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bibliomaniac, on February 8th, 2010
Mansfield Park and Mummies, by Jane Austen and Vera Nazarien
Buy It Now: on Amazon.com
Description: Monster Mayhem, Matrimony, Ancient Curses, True Love, and Other Dire Delights
Spinsterhood or Mummification!
Ancient Egypt infiltrates Regency England in this elegant, hilarious, witty, insane, and unexpectedly romantic monster parody of Jane Austen’s classic novel.
Our gentle yet indomitable heroine Fanny Price must hold steadfast not only against the seductive charms of Henry Crawford but also an Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh!
Meanwhile, the indubitably handsome and kind hero Edmund attempts Exorcisms… Miss Crawford vamps out… Aunt Norris channels her inner werewolf… The Mummy-mesmerized Lady Bertram collects Egyptian artifacts…
There can be no doubt that Mansfield Park has become a battleground for the forces of Ancient Evil and Regency True Love!
Gentle Reader — this Delightful Edition includes Scholarly Footnotes and Appendices.
This review is based on a free, review copy received from the publisher/author.
The Bibliomaniac’s Review:  
I admit to coming into this novel as a virgin, in a way. I’ve never read the original Mansfield Park; the only Jane Austen book I’ve read was Pride and Prejudice, and that was for a college English class (and I didn’t care for it much; Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre were more my style). And although I own both Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and Sense and Sensibilities and Sea Monsters, I haven’t gotten around to reading either of them yet. So I had no preconceptions when I read this, only a general idea of what it was about.
The new material added here is amazing; Nazarian has matched her writing style to Austen’s so precisely that, if I had not known this book was one of the more recent collaborations between the long-dead author and a living co-author, I would have thought I had stumbled across a detour from the usual comedies of manners that Austen was known for – a detour that led straight into the Twilight Zone. The joining of old and new prose is all the more seamless for the time period and setting. England was indeed going through an Egyptology craze at the time Mansfield Park takes as its background, and nobles and moneyed mercantile families alike were buying up every bit of Egyptian antiquity they could get their hands on, including vaguely Egyptian-looking forgeries.
The humor here is not the pratfalls and pie-in-the-face type; instead, it tends toward sly irreverence in the classic British style. Think Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and Red Dwarf. For example, you might find vampires and werewolves in any urban fantasy, and while mummies are a bit less common, where else are you likely to find a demon duck? There are plenty of authorial footnotes in the book, too, all written with a dry, wry tone that makes it hard to keep from laughing. It’s probably not a good idea to try reading this book while drinking anything; you wouldn’t want to get the pages wet. (Or your keyboard, if you’re reading this as an e-book).
If this book has a flaw, it would have to be its length, which is substantial. To be fair, this is not a flaw for all readers. Many readers prefer a long story to savor and enjoy, as is evident by the number of fans of J. K. Rowling and Stephen King. However, Mansfield Park and Mummies contains within its 555 pages not only the entirety of the original Austen novel, but all the additional material for the sub-plot; nothing comes across as extraneous, and nowhere does the story lag.
In a market that is about to be glutted with a flood of similar collaborations (a prequel to P&P&Z, a version of Huckleberry Finn with zombies, a version of War of the Worlds with zombies, and yet another version of Pride and Prejudice, this one with Darcy as a vampire), Mansfield Park and Mummies stands out far and above the competitors—not just head and shoulders above, but so far above the others that it might as well be wearing stilts. Ignore the latecomer wannabes and pick up Manfield Park and Mummies instead. You won’t be sorry you did.
 The Bibliomaniac
Ye olde author (emphasis on the OLD) likes the weird and the strange, which explains most of her friends. Married, with two daughters, she has earned a B.A. in Literature and a B.S. in Criminal Justice. Her interests include reading and writing (of course!), gardening, poetry, comic books, herbalism, chocolate, tea, mythology and fairy tales, comparative theology and alternative religions, Celtic and darkwave music, role-playing games and LARPing, horror movies, hiking and camping, SF conventions, and the martial arts. She lives with her husband, her younger daughter, five cats, a dog, and a houseful of gargoyles somewhere east of Chicago. She can be contacted at BrigidsBlest @ yahoo.com.
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WereGeek, on February 8th, 2010
 Divided Kingdom by Rupert Thomson
Buy It Now: At Powells | At Amazon
Description: A young boy is taken by government decree from his parents during the initial stages of the Rearrangement, which occurs in a totalitarian, near-future England. In this brave new world, the country’s entire population is forcibly reorganized and relocated into autonomous zones according to psychology, or the four humors: choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic and sanguine. Placed in an orphanage, renamed Thomas Parry and transferred to a new family in the Red Quarter (for sanguine types), he settles in with a father overwhelmed by the loss of his relocated wife and a promiscuous sister desperate for human connection. As an adult, Thomas takes a clandestine job with the government, but soon risks being charged with “undermining the state” when he begins a spur-of-the-moment voyage across borders in search, at first, of his real parents and his true self.
This review is based on a book I checked out from my local library.
WereGeek’s Review:
This book started off with a very promising idea: a dystopian future Britain where social order has so broken down, drastic changes must be made, even at the expense of her citizens. To that end, the population is split up according to the four humors of ancient medicine and the island of Britain is divided into four new homelands for each personality type. London is also split in four, with each quarter being renamed to reflect the spirit of the humor it represents. All other towns and cities are renamed something appropriate to their humor, representing a psychological break with the time before Rearrangement.
I was really attracted to the book’s high concept, but the part of the book right after Rearrangement and throughout the protagonist’s childhood moved slowly and seemed to be there only to pass the time until he was old enough to go exploring as was the author’s main aim for the book. Once Thomas began crossing borders, it was obvious that he wouldn’t stop until he had been to every zone and dealt with every major group of people.
The appendix to the book listed numerous texts Thomson used in his research of the four temperaments. There’s no doubt that Thomson was very thorough in his research, but a lot of the book seems to be there only to show just how much research he did and how well he understood the different aspects of each humor. Every character except Thomas Perry seems defined – and content to be defined – by the humor that placed them in their new homeland. Every Choleric is angry and violent and every Melancholic is weepy and depressed. Only Thomas Perry is more fleshed out, but he seems to take on the qualities of whatever quarter he’s in or whatever group he’s with. Maybe it’s self-preservation and fear of being found out, or maybe he’s read all the same books the author has.
I felt there was so much more that could have been done with this concept but wasn’t. And looking at all the glowing reviews this book has received on Amazon, I feel as if I’ve missed something vital that would have enhanced my enjoyment of the book. Like maybe my reading habits (I usually only get time to read books in bed, a chapter or two a night) weren’t conducive to the necessary understanding to “get” what Thomson was trying to achieve with this book. Whatever the reason, I felt disappointed in the book and myself; that somehow we had let each other down.
More information and study guides on “Divided Kingdom” can be found at the book’s website: http://www.dividedkingdom.co.uk
 WereGeek
WereGeek is reading 5-7 books at any given time, not including comics. These can range from alternative universe fiction to historical fact and from theoretical physics to Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader. She’s recently rediscovered the joys of Netflix, catching up on series like The Big Bang Theory and is slowly, counter to her love of the original Battlestar Galactica, working her way through the new BSG. But Dirk Benedict will always be her Starbuck. Her ringtone is the theme from Airwolf and she can kick your little bahookie at Trivial Pursuit. She can be contacted at werewolf17 @ gmail.com and followed on Twitter at the link below.
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bibliomaniac, on February 7th, 2010
Rosemary and Rue, by Seanan McGuire
Buy It Now: on Amazon.com
Description: October “Toby” Daye, a changeling who is half human and half fae, has been an outsider from birth. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the Faerie world, retreating to a “normal” life. Unfortunately for her, the Faerie world has other ideas…
The murder of Countess Evening Winterrose pulls Toby back into the fae world. Unable to resist Evening’s dying curse, which binds her to investigate, Toby must resume her former position as knight errant and renew old alliances. As she steps back into fae society, dealing with a cast of characters not entirely good or evil, she realizes that more than her own life will be forfeited if she cannot find Evening’s killer.
This review is based on a copy I bought myself.
The Bibliomaniac’’s Review:
I’d been waiting for this book for quite a while.
It was worth the wait.
October “Toby” Daye is a changeling, born of a fae mother and a human father. Ripped from a mostly normal human world as a child, she grew up in the courts of Faerie, learning to use her weak magic to its best advantage, eventually being knighted for her services to her liege.
The book begins with a failure; not only does she not solve the case she was working on, she does so in what’s almost the most catastrophic way possible, and loses fourteen years of her life in the process.
Fast-forward to now: Toby has turned her back on the fae world, or is trying to, but it keeps trying to pull her back. When her mentor and friend is murdered, and lays a curse on Toby that she must solve the murder, she knows she must return to the intrigue, magic, and danger of her past…or die.
I read a lot of books, and enjoy most of them. This one makes me wish I’d written it, and I can’t give a higher compliment than that. McGuire’s grasp of dialogue is realistic, with different quirks of speech for each different character; I’ve read a number of books lately where everyone talked exactly alike, so much so that each exchange could have been stamped out with a cookie cutter. The description here is lush and decadent, vividly describing both the mundane setting of San Francisco and the otherworldly vistas of the faerie realm. The action sequences and plot twists were fast-paced and kept my heart pounding. The mixture of noir detective story elements (reminiscent of the best work of Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett) with the urban fantasy setting makes Rosemary and Rue stand out from the crowd of other urban fantasies.
I’ll be buying multiple copies of this book to hand out to all my friends who read fantasy…and a few who don’t.
The sequel to this book, A Local Habitation, comes out in March 2010, and the third book in the series, An Artificial Night, comes out in September 2010. Those dates are much, much too far away, and I’d really like to petition the publisher to move them up a bit. I think I MIGHT be able to wait until Christmas, but not a moment longer. (To be honest, I know the publisher won’t listen to me. That’s almost acceptable, given that I know there are at least three more books waiting in the wings after that. I want this series to go on forever.)
I can say without any hyperbole that this is the best book I read in 2009. Not everyone, looking at a list of all the books I read in 2009, might agree with me, but that’s okay; everyone’s entitled to their opinion.
Ms. McGuire needs to take good care of her health. While she’s not my bitch, I can say without the slightest trace of restraint or shame that I want her to continue writing books I can enjoy for a long, long time.
The Bibliomaniac
Ye olde author (emphasis on the OLD) likes the weird and the strange, which explains most of her friends. Married, with two daughters, she has earned a B.A. in Literature and a B.S. in Criminal Justice. Her interests include reading and writing (of course!), gardening, poetry, comic books, herbalism, chocolate, tea, mythology and fairy tales, comparative theology and alternative religions, Celtic and darkwave music, role-playing games and LARPing, horror movies, hiking and camping, SF conventions, and the martial arts. She lives with her husband, her younger daughter, five cats, a dog, and a houseful of gargoyles somewhere east of Chicago. She can be contacted at BrigidsBlest @ yahoo.com.
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TDF Pamela, on February 7th, 2010
 The Better Part of Darkness by Kelly Gay
Buy It Now: on Amazon
Description:Atlanta: it’s the promised city for the off-worlders, foreigners from the alternate dimensions of heaven-like Elysia and hell-like Charbydon. Some bring good works and miracles. And some bring unimaginable evil….
Charlie Madigan is a divorced mother of one, and a kick-ass cop trained to take down the toughest human and off-world criminals. She’s recently returned from the dead after a brutal attack, an unexplained revival that has left her plagued by ruthless nightmares and random outbursts of strength that make doing her job for Atlanta P.D.’s Integration Task Force even harder. Since the Revelation, the criminal element in Underground Atlanta has grown, leaving Charlie and her partner Hank to keep the chaos to a dull roar. But now an insidious new danger is descending on her city with terrifying speed, threatening innocent lives: a deadly, off-world narcotic known as ash. Charlie is determined to uncover the source of ash before it targets another victim — but can she protect those she loves from a force more powerful than heaven and hell combined?
This review is based on a free, review copy received from the publisher.
TDF Pamela’s Review:
Barring a few stumbles, this is a solid urban fantasy debut with inventive worldbuilding and an exciting storyline. The protagonist, Charlie Madigan, is a specially trained police officer who deals with offworlder crime. She loves her daughter very much, and is very conflicted about her ex-husband, whom she left after she found out he was dealing in black magic. Charlie and her partner Hank are by far the most fleshed out characters in this book. Unfortunately the supporting cast are pretty flat, even characters that should have more depth, like Charlie’s sister and daughter. Charlie herself gets a bit frustrating with her tendency to overthink everything, but the more I thought about it, the more it makes sense for her. She’s a single mother with an incredibly dangerous, stressful job thrown into an even more dangerous, stressful situation. As much as I wanted to yell at her to just DO something, it’s probably a more mature response to think hard. I just hope that in future books, she takes a bit more of a chance occasionally. Nevermind that leaping before looking often creates tense situations that work well in this sort of book.
The story and world are both well-developed. I like the way that Gay has created the parallel worlds of Elysia and Charybdon, but has left them for the most part a mystery. I think this bodes well for future books set in this series; you don’t want to give away all of the good stuff at the start. The main plotline of the book revolves around ash, a mysterious drug that’s been putting people in a coma all over Atlanta, but as the centerpiece of the mystery, ash surprisingly doesn’t play that big a part in the overall story. It’s overshadowed by the dangerous game that Charlie realizes she’s been a part of ever since her death and seemingly-miraculous return to life. On top of the offworlder entanglements, Charlie’s daughter has been kidnapped, and so not only must she uintangle the mystery and fast, she has to do it to save her child.
The Better Part of Darkness is an exciting read that only occasionally feels a bit too busy. I’ll most likely pick up the sequel when it comes out.
TDF Pamela’s Rating: 
 TDF Pamela
The Discriminating Fangirl, who is more likely to answer to Pamela if you shout it at her, is currently working on a MA in English, focusing on children's/young adult literature and popular culture. She reads voraciously, loves geeky movies and tv shows, reads comic books as often as she can buy them, and when she's procrastinating, she enjoys playing video games. She can be contacted at t.d.fangirl @ gmail.com and followed on Twitter at the link below.
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Emily, on February 1st, 2010
 Dr. Strange accidentally turns Iron Man into an iron, Wasp into a wasp and Thor into a frog.
I’ve lately become obsessed with Marvel’s SuperHero Squad Show which debuted in September 2009. At first I thought a TV show based on a toy line was a silly idea, but then I remembered how awesome Jem and the Holograms, Thundercats, GI Joe and a slew of others were, and I felt better.
The Superhero Squad toy line was all about making cute, little figures (like the MiniMates but less Lego) so the result was a cross between DC’s Tiny Titans and Fischer Price’s Little People. Needless to say, it is full of cute.
In the show, the Superhero Squad live in “Superhero City” (Mayor: Stan Lee) and the bad guys live in “Villain Ville.” Before the series began, Doctor Doom and Iron Man fought it out over an object of endless power—the Infinity Sword, but it broke into pieces called “fractals.” (Don’t worry, this is recapped in the theme song, if you’re getting confused.) Each fractal has its own magic juju, which invariably causes hijinks that last just one episode. The Squad was formed to retrieve the fractals before Doom can get them all and reform the Infinity Sword.
Upside: Zany things happen to our heroes, when they come in contact with a fractal. (Like attached image of Iron Man turning into an iron.)
Downside: You will have to pretend you do not know that actual fractals should all look the same as the Infinity Sword did before it broke.
For those wondering, “The Superhero Squad” is pretty much another name for “The Avengers.” Perhaps “Avengers” was too dark for kid TV? Regular members are Iron Man (the leader), Wolverine, Falcon, Thor, Silver Surfer and the Hulk. Young Reptil also shows up in the second episode and becomes a junior member of the squad, presumably because kids need someone young to relate to. I try and ignore him.
Instead I focus on the adorable-ness of the other “Squaddies.” Thor has become a particular favorite of mine, because his unique speech patterns mixed with modern-day jokes never fails to amuse me (“I be rubber and thou art glue, whatever thou sayth doth bounce of me and cling to you!” he tells his brother Loki when they are arguing). And out-of-touch-with-modern-life Captain America reminds me of my grandfather. (They both like to say “HUP HUP HUP!”)
Another high point of the show is the nerd-friendly guest cast that appears. For fans of the Marvel movies, Ray Stevenson and Shawn Ashmore reprise their roles as the Punisher and Iceman. Buffy the Vampire Slayer alums James Marsters (Spike) and Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn) show up as Mister Fantastic and Valkyrie respectively. BSG star Tricia Helfer is Sif; hottie Taye Diggs plays Black Panther; and, my personal favorite, LeVar Burton guests as War Machine (and there is a Reading Rainbow joke!). Lena Headey, aka Sarah Fucking Connor, voices Mystique (pretending to be Black Widow). Heroes actors Adrian Pasdar and Greg Grunberg appear as Hawkeye and Ant-Man. Pasdar’s Hawkeye is so wry and cranky that I’d have let him go with a warning.
My only real gripes with the show is that there is too much potty humor (lots of fart jokes, which I can’t imagine even young kids think are witty) and there is no female member of the Superhero Squad. It’s an all-boys club. Ms. Marvel often shows up as the agent of SHIELD in charge of keeping the boys in line, but she’s reduced to a shrill middle-management stereotype (very concerned with cleanliness) which is a shame because Ms. Marvel is awesome. If only the Wasp (who, despite being small manages to kick all kinds of ass) were a regular member, I’d be totally happy.
No wait, if you could get Gray Hulk to call the Wasp’s costume designs “matronly” in that Michael Kors on Project Runway voice again, then I would be totally happy.
The Superhero Squad Show airs on Cartoon Network at 8:30 am on Saturdays, and then again at 7:30 pm. Check CN’s schedule for additional airings.
 Emily
Emily is a book nerd currently living in New York City. She recently completed a master’s degree at New York University and doesn’t really know what to do with her free time. When she is not reading, working or sleeping, she is planning for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. She doesn’t really like writing bios, but if you would like to know more about her then you can contact her at bintwin @ yahoo.com.
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