Bone Crossed

Bone Crossed is the 4th book in the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs.

Mercedes (Mercy) is a VW mechanic who can also turn herself into a coyote at will. Unlike werewolves, Mercy's transformation is painless, instantaneous & she is not influenced by the moon. She is the acknowledged mate of the local werewolf pack's Alpha, Adam Hauptman, as well as a good friend of a powerful vampire, Stefan.

This is the first time that I've reviewed a book that is part of a series without doing the previous books first, so I'm not sure how this will go. Since this book is a continuation of the others, it might be difficult to review this book without going into the others.

I really like this series. Despite its similarities to the Anita Blake series from Laurell K. Hamilton (ie, creature of magic dating a werewolf and friends with vampires), Mercy has a more level head and though tough, she is not untouchable to relate to. She also doesn't sleep with every guy she encounters.

In this book in particular, Mercy leaves the Tri-Cities area at the request of a college friend, Amber, to look into Amber's haunted house in Spokane. Mercy's abilities as a skinwalker include an affinity for ghosts, which has been hinted at in previous books. This book explores, and explains, more about the ghosts that she can see. Another reason Mercy leaves town is so that she can escape Marsilia (local vampire queen) for a few days. After killing one of Marsilia's favourite henchmen, Andre (because he was crazy), Mercy gets a traitor's mark on the door of her garage.

While in Spokane, Mercy runs into the master vampire of Spokane at Amber's house. After finding the hauntings at Amber's to be real, she flees back to the Tri-Cities and ends up getting stuck in the middle of vampire politics.

This book really tied up a few loose ends from previous ones, and each book explains more and more of Mercy's abilities. There was also a traumatizing event at the end of the previous book; however, this book didn't dwell too much on it and there was healing and closure for Mercy.

I find Mercy to be a likable character: she's strong, funny and does what she will. She's frustrating to everyone that knows her and wishes her to obey, but I think that's part of the reason why I like her. She has a good heart, and will bleed herself dry for those she loves. Her new - yet not quite so new - relationship with Adam is endearing and her desire to fit in with everyone around her makes her someone that you can relate to.

Another book will be coming out in April 2010 called Silver Borne and I will definitely be buying it!

The Last Herald-Mage Trilogy

The Last Herald-Mage Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey follows the adventures of the soon-to-be sole Herald-Mage Vanyel Ashkevron.

Vanyel is not your typical hero: he's pretty, he sings amazingly well, and wants nothing more than the love of his family. When his father banishes him from his home for being a coward, Vanyel dramatically thinks his life is over. Little does he know that his life has just begun. For it is away from his family that he realizes that he is shay-a-chern (ie, homosexual) and that he is in love with his mentor, Tylendel. Within a short period of time, they become life-bonded and are blissfully happy.

Until Tylendel goes insane after the death of his twin brother and seeks revenge against his enemies. As a result, his Companion (his horse-but-not-a-horse) repudiates him, dies in a fight to the death, and Tylendel kills himself. This in turn drives Vanyel to suicide, but is saved by his own Companion, since Tylendel's magic somehow ripped open the channels to Herald-Magery that were previously dormant in Vanyel.

All within the first half of the book.

Now what, I asked myself, could possibly be left? The answer: a lot of dramatics.

Despite being a lover of fantasy, this series, unfortunately, did not appeal to me. In general, I really liked the idea. However, and maybe because I read mainly male authors with a flair for warfare, I found this whole series to be anticlimatic. In each book, there is whining (although Vanyel does grow up, and while you can't blame him for mourning his lost love, it is incessant), and super cheesy lines.

When facing his first real enemy, the fellow hits on him, and wants him for his own. He even offers Vanyel a partnership if he joins him.

[Side note: This reminded me of the movie Labyrinth, where at the end the Goblin King offers the heroine his kingdom if she will love him and end her quest for her baby brother.]

Instead, Vanyel fries him with magic. And, does the same to his enemy in the second book. Seriously. I found the journey leading up the fight scene to be good. I found the dialogue, for the most part, to be entertaining. However, the anticlimatic scenes nearly killed me.

In the third book of the Trilogy, Mercedes Lackey even added a twist by revealing that Vanyel's lover, Stefan, was a re-incarnated Tylendel. However, she must really love having tortured souls as her heroes, since Vanyel ends up "dying" in his Last Strike against his enemy, Master Dark (honestly, that's what he called himself). Instead of a true death, Vanyel became a spirit that protected the Forest of Sorrows. He revealed himself to Stefan after Stefan went there to kill himself. However, Vanyel said that they could be together again in the distant future so Stefan, I'm sure, lived a lonely existence until he was an elderly man, when he was finally re-united with Vanyel.

I've read several books about soul mates (or life mates, or life bonded, or whatever the author chooses to call it) and it has never bothered me so much as it has in this series. Mainly because one partner has never died before. In her series, Mercedes Lackey essentially said if one half of the life bonded pair dies, the other half will never love someone else that way ever again. And not just the dramatic essence of it. They will never feel that strongly about someone else ever again. And they know it. And this makes me glad that we don't have those sorts of bonds in real life.

Criticism aside, I think the series is okay, and I've heard that her female leads in other books are strong women, so it could be just this single series that didn't appeal to me. I think that it could be that I'm used to a different style of writing as well, so went in with my normal fantasy expectations. I think that if I were younger too, it would have appealed to me more. Being the same age as Vanyel in his second book and hearing him constantly whine about his life made me lost some respect for him.

While I wouldn't extol the virtues of this book to others, I would probably suggest it if they weren't in to the fantasy books that I love.

Future Post?

I can't believe how busy I am. I never would have thought it possible that I could be too busy for reading! It's ghastly & entirely criminal. I read & blogged more in one month than I have in the past 3!!

I have been sporadically reading a book series by Mercedes Lackey: The Last Herald Mage Trilogy, for those that have heard of it. I'm just waiting till the end of the 3rd book before posting a single post about it. Why? Because I didn't care that much for the first one: the main character was too whiney (he was 16). However, since the 2nd book takes place when he's 28 (and much less whiney) I figured I'd do an overall review about the 3 books. That way some criticism would be less harsh.

However, I am super SUPER excited about a book I just bought called The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor. It's an Alice in Wonderland take...except that it's about a princess named Alyss who escaped from her crazy aunt Redd & told her story to Lewis Carroll...who promptly got everything about her wrong! Even the spelling of her name! It looks pretty good, and it definitely trumps all of my other books right now. Well, for right-this-second-now. I could change my mind again at any time.

So, I hope to get on here more often: books are still my escape & my solace from reality. Weekends are pretty much the only time I have left to me and even then they're taken up by chores.

Oh, & Happy Valentine's Day!

The Lovely Bones

I chose to read The Lovely Bone (by Alice Sebold) mainly because it was made into a movie, and the movie previews looked interesting. Going into the book I expected (from the trailers) that it would be a murder mystery, with the victim (Susie) assisting her father's quest for the murderer from beyond the grave.

What I did not expect to find was that the book was about moving on and how the characters found the strength to live, despite the death of their daughter/sister/neighbour/crush.

Don't get me wrong, the father tried in vain to bring the murderer to justice. They even knew who it was after 2 years, but the man escaped. When that happened, I didn't know what to expect for the remaining half of the book. Would they chase him across the state and drag him to face time for his crimes?

Instead, they lived their lives. First, for Susie, then for each other. The remaining children banded together to take care of their father after their mother left. In the end, they lived for themselves. They were survivors. And while they never brought the murderer to justice, justice was found in the fact that they did not allow this tragedy to kill them too. They became a family again after 6 years of estrangement and a heart attack. While they never forgot Susie, she no longer consumed their lives.

I still want to go see the movie, but I doubt that the movie will capture this aspect of the book. How can they? There was too much going on: what Susie saw and how she followed the thoughts and lives of her family members, friends and acquaintances as they grew, first apart and then back together.

I enjoyed this book. I went in expecting one thing and came away with a much greater appreciation for life. Susie always yearned for the life she never had in the book; after reading that, how can you not appreciate your own life? Susie never experienced love - can I take mine for granted?

It makes you think, too, about life after death. And those that have gone on already. Are they there watching over us like Susie watched her family?

Poltergeist

In her second book of the Greywalker series, Kat Richardson revises Harper Blaine's character to solve the mystery of a ghost-haunting that doesn't involve a real ghost. However, since Harper's client doesn't believe in ghosts, despite the fact that the group created one, Harper is charged to prove that the ghost does not exist. The plot thickens when one of the group members is murdered.

Utilizing the help of her friends Mara and Ben, as well as that of Carlos, a necromantic vampire, Harper needs to find and stop Celia's ghost from hurting others, as well as conceal her abilities from Solis, the human detective on the case of the murdered group member.

In this book Harper is more adept at sliding into the Grey and can actually slip through time (only the ghostly timeline; if there is a building in Harper's time but not in an earlier one, she can slip through time to go "through" the building instead of around).

Harper's relationship issues still haven't been resolved at this point. She chats with him briefly on the phone a couple times and then at the end he shows up. I think he offers her a companionship that she needs but doesn't want the relationship that goes with it.

I still liked this book and series, but I honestly stopped reading it for a month when I was about 85% of the way through, simply because I had a paranormal overload and needed a break. The story drags on a little and most of the action happens in the beginning and near the end. The middle of the book is just fact-finding and sleuthing that is necessary for a private investigator to solve a crime.

There is still a third book in her series called Underground, which I will get around to reading eventually. :)