Books 2012: also, I am sick
Apr. 11th, 2012 07:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbBooks 2012: 58
58. Mary Gentle, The Black Opera. NightShade Books, US, May 2012; Gollancz, UK, August 2012.
Read for review for Ideomancer. This? This is one hell of a brilliant book. Go right now and order a copy to read. I loved it to bits.
I'm not feeling so good today. Nauseous and sleepy. I do not think it fair.
Editorial over at Tor.com decided not to publish my review of Royal Street, so here it is below the cut:
Royal Street is Suzanne Johnson's debut novel, and the opening volume in a projected series ("Sentinels of New Orleans"). It is a reasonably competent urban fantasy, albeit one with some pacing issues. It also did absolutely nothing for me.
Drusilla "DJ" Jaco is the junior sentinel for New Orleans. A wizard, her job involves more mixing potions and retrieving reasonable harmless creatures than werewolf wrangling or vampire hunting. Her mentor, boss, and foster-parent, Gerald St. Simon, is the man responsible to the wizard Elders for keeping New Orleans safe from magical beings from the Beyond -- which include such people from New Orleans' past as the voudienne Marie Laveau and the pirate Jean Lafitte. When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, the hurricane brings magical as well as material hazards in its wake. With Gerald missing - either dead or a traitor - DJ finds herself on the frontlines of the magical struggle for control of her city. Meanwhile, her newly assigned partner is a handsome grenade-carrying assassin with an attractive former Marine brother, and Captain Jean wants her either dead or in his bed. It's a hard time to be a wizard.
As urban fantasy goes, this set-up has a lot of promise. Any natural disaster has the potential to provide a truckload of drama and narrative tension, and Katrina is the worst tragedy to strike the US in a decade at least. New Orleans is a setting, too, with plenty of possibilities for atmosphere. Unlike New York, it's used seldom enough as backdrop that as a reader, I can still come to it with fresh eyes and not compare it to dozens - hundreds - of other renditions of the city in film, television and literature. And I have one hell of a soft spot for mouthy women with chips on their shoulders - which DJ most certainly is.
So why does Royal Street leave me cold?
I'm still trying to put my finger on exactly why, but I'm going to lay out a few reasons here. For starters, it falls prey to a couple of classic debut novel flaws.
Every novel has flaws. Debut novels tend to have more of them, and uneven pacing is probably the most common. Royal Street's pacing is remarkably uneven. DJ's decision to evacuate in advance of the hurricane leads to a thirty-page interval in which she learns about New Orleans' devastation from the news, spends not-exactly-quality-time with her grandmother and father, and learns about St. Simon's disappearance via a message from the wizard Elders which also orders her back to New Orleans. Despite the information packed into this tenth of a book, there is very little narrative tension.
Once DJ returns to New Orleans and meets up with Alex, grenade-carrying assassin and her new partner, the narrative tension and drive improves somewhat. But DJ and Alex still spend far too much time going back and forth in vehicles and talking about how much they don't know and what they should do next. When they do act - when, for example, DJ summons the shade of Marie Laveau or decides to go alone and without backup to confront Jean Lafitte and his cohorts in their lair - it comes with little warning and occasionally makes little sense. DJ's behaviour, in fact, frequently makes me want to yell Use the buddy system![1] The main conflict doesn't show up until halfway through, and the final showdown feels a little on the rushed side.
Royal Street also falls prey to over-complication. This is part and parcel of the late emergence of the main conflict: many herrings (red or otherwise) and characters show up, but it's a long while before the reader gets a sense of how the story is starting to cohere. Meanwhile, having a serial killer over here, an undead voudienne over there, a creepy elven staff behind, an undead jazz master to the right, a red vevé to the left, and a pirate with the murderous hots for our heroine in front... gets a little distracting. And apart from Jean Lafitte, whose attraction to DJ is creepy and somewhat rapetastic, our heroine's personal life is complicated not only by the disappearance of her mentor and revelations about her parentage, but by Unfulfilled Sexual Tension with two separate men: Alex, the aforementioned assassin, and his former Marine brother Jake. Alex, at least, skirts the edges of Asshole Werebeast Boyfriend territory (also known as Jerk With A Heart Of Gold, No Really), but there isn't a lot of time for either of them to get much character development.
While Royal Street's premise is interesting in its own right, I found the execution a touch lacking. Decent mindless entertainment, but a touch lacking.
But then, I'm picky like that.
[1] Much like that film about climber Aron Ralston, 127 Hours. Fortunately for her, DJ has the author on her side, and doesn't get stuck down any canyons with an arm crushed between a rock and a hard place.
I had something else to say, but I have forgotten it. Now I must go hang up laundry and sleep more.
58. Mary Gentle, The Black Opera. NightShade Books, US, May 2012; Gollancz, UK, August 2012.
Read for review for Ideomancer. This? This is one hell of a brilliant book. Go right now and order a copy to read. I loved it to bits.
I'm not feeling so good today. Nauseous and sleepy. I do not think it fair.
Editorial over at Tor.com decided not to publish my review of Royal Street, so here it is below the cut:
Royal Street is Suzanne Johnson's debut novel, and the opening volume in a projected series ("Sentinels of New Orleans"). It is a reasonably competent urban fantasy, albeit one with some pacing issues. It also did absolutely nothing for me.
Drusilla "DJ" Jaco is the junior sentinel for New Orleans. A wizard, her job involves more mixing potions and retrieving reasonable harmless creatures than werewolf wrangling or vampire hunting. Her mentor, boss, and foster-parent, Gerald St. Simon, is the man responsible to the wizard Elders for keeping New Orleans safe from magical beings from the Beyond -- which include such people from New Orleans' past as the voudienne Marie Laveau and the pirate Jean Lafitte. When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, the hurricane brings magical as well as material hazards in its wake. With Gerald missing - either dead or a traitor - DJ finds herself on the frontlines of the magical struggle for control of her city. Meanwhile, her newly assigned partner is a handsome grenade-carrying assassin with an attractive former Marine brother, and Captain Jean wants her either dead or in his bed. It's a hard time to be a wizard.
As urban fantasy goes, this set-up has a lot of promise. Any natural disaster has the potential to provide a truckload of drama and narrative tension, and Katrina is the worst tragedy to strike the US in a decade at least. New Orleans is a setting, too, with plenty of possibilities for atmosphere. Unlike New York, it's used seldom enough as backdrop that as a reader, I can still come to it with fresh eyes and not compare it to dozens - hundreds - of other renditions of the city in film, television and literature. And I have one hell of a soft spot for mouthy women with chips on their shoulders - which DJ most certainly is.
So why does Royal Street leave me cold?
I'm still trying to put my finger on exactly why, but I'm going to lay out a few reasons here. For starters, it falls prey to a couple of classic debut novel flaws.
Every novel has flaws. Debut novels tend to have more of them, and uneven pacing is probably the most common. Royal Street's pacing is remarkably uneven. DJ's decision to evacuate in advance of the hurricane leads to a thirty-page interval in which she learns about New Orleans' devastation from the news, spends not-exactly-quality-time with her grandmother and father, and learns about St. Simon's disappearance via a message from the wizard Elders which also orders her back to New Orleans. Despite the information packed into this tenth of a book, there is very little narrative tension.
Once DJ returns to New Orleans and meets up with Alex, grenade-carrying assassin and her new partner, the narrative tension and drive improves somewhat. But DJ and Alex still spend far too much time going back and forth in vehicles and talking about how much they don't know and what they should do next. When they do act - when, for example, DJ summons the shade of Marie Laveau or decides to go alone and without backup to confront Jean Lafitte and his cohorts in their lair - it comes with little warning and occasionally makes little sense. DJ's behaviour, in fact, frequently makes me want to yell Use the buddy system![1] The main conflict doesn't show up until halfway through, and the final showdown feels a little on the rushed side.
Royal Street also falls prey to over-complication. This is part and parcel of the late emergence of the main conflict: many herrings (red or otherwise) and characters show up, but it's a long while before the reader gets a sense of how the story is starting to cohere. Meanwhile, having a serial killer over here, an undead voudienne over there, a creepy elven staff behind, an undead jazz master to the right, a red vevé to the left, and a pirate with the murderous hots for our heroine in front... gets a little distracting. And apart from Jean Lafitte, whose attraction to DJ is creepy and somewhat rapetastic, our heroine's personal life is complicated not only by the disappearance of her mentor and revelations about her parentage, but by Unfulfilled Sexual Tension with two separate men: Alex, the aforementioned assassin, and his former Marine brother Jake. Alex, at least, skirts the edges of Asshole Werebeast Boyfriend territory (also known as Jerk With A Heart Of Gold, No Really), but there isn't a lot of time for either of them to get much character development.
While Royal Street's premise is interesting in its own right, I found the execution a touch lacking. Decent mindless entertainment, but a touch lacking.
But then, I'm picky like that.
[1] Much like that film about climber Aron Ralston, 127 Hours. Fortunately for her, DJ has the author on her side, and doesn't get stuck down any canyons with an arm crushed between a rock and a hard place.
I had something else to say, but I have forgotten it. Now I must go hang up laundry and sleep more.
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-11 05:23 pm (UTC)Want. Want NOW.
I *think* I've managed to acquire all of her books so far... Rats and Gargoyles is still my most re-read.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-11 05:29 pm (UTC)