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Title: Heartless
Author: Gail Carriger
Genre: Comic steampunk (book 4 of 5)
Thingummies: 5
Synopsis: Lady Alexia Maccon is a member of Queen Victoria's Shadow Cabinet, the wife of the Alpha werewolf of England's most prestigious pack, and eight months pregnant to boot. So she has more than enough to handle when a ghost appears in her parlor, warning of a threat to the Queen. Of course, with complications ranging from mad scientists to a sister who wants to be a suffragette to a best friend with truly appalling taste in hats, she's really going to need another cup of tea first. And a slice of treacle tart, thank you.
Thoughts: I unabashedly adore this series. Alexia is eminently sensible, smart, and bitingly sarcastic in her defense of manners, morals, and teatime. Her husband has rather faded to the background as the series has progressed (an impressive feat for a towering hulk of a werewolf), but he's quite charming in his dangerous and bumbling way.
Most of the fun, though, comes from Carriger's prose (Alexia "lost her patience, a thing she was all too prone to misplacing") and supporting cast. There's the brilliant French scientist who keeps hitting on the oblivious Alexia, the foppish gay vampire lord who efficiently manipulates most of London while pretending to care only for a properly tied cravat, the deadpan butler, the flighty friend with ever-questionable taste in hats. Each of them are delightfully, lovingly drawn. The entire world is a cream puff of perfection, albeit a dangerous one, in which one politely offers a drop of port to a vampire assassin who has only just been dissuaded from killing one via zombie hedgehogs. Because politics is politics and murder is murder, but neither is an excuse for abandoning one's manners.
This latest installment does little to explain the overall mythology of the world, which was much the focus of the previous two books, but much to fill out some of the mysterious backstories of some of the characters. Actually, in retrospect, there seems to be somewhat less overall plot than in some of the previous books. But honestly, I don't particularly care. There's tension and mysteries and old secrets dramatically revealed and incredibly clever wordplay and steampunk gadgetry and high Victorian fashion. All narrated in a delightfully snarky tone.
Don't start with this one--it really won't make much sense, and will ruin the surprises of the earlier books. So really, you have little choice but to nip out to the store and buy all four. What are you waiting for? Shoo, shoo!
Author: Gail Carriger
Genre: Comic steampunk (book 4 of 5)
Thingummies: 5
Synopsis: Lady Alexia Maccon is a member of Queen Victoria's Shadow Cabinet, the wife of the Alpha werewolf of England's most prestigious pack, and eight months pregnant to boot. So she has more than enough to handle when a ghost appears in her parlor, warning of a threat to the Queen. Of course, with complications ranging from mad scientists to a sister who wants to be a suffragette to a best friend with truly appalling taste in hats, she's really going to need another cup of tea first. And a slice of treacle tart, thank you.
Thoughts: I unabashedly adore this series. Alexia is eminently sensible, smart, and bitingly sarcastic in her defense of manners, morals, and teatime. Her husband has rather faded to the background as the series has progressed (an impressive feat for a towering hulk of a werewolf), but he's quite charming in his dangerous and bumbling way.
Most of the fun, though, comes from Carriger's prose (Alexia "lost her patience, a thing she was all too prone to misplacing") and supporting cast. There's the brilliant French scientist who keeps hitting on the oblivious Alexia, the foppish gay vampire lord who efficiently manipulates most of London while pretending to care only for a properly tied cravat, the deadpan butler, the flighty friend with ever-questionable taste in hats. Each of them are delightfully, lovingly drawn. The entire world is a cream puff of perfection, albeit a dangerous one, in which one politely offers a drop of port to a vampire assassin who has only just been dissuaded from killing one via zombie hedgehogs. Because politics is politics and murder is murder, but neither is an excuse for abandoning one's manners.
This latest installment does little to explain the overall mythology of the world, which was much the focus of the previous two books, but much to fill out some of the mysterious backstories of some of the characters. Actually, in retrospect, there seems to be somewhat less overall plot than in some of the previous books. But honestly, I don't particularly care. There's tension and mysteries and old secrets dramatically revealed and incredibly clever wordplay and steampunk gadgetry and high Victorian fashion. All narrated in a delightfully snarky tone.
Don't start with this one--it really won't make much sense, and will ruin the surprises of the earlier books. So really, you have little choice but to nip out to the store and buy all four. What are you waiting for? Shoo, shoo!
