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kathydavie's review
4.0
Fourth in the Dirk & Steele paranormal romance series revolving around a detective agency of supernatural beings. The couple focus in "A Dream of Stone & Shadow" is on Aggie Durand and Charlie.
My Take
Geez, it starts out so exciting with lots of action, ramming cars, shooting out tires, and then we learn why Aggie and Quinn are after these people. That's one thing. Then to see Rujul and what he's been freed from…
Our introduction to Charlie is less action-oriented and not quite as gruesome, as long as you don't mind a touch of the Hannibal Lecter and his food choices.
Interesting angle on the purpose of gargoyles, and so sad about their reasons for stopping. I guess you can only take so many centuries of ingratitude and being hunted down before you withdraw.
Damn, the witch catches Charlie, but she does raise an interesting idea. One I don't like, but it does make sense of why some people are so incredibly, horribly cruel and vicious.
It's not one of Liu's best, but it does make my heart go pitter-pat with its big-hearted people and their determination. It's almost cozy in spite of what Aggie and Quinn are hunting, and it's that stony gargoyle who makes it so cozy.
The Story
Dirk & Steele are focusing on child porn rings, and Agatha and Quinn have been on a stake-out for an expected meeting. The aftermath has Roland demanding that they take a break. Have sex with each other. Quinn reckons he’s cool with that…
But Aggie’s passion finds a different outlet, pulling Charlie to her — she’s what he needs to free Emma.
The Characters
Aggie Durand is a pre-cog and can see the future, and it's not always pretty. Her parents live in a small town in Idaho where Dad is a lawyer.
Quinn Dougal is telekinetic and a crack shot. He's also Aggie's partner at Dirk & Steele.
Dirk & Steele is…
…a private detective agency of supernatural people whose focus is on doing good. Roland Dirk is the boss, a clairvoyant with the ability to read your mind over the phone. Dean; Koni; Amiri, a shapeshifting cheetah from Kenya; and, Rik are more of them.
Charlie and his three brothers are gargoyles imprisoned by a witch. Gargoyles were created to be demon hunters back at the dawn of humans.
Emma is the ten-year-old the Kreers are currently abusing. Rujul is the twelve-year-old they rescue.
Special Agent Warwick was in on the Yarns bust, and he shows up later as well.
David Yarns is an international child smuggler and films pornographic video with children.
Mrs. Kreer and her son, Andrew, are pillars of the community. They also kill mothers and kidnap their children to use them in child pornography. Sarah??
The Cover
The cover is shades of blue as a dream-like landscape of a stone domed folly reached via a flight of stone stairs flanked by a stone balustrade and urns as newel posts reach up to another urn on a plinth. Fog shrouds the ground and rises up to reach the full moon, a raven waiting, perched on a stone railing that surrounds the folly. Pink pushes the title and author's name to the fore.
The title is what Charlie is, "A Dream of Stone & Shadow".
My Take
Geez, it starts out so exciting with lots of action, ramming cars, shooting out tires, and then we learn why Aggie and Quinn are after these people. That's one thing. Then to see Rujul and what he's been freed from…
Our introduction to Charlie is less action-oriented and not quite as gruesome, as long as you don't mind a touch of the Hannibal Lecter and his food choices.
Interesting angle on the purpose of gargoyles, and so sad about their reasons for stopping. I guess you can only take so many centuries of ingratitude and being hunted down before you withdraw.
"I can't believe this. I just had a public orgy with a disembodied gargoyle."
Damn, the witch catches Charlie, but she does raise an interesting idea. One I don't like, but it does make sense of why some people are so incredibly, horribly cruel and vicious.
"My father once said that it's our inability to change the past that helps us make better futures."
It's not one of Liu's best, but it does make my heart go pitter-pat with its big-hearted people and their determination. It's almost cozy in spite of what Aggie and Quinn are hunting, and it's that stony gargoyle who makes it so cozy.
"Hearts go blind. … it takes courage to help others."
The Story
Dirk & Steele are focusing on child porn rings, and Agatha and Quinn have been on a stake-out for an expected meeting. The aftermath has Roland demanding that they take a break. Have sex with each other. Quinn reckons he’s cool with that…
But Aggie’s passion finds a different outlet, pulling Charlie to her — she’s what he needs to free Emma.
The Characters
Aggie Durand is a pre-cog and can see the future, and it's not always pretty. Her parents live in a small town in Idaho where Dad is a lawyer.
Quinn Dougal is telekinetic and a crack shot. He's also Aggie's partner at Dirk & Steele.
Dirk & Steele is…
…a private detective agency of supernatural people whose focus is on doing good. Roland Dirk is the boss, a clairvoyant with the ability to read your mind over the phone. Dean; Koni; Amiri, a shapeshifting cheetah from Kenya; and, Rik are more of them.
Charlie and his three brothers are gargoyles imprisoned by a witch. Gargoyles were created to be demon hunters back at the dawn of humans.
Emma is the ten-year-old the Kreers are currently abusing. Rujul is the twelve-year-old they rescue.
Special Agent Warwick was in on the Yarns bust, and he shows up later as well.
David Yarns is an international child smuggler and films pornographic video with children.
Mrs. Kreer and her son, Andrew, are pillars of the community. They also kill mothers and kidnap their children to use them in child pornography. Sarah??
The Cover
The cover is shades of blue as a dream-like landscape of a stone domed folly reached via a flight of stone stairs flanked by a stone balustrade and urns as newel posts reach up to another urn on a plinth. Fog shrouds the ground and rises up to reach the full moon, a raven waiting, perched on a stone railing that surrounds the folly. Pink pushes the title and author's name to the fore.
The title is what Charlie is, "A Dream of Stone & Shadow".
sarahc_98's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
amyiw's review
5.0
re-read April 2014
This was my first read of Majorie M. Liu. It came in [b:Dark Dreamers (Dark, #7b)|156295|Dark Dreamers (Dark, #7b) (Dirk & Steele, #4)|Christine Feehan|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1308958426s/156295.jpg|478365] as a duology with a story from Christine Feehan's Carpathians series. I liked this story so much that I wanted more gargoyles and decided to read more of Dirk & Steele, I was impressed with both the first and second book but really disliked the 3rd. I decided to re-read the first book since I read them originally in either 2010 or 2011 just to make sure I didn't misjudge the series. I found I liked Tiger Eye better the 2nd time and A Dream of smoke and Shodow still is one of my top novellas.
This was my first read of Majorie M. Liu. It came in [b:Dark Dreamers (Dark, #7b)|156295|Dark Dreamers (Dark, #7b) (Dirk & Steele, #4)|Christine Feehan|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1308958426s/156295.jpg|478365] as a duology with a story from Christine Feehan's Carpathians series. I liked this story so much that I wanted more gargoyles and decided to read more of Dirk & Steele, I was impressed with both the first and second book but really disliked the 3rd. I decided to re-read the first book since I read them originally in either 2010 or 2011 just to make sure I didn't misjudge the series. I found I liked Tiger Eye better the 2nd time and A Dream of smoke and Shodow still is one of my top novellas.
tempscire's review
1.0
I'm not marking spoilers because the plot points I discuss are predictable as hell in the first place. FYI.
I tried. I gave another shot to the Dirk & Steele series because ooh, a gargoyle (thanks, 90s childhood! You know exactly what I mean.) but this novella had all the same dumb things that drove me crazy in Tiger Eye. I just can't with instant-love, for one thing, nor the way the characters are all about Forever! after no time at all. Other parallels to the couple from Tiger Eye: male lead trapped by magic-user; male lead with tri-colored hair (!!! Is this an author kink?
Plot-wise, cribbing from one of my status updates: You know, this little girl is being repeatedly raped to produce child porn, and Charlie has found people who could help but doesn't think they're good enough because he wants to find someone who loves the little girl, too. WHAT THE FUCK kind of "hero"/protagonist is that? It feels like the schmaltzy sappy kind of thing that the first editor to glance this way should slap the author for not thinking about more than half a second. "Okay, I see that he loves this little girl, but...shouldn't he show that by rescuing her by any means?"
Ah, another goodie: "That's a patronizing hotel. But I guess someone has to try telling the reader how Aggie is being totes brave by walking around people-watching Glasgow at all hours for a month. And I'm sure that a nice hotel in a major city had neeeever had young lady guests do such crazy things before! Heroine so speshul." I know there are a lot of arguments about the concept and definition of "Mary Sue" characters, but seriously, 2 for 2 with Liu's romantic heroines.
You know, why are romantic leads always so samey? You can't set people up as the best, truest, loveliest, etc in a series where every book's heroine is, in the scope of that plot, the best, truest, etc. What makes them the best for that one love interest? Who knows, they've already fallen into infinite love that surpasses all loves in the span of two days. (And no, I don't consider willingness to blow a tiger or find a humanish gargoyle attractive to be stunningly unique qualities.)
I tried. I gave another shot to the Dirk & Steele series because ooh, a gargoyle (thanks, 90s childhood! You know exactly what I mean.) but this novella had all the same dumb things that drove me crazy in Tiger Eye. I just can't with instant-love, for one thing, nor the way the characters are all about Forever! after no time at all. Other parallels to the couple from Tiger Eye: male lead trapped by magic-user; male lead with tri-colored hair (!!! Is this an author kink?
Plot-wise, cribbing from one of my status updates: You know, this little girl is being repeatedly raped to produce child porn, and Charlie has found people who could help but doesn't think they're good enough because he wants to find someone who loves the little girl, too. WHAT THE FUCK kind of "hero"/protagonist is that? It feels like the schmaltzy sappy kind of thing that the first editor to glance this way should slap the author for not thinking about more than half a second. "Okay, I see that he loves this little girl, but...shouldn't he show that by rescuing her by any means?"
Ah, another goodie: "That's a patronizing hotel. But I guess someone has to try telling the reader how Aggie is being totes brave by walking around people-watching Glasgow at all hours for a month. And I'm sure that a nice hotel in a major city had neeeever had young lady guests do such crazy things before! Heroine so speshul." I know there are a lot of arguments about the concept and definition of "Mary Sue" characters, but seriously, 2 for 2 with Liu's romantic heroines.
You know, why are romantic leads always so samey? You can't set people up as the best, truest, loveliest, etc in a series where every book's heroine is, in the scope of that plot, the best, truest, etc. What makes them the best for that one love interest? Who knows, they've already fallen into infinite love that surpasses all loves in the span of two days. (And no, I don't consider willingness to blow a tiger or find a humanish gargoyle attractive to be stunningly unique qualities.)
mousegoddess's review
5.0
Oh LORDY but this one was fantastic. It had a lot of elements of traditional fairy tales and folklore, SO MANY. The story was told fantastically well, and while things came to a wonderful resolution I just wanted it to go on and on. I like the Dirk&Steele series and plan on continuing to read it, but at this moment I find it hard to believe that any of them will live up to this story. Perhaps it's not fair to judge them by this story, because it has such a different tone. I was blown away.
rienne's review
4.0
3.5: um, how did I not know that Marjorie Liu has an entire fantasy/paranormal romance series?
This was a novella, so of course it was full of insta-lust, but also, I've decided that any book that actively engages with racism (hello, protagonist of color who mentions, by name, the white supremacists she grew up surrounded by!) automatically gets, like, 500 bonus points, which pretty much outweigh any and all plot development issues.
Also, Liu's writing is just so good. It flows so, so smoothly--it's a joy to read for that alone.
This was a novella, so of course it was full of insta-lust, but also, I've decided that any book that actively engages with racism (hello, protagonist of color who mentions, by name, the white supremacists she grew up surrounded by!) automatically gets, like, 500 bonus points, which pretty much outweigh any and all plot development issues.
Also, Liu's writing is just so good. It flows so, so smoothly--it's a joy to read for that alone.
pauliree's review
3.0
Very quick little read and the only reason I gave it 3 stars instead of the usual 4 that Marjorie normally earns is that because it was only a novella the protagonists were not as complex therefore not as loveable. Charlie is a wonderful character but I am enjoying reading about his brother Lannes in the next one better
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