Monday Musings: Reviews, Lorehaven, and Writing Updates
The title seems like a lot, but I'll try to keep it tidy.
First off, I finished reading a book for the first time in almost a month. Second, I completely missed a (couple of) review(s) at the end of March. Bad me.
Anyway, here's to catching up.
This collects two shorter stories following Hellboy's departure from the BPRD in volume 5. The first follows Hellboy's encounter with a trip of mermaids, who strike deals with a sea witch to gain their revenge on our hero. Needless to say, it doesn't end well for them. There's some really great heart in this story as there usually is in Mignola's stories. The other story follows in the aftermath of the first and features the return of Hecate, queen of witches. She tries to convince Hellboy to embrace his destiny. Again. As usual, he'll have none of it, though the epilogue makes it clear that he's going to have to face that destiny one way or another.
(I also read the first volume of The Wicked + The Divine but as it was basically a prolonged story featuring the elements I least admired in Sandman, I won't be reviewing it or continuing with the series. The art is well done, but I didn't care for the story.)
The first installment in Seanan McGuire's October Daye series, Rosemary and Rue gets off to a flying start by introducing half-Fae PI Toby Daye, who is currently missing time with her fiancé and young daughter to track down the people responsible for kidnapping her liege's wife and daughter. She finds the suspected villains, only to get herself cursed and turned into a fish. For fourteen years.
Jump ahead to the story's present day. Life isn't very sweet for someone who disappeared for over a decade. Toby's having trouble adjusting to life outside the pond. She won't see her contacts in Faerie. Her fellow changelings (half-Fae) can't seem to connect with her. Her daughter refuses to see her. And since she was legally declared dead, getting herself solid work is a trifle difficult.
To make things worse, one of her former frenemies from Faerie, Evening Winterrose, leaves a voicemail containing a death curse: a curse that traps Toby on the path to find out who killed Evening and why.
Toby's getting pulled back into Faerie whether she likes it or not.
This is a promising start to an urban fantasy mystery series (I confess that Dresden Files is my only real comparison, but I stand by my statement). It has action, world-building, strong characters, and plenty of setup for later books (in the form of relationships of all kinds, debts owed, and mysteries yet unsolved).
My biggest drawback is that the prologue is so disconnected from the rest of the novel's plot. The conflict (the liege's kidnapped family) is defused during Toby's absence, and the question of who kidnapped them remains unanswered (though it's teased this will become part of the larger story at play).
Likewise, Toby misses fourteen years of life with her daughter, Gilly, and only talks about this loss twice in the whole book (once when she catches us up to what life is like now, and once when it's relevant to the plot).
As a parent, I had a hard time with this seeming disconnect. Yes, Toby's facing assassins and a death curse and all kinds of complications (like a love pentagon). But I found it hard to believe that her loss of that time wouldn't be one of the things that weighed heaviest on her afterward. Especially with the loving and playful family dynamic McGuire introduces in the prologue. I wanted an entire novel of the prologue's set-up plot. It was gripping and endearing.
In the end, though, I was at least satisfied with the story McGuire told and will continue reading the series. (By the way, if you've read more of the October Daye series, I'd love to talk about it (as spoiler-free as possible, of course). I really want to know if we get more fallout from the prologue.)
If you haven't caught wind of this elsewhere, I'm on the editorial staff of a new webzine called Lorehaven. Our mission is to connect readers to Christian speculative fiction, whether it's sci-fi, fantasy, horror, or anything in between. The magazine features reviews of the latest books in the genre, interviews with authors, tips for starting and running a local book club, and more. Issue 1 goes live today at www.lorehaven.com.
Albion Apparent is still in the editing stages. I'm applying all the feedback from my beta readers and getting it into the best shape I can before sending it to the publisher. Then we'll begin that process.
I've been doing a poem-a-day challenge in April, something a friend of mine introduced me to several years back. It's been good to try my hand at poetry again. The bug hits every year or two, and it's nice to express myself a little differently than is my wont. (If you're interested in reading this month's poems, just let me know.)
I've also written a short story for inclusion in a collection one of my local writing groups is putting together. If you want to beta this story, let me know in the comments. (My other writing group is also doing a collection, so I'll be putting together another story for that and opening it for beta once it's finished.)
First off, I finished reading a book for the first time in almost a month. Second, I completely missed a (couple of) review(s) at the end of March. Bad me.
Anyway, here's to catching up.
Reviews
Hellboy Vol. 6
This collects two shorter stories following Hellboy's departure from the BPRD in volume 5. The first follows Hellboy's encounter with a trip of mermaids, who strike deals with a sea witch to gain their revenge on our hero. Needless to say, it doesn't end well for them. There's some really great heart in this story as there usually is in Mignola's stories. The other story follows in the aftermath of the first and features the return of Hecate, queen of witches. She tries to convince Hellboy to embrace his destiny. Again. As usual, he'll have none of it, though the epilogue makes it clear that he's going to have to face that destiny one way or another.
(I also read the first volume of The Wicked + The Divine but as it was basically a prolonged story featuring the elements I least admired in Sandman, I won't be reviewing it or continuing with the series. The art is well done, but I didn't care for the story.)
Rosemary and Rue
The first installment in Seanan McGuire's October Daye series, Rosemary and Rue gets off to a flying start by introducing half-Fae PI Toby Daye, who is currently missing time with her fiancé and young daughter to track down the people responsible for kidnapping her liege's wife and daughter. She finds the suspected villains, only to get herself cursed and turned into a fish. For fourteen years.
Jump ahead to the story's present day. Life isn't very sweet for someone who disappeared for over a decade. Toby's having trouble adjusting to life outside the pond. She won't see her contacts in Faerie. Her fellow changelings (half-Fae) can't seem to connect with her. Her daughter refuses to see her. And since she was legally declared dead, getting herself solid work is a trifle difficult.
To make things worse, one of her former frenemies from Faerie, Evening Winterrose, leaves a voicemail containing a death curse: a curse that traps Toby on the path to find out who killed Evening and why.
Toby's getting pulled back into Faerie whether she likes it or not.
This is a promising start to an urban fantasy mystery series (I confess that Dresden Files is my only real comparison, but I stand by my statement). It has action, world-building, strong characters, and plenty of setup for later books (in the form of relationships of all kinds, debts owed, and mysteries yet unsolved).
My biggest drawback is that the prologue is so disconnected from the rest of the novel's plot. The conflict (the liege's kidnapped family) is defused during Toby's absence, and the question of who kidnapped them remains unanswered (though it's teased this will become part of the larger story at play).
Likewise, Toby misses fourteen years of life with her daughter, Gilly, and only talks about this loss twice in the whole book (once when she catches us up to what life is like now, and once when it's relevant to the plot).
As a parent, I had a hard time with this seeming disconnect. Yes, Toby's facing assassins and a death curse and all kinds of complications (like a love pentagon). But I found it hard to believe that her loss of that time wouldn't be one of the things that weighed heaviest on her afterward. Especially with the loving and playful family dynamic McGuire introduces in the prologue. I wanted an entire novel of the prologue's set-up plot. It was gripping and endearing.
In the end, though, I was at least satisfied with the story McGuire told and will continue reading the series. (By the way, if you've read more of the October Daye series, I'd love to talk about it (as spoiler-free as possible, of course). I really want to know if we get more fallout from the prologue.)
Lorehaven
If you haven't caught wind of this elsewhere, I'm on the editorial staff of a new webzine called Lorehaven. Our mission is to connect readers to Christian speculative fiction, whether it's sci-fi, fantasy, horror, or anything in between. The magazine features reviews of the latest books in the genre, interviews with authors, tips for starting and running a local book club, and more. Issue 1 goes live today at www.lorehaven.com.
Writing Update
I realize it's been a long while since I did a snippets post or even a general update on writing. I've not been entirely idle in that time. I just haven't had a lot to share with you. But here's where I stand.Albion Apparent is still in the editing stages. I'm applying all the feedback from my beta readers and getting it into the best shape I can before sending it to the publisher. Then we'll begin that process.
I've been doing a poem-a-day challenge in April, something a friend of mine introduced me to several years back. It's been good to try my hand at poetry again. The bug hits every year or two, and it's nice to express myself a little differently than is my wont. (If you're interested in reading this month's poems, just let me know.)
I've also written a short story for inclusion in a collection one of my local writing groups is putting together. If you want to beta this story, let me know in the comments. (My other writing group is also doing a collection, so I'll be putting together another story for that and opening it for beta once it's finished.)
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