Review: Soulless by Gail Carriger

TDF Pamela, on November 3rd, 2009

Soulless by Gail Carriger (Book 1 of The Parasol Protectorate)

Description: Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire — and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

SOULLESS is a comedy of manners set in Victorian London: full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.

This review is based on a copy I bought myself. Nyah. ;)

TDF Pamela’s Review:

Drive by review time! I apologize for the briefness of this. As a friend of mine just said, November is the cruelest month for graduate students, and it’s definitely being a right bastard to me. It’s kind of panic-inducing, how much stuff I have to do this month. o_o

SO! The review!

I have to say, I enjoyed the hell out of this book. It’s another fun blend of genres, much like Leanna Renee Hieber’s The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker. Soulless is a Victorian paranormal mystery romance with a few shakes of steampunk thrown in for flavor. Unfortunately that won’t fit on the spine, so it’s classified as a Fantasy/Horror. I’d quibble with the horror classification, as these days werewolves and vampires do not horror make. It does fit under a very broad umbrella of fantasy, though I’d like to again bring up my wish that publishers would start using the bigger blanket term of speculative fiction.

The wonderful Book Smugglers brought up an interesting point in their joint review, that Alexia and Lord Maccon reminded them both very strongly of Amelia Peabody and Radcliffe Emerson, the main characters in Elizabeth Peters’s wonderful series of Victorian Egyptian mysteries. I did pick up on the similarities, but unlike Ana and Thea, it didn’t bother me at all. Much like Peabody, Alexia is a spinster who carries a parasol and even looks something like Peabody. Lord Maccon is big, blustery, and grumpy, much like Emerson. But to me, the resemblance seemed more like inspiration or an homage, and the story takes a different enough tack from the Peters formula that I wasn’t bothered by it at all.

I had loads of fun with the society-shirking that Alexia and Lord Maccon both excel at. As a spinster, Alexia can get away with behavior that would make her airheaded mother and sisters faint, and I love her almost gleeful acceptance of her social fate. Being a spinster suits her better than having to adhere to society’s expectations for marriageable young ladies would. It also allows her to take advantage of her soulless state–in this world, one’s propensity to becoming a supernatural creature is based on the amount of soul one has; Alexia is rare in that she has no soul, and so her touch can negate supernatural powers. She can dine with poncy vampires and snark back at werewolf Lord Maccon and get away with it. Heh.

The mystery is fun and interesting, but I think my favorite part of the story is the budding romance between Alexia and Lord Maccon. It is also in the vein of Peabody and Emerson, and nothing lights my fires like a good love-hate relationship. ;) It’s not that Alexia and Lord Maccon hate each other, but they bicker and grump and hide their attraction, and there’s nothing better than two people who really, really like each other (and want each other) but who both think they need to hide it. Stoke those fires!

I hate to be so short with this review, but I’ve got 6500 words to write this week, plus a proposal for one paper and I need to start on a proposal for my thesis-type project. November, thou art a heartless bitch.

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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