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[personal profile] lightreads
Sebastien de Ulloa is a vampire with a millennium and change to his name, a habit of caring about his food, and the desire to build a new life across the Atlantic in the colonies. Detective Crown Inspector Lady Abigail Irene Garrett is a forensic sorceress who has exiled herself from London for reasons that do not need exploring at this juncture. Together, they solve crime.

Oh, now, this? This I like.

Clever, tense, satisfying mosaic novel. It feels like the best of Bear’s writing: prose like perfectly toned musculature, and lacking the sometimes annoying self-consciousness of Blood and Iron. The alternate history turn of the twentieth century, where the imperial powers still grip the colonies and magic is science, is evocative and rich. It got me from the start with “Lucifugous.” I mean, it’s basically Murder on the Orient Express in a zeppelin, with a vampire. How can you not love that? And the stories layer up one by one, adding revolutionary politics, ill-considered love affairs, and always murder.

I could quibble that the mysteries are too obvious, but the mysteries really aren’t the point. It’s about the world, the interplay of people, the gentle tug of theme. My real complaint is the frankly shocking copyediting -- I spotted several dozen typos, and that was without looking. Not to mention other glaring errors, like a line of dialogue assigned to a character who wasn’t even there. Woops.

Stil fantastic, though.

Date: 2008-01-08 04:33 am (UTC)
spiffikins: (Default)
From: [personal profile] spiffikins
This sounds very interesting - I'll have to add it to my list!

I'll just grit my teeth against the typos

Date: 2008-01-10 09:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lightreads.livejournal.com
Definitely give it a shot, though I hear it may be a bit of a wait for the paperback.

Date: 2008-01-08 11:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] josanpq.livejournal.com
Oh, no! Not another series you're getting me to look at. When will I find time to mark all those tests? (LOL!...maybe I just won't. Maybe I'll stand at the top of the stairs and just toss them down!)

Date: 2008-01-08 11:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] josanpq.livejournal.com
Oh, great. HC only. 153$ at amazon.ca, 33 at .com.

PB out May 1, 2008

Date: 2008-01-10 09:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lightreads.livejournal.com
You can also get it through webscriptions.org, if you read books electronically at all. They do a nice DRM-free html copy, I find.

Date: 2008-01-09 01:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] significantowl.livejournal.com
ooooh *intrigued*

Date: 2008-01-10 09:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lightreads.livejournal.com
Come to think of it, I think you in particular might like this.

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lightreads: a partial image of a etymology tree for the Indo-European word 'leuk done in white neon on black'; in the lower left is (Default)
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