Blameless

The Parasol Protectorate is becoming one of my favorite new series. It's comedic historical fantasy set in a steampunk version of London populated with both humans and the supernatural (vampires, werewolves and ghosts). The first book in the series, Soulless, was also somewhat of a romance, but the next two books are not. In my opinion, this latest installment is about as enjoyable as the previous book and both are more polished than the first one.

Blameless is full of clever, whimsical humor and it struck me a couple of times while reading it that nearly every sentence is hilarious. There are so many well-worded phrases, but while there are plenty of funny situations the book doesn't compromise characterization just for the sake of being amusing. Alexia has become a character I really care about; she's so logical and courageous it would be difficult not to like her.

Full Review

A fun read, as always. But something about werewolves started to bother me. And all the fictional “aether” and “soul” content theories that governs this world. It's extremely well built but my suspension of disbelief was not so strong while I was reading this book.
But overall it's a great steampunk fantasy, with lots of Victorian humor!

Pros: quirky characters, action

Cons: soap opera feel

As this is the 3rd book in the series, the synopsis contains spoilers. This is not a book you can pick up without having read the previous two.

Alexia, Lady Maccon, begins this book at her mother's abode, being estranged from her husband due to the ‘baby inconvenience'. Though faithful, her husband's werewolf state ought to make him unable to father a child. The vampires aren't happy about Alexia's pregnancy, and without the protection of the Woolsey Pack she's in trouble.

So she does what any self-respecting soulless would do while under attack - take a trip to the continent to see if anyone there can explain how she conceived.

While the characters are still quirky, their personalities are toned down a bit in this novel so at no point do they grate on your nerves (which happened a few times in Changeless).

The plot, while organic as per the other books in the series, feels a bit tighter in this book. Carriger's writing, already good, has improved.

The only ‘negative' I had was that the story is starting to feel like a soap opera. Which can be fun, but can also go too far. It's worked so far, I hope Carriger can keep the books from becoming farcical rather than pleasantly campy.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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... a pitcher of some dark liquid that smelled like heaven. Floote poured a portion for her into his cup

Alexia took a tentative sip and was quite overwhelmed by an acute sense of betrayal. It was absolutely
vole tasting, a mixture of quinine and burnt dandelion leaves.

“That, I am to assume, is the infamous coffee?”

Madame Lefoux nodded, pouring herself a splash and then adding a good deal of honey and milk. Alexia could not believe a whole hive of honey capable of rescuing the foul drink. Imagine preferring that to tea!

Changeless

• I enjoyed the narration, the dialogue, and so on. Ivy writing a letter just might be better than Ivy talking – her malapropisms are too much fun. It was nice to see a responsible streak in her, nevertheless.


• Floote's hiding more than we previously thought, I hope something makes him crack.


• The effects of garlic on vampires, and basil on werewolves in this world gave me a good chuckle.


• At the end of the day, Professor Lyall shines brightest here – it's been clear all along that he's powerful, capable, and resourceful – but he really gets to strut his stuff here, while Lord Maccon is licking his wounds and drowning his sorrows. That was fun to see.


• In between the assassination attempts, the bullets, the supernatural goings-on, and everything else, there were a couple of really sweet moments. Making everything just a little more human.

Soulless

I was enthralled with the first two books in the series but Blameless seemed to stall out. It did nothing, in the end to advance the story, IMHO. I am hoping that book four, Heartless, will pick back up where the first two books in the series left off – more witty banter, adventure and character development. I so wanted to love this book but I felt like I read it only because I had to do it. Sad.