Reviewed!

I read... a lot. I'm getting slower in my old age, but I still bust through about a novel a week. I'm forever being asked (and asking others) for book recommendations, so I thought I would post a few reviews here. Please feel free to comment with recent books you've read which you feel are worth sharing!

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"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"
by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

I was late to this bandwagon... well, technically, I wouldn't qualify myself as being on the bandwagon; it's more like I'm in the vicinity of the bandwagon. Anyway, I was intrigued by the idea right away (Zombies in the Victorian era? Whatever will they wear?) , but didn't read the book until three weeks ago.

I don't think I'm selling the book short by saying that it is exactly what the title states it is: Pride and Prejudice ... and Zombies. The author - nay, embellisher - takes the original book and sandwiches in this idea that England is overrun with zombies and that the Bennett family has been trained to deal with them. The original story - with all its angsty romance, misunderstandings, anguish over social improprieties - is still there, but now there's this matter of the Undead as well. There are lots of gory fight scenes, a clever backstory about the Bennett girls' martial arts training in China, and some great zombie-centric twists to the plot involving namely Lizzie's confrontation with Lady Catherine and Charlotte's marriage to Mr. Collins.

Other than those two plot developments, in my opinion, the best part of this book is the illustrations; eight black and white drawings accompany the story. The scenes depicted are generally ones of zombie mayhem. (Although there's a great one of a zombie-fied Charlotte in wedding attire. YES, Charlotte's a zombie!)

I don't know that this book will really get people who wouldn't normally read Austen to suddenly flock to her in droves. It may however get them to read the first few chapters out of curiosity's sake, and it has assuredly made existing fans view the original title in a new way.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (I would have given four save for the fact that Grahame-Smith didn't write most of the book.)

You Will Enjoy This Book if You Like: the original "Pride and Prejudice" (maybe - if you're a little kooky), Bram Stoker's "Dracula," or "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke.

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"Bloody Awful"

by Georgia Evans

This book is one in a series of murder-mystery tales that take place in southern England during World War II; the main character, Gloria, is a were-fox. Yup - she turns into a red, bushy-tailed little thing in the moonlight and romps around the Surrey hills solving mysteries. As if constantly tripping over dead bodies weren't enough, Evans also populates this world with vampires, pixies, and dragons - oh my! - and all seem hell-bent on making Gloria's life complicated.

I really wanted to like this book; I really, really did. I recently met the author (real name Rosemary Laurey) at a science-fiction/fantasy convention and I thought she was brilliant; erudite, witty, and sarcastic as she was, I thought her books would definitely be to my taste. But this book is dull and disjointed and just... not good. *sigh* Her title was unwittingly appropriate.

Anyway, I will try her other books before making a blanket judgement. She also writes vampire romance under her own name and has some other risque fiction under the name 'Madeleine Oh.' I will update you, intrepid readers, on how those other books fare.

Overall Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

You Will Enjoy This Book if You Like: Ummm... other boring books?

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"Crown of Vengeance"

by Stephen Zimmer

Eleven ordinary people find themselves enveloped in a strange mist and transported to another world. Separated into two groups, with no idea how or why they came to this place, they must fight to survive. And it is evident that war and unrest plague this world, as armies muster and factions strike against each other, often placing the eleven right in the middle of their conflicts. Will these travelers discover untapped reserves of strength and cunning, or ultimately break against the pressures of this strange new world?

Zimmer introduces many races and cultures in this book, the first in the Fires of Eden series. It's obvious that this story is going to play out on a grand scale. (To me, the most interesting group is the Trogens, a proud dog-like race who ride winged feline steeds.) The use of mulitple non-human races, mixed with a major plotline involving religion, reminded me a little of C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe."

In a nutshell: the story pulled me in, the characters did not. Even by the end of the book, I didn't care about any of these eleven people; in fact, I was more emotionally invested in some of the half-glimpsed villains of the story than I was in the purported main characters. So, I will read the next book (which comes out this November) in the series, but only because I want to know what comes next... not because I care about what happens to these eleven people. Actually, I hope they all get eaten by the dog-people. :)

Overall Review: 3 out of 5 stars (with the caveat that I enjoyed it enough to read the next book in the series)

You Will Enjoy This Book if You Like: "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe," George R. R. Martin's " A Game of Thrones" series, or any of the Falconfar books by Ed Greenwood.

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I actually have three more books to review (Did I mention I read a lot?), but this post is already enormous, so I will save those for next week. Check me out again, gentle readers, for reviews of: "The Female Brain" by Louann Brizzendine, "A Storm of Swords" by George R. R. Martin, and "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" by Seth Grahame-Smith.