Tiger Eye by Marjorie M. Liu

After reading almost every other Dirk & Steele book, I’m finally reading the first. The general consensus seems to be that, even though it’s the first book, you’re better off reading some of the others first. Despite this warning, had I been acquired this at around the same time I did the others, I would have read it first, because I’m picky that way. In retrospect, it’s for the best that I didn’t read it first.

This is not to say it’s bad by any means. Like most of Liu’s books, it has great characters, great dialogue, fun worldbuilding and mythology, and a plot that’s all over the place. It also has the kind of plot that can be rather polarizing.

While in Beijing, a woman in the market pressures Dela Reese to buy an old box with strange writing all over it, almost immediately resulting in her being accosted by a strange man. Being a Liu heroine, Dela takes care of that problem rather handily. Back at her hotel, Dela opens the box and a seven-foot-tall warrior emerges named Hari, informing her-with extreme bitterness-that as long as she owns the box, he’s her slave. It seems that, a while back, there was a huge trend in paranormal romances where the heroines would somehow end up owning a hunky magic man who had been enslaved for centuries, and the heroine was the first woman ever who hadn’t bought him to be her sex slave. That, combined with my general paranormal romances burnout a few years ago, may have had as much as anything to do with my not checking this out when it came out.

Thankfully, Liu steps out of the mold by having Hari having mostly been used for his fighting skills and immortal bodyguard purposes, and focuses on the less savory things you can have done when you have and immortal and otherwise superhuman warrior at your disposal. Dela also does a pretty good job of ripping into him when he tries to lump her in with other summoners, instead of going on about how poor and abused he’s been, not that she isn’t properly sympathetic to that.

There’s a plot involving the man who originally cursed Hari, which has some skeevy elements in its conclusion, and with someone else trying to kill Dela. Between them, the two plots bring in the Dirk & Steele agents. Even though I’ve read the books about most of the characters now, I kind of laugh at how obviously they were being set up to get their own books. Except that, unlike most romance novel authors, Liu uses their personalities to set up potential future books, not dazzling manliness or angst. I may have actually looked forward to their books for once if I’d read it first! The only “ask for my book!” character who hasn’t had one yet, I think, is Eddie (I’m pretty sure Dela’s friend Kit’s book is the one full length book I haven’t read yet) who I think is still a little younger than the average romance novel hero in the more recent books.

Fun world, great characters and dialogue, potentially problematic plot for some.

Tiger Eye by Marjorie M. Liu

After reading almost every other Dirk & Steele book, I’m finally reading the first. The general consensus seems to be that, even though it’s the first book, you’re better off reading some of the others first. Despite this warning, had I been acquired this at around the same time I did the others, I would have read it first, because I’m picky that way. In retrospect, it’s for the best that I didn’t read it first.

This is not to say it’s bad by any means. Like most of Liu’s books, it has great characters, great dialogue, fun worldbuilding and mythology, and a plot that’s all over the place. It also has the kind of plot that can be rather polarizing.

While in Beijing, a woman in the market pressures Dela Reese to buy an old box with strange writing all over it, almost immediately resulting in her being accosted by a strange man. Being a Liu heroine, Dela takes care of that problem rather handily. Back at her hotel, Dela opens the box and a seven-foot-tall warrior emerges named Hari, informing her-with extreme bitterness-that as long as she owns the box, he’s her slave. It seems that, a while back, there was a huge trend in paranormal romances where the heroines would somehow end up owning a hunky magic man who had been enslaved for centuries, and the heroine was the first woman ever who hadn’t bought him to be her sex slave. That, combined with my general paranormal romances burnout a few years ago, may have had as much as anything to do with my not checking this out when it came out.

Thankfully, Liu steps out of the mold by having Hari having mostly been used for his fighting skills and immortal bodyguard purposes, and focuses on the less savory things you can have done when you have and immortal and otherwise superhuman warrior at your disposal. Dela also does a pretty good job of ripping into him when he tries to lump her in with other summoners, instead of going on about how poor and abused he’s been, not that she isn’t properly sympathetic to that.

There’s a plot involving the man who originally cursed Hari, which has some skeevy elements in its conclusion, and with someone else trying to kill Dela. Between them, the two plots bring in the Dirk & Steele agents. Even though I’ve read the books about most of the characters now, I kind of laugh at how obviously they were being set up to get their own books. Except that, unlike most romance novel authors, Liu uses their personalities to set up potential future books, not dazzling manliness or angst. I may have actually looked forward to their books for once if I’d read it first! The only “ask for my book!” character who hasn’t had one yet, I think, is Eddie (I’m pretty sure Dela’s friend Kit’s book is the one full length book I haven’t read yet) who I think is still a little younger than the average romance novel hero in the more recent books.

Fun world, great characters and dialogue, potentially problematic plot for some.