An Easy Death

This was so much fun!
I love the alternate history. I love the magic mixed with western. I suppose the action is mostly straightforward journey novel. But it is a good way for us to see the area and the people My only complaint is the relationships. They seemed odd all around, stepdad, clients, etc. Some were too rushed. Some were too distant But I enjoyed the world so much, that I didn't stop to think about all the relationship things that didn't make sense or feel right.

WHAT'S AN EASY DEATH ABOUT?

I've tried this, and it gets too detailed (read: dull), so I'm going to borrow from Simon & Schuster's website:

In a fractured United States, a new world where magic is acknowledged but mistrusted, a young gunslinger named Lizbeth Rose takes a job offer from a pair of Russian wizards. Lizbeth Rose has a wildly fearsome reputation but these wizards are desperate. Searching the small border towns near Mexico, they’re trying to locate a low-level magic practitioner believed to be a direct descendant of Grigori Rasputin.

As the trio journey through an altered America—shattered into several countries after the assassination of Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Depression—they’re set on by enemies. It’s clear that a powerful force does not want them to succeed in their mission. Lizbeth Rose has never failed a client, but this job may stretch her to her deadly limits.

THE WORLDBUILDING

It's always interesting to see how someone launching an SF/F series introduces the world and its rules (eh, even in Crime/Non-Genre fiction this can apply), in this case, the Alternate-History, too. Harris takes a pretty bare-bones approach, on pages 3-4 you get a decent sketch of where this Earth's history diverged from us and a hint about the resulting politics. A few details will be added along the way, but not many (all that you need, and not a word more).

Throughout the book, she tosses in just enough to get you through the magic system, although most of that is left vague and mysterious.

You might be curious about several other things—both on the history and magic front. But you don't need to know about it for the novel to work, and Harris is just focused on Lizbeth and her clients. The rest just doesn't matter.

It's both frustrating (as someone who is curious about more than a few things) and refreshingly satisfying (who needs the info dumps and background?).

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT AN EASY DEATH?

I enjoyed it. I think of all the books I've been recommended for this 12 Books Challenge, Zane's is most likely to get me to read another by that author/in that series.* I'm very curious about what a second Gunnie Rose adventure looks like—how it differs (and how it doesn't) from this one.

* Although, to be fair, if a second book in the King Oliver book was actually out, it'd probably be a tie.

Gunnie's a compelling character, that's for sure. But, like the world-building, Harris has been sparing with the details about her. I think a lot of my conclusions about her so far are based on my preconceptions and assumptions about characters like her more than on what Harris provided. The differences in my mind between her and Shining Smith (for example) are mostly based on genre and the time setting of the books. What I do know, I like—and I want to fill in some of those missing details. I'm not sure either Gunnie or Harris are going to be all that forthcoming with the details, they seem to be playing things close to their vests.

The Alternate-History stuff was interesting enough, but it's not going to bring me back by itself. The idea of California-Oregon-Washington making up a Holy Russian Empire is intriguing, don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure we're going to get more about it than what's provided in this novel. As for the rest? Eh, I could go either way.

But the sparse and stark, Depression-era territory of Texoma and the pseudo-Western atmosphere and storytelling possibilities? That's a draw I feel, particularly with Gunnie around.

But that's for the series as a whole. What about An Easy Death? If in the first chapter or so you decide you want to see what happens to Gunnie, you're going to be in for a fun ride featuring some good action scenes, a mysterious quest, and strange magic. If you're not particularly interested in Gunnie's character by the end of Chapter 3? Close the book and move on.

Listened via audiobook.

I enjoyed this book a lot! I loved the alternate history premise with a fantastical twist and the main character's hard wit. It was an engaging read that kept me relatively hooked. Ignore my read dates, I started the book and then got distracted, but I sat down and began to listen to it regularly.

Lizbeth Rose is a gunnie, a gun-for-hire mercenary living in an alternate history version of the United States, where parts of the country are territory for other countries. After completing a job that went haywire, Lizbeth goes home to find two Russian wizards–called “grigoris”–who hire her for a dangerous job. They travel across the territories of North America, looking for something very particular. I won't spoil past that, because part of the book's engagement was hearing things unravel and they went along.

I was legitimately very interested in this alternate version of the United States. The addition of magic was an intriguing twist. There's no explanation for the magic, though, so if you are coming in expecting a detailed magic system, you'll be disappointed. I wasn't at all bothered by it. The main character herself felt like someone who wasn't too invested in magic, so it made it feel authentic to her perspective. It's a relatively fast-paced book with great action and tense scenes. Lizbeth herself is a fun character to read about. She's no-nonsense, clever, and tough. My favorite thing about Lizbeth? She's the perfect example of a character who actually is badass. She doesn't need to tell the audience and try to convince them. It's painted clear as day with her actions, and I respect that so much. She doesn't undergo any significant character development during the story, but there wasn't a point in the book where she felt stale to me.

My main criticism of the book is that Lizbeth's narration could get a little too dry and could bog down the scenes with all of her clipped sentences, though that might be just how it felt with the audiobook narrator. There's a few scenes/developments in character relationships that felt like they came out of nowhere and it gave me a bit of whiplash.

All in all, a solid book and one that I enjoyed.