Green by Jake Lake

Review by Bowden P (Trey)

After Mainspring I admit I wasn’t thinking too highly of Mr. Lake. Worse, he found the review of Mainspring. He did have the good taste and class to not engage in the blog comments about it though. And I have to say this: I wish I’d found Green first. Four and a half stars.

What’s the book about? It’s Green’s story from her first memories, to her training as a courtesan and an assassin. Her escape, return home and her struggles with herself and within. The blurb from the book does a good job of describing the basics, but leaves out many, many things. Some for fear of spoiling the plot, some because they can get very detailed.

The language Lake uses for Green lends to the unique feel of the book, formal but with many sensorial details. Sensuous and languid are two ways I could describe it. It isn’t “You are there!” type language, but I found he’d mastered the art of showing and not telling with Green. And while its languid, it doesn’t waste time. There are portions of the book that could be novels in their own right.

I liked it – partly because the plot against the Undying Duke that in most novels would take up the entire book is disposed of in rapid sequence. Another is that the after effects echo down through the years and are corrupting to the original plotters and impacting the lives of their agent, Green. I also liked the hints that it is the same world as Gene Wolfe‘s New Sun series (Lives of the Seventeen Megatherians for one) are another joy. And if it isn’t a hint, then it’s a fun little Easter egg. The idea of a god of pain and his beneficial role in the world was something unique and worth pondering. And if I like anything, it’s a novel that can make you think.

Then there is Green herself. Sold by her family, raised in cruelty to a specific standard of courtesan, used as a weapon and on and on. She should have broken under all that. But she keeps on. She endures. She grows and changes.

I like her prickly pride, stubbornness, wit and temper. She’s also deadly as a viper. In all of these, she reminds me of Venera Fanning (Karl Schroeder’s Virga series) and Jamethiel Dream Weaver (of P.C Hodgell’s Kencyr series), with a touch of Hezhi from Greg Keyes Waterborn. I like reading about her though I doubt I’d want to deal with her regularly (sort of like Dr. House in that regard), and right now I want a copy of the sequel Endurance to read.

Four and a half stars easily.

Likes: Green, herself; The eternal quest for a home that doesn’t exist; Kalimpura and its unique way of government and life; The Temple of the Lilly Goddess; Blackblood the God of Pain and the role he fulfills; The divine shattering and the Father’s Tale and Mother’s Tale; The Pardines – they’re very alien and different for all their resemblance to humans.

Dislikes: Green does verge on the whiny and angsty with her quest for a home that doesn’t exist, but its forgivable, especially since he inverts the chosen by fate trope of fantasy novels.

Suggested for: Fans of character driven fantasy novels; fans of Karl Schroeder’s Virga series, P.C Hodgell’s Kencyr series and Greg Keyes’ Waterborn and Blackgod novels.

Samson’s Lovely Mortal (Scanguards Vampires #1) by  Tina Folsom

Review by Cynthia F. (frazerc)

You don’t meet a lot of heroes with erectile dysfunction…  Samson should be a happy vampire: he’s got close friends, a skillion dollars, and a successful company. But he still seems to being striking out on the ‘life, love, and pursuit of happiness’ thing. And there’s his 237th birthday coming up and his buddies are going to throw him a ‘surprise party’ complete with a stripper who does ‘extras’.  Sigh.  So he really isn’t surprised when a strange woman bangs on his door and begs for help…

Delilah barely escapes a thug who then pursues her down the deserted, rain-slicked streets of San Francisco. Seeing a lighted window she pounds on the door which is jerked open by a very large and apparently not very happy homeowner.  But he pulls her inside and offers her a place by the fire as she jerks out her story.

So, the stripper was taking the ‘damsel in distress’ approach.  Unusual but very nice.  And the rain-soaked clothes make it clear that the mortal is very nicely put together.  One kiss proves that she’s just what the doctor ordered…

OK, sexually aggressive homeowner versus street thug – not a good choice even if he was the best kisser in the world.  One high heel equipped stomp and slap later they’re glaring at each other.  Delilah thinks the night can’t get any worse and then he makes it clear he thinks she’s a stripper.

Shocked when he finds that she really was a damsel in distress and even more horrified by his own misguided behavior he apologizes profusely and offers dry clothes and a ride home with his chauffeur.  His friends confirm that it had been a case of mistaken identity [they brought the stripper with them] so she accepts.

After her departure, Samson takes the stripper upstairs planning to give his newly cured body some long denied release.  Unfortunately his body knew what it wanted and it had just walked out the door.

The story continues with a fair amount of action, both in and out of the bedroom. Samson pursues Delilah [the whole Samson and Delilah thing?  Smirk.] Past and present betrayals surface but everyone gets by with a little help from their friends.  And Samson?  Let’s just say he doesn’t need a shrink anymore.

Scanguards Vampires Series:
Book 1: Samson’s Lovely Mortal
Book 2: Amaury’s Hellion
Book 3: Gabriel’s Mate
Book 4: Yvette’s Haven [published 5/2011]

Ink Flamingos by Karen E. Olson

Review by reacherfan1909

I started reading Karen E Olson back in with her first book in the Anne Seymour series, Sacred Cows.  I sort of lost track of her work over the years and thanks to the Mystery Thriller Virtual Box group, I heard about the Tattoo Shop series.  I hesitated a bit, I cannot tell how tired I am of those cozy clones with the many cutesy hooks, but The Missing Ink got such uniformly good reviews I gave it and Pretty in Ink a try.  I was immediately hooked and the Tattoo Shop books have been on pre-order ever since.  Ink Flamingos was released June 7 – and I obviously wasted no time reading it.

Brett Kavanaugh owns The Painted Lady, a high end tattoo shop in the shopping plaza of the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.  Like the classy setting, The Painted Lady is no ordinary tattoo shop, they do custom work only – body art.  (The stock tattoos commonly seen are called ‘flash’.) Her staff are mostly well developed characters – Bitsy, her tough as nails ‘little person’ receptionist, and Joel, the forever unsuccessfully dieting artist.  Ace, her second artist who considers tattoos rather beneath him as he sees himself as a ‘real’ artist, but needs to make a living, has never really been fleshed out as well as the other characters.

Brett shares a home owned by her older brother, Tim, a detective with the Las Vegas Police Department.  She and Tim enjoy a good relationship, except for one little problem – Brett keeps getting involved with murders.  This time it’s different. Very different.  One of Brett’s clients, a young woman, Daisy ‘Dee’ Carmichael, who became an ‘overnight’ rock sensation, has turned up dead in a Vegas hotel.  A blog has photos that implicate Brett in causing the death with a bad tattoo.  Her apparent involvement is exacerbated by a tall female in a red wig claiming to be her.  Not one, but two blogs seem to be setting her up, blaming her for Dee’s death, and trashing her reputation and business.

Brett really liked Daisy and had been doing her tattoos – all plain black due to Daisy’s allergies – since before she and her band, the Flamingos, became famous.  Between someone seemingly out to ruin her, a sense of obligation to Daisy, whom she considered more than just a customer, her own curiosity, and the blogs driving some very negative public attention her way, Brett finds herself once again, ‘meddling’ in a police investigation.  Calling on Jeff Coleman, owner of Murder, Ink, a ‘flash’ style tattoo business and her frequent cohort in her rather questionable activities, they keep finding as many questions as they do answers.

Unemployed blackjack dealer and frequent Painted Lady visitor, the good natured Harry, helps Brett out on one of her forays, then takes her for a drink – absinthe.  Photos of her and Harry kissing land on the blog the within hours.  And someone makes sure Brett’s current beau, Dr Colin Bixby, sees them.  Colin quickly becomes her ex.  Jeff tells Brett the apparently genial Harry is actually a tattoo artist he fired for incompetence and has been lying to her right along.  And it turns out Harry’s kiss is nothing compared with Jeff’s, which curls Brett’s toes like no one ever has.  And the only one socked by it is Brett – everyone at Painted Lady figured it was about time!

The plot twists are good, even if one of them was a bit trite (sorry no spoiler, so I can’t reveal more).  As a newspaper writer, Ms Olson writing style is clean and descriptive, she keeps her story on track and well paced, and makes most of her characters and colorful Las Vegas setting.  I’ve come to really like Brett, Jeff and the supporting characters, including Jeff’s eccentric elderly mother Sylvia – a delightful original.  One of the interesting parts of this series is how she draws the reader into the philosophy and mindset of those who get ‘body modification’ in the form of tattoos.  Colorful, original, and very good reading.  The one trite plot trick keeps my score for Ink Flamingos at 4.5*, B+ to A-, but it is a highly recommended read!  You don’t need to read the series in order, but I think you’ll enjoy it more if you do.