50 in '13: #4

[sakon76]

Title: Midnight Blue-Light Special
Author: Seanan McGuire
Length: 333 pages


Sequel to Discount Armageddon, this continues following the adventures of Verity Price, ballroom dancer and cryptid defender, in NYC. (The next two books will apparently shift to follow her older brother.) Knowing what I know about the origins of this series, I had to once in a while stop and snicker. St. Giles' Hospital, indeed.

That said, it's a pretty good read, and definitely ups the stakes from the first volume. Particularly once the Covenant rolls into town. By the end of this book, I definitely understand why the Covenant is nightmare fodder for cryptids and Healy-Prices alike. Because they are. There's something in there to be said about who the real monsters are, but the answer is so obvious that it's not something the book bothers discussing.

Now, for my critiques. I'm still not keen on first-person narratives. And it bugs the sh*t out of me that Seanan very obviously has this whole universe set up in her head, mapped out in incredible detail... and forgets that we don't. There's a family tree in the beginning of the book. Which is all well and good until you realize that it doesn't go back nearly enough generations to cover everyone mentioned, let alone detail Verity's mother's side of the family. Because every time I hit a mention of great-grandma so-and-so, or uncle such-and-such, I was left scrambling.

That said, it's an enjoyable read, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the first book, or simply wants more Aeslin mice. And who doesn't want more Aeslin mice?

Verdict: recommended.

Comments

[tainry.livejournal.com]

I still haven't finished Rosemary and Rue, and that's been on the shelf for ...years? I think I was a little peeved at the pronunciation guide for some of the terms. She got "kitsune" WRONG. Wrong wrong wrongitty wrong pants. Even disregarding rules for Japanese pronunciation from class, because hey maybe only two semesters wasn't enough/I am sure there are subtleties I am missing YOU CAN STILL HEAR HIEI AND YUSUKE OR WHOMEVER SAY IT IN FREKKING YYH IN REGARDS TO KURAMA!!! It is ki tsu ne. Or occasionally the u in tsu gets "whispered". But. It. Is. NOT "kit soon". The hell, woman... So after I was done having a pedantic snit over that, the book was reasonably interesting. Protag turned into a koi for 14 years is good. 8D

(Maybe the placement and content of the pronunciation guide was the editor's doing.)

I want to like McGuire, I do! Valente loves her! So do a lot of people.
I got pretty burned out on urban fantasy from reading a metric aftload of De Lint, though, which I thought would be mitigated by RaR being set in San Francisco - a city with which I am at least a little bit familiar. And fond of. Seely/Unseely courts blah blah yawn. 20 years ago I would have been on this like white on rice... Now? Ehhh. I think I got halfway? I'm sure I'll pick it up again. I remember what I did read pretty well, which says something.

Also: No giant alien robots... u_u;

[sakon76.livejournal.com]

I... actually don't care for her October Daye series. Too noir for my tastes. I read Rosemary and Rue and no further. (Though I did like Spike the rosebush/cat.) And I didn't even try the zombie series Seanan wrote under the pseudonym Mira Grant. The Incryptid books, however, are lighter and have a bit more humor to them (particularly in the persons of the aforementioned Aeslin mice), so they're the books I buy and read. Also her Velveteen series, but that's getting a very limited-edition run; the stories are all available on her lj for free, however. So you might want to give either of those a try.

[tainry.livejournal.com]

Hmmm! I might just have to do that. Aeslin mice! I have no idea what they are exactly but! Mice! Ee! :D

[sakon76.livejournal.com]

Aeslin mice (http://seananmcguire.com/fgaeslinmice.php). They're kind of like Cinderella mice on crack. Religous crack. They worship the main (human) characters of the series as their Gods and Priestesses, have elaborate festivals that make sense only to themselves, and do Disney-worthy waltz sequences with offerings of food. Cheese! And! Cake!

[tainry.livejournal.com]

Eehee! Also read the first of the Velveteen stories since I was there... LOL! Flobsters on Parade!

[sakon76.livejournal.com]

Heheh. That story is actually partially my husband's fault. At the time, Seanan was trying to save up her calculated amount per day (something like $4-5) so she'd be able to go to Worldcon when it was in Australia. My husband put said amount in an envelope and sent it to her, sponsoring my birthday in the name of the Crayfish Minions. (A joke related to our translation and subtitling of Ultraman Moebius, which is another story for another time.)

Some weeks later, a story appeared on her LJ....

[tainry.livejournal.com]

Eeee! Hahaha! Crayfish Minions! :DDD Awesome!