THOUGHTS on Thea Harrison's "Midnight's Kiss"

Thea Harrison's "Elder Races" series is one of my favourites - the heroines and heroes are diverse personalities, and the world-building is interesting. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the latest book, "Midnight's Kiss" nearly as much as some of the other books in the series. The heroine of "Midnight's Kiss" is Melisande (Melly), actress and heir to the Southern Californian Light Fae Demesne. The hero is Julian, the King of the Nightkind/Vampyres. Many years ago Melly and Julian were in a relationship, but the relationship ended badly, with both parties nursing unresolved emotional issues. The culmination of the previous book, "Night's Honor," however, yields consequences that throw Julian and Melisande back together; Justine, the villain (of this and the previous book), kidnaps Melisande in an attempt to manipulate Julian and take control of the Nightkind Demesne. "Midnight's Kiss" is about Julian and Melisande reacting to and surviving Justine's machinations, while dealing with their emotional issues.

In this post, I evaluate whether "Midnight's Kiss" passes three well-known tests for female presence in media: the Bechdel Test, the Mako Mori Test, and the Sexy Lamp Test. In doing so, I attempt to determine whether my lack of enthusiasm can be attributed to the book's failure to pass some of these tests.

1.0 Melly and the Sexy Lamp Test

Melly passes the Sexy Lamp Test - when she and Julian are being held captive, it is her innovation and lock-picking that allows her to kill the vampire guarding her and Julian. These actions allow her and Julian to escape. Melly also procures that motorcycle that allows her and Julian to make it back to a safe place. Melly thus makes plans, implements them, and the results of her actions directly affect the plot of "Midnight's Kiss." A sexy lamp could have achieved none of these things. Unfortunately, this is the only one of the tests that "Midnight's Kiss" passes - it fails both the Mako Mori Test and the Bechdel Test.[1]

The Sexy Lamp Test: 

  Melly

2.0 Melly, Justine, and the Mako Mori Test

Although Melly has a life independent of the heroes, having her own career and role in the political landscape of the Elder Races universe, as far as I can tell, she does not have a narrative arc that is independent from Julian's (the main) narrative arc. All of the examples of Melly's agency mentioned above are actions that trigger plot movement in Julian's narrative arc - i.e., the quelling of the uprising by the murderous and rebellious vampyre Justine. The other narrative arc that can be attributed to Melly is her goal to resolve the mystery of what actually happened to cause her and Julian to break up many years ago. Again, this narrative arc is not independent of Julian's - Melly thus does not pass the Mako Mori test, given the criteria below:

Mako Mori Criteria

(i) has a female character (  Melly)(ii) who has her own narrative arc  and (iii) that narrative arc is not about supporting a man's narrative arc 

The failure of the Mako Mori test, I think, is a major reason why I found "Midnight's Kiss" somewhat unsatisfying. While I liked Melly, I didn't find her to be a particularly interesting heroine. This can be at least partially attributed to the fact that, in failing the Mako Mori test, Melly isn't as complex a character as I prefer.

As a note, I think that if any of the narrative of "Midnight's Kiss" had been following Justine, she plausibly could have passed the Mako Mori test - after all, she sets the entire plot in motion by aiming to assassinate Xavier in the previous book, and by kidnapping Melly in this book. Her actions thus provoke, as opposed to support, Julian's narrative arc. However, we don't get any narrative that follows Justine, or her point of view, so it is difficult to attribute a "narrative arc" to her.

Mako Mori:

Melly: 
Justine:  

3.0 "Midnight's Kiss" and the Bechdel Test

"Midnight's Kiss" just barely passes the Bechdel test. While Melly has conversations with other female characters - such as her mother, and twin sister - the content of these conversations, is for the most part, about men. The longest conversation that Melly has with another woman is the one with her mother, Tatiana. They discuss how Melly's mother figured out how to contact her, but this leads almost directly into a discussion about Keenan O'Sullivan, the biker who Melly bought a motorcycle from. Although Keenan O'Sullivan is not a main character, he is, technically, a man. Then Melly tells her mother about how Justine kidnapped her as a way to gain leverage over Julian. This part of conversation is thus also, in a way, about a man. Finally, however, the discussion turns to what sort of resources Tatiana can send to help Melly - i.e., cash, weaponed troops. This part of the conversation is not about a man, so "Midnight's Kiss" does pass the Bechdel Test, as it

(i) has at least two women in it, (ii) shows those women having a conversation, where (iii) the aforementioned conversation is about something other than a man.   

4.0 Other Issues

As I mentioned, I did not enjoy "Midnight's Kiss" as much as others in the series (like "Kinked,"  "Lord's Fall," Serpent's Kiss" and "Dragon Bound"). This was at least partially due to the fact that Melly failed the Mako Mori test, and consequently, I didn't find Melly to be a very interesting heroine. [2] The results of evaluating whether "Midnight's Kiss" pass the selected three tests for feminism are summarized below.

Mako Mori:

Melly:   

Sexy Lamp:

Melly: 

Bechdel:    

FOOTNOTES

[1] Although "Midnight's Kiss" only passes 1/3 of the selected tests for feminism, there are many, many, many books outside of the genre that fail all three of the tests.

[2] There were other little things that bothered me about the book. Such as the "You don't need a helmet, I won't let us crash" bit at the end. I understand that the main emotional issues that Julian and Melly have is trust, but I would have preferred that the resolution of their trust issues be exemplified in a way that seems...a little less irresponsible. Also, I didn't find the plot device used to break up Melly and Julian in the first place to be very original at all. But I did still enjoy reading the book! Thea Harrison is definitely an author that I trust and I auto-buy the books in the "Elder Races" series.

THOUGHTS on Meljean Brook's "Demon Bound"

Meljean Brook's "Guardian" series is one of my favourite UF (Urban Fantasy)/PNR (Paranormal Romance) series. The book that irrevocably hooked me on the series was book 4, "Demon Bound." In this post, I evaluate whether "Demon Bound" passes three well-known tests for female presence in media: the Bechdel Test, the Mako Mori Test, and the Sexy Lamp Test.

1.0 THE SET UP: Guardians, Demons, Free Choice and Bargains

Meljean Brook's Guardian series has very intricate and complicated world-building (I love it), that I will only briefly touch on.  The overarching theme throughout the series is the importance of human free choice. The main players in the series are Guardians, humans who have sacrificed their own lives in order to save people whose lives were in danger from preternatural threats like a demon, vampire or nosferatu. These humans who have sacrificed their lives are visited by the Doyen, Michael, who offers the humans a choice. They can choose to stand by their original choice and die, or they can choose to be transformed into a Guardian. If they choose to be a Guardian, they will gain supernatural powers of shape-shifting, super strength,  the ability to fly. They will also develop a unique gift whose nature is usually a reflection of some aspect of their human life.  Guardians are bound to protect humans from supernatural threats, but there is an important catch: they can never subvert a human's free will.

The heroine of "Demon Bound" is Alice Grey, a guardian whose gift has manifested as communication with and the control of monstrously large spiders. Known as the "Black Widow," even for a guardian, Alice is considered creepy and strange; her movements are sharp and jittery like a spider's, and her academic interests are obscure. Raised in Egypt in the late 1800s, Alice has already been a guardian for 120 years by the time that "Demon Bound" takes place. The hero of "Demon Bound," in contrast, is Jake Hawkins, a novice guardian who died protecting small children from a nosferatu that was terrorizing a village in Vietnam. Jake was introduced in the previous book, "Demon Night," where we learned that his gift is teleportation.

2.0 ALICE GREY and the MAKO  MORI Test

"Demon Bound" passes the Mako Mori test - the main narrative arc of "Demon Bound" is Alice Grey's story. Before Alice was transformed into a guardian, she made a bargain with a demon. She promised to bring the demon's Michael's heart, not knowing at the time who Michael was. After being transformed by Michael into a Guardian, and learning who Michael is, Alice is horrified by what she promised. Because the makers of unfulfilled promises are punished by 1000 years of torture in a frozen field in hell, Alice is conflicted between her loyalty to the Guardians and Michael, and the promise she made as a human. The resolution of this conflict is the main narrative arc of "Demon Bound"; it is the narrative arc that connects "Demon Bound" to overarching storyline of the Guardian series. [1] Alice thus has her own narrative arc that is not about supporting a man's narrative arc - she makes "Demon Bound" pass the Mako Mori test, as it

(i) has a female character ( Alice Grey)(ii) who has her own narrative arc 
(  fulfilling her bargain without betraying the Guardians), and (iii) that narrative arc is not about supporting a man's narrative arc 

Mako Mori Test: 3/3 



3.0 DEMON BOUND and the BECHDEL TEST

"Demon Bound" also passes the Bechdel Test. Alice and Irena, another Guardian, have a four-page conversation about Baba Yaga. This segues into a discussion about Alice's bargain and the promise that Alice extracted from Irena years ago: in the event that the demon, Teqon, comes calling for the fulfillment of Irena's promise, Alice forced Irena to promise that she would lock Alice in a prison, so that Alice would not be able to fulfil her promise. Alice and Irena, two women, thus have a rather long conversation about something other than a man - so "Demon Bound"

(i) has at least two women in it, (ii) shows those women having a conversation, where (iii) the aforementioned conversation is about something other than a man. 

Bechdel Test: 3/3 

4.0 ALICE GREY, JAKE HAWKINS and the SEXY LAMP TEST

Alice Grey also passes the Sexy Lamp test. Much of the plot development in "Demon Bound" is low-action - Alice and Jake do a lot of research, given Alice's role as the Guardian's librarian, and Jake being assigned to be her assistant. The research, however, leads Alice and Jake to discover the skeleton of Zakril, one of the first Guardians. Research on Zakril's skeleton leads to Alice and Jake discovering the existence of the Grigori, one of the most important points in the overarching storyline. But it is Alice's actions/research that first leads to the discovery of the temple where Zakril is found, she thus could not be replaced by a Sexy Lamp (or in the case of Alice, a creepy lamp).

Additionally, when Alice and Jake are in Hell, held captive by demons, Alice is the one who figures out how to secretly communicate. And she is the one who rigs their prison with razor-sharp spider threads, a crucial ingredient in their plan for escape. The plan itself is Jake's, which shows that both Alice and Jake pass the Sexy Lamp test - neither of them could be replaced with a Sexy Lamp, because both take actions that are crucial to the events that occur - in this case, their escape from captivity. The issue of whether or not Jake passes the Sexy Lamp test is important for "Demon Bound" because Jake is much younger and in a lower position of authority than Alice within the Guardian ranks - i.e., he is in a role that is usually allocated to the heroines in romance novels. But in any case, both Alice and Jake pass the Sexy Lamp test.

The Sexy Lamp Test:   2/2

  Alice Grey

  Jake Hawkins

5.0 Jake Hawkins and the Mako Mori Test

Given that Jake fulfils a role that is usually allocated to heroines in romance novels, it's equally important to consider whether he would pass (a modified version of) the Mako Mori test. Does he have is own narrative arc that is not about supporting Alice's narrative arc?

Jake as a hero is a rather well-adjusted and uncomplicated guy, even if he has a problem filtering out insensitive things he shouldn't say - he's definitely not your typical broody alpha male with father issues. He does have his own narrative arc, however, even if it's small. Jake has always felt guilty about dying when he did, and leaving his then-pregnant girlfriend alone. He felt extra guilty because when he left to join the army, knowing he might die, he knew that he wanted different things than his girlfriend did, and feels that in dying, he didn't live up to his responsibility. Jake's pregnant girlfriend is a married great-grandmother by the time of "Demon Bound," as Guardians are bound to 100 years of training in Caelum before they are allowed to return to earth. Jake's narrative arc is thus about dealing with his guilt regarding what might have been his life. Although Jake's first contact with his human family is a teleportation accident, afterwards he chooses to face his daughter and see what he missed. He thus has his own narrative arc, separate from Alice's narrative arc, in which he shows agency in its resolution. All in all, Jake passes the Mako Mori test (modified to account for the fact that he's not female, he's just in the role normally allocated to female characters). So all in all, "Demon Bound" passes all three of my selected tests for feminism.

Mako Mori:

Alice:    
Jake:  N/A, , 

Sexy Lamp:

Alice: 
Jake: 

Bechdel: 

Alice:    
Jake:  N/A

6.0 Conclusion

"Demon Bound" is one of my favourites in Meljean Brook's Guardian series - the interactions between Jake and Alice are definitely funny, and there are definitely gritty parts (Alice is in a hard position), and grand parts (the way that Jake and Alice plan to deal with the demons and the bargain). The sad parts are downplayed, but there are sad parts (Alice's married life, for instance, and her students all deciding to ascend instead of staying to fight). It's thus not surprising as to why I feel justified in loving this book - not only does it fulfill all of my selected criteria for female presence, it also fulfils all my criteria for what I love in a book. It also does it while being original - very few romance novels have heroes like Jake, and even fewer books have heroines like Alice.

FOOTNOTES

 [1] I guess one could argue that the overarching storyline of the entire series is Michael's narrative arc, so every other narrative arc supports his. But Michael does not feel at all like a main character in any of the books except the final one, so I reject this analysis!

THOUGHTS on Nalini Singh's "Hostage to Pleasure"

Nalini Singh's "Psy-Changeling" series is very popular among readers of UF (Urban Fantasy) and PNR (Paranormal Romance). Although I like the series a lot, and still follow it, my favourites in the series are the earlier ones. In particular, my favourite is book 5, "Hostage to Pleasure." Now, the title of this book, IMO, is extremely embarrassing to admit to - it sounds like an 80s bodice ripper. I really wish it had a different title - I at least have a Gollancz copy with a guy's face on it, which is less embarrassing than the Berkley cover. But despite the torrid-sounding title, HtP passes all three of my selected tests for feminism with flying colours.

1.0 THE SET UP: THE PSY-CHANGELING UNIVERSE AND OVERALL STORY ARC

The "Psy-Changeling" series is set in an alternate universe, where three species of humans share the earth: normal humans, Changelings, and Psy. Normal humans are humans as we are. Changelings are humans that have animal forms, and the Psy are humans with (X-men-like) mental powers such as telepathy, telekinesis, foresight, etc, who are all linked into this mental network known as the Psy-Net. Over a hundred years ago, the Psy population was suffering from outbreaks of terrible violence from a rash of mental/emotional instability combined with their dangerous mental powers. In order to save themselves, Silence was implemented. Silence was a program to train Psy to feel no emotions; the idea is that without rage and anger, the outbreaks of violence would stop. Because their procedures failed at just targeting rage and anger, however, the Psy determined that the erasure of all emotions, including love, was worth stopping the outbreaks of violence. Fast-forward to 100 years, the time at which HtP takes place, and the Psy have apparently succeeded in conditioning away their emotions. Silence is strictly held in place by the governing body of the Psy (the Psy Council), who ensure that the Psy remain Silent by any means, while still maintaining the public face of being violence-free. In the earlier books of the Psy-Changeling series, we were shown that the perfect implementation of Silence isn't exactly as the Psy Council portrays it. There are rebels within Psy-Net who want to overthrow the council, and the heroines from book 1 and 2 are Psy who have escaped from the Psy-Net, and ended up being protected by Dark River, a pack of Changeling leopards.

As a note, there will unavoidably be spoilers for HtP in the sections that follow, and they will be unmarked because reference to these plot points form the basic content of this post.

2.0 ASHAYA ALEINE and the SEXY LAMP TEST

One of the reasons why I love HtP, despite its title, is the fact that HtP's heroine, Ashaya Aleine, passes the Sexy Lamp Test with flying colours.

If you can replace your main female character with a sexy lamp, and the story/plotline still basically works, then the story fails the "Sexy Lamp" test. 

My Interpretation of Ashaya Aleine

Ashaya was actually introduced in the previous book in the series "Mine to Possess," where she already shows major agency in terms taking actions and having consequences on the plot. In MtP, Ashaya Alleine is introduced as a psy scientist in an underground lab. Although we don't understand her motivations in MtP, Ashaya's actions are crucial in terms of the resolution of the plot:  She foils the plans of the villains by faking the death of two children who were being held in her lab, and risks her life to contact Talin McKade (the heroine of MtP) so that these children, Jon and Noor, can be taken to safety

In exchange for taking these actions to the benefit of the hero and heroine of MtP, Ashaya extracts a favour from Dark River, to be fulfilled at a later specified date. It is the fulfilment of this favour that precipitates beginning of the fifth book, HtP.

In the opening scenes of HtP, Dorian Christensen, our hero, is rescuing Keenan Aleine, Ashaya's four-year old son, from the Psy-Concil in order to fulfill Ashaya's promised favour. Thus Ashaya's actions from the previous book have triggered a major plot point in her own book, and her agency doesn't stop there. She then fakes her own death in order to escape the constant surveillance of the Psy Council, with the help of contacts among the Psy Rebels. She then - in my favourite scene in the whole series - gives a news broadcast in which she reveals highly sensitive information about the Psy Council. This news broadcast is meant to protect her son - Ashaya's goal is to make herself so high-profile that killing her son (as a means of coercing her) has too many political ramifications for the Psy Council to justify. But it is a world-changing news broadcast - in revealing the information (part truth and part lie), Ashaya Aleine singlehandedly dismantles "Protocol One," the plot by the Psy Council to increase their iron-clad control over the Psy population. The consequences of her broadcast drive not only the plot of HtP, but cause an increase in Rebel Psy sympathies among the Psy Population, which has major consquences for several of the following books in the Psy-Changeling series. There is no way that a Sexy Lamp could have so much effect on the plotline of the story.

Ashaya's news broadcast is also, in my opinion, super-ballsy. Criticizing the Psy-Council in the world of the Psy-Changeling books is not a proposition for the faint of heart - this is an action that could result in Ashaya being secretly captured and "mentally reconditioned" - i.e., essentially being turned into a vegetable. It is also interesting to note that Ashaya Aleine is an M-Psy - her Psy abilities are completely non-combatant, and she has no training in fighting or in the use of weapons. She shows major agency without being one of the ubiquitous butt-kicking hard-talking "strong women" that are so prevalent in UF/PNR (and media aiming to be somewhat more feminist, in general).

Sexy Lamp Test: 

3.0 ASHAYA ALEINE and the MAKO MORI TEST

From the previous discussion of how Ashaya passes the Sexy Lamp Test, you can see that HtP also passes the Mako Mori test. HtP

(i) has a female character (Ashaya)
(ii) who has her own narrative arc (saving her son and herself from the Psy Council), and 
(iii) that narrative arc is not about supporting a man's narrative arc

Mako Mori Test: 

4.0 HtP and the BECHDEL TEST

HtP also passes the Bechdel test, as it

(i) has at least two women in it, 
(ii) shows those women having a conversation, where 
(iii) the aforementioned conversation is about something other than a man.

For instance, early on in the book, Ashaya has a conversation with Mercy, a Dark River Sentinel (and the heroine of the following book, "Branded by Fire"). They talk about Ashaya's injured leg as Mercy performs first aid, and discuss anaesthetics and treatment. The heroine from book 1, Sascha Duncan, has a conversation with Ashaya's sister Amara. They discuss Amara's sociopathy and Sascha's Psy abilities. Ashaya also has a conversation with Tamsin, Dark River's healer. It's not completely clear whether or not this conversation counts as a pass for the Bechdel test: Ashaya and Tamsin talk about Keenan, Ashaya's four-year old son, and whether Keenan's Psy abilities could be harmful to himself and others. They end up agreeing to disagree about whether or not Keenan would be safe to have around Tamsin's own twin boys, Julian and Roman. Although this conversation is technically about male characters, one could argue that Keenan, Julian and Roman are children, and therefore do not count as "men." 

Bechdel Test: 

So all in all, HtP passes all three of the selected tests for feminism. 


5.0 Addendum: DORIAN CHRISTENSEN and the SEXY LAMP and MAKO MORI TESTS

Because HtP is a romance, I think it's important to see if the hero also passes the Sexy Lamp and Mako Mori tests; it would be problematic romance novels merely mirror-imaged the stereotype, and treated male characters the way the mass media treats female characters. 

As mentioned previously, HtP opens with Dorian Christensen rescuing Keenan Aleine from the "protective custody" of the Psy Council. His actions are thus crucial in setting up the main plot arc of the book; if he hadn't rescued Keenan, Ashaya would not have put her own escape into motion. His actions are also crucial in removing the threats to Ashaya and Keenan's lives that are triggered by parts of Ashaya's broadcast, and in getting Ashaya to throw off the veneer of her Silence. This shows that Dorian passes the Sexy Lamp test.

My Interpretation of Dorian Christensen

Although Dorian plays a supporting role in what I determine to be the main narrative arc of HtP, he also has his own narrative arc, although it is an internal one. Dorian, a Dark River sentinel, was first introduced in the first Psy-Changeling book: Dorian's sister was murdered by a serial killer, who turned out to be a member of the Psy Council. The killer's actions (along with the actions of many other Psy serial killers) were facilitated and hushed up by the rest of the Psy Council in order to maintain the appearance of a violence-free Psy society.

So in book five, Dorian is still dealing with the loss of his sister, Kylie, and the very deep hatred of the Psy Council and Silence that Kylie's murder set into motion. This conflicts with his inexplicable attraction to Ashaya, a scientist who worked for the Psy council and has the outward appearance of Silence; Dorian's narrative arc is about him dealing with the loss of Kylie, along with dealing with the guilt that his attraction to Ashaya elicits. Dorian thus has his own narrative arc, which is not about supporting Ashaya's narrative arc. He thus passes the Mako Mori test as well.

In conclusion, despite the cheesy title, I feel completely justified in loving HtP. It not only passes all three of my selected tests for feminism, it passes them uncontroversially and with ease.

Sexy Lamp Test:  1/1

Mako Mori Test:  3/3

Bechdel Test:  3/3

Tribute to Nalini Singh's "HtP" (Psy-Changeling 05)

Ashaya and Dorian from the fifth, and my favourite, Psy-Changeling book, HtP. Painted while listening to the audiobook versions of (i) Garth Nix's "Abhorsen" and (ii) Carol Berg's "The Soul Mirror."

Tribute to Nalini Singh's "Archangel's Storm"

Mahiya and Jason from Nalini Singh's "Archangel's Storm"

Apparently, the key to me not taking forever to paint is to listen to audiobooks while I paint. Since I couldn't very well listen to "Archangel's Storm" again, the majority of this was painted while listening to "Lirael" by Garth Nix (narrated by Tim Curry!). 

I had fun painting Mahiya's wings, but I'm really unhappy with the rest of her - she, or her pose, looks super frozen/stiff, like an Egyptian painting or something. And her neck/head-agle, argh. #learningexperience

THOUGHTS on "Lord's Fall" by Thea Harrison

Lord's Fall by Thea Harrison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Lord's Fall by Thea Harrison

Thea Harrison's "Elder Races" series is set in an alternative earth, where the Elves, Fae, Witches, Wyr (which are like shapeshifters), Vampires, and Demons (including things like Djinn) make up what are referred to as the "Elder Races." The Elder Races are divided into demesnes, categorized roughly as above, whose central governing powers are based in (alternative versions) of urban centres such as New York (for the Wyr), Charleston (for the Elves), Houston (for the Demons) and San Francisco (for Vampires). The series kicks off with "Dragon Bound," in which Pia, our heroine, who just wants to keep her her head down and out of trouble, is blackmailed by her ex into stealing something from the Great Beast, Dragos Cuelebre, leader of all Wyr Kind. By the end of the book, Pia is thrust into an extremely high-profile position, being mated to the high-profile Dragos, with the worry that too many people will figure out her dangerous secrets. The ensuing books in the series focus on other high-level players in the world of the Elder Races.


"Lord's Fall" is the fifth book in Thea Harrison's "Elder Races" series, and it is a return to Pia and Dragos. I loved this book. It's tightly-written, the stakes are high, there are scenes of glory and tragedy, and there's lots of humour sprinkled throughout the book[1]. The external conflict is believably driven by the world-building and events from previous books, and the progress of internal conflict in the book is believable as well. The character's actions are understandable given their personalities and circumstances.

I'll talk about the external conflict first. The premise for the plot of "Lord's Fall" is two-fold: (i) Pia is headed to Charleston as a diplomatic envoy to the Elves, and (ii) Dragos is forced to stay in New York for the 'Sentinel Games', an event he is holding in order to find replacements for members of his sentinels. The wonderful thing about these premises is that they aren't random or stipulatory plot devices introduced solely to separate Pia and Dragos; they are the natural consequences of events introduced in previous books. In the first book, "Dragon Bound," Dragos breaks a treaty with the Elves when he crosses over Demesne borders in order to track down Pia; this is why Pia is on an diplomatic envoy. Book 2 "Storm's Heart" and Book 3 "Serpent's Kiss" each have as their hero, one of Dragos' sentinals. Both books result in the hero becoming mated to an individual with political affiliations that exclude the possibility of the hero remaining a sentinal, hence the necessity of the Sentinal Games. And finally, these plot premises compel the action towards a climax that ties in neatly with events from "Oracle's Moon" (Book 4).

As for the internal conflict and character development, I really loved how this was done. In PNR it's very often the case that the obstacles standing between the hero and heroine are due to stupid misunderstandings and murkily motivated actions on the character's parts. This is not at all the case in "Lord's Fall." The complexities in Pia and Dragos' relationships are completely understandable. Pia is 25 year-old half-Wyr who has just come into her power, Dragos is millenia of years old, has wielded influence over whatever he's wanted to for centuries, and has only had to pretend to be civilized when he wanted to. There's a huge power differential between them, and their mating has forced them into a position where they should be partners on an equal footing. Figuring out how they are going to interact as mates is not a trivial issue. One of the things I loved about this book is how Dragos and Pia are reasonable adults in how they approach these complexities. Although neither of them are pushovers regarding what they need from their relationship, they are honest with each other (and themselves) about why they take the actions they do.

This book made me like Dragos more than I did in book 1. In Book 1, Dragos was sometimes described as being clever, but I wasn't quite sure I believed it - he seemed like a rather standard PNR alpha male, whose brain reverts to a caveman mentality when it comes to interacting with their mate. But the way he was portrayed in "Lord's Fall" made me believe that he was clever. Now that he's mated to Pia and can't avoid the complexities associated with their emotional relationship, he shows that he's perceptive and clear-thinking when it comes to assessing their problems; he reflects on his actions when Pia disagrees with him, and independently comes to the conclusion that indulgence and tolerance are forms of autocracy, and that if he really wants their relationship to work, he needs to find a way to truly compromise. This book also made me like Pia more than I did in book 1. I like how she's tough, unwilling to back down when Dragos is domineering, and I also like how she's not stupidly stubborn about pushing at his domineering ways on principle; she can assess when pushing her case would worsen the situation and acts accordingly. I've also come around to appreciating how Pia is unashamed of (i) being somewhat girly (painting her toenails, and putting on makeup) and (i) being a non-predatory wyr surrounded by extremely powerful predatory wyr.


Final verdict? As you can probably tell, I loved it. My criteria for what I satisfies me in a book is that it should be funny, sad, gritty and grand (taking a quote form Vivian Vande Velde). This book definitely hits three of these criteria - it's funny, gritty and grand. There were also parts where the events that occur are objectively sad, but I didn't even mind that these didn't tug on my heartstrings. This is because I'm fairly certain they weren't supposed to, seeing as they were told from Dragos' rather callous/calculating point of view. "Lord's Fall" book wasn't completely perfect for my reading tastes though - for instance, didn't find Eva, introduced as a major secondary character, to be a very interesting character. Yet. And although the writing style is tight (in that there were no parts where I wondered "What is the point of this passage?"), I could only make this judgement after I re-accustomed myself to the liberal pop culture references[2].


-----Foot Notes------

[1] Although nothing as good as the "Snakes on a Plane" reference in "Serpent's Kiss." That was amazing.

[2] The reference to pop-culture bothered me when I first started reading the series. I still don't quite see the point of mentioning that their smartphones are iphones, or letting me know exactly which Tupac song is playing in the car. (Unless this is a hilarious reference to a terrible Samuel L. Jackson movie.) But everything else in the book is so good that I can ignore the pop-culture references after a while. Unlike the pop-culture references in J. R. Ward's BDB series, which annoy me to distraction.











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THOUGHTS on "Archangel's Storm" by Nalini Singh

Archangel's Storm by Nalini Singh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Although I enjoyed "Archangel's Storm" very much, I didn't feel entirely satisfied afterwards. Gorgeous prose, solid world-development, and a tightly woven plot, but I was left wanting more, in terms of the relationship between Jason and Mahiya, and in terms of the development of the series' overarching plot. Although I know that the relationship between Jason and Mahiya wasn't supposed to be the tumultuous love-across-centuries angst-fest that was Dimitri and Honor in the previous book in the series, and I can appreciate slow and quiet romances, I wanted the emotion to be a bit deeper than it was, and for the overall stakes to have gotten higher than they got. There were hints of change afoot, in terms of a change in the structure of the Cadre of Ten, but at the end, the questions I wanted answered were left unanswered.

In terms of the romance, the relationship between the hero and heroine depends largely, for me, on getting to know the characters, and through this, understanding why they are falling in love with each other. I think that because both Jason and Mahiya are such quiet, understated characters, it was little hard for me to see how they were falling in love.

For instance, although I liked Mahiya as a character, I didn't see any aspect to her character that was outstanding in a way that would make her different from other women, i.e., that would make her the woman that could break through Jason's emotional barricades. Mahiya is not emotionally weak - she has survived for decades in terrible circumstances, trapped by people much more powerful than her. But she didn't seem extraordinarily strong to me either. For instance, we can compare her with Ashaya Alleine, the heroine from Singh's fifth installment in her Psy-Changeling Series . Ashaya was similarly trapped in a bad position by people with much more power than she had. But I clearly remember getting to the part of HtP where Ashaya gives her first broadcast, exposing the Council's evil plans, and coolly lying about the Omega project so that the Council's plans will sink. I remember thinking that this heroine, who has no changeling claws, weak Psy physiology, and a completely unaggressive Psy specialty, nonetheless had holy-shit-balls-of-steel. I didn't find that moment like that with Mahiya. Although a moment like that isn't really necessary - after all, it's not as if women who don't have holy-shit-balls-of-steel don't deserve love - I just felt myself wanted more from her, some sort of uniqueness/extraordinariness, to understand why she was the one that Jason fell in love with.

As for Jason, although we learn a lot about his past, and can infer that he has vulnerabilities, Jason is so strong and quiet that we only ever see his tiny glimpses of his vulnerabilities. Even at the end of the book, his behaviour continued to mask outward expression of these vulnerabilities. This is why I also have a problem when I try to understand why Jason is the one that Mahiya falls in love with. When Mahiya notes that she has had experience with other men, but that Jason was the only one that had ever engendered such feelings in her - but I couldn't quite understand how she could fall in love with such a closed book. Objectively, I can understand that this portrayal of Jason is likely intentional - part of his core character is his strength and quiet, so that even close observers will only ever see a peek of vulnerability. But subjectively, I wanted to get to know Jason better, to better understand how his words and actions were a product of his extraordinary history and circumstances.

The third aspect of a romance, besides the hero and heroine, is, of course, the relationship between them, and how it grows. Although I liked what developed, and how it developed, but I wanted just a little bit more. Jason and Mahiya's relationship at the end of the book is a little unsure, not set in stone; there are a lot of issues about how their relationship will work that are left unresolved.

The same is true for the plot development. I wanted just a little bit more. The unexpected parallels in power between Neha and Nivitri are a fascinating plot twist, and the war between the two factions is high-stakes, but I missed the sense of a gradual build-up towards the plot climax. The result is that the plot climax seems somewhat backgrounded, and less urgent than other (more satisfying) plot climaxes. The consequences of Neha and Nivitri's power parallels is also left unanswered, which left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied. One thing to note, however, is that this is not a stand-alone book. It's book 5 of a Nalini Singh series, and a Nalini Singh series is not a set of loosely connected books, but a set of books that are tightly interwoven in an overarching storyline. This means that I'm storing this vague sense of disatisfaction in a temporary holding space in my mind, because I have faith that Ms. Singh will address all of these things in later books - not just the unresolved consequences with respect to the plot, but also the further development of Jason and Mahiya's relationship.


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THOUGHTS on "A Hidden Fire" by Elizabeth Hunter

A Hidden Fire by Elizabeth Hunter
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed the first half of this book (it pulled me out of a reading slump), but the second half didn't live up to my expectations. I kept expecting the stakes to rise, or for the plot to kick it into high gear, but the climax of the book seemed rather simple and low-key to me. It mostly went off without a hitch. The post-climax (in Chile) was also a bit disappointing in that it didn't seem well-integrated into the overall structure of the book. I think it was supposed to (it also succeeded in) developing the relationship between the two main characters, but I felt like it was contrived solely for that purpose. I would have enjoyed it more if their developing relationship was more interwoven with the circumstances of the plot.

I also had a few issues with the characterization. In particular, other characters kept informing me that the heroine, B, was clever/smart, but I had trouble believing it since the evidence for their assertions seemed, to me, rather slim. There were instances where she was very composed under circumstance where we might expect a freak-out, but I don't equate composure with cleverness. We know she works in a library and are told she loves books, but again, being rather bookish myself, I'm fairly sure bookishness doesn't entail being smart. We are also shown circumstances where she shows a high degree of skill, but this wasn't presented in a way that made me think "oh wow, she IS smart." Bea seemed to present a normal degree of intelligence to me, which normally wouldn't bother me...except for the fact that other characters in the book kept telling me she was smart!

Another little thing that bothered me in the characterization is that Bea and Giovanni were very often smirking in circumstances where I didn't think smirks were warranted - smiles yes, but smirks no. Although maybe this is just a lexical quirk of mine, where 'smirk' indicates a derisive smile, and pretty much acts as an indication of someone finding humour in someone's (usually someone else's) unenviable circumstances. Since this is what 'smirk' evokes for me, it made the characters seem oddly derisive of each other, until started pretending that 'smirk' just meant 'smile.'

Overall, a good book, but I don't know if I'll read the next one. I actually had a hard time forcing myself through the "teaser" for the next book, I cared so little what was happening.



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THOUGHTS on: Gena Showalter's "Awaken Me Darkly"

Title: "Awaken Me Darkly"

Author: Gena Showalter

Series: Alien Huntress 001

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal/Science-fiction Romance

(Review written April 19th, 2011)

I've just finished reading Gena Showalter's "Awaken Me Darkly." It feels more like urban fantasy than paranormal romance to me (which is too bad because I picked it up craving some paranormal romance), given that it's written in first-person, which is characteristic of urban fantasy. However there's more emphasis on romance (or at least, more paragraphs dedicated to the romance) than what I noticed in urban fantasy series that I have previously read, like Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series, and Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series, etc.

Unfortunately, this novel doesn't work for me as either an urban romance or a paranormal romance. In short, I don't like it very much. As a warning, there are unmarked spoilers below, as I have used specific plot “twists” to illustrate some points.

First, I don't like the heroine, Mia Snow. A government-sanctioned alien hunter, Mia is pretty much a bigot when it comes to aliens. I almost stopped reading three pages in because she was so hateful. Although we are eventually given the reason for her racism, I still can't like her given that for the majority of the story, Mia never questions these prejudices, or acknowledges that circumstances in her history might have given her a skewed, less-than-rational view of aliens. This lack of doubt on her part suggests to me that she is either i) aware that she's a bigot, but too hateful to care, or ii) too stupid to realize that her views are bigoted. Not even when she finds out that she herself is half-alien do we see Mia spending much time questioning the validity of her (I assume by then, former) views. We don't see her feeling any guilt about having ruthlessly killed aliens, or any remorse for having bigoted views. Rather we see her being angry at her father for lying to her and “misleading” her into hating aliens. To me this indicates a serious inability or unwillingness to acknowledge her personal responsibility for her past actions/views.

This emotional immaturity is a facet of her character that I really dislike. While I'm sure Mia is supposed to be the typical "strong heroine" associated with urban fantasy, as she can kick physical ass, is ruthless as an alien hunter, and supposedly has an “indomitable will”, while reading I felt that Mia lacks mental/emotional strength. For example, when Mia first learns that she is half-alien, and that the murderer she was pursuing was her biological mother, we see Mia wanting to inwardly scream in defiance of the truth, and we also see several instances of her refusing to listen to the truth (eg. her screaming at Kyrin to shut up, cursing at him, slapping him, etc.). These repeated references of her unwillingness to face the truth[1] indicate an unjustified emotional immaturity. Now, Mia doesn't actually scream in defiance (usually), which I suppose might be meant to show that she has some sort of mental fortitude, but we're never shown her struggle with these issues. She just wants to scream at the unfairness of it all, but doesn't. So instead of seeing her as vulnerable, and overcoming her vulnerabilities through an admirable emotional strength, I got the sense that she was emotionally weak...and that her actions were completely disconnected from her emotions/internal state. In general, I thought that Mia screamed too much, either out loud, or silently. When a story is written from a first-person point of view, even though the screaming is silent, it's annoying.

As for her ruthlessness in hunting, which I expect was supposed to show her badassness, well...it troubled me greatly. In fact, it came off rather like power-tripping irresponsibility. Thus not only is Mia emotionally irresponsible regarding her own personal conduct, she is also irresponsible regarding the rights and personal welfare of others.

Exhibit A: The situation where Mia ordered all of the citizens, at what seemed to me like a peaceful protest, to be arrested.

Note that she herself had instigated the protest as a scheme to trap Kyrin, who also plays the role of her "love interest", for questioning in a serial murder case[2]. Mia never even tells her underlings on what grounds to arrest the citizens - and this is obviously because there are no grounds to arrest the citizens! It was just part of her ploy to make sure Kyrin did not escape her trap.

Ok, right. I'm sure this is an obvious point but: this completely tramples over the rights of the citizens that she is supposedly protecting! This, to me, shows that the heroine completely lacks a sense of responsibility towards the public she has supposedly sworn to defend. Her claims that she hunts aliens to protect humans is a lie. She hunts aliens because i) she's a bigot and therefore hates them, ii) she wants revenge because aliens killed her older brother, and iii) because she's trying to make her alien-hating father love her again. If Mia's ruthlessness actually stemmed from some honourable source, like wanting to protect the public, I may have been able to accept it (maybe...), but it doesn't. It stems from what I felt to be weaknesses in her character. For me, this would only be acceptable in a character if that character were the villain of a book, not the heroine.

Exhibit B: Mia's parroting of laws that are obviously ruthless and unjust - for example, any aliens involved with crime are to be eliminated/executed. They don't have to be guilty, they just have to be involved.

Now this is obviously a problematic law. If Mia were a child, I could understand how she could parrot these laws and not question them...but she isn't! Here I am in a similar situation as regards to her bigotry: I can't decide if this is an example of her ruthlessness - i.e., if she realizes these laws are wrong, but doesn't care, because it lets her kill more aliens, or if it's an example of stupidity, because she doesn't realize these laws are unjust. In either case, I care for Mia less and less.

For all of these reasons, I found it impossible to admire or like Mia. And thus I found it beyond annoying whenever I was told or shown that the majority of the characters in the book did admire and like her.

As for the hero, Kyrin? He could have been a computer for all I could tell. To me he seemed little more than a requisite plot device. Sure, he was described as powerful, beautiful, and given the requisite bad past to atone for. And I suppose the way he continually overrides Mia's free will with either i) physical binds (eg. tying her up) ii) a magical armband (which inflicts pain on her if she tries to escape his house), or iii) drugs, are indicative of the requisite domineering aspects we expect from an urban-fantasy alpha-hero[3]. But I never got a sense as to what his character was like. There is a part in the book where Mia describes what she has concluded about Kyrin's character, given the state of his home, but as we were told instead of shown these things, I didn't really buy it.

Needless to say, the romance didn't work at all for me. It was pretty much doomed since I didn't like either the hero or heroine, but even so, I didn't see them getting to know each other at all (I could refrain from making the actual joke about “know” in the biblical sense...) There was no sense in which I felt they complemented each other, or, actually enjoyed each others company.

So in short, this book didn't work for me as an urban fantasy, because what I look for in an urban fantasy is i) a strong heroine and ii) a good plot[4]. Nor did it work for me as a paranormal romance because what I look for in a romance is i) likeable heroines and heroes, and ii) scenes that show the hero and heroine are falling in love. I didn't find any of those in “Awaken me Darkly.”

Will I read another book by Gena Showalter? I think I would, if only because I think this is one of her earlier books. Perhaps she hadn't hit her stride yet. And I didn't read the book all that carefully - it may have been the case that the things above all jumped out at me, and I missed the significance of things that may have changed my mind about my assessment.

Prose: C (I wasn't too fond of the writing style - there was more telling than showing, I felt)

Plot: C (predictable, but not terrible)

Characters: F (...obviously, I did not like the characters)

World-building: C- (I wasn't very drawn in by the world, but I'm not big on aliens in the first place. And since this is the first in a series, maybe it gets fleshed out in later books.)

X-factor: n/a

-----------------------------------

[1] A truth, which really, she must have, or at least should have, suspected.

[2] When I say "a serial murder case," I should actually probably say "the serial murder case” since this murder case forms the backbone of the plot.

[3] Right, I haven't even voiced my opinion on how these actions by Kyrin are, to say the least, problematic. But that's because although now that I've listed them, I see objectively how problematic they are, but I didn't really care when they happened in the book. This is probably because I didn't (and still don't) buy Kyrin as an actual character, whom I might expect to have admirable characteristics.

[4] I haven't mentioned the plot above. Basically, I felt it was rather predictable. I saw it coming that i) she was half-alien, ii) Atlanna was her mother, and iii) that the brother Atlanna referred to would be Dare, and not Kane. But that may be because I've been reading quite a bit of Carol Berg recently, which has primed me to look out for plot twists. Although I must say, this is the first novel I've ever read where the heroine uses a poisoned whip to whip the villain to death.

...Also, there is a part where Mia tries to glean insight from an Atlantis myth, into the motivations of a suspect named Atlanna, purely because "Atlanna" sounds like "Atlantis". If that's representative of the type of police work that Mia uses to link suspects to crimes, the aforementioned laws are even more problematic than I thought.