Quote-Tastic #26 Unimpressive, a dangly sausage...with hair

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Today's quote is from "Curtsies & Conspiracies" by Gail Carriger, part of her Finishing School series which is a spin-off of her Parasol Protectorate series. Snark, etiquette, espionage, and supernatural creatures - lots of good fun.

"We are training to handle such things for the rest of our lives. You are training to be evil geniuses. Table settings and the likeare regarded, I am sure, as beneath you."

"You are disposed to see this as careless?" wondered Pillover.

"Some things are more important than they seem. Note, for example, that by having larger flowers in taller vases, you can prevent people from conversing across the table, thus confining them to their dinner partners. Wider arrangements with cascading ferns, and you might even pass notes or objects to a dining companion without anyone the wiser."

***************************************************

The girls, all forty-five of them, trooped down to a lower deck. They had their weekly lesson with Captain Niall. There was a palpable waft of excitement, not to mention perfume, as the werewolf was most every young lady's favorite teacher. He was also, by far, the handsomest.

Sophronia liked him, too, even though she knew the floppy, easygoing military man was a sham. In his werewolf guise, he'd tried to kill her and savaged her best horsehair petticoat instead. He'd been moon-mad at the time, but she'd never quite forgiven the lapse, nor the loss of the petticoat. Like a proper gentleman, the good captain never made mention of the undergarment murder.

***************************************************

Sidheag was going to make Agatha say it out loud. The red-head whispered, "No, what's a man like down there?"

"Oh." Sidheag wrinkled her nose. "Unimpressive. They have"--she gestured toward her own nether regions with one hand--a sort of dangly sausage-lacks tailoring."

Sophronia blinked in surprise. That sounded worse than Sidheag's description of a werewolf shift. She hadn't seen any of the sooties that close up. "Really?"

"Yes, like it wasn't fitted into it's casing properly. And hairy. "Sidheag was enjoying shocking them.

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Review of Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Series: Finishing School #1
Format Read: Hardcover
Release Date: February 5, 2013
Buying Links:  Amazon  Barnes & Noble  The Book Depository

Book Blurb from goodreads:

It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners—and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.
 
But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage—in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.

Set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, this YA series debut is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail Carriger's legions of fans have come to adore.

Bea's Thoughts:

I very much enjoyed Carriger's Parasol and Protectorate series. I'm not a big YA reader so I wasn't sure if I'd read this series but the book trailer, the cover and the blurb sold me. I knew I had to give it a shot.

While I enjoyed this book, I didn't love it. It had moments of humor in the same vein as the Parasol Protectorate but it was missing something. The world building was adequate, I enjoyed seeing the younger Sidheag and Genevieve, but there were unlikely coincidences and a few too many predictable events. The resolution of the mystery was rushed, humorous, and a little too neat.

I did like the details Carriger used; if you haven't read the Parasol Protectorate series, you're not at a loss. Carriger fills in the details and fleshes out the world nicely. There are even more Steampunk elements (though the scene in the school's records room was over the top and unnecessary. A more typical filing system would have made more sense.) There's a definite British feel to the story and Carriger still has the knack for sending up customs and mores.

I enjoyed the character of Sophronia and seeing the changes in her though her type is nothing new - tomboy, free-spirited girl is thrust into social situation, ie finishing school, that she's not prepared for, makes enemy of popular girl, befriends the underdogs and people in low paces, etc. Still, she's interesting and enjoyable and so is the cast of characters. I liked that Carriger does us show more of what life is like for both the lower upper-class and the actual lower-class which we didn't really get in the Parasol Protectorate except for occasional glimpses of Ivy's life. I was also happy to see the inclusion of a person of color. Right now Soap (it's a nickname) is mostly cardboard but I have hopes he'll develop as the series goes on. I enjoyed this book enough that I'll definitely pick up the next book.

Some fun quotes:

"Mummy and Daddy want him to be an evil genius, but he has his heart set on Latin verse."..."Face it, Pill, you're disappointingly good." "Oh, I like that! And you're so evil? Why, you want to get married and be a lady." (Later we get references to levels of evil geniuses such as discourteous genius and spiteful genius.)

"We had lessons in knife-fighting from a werewolf." "Werewolf? Bully! We don't have any supernaturals here. It's quite a dearth in the deanship if you ask me. Any reputable school ought to have at least one vampire professor. Eton has three. You lot are only girls, you've a vampire and a werewolf. Jolly unfair, that's what I call it." 

"Algebra was far more interesting when it was a matter of proportioning out mutton chops so as to poison only half of one's dinner guests and then determining the relative value of purchasing a more expensive, yet more effective, antidote over a home remedy."

I borrowed this from my local library.

Review of Timeless by Gail Carriger

Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: March 1, 2012
Series: The Parasol Protectorate #5
Buying Links:  Amazon     The Book Depository

***The blurb and the review contain spoilers for the previous books. The review does not contain spoilers for this book.***

Book Blurb (from goodreads):

Alexia Tarabotti, Lady Maccon, has settled into domestic bliss. Of course, being Alexia, such bliss involves integrating werewolves into London High society, living in a vampire's second best closet, and coping with a precocious toddler who is prone to turning supernatural willy-nilly. Even Ivy Tunstell's acting troupe's latest play, disastrous to say the least, cannot put a damper on Alexia's enjoyment of her new London lifestyle.


Until, that is, she receives a summons from Alexandria that cannot be ignored. With husband, child, and Tunstells in tow, Alexia boards a steamer to cross the Mediterranean. But Egypt may hold more mysteries than even the indomitable Lady Maccon can handle. What does the vampire Queen of the Alexandria Hive really want from her? Why is the God-Breaker Plague suddenly expanding? And how has Ivy Tunstell suddenly become the most popular actress in all the British Empire?

Teaser:

"This is not good. Given half a chance, she'll kill him before we extract any additional information out of him."

"Not to mention that it's a bad idea to eat one's domestic staff."

The two men looked at one another and then, by mutual accord, began to strip out of their clothes. At least, Biffy consoled himself, BUR agents were accustomed to such eccentricities.

Professor Lyall gave up about halfway through and simply sacrificed his wardrobe to the cause. Biffy watched him run after the Alpha...However, Biffy did spare a few moments to divest himself of his favorite waistcoat and cravat before shifting form. The trousers and shirt could be replaced, but not that waistcoat; it was a real pip.

Reviewed By: Bea

My Thoughts:

The first third or so of this book was light on plot but funny as heck, I could hardly stop laughing. But as the action picked up, so did the pace and we got some meat to the story, without losing the humor. The book wraps up some loose threads, sets up new story lines should Carriger decide to return to this series (it's the last one, though two spin-offs are planned) and is a good end to the series.

Carriger takes some intriguing twists and turns, with only a few predictable moments. I wish we had seen more of Akeldama but I loved the interactions between he and toddler Prudence. Alexia has mellowed slightly, even to the point of relaxing standards a tiny bit where young children are concerned. Despite that slight mellowing, Carriger still gives us the comedy of manners that we've come to expect. Conall is, well, Conall. The two of them have a big misunderstanding, every romance needs one you know, but this one had been brewing for a bit and arises naturally from events in previous books so I didn't mind it too much.

I loved seeing the changes in Biffy and Lyall, although I didn't completely buy into what Carriger did with Biffy. I haven't read the other books in a while but it seems to me that Carriger didn't sufficiently set up what happens with him in this book. We learn more about Floote, and about Alexia's father in this book, and Ivy has occasional moments of brilliance.

While not an excellent book, it was very very good, and nicely concluded the series.

I received a paperback from the publisher for review.

Review of Heartless by Gail Carriger

Publisher: Orbit

Release Date: July 1, 2011

Series: #4 of The Parasol Protectorate

More Info: Amazon     The Book Depository




***The blurb and the review contain spoilers for the previous books. The review does not contain spoilers for this book.***



Book Blurb (from Goodreads):

Lady Alexia Maccon, soulless, is at it again, only this time the trouble is not her fault. When a mad ghost threatens the queen, Alexia is on the case, following a trail that leads her deep into her husband's past. Top that off with a sister who has joined the suffragette movement (shocking!), Madame Lefoux's latest mechanical invention, and a plague of zombie porcupines and Alexia barely has time to remember she happens to be eight months pregnant.

Will Alexia manage to determine who is trying to kill Queen Victoria before it is too late? Is it the vampires again or is there a traitor lurking about in wolf's clothing? And what, exactly, has taken up residence in Lord Akeldama's second best closet?

My Thoughts:

I think my favorite thing about these books is the dialogue. It's sharp, witty and laugh out loud funny. Carriger has a knack, both for spoken dialogue and internal dialogue. Alexia's state of soullessness (is that even a word? :D) allows her to say things that would ordinarily be rude or inappropriate. Add in the Victorian mindset and behavior, tweaked to suit the steampunk changes and urban fantasy changes dictated by the story, and there is a lot of material for lampooning or just gently poking fun at.

Though, sometimes, it's the Victorian mindset and behavior that make me laugh, especially combined with Alexia's perspective on things. Like Alexia, I enjoy my food and it's refreshing to see a fictional character who admits to being hungry and spends a good deal of her time thinking about food. Her pregnancy has only increased this tendency, with sometimes hilarious results. I also like that Alexia is not a skinny Minnie nor does she meet the beauty standard for her time but her husband Conall finds her gorgeous and desirable anyway.

In this book, Carriger turns her attention to many of the secondary characters, after focusing on Alexia and Conall in the previous book, "Blameless". We see more of and learn more about Biffy, Professor Lyall (should I admit I have small crush on him?), Alexia's father, Madame LeFoux, and Lord Akeldama. I love that Carriger develops them and doesn't just leave them as vaguely sketched, or stereotypical, back up characters. We also get to meet see the Hive and learn more about them.

The story is a mix of action, mostly murder attempts on various people, Alexia getting into various predicaments (not that we expect anything else) and a lot of dialogue. The story moves slowly at times, and like the others could benefit from trimming, but overall it's fun, smart and very enjoyable. I was very surprised by the solution that Conall came up with for ending the vampires continually attacks on Alexia, I have mixed feelings about it. The ending, while not the cliffhanger we've come to expect, is nevertheless a tricky twist and sets up some interesting changes in Alexia's world. Carriger didn't hesitate to make major changes in her world and I am looking forward to seeing how things work out.

The steampunk inventions are fun to read about but they don't overshadow the story; I find that sometimes in steampunk, the author can get so carried away making the story steampunk, that the story and characterization suffer. Happily, Carriger has found a balance.

I received this paperback from the publisher for review.