes on a missing husband case that he doesn't think is going to pan out, but it's weirder than he thinks. His other source of pay is consulting for Chicago PD's "spook squad", where he gets called in to advise on a series of murders where people's hearts are exploding out of their chests. This leads to him pissing off a vampire, finding out the favorite food of faeries, learning scary new tricks for killing people, and being chased around by his own personal Javert.

It's so very much "at the beginning" of this series, but it's fun. Things wrap up by the end, but there's plenty of room for more.

Four stars.

Breaking Hearts: The Two Sides of Unrequited Love

By Roy F. Baumeister and Sara R. Wotman.

(Yes, this review is...kinda weird. Sorry, but it's hard to read this book and not go to the personal.)

This is a fascinating and much-needed book, in my opinion, studying both the feelings of rejected lovers and the people who reject them. The authors asked the study participants to write about both when they loved someone that did not return their feelings, and when they didn't love someone who loved them, so you get both perspectives on their behavior.

On the wannabe lovers side: our culture encourages crazy blind pursuit of love, doing anything you can to get it (just watch any movie), and not acknowledging a no unless they really really have to. There's no ethics in love, you do what you have to do. The wannabe lovers also pretty much had no sense or reason and constantly saw "positive" signs no matter what the rejector did. And stalking and crazy behavior constantly happened. And yet, they have a possibility of reward (the rejectors don't), so they keep pursuing, and some don't feel too bad about having "loved and lost" anyway. It's more of a happy gamble from their perspective, even with the unhappy ending.

On the rejectors side: our culture finds it pretty awful to turn down an offer of love, and there is no movie script to tell someone how to turn someone down. We don't know how to do it at all.  It's kind of going against humanity to reject love, and you are not supposed to do it. We feel obligated to love them back, and feel awful that we can't. The only emotional benefit they get is a brief feeling of being flattered (if the suitor isn't someone the rejector can't stand, which instead makes it not flattering in the slightest), which is quickly drowned out by the awfulness that follows. There is no way to reject someone without being forced into a villain role. Rejectors have an extremely hard time turning someone down because it requires them to be mean. Stringing them along, subtle hints of non-interest, real  or made up significant others, and caving in to dating don't help.  The nicer you are at trying to reject someone, the more the suitor will decide that it's a sign of hope. Even if you are brutally mean to the person, it doesn't dissuade a lot of people from still pursuing and stalking you. In the end, the rejectors end up hating the pursuer. Rejectors have no good options and no possibility of a happy or even non-miserable outcome. Plus if it gets really fun, you end up in fear of your life. Joy.

"He did nothing wrong and was fundamentally innocent, yet was led into feeling guilty and bad, and from this sense of obligation and wrongfulness he acted in ways that made things worse."

I will freely admit to a lot of bias during this review because I have had godawful experiences of being the rejector (to the point that when I have liked someone for whom it was obviously not mutual, I've taken great care to NOT let them know I like them so I don't inflict this shit on someone else), and I really liked that this book looked at things from that perspective, and acknowledges that it's nothing but horrible to have to turn someone down. Though the one flaw of the book in my opinion is that for all of the authors' bemoaning about the ethics of rejection and how we don't have a "script" in our culture for rejecting someone...they didn't try to come up with one themselves? It seems pretty obvious to me that even if they're trying to be neutral and scientific, they've pretty much figured out how it works.

So, here is how a rejector's script should go--and let me tell you, this is the most OPTIMAL one possible:

1. The second you get asked out, you must refuse them immediately. Do not be nice, do not be kind, do not cite a good excuse for not going, do not ignore the situation. You must immediately tell them that you loathe them, can't stand them, think they are ugly and stupid and smell bad, and make them feel as awful as you possibly can.

Why do I say this? Because no matter what you do or how nice you try to be, the entire situation is going to boil down to you being the villain that breaks someone's heart. The nicer you are, the more they will take it as a sign of hope. You have to be mean from minute one and let them know as best you can that you cannot stand them and there is no hope whatsoever, or at least there shouldn't be. No matter what, you are going to have to be a horrible person to them at some point, period. So you might as well start ASAP rather than trying to not be awful. Eventually (if you are lucky) they will find you to be a horrible human being for not loving them back anyway, so...might as well roll with it.

2. After lowering the bomb on this person, avoid them for the rest of your life. If they were a friend of yours, they are no longer. (Friendships end the second someone wants sex anyway.) AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE, as best you can. If you work with them, get another job. If they are in your favorite organization, drop out of it. AVOID AVOID AVOID. I can't stress this enough.

Why do I say this? Because wannabe lovers are crazy and ANYTHING YOU DO gives them hope. The fact that you are existing and breathing the same air as them gives them hope. The fact that you didn't spit on them when you walked into the room gives them hope. They are primed to look at anything you do as meaning that you love them, and the more you are around them, the more THEY feel like you are leading them on. You can't do this.

3. Maybe they will get over it if you do #1 and #2, but odds are pretty high that even then, you will probably STILL get stalked anyway. 

Ugh. I hate humanity's mating drive.

Four and a half stars.

Valley of Silence (The Circle Trilogy, Book 3)

By Nora Roberts.

Finally got around to reading book 3 of this series. In this book, the final battle in Geall finally goes down, but before that, Moira and Cian finally give in to their mutual passion. They are well aware that it's doomed--Moira obviously needs to provide heirs to the throne, and Cian plans on leaving the second the battle is over-- but go into it knowing how it's going to end anyway. They're both pretty pragmatic characters. Cian is cynical, and he thinks Moira is innocent...well, just because a girl's a virgin doesn't mean she's dumb. I rather liked how Moira took charge of her life and went into things. Pretty forceful for being a short scholar type.

I dunno.. it was okay, but not terribly memorable to me. I like the characters well enough, but wasn't addicted, and it was hard to get invested in the angst of What Can Never Be when uh, it's a romance novel and a goddess is involved. So, three stars.

Hell Fire

By Ann Aguirre.

In the sequel to Blue Diablo, Corine's ex Chance makes good on his promise to follow her back to her hometown of Kilmer, Georgia, to find out who killed her mother. Only as it turns out, the entire town is under some kind of magical bad mojo. Neighboring towns have no idea Kilmer even exists, there's no Internet, barely any cell access, and Chance's luck powers don't work there. Not to mention the part where people keep disappearing into the woods and the cops don't even bother to search for them any more. After Corine is unreachable and has a few bad things happen to her, her mentor Jesse hauls ass to town to serve as backup. They also acquire a new Gifted friend, 18-year-old local girl Shannon, who talks to the dead via radio.

This is a pretty cool, creepy story as the gang of four deduce what's wrong in Kilmer and who's behind it. Corine ends up with some personal changes and a very strange ally.

I generally liked the story a lot (though I am ah, a bit annoyed at how it ended). So, four stars. Great for giving you the Town With A Dark Secret chills.

Something Like Fate

By Susane Colasanti.

I'm not sure why I picked up this book. On the one hand, it's a typical teenage plot of "I likey-like my best friend's boyfriend! And he likes me back! I can't date him, it'll crush her!." And to be honest, I rather wish there had been some twists or more differentiation on this than there actually was.

On the other hand: there's a emphasis on mysticality that I found intriguing, and that was why I picked it up. I wanted to see how this would work. And that, I think, is what my sci-fi-fantasy-tree-hugging-hippie-Taurus (har) reading mind went for. Both the narrator, Lani, and her best friend Erin, are into exploring the supernatural, studying astrology, getting their palms read, and figuring out the mysteries of the universe. Lani finds herself hitting it off with Erin's new boyfriend Jason way beyond what should be normal for teenagers--they practically speak their own language at times and do the same quirky things that nobody else does. Which definitely throws Lani off, because who experiences this kind of thing in their lives? Is this soul mates? Is this fate that she can't stay away from him for long? Is fate going to kick her in the ass for this? Well, yes. The "everyone can see it" factor really rubs it in too.

I was really into the mystical tone of Lani and Jason's relationship floating over the typicalness of the plot. Maybe I related to it a bit too much, even, despite having never been in this situation IRL myself. But that feel of it, the "is this what fate has in store, can I dodge it, am I screwed, is this meant to be," that endless debate...yeah, I do that all the time. So I related.

In the end, it's a quick read. The overall plot of this is predictable (and sorry, but I wish it had more variety there)...but I did like the use of the mystical in it. It made me wish the author would write a longer book dealing with fate and mystical concepts, preferably with a deeper plot. I can see this sort of thing going over really well if the drama was upped beyond "he's my best friend's boyfriend," if there were even worse reasons for them not to be together and for them to overcome. But then again, maybe I like that sort of star-crossed-triumphs-over-all sort of drama a bit too much, plus it might be too much for high school books.

Three and a half stars.

Songs of Power

By Hilari Bell.

I found this book in a random library sale, go figure. And it was pretty dang cool. It takes two drastically different situations and puts them together very well. In this case, our heroine is a 15-year-old shaman-in-training living in a future where crops have been destroyed thanks to the Unificationists and for the next fifty years, we're all going to have to learn to live off of plankton. This is why Imina (her shaman name, which she calls herself in her head--Annis is her given name and what everyone else calls her) now lives with her scientist parents in a habitat under the sea after her great-grandmother's death. She feels out of place in a technocrat world, can't get training as a shaman, and can't let anyone know she is one in case she gets locked up again.

Which makes things awkward for her when she senses other magic users around the habitat, and realizes that they are trying to destroy it. Who on the habitat also does magic? Imina ends up teaming up with fellow "technocrat" student Ivan, who wants to clear his ex-Unificationist mother of being suspected of the crimes, and they end up working pretty well together despite their differences in opinion. Imina learns who can be trusted and who not to, but things get really ugly when she finally figures out who's doing it... and nobody's gonna believe that one.

I thought it was all pretty awesome, really. The worlds (techno vs. magic, humans vs. underwater) tie together well. I was especially fond of the M'Barras and Doctor Pennyfeather, quirky fun folks with hidden depths.

Four stars. If you can find it, it's worth reading.

Hex Marks The Spot

By Madelyn Alt.

I read the first book in this series ages ago. I apparently gave it a pretty good review, but upon later reflection I just didn't feel strongly about the series and never bothered to read any more of it. It wasn't too memorable to me later. But my mother started reading it and pressed this copy upon me, so...fine, gave it another chance. And...I think I pretty much feel about this one the same way that I did before.

The mystery features the scorchingly-hot Amish dude Luc Metzger, who gets killed off early on. It's implied that Luc was a cheater (an Amish guy? really?), but the mystery itself is pretty weak. There's not a lot of suspects, so you can guess whodunit. What's far more interesting than the mystery of this one is the possible magic use on the part of the Amish in general (I do like that there's a supernaturally-gifted Amish character in this series) and on the part of the Metzgers in particular. I wonder if this is followed up with in later books.

Mostly I just feel like this book is very...slight. It deals a bit with Maggie being apprehensive about being an empath (and skipping out on her ghosthunter meetings), but not too much. She and requisite cop boyfriend Tom don't do much. There's a development with Marcus that made me briefly pleased, but doesn't go anywhere.

I think I just expect there to be more in this series than I have actually seen in the two books I've read. It's quick fluff, but I want it to be deeper. And well, it isn't.

Two and a half stars.