Half-Off Ragnarok
Well I'm pretty much committed to Seanan McGuire's Incryptid series at this point. The next two books are already sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. And after that there are only two more that currently exist. (Though I expect there will be at least one more by the time I catch up. McGuire is remarkably good at keeping to her one-book-a-year schedule. Even more impressive that she's maintaining it for at least three series while also writing other stuff. Seriously, she's been publishing books for less than a decade and she's got somewhere in the neighborhood for 50 books and novellas. And then there are the short stories.)
To get back to the point, this series is great fun, and I'm enjoying it. Even if I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as the last two. But that really just comes down to the fact that I fell head over heels in love with Verity and I merely like her brother, who narrates this and the next book. (But then it's back to Verity, and I'm so excited for her return).
Despite my lukewarm feelings towards Alex, the eldest of the Price siblings, I ended up liking this book a lot. It introduces more of the family, who are a delight. I love the insights of the people who have been living among the cryptids for so long. And Alex's girlfriend, Shelby, is fantastic. The dialogue gets a bit trite at times, there's definitely something performative about the way these characters talk that makes it all seem more campy and less realistic. But sometimes that's what you're in the mood for.
I really appreciated that McGuire was willing to downshift to a lower stakes story after Verity's brush with the Covenant in the last book. Too often these ongoing series get in the habit of always making the danger bigger and scarier and more threatening and it often leads to me burning out on a series. But Alex is dealing with a fairly simple problem. Someone's been turning people to stone and he's not sure whether it's a basilisk, a cockatrice, or a gorgon. Turns out there are a whole bunch of creatures around who turn people into stone.
McGuire's great at building a huge world and pulling together all sorts of mythologies. She packs her stories with a ton of fun characters and gives them different motivations to add believable friction between all of the good guys. And now there are longer-running plots that have me hooked. I'm glad I finally found another urban fantasy series to entertain me when I'm in the mood for fun, campy, action stories. I'll have to give October Daye another go after this one (I've heard the third one is where that series gets good, and I stopped at the second book.)
Prolific writers really are a double-edged sword. It's nice to have so much to look forward to, but it's also overwhelming to look at all those books.
To get back to the point, this series is great fun, and I'm enjoying it. Even if I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as the last two. But that really just comes down to the fact that I fell head over heels in love with Verity and I merely like her brother, who narrates this and the next book. (But then it's back to Verity, and I'm so excited for her return).
Despite my lukewarm feelings towards Alex, the eldest of the Price siblings, I ended up liking this book a lot. It introduces more of the family, who are a delight. I love the insights of the people who have been living among the cryptids for so long. And Alex's girlfriend, Shelby, is fantastic. The dialogue gets a bit trite at times, there's definitely something performative about the way these characters talk that makes it all seem more campy and less realistic. But sometimes that's what you're in the mood for.
I really appreciated that McGuire was willing to downshift to a lower stakes story after Verity's brush with the Covenant in the last book. Too often these ongoing series get in the habit of always making the danger bigger and scarier and more threatening and it often leads to me burning out on a series. But Alex is dealing with a fairly simple problem. Someone's been turning people to stone and he's not sure whether it's a basilisk, a cockatrice, or a gorgon. Turns out there are a whole bunch of creatures around who turn people into stone.
McGuire's great at building a huge world and pulling together all sorts of mythologies. She packs her stories with a ton of fun characters and gives them different motivations to add believable friction between all of the good guys. And now there are longer-running plots that have me hooked. I'm glad I finally found another urban fantasy series to entertain me when I'm in the mood for fun, campy, action stories. I'll have to give October Daye another go after this one (I've heard the third one is where that series gets good, and I stopped at the second book.)
Prolific writers really are a double-edged sword. It's nice to have so much to look forward to, but it's also overwhelming to look at all those books.
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