There is a lot of professional Lovecraft fanfic out there. There's something magnetic about the Cthulhu mythos - authors just cannot resist playing wiThere is a lot of professional Lovecraft fanfic out there. There's something magnetic about the Cthulhu mythos - authors just cannot resist playing with it. In 'The Weird of Hali', JMG is clearly having great fun flipping the mythos 180 degrees. The unspeakable horrors of Lovecraft are actually pagan gods - some benevolent, some uninterested, and some dangerous to mankind. Our heroes, far from gibbering with madness when they encounter great old ones, instead display a lively curiosity. I would say 'scientific curiosity' but in 'The Weird of Hali' rationalism is the work of the enemy.
The Radiance is a shadowy group of New Atheists, determined to scrub all the magic out of the world. They react with horror and disgust when they encounter the gods because they cannot bear to admit that anything in the world is beyond human comprehension and mastery.
Our hero Owen gets caught up in the battle between technocracy and nature. Be prepared for much running around, shooting, battles, explosions, roof top chases, underwater chases, midnight chases - all kinds of chasing! It's solid plot-driven adventure stuff. I particularly liked Owen, and all the characters in this book, for being such an archetypal American: totally unflappable, open, friendly, fearless in battle and forgiving in victory.
The magic system gave me nostalgia for the fiction of my youth. It reminded me of the British fantasy revival of the 70s: Alan Garner, Susan Cooper, and Penelope Lively. It's a dreamy, emotional kind of magic rooted in myth and landscape. Not the sort of thing that would ever be, as Clarke imagined, exchangeable with advanced technology. ...more
'Shifter' romance is so popular; this is my first attempt at reading it and I don't get it. What does it even mean to be a shifter? None of these shif'Shifter' romance is so popular; this is my first attempt at reading it and I don't get it. What does it even mean to be a shifter? None of these shifters shape-shifted even once! I thought they were going to be like werewolves! I thought the sex scenes were gonna get kinky! But when the heroine meets Pete the Panther... Pete the Panther... I mean, c'mon! You can't call a man Pete the Panther and expect him to be sexy! Anyway, when the heroine meets Pete the Panther they just end up in a pretty average orgy, and there's nothing remotely pantheric about him, except perhaps slightly feline eyes?
I've been swindled.
I'm also feeling sorry for the other woman in the orgy, who didn't seem to have much to do except watch. I feel like she was only included so that it would sound a bit more adventurous. Another woman in the orgy.. oh my!
Anyway, the sex wasn't great but the plot was worse. The whole book could've done with a good editor to cut out all the extraneous rambling about the heroine walking about the streets, making food, having showers, endlessly ruminating about her dire situation etc. etc. etc. The whole thing felt like an extended first chapter, leading you up to the cliffhanger which was the first real plot development and also the end of the book.
The heroine was highly implausible as an international professional vampire hunter, given that she was also a mopey whiner. I have a real hatred for female characters that are set up as 'hard as nails' or 'badass' and then lack the spine to even tell an annoying stranger at the bar to bugger off. The hero - some kind of wolf man, but again, lacking all lupine qualities - had very little personality beyond wanting to sleep with the heroine. And the vampire, as far as I can tell, had been listening to too much My Chemical Romance....more
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