Book Review: Rachel Vincent, Cassandra Claire, Sarah Rees Brennan, Jim Butcher, Sarra Cannon, Michael Buckley

39 Clues: Into the Guantlet 
And with book #10, the 39 clues is finished. It's a middle-grade book, and as such the ending is more or less the only one that could have happened. However, it was well executed, and there was a twist or two that I didn't see coming. This gives me a little perspective when I look at the series as a whole. There were plenty of twists, plenty of secrets. While many of them were not foreshadowed fully, they were consistent, even across different authors. That may be something I haven't really talked about: There were about 5-7 authors for the whole series (a couple wrote two-3). There was some minor inconsistency of characters (mostly the side characters, not the three main ones), and I'm sure that more than once the authors threw a loop for their compatriots to deal with. It must have been an exciting trip. As far as the series itself goes, as a middle-grade series, I feel it did it's job. It is not the best series I've read, for this point in my life, but it was enjoyable.

My Soul to Save
The second book in the series by  Rachel Vincent. This one brought up some Faustian themes, mixing them with the very rich mythos that she's woven for the characters. The trip to the underworld was pretty crazy, and I'm hoping will get addressed more in future books. As it were, the worldbuilding continues to impress me. The romance is still a little strange, but it's easy to imagine that true of most relationships at that age (having not been in one myself, I can't comment more fully). Other than that, this remains an impressive series, and I hope to read more soon.

Demons Lexicon
First book in a series by Sarah Rees Brennan. The book held my attention, and was rather well executed, right up until the ending. The book follows two brothers who are running from magicians. Magicians, like in Bartemeus, summon demons to give them power, and the two brothers have run afoul of a group. As premise goes, it's not bad. There's some cool worldbuilding, like the dances at the goblin markets. However, I was very unsatisfied with the ending. It was confusing, and while I got the twist (had guessed it only a few pages earlier), I didn't really like hte resolution. I'll probably give her another shot, but it's on teh back burner for the moment. Cut the ending, and it would have been a great book.

Clockwork Angel
A friend of mine doesn't have much respect for Cassandra Claire. This is the first book in her second trilogy, set in the victorian (steampunk) time. The thing that caught me about the first trilogy is the awesome use of runes for the shadowhunters. The shadowhunters are a group of more-than-humans who try and protect teh regular humans from the "monsterous" downworlders. The worldbuilding caught me pretty strongly in this one two. We see more of downworleder society in this one, which I enjoyed, but I still think the runes are some of the best worldbuilding in the setting, and the one thing I keep wanting to find more about.

Side Jobs
Jim Butcher has collected a bunch of short stories, novellas, etc. that have been published in various anthologies and released the collection as it's own novel. Awesome idea, for those of us who don't want to go out and buy the dozen anthologies that contain some of his work. He still has more out there that are not included in here, but it was a great start. Some of the stories caught me more than others. The one from Thomas' viewpoint let me see deeper into some aspects of the setting that, by their nature, can't be shown from Dresden. And I liked them. The one from Karrin's viewpoint was an interesting story, if a bit emo. Personally, I think I'm more excited about the next book in the series than most of these side novellas.

Inner Demons
For another shameless plug, Sarra Cannon has released book 2 for general consumption. If I had an e-reader, I'd totally be all over this. In the second book, the world is starting to be fleshed out more, and the girl really starts to learn more about her magic.

Sisters Grimm: Fairy Tale Detectives 
The last book I'll talk about is the new series of Audio books I'm starting, by Michael Buckley. The premise is a pair of orphans who are descendents of the Brothers Grimm, start taking place in the family business: acting as magical detectives to the everafters, the fairy tale creatures. Again, a middle-grade book, I didn't really expect any great revelations. Still, there was enough of a twist to keep things interesting. Mostly, I'm reading it for the random literary and fairy tale creatures who pop up every now and again.

Book Review: Jim Butcher, Jenna Black

I know this entry is late. I had fully intended on posting about the character modeling, but there's been some barriers. So instead, you get another book review post :).

Small Favor

The bad guys are back, and stronger than ever in the 10th book of the Dresden Files. The fae are back and calling in favors, and as usual, Harry pisses off everyone and somehow makes it out alive. The ending has some beautiful irony, though it brought up something that apparently was in one of the shorts I missed.

Turn Coat
There have been hints of a conspiracy behind the scenes in the other Dresden Files books. In this one, we see it come to life. My favorite character gets some awesome scenes in this book, and there are some AMAZING sequences when Harry walks in on his allies in compromising situations. There's also some big mysteries thrown around w/o explanation, with the hope that they'll come up again in the future.

Changes
The latest book in the Dresden Files starts and ends with a spoiler. It's a really tough one to talk about without giving stuff away. Some thinly veiled awesomenesses include my favorite character coming up with a spell titled "The One Woman Rave", which leads to a sequence with another character dancing while swordfighting. Pure awsomesauce. Harry actually mouths off to Odin, and gets away with it. Yes THE Odin. This book saw a few instances of magic that didn't click, or the MC getting around limitations through sheer contrariness. Some of it I'm not sure how I feel about, but it's worth investigating in the future.


The Devil Inside
The first book of the Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist series by Jenna Black. A good chunk of the reason I picked up this book is because the author will be signing in my town on Thursday. After reading the book, I'm pretty excited :). The story takes place in a world where possession is legal, as long as the host consents. So Demons are everywhere, and the heroine isn't a fan. She works as an Exorcist, getting rid of demons that are illegally possessing someone, or who have killed. And then she finds out she's possessed herself, without her knowledge. That part strained believability a little, but for the most part it was a very enjoyable read.


Modeling
So just for completeness, since I was intending to talk about it, I'll speak for a bit on what happened with the modeling. So I've finished the torso, and started on the arms and legs. I don't remember if that was in the last picture I posted. This weekend, I started in on the head and found out that my reference images are too far off to be helpful. I tried moving ahead anyway, but all the proportions are off and, to be frank, it looks pretty terrible. I'll have to do some thinking about how I want to progress.

Character Modeling (Take 2), Book Review: Lisa Shearin, Jim Butcher, Julie Kagawa, Dan Brown, Kelley Armstrong

It's been a while since I've done a book review, so I have plenty to talk about.

Blood Rites
Book #6 in the Dresden Files pu the hero in a quite unusual situation. At the risk of a spoiler, I'm just going to say that he's investigating murders in a rather unusual setting. There were PLENTY of LOL moments, many of which came up because of the situation. We also find out more about Thomas and the White Court Vampires, which is pretty cool as well.
Dead Beat
 Book #7 in the Dresden Files brings Necromancy into the fold of things that go bump in the night. We get to meet more Wardens as well, which is something I had been looking forward to the entire series. Some fallout from an earlier book is also explored in great deapth, and this is the first time we see Harry truely outside his magical league. Refreshing.
Proven Guilty
Book #8 in the Dresden Files brings the character who's fast becoming a favorite into greater light. Harry goes to a horror convention, and sees his friends daughter all growed up. This would be so much easier if I was allowing myself spoilers, but I did really enjoy this book :)
White Night
For the last Dresden Files book this week, we see book #9. Here there's someone killing women, and they leave messages for Harry..messages that only he can see. His first love comes back, and adds to the complicatedness of the situation.

The Iron King
Written by Julie Kagawa, this book was actually suggested by Rai, even though she hadn't read it. A girl finds herself thrown into the world of Faeries, accompanied by the now-infamous Puck (yes...THE Puck). We see both the courts of Winter and Summer, which are lead by their typical leaders, Mab and Titania (incidently, Dresden uses them too, but even some non-Mab queens of the winter court are identified as the Queen of Air and Darkness. I think there's something here, but I've not the knowledge to chase it down). Still, we even see hte rise of a new threat, and the sequels still have room for a few big twists.

The Reckoning
The last book in the Darkest Powers trilogy by Kelley Armstrong(Site #2. Chloe and the others are starting to learn more about their abilities, and what that entails for them. This book marked the end of their original arc, but she's seeded the next arc, and they will eventually meet up again. She does that a lot. I also got to meet her on Wednesday, which was a boatload of fun. She read the first chapter from her new book, and it sounds like it'll be a fun read.


The Lost Symbol
I know there are people out there who will loose any respect for me since I've read this book, but  it was an entertaining read. Like many of Dan Brown's books, there are many huge infodumps, some cleverly disguised, some not. The plot was twisty but confusing. The portrayal of the masonic brotherhood was interesting, though not very flattering to that same brotherhood. It's given me the idea to try and work with some secret society things for my Mage game, but more on that later.

Trouble with Demons
The last book I finished (just yesterday in fact), was the third book in Lisa Shearin's Raine Benares series. The cover/title was for this book was what got me to pick up the series in the first place. The Demonology professor who got elaborated on in this book is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I hope she comes back. I've been on a Demon kick recently, and this helped with that. It also got me thinking about some more details for my magic system in my own novel, but that's for another post.


Character Model
So last time didn't work as well as I'd hoped. I did a few things that were, in retrospect, pretty obviously wrong. I've told some of you, but what I basically did was start over, and try a new method. There's still work to be done, but it's a much better start than last time.

Book Review: Jim Butcher

I had intentions for this week, but they didn't pan out. Instead, I'm going to go ahead and do a review of the last book I read. I have two library books really soon in my queue, and two new books taht I might read sooner rather than later.

The book of the day however, is Death Masks, by Jim Butcher. Like the previous one, we're starting to see more connection between the books. This one involved the Knights more, which was kinda cool. There was some interesting religious aspects, made more interesting by the fact that I started listening to it on good friday. The MacGuffin so to speak in this one turns out to be the Shroud of Turin, the one which Jesus was wearing during the resurrection. There was also some cool stuff about a 7 yr old girl with the knowledge of all the world. Heady thing.

Sorry for the short entry, I'll try and do better next time.

Book Review: Rick Riordan, Jim Butcher, Lisa Shearin

Last week was spring break, and while I didn't get much of a break, I did get a lot of reading done. So we'll have a book review post that's a bit overdue.

The Sea of Monsters

Book 2 in the Percy Jackson series. We find out more about a prophecy, and get a run in with some famous greek monsters. The plot in this one was a little weaker, I think, than the first, but it did some good set-up for the third and fourth books. Percy gets a little more disobedient, closer to how he was in the movie. As with the first, and most YA I find, it's a quick, engaging read. 

Titan's Curse

In Book 3 of the Percy Jackson series, we find more players in the prophecy. 2 new characters set the stage for the next book as well. Plot-wise, there's some fallout of the events in the previous book, but they're tied into a new quest and a new conflict. There's some believability issues near the end, but the book is an enjoyable read.

Battle of the Labyrinth
The penultimate book of the Percy Jackson series. The titular labyrinth is the very same of Theseus and the Minataur. We finally see the conclusion of one of the side-arcs that one of the characters was going through, which is a bit of a relief, and there's plenty of twists to keep one guessing.

Armed & Magical

The 2nd book in the Raine Benares series, this picks up pretty much exactly where the previous book left off. All in all, I find myself sucked into the world. I would consider this strong worldbuilding. Character's are pretty engaging, even with the MCs possible lack of limits. We see a bit more of the dark side of things here, and a few more players on the global stage. All in all, an enjoyable read, even if it did take me 3 weeks to read it.

Grave Peril

Ahh, Back to Jim Butcher, and the Dresden Files. When I was listening to the forward, Butcher claims that this book is what fans usually consider the start of the series. The first 2 books are more stand alone. I think this is partially true, though elements do carry over, we're starting to see more global plot structure in this book. The fall out of the events effect the next book (see next bullet) much mroe than the previous book effected this one. Dresden's world is also providing some great inspriation for the Mage: The Awakening games I've been throwing around. Things dont' transfer 1-1, but it's really easy to get some of the same imeagry and themes going, if you want to. My only downside to these books is that Harry is always so beat up. I know characters are supposed to fail at times, but he's always on his last limb, making the stories pretty gritty from that perspective.

Summer Knight

The 4th book in the Dresden Files, we see the fallout of Harry's decisions in the previous book. This book also shows us the world of Harry's Fae, and the war between the courts that's seen in every fae story. Historically I've always been more of a witches and wizards fan, but lately branching into the fae has given me some interesting ideas to explore. 

Conclusions

I have to say, these book reivews get harder with each book. I think it's because I'm trying to avoid major spoilers, but at the same time I'm always giving something away.

Book Reviews

I've read 3 books since my last book review post. Most of them were finished this past weekend, so I'm not *that* far behind.

Fool Moon
First one is Fool Moon by Jim Butcher. It had been a while since I had read the first book in this series, Storm Front. While some aspects of the plot stuck in my head, very few of them were very important. The truth is, I liked Fool Moon much better than I remember liking Storm Front.

There were a few hints dropped that sucked me more into the world, and a few hints about the characters past that had my head spinning. It reminds me, in some ways, of Kim Harrison (see next review), but all the things I like best about it. Magic seemed a little more grounded and explored in this book as well, giving me some fuel (and interest) for another blog post.

It's worth noting that I listened to this on an audio book. It was read by James Marsters, which was a hoot to listen to. He used his "Spike" voice for Bob, which made me laugh. If you're an urban fantasy fan, I recommend the series. He takes a lot of hits, and for those of you who enjoy watching the hero get beat to a pulp before he manages to push back the darkness, give it an especially careful spin.

Black Magic Sanction
Wow, 8 books already. I started the series 4 years ago, on the suggestion of Lumie. She always gives me a good book to read. Anyway, the latest installment takes place more or less where the last one left off. There's been a lot of back-and-forth in the character, over the course of hte first 7 novels. One of my friend Rachel's major complaint about book 7 was that the character ended in more or less teh same place as the first one, but for different reasons. I think she's just frosted that two of the characters didn't get together.

The plot investigates some new aspects of the world, that hadn't really come into play before. The cool antagonist-y guy came back, and it was good to see him again. I feel like he didn't have as big a part in the previous book, but I could be misremembering. Either way, this book did seem to fit into the overal arc better than the previous, and it was a fun, quick, read.

Strange Angels
The last book I'll talk about today is Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow (AKA Lilith Saintcrow). This is a YA novel, but was very interesting. The premise is this girl and her father hunt things that go bump in the night: vampires, werewolves, daemons, everything. And then her father doesn't come back, and she's trying to survive. She finds out plenty of interesting secrets about herself, makes a couple of friends, and meets a couple enemies. All in all, decent story. Aspects of it are remnant of Cassandra Claire's Mortal Instruments, thought without the cool runic magic.