Cyn Newman

This is a wonderful book, and it will take an honored place on my small shelf of books recommended for anyone interested in an ethically non-monogamous lifestyle. That said, I'm glad I purchased the ebook as well as the Audible version, as I feel a need to go back and read it again with special attention to sources, tables, etc. I do hope that [a:Jessica Fern 20144014 Jessica Fern https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] writes more, as she brings a lovely enthusiasm to her craft.

Chance must have thought readers were bored with the Cassandra/Mircea match, because much of this book is spent with Cassie falling for Pritkin without really being aware that she's getting into dangerous territory.

Palmer isn't one of my favorite characters. She isn't an ass-kicker, but she's probably somewhat more realistic than most paranormal heroines for that fact. She's coming into her own by standing up to Mircea more in this volume, but she does it in childish ways. I find her annoying partially because I'd hate to try protecting her from herself, much less anyone else.

I don't honestly understand why Mircea and Pritkin are attracted to her, either, but part of the romance formula is the heroine has to be irresistible to at least one, preferably more than one man. I do find Mircea and Pritkin interesting (they just have bad taste in women), so they and the plots hold my interest.

To be fair, Cassie seems to be growing up a little bit. Not entirely, but she's growing a little. She does vehemently claim to care about whether or not other people get hurt trying to protect her.

This book also serves as backstory time for Mircea and Pritkin, as we learn a lot more about their pasts. Things drag a bit while they relate their stories, and in fact there seems to be little point in what we hear from Mircea (readers of the series already know a lot about his family and history).

Altogether, I wouldn't have read it if I weren't already so far into the series. I do wish Chance would switch focus to another character. (I'm aware of the Dorina Basarab series set in the same universe, and consider them to be better books in general). I suppose that's unlikely, seeing as it's the Cassandra Palmer series.

I suppose it must be obvious to anyone who reads my reviews that I enjoy Laura Anne Gilman's writing. I've only read every one of her Retrievers series as well as every one of her short stories sold via Fictionwise (including some that I'd already read in various anthologies, but I didn't want to miss anything). I've been waiting anxiously for Hard Magic, the first in the new Paranormal Scene Investigations series, and it did not disappoint me in the least.If you've read the Retrievers books, you'll recognize the main character, Bonnie Torres, immediately as Wren Valere's neighbor. If you haven't read that series, don't worry - they aren't required to enjoy this book. I do, however, recommend hunting down the short story “Illumination,” which is referred to several times during the novel. It's in the anthology [b:Unusual Suspects: Stories of Mystery & Fantasy 3395318 Unusual Suspects Stories of Mystery & Fantasy Dana Stabenow http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1243223215s/3395318.jpg 3435306]. It isn't strictly required, but I think it would help.If you've ever enjoyed CSI or any similar show, I think you'll really enjoy Hard Magic even more than others will. Bonnie and her coworkers are trying to reinvent all of the forensic science that those shows take for granted from scratch, from a magical perspective. It's fascinating to me, and I would have been happier with more geeking.I'm really looking forward to book two!

I'm trying to remember whether or not I've read any of Gaiman's other novels before, and I'm fairly certain that I haven't. I read [b:Good Omens 12067 Good Omens Terry Pratchett http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266659394s/12067.jpg 4110990], but that was co-written with [a:Terry Pratchett 1654 Terry Pratchett http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1235562205p2/1654.jpg], and the collaboration was genius. I know that the entire world seems to love Sandman, of course, but I'm just not a fan of graphic novels. In fact, it took me a while to realize that the Good Omens co-author and the Sandman author were one and the same. I've certainly read some short stories, too. The most memorable, “Snow, Glass, Apples” was reprinted in an anthology I read recently. I find it disturbing, so I won't re-read it. Well-written, of course—it wouldn't be so very memorably distressing if it weren't so masterfully done! (I found the text online if you care to read it, but please understand that the story deals with pedophilia, necrophilia, and incest here. It is the polar opposite of all things Disney.) Snow White was never one of of my favorite fairy tales, and Gaiman definitely pushed it much farther down the list.In any case, I don't know what I was expecting from Gaiman, but American Gods wasn't it. I like stories with happy endings, and within the first few chapters I was fairly sure that there wouldn't be one. Is Gaiman fundamentally opposed to joy, or is it just happiness that he doesn't allow?The novel is epic. It is masterful. All that stuff from the big critics is dead on. The book could be used as the backbone of a mythological scavenger hunt if a teacher were willing to run a very unstructured but engaging course that way. I certainly enjoyed that aspect of it, and it made me glad that I was reading it on my iTouch so that I could look up anything I liked online at any time, no matter where I happened to be (which was almost always at home or somewhere else that had wifi access, happily). I seldom want to see illustrations in any book, but yes, I think I would like to see good pictures of some of the characters Gaiman described in this one. On the other hand, without artwork I spent time imagining what the characters looked like based on the descriptions. I don't normally stop to do that, as such matters as seldom relevant to a plot, but these beings caught my fancy. Not enough that I would sit through an entire graphic novel, I'm afraid, but if I saw one now I might flip through it to see how the artist's renderings compare with my versions.I'm seldom able to identify an overall Theme to the books I read. Most of them, honestly, are fluff. I'm fine with that. I read them because they entertain me. American Gods is different. It is entertaining, but it isn't light or fluffy in the least. It definitely has an easily identifiably Theme and Tropes and all those elements that I recall from long-ago classes, the sorts of things that put me off from my original English major because I hated tearing other author's works apart instead of writing anything original. (Now, I begin to understand that we were being taught to recognize what makes for good writing so we might have some hope of possibly creating some of it one day.)I somewhat timidly conclude that American Gods is the first piece of Literature I've read in a very long time, and well worth the time spent reading it. (I find it rather amusing that it would be British Literature, despite its title, due to the author's nationality.) I'm not going to state the theme, because that would be a spoiler, and I hate putting those in reviews—but it's something that I see as a Truth, and one that needs to be stated far more often, especiallly today. It's even more interesting that it took a Brit to say it.The book is dark, although it does have some very bright spots in it. I will acknowledge that I was going through a particularly bad time with regards to my health when I was reading it, but I still think it might be best for some people to read this one when in a fairly positive state of mind.