Books – House of Shards

The second Drake Maijstral book is a great follow-up to the first. Williams clearly had this (in fact all three) in mind when he wrote the first as, although they all stand alone as novels, there’s also a significant amount of plot and character development which proceeds through the three books.

This time Maijstral is up against another thief in a head to head battle for supremacy in the league of rankings of professional thieves. In the meantime there’s slapstick, romance, and some piercing commentary on human nature (some of it disguised via alien nature – one of the reasons for reading SF is the ability to compare and contrast different elements of the human condition by playing human and alien cultures side by side in this way).

Another fun romp and, again, highly recommended.

Current Mood: awake

Current Music: None

Originally published at blog.a-cubed.info

Books – Rock of Ages

The third, and so far final, Drake Maijstral book. I got my hopes up recently when I saw a listing for “Ten Points for Style” (a catch-phrase in this universe about the necessity to pull off one’s capers with flair) but it turned out to be a book club compendium of all three novels and not something new. As mentioned in my writeup of House of Shards, it’s clear that Williams had a plan of these three right from the start and they form a satisfying complete story spanning all three. In this one, Drake is supposedly on holiday on Earth (which he’s never before visited). Now that he’s the top-ranked burglar in the ratings (following his successful contest in House of Shards) Earth’s authorities are understandably concerned about him practising his profession there. A minor comment on “crying Wolf” here in that Drake really is on holiday but he always claims not to be working for plausible deniability reasons so few believe him. When someone takes advantage of this to frame him for a series of thefts from his aristocratic hosts, he’s forced into working to clear his name. His own and his family’s past (including the details of his grandfather’s sordid past) mix together with Duchesses, superstars, alien (and human) Elvis impersonators (and clones of the King beisdes). Duels, marriage proposals and epiphanies of insight into one’s personality are added to the mix of slapstick humour and wry commentary on the human condition.

Still highly recommended. This sequence doesn’t jump the shark anywhere, and though I’d still like more in this vein, these three books make a nice short collection for raising one’s spirits.

Current Mood: awake

Current Music: None

Originally published at blog.a-cubed.info

Books – Black Magic Woman

Almost caught up on the backlog of book blogging. The three books so far in this series are, I think, the only outstanding ones.

This is another modern day urban fantasy of the veil sub-type, i.e. the supernatural exists but is not acknowledged generally. It’s the start of a series of “Morris and Chastain Investigations”. Its basic conceit is that Quincey Morris’ (the American in Dracula) descendents are battlers against evil magic. His friend Chastain is a white witch. There’s a little bit of sexual tension, unrelieved. This is definitely not paranormal romance. There’s an interesting “Hero of another story” in Barry White, a New York-based Barry Love, who they run into at one point.

In parallel with the main storyline, there’s an interesting alternate linekd tale of an FBI agent and a South African visiting cop on the trail of a serial killer. This is an intricately linked sub-plot and the FBI agent turns up in later books. As does the background figure of the man employing the main antagonist of Morris and Chastain (a black with to Chastain’s white).

I’m not sure about the utility of using Quincey Morris grandson in this. It seems to make this a little like Dracula fan-fiction rather than a real book. It’s also clearly a first novel, with the common pacing flaws. It just drags a bit in places. It’s not a bad example of the type and well enough written that I’ve bought and read the next two in the sequence (re-reading this one to start me off). Recommended only if you particularly like this kind of thing, though. There are better modern urban fantasy series out there (though also many worse ones).

Current Mood: busy

Current Music: Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex Series 2 Soundtrack

Originally published at blog.a-cubed.info