Book review: The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

I started playing in a Steampunk tabletop game a few months ago, and while I'm somewhat familiar with Steampunk culture I thought reading a bit more about common technologies and society structure couldn't hurt. It was research of a sort, but the most fun kind! And hey, I found the book for 60% off when Borders was going out of business, so even if it wasn't that good it wasn't a big loss.

As the The Girl in the Steel Corset was categorized as a teen novel, I didn't have very high expectations and thought it would be an easy read. But the book pleasantly surprised me in how GOOD it was! The characters of the novel are all teens, and have the required amount of teen angst, but not the excessive Twilight kind. I smiled at the angst rather than rolling my eyes (or wanting to claw them out). The story also found a way to pull in many classics of Victorian science fiction, as well as tidbits of Victorian history, in a very non-cheesy way. The parents of of the main characters made a journey to the center of the earth - but the focus was more on what was found there and how those items could be used, rather than the journey itself. There was the prerequisite inclusion of automatons, but it wasn't excessive. Psychic abilities and ghosts are explained in a simple way, but a logical one.

The story took so many of the things I love about the Steampunk phenomena (strong women, steamcycles, chivalrous romance, and alternative science) as well as some of the things I usually don't like (mechanical limbs, dreadlocked girls, Queen Victoria herself, and gunslingers) and combined them in such a way that I liked everything. In fact, the only drawback to the book is that is the first of a series...and the only one published thus far.

So great job, Kady Cross! PLEASE keep them coming!

Book Review: A Rush of Wings by Adrian Phoenix

So...vampire books are very popular these days. And vampire novels with other supernatural creatures? Oh boy! Blame it on Twilight, blame it on True Blood (or even the much better books that inspired the series - the Sookie Stackhouse series), or even blame it the smut that actually used to be vampire/supernatural novels, the Anita Blake books. Whatever reason you choose to believe, more and more supernatural and vampire novels are hitting the shelves of bookstores.

A Rush of Wings seemed like an interesting story - FBI agent tracking a serial killer gets pulled into the underworld of vampires, hardly believing what is happening around. Buuuuuutt....while the story was interesting, it was definitely not in a way I liked.

First, there was the constant use of other languages. I speak French, so the lack of translation there was not a problem for me. The Hebrew, however, was a problem. The author decided to weave in some mythology regarding angels and use Hebrew (or maybe even Aramaic? Heck if I know) words to describe the different kinds of angels and companions. Don't get me wrong, angel mythology and nephilim fascinate me, but introducing the plotline halfway into the story out of nowhere just makes things jumbled. Overly dramatic, even. It helped to resolve the plot in some ways, and left the book open for a sequel, but I think it could have been woven in more smoothly.

The characters, subject matter, and plot of the book are all very dark. I fully believe vampires should live in the dark and are not sparkly. But I can also freely admit my wimpiness and not want to read about how exciting and erotic serial killers find killing people. Or just how much that rockstar likes his drugs. I get it, both happen in the real world. But books are my escape from the real world, so I don't want to read about things that upset me there.

All in all, the book was good. I got through it in like a week, reading 2-3 hours a day. But I plan to pass it along to one of my geeky gal friends rather than keep it.