I started and finished A Sense of Direction in one evening; I couldn't really stop thinking about it, so I couldn't put it down. I found it...
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Alexia Tarabotti, the Lady Woolsey, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears - leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria.
But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. Even when her investigations take her to Scotland, the backwater of ugly waistcoats, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only the soulless can.
She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.
Synopsis:
Carriger delivers the wickedly funny second novel in her Parasol Protectorate series, which finds Alexia Tarabotti entangled once more with London's vampires, werewolves, and supernatural mysteries. Original.
draconismoi, April 25, 2010 (view all comments by draconismoi)
Overall this is a great book in a fun series set in a Steampunk Great Britain. It fleshes out the world introduced in Soulless, and manages to overcome the first book's main flaw in having little buildup to the real danger presented by villains.
However, the ending pretty much killed my love. It took a few days to calm down enough to bother giving it a decent rating. Without spoiling all I can say is that the last few pages of Changeless are essentially the first few pages of Blameless. I detest cliffhanger endings in books that demand you buy the sequel in order to find out the ending of a new plot. Does Carriger not believe the world crafted or characters introduced are compelling enough to draw readers back in? Hint: They are.
But it is poor form to introduce an entirely new plot on the last bloody page of the book. Rather than entice me to read the next in the series, it has soured me to it. Why should I start a book knowing I'll get no conclusion?
For those who enjoyed Soulless, I recommend waiting a few years to bother picking up Changless - at least until the next books in the series are available.
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
Alexia Tarabotti, the Lady Woolsey, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears - leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria.
But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. Even when her investigations take her to Scotland, the backwater of ugly waistcoats, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only the soulless can.
She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
Carriger delivers the wickedly funny second novel in her Parasol Protectorate series, which finds Alexia Tarabotti entangled once more with London's vampires, werewolves, and supernatural mysteries. Original.
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