All the Dead Shall Weep by Charlaine Harris: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

All the Dead Shall Weep by Charlaine Harris

All the Dead Shall Weep is the fifth book in Harris’ alt-history western series, Gunnie Rose, set in 1930s America that’s been divided to small, lawless countries. After the events of the previous book in the point of view of Lizbeth’s sister, Felicia, the story returns to Texoma and Lizbeth’s hometown Segundo Mexia, where she has settled with her husband Eli, the grigori prince from the Russian governed San Diego.

But all is not well. Lizbeth has recently suffered a miscarriage and Eli doesn’t seem to care. The arrival of Felicia and Eli’s brother Peter push things to a point, and Eli leaves to his home in San Diego, taking Peter with him. The things he says before he goes indicate that he’s not coming back.

Lizbeth and Felicia are left behind; Felicia mainly because her growing powers as a grigori mean she’s not safe in San Diego. But turns out she’s not safe in Texoma either. Word of her powers have spread and a magic family after another sends their most eligible members to woo her—and not all of them do it nicely. People are targeting Lizbeth too, on top of which a strange militia keeps attacking her hometown.

After several books, the world is familiar and the backstory has grown interesting. Lizbeth is as tough as ever, but with a vulnerable side too. Felicia’s death magic is terrifying, but it’s not a complete cure-all, as the story shows. The narrative alternates between the women, giving the inner thoughts of both of them—and they both have a lot on their plates. Death still comes easily and is easily cast away, but only when it’s about people trying to kill them.

This was a fast-paced, quick read and another excellent book in the series. However, I was a little disappointed with how things were solved between Lizbeth and Eli. It seemed a bit of a copout after everything she went through. The addition of details from Europe, like Agatha Christie’s books and Hitler seemed a bit superfluous, but they help to ground the story in its era and promise interesting things to come. I’m looking forward to reading more.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Serpent in Heaven by Charlaine Harris: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Serpent in Heaven by Charlaine Harris

The Serpent in Heaven is the fourth book in Gunnie Rose alt-history fantasy series that takes place in alternative 1930s America that has been divided to several new countries after the Great Depression. Britannia in the east coast is ruled by the British, and former California and Oregon form the Holy Russian Empire ruled by the Tzar Alexei, the haemophilic son of Nikolai II, now an adult. Texas and Oklahoma form Texoma, where the series originally took place, following Lizbeth Rose, a sharpshooter who hires herself as a guard on dangerous missions through the lawless state.

The previous book moved the focus to San Diego, where the Tzar’s court is, and to the machinations of courtiers and grigoris, the powerful magic wielders that are allowed to operate openly in the empire. This book ditched Gunnie completely and focused on her half-sister Felicia, who as a granddaughter of Rasputin is one of the few people whose blood can alleviate the Tzar’s haemophilia.

The change in the point of view was good and put a new gear in the story. In the previous books, Felicia has been the target of people who want to kill all the Tzar’s blood donors. Now she’s a student in a school for grigoris, trying to lay low, and going through a freakish growth spurt that brings her up to speed with her real age, fifteen, after her father had suppressed her growth with magic for years to keep her safe.

But she isn’t as unnoticeable as she had hoped. While the school empties during an epidemic of Spanish flu, her dead mother’s family comes gunning for her. Their motivation is a bit lame and doesn’t really justify the body-count that ensues. Most of it was caused by Felicia who discovers she is more powerful magic practitioner than she had known.

This was maybe my favourite book in the series so far. The world is more familiar, there was more magic, and the story was fairly straight-forward. Felicia was a very different character from Gunnie, but I liked her voice and character. Having grown up in the slums of Mexico, she was tough and resilient. However, I would’ve liked some reaction from her to all the deaths she caused, but like with Gunnie, they didn’t affect her at all.

The romance was sweet, though maybe unnecessary at this point, especially with all the drama. She’ll end up bossing Peter around if they stay together. Felix was my favourite side character, but others were good too. Gunnie only made a cameo appearance, but she wasn’t needed. All in all, I hope the following books continue with Felicia’s story.

The Russian Cage by Charlaine Harris: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

The Russian Cage by Charlaine Harris

In this third instalment of Gunnie Rose series, The Russian Cage, action moves from the lawless western setting to sophisticated and wealthy San Diego, the capital of the Holy Russian Empire. Lizbeth is completely out of her comfort zone among the aristocratic Russians and wizards, and to make matters worse, she can’t carry her guns.

Eli has been imprisoned without charges and no one seems to care or do anything about it, least of all Emperor Alexei, whom Eli has helped a lot. So Lizbeth’s sister Felicia summons Lizbeth to free him. The plot that’s led to Eli’s imprisonment involves both the imperial household and Eli’s own family, but Lizbeth doesn’t hesitate to set things right. And this time she’s not only shooting for self-defence; she’s contemplating an outright assassination.

The alt-history setting of the series truly came to life in this book. The Russian Empire has settled on the west coast of California, ruling over Americans who’d been left in power vacuum. There’s surprisingly little conflict from the Americans. All the plotters are Russians, and solely so that they could rule.

True to her character, Lizbeth isn’t wooed by the wealth or power. She’s as straightforward as ever, stubbornly concentrating on freeing Eli. There’s more Felix in this book, helping her in Eli’s absence, and his character gets some depth, though superficially, with only hints and allusions. He never gets to voice his own emotions. Eli was absent for most of the book, and even though I’m not a fan of his as a romantic lead, I kind of missed him. The ending for him and Lizbeth was good and put them in a new place in their life, setting the stage for more adventures. I’d be interested in reading them.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

 

An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris

Charlaine Harris has a rich and varying catalogue of urban fantasy and mystery series, mostly set in present-day small American towns with peculiar people. Gunnie Rose, her latest series, is a refreshing exception to this.

The series starts with An Easy Death. It’s set in post-apocalyptic alt-history America of the Great Depression era in the 1930s. The United States has collapsed after a series of events and been divided into several countries or annexed by its neighbours, Canada from the north and Mexico from the south. The east coast is part of England and the west coast forms a new Holy Russian Empire, after the Tsar fled there to escape the revolution of the 1918. The rest have formed Dixie in the south, New America in Midwest and Texoma in southwest.

Texoma is poor and lawless, a new wild west where gunslingers rule and bandits prey on travellers on poorly maintained roads. Lizbeth (Gunnie) Rose is nineteen, but an experienced gunslinger. She’s part of a group who offers protection to people who need to travel the lawless roads. But everything goes wrong and she finds herself without a crew.

In need of employment, she accepts a job to protect two wizards from the Holy Russian Empire where magic is everyday thanks to Rasputin. They are looking for a man Gunnie knows for a fact is dead, because she’s killed him—not that she’s about to reveal it to them. Curious to find out what they want with him, she sets out on a long and perilous journey across the border to Mexico.

This was a good start to a series. The world was interesting and the plot fast-paced and full of action. Gunnie was a cynical and resourceful protagonist, oddly likeable despite never doing anything nice. The first person narrative left the side characters slightly distant, but they made a good counterpart to her, although I didn’t see Eli in the romantic light she did—the opposite. There was a lot of graphic violence and talk of rape, which sort of worked in its context, but after a while I became desensitized and it stopped being effective. Nevertheless, I liked the book a lot and will continue with the series.  

My reading challenge for 2021

It’s a new year and that means a new Goodreads Reading Challenge. I’ve set myself a reading goal there several years in a row, and I find it a fun way to keep track of what I’ve read and maybe challenge myself a little too. Last year I made a personal reading record of ninety-five books (or eighty-five, if you only count those I finished). This year I pledged to read eighty books, though that may change later.

Every year, I make a list too, of books that I want to read. It’s a guideline more than a mandatory programme; last year I only read ten books from it. But I’ve noticed that it’s easier to keep up with everything I want to read if I’ve listed every book I already own and haven’t read yet, the books on my wish list and the upcoming publications by my favourite authors.

This year’s list contains a whopping hundred and fifty books, mostly because I did so poorly with it last year that several books moved over. It has four sections: books from the old list, new books, books from NetGalley, and books I chance to read outside it—obviously currently empty.

There are fifty-two books from the old list. Some of them didn’t seem so interesting anymore, so I pruned it down to those I already own or definitely want to read. That brought it down to twenty books. These include The Burning God by R.F. Kuang, which was published in November and I got for a Christmas present and didn’t have time to read last year, and Crush the King by Jennifer Estep that I reserved from the local library, but haven’t got yet.

The list of new books filled with everything I bought last year and didn’t have time to read. There are several by Lindsay Buroker, for example, as many of her boxed sets were free or discounted—and she’s published a lot. But there are also many upcoming books from my favourite authors; two from J.R. Ward and three from Nalini Singh. All in all, the list has seventy-nine books, so if I manage to read them all, that’s my reading challenge pretty much covered.

And then there’s the NetGalley section. I’ve already been approved to read twenty-two books, and that’s only until May. A couple of really interesting books there, like Victories Greater than Death by Charlie Jane Anders, which will come out in April; A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine, the follow-up to A Memory Called Empire, which will be published in March; The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers, coming out in February, and The Russian Cage by Charlaine Harris that will be published in February too.

All in all, a full and interesting list. And there’s still room for surprises, so bring them on. Last year ended with one such surprise, as I picked Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher, a really great fantasy romance, and instantly proceeded to read her Clockwork Boys, which is the first book I’ve finished this year. I’ve already started it’s follow up, The Wonder Engine. So the reading year is on to a good start. Follow this blog to find out how it proceeds.