Review: Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire

Title: Discount Armageddon
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: InCryptid #1
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 368
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publication Date: March 6th, 2012
Publisher: DAW
Rating: 6.5

Summary:
From Goodreads: Ghoulies. Ghosties. Long-legged beasties. Things that go bump in the night... The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity-and humanity from them. Enter Verity Price. Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, she'd rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and is spending a year in Manhattan while she pursues her career in professional ballroom dance. Sounds pretty simple, right? It would be, if it weren't for the talking mice, the telepathic mathematicians, the asbestos supermodels, and the trained monster-hunter sent by the Price family's old enemies, the Covenant of St. George. When a Price girl meets a Covenant boy, high stakes, high heels, and a lot of collateral damage are almost guaranteed. To complicate matters further, local cryptids are disappearing, strange lizard-men are appearing in the sewers, and someone's spreading rumors about a dragon sleeping underneath the city...

Why did I read this book? This book caught my eye through the awesome premise and cover and I prompty added it to my most anticipated releases of 2012 list.

Source: Bought

My Review
Discount Armageddon is a very fun and flirty beginning to a new urban fantasy series. McGuire hits all the major points on creating a great new series: good world building, a strong female heroine, and clever and entertaining dialogue. However, I did have some issues with the novel.

I’ll start with what I really enjoyed. The worldbuilding in this is some of the strongest I’ve seen for urban fantasy. Basically, supernatural species and creatures (called cryptids) exist in our world and are hunted by an old secret organization known as the Covenant of St. George. Verity Price, the protagonist, descends from a family line that defected from the Covenant when they found out that the decimation of the unicorns caused cholera to spread, greatly hurting humanity. Apparently the Covenant thought it right to destroy a species of low danger due to their doctrine, with no care for the cost to humans. Verity’s family disagreed and moved to America to lead their own lives, helping the cryptids and learning about them as much as they could.

The creativity really comes in through the cryptids. Each species is unique and I found myself pleasantly surprised by all of it. Of course, one of my favorites is the Aeslin mice, a colony of mice that lives with Verity and is very, very religious. They celebrate many holidays, mostly revolving around key moments in Verity’s life, such as “Month of Do Not Put That in Your Mouth!” I laughed many times then wished I had some of my own. Another great cryptid are the Dragon Princesses, women who are fireproof and live with dragons. Or they did, until dragons went extinct thanks to the Covenant. They still collect a lot gold and have a lot of mystery about them. But I won’t that spoil here.

Verity herself is a great lead character and a tough young woman. She’s very Buffy-esque, without the superpowers. By day she’s a ballroom dancer and by night she’s a waitress in New York City and cryptozoologist. She likes to run on rooftops and shoot guns. She’s also wisecracking, resourceful and generally cares a lot about the cryptids.

The things that really bugged me about Discount Armageddon were some aspects of the writing. I quickly got tired of hearing how dancing makes a great fighter (I don’t even know if I agree) and how much dancing Verity does while not seeing very much of it. Also, I found it hard to suspend my disbelief, not with the supernatural aspects of the story, but with Verity, the human. Who would run and climb over rooftops in New York City in stilettos and a miniskirt? On the way to work? Don’t you end up sweaty and gross and tired? I felt like a lot of believability was sacrificed for the coolness factor. It’s just so cool to have a ballroom-dancing, gun-carrying human running around in stilettos and skimpy clothing, but it doesn’t make much sense.

There’s also a romance with, you guessed it, the two people from opposite sides of the cryptid situation. It’s very predictable, but I didn’t fault it too much since I liked the love interest, Dominic.

Rating: 6.5
Overall, I enjoyed Discount Armageddon for its great world building and fun story. I believe people will enjoy this as well as it’s a good start to an urban fantasy series. I’d watch out for some cheesey fight scenes and situations and the lackluster romance, but if you like that sort of lightness, then you’ll have no problem here. I’m going to be continuing with the sequel because I really want to see how far McGuire takes this. Also, there’s a great cryptid Field Guild on McGuire’s website that is worth checking out.

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Movie Review: John Carter (2012)

Title: John Carter
Director: Andrew Stanton
Format: 3D
Runtime: 132 min
Genre: Science Fiction
Release Date: March 9, 2012 (US & Canada)
Production Co: Walt Disney Pictures
Rating: 8

My Review
John Carter (2012), based on the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, is a planetary romance mixed with some historical fiction. It’s really quite awesome as it takes place during the American Civil War, following a southern cavalryman named John Carter on the hunt for his big break – gold. After a run in with a group of Apache men, he escapes into a cave with mysterious markings. Somehow, with the help of a medallion, he is transported to another world. The natives call it Barsoom but we know it as Mars. While trying to find out where exactly he is and how to get back home, he runs into a woman named Dejah who is trying to save her people in a one-sided war. Carter, being the southern gentleman that he is, agrees to help her.

I have never read Burroughs’ series, although I have heard of him through his famous Tarzan novels. I was skeptical going into this because the idea of a science fiction novel written in the early 1900s being adapted to film in our time seemed like a daunting task. Fortunately, my fears were scrapped just within the first 30 minutes of the film. Carter, played by Taylor Kitsch (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), is highly likeable and I became immediately connected to him. As soon as he arrives on Mars he is confronted by Tharks, a native species. He is cordial yet doesn’t bother trying to hide that he’s not to be messed with. His goal is to get off this planet and go home to his gold. However, this doesn’t mean he treats the Tharks without respect or compassion. In particular, the bond his forms with the Thark Sola becomes one of my favorites of the movie.

The other main character, Dejah Thoris, played Lynn Collins (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), appears as a damsel in distress but as Carter soon finds out, can handle herself. Despite the bikini armor she tends to wear, she’s an accomplished scientist and fighter. Of course they develop a romance, which I thought felt rushed and borderline insta-love, they made a great team. I particularly enjoyed the scenes where Dejah explained life of Mars and what the culture is like there.

The only real issues I had with the movie were the insta-romance and the extremely rushed ending. I felt like the ending was sped through to provide some sort of closure, otherwise it would have been a major cliffhanger. I understand this, but they should have dedicated a little more time to the big reveal and conclusion.

Rating: 8
Overall, I loved John Carter. I saw it in 3D and while I’m not a huge fan of 3D, I thought the quality was good. I also loved the special effects and the design of Barsoom. It’s a perfect action, science fiction movie that I encourage anyone to check out.

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Waiting on Wednesday: Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. This novel looks just absolutely hilarious.

Redshirts by John Scalzi

Publication Date: June 5th, 2012
Publisher: Tor Books

From Goodreads:
Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory. Life couldn’t be better...until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations, and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed. Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy belowdecks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is...and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.

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Review: Fair Coin by E.C. Myers

Title: Fair Coin
Author: E.C Myers
Series: Coin #1
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 250
Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Publication Date: March 6th, 2012
Publisher: Pyr
Rating: 6.5

Summary:
From Goodreads: Sixteen-year-old Ephraim Scott is horrified when he comes home from school and finds his mother unconscious at the kitchen table, clutching a bottle of pills. The reason for her suicide attempt is even more disturbing: she thought she’d identified Ephraim’s body at the hospital that day.

Among his dead double’s belongings, Ephraim finds a strange coin—a coin that grants wishes when he flips it. With a flick of his thumb, he can turn his alcoholic mother into a model parent and catch the eye of the girl he’s liked since second grade. But the coin doesn’t always change things for the better. And a bad flip can destroy other people’s lives as easily as it rebuilds his own.

The coin could give Ephraim everything he’s ever wanted—if he learns to control its power before his luck runs out.

Why did I read this book? The premise sounded really awesome and it was blurbed by two authors I love: Sarah Beth Durst and N.K. Jemisin.

Source: Publisher

My Review
Let’s start by saying how much I enjoyed reading a smart young adult novel that wasn’t a dystopia and didn’t have the usual love triangle. The story follows Ephraim Scott, whose life changes when he finds a coin with Washington’s head facing the wrong way commemorating the state of Puerto Rico. He discovers that when he makes a wish a flips the coin, it comes true. Or close to true.

For the first half of the novel, Ephraim uses this newfound power to take care of all the things gone wrong in his life. His mom’s a drunk and he likes a girl named Jena. Of course, this magic coin ends up being used on girls. Things start to go wrong when other things in Ephraim’s world changes along with his wish. People become different, events rearrange themselves.

I felt like there was a lot of this “discovery” phase for Ephraim – nothing particular happening for quite a while except making wishes and seeing how they turn out. Not until he shares this power with his best friend Nathan does things really start to go downhill. Actually, the whole story changes in that it becomes a science fiction thriller with a very human bad guy with a gun.

There are a lot of things to like about Fair Coin. All the characters: Ephraim, Nathan, Jena feel like real teenagers. Their minds are preoccupied on their crushes and other shallow things – I wanted Ephraim to do something selfless with the coin but he never quite gets there. On top of that, I felt like Ephraim didn’t have any real feelings for Jena other than her being cute and smart, and still he bases almost all his choices on her.

Towards the end we get the big reveal – I thought it would be the end of the story, but it actually opens up a whole new plot with scary villain and some intriguing science. I felt the story had two sides and it didn’t always flow between each other. This also caused a lot of the end to be rushed since we had to resolve the conflict with the big bad and also tie up the loose ends with the coin.

Rating: 6.5
Overall, I did enjoy Fair Coin and appreciated it for what it was: a different kind of young adult novel with a great science fiction story. There are some bumps along the way, the plotting, the pacing and some of the character’s lackluster choices when given power that is practically omnipotent. The end does wrap things up but I hear there’s a sequel coming out sometime next year. I’d be curious to see where Myers takes it. For one, I know I’d be interested in seeing more about the origins of the coin and the effect it has on the world.

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In My Mailbox #27

Welcome to another edition of In My Mailbox hosted by The Story Siren! I've definitely had a good couple weeks since I last posted an IMM. I even bought a book!

For Review:

Fair Coin by E.C. Myers

I already started reading this one and am liking it a lot so far! Stay tuned next week for the review.

Sixteen-year-old Ephraim Scott is horrified when he comes home from school and finds his mother unconscious at the kitchen table, clutching a bottle of pills. The reason for her suicide attempt is even more disturbing: she thought she’d identified Ephraim’s body at the hospital that day.

Among his dead double’s belongings, Ephraim finds a strange coin—a coin that grants wishes when he flips it. With a flick of his thumb, he can turn his alcoholic mother into a model parent and catch the eye of the girl he’s liked since second grade. But the coin doesn’t always change things for the better. And a bad flip can destroy other people’s lives as easily as it rebuilds his own.

The coin could give Ephraim everything he’s ever wanted—if he learns to control its power before his luck runs out.

Wide Open by Deborah Coates

I'm going to be part of another blog tour for Wide Open, with a guest post from the author on March 24th. Can't wait!

When Sergeant Hallie Michaels comes back to South Dakota from Afghanistan on ten days' compassionate leave, her sister Dell's ghost is waiting at the airport to greet her.

The sheriff says that Dell's death was suicide, but Hallie doesn't believe it. Something happened or Dell's ghost wouldn't still be hanging around. Friends and family, mourning Dell's loss, think Hallie's letting her grief interfere with her judgment.

The one person who seems willing to listen is the deputy sheriff, Boyd Davies, who shows up everywhere and helps when he doesn't have to.

As Hallie asks more questions, she attracts new ghosts, women who disappeared without a trace. Soon, someone's trying to beat her up, burn down her father's ranch, and stop her investigation.

Hallie's going to need Boyd, her friends, and all the ghosts she can find to defeat an enemy who has an unimaginable ancient power at his command.

Eyes Like Leaves by Charles de Lint

I cannot wait to read this fantasy by de Lint. I just love the cover!

Taking a delightful departure from his more common urban-fantasy settings, this epic tale from acclaimed author Charles de Lint weaves elements of Celtic and Nordic mythology while bringing sword and sorcery to the forefront.

Summer magic is waning in the Green Isles, and the evil Icelord is encasing the lands in a permanent frost while coastal towns are pillaged by snake ships. Mounting one last defense against the onslaught, a mysterious old wizard instructs his inexperienced apprentice in the art of shape-changing. Mercilessly pursued by the Icelord's army, this newfound mage gathers allies—a seemingly ordinary young woman and her protective adoptive family—and they flee north in a desperate race to awaken the Summerlord.

Time is running short for the Summerborn, especially when a treacherous family betrayal is discovered

Bought:

Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire

I'll be reading this one asap. It's currently on my Most Anticipated Books of 2012 list!

Ghoulies. Ghosties. Long-legged beasties. Things that go bump in the night... The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity-and humanity from them. Enter Verity Price. Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, she'd rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and is spending a year in Manhattan while she pursues her career in professional ballroom dance. Sounds pretty simple, right? It would be, if it weren't for the talking mice, the telepathic mathematicians, the asbestos supermodels, and the trained monster-hunter sent by the Price family's old enemies, the Covenant of St. George. When a Price girl meets a Covenant boy, high stakes, high heels, and a lot of collateral damage are almost guaranteed. To complicate matters further, local cryptids are disappearing, strange lizard-men are appearing in the sewers, and someone's spreading rumors about a dragon sleeping underneath the city...

Read more...

Waiting on Wednesday: The Book of Madness and Cures by Regina O'Melveny

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. I've been feeling historical lately, so here's a book set in 16th century Italy that caught my eye.

The Book of Madness and Cures by Regina O'Melveny

Publication Date: April 3rd, 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

From Goodreads:
Gabriella Mondini is a rarity in 16th century Venice: a woman who practices medicine. Her father, a renowned physician, has provided her entrée to this all-male profession, and inspired in her a shared mission to understand the secrets of the human body.

Then her father disappears and Gabriella faces a crisis: she is no longer permitted to treat her patients, women who need her desperately, without her father's patronage. She sets out across Europe to find where-and why-he has gone. Following clues from his occasional enigmatic letters, Gabriella crosses Switzerland, Germany and France, entering strange and forbidding cities. She travels to Scotland, the Netherlands, and finally to Morocco. In each new land she probes the mystery of her father's flight, and open new mysteries of her own. Not just mysteries of ailments and treatments, but ultimate mysteries of mortality, love, and the timeless human spirit.

Filled with medical lore and sensuous, vivid details of Renaissance life, The Book of Madness and Cures is an intoxicating and unforgettable debut

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Review: Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord

Title: Redemption in Indigo
Author: Karen Lord
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 188
Genre: Fantasy
Publication Date: August 1st, 2010
Publisher: Small Beer Press
Rating: 7

Summary:
From Goodreads: Karen Lord’s debut novel is an intricately woven tale of adventure, magic, and the power of the human spirit. Paama’s husband is a fool and a glutton. Bad enough that he followed her to her parents’ home in the village of Makendha—now he’s disgraced himself by murdering livestock and stealing corn. When Paama leaves him for good, she attracts the attention of the undying ones—the djombi— who present her with a gift: the Chaos Stick, which allows her to manipulate the subtle forces of the world. Unfortunately, a wrathful djombi with indigo skin believes this power should be his and his alone.

Bursting with humor and rich in fantastic detail, Redemption in Indigo is a clever, contemporary fairy tale that introduces readers to a dynamic new voice in Caribbean literature. Lord’s world of spider tricksters and indigo immortals is inspired in part by a Senegalese folk tale—but Paama’s adventures are fresh, surprising, and utterly original.

Why did I read this book? It's February's pick for Calico Reactions Theme Park book club!

Source: Library

My Review
I’ve wanted to read Redemption in Indigo for quite a while, especially after reading The Book Smuggler’s review on it not too long ago.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book. It has elements of fantasy that I love: mythology, god-like beings (in this case the djombi) interacting with humans, a folklore-feeling to the story. One of the surprisingly pleasant aspects of the novel was humor invoked by the narrator. From the very first pages and the story of Paama’s glutton husband, I found myself smiling all the way through. I felt that after the first part of the book the tone changed a bit and because more serious, more ethereal. We are meant to follow Paama and her journey with the Chaos Stick to learn some sort of lesson or to have some sort of revelation.

At that point I had some trouble connecting with the story. Lord has some of the most entertaining and eloquent writing contained in this book, along with great fantastical ideas. In particular, I loved the sisters and their magic and the Trickster character. However, I’m not really a fan of the narrated story, one that appears as if it was told orally at some point. Also, following Paama in her fable-like adventure wasn’t enough to sustain me. I wanted answers, action, and some kind of major conflict. One could argue that Paama receiving the Stick was the major conflict, but I felt it was too metaphorical for me, or too easily meant to happen in order for her to grow.

Rating: 7
Redemption in Indigo is a deftly written and wholly unique book by an author that will definitely remain on my radar. I feel like it just wasn’t entirely for me due to the type of narration and story. I would recommend this to those interested as I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. The ending is quite good as well, which was a major bonus for me.

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