Book Review: The Enterprise of Death by Jesse Bullington

Title: The Enterprise of Death
Author: Jesse Bullington
Publisher: Orbit, Hachette Book Group
Genre: Fantasy Fiction
PP: 464 pages
Price: $14.99
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5

While both Jesse Bullington’s debut novel and this follow up take us on a madcap tour of supernatural and historical Europe, their protagonists could not be more different. The story of The Enterprise of Death concerns Awa, who is apprenticed against her will to a necromancer and subsequently finds herself caught up in his machinations. Awa is a Moor, a lesbian and a necromancer in her own right, any one of which would probably be enough to get her into a great deal of trouble in 16th Century Europe, and she’s joined in her adventures by real-life historical figures like painter and mercenary Niklaus Manuel Deutsch and even Paracelsus himself, not to mention larger-than-life figures like Monique the gun-toting soldier of fortune and Awa’s various undead allies and enemies.

Like The Brothers Grossbart before it, Enterprise isn’t for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach. There’s necrophilia, cannibalism, syphilis, reanimated corpses, and corpse-eating monsters, to name just a few. But while Enterprise is often just as gruesome, macabre, profane, and scatalogical as its predecessor, it’s also much more human. While the titular Grossbart Brothers were great broad characters, the cast of Enterprise all seem more fully created and their pathos more deeply felt. It would be hard to find a hero in all of The Brothers Grossbart, but Enterprise is full of characters who, while deeply flawed, are also often genuinely heroic in their longing to do what’s right.

Ultimately, The Enterprise of Death, like so many great fantasy novels, is a story of friendship and acceptance. There’s a quest, as well, and magic, and monsters (just wait ’til you meet the Bastards of the Schwartzwald), but the friendships form the book’s beating heart. While the exploits of Awa and her companions are still leavened liberally with a gallows humor, Enterprise is seldom as laugh-out-loud funny as The Brothers Grossbart, but the genuineness and humanity of Enterprise more than make up for any deficit. And, y’know, a bunch of Ray Harryhausen-style skeletons running around don’t hurt a thing.

Book Review: Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate) by Gail Carriger

Title: Soulless – The Parasol Protectorate
Author: Gail Carriger
Publisher: Orbit, Hachette Book Group
Genre: Fantasy Fiction
ISBN: 978-0316056632
PP: 384 pages
Source: Publisher
Price: $7.99

I’ll admit that I have no clue where to start when it comes to writing a review for Soulless! I can easily say that it was one of the most fun and imaginative books I’ve read this year, but there is just so much more to this book in addition to those details.

I loved the plot of Soulless. There was a perfect mix of romance, supernatural creatures, and mystery. Gail Carriger wove the different elements of Soulless together seamlessly. When I started reading Soulless, I was astounded – each element of the book is so unique and seemingly separate, yet this debut author found a way to them all together into a masterpiece!

The world that Gail Carriger has set her debut novel in is amazing. Alexia brushes shoulders with not characters typical of the Victorian era, but werewolves and vampires as well. I really enjoyed Gail’s unique take on the origins of werewolves and vampires. The supernatural aspect that really interested me though was Alexia’s own affiction: her lack of soul. When I first read the description, my mind immediately jumped to demon, but Soulless offers a whole new take on what it means to lack a soul…

This is also my first foray into reading steampunk, and I must admit, I’m now intrigued. Soulless explores the ideas of traditional steampunk, which is basically a world that people of the Victorian era envisioned the future to be. Gail’s steampunk is unique in that many of the advancements that occur are due to the presence of vampires and werewolves. Some popular steampunk books include: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, Airborn by Kenneth Oppel, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, and The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.

Alexia Tarabotti is one of the most exciting and dangerous spinsters I have ever encountered between the covers of a book. She was simply so much fun to read! I was always waiting to see what trouble and inappropriate circumstances she would find herself in next. I especially enjoyed her verbal sparring matches with Lord Maccon. Two of my favorite characteristics of Alexia is her acceptance of her flaws and shortcomings and her confidence in her own abilities. Alexia is a smart, witty, and unique character that makes me proud to be unique as well! Alexia may be living in a time (and world) much different than that of those who will read her story, but she can still teach girls and women of a today a valuable lesson about being yourself, despite being told that who you are isn’t fashionable or correct.

The romance in Soulless was wonderfully written. Gail perfectly balanced the social norms of the time with steamy, fun romantic scenes. Despite the fact that they were occuring in Victorian times, the scenes seemed natural. The romance in the book all came together perfectly due to the supernatural aspect of Alexia’s world, which made the romance scenes more believable and intense!

 

Book Review: The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie

Title: The Heroes
Author: Joe Abercrombie
Publisher: Orbit Books
Genre: Fantasy
PP: 541
Source: Publisher
ISBN: 9780316044981
Rating: 4/5

Abercrombie introduced me to a fresh fantasy world where the heroes aren’t so heroic and the legends aren’t quite so legendary. The Blade Itself brought me back to the genre that started my reading passion in the first place. I loved the First Law Trilogy and went on a week long reading binge to tackle it. Afterward I read Best Served Cold and was not nearly as pleased. Best Served Cold was much like its dark predecessor but even darker yet, featuring rather unlikable characters on a less interesting continent. Regardless of my feelings toward Abercrombie’s first stand alone effort there was never a doubt that I would be reading his next entry in the series.

The Heroes is ,at its heart, a very pure representation of the Sword and Sorcery sub-genre of fantasy that has gotten a resurgence in popularity as of late. Where as epic fantasy focuses on large scale struggles between the treacherous powers of evil and the unflinching forces of good, sword and sorcery is more about individual struggles and moral ambiguity.

The Heroes is about a three day battle for a rather worthless valley between the savage Northmen and the civilized Union. Abercrombie highlights the horrors of war commonly overlooked in most fantasy novels that instead prefer to glorify combat and bloodshed. Abercrombie can paint a picture of warfare that is gritty and solemn and unflinchingly realistic. There are military blunders on both sides of the conflict, bravery as well as cowardice, honor as well as back-stabbing. A more accurate depiction of battle in fantasy you are unlikely to find.

Though Abercrombie can write gripping action sequences his strongest point is the characters he populates the world with. The main characters of the First Law Trilogy were deeply flawed characters, villains to a greater or lesser degree, living in a world where doing the right thing can get you killed and the wrong thing can – well, also get you killed. Though these characters weren’t always honorable (nor even mostly honorable) they were tragic heroes.

Abercrombie introduces new faces as well as brings back some familiar faces. Probably my favorite perspective during the course of the battle would be Bremmer dan Gorst, a disgraced member of the King’s Guard. Because of an unusually high voice most of Gorst’s dialogue is internalized resulting in some of the most humorous parts of the novel. Other characters include Calder, a clever schemer and son of the now deceased King of North, and Curden Craw a straight-edge warrior from the old days. The perspectives truly propel this novel along, a novel that could easily be bogged down with repetitive violence and flat characters.

I’ve seen some complaints that The Heroes doesn’t advance the universe that Abercrombie has built but I believe this couldn’t be further from the truth. There are some major power shifts and conditions elsewhere in the world are brought into focus. A certain Magus conducts an experiment on the battlefield that I’m sure will have repercussions in future works. This story doesn’t strike me as an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the franchise, Abercrombie could have achieved that with much less effort. On a small note I have to commend the wonderful map of the Valley of Osrung and the troop displacement maps featured at each segment. This is a great read, a true example of sword and sorcery fantasy that adds to Joe Abercrombie’s growing repertoire.

Book Review: The Fallen Blade: Act 1 of the Assassin Trilogy by Jon Courtenay Grimwood

Title: The Fallen Blade: Act One of the Assassini (Vampire Assassin #1)
Author: Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Publisher: Orbit Books
ISBN: 13: 9781841498454
Extent: 432 Pages
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5

The Fallen Blade by Jon Courtenay Grimwood is the first in the Vampire Assassin Trilogy, set in an alternate history Venice circa 1407. Since the city ruler, Duke Marco IV, is a simpleton and figurehead, the Duke’s Uncle, Prince Alonzo, rules in his stead. Alonzo’s ambitions, in turn, are tempered by the schemes of the Duke’s widowed mother, Duchess Alexa. The book opens as the Duke’s young cousin, Lady Giulietta, runs away from home, trying to escape an arranged marriage to the elderly King Janus of Cyprus. Atilo, the Duke’s chief assassin, retrieves Giulietta and saves her from the werewolves roaming the night.

Before she is wed, however, Giulietta vanishes again. This time, retrieving Giulietta proves difficult; the only fruitful find proves to be a boy chained and bound to a ship. This boy, Tycho, possesses superhuman strength and speed, feeds on blood, and reviles the sunlight. Atilo immediately recruits Tycho as an assassin-in-training who will aid in the search for the missing girl.

Misleading cover

The cover for The Fallen Blade is beautiful but somewhat misleading. Tycho looks clean and well-dressed. He stands tall, resembling the love child of Edward Cullen and the Vampire Lestat, redone in 1407 Venice style. But The Fallen Blade is gritty, dirty, and coarse. Not even the noblewomen in this book are so pristine as to escape the visceral reaction of soiling their underpants when the situation calls for it. Think Underworld’s vampire-werewolf rivalry meets The Tudors’ political intrigue—then toss in all the dirt and grime from The Road and Children of Men.

Revitalizing the vampire genre

Just as Batman Begins revitalized the Batman franchise; Grimwood revitalizes the vampire genre with The Fallen Blade. As Tycho adjusts to the year 1407, he realizes that his last memory is from one century earlier. Because he may very well be history’s first vampire, he has no idea what he is, nor how he became that way. He has help developing his assassin skills, but he has no mentor to decipher his vampiric abilities. While it may be obvious to the reader what Tycho is, the lack of vampiric precedence in this world makes us question some of our preconceived notions about vampires and sets the stage for fresh parameters to be further defined by the next two books. Since the werewolves are not examined in detail this time around, I also hope that the next two books will reveal the inner workings of the Wolf Brothers, who in this book are led by the German Prince Leopold.

The only minor complaint I have with The Fallen Blade is that while stylishly written, the prose can sometimes be downright dense, leading me to reread passages where I’ve lost track of the speaker, the setting, or both.

Why should you read this book?

Grimwood is a wizard who brings this world alive. Not only will you walk through 1407 Venice, you’ll smell the urine on the streets, taste the salt water in the air, rock along with the boats, and roam across the rooftops. That all this is done while an intriguing fantasy storyline unfolds is nothing less than impressive

Feed (Newsflesh, Book 1) by Mira Grant

Mira Grant (a pseudonym for Seanan McGuire) has written about two of my favorite things… blogging and zombies. Put them together and you have a winner – at least with me. In Feed, Bloggers are seen almost as heroes. If it weren’t for them and their blog posts humanity would have had a lot more casualties during “The Rising”. Thanks to their posts giving pointers on how to kill a zombie humanity survived.

It’s been 20 years since the initial “Rising” and, bloggers/sister and brother team, Georgia and Shawn Mason along with their sidekick and all-knowing technological guru Buffy, have been selected to follow Senator Ryman throughout his presidential campaign. As part of the Senator’s press team, their mission is to bring the truth to the people. To those people who remain indoors most of the time (obviously as part of their survival tactics), to see and learn of the man that may one day be their President. They were hoping that their honest reporting might get them new followers and increase their blog ratings… they were definitely not thinking that their lives might be in danger – zombies being the least of their problems.

This book was excellent! At a little over 600 pages it was a little intimidating at first and although it did have a slow start (there was a lot of explaining taking place in the beginning) about 100 or so pages in when conspiracies start flying, it really picks up. I had a tough time putting it down actually. I must confess that what initially made me want to read the book were the zombies, but I found that I was more captivated by the characters – Georgia, Shawn, Buffy, their blogs, the Senator, his campaign and the iminent danger caused by humans than I was by the actual brain munchers.

Told mostly in the first person through Georgia Mason’s perspective and scattered blog entries (including Shawn and Buffy’s) you get a full scope of what’s going through each of their minds. Using these methods you are really able to connect with these characters. Ms. Grant has a sense of humor since you can see it shine brightly in her characters. You can also tell she did her research since there are a lot of pop culture references, George Romero idolizing… I’m sure many zombie flicks were watched in the making.

Now if you’re looking for a zombie book full of blood and guts… this is definitely not the one. The zombies are more like background noise. You know they are there, you are even scared of what you might find just around the next corner, but they are not at the forefront of the story. This story is about the characters, about a world that was changed by this zombie epidemic, a world left scarred but that survived nonetheless.

I loved it! There was action, adventure, betrayal, political intrigue, even weapons of mass destruction… and through it all the possibility of becoming a zombie’s main dish. Needless to say, I have no complaints about this one. I’ve been ranting and raving to anyone that will stop and listen. So yes, read it!

Feed – Newsflesh Book 1; Grant, Mira; Orbit Books; $9.99