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Now, that's how you write an urban fantasy heroine!
Twenty pages in, I was completely in love with the main character of this series. Karou is her own person, with her own life, her own agency and decisions, and while not all of her decisions are good ones, she obviously values the fact that they are hers alone, and resents people who try to make them for her. She's the sort of independent female character many authors attempt to write, but relatively few actually manage. And when she does fall in love later, it's...well, not exactly on her own terms (does love ever come along on one's own terms?), but she has believable reactions to it.
My biggest complaint about this book as a whole is where it ends. Arguably that's not so important, as it's the launching of a series (and it works quite well on that level - the worldbuilding is fantastic), but to utilize Penny Arcade's example: Star Wars: A New Hope wouldn't be as good as it is if it ended before Luke blew up the Death Star. This book feels as if it ends just before, when all the X-Wings take off from the Rebel base. It's still incredibly well-written with some excellent characters and gorgeous worldbuilding, but the entire last third of the book is basically an extended flashback to other characters to fill in backstory, and we barely get a page more of Karou before the book just...ends. Given that she's the character we're supposed to (and do, in this case) care about the most, it's a little off-putting. I would have liked, too, to see a little more of Karou and her life in Prague before stuff got real (as the kids say these days).
Still, I'm willing to forgive that not-quite-minor flaw for the sake of the aforementioned worldbuilding and character development. And for the fact that the author has pink hair, as I discovered to my delight when the rear flap flipped open and I saw her picture. A-
Twenty pages in, I was completely in love with the main character of this series. Karou is her own person, with her own life, her own agency and decisions, and while not all of her decisions are good ones, she obviously values the fact that they are hers alone, and resents people who try to make them for her. She's the sort of independent female character many authors attempt to write, but relatively few actually manage. And when she does fall in love later, it's...well, not exactly on her own terms (does love ever come along on one's own terms?), but she has believable reactions to it.
My biggest complaint about this book as a whole is where it ends. Arguably that's not so important, as it's the launching of a series (and it works quite well on that level - the worldbuilding is fantastic), but to utilize Penny Arcade's example: Star Wars: A New Hope wouldn't be as good as it is if it ended before Luke blew up the Death Star. This book feels as if it ends just before, when all the X-Wings take off from the Rebel base. It's still incredibly well-written with some excellent characters and gorgeous worldbuilding, but the entire last third of the book is basically an extended flashback to other characters to fill in backstory, and we barely get a page more of Karou before the book just...ends. Given that she's the character we're supposed to (and do, in this case) care about the most, it's a little off-putting. I would have liked, too, to see a little more of Karou and her life in Prague before stuff got real (as the kids say these days).
Still, I'm willing to forgive that not-quite-minor flaw for the sake of the aforementioned worldbuilding and character development. And for the fact that the author has pink hair, as I discovered to my delight when the rear flap flipped open and I saw her picture. A-
