I mean, sure, it's Deadpool, but he's very, very romantic. In fact, if I were Dracula wanting some Merc with a MThis is one hell of a magical romance.
I mean, sure, it's Deadpool, but he's very, very romantic. In fact, if I were Dracula wanting some Merc with a Mouth to pick up my super-monster bride and bring her back across the world, I'd DEFINITELY choose Wade Wilson. It's a no-brainer. I'd even think it's a good idea to think he's given up on the mission and send someone after him, too.
DUH.
So yeah, of course this is a tale of Cuckholding Dracula and the inevitable no-holds-barred free-for-all between werewolves, mummies, Frankenstein's Monster, some weird centaur dude that's a werewolf and bonded with an alien symbiote who also has diabetes, and of course a full-blown Monster Mash all through NYC, but without the Ghostbusters. Alas.
And Wade gets the girl.
Pretty awesome, right? It is. It's also funny as ****.
I can't believe he got *******!
I hope to hell that all the Deadpool comics are this funny and wacky. If this is a good sampling, I'm gonna be having myself a real BBQ. With chimichangas. Hmmm.
This is a call out to all those lovers of genre-bending! We've got a zombocalypse, an enormous fight for freedom from an authoritarian regime, cancer This is a call out to all those lovers of genre-bending! We've got a zombocalypse, an enormous fight for freedom from an authoritarian regime, cancer victims, hulk-outs, and even a bit of poetry and music.
What more could we ask for in a YA?
Um, we could always ask for and receive some actually nice romance. Yeah! Romance! Liza and Jeremy are so cute together! Maybe I'm just a sucker for writers who love musicians. Or maybe it's the purple eyes or the nigh-immortality or the sweetness in the face of all these hungry shambling hoards (and even the zombies!)
Of course, this book isn't all about the list of cool features or even the fact that we even get time to wage war with Tommy and hulk out as if we're all playing an awesome game of Resident Evil with a very, very generous dose of Alice In Wonderland. Cool, right?
And all the while Jeremy is out to free them all from the terrible yoke of the elite rich and their dangerous survival techniques. Come on! I *love* body mods. Of course, these kinds of body mods are a bit extreme, but what can we do! It's an extreme kind of world! :)
This book has great pacing and a lot of fun characters and action and character development, but none of that is quite as amazing as the end. Fair warning, however... these kinds of reveals might absolutely prevent you from avoiding the next book in the series. :) :)
Thanks to the author for a copy of this book!...more
Thanks to Netgalley and the author herself for providing me an updated version of this manuscript for review. Some of the formatting issues were resolThanks to Netgalley and the author herself for providing me an updated version of this manuscript for review. Some of the formatting issues were resolved nicely.
That being said, I need to rave a little bit about this book. It's like being handed a good W. H. Auden poem and learning that it has been turned into an erotic dream full of ghosts, a suicide, occultism, and sex, sex, sexy sex.
I normally don't seek out things like this, but let me be honest here: I thought it was all damn tasteful even if the directions it took was always there to push your limits.
Do you like seduction taken on a grand scale? Do you like concepts like evil and sacrifice mixed with your sexytime? Do you like playing with death as you play with your lover, at least in the pages of a tale? Then this is for you. Definitely, this is for you. It's beautifully written and lyrical and it assumes you've got a great vocabulary. No dumbing things down for any of us! The arousal permeates the pages, but beyond that, I was equally fascinated with the Evening's Land itself, the dreamscape where the dead come back and haunt (or seduce) the living.
This is a real trip, and poetical to boot.
I've seen some people say that this book is full of trigger warnings and that is absolutely true. If you have ever been in abusive relationships or absolutely controlling ones, you'll feel the shock of it here, especially since Mary welcomes it with open arms; infidelity and naughtiness being absolutely key. And Faye's suicide is equally dark, but for different reasons, and we get that PoV very strongly, too. Ada's relative innocence becomes a rather wild abandon as she tries to work through her main story.
Even so, this is an adventure of life and living and excitement and art. It may be interspersed with all the darkness, too, but it's so hard to separate one from the other. In that respect, it's very close to life. :)
The author doesn't coddle us. She speaks her mind and her characters push a lot of boundaries, perfectly willing to make us, as readers, uncomfortable. But... I say this is wonderful. :) This is what good literature ought to do when it forces us down these fantastic paths of the human heart and experience.
This was a solidly entertaining read that really shone by the end for me. Mainly it was a historical fiction revolving around real magic that tied to This was a solidly entertaining read that really shone by the end for me. Mainly it was a historical fiction revolving around real magic that tied to a circus that only played at night, but these words do nothing to illustrate that it's really a character novel despite these very well done trappings of fantasy and historical literature.
We follow Celia and Marco from their childhood and these poor kids are pitted against each other in a great magical game where only one can survive. While this could have turned into a huge fracas, it actually proceeds sedately and professionally as each child makes a career as illusionists performing real magic, until one day they discover each other.
I'll be honest. I didn't really care for the book all that much until it became a romance. Odd, no? Well, that's where it took off for me, and I held on with great fear. :) The rest was great fun.
Second to that, however, was the tone and the atmosphere. I understood a great love for the circus, with all the great care and tending it required, how the magic was bound to it and how things could be utterly messed up without that underlying spark. It was rather sweet and dreamy....more
There's a lot going for this tale as long as you're a certain type of reader. You must love Shakespeare's Tempest, buThanks to Netgalley for this ARC!
There's a lot going for this tale as long as you're a certain type of reader. You must love Shakespeare's Tempest, but even if you don't, you might still get a kick out of this retelling from the points of view of Miranda and Caliban switching back and forth from early childhood through the events of the play.
I would definitely recommend this for general fans of YA fiction, for one, because most of the novel if not the action revolves around childhood friends and the stresses of growing up under one hell of an absolute tyrant who never lets his wards even guess that he controls every aspect of their lives. Oh, Prospero.
It's fine for what it is, but if you're aware of the play, you know that this budding tale of thwarted romance between the dark boy and the rightful Duke of Milan's daughter, you also know that it is a tragedy.
The play is only a romance if you identify with certain characters.
This novel invites us to love Caliban, and his is definitely not a happy tale.
We're grown-up readers, right? We can handle a bit of disappointment at the end of a book, right? This isn't an Alternate retelling of the play. This is a straight-up retelling of the play with many added dimensions and depth, but the results are still the same.
For me? I appreciate what the book was trying to accomplish and I got a lot of out it on that level, but by the time I was invested in the tale, I was just cringing because of what I knew was going to happen.
I'm hedging on this one. I can appreciate the writing and the premise as far as that goes, but my own enjoyment was curtailed by the rest.
However, since this was the first book by the author that I've read and I've heard a lot of good things about her other works, it behooves me to pick them up and see if it was just the subject matter that was painful and not the writing. :)
What began as a literary treasure hunt flirtation between a couple of cute kids quickly became...
A truly delightful and innocent romance. :)
Believe mWhat began as a literary treasure hunt flirtation between a couple of cute kids quickly became...
A truly delightful and innocent romance. :)
Believe me, no one is more shocked than me how much I fell into and loved this little book. I mean, it wasn't just the literary side or the well-spoken Snarl or the impulsive Lily. It was the entire shape of the novel with all of the normal conventions: the shy flirtations, the near misses, the almost-meetings, and then, most dangerously, the other boys and girls. It was all delightful and sooooo innocent. :) Even the Crimson Alert and the Sweaty Santa, it evokes a different sensation in adults, still managed to come across as INNOCENT on the page.
And I liked it. I really really liked it.
It's like opening a door to an alternate dimension and discovering that everything is gentle and loyal and honorable and smart. *shiver* It's so odd! And pretty! :)
And of course, the writing is also quite beautiful, too. And charming. :)...more
I may be taking a bit of a different view on just who is the main character of this tale.
I'm sure most people will latch on to the leading female for I may be taking a bit of a different view on just who is the main character of this tale.
I'm sure most people will latch on to the leading female for her guts or supposedly for her language abilities which get nullified by the oncoming story. At least I agree that one complaint is valid against this tale: I expected a first contact story with an actual deduction of language and communication. Isn't it right in the title?
Alas, no. We get a high-tech pill solution, but I got over that really quickly because the tale was taking me some very interesting places.
Dreams, old civilizations, a wealth of technology at your fingertips, space-travel... even becoming a visceral part of a spaceship. That stuff is awesome, and I dug it, man. :)
So other than her and her slow-burn romantic interest who she saves on occasion, then just WHO IS THE MAIN CHARACTER?
It's the Alien Navigator. :) He's got a real personality on him. He's behind everything. Utterly everything. I can't help but be fascinated and impressed at the nature and scope of his lies and how willing he is to DO WHATEVER IS NECESSARY to achieve his goals. :) He really did have to get very creative, and I think I feel closest to him out of all the characters. :) He's the real star of the show. :)
Maybe it's just me! :) But I really enjoyed the hell out of my squiddy friend. ...more
This is my first swamp thing outside of random appearances in crossover events and I have to say the setup for the story is pretty damn epic. Life verThis is my first swamp thing outside of random appearances in crossover events and I have to say the setup for the story is pretty damn epic. Life versus rot. The fundamental forces, with avatars. In love. I mean, how sweet is that?
Personal recommendation: don't go into this expecting much of anything, and then you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Of course, after the last book, where Personal recommendation: don't go into this expecting much of anything, and then you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Of course, after the last book, where I got so frustrated I actually gave it a single star and a rant, where I told myself I was stopping the series altogether, I fully didn't expect to pick up this 25th book at all.
Especially because we were going to have to deal with whiney-boy Damian as a main character.
But. Haven't I invested so much time and energy loving this series as a whole? But. If I can just ignore the constant insert part A into part B endless sex scenes, wouldn't this be better? But. If I can ignore the fact that so much relationship drama is dragging me around as if I had a noose around my neck and some cowboy was riding away holding the other end of the rope, can't I just focus on the police procedural and the supernatural goodness?
Yeah. I can. I have been for so many books, now, ever since right after Obsidian Butterfly, admittedly my favorite book of the series.
So, yeah, this wasn't so bad.
Damian and Nathaniel and Anita were the first complete triumvirate. They were the weaklings. They were also the first solid power base that Anita had since all the crap between Richard and Jean-Claude. I hoped to see a lot better stuff between them, but then Damian's thread was just marginalized and the author turned him into the ugly red-headed step-child. Literally. For more than a dozen books. And all the while, Anita collected men (and now women) as if they are trading cards and those relatively solid storylines and wealth of opportunities with her supernatural power base just kinda slipped away.
Until now. Hell. I was very worried it'd be just another whiney whiney Damian story, but no, he's actually starting to grow up and take responsibility, which is about time since he *is* a 1000 year-old vampire. I was relieved. It felt like some of the good times I had before Obsidian Butterfly, when Anita was backed into a real corner and she had to dig *really* deep for some hidden juice. And she does, once again. The supernatural stuff in this one was great. It's the main reason I keep on reading the series.
Ireland. The leadership of the Harlequin. What does Mommy Darkness's shards of power mean for Anita's fate? I mean, the American Vampires are just consolidating their power, now, but there *is* another whole world out there. I'm glad that this issue is being addressed, finally. I hope to see even more of that. This book is actually establishing a very solid reason to do so.
Damian's old master, the lady of fear, is an awesome reason for Anita to go on a political duck-hunt across Europe and beyond.
As for the tragic death of a main character? Well, what can I say? It's about time. And no, it's not Damian. As far as I'm concerned, he's golden again. It's nice to have the hints of an actual triumvirate that WORKS. You know, rather than just using relationship drama to limit the overpowered monstrosity that is Anita Blake, we might actually get back to core issues like Ethics and Other Overpowered Monstrosities. :)
So yeah, if I ignore those things that annoy the shit out of me, I have to admit that the rest of this book was pretty damn cool. This is the Ultimate Flawed Novel, but I can't help but think that we need to have a cheat-sheet for readers of the series. Something like an Anime Filler List for tv episodes that don't follow the Manga, but in this case it'd be pages we can successfully skim or just plain skip because of relationship drama or tired sex scenes.
Yeah, Um, you can skip pages 23-68, 74-82, 112-150, etc., etc. :) (Not real pages you can do this with, I'm just citing an example.) :) We need this for the whole series, then. Let people enjoy a really awesome UF, sometimes skipping whole Character-Named books entirely, and love it as much as some of us have, but without the angst. :)
I mean, she's good enough to turn what should be an epistolary slog through social mores into a delightI haven't read an Austen novel that I disliked.
I mean, she's good enough to turn what should be an epistolary slog through social mores into a delightful and spiteful and nearly-tragic romp. Who else can do that?
The voices of each character in each letter evokes such verve and personality and a great sense of persistent presence that I'm frankly quite shocked. The plot was rather simple. It's about making good matches and getting involved in other's love-lives. *shock* *no* *say it isn't so*
But even so, it's done with such reserve and sometimes with such plain nasty cattiness that I can't help but swing this way and that throughout the novel, just trying to get a handle on what the *truth* is.
What is Lady Susan really hiding? What did her daughter do? What the hell with Mrs. Vernon? Jeeze.
For such a short novel, made entirely of letters, it really managed to get under my skin and keep me on my toes. Amazing! ...more
This one was a lot more fun than the previous volume. Or maybe it wasn't more fun, maybe it was just more comprehensible. No. That isn't right, eitherThis one was a lot more fun than the previous volume. Or maybe it wasn't more fun, maybe it was just more comprehensible. No. That isn't right, either. We're talking about Harley and Mr. J, again, so no matter how you look at it, it's awesome, and I love all the facetime! :)
But things aren't all rosy, alas, and you thought that *you* had a nasty breakup?
Well Mr. J and Harley can absolutely redefine that term for you. It'll help anyone out with that lauded perspective thingie. :)
And then there's Yo-Yo. I never would have guessed his character could stretch so far and cover all of my regard? I love this guy. He's so much better than that weenie over at Fantastic Four. Plus, he has one hell of a hothouse flower of a sister. :)...more
Well, you know, I just had to read the comics after loving the movie. Yeah, yeah, I know some people love to hate, but I've got nothing but love for tWell, you know, I just had to read the comics after loving the movie. Yeah, yeah, I know some people love to hate, but I've got nothing but love for the crazies and the psychos in there. :)
It's all about RELATIONSHIPS. It's a romance, see? Don't let all the action and the exploding nanites and the collateral damage fool you. It's a love story.
Mostly.
Of course, for most of them, it's just a love of staying alive just a little bit longer, but don't let anyone tell you that self-love is less important than the gushy stuff!
These stories are pretty fun for an intro in the fourth revision of Suicide Squad. I'm particularly loving Harley. Her origin is pretty much what we saw in the movie and I'm lovin it. :)...more
Romance and Regency go hand in hand, but then, so does Art.
All the most talented ladies are skilled in the art of subterfuge and seeming, are they notRomance and Regency go hand in hand, but then, so does Art.
All the most talented ladies are skilled in the art of subterfuge and seeming, are they not?
Well, not Jane. She's conflicted about using Glamour and refuses to make herself seem more pretty than she is, while also being rather more talented than the rest of her family. Sure, its a common thing to know and use Glamour in the Regency era. Didn't you know? Magic is real, and no only can you create wonderful murals and play wonderful music without the gross aids of base paints or the piano forte, but it also gives us a tapestry to work out our own personal dramas.
How delightful!
I've always liked stories that bring up the conflict between lies and bringing forth truth from them. Passion and the heart were always best served through fiction and not stark reality. :)
As an opener into the series, it serves delightfully as a simple romance with silly girls getting into trouble and eligible men causing so much pain and ruckus. *sigh* But this is the nature of reality. *sigh* The novel isn't the most brilliant that I've read, and it's simplicity serves the magic more than the other way around, and that's fine.
Still, don't trust the blurb that this is much like the books listed there. Think Urban Fantasy meets Regency Romance and you'll be fine. :)...more
I'm pretty impressed with this busybody know-it-all. :)
As a character novel, the entire thing is extremely dense and interesting and oh-so-convolutedI'm pretty impressed with this busybody know-it-all. :)
As a character novel, the entire thing is extremely dense and interesting and oh-so-convoluted.
As a plot novel, it's not so much of anything. :)
Fortunately, I was in the mood for something that would lift individual silly characters from the realm of the opinionated and silly and and arrogant to the level of real humanity with eyes flying open.
Honestly, Austen is great at this kind of zinger. It's all about the self-realizations and the growth as a person. Sometimes there's marriages, too. Um. Wait. There's always marriages. :) This silly little girl is entirely about being a matchmaker, but doesn't have enough self-knowledge to make anything but a lucky shot work. :)
So now we have an entire novel about her misadventures and misunderstandings and her amazing talent at making a hash out of everything... but wait! Emma is very, very good at putting the blinders on, too, so she's pretty much a master at ignoring the facts and making all of her mess-ups feel perfectly rational and reasonable.
This is comedic gold for a certain type of reader. :)
Of course, if you're like me, you might get seriously annoyed at all the reaffirmations of gender roles, the horribly snide and prejudicial stratification of Regency England, and the general blindness of the self-satisfied and selfish people everywhere.
Even so, this novel is pretty fantastic. :)...more
This one is rather hard to review not because I can't get my thoughts in order but because I'm really of two minds when it comes to the story and it'sThis one is rather hard to review not because I can't get my thoughts in order but because I'm really of two minds when it comes to the story and it's end.
On the one hand, it reads like a good modern romance with tragic tones with our MC Rett as a depressed werewolf who meets and falls in love with a rather interesting woman with an interesting name. Brixton. As in the Clash's Guns of Brixton. Heck, I sympathized with these folks merely because of their taste in music, but it went much farther than that. The devil is in the details, and the romance felt real and sticky and hot after its many simmering pages. I mean, what punker pierced girl wouldn't like a strapping brooding werewolf in her life, especially one that can beat the shit out of her abusive ex-boyfriend, right?
The tragedy was bad, of course, but it was bad in the sense that I fell into it and felt the pain of it. That's called good writing. The aftermath was a real treat, too, and the whole plot, while not very complex, made up for it in good immersion.
So what stops this from being a five for me?
It's about suicide, folks. This isn't just a retelling of some goofy Shakespeare shit, either, yo. It's solid and serious and while it may all surround the conflict between wolf and man and how he couldn't cope, it's not like we readers can't transfer the conflicts of instinct versus duty to ourselves, so it can perhaps be a bit too much for some.
Introducing Isabella Barclay, the infamous Isabella Barclay, affectionately dubbed "Bitchface" by her erstwhile friends and colleagues, turning her deIntroducing Isabella Barclay, the infamous Isabella Barclay, affectionately dubbed "Bitchface" by her erstwhile friends and colleagues, turning her deft hand to Regency Romance rather than murder!
Wow. Well, everyone ought to try out different professions, if this is the normal kinds of works that come out of such attempts. :)
Seriously though, her clear style and insistent classic romance matched perfectly with floods of females and mysterious gunshots and rather misty-eyed middle-aged romance that just happened to be rather delightful and sparkling despite such a rough beginning.
Well, this is Regency, after all, so expect plenty of misogyny and walled-off opportunities, but even so, the classic wish-fulfillment is in full swing and the setting is dragged, kicking and screaming, into warmth and decent meals, so I'm certainly not going to complain.
The audio version was quite nice, so I'm quite pleased not have to worry about misspellings, as such, and so my enjoyment was never once hampered.
Um. I just read romance. Again. What the hell is happening to me?...more
Ah, but this was nothing very stuffy, indeed! Sophy was the model extrovert, a clever and busy and downright machiavelliA Regency Romance? What? What?
Ah, but this was nothing very stuffy, indeed! Sophy was the model extrovert, a clever and busy and downright machiavellian girl. Do you like characters with so much agency that they pop right off the page? Sophy is your girl.
Of course, that also means that she's pretty much a terror for all the stuffed shirts around her, and between getting in the way and deciding to "help" her relations find marriage, while all the while being the unwitting subject of the same dastardly plot.
How will this comedy turn out??? Truly, the pacing is good, the plot is pretty Shakespearian, and the stuffed shirts get stuffed.
It was pretty fun! Mind you, I do love a bit of romance fluff every now and again and this was light and churlish and sometimes even devious, but it is also pure popcorn fiction.
I'm glad to have read it, but it's not generally the kind of thing I read, or at least, the setting isn't. The storied plots are pretty universal, though, and there were plenty of chuckles in store for me. Here's to broadening my horizon!...more
This one is extremely difficult to review, mainly because I'm tempted more to appreciate it from afar rather than enjoy it up close. But there are pasThis one is extremely difficult to review, mainly because I'm tempted more to appreciate it from afar rather than enjoy it up close. But there are passages where the reverse is entirely as true.
Whereas the first novel was a straightforward love of literature and myth made up out of whole cloth and full of love of the act of writing, itself, among so many who refuse to read, the sequel is nothing less than a shattered land following the events that led to war in the first, and not only shattered by war, but also as shattered in prose.
You see? I can appreciate the book's structure, it's sheer reliance on poetry and despair and song, (oh, especially song,) to convey a feeling, or a string of many layered and complex feelings and subjects, in the face of kings and monsters, family and one's love-life, of which there is quite a bit of LGBT, and quite beautifully done.
So much is either dense world-building in terms of myth, historical rumination, straight stream-of-consciousness. Only occasionally do we have a bit of traditional storytelling, and more often than not, there's stories within stories.
That's what I love.
What I didn't love so much was the lack of attention-grabbing plot among the wonderful prose, or, as the case may be, the sad fact that I lost interest. Multiple times. That's not to say that certain characters keep showing up to provide threads I can hold on to, or to see how each of them change and develop over time, or how their perceptions of love or singing give them perspective on their identities, but these gems were buried fairly deep in the labyrinth of the prose and often it was a real chore to pay attention.
I sometimes like to work for my read, it's true. But I want to feel like I'm going to get something really wonderful out of the challenge, too, and while this was all pretty wonderful poetry, I'm not sure it spoke to me as a whole.
There were certain parts, such as the love story and the songs that really got me, but the rest of the book was kind of a let down
At least in comparison to the previous one....more
For a book that is pretty much all a romance, it's full of great science, tech, and outright horror. The titular theme refers to corpse dating. It's kFor a book that is pretty much all a romance, it's full of great science, tech, and outright horror. The titular theme refers to corpse dating. It's kinda like a half-way point for necrophiliacs, old-rich-geezers, and tortured musicians to pine over pretty dead women. And when I mean pretty, I mean pretty. Only the beautiful get selected for possible reanimation and if they don't have special insurance and they don't get picked to be a bride-like-a-slave, they get defrosted and dumped in a landfill.
The rub? These women are brought back in a speed-dating nightmare, fresh from death, only let to live for five minutes as some rich creep tries to find out if you're "the one". Just think about it. Your afterlife will be spent trying to do everything you can to debase yourself and be the perfect mate JUST SO YOU CAN COME BACK TO LIFE. It's a special kind of hell to be caught in desperate speed-dating for the sake of your very existence.
*shiver*
But, yes, this IS a romance, and every part of it is wonderful. Hard, depressing, hopeful, loving, and wonderful. I even grew to love all of Rob's friends. :)
I can't say whether this is my favorite Will McIntosh book, but it damn-near perfect for all that. Romance, interesting tech-based horror, a future dystopia for the dead and recently un-dead, and a massive condemnation on us. You'll see. It's totally worth reading. :)...more
This was a rather interesting novel in several ways, and it had potential to kick some serious butt, but the last portion of the novel, while interestThis was a rather interesting novel in several ways, and it had potential to kick some serious butt, but the last portion of the novel, while interesting in its own right, didn't fit with the grand bulk of the first.
Follow me on this one. What starts out as a pretty cool romance between a girl way out of her element and a low-tech boy on his technologically backward and culturally strange desert world then becomes a pretty cool conspiracy in space and an exciting resolution. It was pretty darn okay and I got into the characters just fine and felt for them.
It's everything that happens afterward, with the media and the corporations that knocked me for a loop.
We've already established that the girl is deeply linked to the entire galactic network, she's lied about what she is, (an Omnidroid, a construct of human flesh and tech,) and that she was sexually abused and so it sets the stage for strained relations. It's a romance, though, so we have high hopes that Zen, who is apparently pretty much perfect, will both save her and her heart.
What only shows up late in the book, however, the the introduction of Doorways through time and space and peoples who upload their consciousnesses, etc., which I don't have any issues with, per se, because these are ideas that are pretty common in SF.
My issue is with how this wishy-washy Reporter-Personality swings so easily, back and forth, between such wild-ass stories about what the Omnidroids are, first stirring negative opinions, then championing their cause, and then, after one stupid conversation with a corporation head (one who had invented the doors through space and time), just goes off and changes his mind again and it ENDS THE NOVEL.
WTF? The whole novel became something else in the last half, and then far from easing us into the big reveal which might have been pretty cool if it had been a major part of the rest of the novel, it just slaps a big band-aid on the tale and says its done.
I was sitting at a 4.5 or maybe even a 5 depending on how strong the ending would be.
Maybe that portion would have been just fine in a different story, or even in a different novel, but here it felt like poorly executed Iain M. Banks perception twist and it just didn't fit the rest of the tale.
I'm not that used to reading books with endings this bad. The particulars are fine, the ideas are fine, the characters are fine, but how the end reveal fits in with everything else? Not good. If we were aiming for a subtle godlike entity in the beginning, it should have ended subtle. Otherwise, match scales.
And the last part had no romance at all. The investment I'd put into the MC's was wasted, too. Sure, they're in the spotlight, but they're pretty much out of the picture.
I don't know which is worse. *sigh*
The worst part of this is pretty easy: It could have been pretty damn good. Where was the editor?
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