Tag Archives: paranormal

Literary Review: Timeless by Gail Carriger

Title: Timeless
Author: Gail Carriger
Series: Book Five
Format: Paperback

Up until this point most of the action has stuck around the England area… with a quick trip to Scotland. Now the action has gone even further… towards Egypt or more specifically: Alexandria the home of the oldest vampire hove in the world at that time. Its queen has requested the presence of Lady Maccon and her precious (and precocious) daughter Prudence… whom is now categorized as a “metanatural” essentially a being that within proximity of a supernatural would steal that particular supernatural’s powers turning them temporarily human and Prudence temporarily supernatural. This little conundrum provides some very comedic sequences throughout the novel as little Prudence isn’t entirely aware of her own abilities when she becomes supernatural.

In fact the book opens up with the Maccons getting ready for the theatre and little Prudence is going through “Bath Night” with the drones and Lord Akeldama and just that first sequence gives the reader a very good idea of how life is now that Prudence has come into the world… heaven forbid that Lord and Lady Maccon would produce a docile child.

Although a fair amount of the focus is on Lord and Lady Maccon and their trip to Alexandria there is indeed a secondary storyline that was building in the sidelines that I found myself skipping through Lord and Lady Maccon just to see how this secondary storyline would pan out.
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Literary Review: Heartless by Gail Carriger

Title: Heartless
Author: Gail Carriger
Series: Book Four
Format: Paperback

So this is it, the fourth book in the series… finally. Originally I was going to wait until I was able to get the audiobook for the final two books of this series… but considering when my overseas trip popped up I thought it best to just purchase the series (seeing as that I wold most likely read the series at another time again) and I would find time to read the final two books either on the flights or while galvating through the streets.

First thing’s first… in this fourth book in the series we are brought into a conundrum of sorts whereas the little “infant-inconvenience” is furthering inconveniencing her parents by being a prime target of murder/assassinations by the vampire hive in residence (though they would never formally admit that).

So how to rectify that particular situation? Professor Lyall once again proves his meddle by providing the most elegant solution at the moment: Have Alexia’s closest vampire friend Lord Akledama adopt the little “infant-inconvenience” while in the meantime Lord and Lady Maccon would take of residence in the townhouse next door for appearances.

Ok, they will take up residence next door for appearance and name only… in fact they will reside in Lord Akledama’s second-best closet within his own townhouse. Say what? Needless to say, Alexia was not pleased that the three men most important to her and her child’s wellbeing went behind her back and planned her situation for her. But what can she do?

Being eight months along in her pregnancy hasn’t stopped her from continuing on her escapades through the streets of London going so far as to call upon the aid of one Ivy Hisselpenny now Ivy Tunstell who is also expecting.

But why? In this case, a ghost appeared in the presense of one Lord and Lady Maccon to warn her of a plot to assassinate the queen. Which is where a lot of the plot revolves around.
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Literary Review: Blameless by Gail Carriger

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Title: Blameless
Author: Gail Carriger
Series: Book Three
Format: Audiobook

Technically, I listened to this audiobook a few weeks ago, I have just been so damn busy lately with theatre that I haven’t had the chance to write my thoughts about this particular book in the series. Ah well, better late than never. 🙂

If you’re curious, this is the third in the five book series:
– Book 1: Soulless
– Book 2: Changeless
– Book 3: Blameless
– Book 4: Heartless
– Book 5: Timeless
In any case, I found myself rather intrigued with the third book of the Parasol Protectorate series.

Let me get this out in the open and out of the way, as much as I understand Lord Maccon’s emotions and reasoning for doing what he did, that doesn’t excuse his behavior at all. I am really ticked off with him, the way he treated Alexia and his lack of desire to understand her point of view until his Beta verbally whacks him over the head and even then. *SIGHS* Except I know of a few guys that would react the same way, and it still ticked me off. In fact I was so upset with Lord Maccon’s conduct that even though I knew what he did over the course of the book and how he was somewhat regretful of his actions, I found myself wanting to scream at him over and over again. Granted reading about Lord Maccon’s inebriation was rather comedic at times and when his Gamma disappeared I knew almost instantly why, but seriously if it were me I would have made it hard for Lord Maccon to get back into my good graces. But then being a woman that was once in love, it wouldn’t take much more than Alexia because dammit, I’d still love him too, it is infinitely easier to forgive someone that you are in love with, because you can’t help but think nothing but the best of them. I wouldn’t be surprised if Lady Maccon had actually forgiven him while they were still apart and she knew that he wanted her. *sighs* In fact, this is best summed up by Lady Maccon herself:

You mean while I’ve been running across Europe pregnant, escaping ladybugs, flying in onithopters, landing in mud, and drinking coffee, you have been inebriated?

Anyway, I digress…
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Literary Review: Changeless by Gail Carriger

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Title: Changeless
Author: Gail Carriger
Series: Book Two
Format: Audiobook

So here we are, the second audio book of the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger: Changeless. I don’t know where to begin… well I guess I’ll start with the technical aspect of the audiobook. I rather enjoy listening to Emily Gray’s interpretation of the variety of characters in Changeless.

Part of the reason I never mentioned Emily Gray during my review of Soulless was simply because I wasn’t entirely sold on a female voice emulating so many male voices. I loved Emily as she interpreted Alexia, her sisters, her friend Ivy and even Lord Akeldama… however. So I chose to wait and give it another audiobook to see if my feelings have changed, and in honestly because Changeless has so many female characters taking center stage, this made the listening experience much more pleasurable.

While in the first novel we were introduced into Gail Carriger’s interpretation of the supernatural world and how they are integrated with society at the time. This second novel delves more into the unknown of the supernatural… primarily the preternatural.

Alexia is as witty and stubborn as always, and while her husband has run off to Scotland to take care of a “family problem”, she is trying to figure out what is causing the mass exorcism of the ghosts in the London area and the humanization of the vampires and werewolves. After a little digging around, Alexia believes that the solution involves following her husband up north, into Scotland.

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Literary Review: Soulless by Gail Carriger

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Title: Soulless
Author: Gail Carriger
Series: Book One
Format: Audiobook

A friend of mine has been recommending this series (Parasol Protectorate) to me for months now. I finally checked the book out from my local library, only for life to get in the way and I never touched the book that was in my possession for almost a month and a half. So I sent the book back to the library and continued onward, meanwhile my friend recommended getting the audio book instead and listening to it while I worked.

Well, considering that I have borrowed audio lectures from The Teaching Company via the local library, one would have thought that I could have made the leap myself. Unfortunately, I did not… primarily due to my desire and love to sitting down and curling to a good book. However, as my time is fairly limited nowadays it became increasingly clear that I am better off listening to lectures and audiobooks as opposed to trying to find time to just sit down and read. *sighs*

In any case, I decided to begin listening to audiobooks by going for the series that has been recommended by my friend: The Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger… and the first of the series, Soulless.

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