Heartless

Heartless: A Penny Dreadful Review

          Heartless is the fourth book in Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series.  It  features a giant mechanical octopus, a private dirigible, vampires at tea, and most importantly, Lord Akeldama.
Alexia Tarrabotti agrees to let her friend Lord Akeldama adopt her imminent baby.  The vampires of London are less murderous once they understand that the child, which is an abomination, will be raised by a vampire and not Alexia’s pack of werewolves.  Not about to let Lord Akeldama have the approaching offspring all to himself, Alexia moves in next door, dragging her husband and the Woolsey pack with her.  Meanwhile, Madame LaFoux, the scientist hat-maker, is working on something large…
          In some of the other books, Alexia seems overshadowed by the colorful secondary characters.  In Heartless, she takes center stage.  At one point she sets a fireworks warehouse on fire.  She is a force with which to be reckoned.
          Of course, my favorite is Lord Akeldama.  He is still plenty mysterious.  I hope we get his origin story in the next book, because if we don’t, we may NEVER find out where he came from.  In Heartless, we learn he has closets large enough for people to live in, as Alexia and Lord Maccon take up residence in one.
          I can hardly wait for the next book.  I can hardly wait for the next series!  There are few fantasy worlds as engaging and intricate as Gail Carriger’s, and I hope to visit it again and again.  The style is quirky, the heroine is quintessentially Victorian, and the monsters are unique.
          The Parasol Protectorate series is magnificent, and Heartless is the best yet.  I give it five gears out of five.  I strongly encourage you to read these books.  I’d lend you my copies, but I won’t let them out of my sight.


Your Correspondent from the Bookstore,
Penny J. Merriweather

Blameless

Blameless:  A Penny Dreadful Review

Blameless is the third volume of Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series.  It is a delightful addition.  The end of the story made me jump for joy in an undignified manner.
This series improves with each new book.  I expect it is the combination of the author gaining experience and the characters’ gaining depth and development.  There’s so much to explore in this world.
Alexia Maccon nee Tarabotti is ruined.  Someone, almost certainly her sister Felicity, has leaked to the press the fact that she is in an indelicate condition.  Since her husband is a werewolf, society thinks that he cannot be the father of her imminent baby, even though it cannot be anyone else.  Her husband has thrown her out of his manor, her family has thrown her out of their home, and her dear vampire friend Lord Akeldama has vanished.  To make matters worse, someone is trying to kill her with mechanical ladybugs.  Alexia embarks on a journey to the continent in search of evidence that it is possible for a werewolf to father a child with a preternatural such as herself.
Everything I loved about the previous books is present.  The characters so real they call on one and invite one to tea, the enchanting turns of phrase, the inventive supernatural world of Ms. Carriger’s London (and in this case Florence), and Lord Akeldama.
        There is an interesting subplot wherein the reader learns more about Professor Lyall, Lord Maccon’s second in command over the werewolf pack. Lord Akeldama’s favorite drone Biffy gets upgraded from fun minor character to major plot point.  Also, pesto is revealed to be a secret weapon against vampires (the garlic) and werewolves (Ms. Carriger’s werewolves are allergic to basil).  A tasty, tasty weapon.
I give this book four and a half gears out of five.  If you will excuse me, I need to go badger a bookstore to obtain the next book, Heartless.

Your Correspondent from the Bookstore,
Penny J. Merriweather

Soulless

Soulless: A Penny Dreadful Review

         Gail Carriger’s Soulless is an excellent addition to the genre I will dub Supernatural Romystery.  The Supernatural Romystery can be found in any large number of settings.  Soulless takes place in an alternate and gloriously Steampunk London.
Soulless is Ms. Carriger’s first published novel, and it is fantastic.  She writes in a wry, proper tone that an Anglophile will love, even when some of the events described in that tone become very improper indeed.
Ms. Carriger’s heroine, Miss Alexia Tarabotti, is a clever spinster whose father has the temerity to be a dead Italian.  In addition to inheriting his library of inappropriate books, she inherited his bizarre trait of having no soul.  Vampires loose their fangs when they touch her, werewolves become human, and she may exorcise ghosts if she wishes.  Her ability lands her in a great deal of trouble and frequently comes in handy.
As this is a ROmystery, there is a love interest.  He is Lord Conall Maccon, Earl of Woolsey, Alpha werewolf of the only pack in London.  Ms. Carriger puts an interesting twist on a romantic trope that I find worth mentioning.  In most stories where the hero and heroine utterly detest each other, then fall hopelessly in love with each other, the reader or viewer watches the characters meet for the first time.  In Soulless, they have met a good deal prior to Chapter One, and it involved a hedgehog.
The werewolves and vampires in Soulless are a fascinating variation on the typical bloodsuckers and occasionally furry gents we see every day.  Only people with excess soul, Miss Tarabotti’s opposites, survive the transformation to supernatural beings.  They have been so well integrated into society from the time of Henry VIII that they have their own gentlemen’s clubs.
I give Soulless four gears out of five.  I couldn’t put Soulless down, and I suggest you pick it up.

Your Correspondent from the Bookstore,
Penny J. Merriweather