A Poisoned Season by Tasha Alexander

Though not as engrossing as her debut novel, And Only to Deceive,  Alexander's second novel about Lady Emily Ashton is a worthy follow-up. Stepping away a bit from Emily's obsession with all things ancient Greece (though said obsession certainly hasn't actually gone anywhere) A Poisoned Season turns instead to Marie Antoinette, with a thief stealing all jewelry in London believed to have belonged to her.  Meanwhile, a young friend of Emily's is being pressured into marriage with an unpleasant man who believes himself to be descended from French royalty, her best friend's marriage is turning cold, and her mother is pressuring her to remarry-if not to her beau, Colin Hargreaves, then to someone else.  And then a man who had asked to speak with Emily about a private matter is killed.

The book is much more of a mystery than the first, and a good one.  But And Only to Deceive was such a personal story for Emily, and her discovery of Greek literature and antiquities such a major turning point in her life, that the history and treasure surrounding Marie Antoinette just doesn't have the same "oomph."  And Only to Deceive chronicled Emily's growth and journey so well that there was no need to follow it up.  No problem with following it up, just no chance of having as much impact.

I did, though, very much like the deeper look into how Emily's radical (for her time) ideas affected her place in society, and her friendships, and how her relationship with her mother was given more development, with her mother painted in a more favorable light than she had been before.  I dothink, though, that the modern thinking behind Emily's behavior was a little more obvious.

( spoilery quibble )

Short version:  Good book.  Good follow-up.  But not as good, and while a follow-up doesn't hurt things, it wasn't necessarily needed, either.  As much as I like Emily and her supporting cast, I wouldn't mind seeing Alexander move on to a new heroine.

(no subject)

rightstuf's new sale is 33% off Tokyopop comics, lasting through 10/12.  Holes in certain Clamp series!  You will now be filled!  *makes note to read the first volume of Tokko and the first couple volumes of Tarot Cafe in the next couple of days*

Anyone want to remind me what the other manhwa by the manhwaga of Hotel Africa are?  Also, I know Tokyopop isn't putting out any more books of Nabi, but will reading what they have put out leave me annoyed by no more?

I'm slightly concerned, though:  Their past 2 sales for Tokyopop have been preceded by a Del Rey sale.  I hope they haven't taken Del Rey off their sales cycle.

Also, I will now tretrat the comments I made before about bookcloseouts.com.  The order did show up in their system again 2 days later, and came today.  (Interestingly enough, it was Tokyopop manga...anyway.)  So, one nightmarish experience where I eventually got my books and money for the book I didn't get, and one with a very annoying hiccup, but OK in the end.

Suberb!

Nifty little video for the Claymore manga I just found on youtube. Random and mostly vague spoilers through mid-Vol 13 (aka, the post-Pieta manga arc.)

( And if you don't know what the title refers to then this is required viewing. )

And another one I found.

( Claymore Meets 300 )

manhwa: The Tarot Cafe Vol 1-2

I have a bit of an odd history with this manhwa. Well, not odd, maybe. The manhwaga, Sang-Sun Park, was the artist of Les Bijoux, one of the first manhwa I ever read. The art was so amazing that it actually took me a while to notice how incredibly weird (yet compelling) the plot was. If I ever find my copies of Les Bijoux (they went missing when I moved, along with Mars, Petshop of Horrors and some random other things) I will reread it and post on it. I’ve been meaning to anyway for a while. Anyway, a bit after that Tokyopop started putting out The Tarot Café, a manhwa about an immortal woman named Pamela who does tarot readings out of her café, and I bought it faithfully. And then it suddenly stopped coming out. And then several other series I was reading stopped coming out even though they weren’t finished, and in a fit of annoyance, I got rid of them all. Naturally, most have since been completed, if not always by the same publisher, including The Tarot Café. But by the same publisher.

Much of the setup is common for the Mysterious Shopkeeper genre. The early stories are self-contained, and focused more on the customers than the main characters. It isn’t until we get to the end of volume two that we start to see into the past of Pamela, whose mother was burned as a witch in the 13th century. Belus, an old acquaintance (and possibly more) of Pamela’s who seems to know more about what’s going on in the bigger picture than she does, remains a complete enigma. The only main character whose complete story is known (as far as we know at this point) is that of Aaron, a young werewolf who works for Pamela. Even his story, though, is a tool to introduce Nebiros, a man who is even more of an enigma than Belus. Then there’s Ash, a young man who may or may not be the reincarnation (or original incarnation) of the man who originally made Pamela immortal.

While most series in this genre seem to deal-at least initially-with people who have a fatal flaw, or who have a sin to make amends for, Pamela’s customers tend to be people who have loved too intensely, or who didn’t appreciate love enough when they had it. Each of the contained stories is, in some fashion, a love story, be it tragic, bittersweet, or happy. In addition, the themes of the stories are very strongly based on fairy tale tropes. Not the Disney versions, but the older, darker kind little girls don’t know about when they say they want a fairy tale wedding. In addition to the intensity of love and not appreciating the love you have, reincarnation, loss and creation are all pretty heavy themes, not to mention eternal devotion peeking its head out. Having read a little beyond this point, I remember them also being a factor in the larger scheme of Pamela and Belus’s lives and history, themes that are already starting to show up here.

Beautiful, a bit surreal, with interesting themes and mythology, and only seven volumes!

manga: Tokko Vol 1

Earlier I talked about my experiences with Sang-Sun Park’s manhwa. I think I’ll do the sme with Tohru Fujisawa. Fujisawa is the mangaka of GTO, which is pretty popular. I really liked the live action drama, thought the anime was enjoyable enough, but not my thing, and couldn’t get into the manga at all. This is probably because, by the time you get to the live action drama, the part where the main character’s motivation for becoming a teacher was hoping that high school girls will fall for him. So, GTO, not for me outside of the very unfaithful live action. Then there’s Rose Hip Zero, a little five volume manga (there’s a four volume sequel that was published before it, but I haven’t read it yet) about a girl who was a member of a terrorist group that brainwashed teenagers (including her) into being mindless assassins. She turned on them and joined the police, where she was partnered with the most hardnosed badass on the force. He was about a tenth as badassed as she was. Big Bad Loner Badass with Cute Little Accessory who’s a bigger badass. And guns. I love it. Most people have never heard of it.

Now there’s Tokko. Set in 2011, Tokko is another little sci-fi series (this one, I believe, is only 3 volumes) that probably no one has ever heard of. Ranmaru Shindo and his sister, Saya, came home five years ago to find their parents’ bodies scattered all over their apartment, in a crime that included 380 other deaths. Naturally, both become police officers, and Ranmaru, determined to solve the 382 deaths, has just become a detective. He’s also haunted by dreams of a woman with a sword, leather pants, no shirt, and dragon tattoos on her upper body.

His first day on the job, he learns of Tokko, a division of the police department called the Special Riot Squad Division 2-Special Public safety Bureau. AKA, Tokko. Tokko is currently comprised of four people. One is Suzuka, a 18 year old lieutenant who seems to have a non-professional interest in Ranmaru. Another is Sakura, also 18, who looks exactly like the woman in his dreams. The other two-a man with no dialogue yet and a woman who almost seems to be Suzuka’s babysitter-haven’t done much yet. Soon, Ranmaru learns that not only do Tokko’s members carry swords, but they also fight flesh-eating monsters. Wearing black leather. According to Suzuka and Sakura, Ranmaru is probably someone like them, and thus a target for whoever is behind the monsters (actually, zombies, in a way, since that’s what the actual monsters seem to create) and is opening gates to our world.

A lot of the first volume is setup, establishing Ranmari’s backstory (and, most likely, the backstory of the members of Tokko) and goals, as well as the threat. The characters are interesting, but not incredibly well developed yet, which might be concerning in a series that’s only three volumes. There’s lot of gore and body parts, but not compared to, say. Blade of the Immortal or Claymore. There are also several annoying fanservice bits. In addition to Sakura being shirtless in Ranmaru’s dreams, Saya runs around their apartment in her underwear to freak him out, and Suzuka goes into battle wearing leather pants and coat, but no shirt. Still, it is seinen, and echi, and could be far, far worse.

It is also about girls with swords who fight monsters wearing black leather. I feel that compensates for the annoying bits.