The Midnight, Texas books are the stale leftovers of Charlaine Harris's previous series, neutered of life, emotion, and sexy romps by excruciatingly mThe Midnight, Texas books are the stale leftovers of Charlaine Harris's previous series, neutered of life, emotion, and sexy romps by excruciatingly mediocre prose, insultingly thin plots, and characters so stereotypical that they verge on prejudice.
I really need to stop reading this series.
On the one hand, after 32 books, I'm pretty much committed to trying everything Harris has written just to have an informed opinion.
ON THE OTHER HAND, what the ever-living f*** is up with this virgin blood public sex witch-raping demon plot???!!!
It's like an episode of Buffy, except it's that cringe-inducing BAD episode of Buffy you watched on fast-forward....more
I received an egalley of this novella from the publisher for review. Thank you to Tor.com Publishing! This review is my honest opinion.
Darren and
I received an egalley of this novella from the publisher for review. Thank you to Tor.com Publishing! This review is my honest opinion.
Darren and Lena are line cooks in desperate need of a job. Bronko Luck needs new cooks for his supernatural catering company, Sin du Jour. Of course, the job is too good to be smooth sailing. Sin du Jour is asked to prepare a very… special ingredient. That has wings. When they refuse, they need to fake its taste so their demon clientele doesn't come after them.
I would describe this as Kitchen Confidential meets the paranormal: where a crack commando team is needed to acquire the rarest ingredients and bloodbaths at dinnertime are normal.
There is corporate espionage, chef dueling (you know, with knives on each other), cupcakes, and lots of cooking. There are also demons, undead clowns, a giant hen, the world’s oldest busboy, an alchemist, and a Shih Tzu.
Seriously, this story contains the line “Everyone else sees a legion of undead clowns worshiping a giant chicken, right?” Which… nah, I’m just going to let that one stand on its own.
This was a fun story that went straight to the part of me that enjoyed some of the stranger episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and some of that team vibe I got from Leverage. It’s a slim novel that packs a punch with quite a large cast of great characters, and a bunch of scenes in Sin du Jour were gross, disturbing, or lip-smackingly delicious. And a big dollop of foul-mouthed humor on top!
The only downsides for me were some plot conveniences that made the story predictable and an incorrect fact about hens.
Is it a little too convenient that Moon just happened to see a guy with that tattoo and just happened to remember the strange symbols? A little, but these types of things kept the story running along at a fast-pace. There is no down time!
Also, I have to point out that hens lay eggs even if there is no rooster around. Hens are not "impregnated" so that they can lay eggs. They can lay perfectly fine unfertilized eggs all the damn time, unless they are eggbound (bad) or molting (every fall) or not good layers (stew pot!). One of the characters erroneously deduces that the aforementioned giant chicken was seeing a rooster in order to make eggs. So. Yeah. Sorry! That bothered me. But I’m not saying that 100% factual chicken behavior is necessary to enjoying this story, because it was entirely fun nonetheless!
Envy of Angels is the first in a series of novellas. The second, Lustlocked, is slated for January 2016, and I’ll be checking it out for the continuing adventures of the Sin du Jour catering crew!
Great ending!! Still deciding on my overall rating. Some parts dragged but the second half was quite good. The audiobook and the print version have diGreat ending!! Still deciding on my overall rating. Some parts dragged but the second half was quite good. The audiobook and the print version have different strengths and weaknesses and I'm glad I got both....more
I greatly enjoyed The Shambling Guide to New York City, and Ghost Train to New Orleans is its sequel. I looked forward to this with anticipation and bI greatly enjoyed The Shambling Guide to New York City, and Ghost Train to New Orleans is its sequel. I looked forward to this with anticipation and bought copies of both books.
What did I like? The worldbuilding, the concept of the "coterie" and "Public Works" and so on, was great. I have little experience with the genre, so what other people might have found to be done-to-death didn't bother me. I also love the framework of this series - that the main character, Zoe Norris, works in a coterie (supernatural) publishing company, writing travel guides to cities for supernatural folk with special interests and special accommodation needs. Each book in the series then becomes an installment in the fictional set of guides; there are excerpts from the finished guides in both books.
In Ghost Train, Zoe Norris has discovered (spoilers for the first book) that she's a citytalkere. She's survived the battle in the previous book, lost her best friend at work, and now has to deal with her motley team of supernatural writers when they take a research trip to New Orleans. Opal and Kevin are vampires, Gwen is a death goddess, Eir is a Norse healing goddess, Bertie is a baby dragon...and if I forgot anyone else, then they were really forgettable. Oh, and her sort-of boyfriend who sort-of is a zombie-in-the-making tags along to try to find a cure to his almost-zombiness. Things go wrong. People get attacked. Ghosts try to rob a ghost train.
The plot was fun, but I started to have real problems with the main character about 2/3 of the way through the book. I don't want to be too harsh because I think the problem was me being overly critical. But a certain detail about the history and nature of citytalkers was revealed, and I set the book down and said to my dog, "I cannot believe this. That is just so ridiculous. Why did it have to be that?"
I could not figure out how the main character could believably be given that "destiny". She's barely hung on through run-of-the-mill supernatural adventures! She doesn't seem to have the strength of character, or will, or personality to accept this as being part of her heritage, nor to emphatically reject it and go do her own thing. (I'd prefer to read about the latter.) She doesn't even have enough back bone to verbally dress-down her vampire employee! So mostly she's going to worry, make snarky comments to herself, and be a doormat for coterie. Yay for our heroine.
I loved the first book in this series and gave it 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. I only gave Ghost Train three stars. While it was funny and entertaining and like popcorn, the total mental whiplash I got 2/3 of the way through made it very difficult to keep enjoying it. I do want a third book in the series. But if it happens, I really, really, really hope that Zoe undergoes more character development and deals better with the violence that inevitably follows her around....more
Rachel (Kalanadi)
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Books:
supernatural
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