Bookburners: Badge, Book and Candle, Max Gladstone
Received to review via Netgalley
I like the idea of this serialised novel business; I’ll be checking it out again when Ellen Kushner’s Tremontaine world gets a serialised outing. But Bookburners didn’t really grab me; it doesn’t help that the file that ended up on my Kindle was a mess, of course, with the formatting all over the place, but there was nothing special about the style or set-up, as far as I was concerned. It’s a fairly typical urban fantasy opening, and there’s just not enough to hook me and keep me following it through the serial format.
It’s cool that this isn’t a damsel in distress or ‘fridged’ woman plot, that the victim and motivating factor is in fact a female cop’s brother. And there were some pretty cool details about the world-building, like the idea that demons (essentially) can get into you through anything that links one person to another, like a book. But… not convinced to subscribe and follow this particular story.
Rating: 2/5
“Fridged” women are a trope in urban fantasy?
Trope in general! The TV show Supernatural demonstrates it especially well — a mother and a girlfriend die in the first episode, which basically motivates the boys and their dad through all eleventy seasons.
Hold on – I mis-read that as “frigid” which is entirely different! Yeah, OK, dead/missing women have motivated more plots than I care to think about…
I’m really behind on this. I hear the next episode is when it really takes off, but I haven’t read beyond the pilot yet.
I might poke my nose into it again in future…
I was recommended this book by a friend. Not worth the read you figure?
Emmy,
The whole series might get more interesting! This was only basically a chapter, really. It’s worth checking out, I know a lot of people thought it got better.