Friday, April 5, 2019

Death and Relaxation by Devon Monk

I've enjoyed some of Monk's earlier work, so I thought I'd give this "new" one a try. The town of Ordinary, Oregon is, of course, filled with various supernatural creatures, living more or less in harmony with humans, but it also is home to vacationing gods, like Odin, Thor and Heimdall. While in town, they are required to set aside their god powers, which is where the Reed family comes in. The Reeds have, for ages, taken care of the transfer of god powers for safekeeping, and/or in the unfortunate event that a temporarily mortal god is killed while in town, they find a new vessel for the power.
At present, the Reed family in Ordinary solely consists of three sisters, all of whom work for the police department, with the eldest, Delaney, serving as chief, as her deceased father. So when Heimdall's body washes up on the beach, she not only has the responsibility to investigate his murder, but must carry the burden of his power until she is able to find the human who is destined to become a god.
Not Monk's best work, but semi-amusing.

Monday, April 1, 2019

The Great Library Series, by Rachel Caine

Seem to be on a YA kick here. Perhaps it's a result of more of the genre being made available for free via Overdrive than the adult stuff, which the funding folks probably figure we can afford to pay for, while the teens can't (being too busy getting tattoos, and bling for their iPhones).

This one has been a fun ride. The premise is that the Great Library of Alexandria was saved, rather than destroyed, and that the librarians have been the sole arbiters of what knowledge the human race is allowed to read and have. Enter a world of black market book smugglers, anarchists called The Burners, and where the invention of the printing press has been suppressed more than once. Nearly non-stop action.

The Atlantis Grail Series by Vera Nazarian

Just a brief mention here of the Atlantis Grail series, which I found via Overdrive at my local library. Reading these young adult novels set in an SF world where Earth is about to be destroyed, and space travelers from Atlantis, who left when the city was destroyed in the dim mists of history, have returned to "rescue" the most worth teens on the entire planet before a massive asteroid strikes, has been mostly delightful.

I've coined a new three letter acronym. You've heard of PNR - Paranormal Romance. This is SOR - Space Opera Romance, and in this case, sub-genre YA - Young Adult.

Just a fun ride without a ton of political lecturing, and a tolerable portion of teen angst.