Marjorie Liu – trying to find the plot

Marjoire Liu’s Dirk & Steele series is one of those that frustrates me no end.

The meta-plot through the books is fascinating. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes that is implied and I desperately want to know more. There’s a large cast of characters I want to know more about, their powers, their motivations and big ominous looming in the back ground I am beyond eager to investigate and explore.

There’s also a vast diverse world here. There are psychics of all stripes and shapeshifters and gargoyles and mer people. There are witches and magic and powers beyond our ken. And I want to ken, I really do. I want to see these beings, I want to understand them, I want to see their culture, their powers, their origins.

And, unlike the vast majority of urban fantasy, it’s set around the world. In Russia and China and Taiwan, we see a more global perspective rather than the usual lock in on the US.

Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast - Episode 12

This week we discuss The Vampire Diaries, Kim Harrison's Pale Demon, latest book in the Hollows series, Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series and Patricia Brigg's Mercy Thomphson series

Kim Harrison’s Pale Demon

I am a huge fan of Kim Harrison’s Hollows series.  As soon as I found out that a new book had been  released, I had to get it.  I hate leaving series halfway finished, and that means I raced through The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare so that I could read Pale Demon.  I suffered through the teen angst of the last book (City of Fallen Angels),  knowing that my reward would be Pale Demon.  Sometimes you just need something to keep going.

Spoilers Ahead

City of Glass - hurting people for their own good

So now City of Glass has pulled that eternal trope “I have to be nasty and hateful to you to drive you away for your own good.”

And I won’t single the book out for this trope, because it’s hardly unique for it. Urban Fantasy, gods, every genre has this written in spades. The noble character decides to sacrifice themselves by driving off their loved one/friends/family/pet mongoose by being mean and hurtful and vile to them to… SAVE them.

And we’re supposed to gasp and say “oh how romantic/noble/self-sacrificing!”

Well this is my side-eye to all that. And Beloved take note, ever pull that crap and you better make sure that doghouse is comfy because you’re going to be in it a hell of a long time.

To me, someone pulling this “I have to hurt you to drive you away for your own good” is saying several things:

Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast - Episode 11

This week we talk about the Vampire Diaries, the season finale of the US version of Being Human, Kelley Armstrong's Stolen from the Otherworld series, Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instrument series, reading City of Glass specifically. We also looked at True Blood vs Charliane Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries

Thoughts on “The City of Bones”

This week, I read the first book in The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare.  In The City of Bones Cassandra Clare has created a truly fascinating world.  To be honest, I love books that involve more than one supernatural.  The cast of characters includes: vampires, werewolves, warlocks, demons, fae (who we have yet to meet) and nephlim called shadow warriors)  It seems that these shadow warriors  police the other super natural beings but one whose name is Valentine wants more.  He wants to eliminate everyone who who isn’t human or a shadow warrior from the earth.

Some of the elements of the story are extremely predictable, and this is a shame, because  even as the book is building to a crescendo, the reader is well aware of what is going to happen.  The writing itself is at times repetitive and overly descriptive.  I quite sure she could have shaved a few pages off of this book, just by elimination of the redundancy. There is also a bit of teen angst, but I can honestly say that it is much less than other teen based urban fantasy that I have read in the past (TWILIGHT) and so it never does rise to the level of irritation.

This is once again an all White world which is ridiculous, because it is set in New York city, one of the most multi-cultural places on the planet.  I don’t know how the author justifies this complete erasure of people of colour.  We know that that people of colour exist, because Lucien hides out is in China Town, and they occasionally deliver Chinese food to people (Anyone see a problem with that?).  So I suppose there are at least Asians in Clare’s New York City, but they apparently don’t count enough to be a character.  We also learn in the book that everything that we have been told is true, and this for instance means that the Hindu Gods do indeed exist, as well as several folklore tales from countries of colour, but once again, Clare couldn’t not be arsed to weave them into her story.

Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast - Episode 10

This week we discuss the never-ending Vampire Diaries, the US version of Being Human, Marjorie Liu's Dirke & Steele, Anya Bast's Elemental Witches, Nalini Singh's Psy/changeling series and Tony Hillerman

Nalini Singh - Big Strong Mens and Romantic Death Threats

Who are dangerous, which is another trope that is being done to death.

Not only do we have fragile woman after fragile woman being healed by the Big Strong Mens and their Magical Healing Sexing. and if the men have hard pasts it’s always Soticly Handled like the Big Strong Mens while the Delicate Female Flowers get to collapse and cry and whimper and be SAVED by the Big Strong Mens who hold them with Crushing Strength!

Not only that, but all the men are DAAAAAANGEROUS. Sascha gets her werepanther who frequently threatens her with death. Faith gets Vaughn, her were-Jaguar who stalks her and hunts her and, again, threatens her. Brenna, a were-wolf is teamed up with Judd a Psy who can accidently rip her limb from limb with a stray thought, Tailen, the delicate human is teamed with Clay who causes her to be frightened about 3/4s of the entire book. Ashaya gets Dorian who starts off hating her, threatening her and she even thinks of as “the sniper”. Katya gets Devraj who is her prison guard and *yawn* yet again threatens her with death.

Honestly, is this a new avenue of het-romance I’ve missed? It’s not love without death-threats?
The one book out of 7 where the woman’s life isn’t threatened by her lover is with Mercy and Riley - and even then Mercy, the Sentinel were-leopard, the elite soldier - has to find a man who can take her down and has to look outside her leopard pack because she needs someone more dominant than her.