The Novel Strumpet Reviews A Couple Books! Timeless (Parasol Protectorate #5) by Gail Carriger and Soulless: The Manga, Volume 1!

Oh how I admire the Novel Strumpet’s passion for the written word! I’ll tell you. I’m trying to kick my Diet Coke habit which everyone around me is so thankful for because I’ve literally wanted to rip everyone’s head off. Literally.

And since I just got this review from Strumpie I thought oh, I’ll take a look and I realized my brain can’t form letters.. What the F do they put in this Diet Coke anyway.

So, I’m going to take The Novel Strumpet’s word that these novels are good or bad because I can’t even begin to fathom what a Parasol Protectorate is… And I’m a dork! LOL…

Check out the Strumpet’s Review after the jump!

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Timeless (Parasol Protectorate #5) by Gail Carriger

Alas dear friends the Parasol Protectorate has reached its end and I’m still wondering about how I feel. Great joy that all my lovely friends are well, sad they will be gone for a while (she is planning a series based on Alexia and Conall’s daughter), and a little confused by all that happened.

********SPOILERS DEAR READER YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!!!!!!!!!**********

The novel picks up two years after Alexia has given birth to her metanatural daughter Prudence. Where Alexia cancels a person’s supernatural power, Prudence absorbs it, at least until sunrise. It’s bad enough she can do this, but as a toddler of two….yikes…toddler werewolf…toddler vampire…frightening! Seems things have settled down for Alexia and her crew (aside from Prudence’s bath nights) but of course they won’t stay that way for long. Sure enough the oldest Vampire, Queen Matakara from Egypt, wishes to see the child abomination – you didn’t think they’d like a preternatural’s metanatural child did you – and of course Alexia must go.

On top of this, it seems one of Conall’s old pack members from Scotland has gone missing in Egypt, the God Breaker Plague is expanding, and they have to sail since werewolves are not good air travellers. Most inconvenient. How are they to go and not raise suspicion? Well, since the Maccon’s are the patrons of an acting troupe, run by Alexia’s dear friend Ivy and her husband, they have the perfect excuse. Unfortunately Madame Lefoux is also along for the ride and Alexia still can’t trust her intentions especially after she nearly killed Alexia, has been forced to serve as drone to Countess Nadasdy and belongs to the Order of the Brass Octopus. So off we go across the sea to Alexandria, Egypt and you can only imagine what happens to that poor country once they all land and are unleashed on an ancient vampire tribe.

Just like the last book there were too many revelations happening. Partly for selfish reasons and partly for the sake of the story I think I would’ve liked one or two more books to list all these things out. In this one we find out Queen Matakara started the God Breaker Plague in Egypt, Floote is actually working on some secret agenda of his own (oh Floote say it isn’t so, good butlers are so hard to find), Biffy is actually an Alpha werewolf (a dandy alpha what will become of us all?), Professor Lyall’s secrets are revealed to Conall and on top of starting a relationship with Biffy he now has to leave London for Scotland to make amends, Ivy becomes a vampire queen (I’m still digesting that one), the infant inconvenience does not like the name Prudence, and water cancels a preternaturals abilities. And that’s just part of it all. Phwew!

My biggest problems come in some of the melodrama. Alexia falls overboard on their voyage to Egypt, Conall is shot and falls from an airship yet lives, an ancient vampire grabs Prudence and leaps out a window with her to his death, and there is the ever constant conundrum of Alexia herself. Being overly practical it’s interesting to see how consumed she is with Conall so that everyone, and I mean everyone, else means nothing when she believes him gone. She even goes off to what is a certain suicide mission, leaving her daughter behind. Makes her a little less shiny of a hero, which I kind of like but at the same time I want her to be strong for the others, not fall apart the way she does.

What is the same is Carrigher’s unfailing ability to spin lighthearted warmth with serious matters and make you really care for her characters, which is why members of the Parasol Protectorate everywhere will wear black armbands of mourning for at least a year now that the series is over. Ok, maybe not but we are very sad. Definitely not the strongest in the series, but even the weakest of this series is a great read.

And as an added treat…..

Soulless: The Manga, Volume 1 (based on the Parasol Protectorate Series) by Gail Carriger with Art by Rem

I was equal parts nervous and excited to see what the manga version would look like. I like manga but it has a tendency to skew a little cutesy and while the books are fun, they are not cutesy.

Well to my relief it was done well.

I mean they’re going to be a little more cartoonish than what I see in my head, but it’s manga so what can you do? Surprisingly they didn’t make Ivy’s hats as ridiculous as I was hoping. And I was shocked that they didn’t shy from some of the more “adult” moments in the book (I mean we all know how amorous Werewolves can be) but it’s no worse than what you see on HBO/Showtime and is even a little tame compared to those.

I liked the subtle “sound” used when a supernatural touches Alexia and that all the male characters don’t look like she-males. They kept pretty true to the book by capturing all of the most important moments – yes they had to leave some things out but then we’d have to wait for volumes not just one and I’m not that patient, and I like the subtle ways they incorporated the steampunk elements of the book with background scenery.

Overall it was really well done and I hope they translate more of the books into this format because it was just plain fun.