Soulless, by Gail Carriger

[archangelbeth]

(Mostly copypasta from https://archangelbeth.dreamwidth.org/1085355.html -- but hopefully a review here would be more useful to the universe! O:> )


A steampunk victorian supernatural romance with adventure. There are, from the first few pages, vampires. There are also werewolves. Both of these are well-known in society. It's moderately light on the steampunk, but it definitely figures into things. The heroine, Alexia Tarabotti, is practical, and while she's attitudinal, pushy, and prone to ignoring social custom when she feels like it (she is half-Italian, good gracious, the poor thing -- and soulless), it's rather a different feel than the usual snark.

Also, I do not believe she has more acquaintance with angst than, perhaps, a passing nod, and they've certainly not been introduced formally.

An excerpt from the second page:

The vampire [...] reared away from Alexia, knocking over a nearby tea trolly. Physical contact broken, his fangs reappeared. Clearly not the sharpest of prongs, he then darted forward from the neck like a serpent, diving in for another chomp.

"I say!" said Alexia to the vampire. "We have not even been introduced!"

The only slight issue I have with the book is that it -- as with several of the Georgette Heyer books I have read now -- hops viewpoints into just about any head it feels like. For the most part, this is Alexia's and her love interest's, and it's quite in keeping with the tradition/genre, but it's not quite as smooth as, say, Heyer tends to manage.

But it is a minor quibble indeed. I enjoyed it, and look forward to the next one greatly.

Time Passes

I read the rest of the series, but have not yet gone on to the subsequent one for Reasons. (Mostly involved with my reading time being cut down a lot.)

Comments

[archersangel]

i've read that series & thought it was ok. i have mixed feeling about reading the follow-up/sequel series though.

[archangelbeth]

I want to do the sequel series -- I read a sample of the first one and was amused -- but Life Is Interfering With Reading. Not amused.

[isis]

I DNFed this one. I found the prose clunky ("Miss Tarabotti" alternated with "Alexia" as the subject of each sentence for much of the book, for example); the characters were dull and the plot implausible. I think I liked the idea of the book a lot more than the actual book! But maybe it got better after the point where I quit.

[archangelbeth]

I think I was just hugely charmed to discover that it was Paranormal Romance Tropes wrapped up in a Victorian Historical Romance package, and took the writing style as "setting," basically. Style preferences are very individual and cannot be disputed, though! (Maybe you'd be amused by the manga adaptation that showed up? My spouse found the first of those and was entertained, despite not having read the novel first. http://gailcarriger.com/series/soulless-manga/ )