Cover Snark: Weapons Are A Girl's Best Friend

So this week we’re going to look at that most essential of accessories - weapons. Yes the shiny killy things. After all, so many of the protagonists in our series are fighting for their lives against the very worst that the magical world can throw at them, it’s reasonable that these people should be carrying something to keep them safe.

Unfortunately, even this simple necessity can be done so very... oddly.

Now this cover is actually several kinds of shiny... buuut, what does she actually intend to do with that sword? At the moment it seems to be mistaken for a handbag. This is my long sword by Gucci, isn’t it fabulous? While few action poses work well on these covers - all too often they’re an excuse to display T&A. But actually holding it as a weapon would be nice - a bit less dainty.

Review: Double Cross by Carolyn Crane, Book 2 of the Disillusionist Triology

Justine, the hypochondriac disillusionist who can channel her fear into others, is faced with growing moral quandaries in this book.

She loves Otto and wants to please him – but is unsure how she can fit in his so rigid black and white view of the world or live up to the high faith he puts in her. At the same time Packard remains compelling – Packard with his shades of grey and his dubious means always justified by the ends.

And she has to continue to disillusion the highcap criminals that Otto has imprisoned – not doing so could lead to Otto imprisoning Packard – and dying from the stress of holding all the forcefields in place. But Ez, her latest target, doesn’t seem guilty – and when Justine’s already finding it hard to justify the disillusionment of the guilty, it’s even harder to deal with disillusioning someone who may be innocent. But this highcap can control dreams and control people through dreams – in the past she was thought to force people to become cannibal sleep walkers. And she’s in Packard and her heads – does she dare not disillusion her, even if she is innocent?

And worse, there are the Dunces. A trio of serial killers stalking Midcity who are targeting highcaps – and are immune to highcap powers.

This book has a very strong theme of moral questioning. Of black and white thinking over shades of grey. Of whether ends justify the means. Of choosing between what’s right and self-preservation. Of survival vs freedom, of freedom vs morality , of the unintended consequences of well intended actions. There are a dozen well examined and deep issues all along these lines – from Justine trying to be free from Parker, to Otto’s very rigid view of the world, to J’s discomfort about disillusioning anyone and exacerbated by the idea of disillusioning an innocent person. There’s the battle to be free from parker and the consequences of that when it causes Parker to be unable to fulfil his deal with Otto. There are Parker’s lies and whether they are justified for the sake of his freedom and what he has endured. There’s a debate on Parker’s past and whether he was judged too harshly. There’s – well, there are dozens of these deeply fascinating and complicated debates that really mke you think

Mind Games by Carolyn Crane, Book 1 of the Disillusionist Trilogy

Justine is a hypochondriac in a downward spiral, her life falling apart as her anxiety and panic attacks take over. Until she meets Packard, a man who can turn her whole life around.

A highcap psychic, he can see her problems and more, he has a solution. By teaching her to zing her fears into other people, she can be free from her crushing dread and panic for the first time. While it offers her freedom and peace, it comes with a price, acting as a vigilante with her fellow disillusionists, all zinging their emotions and problems into other people’s brains – psychologically destroying them.

While their targets are untouchable criminals, Justine has to deal with her new life as a vigilante, keep what she wishes to preserve of her own life – and decide whether she even wants it any more – and come to terms with the new control Packard has over her – for without the ability to zing she would be even more vulnerable than she was before.

And then there’s a target she doesn’t agree with and things aren’t entirely what they see; against a backdrop of a spiralling crime rate as unpoliced psychics use their abilities without check – and people driven by desperation to try and bring some stability to the city.

This book surprised me from beginning to end. It’s complicated, it’s nuanced and you never reach a point where you can sit down and say “these are the good guys, these are the bad guys.” It’s never that simple and no-one is that clean. We’re hit from all sides with a barrage of questions and things to think about – the question of vigilantism? Even when it works? What about imprisonment, what about cruel imprisonment, what about when there’s no alternatives and what about when it cannot last? And dependence, even when the alternative is death – and deception that ends up with people becoming utterly helpless minions – but, again, the alternative is death and the deception itself is an act of desperation from a man in an intolerable situation. For that matter, the issues of those who know they are entering minionhood comes into it – especially when you consider the alternative is not far off death, so what choice is it? We even look at the extra toll it has on the black disillusionists who have become helpless minions of a white man. And how far does the end justify the means?

And we meet the ultimate target and he’s evil... but he’s not, the boss man’s evil, no, wait, both of them have engaged in shitty behaviour but both of them had damn good (or, at very least, idealistic reasons for doing so).