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crankyoldnerd's review
5.0
Another great novel by Mr. Connolly.
Do you have one of those authors that when you read his or her book you wonder why in the hell they are not more successful and why hasn't everyone wanted to read this?
Mr. Connolly's novels have done that for me. I stumbled upon Child of Fire a few years back, and fell in love with the Twenty Palaces series that was a bummer of being cut short. Because of that I was following his social media and when he promoted his new 'The Way' series recently I participated on the Kickstarter and this was one of the rewards.
I'd have paid for it when it came out too, but was happy to read it.
This has nothing to do with his other series, but is just an excellent peek into yet another interpretation of magical use in the modern age. I really enjoy Mr. Connolly's creations when he creates these new 'rules' for magic in his work they are not too contrived or to burdensome. just enough mysticalsim to explain them naturally as part of the conversation but not be too in your face or too hidden.
This was one of those I had to finish once I started type of novels. Great characters, a nice twist and turn through the story, plenty of side stories all coming together at the end.
Left room for more too, which I'd gladly take :)
Do you have one of those authors that when you read his or her book you wonder why in the hell they are not more successful and why hasn't everyone wanted to read this?
Mr. Connolly's novels have done that for me. I stumbled upon Child of Fire a few years back, and fell in love with the Twenty Palaces series that was a bummer of being cut short. Because of that I was following his social media and when he promoted his new 'The Way' series recently I participated on the Kickstarter and this was one of the rewards.
I'd have paid for it when it came out too, but was happy to read it.
This has nothing to do with his other series, but is just an excellent peek into yet another interpretation of magical use in the modern age. I really enjoy Mr. Connolly's creations when he creates these new 'rules' for magic in his work they are not too contrived or to burdensome. just enough mysticalsim to explain them naturally as part of the conversation but not be too in your face or too hidden.
This was one of those I had to finish once I started type of novels. Great characters, a nice twist and turn through the story, plenty of side stories all coming together at the end.
Left room for more too, which I'd gladly take :)
elusivity's review
3.0
3.25 STARS
What is that ending?! Is it meant to be lighthearted? Horrifying?
A primarily simple story, featuring an older woman who is wily and powerful. The magical system is interesting: But I'm ultimately unsure what she is trying to accomplish. Or maybe, can anyone else accomplish what she is trying to, if they do not have what she has: an apparently endless amount of wealth and social connections? and magic?
Interesting plot, lots of cool ideas, but ultimately, not very deep. A fun ride though. Recommended.
What is that ending?! Is it meant to be lighthearted? Horrifying?
A primarily simple story, featuring an older woman who is wily and powerful. The magical system is interesting:
Spoiler
vampirism is a curse: victims become increasingly beautiful, but are stuck in time, cannot learn new things nor blend in; magic is based on confidence in order to manipulate nonexistence into existence, a kind of trickery; ghosts are people stuck in a repeating pattern, and are dangerous when their repetitive thoughts infect the living.Spoiler
She provides shelter to the vampires, knows how to deal with all the supernatural folks, humans vampire hunters, assassins, while refusing to kill anyone.Interesting plot, lots of cool ideas, but ultimately, not very deep. A fun ride though. Recommended.
kblincoln's review
4.0
I picked this up after listening to Connolly on the Nerd Book Report podcast being interviewed due to his SPFBO Finalist Novel. I first read his Twenty Palaces Urban Fantasy some years ago when the market wasn't quite inundated with male/action/UR and really enjoyed it.
This one he described on the podcast as being written in response to the idea that there aren't many middle aged women UF. And indeed, one of the overriding fun tropes of this book is how Marley Jacobs, a woman of a certain age who is trying to unravel the mystery of her unlikable nephew's death, is underestimated by all who encounter her. And also how she basically manages people by trying to be nice and calling them "dear."
So I was basically morally bound to pick this up. (same reason I picked up Catherine Lundoff's middle-aged werewolf woman novel, Silver Moon and enjoyed it).
So this take on Urban Fantasy is just about as entertaining as you'd expect. Marley is alternately soothing and crabby and satisfactorily clever. Her main foil is provided by a different nephew, an Afghanistan veteran who is learning the supernatural ropes from Marley. POV flip flops between Marley and Nephew with little or no warning, which is not my most favorite thing, but granted is an issue of personal taste.
As I found in Twenty Palaces, there are quite a few groups with skin in the game of the nephew's murder, causing me to sometimes forget who belonged to which group, as Connolly seems to enjoy complicated political tangles.
But there's quite a lot to be entertained by here besides the overall trope. Glad I rediscovered Connolly's books.
This one he described on the podcast as being written in response to the idea that there aren't many middle aged women UF. And indeed, one of the overriding fun tropes of this book is how Marley Jacobs, a woman of a certain age who is trying to unravel the mystery of her unlikable nephew's death, is underestimated by all who encounter her. And also how she basically manages people by trying to be nice and calling them "dear."
So I was basically morally bound to pick this up. (same reason I picked up Catherine Lundoff's middle-aged werewolf woman novel, Silver Moon and enjoyed it).
So this take on Urban Fantasy is just about as entertaining as you'd expect. Marley is alternately soothing and crabby and satisfactorily clever. Her main foil is provided by a different nephew, an Afghanistan veteran who is learning the supernatural ropes from Marley. POV flip flops between Marley and Nephew with little or no warning, which is not my most favorite thing, but granted is an issue of personal taste.
As I found in Twenty Palaces, there are quite a few groups with skin in the game of the nephew's murder, causing me to sometimes forget who belonged to which group, as Connolly seems to enjoy complicated political tangles.
But there's quite a lot to be entertained by here besides the overall trope. Glad I rediscovered Connolly's books.
dragoneyes451's review
Nope, this is a DNF for me. I didn't even get through the first chapter and already can't stand the main character. Not worth my time when I have much better things to read.
carrieclothwright's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
bibliochild's review
I picked this up because it was described as a supernatural Miss Marple. (It isn't but fans of that sort of thing would probably like it.) Urban fantasy needs more smart, eccentric old lady protagonists running around getting themselves into and out of trouble.
Too bad it isn't a series. ;)
Too bad it isn't a series. ;)
diane's review
3.0
Likes: an urban fantasy with a main character who's over 60 instead of 18 and wearing leather, a solid commitment to not solving everything with guns, having everyone run around Seattle. I especially liked Connolly's take on vampires.
Not so much: there are a TON of characters and it's hard to keep them all straight -- quick, is the band of young people the hippie environmentalists or the vampire slayers?
This might be too much a comment from another writer, but the POV shifts (sometimes 2 and 3 times in the same paragraph) began to drive me crazy.
The most annoying thing was that I had zero idea of just what it was Marley Jacobs could do. It seemed to be very plot-dependent. Her knowing the identity of the murderer and not telling anyone? Okay. Materializing things when necessary? Illusions? Mind reading? And the import of her parties is mentioned several times and never explained.
Albert's family: never explained. What exactly Albert knows about his aunt before page 1? No idea. Are they actually related? No clue.
Not so much: there are a TON of characters and it's hard to keep them all straight -- quick, is the band of young people the hippie environmentalists or the vampire slayers?
This might be too much a comment from another writer, but the POV shifts (sometimes 2 and 3 times in the same paragraph) began to drive me crazy.
The most annoying thing was that I had zero idea of just what it was Marley Jacobs could do. It seemed to be very plot-dependent. Her knowing the identity of the murderer and not telling anyone? Okay. Materializing things when necessary? Illusions? Mind reading? And the import of her parties is mentioned several times and never explained.
Albert's family: never explained. What exactly Albert knows about his aunt before page 1? No idea. Are they actually related? No clue.
familiar_diversions's review
2.0
[An old review I'm just now adding to GR.]
I bought this because I loved the idea of an urban fantasy starring a 60+ year old pacifist. At the start of this book, the eccentric and rich Marley Jacobs is holding a fundraiser at her house. Aloysius, her sleazy nephew, stops by and tries to convince her to give him a love potion so he can win back Jenny, his ex-girlfriend and Marley's current assistant. Marley has always found Aloysius to be tiresome, and now she's finally had enough. She forces him to see himself for who he really is. It seems like a change for the better, except she never sees him alive again.
Although she didn't particularly like Aloysius, Marley still wants to find out who killed him and why. For one thing, Jenny is being blamed for his murder, and Marley is convinced she didn't do it. For another, Marley is worried that her last words to Aloysius might have played a part in his death. With Albert, her nephew and Aloysius's half-brother, acting as her new assistant, she plans to figure out the truth and stop any more killings from happening in her city.
I'll start with the good. I'm really glad that a character like Marley exists. I can think of very few older female fantasy protagonists. Connolly only hinted at Marley's younger days, but I imagined her as being something like Buffy Summers, traditionally kick-butt and tough. Then things went really, really wrong, she was forced to rethink her entire way of life, and over the years she morphed into the Marley of this book. While her pacifism was sometimes frustrating, I admired her determination to never purposely hurt anyone. She didn't even bend this rule – there was no “by killing this one person, I can save thousands of lives” moment, even though there were certainly opportunities for it, and she wouldn't even let Albert kill or hurt anyone in her stead.
While Marley was nice, Marley and Albert together were even better. They had some fabulous dialogue. I loved watching Albert try to adjust to the idea that, even though he was an ex-soldier (his military career ended when his trigger finger was shot off), Marley honestly didn't want him to be her bodyguard or her muscle. She hired him primarily as her driver, her conversational companion, and her door opener, and that was it. The very first thing he had to learn, as Marley's assistant, was how to stand back, trust her, and let her do her thing. Although his fight-or-flight response was still in Afghanistan mode, he gradually got better at this.
Now for the bad. I hate to say this, but the story plodded a bit. The things that kept me reading were Marley and Albert's conversations and the occasional glimpses of how supernatural stuff worked in this world. I loved the part with the ghost, even though I wasn't fond of Marley's very broad definition of “ghost.” I also enjoyed the vampires, troll, and dragon (even though it was a little like something out of a Godzilla movie). The problem was that, after a while, I kept losing the thread of what Marley and Albert were trying to do. They'd visit one person, supernatural or otherwise, find out a little more about Aloysius's sleazy life, and then move on to the next person. There was no way to tell what was related to Aloysius's death and what wasn't, and Marley either played things close to her chest or didn't have much more of an idea about what she was doing than Albert did.
That leads me to Marley. I'm not sure what Connolly was trying to do with her. On the one hand, she clearly had tons of supernatural and magical knowledge, was acquainted with some amazing beings, and was so vastly wealthy that even her home burning down was more of an annoyance than anything. On the other hand, I was never sure whether her actions were prompted by her years of knowledge and experience, or whether she was just doing stuff because it felt right at the time. She'd do things like booby trap her own home or damage some random car, not because she had any evidence that her actions might be helpful, but because she just had a “feeling.” It got to the point where, in my mind, I read Marley's “feelings” as “authorial laziness,” and I hated them because I felt they robbed Marley of much of her potential awesomeness.
Then there were the other things that just didn't work. For example, there was the “moment” between Jenny and Albert that felt weirdly sudden (they'd literally just met, and Jenny was still twitchy over the possibility of accidentally running into Aloysius) and that never actually went anywhere. Then there was Scribe. Scribe was a terrible idea, and yet another pointless thing that could have been dropped from the story without hurting anything. I had the nagging suspicion that Scribe existed mostly to explain away any and all of the book's POV oddities.
The thing that really got me was the ending, in particular the last few sentences. It was like Connolly couldn't decide whether to end the book on a light note or a tragic one, so he decided to do both. I'm sure it was intended to be funny, but it just left me feeling angry. All I could think about was what would have to happen next. Either Marley would have to exist like that forever, or she'd have to wait for Albert to rescue her. Both options upset me, for different reasons.
I really, really liked certain aspects of this book, which was why it was so disappointing when others fell completely flat. I can still recommend this as being pleasantly outside the urban fantasy norm, but it could have been so much more amazing than it was. I'm still debating whether I want to try any of Connolly's other books.
Additional Comments:
I don't think there were more than a dozen typos, but they were all pretty distracting – usually missing words, or words that should have been taken out but weren't. In one instance, early on in the book, Marley was called “Marley Jacob” rather than “Marley Jacobs.” Also, I winced when Marley “plucked out a few locks” (200) of someone's hair. No. You can pluck a strand of hair, but you'll probably have to cut a lock of hair off, unless you plan on yanking out some of the person's scalp as well.
Rating Note:
I gave this 2.5 stars on LibraryThing and Booklikes. Since GR doesn't allow half stars, I rounded down to 2 stars because the bad aspects of this book were that disappointing. Even now, a couple years later, I'm still angry about the ending.
(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
I bought this because I loved the idea of an urban fantasy starring a 60+ year old pacifist. At the start of this book, the eccentric and rich Marley Jacobs is holding a fundraiser at her house. Aloysius, her sleazy nephew, stops by and tries to convince her to give him a love potion so he can win back Jenny, his ex-girlfriend and Marley's current assistant. Marley has always found Aloysius to be tiresome, and now she's finally had enough. She forces him to see himself for who he really is. It seems like a change for the better, except she never sees him alive again.
Although she didn't particularly like Aloysius, Marley still wants to find out who killed him and why. For one thing, Jenny is being blamed for his murder, and Marley is convinced she didn't do it. For another, Marley is worried that her last words to Aloysius might have played a part in his death. With Albert, her nephew and Aloysius's half-brother, acting as her new assistant, she plans to figure out the truth and stop any more killings from happening in her city.
I'll start with the good. I'm really glad that a character like Marley exists. I can think of very few older female fantasy protagonists. Connolly only hinted at Marley's younger days, but I imagined her as being something like Buffy Summers, traditionally kick-butt and tough. Then things went really, really wrong, she was forced to rethink her entire way of life, and over the years she morphed into the Marley of this book. While her pacifism was sometimes frustrating, I admired her determination to never purposely hurt anyone. She didn't even bend this rule – there was no “by killing this one person, I can save thousands of lives” moment, even though there were certainly opportunities for it, and she wouldn't even let Albert kill or hurt anyone in her stead.
While Marley was nice, Marley and Albert together were even better. They had some fabulous dialogue. I loved watching Albert try to adjust to the idea that, even though he was an ex-soldier (his military career ended when his trigger finger was shot off), Marley honestly didn't want him to be her bodyguard or her muscle. She hired him primarily as her driver, her conversational companion, and her door opener, and that was it. The very first thing he had to learn, as Marley's assistant, was how to stand back, trust her, and let her do her thing. Although his fight-or-flight response was still in Afghanistan mode, he gradually got better at this.
Now for the bad. I hate to say this, but the story plodded a bit. The things that kept me reading were Marley and Albert's conversations and the occasional glimpses of how supernatural stuff worked in this world. I loved the part with the ghost, even though I wasn't fond of Marley's very broad definition of “ghost.” I also enjoyed the vampires, troll, and dragon (even though it was a little like something out of a Godzilla movie). The problem was that, after a while, I kept losing the thread of what Marley and Albert were trying to do. They'd visit one person, supernatural or otherwise, find out a little more about Aloysius's sleazy life, and then move on to the next person. There was no way to tell what was related to Aloysius's death and what wasn't, and Marley either played things close to her chest or didn't have much more of an idea about what she was doing than Albert did.
That leads me to Marley. I'm not sure what Connolly was trying to do with her. On the one hand, she clearly had tons of supernatural and magical knowledge, was acquainted with some amazing beings, and was so vastly wealthy that even her home burning down was more of an annoyance than anything. On the other hand, I was never sure whether her actions were prompted by her years of knowledge and experience, or whether she was just doing stuff because it felt right at the time. She'd do things like booby trap her own home or damage some random car, not because she had any evidence that her actions might be helpful, but because she just had a “feeling.” It got to the point where, in my mind, I read Marley's “feelings” as “authorial laziness,” and I hated them because I felt they robbed Marley of much of her potential awesomeness.
Then there were the other things that just didn't work. For example, there was the “moment” between Jenny and Albert that felt weirdly sudden (they'd literally just met, and Jenny was still twitchy over the possibility of accidentally running into Aloysius) and that never actually went anywhere. Then there was Scribe. Scribe was a terrible idea, and yet another pointless thing that could have been dropped from the story without hurting anything. I had the nagging suspicion that Scribe existed mostly to explain away any and all of the book's POV oddities.
The thing that really got me was the ending, in particular the last few sentences. It was like Connolly couldn't decide whether to end the book on a light note or a tragic one, so he decided to do both. I'm sure it was intended to be funny, but it just left me feeling angry. All I could think about was what would have to happen next. Either Marley would have to exist like that forever, or she'd have to wait for Albert to rescue her. Both options upset me, for different reasons.
I really, really liked certain aspects of this book, which was why it was so disappointing when others fell completely flat. I can still recommend this as being pleasantly outside the urban fantasy norm, but it could have been so much more amazing than it was. I'm still debating whether I want to try any of Connolly's other books.
Additional Comments:
I don't think there were more than a dozen typos, but they were all pretty distracting – usually missing words, or words that should have been taken out but weren't. In one instance, early on in the book, Marley was called “Marley Jacob” rather than “Marley Jacobs.” Also, I winced when Marley “plucked out a few locks” (200) of someone's hair. No. You can pluck a strand of hair, but you'll probably have to cut a lock of hair off, unless you plan on yanking out some of the person's scalp as well.
Rating Note:
I gave this 2.5 stars on LibraryThing and Booklikes. Since GR doesn't allow half stars, I rounded down to 2 stars because the bad aspects of this book were that disappointing. Even now, a couple years later, I'm still angry about the ending.
(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)