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kejadlen's review against another edition
4.0
A fun read... not deep, but thoroughly enjoyable. Marla is indeed a badass sorcerer, and damned fun to read about.
amandelirium's review against another edition
3.0
Entertaining pulp where major magical battles took place only a few blocks from my house. I'd definitely pick up another in the series.
djinn_n_juice's review against another edition
3.0
Let me start off by saying this: Blood Engines is basically fluff. It is fast-paced, funny, hard-to-put-down . . . it's GOOD fluff.
I haven't read much urban fantasy, partially because so much of it looks like shite. But, I'd seen the books in the Marla Mason series around and found the cover art compelling. And, Pratt's agent is an agent I've sent a query to, so I thought I should give one of her authors a shot.
The idea is this: Marla Mason is a bad-ass sorceress who runs a city called. . . well, it starts with an F. She is currently in a modern-day San Francisco, seeking out an artifact. She's brought along her bisexual, wise-cracking homeboy, whose name I also can't remember. (I read this one a couple weeks ago. Cut me some slack.) But, local sorcerers are dropping like flies, and it looks like Marla is going to have to save the day. Along the way, she meets a pornomancer, a technomancer, a couple gods, and other cool characters, many of who die in mysterious ways because of a badguy named Mutinex, or something similar. Mutex? Mulex? Anyway.
I am confident I'll be tracking down book two in this series, and I have an inclination I'll be reading the whole series. So, I recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun, urban fantasy light read. This one is genuinely fun, and isn't shite.
I haven't read much urban fantasy, partially because so much of it looks like shite. But, I'd seen the books in the Marla Mason series around and found the cover art compelling. And, Pratt's agent is an agent I've sent a query to, so I thought I should give one of her authors a shot.
The idea is this: Marla Mason is a bad-ass sorceress who runs a city called. . . well, it starts with an F. She is currently in a modern-day San Francisco, seeking out an artifact. She's brought along her bisexual, wise-cracking homeboy, whose name I also can't remember. (I read this one a couple weeks ago. Cut me some slack.) But, local sorcerers are dropping like flies, and it looks like Marla is going to have to save the day. Along the way, she meets a pornomancer, a technomancer, a couple gods, and other cool characters, many of who die in mysterious ways because of a badguy named Mutinex, or something similar. Mutex? Mulex? Anyway.
I am confident I'll be tracking down book two in this series, and I have an inclination I'll be reading the whole series. So, I recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun, urban fantasy light read. This one is genuinely fun, and isn't shite.
ferrumage's review against another edition
Everyone who appeared was deeply amoral.
dellaporta's review against another edition
alexanderpaez's review against another edition
5.0
A mi TOP 5 de lecturas de 2013. Hacía tiempo que no disfrutaba tanto de una lectura. Probablemente no sea del gusto de muchos lectores, es fantasía urbana, y como tal, los personajes son anti-héroes, usan lenguaje soez... pero Pratt va mucho más allá y rompe muchísimos esquemas. Sus personajes son impresionantes y dotados de una personalidad apabullante. Desde hechiceras punks llenas de piercings y tatuajes y antropofagas, a pornomancers, biomancers, technomancers... Brutal lectura.
madgirl's review against another edition
5.0
Where has this series been all my life???
Sorceresses, sex clubs, San Francisco, and snark. I enjoy all of these things in my fiction. I don't even need a completely sympathetic narrator, because I like my characters flaws even if their flaws are being asses sometimes.
It's a bit weird for the first novel in a series to be an "away game" so to speak, and I admit that I really, really dug the SF setting here, so I'm hoping that it will be as good as the series moves back to Felport.
Also: great audiobook narration!
Sorceresses, sex clubs, San Francisco, and snark. I enjoy all of these things in my fiction. I don't even need a completely sympathetic narrator, because I like my characters flaws even if their flaws are being asses sometimes.
It's a bit weird for the first novel in a series to be an "away game" so to speak, and I admit that I really, really dug the SF setting here, so I'm hoping that it will be as good as the series moves back to Felport.
Also: great audiobook narration!
urban_mermaid's review against another edition
3.0
This is sort of the definition of a three star book. Nothing incredibly stellar, nothing terrible. I blew through this in a short time frame and it was a bit of pure escapism. Points for largely accurate portrayal of SF (except clean buses, WTF) but geographically speaking it was great. The different magical folks who run SF are all pastiches of people you have met if you live in SF.
dreamingdust's review against another edition
2.0
Perhaps the series gets better, but this is not a good start. The characters are bland and the author does not understand how to show rather than tell. Gave up after 2 chapters because there are better things to pass my time on than this mediocrity.
krisrid's review against another edition
2.0
I am not entirely sure how to review this. Ultimately, it didn't work for me, but others might really enjoy it as a particular type of paranormal fiction.
On the good side, there are some unique and unusual paranormal creatures - including some gods - peopleing the book. The storyline was gripping, and the writing was good. I always like strong female characters, and Marla is undeniably strong and independant.
But there was an overwhelming and unrelenting dark tone to the entire book that troubled me. There is a substantial amount of violence in the story, but on its own that wouldn't be an issue for me - when paranormals are fighting there's going to be a bloody skirmish or six and I'm fine with that, it goes with the territory. But there was nothing to offset the darkness or provide a sense of relief when things resolve in an appropriate way for the story. Instead of feeling a sense of closure at the end, I still felt drained and battered. There are also some aspects of this book that were just way past the level of disturbing and creepy that I'm okay with, which I won't specify to avoid spoilers, but suffice it to say, even for someone who reads a lot of paranormal fiction and is fairly open to creativity in the genre, some of the stuff in this book just made me go: "Ewwwwww!" For some that might be okay. For me it is a downer response to a book, and not what I'm looking for.
I also couldn't connect at all to Marla. While I understand and respect that she has some difficult, "rock-and-a-hard-place" decisions to make in the book, I was very troubled by her complete an total lack of any semblance of humanity, or concern about anything other than what she wanted. Given the plot of the book, I could live with difficult decisions, and messy choices being made. But I need to see SOME connection to other beings one interacts with, particularly when some of them care about you, and are trying to help you complete your mission. Instead, Marla reacts to everyone around her as nothing more than a tool, to be used, broken or discarded, as her requirements dictate. There are one or two very tiny suggestions that there may be a shred of humanity buried somewhere very deep inside Marla, but they were not enough to offset the coldness and ruthlessness that permeates this character. I need to be able to connect to a character, or at least relate to why they do the things they do, in order to really get into a book they live in. That wasn't possible for me with Marla.
Not necessarily a bad book, just the wrong book for my tastes.
On the good side, there are some unique and unusual paranormal creatures - including some gods - peopleing the book. The storyline was gripping, and the writing was good. I always like strong female characters, and Marla is undeniably strong and independant.
But there was an overwhelming and unrelenting dark tone to the entire book that troubled me. There is a substantial amount of violence in the story, but on its own that wouldn't be an issue for me - when paranormals are fighting there's going to be a bloody skirmish or six and I'm fine with that, it goes with the territory. But there was nothing to offset the darkness or provide a sense of relief when things resolve in an appropriate way for the story. Instead of feeling a sense of closure at the end, I still felt drained and battered. There are also some aspects of this book that were just way past the level of disturbing and creepy that I'm okay with, which I won't specify to avoid spoilers, but suffice it to say, even for someone who reads a lot of paranormal fiction and is fairly open to creativity in the genre, some of the stuff in this book just made me go: "Ewwwwww!" For some that might be okay. For me it is a downer response to a book, and not what I'm looking for.
I also couldn't connect at all to Marla. While I understand and respect that she has some difficult, "rock-and-a-hard-place" decisions to make in the book, I was very troubled by her complete an total lack of any semblance of humanity, or concern about anything other than what she wanted. Given the plot of the book, I could live with difficult decisions, and messy choices being made. But I need to see SOME connection to other beings one interacts with, particularly when some of them care about you, and are trying to help you complete your mission. Instead, Marla reacts to everyone around her as nothing more than a tool, to be used, broken or discarded, as her requirements dictate. There are one or two very tiny suggestions that there may be a shred of humanity buried somewhere very deep inside Marla, but they were not enough to offset the coldness and ruthlessness that permeates this character. I need to be able to connect to a character, or at least relate to why they do the things they do, in order to really get into a book they live in. That wasn't possible for me with Marla.
Not necessarily a bad book, just the wrong book for my tastes.