Don’t forget – the Silver Parrot Designs Christmas Sale is still going on! From now through Dec. 16th, all orders of $20.00 or more are 15% off!
And now, on to this week’s book review. I managed to make it through two books this week. I read the third installment in Sharon Shinn’s “Angels of Samaria” series, ”The Alleluia Files” Shinn fast-forwards the audience another 150 years into the future of Samaria where whispers of the knowledge discovered by the angel Alleluia in the previous book, “Jovah’s Angel” are causing religious persecution of a certain group. The archangel, Bael, is a dangerous fanatic who is using the powers of his office to control the direction of Samarrian society. I still enjoy Shinn’s ability to logically map out the way this society changes over time, but I found the main characters in this book to be the least interesting of all the novels so far. And, because the action splits back and forth between the points of view of two different characters (a technique I’ve never been that fond of as one character is invariably far more interesting than the other), the character development can feel a bit disjointed. Still, it’s a good overall addition to the series and I’m still enjoying the whole thing enough that I’ve moved on to the fourth book. But more about that next week.
The other book I read is the fourth installment in Rachel Caine’s “Weather Warden” series. ”Windfall” continues the misadventures of powerful, but supremely unlucky, weather warden, Joanne Baldwin. Because of the setting of this novel and its descriptions of major storms, it’s quite eerie when you think about the recent, record-setting hurricane season. Now, usually, my normal complaint about some books is that they don’t have enough action. I never have that problem with Caine’s books. In fact, if there’d occasionally be a few breathers between crises, it’d be nice. However, the reader will definitely never be bored. The reader will definitely never want to be Joanne Baldwin either. This gal makes jumping from the frying pan into the fire actually look like a reasonable course of action when compared to the ways in which her life goes wrong. And thanks to her soul-stealing Ifrit boyfriend, David, she’s low on the magic powers just when she needs them most.
I did think that the real intent of one of the characters in this novel was rather pathetically obvious which made me fear for the IQ’s of Joanne and her sister, Sarah.
**WARNING** plot spoiler!!
Ladies, if a rich, cultured, English gentleman tries to pick you up in the McDonald’s line at a local mall food court, trust me, it’s WAAAYYYYY too good to be true. Put down the QP w/ cheese and back slowly away.
Still, Caine is valiantly trying to follow in the footsteps of Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake…back when she was actually a kick-ass heroine instead of a nymphomaniacally crippled outlet for her creator’s TMI (wayyyyy, wayyyy TMI) sexual fantasies. And for that, I thank her. Because, I do miss Anita. I really, really do.
Okay, that’s it for this week. I am working on some new jewelry, but it’s a lot of bead embroidery which is quite time-consuming so I won’t have anything to post for a while. Especially when you consider that Ryan had stomach flu this week (oh joy) and that pretty much kills any and all creative urges I might’ve had. I did get some truly gorgeous new clasps in sterling silver and turquoise in the mail this week so I can finally finish off the latest peyote tube bead project as soon as I get some free time LOL! I’m pretty excited about it and I think it’s going to be utterly fabulous when finished. And, of course, I’m off to a bead and gem show this weekend so I should have some yummy bead finds to post next week.
A la prochaine…
KJ
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