Donna Maree Hanson, Author and PhD Candidate

I had a number of reviews up on Specusphere this month.
Walking the Tree by Kaaron Warren
Small Moon’s Arms by Nalo Hopkinson
Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson
and A Thousand Sons by Graham McNeil

Check out here http://www.specusphere.com/joomla/index.php

To see these.

I also wrote a review of Gail Carriger’s Souless, Changeless and Blameless. Unfortunately due to some confusion my review wasn’t needed for the site and I am too lazy to go looking for an alternative review home. So I thought I’d post it here rather than waste it.

Looks like I did a lot of reading and reviewing rather than writing last month.
Soulless ISBN 9780316056632
Changeless ISBN 9780316074148
Blameless ISBN 9780316074155
By Gail Carriger
Orbit Books
Gail Carriger brings a lot of fun to the fore with the first three books in The Parasol Protectorate series. This is paranormal romance set in an alternate Victorian England, complete with corsets, manners, lots of cups of tea and a parasol. Enter with steampunk influences, werewolves and vampires, who live openly with humans, and you have an addictive setting. Ghosts hang around near their dead bodies and interact with humans. In fact, the prosperity of Great Britain seems to be owed to these supernatural creatures. Ghosts can make good spies, for instance. Carriger’s witty dialogue and penchant for humour carries this series off, perfectly well.
Soulless
Alexisia Tarabotti is a spinster, living at home with her mother, step sisters and step father. Her real father was an Italian so she has a dark complexion, an unfashionable nose, is buxom and has an ample behind. Combined these awful characteristics leave her entirely unsuitable for marriage. Then there is the fact she has no soul, which makes her an anathema to the supernatural. Her touch can stop a werewolf turning and make a vampire human again.
Enter Lord Maccon, big, tall, handsome, gentry and a werewolf besides. Here the sparks fly as attraction battles life threatening attacks, strange automatons bent on kidnap and Lord Maccon’s temper, to which Alexia seems able to match. The wooing begins, with clandestine meetings, improper touching (including searing kisses) and mother hysterics.

To this rich tableau Carriger adds colourful characters, such as Lord Akeldama, a rather gay member of the beau monde, who leaps off the page with drama, flamboyant clothes and vampire fangs.
The Victorian England in Carriger’s books is convincing enough to be fun, but may not assuage the grumbles of the purists. Carriger is half-English, so I think she has the tea consumption down tight. While the language endeavours to be period, there are a few present day colloquialisms interspersed throughout to raise the eyebrows. However, as the work is so much fun, these little flaws are barely noticeable and do not detract from the overall effect. If you love Austen, period romance or a good paranormal fantasy then Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate is going to set you on fire.
Soulless was a lot of fun to read, so good in fact that Changeless was soon devoured in a similar fashion.

Changeless
Changeless of course, picks up where Soulless leaves off. More interesting characters are introduced, including a female French inventor, who dresses like a man, talks to ghosts and has a passion for pretty young French maids.
The steampunk elements evolve further and so too does the exploration of what makes a werewolf and a vampire and Carriger has her own little variances on the tropes that work well within the story. There is more exploration of what it is like to live with a werewolf pack too, including more than a pinch of sex and male nudity.

Alexia is an alpha female, not a werewolf mind you, but she does know how to throw her weight or parasol around to get overzealous males and werewolves to pay attention. She’s a member of the Shadow Council, where Queen Victoria deals with the supernatural concerns of her kingdom.

While there are intrigues in Scotland, there is also someone trying to kill Alexia. Egyptian artefacts also put in an appearance as well as some Scottish clan infighting to spread the action thickly around.
Changeless ends on such an emotional punch, it was lucky that Blameless was right there beside me to continue on as I experienced something very much akin to shock at the latter developments.
Blameless
It is difficult to discuss Blameless without sprinkling it with too many spoilers. Needless to say the ending of Changeless drives the opening of Blameless, such that Alexia goes to France and encounters more people (or supernaturals) bent on killing her as well as Knights Templars, who could be saviours or captors, depending on their mood.

Whacky machinery follows Alexia around, usually for lethal purposes, such that even her souped up parasol is exhausted. Further information comes to light on what kind of man her father was and what being soulless really means. Meanwhile, there are happenings afoot in London, kidnapping, disappearances, transformations of an unwelcome kind and some humble pie from Lord Maccon.

Overall a very satisfying read over the three books.

Save yourself time and angst and buy all three books at once. You’ll regret it otherwise.

http://www.gailcarriger.com/