![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Cathy is trying to get away from her controlling family by living in our world, Mundanus, even though she knows she'll age and die like a mortal. She has a mortal boyfriend whom she loves dearly and she's making a life for herself. When her family catch up with her she's dragged back to undertake an arranged marriage in the world of the Nether, a Regency-esque buffer region between Mundanus and Exilium, the home of the exiled Fey. The Fey are still powerful, even in exile, and the great families in the Nether are still obligated to their Fey lords. Cathy is a member of the Papaver family, obligated to Lord Poppy. The Rosa family, powerful in London, is now jostling for position in Aquae Sulis, the Nether version of Bath. The Iris family contains Will, Cathy's potential bridegroom. There's a lot in here: a sorcerer; the wicked Rosa family; a kidnapping of Bath's Master of Ceremonies with the season about to start; an Arbiter who's been split from his own soul (which is now residing in a gargoyle);. It's all a little confusing and sadly I'm sometimes easily confused, but there's still a lot to like. Once minor gripe is that it doesn't really resolve, so I presume the second book picks up where the first left off.Apr. 6th, 2016
Cathy is trying to get away from her controlling family by living in our world, Mundanus, even though she knows she'll age and die like a mortal. She has a mortal boyfriend whom she loves dearly and she's making a life for herself. When her family catch up with her she's dragged back to undertake an arranged marriage in the world of the Nether, a Regency-esque buffer region between Mundanus and Exilium, the home of the exiled Fey. The Fey are still powerful, even in exile, and the great families in the Nether are still obligated to their Fey lords. Cathy is a member of the Papaver family, obligated to Lord Poppy. The Rosa family, powerful in London, is now jostling for position in Aquae Sulis, the Nether version of Bath. The Iris family contains Will, Cathy's potential bridegroom. There's a lot in here: a sorcerer; the wicked Rosa family; a kidnapping of Bath's Master of Ceremonies with the season about to start; an Arbiter who's been split from his own soul (which is now residing in a gargoyle);. It's all a little confusing and sadly I'm sometimes easily confused, but there's still a lot to like. Once minor gripe is that it doesn't really resolve, so I presume the second book picks up where the first left off.
Dystopian fiction set in a fenced-off future, post-apocalyptic Chicago where everyone is divided into factions and the worst thing imaginable is to be factionless. Tris and Four take refuge with Amity after stopping the simulation in which Dauntless soldiers killed many members of Abnegation while under the influence of a drug concocted by Erudite. All this took place in the first Divergent book. In this, the middle book of the trilogy, Tris and Four, both 'divergents' (i.e. showing talents for more than one faction) though officially still part of Dauntless discover what can happen when the factionless band together. They take the fight to Jeanine and the Erudite in order to retrieve information that Jeanine was willing to kill a whole faction to keep hidden. Note: I've seen all the movies before reading the books, but it was still well worth reading. The characters are explored in more depth and Tris and Four's relationship hits a few rocky patches which keeps up the tension.
A steampunky adventure featuring Eleanor Chance, a dirigible pilot who is sucked into plots and skulduggery when she's employed to transport a mysterious box from Paris to England for Hugh Marsh, a warlock. When the box is stolen it turns out that Elle has the only key. Elle's inventor dad is kidnapped and Elle and Hugh go haring across Europe to find him, getting into all sorts of bother and forming a relationship as they travel. They are pitted against Abercrombie, also a Warlock, but one in thrall to a Nightwalker. Elle and Chance are good characters, there's an unexpected betrayal, some swashing and buckling and a bit of experimental aviation.