The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


You know those weeks where the Blackberry goes off at all hours and the commute is extra special crowded and you can never get anything done between the phone ringing and the email dinging?



…Yeah. Those are the times I really need a pleasantly predictable young adult fantasy romp about the reformed street kid with a secret past, and the realm threatened from within and without, and the ancient legends truer than anyone believes, and the spirited princess who is shocked, shocked! To learn about poverty.



And look! Here it is. Score.





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Declare by Tim Powers

Declare by Tim Powers

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Eighty percent WWII/Cold War spy thriller, twenty percent creepy fantasy about the supernatural powers moving behind our little conflict.



Tim Powers has some sort of impervious force field. His Three Days to Never made me spittingly furious, but I still dug it. This book was unevenly paced with an irritatingly ham-handed romance* and a cast of largely loathsome people, and I still dug it. How does he do that?



He just writes cool shit, there’s no other way to put it. This book is dense, well-researched, irrationally plausible in the story of a secret British force trying to kill one of the ancient fallen gods protecting the eastern block. With real people stepping in and out, and a lot of interesting spycraft wanking.



*He’s a double agent in 1941 Paris. She’s an 18-year-old communist married to Russia. He’s young and stupid and horny, and suddenly they’re fated for life – I mean the book believes this too, not just our hero. Points for giving the girl some actual agency; massive negative points for the appalling hateful scene of two men playing cards to see who will go fuck her – her consent being, you know, a point which occurs to neither of them, including the guy who’s allegedly in love with her.**



**Impervious. Force field. Seriously.





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