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Rhapsody of Blood #1
Rituals
Two women - and the workings of Time and Fate.
In a time too long ago for most human memory, a god asked Mara what she most wanted. She got her wish: to protect the weak against the strong. For millennia, she has avenged that god, and her dead sisters, against anyone who uses the Rituals of Blood to become a god through mass murder. And there are few who can stand against her.
A sudden shocking incident proves to Emma that the modern world is not what she thought it was, that there are demons and gods and elves and vampires. Her weapon is knowledge, and she pursues it wherever it leads her. The one thing she does not know is who she - and her ghostly lover, Caroline - are working for.
Rhapsody of Blood is a four-part epic fantasy not quite like anything you've read before: a helter-skelter ride through history and legend, from Tenochitlan to Los Angeles, from Atlantis to London. It is a story of death, love and the end of worlds - and of dangerous, witty women.
In a time too long ago for most human memory, a god asked Mara what she most wanted. She got her wish: to protect the weak against the strong. For millennia, she has avenged that god, and her dead sisters, against anyone who uses the Rituals of Blood to become a god through mass murder. And there are few who can stand against her.
A sudden shocking incident proves to Emma that the modern world is not what she thought it was, that there are demons and gods and elves and vampires. Her weapon is knowledge, and she pursues it wherever it leads her. The one thing she does not know is who she - and her ghostly lover, Caroline - are working for.
Rhapsody of Blood is a four-part epic fantasy not quite like anything you've read before: a helter-skelter ride through history and legend, from Tenochitlan to Los Angeles, from Atlantis to London. It is a story of death, love and the end of worlds - and of dangerous, witty women.
328 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 18, 2012
2 people are currently reading
744 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 13, 2013
Consider me ravished! This is like American Gods + Buffy + Dr Who with an awesome multiplier.
January 22, 2019
The only thing that is wrong with this, is that it is Volume 1 of a four-part sequence: and I want the rest now.
April 1, 2023
This never stops being absolutely spectacular.
Maybe now I've read it FOUR TIMES I'll figure out how to review it properly!
REVIEW
HIGHLIGHTS
~God and the Devil are exes
~ghosts make wonderful girlfriends
~all the stories are true, just not the way you think
~Do Not Anger The Luggage
~chaos magician drag-queens
First thing: ignore the cover. It’s awful, I know, but I swear to you that don’t judge a book by its cover has never been so vital as it is here.
Because this is a peerless masterpiece that deserves, not five stars, but every single star in the sky.
Rituals is two stories entwined: that of Mara and Emma. Mara is a hunter of gods from before the dawn of time; Emma is a perfectly normal student in the 80s, who ends up with a ghost for a girlfriend and a mysterious employer who wants her to deal with supernatural shenanigans. At first glance, their respective parts of the book are extremely separate – Mara is telling a select bit of her (extremely ancient) history to the occultist Crowley in order to dissuade him from trying to become a god, and Emma is mediating between angels, asshole elves, and chaos-magician drag queens in London and LA. But it all feels incredibly cohesive, especially as the ancient history experienced by Mara becomes extremely relevant to the present Emma is living in. And although the two halves of the book are pretty different, they’re both excellent, and I wouldn’t be willing to give up either one just to make Rituals easier to explain and understand!
This is a book that very much defies any attempt to easily label it; Emma’s parts are not conventional Urban Fantasy despite their setting, and Mara’s are thematically closer to High Fantasy, but not in any way you’ve seen before. Described like that, it’s a mix that doesn’t seem like it should work; Emma’s very middle-class English approach to monster doll houses, Tories, and Hollywood executives is not something you would think to pair with the fall of the Aztec Empire, the birth of the phoenix, and God and Lucifer’s origin story! And yet it all goes together magnificently, just as Emma’s superpower of Talking Sensibly contrasts beautifully with Mara’s very deadly seriousness (and complete lack of macho bullshit). The result is that, whichever half of the book initially appeals to you, you very much end up also drawn into the one you expected not to care for as much, and the lessons and messages of the one inform our understanding of the other.
Plot-wise, it goes a little like this: we’re introduced first to Mara, and learn something of her mission and the way she operates in a bit that acts almost as a prologue, and introduces the framing device of her story – that is, the fact that she’s telling it herself, in first-person, to Crowley.
But Rituals starts properly with Emma, whose parts of the book are divided by very effective time-skips (and I say this as someone who usually despises time-skips). We meet her first in 1985, at uni, where she encounters the supernatural for the first time and is summarily ‘hired’ by an anonymous sponsor who conveys her tasks to her via dropping them into the mind of her ghost girlfriend. But there is no training montage that turns Emma into a katana-wielding urban warrior; instead, it rapidly becomes clear that her superpower is, as previously mentioned, Talking Sensibly to very unsensible magical beings and creatures. She’s exactly the kind of heroine you would expect a perfectly normal, middle-class English student of the time to be; lacking in dramatic magical powers, respectful of those who deserve it, but taking absolutely no nonsense from those who don’t. Her approach to the Upper Classes of British society, in particular, is just *chef’s kiss*
After an encounter with a god of Ancient Egypt, we next see her in the 90s dealing with a murderous art exhibition and acting as a witness for a great dynastic marriage joining elf and vampire clans (neither of whom come out looking sexy and glamourous after Kaveney is done with them!) Still in the 90s but a few years later, she babysits a composer out to perform an opera which has been foretold to bring about the end of the world, meeting with the echo of Marilyn Monroe, clashing with someone who might be the real Ultimate Evil, and being cheeky to God in the process. (Honestly, he deserved much worse.)
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
Maybe now I've read it FOUR TIMES I'll figure out how to review it properly!
REVIEW
HIGHLIGHTS
~God and the Devil are exes
~ghosts make wonderful girlfriends
~all the stories are true, just not the way you think
~Do Not Anger The Luggage
~chaos magician drag-queens
First thing: ignore the cover. It’s awful, I know, but I swear to you that don’t judge a book by its cover has never been so vital as it is here.
Because this is a peerless masterpiece that deserves, not five stars, but every single star in the sky.
Rituals is two stories entwined: that of Mara and Emma. Mara is a hunter of gods from before the dawn of time; Emma is a perfectly normal student in the 80s, who ends up with a ghost for a girlfriend and a mysterious employer who wants her to deal with supernatural shenanigans. At first glance, their respective parts of the book are extremely separate – Mara is telling a select bit of her (extremely ancient) history to the occultist Crowley in order to dissuade him from trying to become a god, and Emma is mediating between angels, asshole elves, and chaos-magician drag queens in London and LA. But it all feels incredibly cohesive, especially as the ancient history experienced by Mara becomes extremely relevant to the present Emma is living in. And although the two halves of the book are pretty different, they’re both excellent, and I wouldn’t be willing to give up either one just to make Rituals easier to explain and understand!
This is a book that very much defies any attempt to easily label it; Emma’s parts are not conventional Urban Fantasy despite their setting, and Mara’s are thematically closer to High Fantasy, but not in any way you’ve seen before. Described like that, it’s a mix that doesn’t seem like it should work; Emma’s very middle-class English approach to monster doll houses, Tories, and Hollywood executives is not something you would think to pair with the fall of the Aztec Empire, the birth of the phoenix, and God and Lucifer’s origin story! And yet it all goes together magnificently, just as Emma’s superpower of Talking Sensibly contrasts beautifully with Mara’s very deadly seriousness (and complete lack of macho bullshit). The result is that, whichever half of the book initially appeals to you, you very much end up also drawn into the one you expected not to care for as much, and the lessons and messages of the one inform our understanding of the other.
Plot-wise, it goes a little like this: we’re introduced first to Mara, and learn something of her mission and the way she operates in a bit that acts almost as a prologue, and introduces the framing device of her story – that is, the fact that she’s telling it herself, in first-person, to Crowley.
But Rituals starts properly with Emma, whose parts of the book are divided by very effective time-skips (and I say this as someone who usually despises time-skips). We meet her first in 1985, at uni, where she encounters the supernatural for the first time and is summarily ‘hired’ by an anonymous sponsor who conveys her tasks to her via dropping them into the mind of her ghost girlfriend. But there is no training montage that turns Emma into a katana-wielding urban warrior; instead, it rapidly becomes clear that her superpower is, as previously mentioned, Talking Sensibly to very unsensible magical beings and creatures. She’s exactly the kind of heroine you would expect a perfectly normal, middle-class English student of the time to be; lacking in dramatic magical powers, respectful of those who deserve it, but taking absolutely no nonsense from those who don’t. Her approach to the Upper Classes of British society, in particular, is just *chef’s kiss*
Or was it a mistake to think of people of that class as even sentient in a standard sense? Sometimes it helped Emma cope to assume that they did not, in fact, think; that they were zombie pawns moved by history and economic power. The fact that she found this idea comforting was worrying.
After an encounter with a god of Ancient Egypt, we next see her in the 90s dealing with a murderous art exhibition and acting as a witness for a great dynastic marriage joining elf and vampire clans (neither of whom come out looking sexy and glamourous after Kaveney is done with them!) Still in the 90s but a few years later, she babysits a composer out to perform an opera which has been foretold to bring about the end of the world, meeting with the echo of Marilyn Monroe, clashing with someone who might be the real Ultimate Evil, and being cheeky to God in the process. (Honestly, he deserved much worse.)
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
August 26, 2017
Are you looking for queer, unconventional fantasy centered around female characters? Than Rituals by Roz Kaveney is for you.
Before I get into a plot synopsis, I think it’s necessary to explain the unusual structure of Rituals. It’s almost more like a collection of novellas or novelettes than a standard book. There’s not really a plot arc for the book as a whole; instead, each chapter has it’s own plot line, arc, climax, and conclusion. Usually, they take place at different times as well. What unites them is the characters and the world.
Rituals has two protagonists: Mara the Huntress and Emma Jones, an ordinary English woman who becomes involved in the world of the supernatural. Emma’s chapters take place in the 80’s and 90’s, roughly a ten year span from 1985 to 1995. Mara’s ranged from the ancient Middle East to the fall of Tenochtitlan, which make sense considering that she’s a goddess. In the world of Rituals, there’s many ways to become a god, but one is the ritual of blood – committing mass murder to gain immortality and divinity. Mara has sworn to be a protector of the weak, and she hunts anyone who dares attempt the ritual of blood.
Between Emma and Mara, I preferred Emma’s sections. In the start of the book, Emma is a fairly ordinary student, but when she goes to a party and sees her roommate eaten by an ogre, she’s suddenly thrown into the world of the supernatural. Especially when her roommate shows back up as a ghost, becomes Emma’s girlfriend, and starts working with her to solve supernatural problems. My favorite of Emma’s chapters involved one where she was called upon to witness a vampire/elf wedding and business affair. She knows there’s something sketchy going on and starts to investigate. One of my favorite supporting characters was the vampire princess, who was self conscious about her small fangs!
Emma was easily my favorite character in Rituals. I like how her superpower is basically being sensible and talking things through. She doesn’t have any sort of fighting skills, and her eventual career as a psychic is more due to her natural bent for diplomacy. While I liked Emma, I was not as into Mara or really any of the other characters. I did appreciate how the major protagonists tended to be queer women. Emma, her girlfriend Caroline, and Mara are all lesbians. There’s also a bi woman as a major supporting character, and the word bi is actually used! I really loved how Rituals wasn’t afraid to use words like “bi,” “lesbian,” and “queer” and how it was trans inclusive.
As a forewarning, if you’re particularly religious, I don’t know how you’d feel about this one. Both God and Satan appear as major supporting characters, and I can easily see devout members of the Abrahamic religions being upset by God’s portrayal here. Otherwise, Rituals would probably appeal to you if you liked American Gods but thought that it could be a lot gayer.
Rituals is a book that marches to the beat of its own drum. Unfortunately, I don’t think the structure worked well for me. I had trouble getting through Mara’s chapters, and my reactions to Emma’s were variable enough that I’m probably not going to head into the next book in the series. I can see other people liking this book more than I did, and trust me when I say that the book is a whole lot better than the cover.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
Before I get into a plot synopsis, I think it’s necessary to explain the unusual structure of Rituals. It’s almost more like a collection of novellas or novelettes than a standard book. There’s not really a plot arc for the book as a whole; instead, each chapter has it’s own plot line, arc, climax, and conclusion. Usually, they take place at different times as well. What unites them is the characters and the world.
Rituals has two protagonists: Mara the Huntress and Emma Jones, an ordinary English woman who becomes involved in the world of the supernatural. Emma’s chapters take place in the 80’s and 90’s, roughly a ten year span from 1985 to 1995. Mara’s ranged from the ancient Middle East to the fall of Tenochtitlan, which make sense considering that she’s a goddess. In the world of Rituals, there’s many ways to become a god, but one is the ritual of blood – committing mass murder to gain immortality and divinity. Mara has sworn to be a protector of the weak, and she hunts anyone who dares attempt the ritual of blood.
Between Emma and Mara, I preferred Emma’s sections. In the start of the book, Emma is a fairly ordinary student, but when she goes to a party and sees her roommate eaten by an ogre, she’s suddenly thrown into the world of the supernatural. Especially when her roommate shows back up as a ghost, becomes Emma’s girlfriend, and starts working with her to solve supernatural problems. My favorite of Emma’s chapters involved one where she was called upon to witness a vampire/elf wedding and business affair. She knows there’s something sketchy going on and starts to investigate. One of my favorite supporting characters was the vampire princess, who was self conscious about her small fangs!
Emma was easily my favorite character in Rituals. I like how her superpower is basically being sensible and talking things through. She doesn’t have any sort of fighting skills, and her eventual career as a psychic is more due to her natural bent for diplomacy. While I liked Emma, I was not as into Mara or really any of the other characters. I did appreciate how the major protagonists tended to be queer women. Emma, her girlfriend Caroline, and Mara are all lesbians. There’s also a bi woman as a major supporting character, and the word bi is actually used! I really loved how Rituals wasn’t afraid to use words like “bi,” “lesbian,” and “queer” and how it was trans inclusive.
As a forewarning, if you’re particularly religious, I don’t know how you’d feel about this one. Both God and Satan appear as major supporting characters, and I can easily see devout members of the Abrahamic religions being upset by God’s portrayal here. Otherwise, Rituals would probably appeal to you if you liked American Gods but thought that it could be a lot gayer.
Rituals is a book that marches to the beat of its own drum. Unfortunately, I don’t think the structure worked well for me. I had trouble getting through Mara’s chapters, and my reactions to Emma’s were variable enough that I’m probably not going to head into the next book in the series. I can see other people liking this book more than I did, and trust me when I say that the book is a whole lot better than the cover.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
August 5, 2016
This...this...good gods, how can I possibly put this book's awesomeness into words? It is going to the very top of my favourites pile forever.
Let's start simple: the plot. Which is not really simple at all. There are two plotlines within this book - one, told by Mara the Huntress, an immortal slayer of evil gods, is quite simply Mara telling her own story to a magician she happens to have met. As an immortal slayer of evil gods, that story is a long, complex, incredible one - even if it often involves horrible horrors and unspeakable cruelty, on the parts of the evil monsters she is sworn to kill. In the course of her life she has met many creatures and become involved with many stories - if you're a student of mythology like myself, and even if you aren't, you'll probably recognise many of the stories she becomes involved with. Noah and his Ark, Atlantis, the Amazon warrior women - all of them and more are here, in a recognisable form but still utterly different from the myths and legends we know today. If you ask me, this is one of Kaveney's special bits of genius, because it makes the stories far more real: you can see how the 'grain of truth' evolved into the myth we know, and I loved it to pieces every time I caught a reference.
The second plotline is that of Emma, a young woman living in 90s London who becomes involved with the supernatural world when a monster eats her best friend. This is the only time the two plotlines really cross, because Mara gets involved for a minute or two - but then she's off again, leaving Emma, and her friend Caroline (now a ghost, and Emma's lover) to start policing the supernatural world at the behest of Caroline's nameless 'employer'.
Both Mara and Emma end up saving the world a lot.
But to be honest, that really doesn't give you any idea of Rituals' complete and utter genius. Sure, there's the retelling of all the myths (which I adored SO MUCH). There's the host of LGBTQ characters, including chaos magicians in drag and a vampire princess who is simply adorable with her 'baby fangs'. And there's Emma's snarky sarcasm, as she ruthlessly says what we've all been thinking for years and mocks the elves and vampires she comes across mercilessly. (Don't worry though. This is NOT a book about elves and vampires, or a book for their fans. Kaveney parodies them deliberately, and it's utterly hilarious and wonderful). But there's also Kaveney's incredible use of language, description, and sheer original BRILLIANCE that has me down on my knees BEGGING for the sequel.
Please please PLEASE, Kaveney - don't keep me waiting too long for book 2!
Let's start simple: the plot. Which is not really simple at all. There are two plotlines within this book - one, told by Mara the Huntress, an immortal slayer of evil gods, is quite simply Mara telling her own story to a magician she happens to have met. As an immortal slayer of evil gods, that story is a long, complex, incredible one - even if it often involves horrible horrors and unspeakable cruelty, on the parts of the evil monsters she is sworn to kill. In the course of her life she has met many creatures and become involved with many stories - if you're a student of mythology like myself, and even if you aren't, you'll probably recognise many of the stories she becomes involved with. Noah and his Ark, Atlantis, the Amazon warrior women - all of them and more are here, in a recognisable form but still utterly different from the myths and legends we know today. If you ask me, this is one of Kaveney's special bits of genius, because it makes the stories far more real: you can see how the 'grain of truth' evolved into the myth we know, and I loved it to pieces every time I caught a reference.
The second plotline is that of Emma, a young woman living in 90s London who becomes involved with the supernatural world when a monster eats her best friend. This is the only time the two plotlines really cross, because Mara gets involved for a minute or two - but then she's off again, leaving Emma, and her friend Caroline (now a ghost, and Emma's lover) to start policing the supernatural world at the behest of Caroline's nameless 'employer'.
Both Mara and Emma end up saving the world a lot.
But to be honest, that really doesn't give you any idea of Rituals' complete and utter genius. Sure, there's the retelling of all the myths (which I adored SO MUCH). There's the host of LGBTQ characters, including chaos magicians in drag and a vampire princess who is simply adorable with her 'baby fangs'. And there's Emma's snarky sarcasm, as she ruthlessly says what we've all been thinking for years and mocks the elves and vampires she comes across mercilessly. (Don't worry though. This is NOT a book about elves and vampires, or a book for their fans. Kaveney parodies them deliberately, and it's utterly hilarious and wonderful). But there's also Kaveney's incredible use of language, description, and sheer original BRILLIANCE that has me down on my knees BEGGING for the sequel.
Please please PLEASE, Kaveney - don't keep me waiting too long for book 2!
August 27, 2016
This book was a little bit all over the place. There were two separate point-of-view characters who split the narrative of the book, and never truly interacted. I liked one of them a lot, and the other I found boring and it was difficult to continue reading.
The one I liked is mostly set in the present, and the other is using the trick of "I'm relating my past stories to a third party" that you only occasionally remember and it shows up in weird places to pull you out of the story.
Worst of all, the chapters are just tremendously long. I don't mind the odd long chapter here or there, but I need a break once in a while. I mean, in a 300+ page book, there were 5 chapters. That's just mean.
Or perhaps the worst part was that there wasn't much of a specific plot, and no real conclusions to speak of. This isn't so much the first part of a trilogy as it is the first third of a single book.
I don't know, I'll probably pick up the next one at some point, because I really did love the one POV character, but this book had serious problems.
The one I liked is mostly set in the present, and the other is using the trick of "I'm relating my past stories to a third party" that you only occasionally remember and it shows up in weird places to pull you out of the story.
Worst of all, the chapters are just tremendously long. I don't mind the odd long chapter here or there, but I need a break once in a while. I mean, in a 300+ page book, there were 5 chapters. That's just mean.
Or perhaps the worst part was that there wasn't much of a specific plot, and no real conclusions to speak of. This isn't so much the first part of a trilogy as it is the first third of a single book.
I don't know, I'll probably pick up the next one at some point, because I really did love the one POV character, but this book had serious problems.
Read
June 12, 2021This book is a heap of fun, and deliciously queer.
July 5, 2023
This might just be the best book I have ever read about gods.
It is not a book about religion or belief, in that way it is not at all like Good Omens, where the Powers That Be never even appear, because they are not important to the story.
In Rituals the mechanics of power are what matter. And what people would do to gather power.
This book might very well end up in a fire, so if you are one of those who cannot fathom other cannons beside Christianity, this book is not for you. Seriously.
Rituals is a book about how rituals of different kind makes gods. In the same way of politics, the best person for the job, is usually the one that doesn't want it, so you get the gods we've gotten.
I'm not usually inclined to tell what happens in my reviews but I think this books needs it.
The narrative is split in two, one is told by Mara The Huntress, a being as old as most gods and a constant reminder that somebody knew them when they were just a barely dressed ambition with some poorly feed followers (this seriously doesn't fly with the newer gods. Awesome scene: Mara in Jehovah's office). Her job is to punish those that rise to godhood by the means of the rituals of blood, so you can say her job has taken her all over the world, and she has seen what people would do to people for power. Because that is mostly the point, that it all starts with people, then legend, then myth...etc.
Then there is Emma. Emma has the coolest super power. Evah.
She has a great abundance of common sense. She is calm and collected, and above all, polite.
And armed with better weapons than most heroines, Emma battles evil, and the morally confused, by mostly talking to it. And yes, the help of her lover ghost Caroline (Long story, seriously, read the book).
Finally, the most interesting thing about this book, is that in all it's destruction of the dogmas of most religions (the rest are not mentioned), it's not in any way an atheist book. The gods exist. Is just that they somewhat seem more real looked though the eyes of Roz Kaveney.
PD: I will address the cover, because is the biggest disservice to a book I have seen in along while, so please, read the book, we might get another edition with a better cover.
It is not a book about religion or belief, in that way it is not at all like Good Omens, where the Powers That Be never even appear, because they are not important to the story.
In Rituals the mechanics of power are what matter. And what people would do to gather power.
This book might very well end up in a fire, so if you are one of those who cannot fathom other cannons beside Christianity, this book is not for you. Seriously.
Rituals is a book about how rituals of different kind makes gods. In the same way of politics, the best person for the job, is usually the one that doesn't want it, so you get the gods we've gotten.
I'm not usually inclined to tell what happens in my reviews but I think this books needs it.
The narrative is split in two, one is told by Mara The Huntress, a being as old as most gods and a constant reminder that somebody knew them when they were just a barely dressed ambition with some poorly feed followers (this seriously doesn't fly with the newer gods. Awesome scene: Mara in Jehovah's office). Her job is to punish those that rise to godhood by the means of the rituals of blood, so you can say her job has taken her all over the world, and she has seen what people would do to people for power. Because that is mostly the point, that it all starts with people, then legend, then myth...etc.
Then there is Emma. Emma has the coolest super power. Evah.
She has a great abundance of common sense. She is calm and collected, and above all, polite.
And armed with better weapons than most heroines, Emma battles evil, and the morally confused, by mostly talking to it. And yes, the help of her lover ghost Caroline (Long story, seriously, read the book).
Finally, the most interesting thing about this book, is that in all it's destruction of the dogmas of most religions (the rest are not mentioned), it's not in any way an atheist book. The gods exist. Is just that they somewhat seem more real looked though the eyes of Roz Kaveney.
PD: I will address the cover, because is the biggest disservice to a book I have seen in along while, so please, read the book, we might get another edition with a better cover.
October 14, 2015
This would have been three and a half stars, but that's not allowed here.
'Don't judge a book by its cover' has never been truer here, it's awful (the cover, that is). The book itself is packed full of great ideas and humour, but it feels like a collection of short stories rather than a continuous narrative, hence the lower score. .
Still, I'm buying the next book in the series, so I guess that's a recommendation.
'Don't judge a book by its cover' has never been truer here, it's awful (the cover, that is). The book itself is packed full of great ideas and humour, but it feels like a collection of short stories rather than a continuous narrative, hence the lower score. .
Still, I'm buying the next book in the series, so I guess that's a recommendation.
February 20, 2019
While aspects of this book interested me, I found myself frustrated by flaws in its presentation: an erratically anachronic order, dual storylines that never end up tying together, and an anticlimactic ending.
Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.
Full review (with spoilers) on my blog.
October 1, 2014
This is amazing! Frightening, thought-provoking, and also hilarious.
So cool to see all the different historical and mythological figures come into play. This was long but un-put-down-able. I look forward to further books in the series.
So cool to see all the different historical and mythological figures come into play. This was long but un-put-down-able. I look forward to further books in the series.
August 25, 2013
Magnificent, and a delight to read. Not absolutely flawless, but the bits where I sometimes wanted more description or slower pacing are far overshadowed by its wit, wonderful characters, and innovative treatment of familiar themes.
January 4, 2015
I really enjoyed this one; a fresh take on the paranormal/supernatural. Mara's and Emma's narratives were very different in tone, but although that led to a certain lack of unity, they balanced each other out nicely.
December 30, 2015
A lot of the historical references went over my head, but even without getting those I found this series warm, open, darkly funny, and page-turning. I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the last one to come out.
September 7, 2015
A smart, funny, horrific, and profoundly strange work of fantasy. See my full review at Strange Horizons: http://www.strangehorizons.com/review...
August 22, 2013
I want more!
September 22, 2014
Don't let what is possibly the world's worst gcse art project cover put you off this book/series.
June 2, 2022
1st in an epic fantasy chronicle of crusading LBGT lovers. James Tiptree Jr. Award Nominee (2012).
February 25, 2013
A ripping page-turner.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews