Blameless An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger

Blameless An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger.

This is a wonderfully silly fantastic novel. It manages to mashup steampunk with werewolves and vampires in a comedy of manners. It is quite fun to read.

The main character who is pregnant by a werewolf travels to Italy where she meets the templars and learns a bit about her fathers history.

Lots of silliness ensues. Alexia Terrabotti endures ornithopter rides, angry vampires, and pesto in her travels in Italy. She wards off villains with her weigted dart shooting parasol with the help of her trusty footman Floote and the cross dressing hatmaker Madame Lefleux.

The writing is lighthearted and fun. It is well worth following the author, Gail Carriger. Her blog is quite fun to read with its pictures of parasols and other victorian and steampunk fashions. http://gailcarriger.livejournal.com/

Changeless An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger

Changeless An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger

This is the second novel in the Parasol Protectorate series featuring Alexia Tarabotti. It is set in a Victorian England with touches of steampunk. The first was Soulless. Alexia is now Lady Maccon. She is married to Conall Maccon who is a werewolf. She is the lady of a house of werewolves.

In this novel, paranormals are mysteriously losing their powers. This is bad for England because so much of their military power lies in regiments of vampires and werewolves. It is a mystery for Lady Maccon to solve. She travels between England and Scotland by dirigible, she hobnobs with werewolves, vampires, and nobility. At the same time she takes tea, wears fashionable dress, and reads the society papers.

The novel is lighthearted entertainment. The writing breaks boundaries by moving between a variety of genres from gaslight to romance to steampunk to adventure. The writing is more comic adventure than scary. She wards off the villains with her trustry umbrella and dangerous hatpins.

The backstory is one of an eccentric, intelligent lady with a difficult family and quirky friends both normal and paranormal (ghosts, vampires, and werewolves). Her friend Ivy is entranced by terrible hats and her sister must travel with her to Scotland to avoid scandal.

The third book in the series coming out in September 2010, Blameless, should be as entertaining as the first two.

Daily Thoughts 6/10/2010

Exlibris of the Załuski Library showing the library's interior, mid-18th century,Etching by Jan Józef Filipowicz, National Library in Warsaw

Daily Thoughts 6/10/2010

I am reading Changeless by Gail Carriger. I very much like the humor and style in this steampunk series with supernatural twist. It mixes, humor, adventure and romance very well. I am already looking forward to Blameless coming out in september 2010.

I looked through the Locus Magazine new arrivals list and put The Affinity Bridge by George Mann on hold. It is a steampunk mystery. I also read throught the New York Times Bestseller list for Business and put Switch How To Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath on hold. I do look at a variety of bestseller lists.

I finished reading Changeless. It was quite entertaining. I will write some more about it later this week. So far, I have finished reading three books this week.

This is a link to the speech by Ron Hogan on Professionalism and Ethics in Blogging presented by Ron Hogan at the Book Blogger Convention.
http://beatrice.com/wordpress/2010/05/30/professionalism-ethics-blogging/

Soulless An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger

Soulless An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger

The main character of this novel is a proper english lady and a spinster. She carries a silver tipped parasol, likes, tea, and reads a lot about science and the supernatural. Alexia Tarabotti has an original personality which is quite charming to read in this novel. Her proper manners and headstrong character create a nice juxtaposition to the humor in the novel.

The book is quite lighthearted. It jumps around many genres and constantly spins out new takes on old ideas. Where can you read about a comedy of manners in courting a Scottish werewolf lord in London? How about talk to fashionable vampire fop, or be chased by a bloodthirsty golem.

I could call this book a victorian steampunk, supernatural, romance, comedic thriller. A surprising mix and mash which comes up with exuberant new ideas in each chapter. There are also elements of alternate history, Queen Victoria even makes a brief appearance.

Soulless is the first book in a series. I put the second one, Changeless on reserve at my library and am waiting for the third book to come out. Her writing is fun to read. I also like Gail Carriger's website http://www.gailcarriger.com/ It has a nice mix of Victorian fashion, funny pictures, and lists of steampunk novels and films.

Daily Thoughts 5/7/2010

Man reading a newspaper in the Dead Sea. Gnu Free Documentation License, 1.2, Uploaded by Pete to Wikimedia, 14 May, 2005. I just liked the image.

Daily Thoughts 5/7/2010

Most of the staff are off at a conference today. I had a chance to do the rounds, making sure the displays were in order, and flyers and bookmarks were up to date. I am redoing the graphic novel club and poetry club flyers. I also took a look through the gift books and found several new books to add by different suspense authors, mostly paperbacks; Vince Flynn, Daniel Silva, Dan Brown, and Patricia Cornwell were some of the authors. There was also a nice literary trade paperback by Jose Saramago, Death With Interruptions.

Another book came in for me, Gail Carriger, Soulless An Alexia Tarabotti Novel. I'm not sure exactly how to categorize this novel. It has werewolves, vampires, and mechanical contraptions set in Victorian London. It must be its own category, supernatural steampunk. I think that sounds right. There is another term for adventures like this as well, gaslight, which is sometimes used for thrillers set in Victorian times.

Soulless is proving to be a very entertaining read. It makes me think of polite society with "Vampires, dirigibles, and tea." http://www.gailcarriger.com/ I think that is a quote which I found on the authors website somewhere. It has a silly, lighthearted feel to it, making it quite palatable and amusing.