**Notice** Due to transfering back from a godaddy hosted wordpress blog back to blogger, reviews published before june 2017 don`t all have a pretty layout with book cover and infos. Our apologies.
In the flurry of amazing books and review obligations, I didn't have a chance to chat about the second Finishing School book CURTSIES & CONSPIRACIES but I love Gail Carriger's writing too much not to talk about the penultimate book in the series, WAISTCOATS & WEAPONRY. If you're not familiar with the series, check out my review of the first book, ETIQUETTE & ESPIONAGE, which will give you an idea of the series.
In WAISTCOATS & WEAPONRY, Sophronia is slightly more experienced but still in training at Mlle Geraldine's school, learning how to be an intelligencer of the highest order. I really enjoy the lessons that Sophronia receives, and the school in general, as it is so magnificently twee. This year's lessons include how to fight with a fan, which leads to a truly comical scene. But the heart of the books aren't the lessons - the heart is Sophronia and her friendships and personal growth. She's a delightfully protagonist and she becomes more confident and also more aware of her abilities and shortcomings with each page in the series and it's a pleasure to watch her grow.
Although we see growth and change in some areas, Sophronia is still very much the strong-minded girl that she was from the start of ETIQUETTE & ESPIONAGE, rebelling against the rules and forging her own path. She's maintained her close relationship with Soap, the sootie who works below stairs (insofar as a zeppelin can have a below stairs), despite the scandalous difference in their stations and the fact that he's black, but she's also formed a tight knit group of friends who are staunchly on her side, no matter what the danger. Dimity, Sidheag, and Agatha are such wonderful characters and the four girls form a marvellous band of opposites. Sophronia's ability and willingness to fly in the face of convention imbues all aspects of her life but it's most apparent in the fact that she treasures her friendships with people she "shouldn't" be friends with, and is willing to go to some lengths to keep these friendships, even when they take turns that make things a bit awkward, such as Soap's more overt romantic intentions. (Romance is not the main focus of the series but there are some romantic tensions, which are quite enjoyable since it's about the only thing that flusters Sophronia.)
WAISTCOATS & WEAPONRY also advances a lot of the series plot threads, which is really exciting. We get some ideas about where Sophronia might end up after she graduates, and also see the true colours of some of the men/boys in her life. It was great to see all these developments, and I'm quite excited about where Sophronia will end up when the series draws to a close.
I have some exciting news to share: Gail Carriger is (hopefully) coming out with a new YA sci fi project called Crudrat!
What is Crudrat, you might ask? According to the website and press release, Crudrat is an original full-cast audio production of an original story from the talented Ms. Carriger. The only catch? It doesn't exist yet. Chapter 1 is complete but Carriger and ArtisticWhispers Productions need to raise $7,000 through Kickstarter to make it happen.
Crudrat may not be the expected Carriger blend of steampunk, humour, and fantasy but it sounds really good and I'm definitely intrigued. Check out the blurb below, taken from the website:
Welcome to The Wheel
The Progenitors of The Wheel live high up above the sky, amongst the stars, removed from the petty concerns of mere mortals. Each one designed, engineered, perfect; their imperfect children get left to die.
Ghosts. Cyphers. They do not exist. A lucky few, the Crudrats, scrape out a perilous living cleaning the toxic wastes from the great machines that power the station.
Meet Maura. Cypher. Crudrat. Grown too tall, alone in a spaceport with no use for her, doomed to starve. With only her crud-eating murmel and an alien monster to help her, she must find a way to survive, or escape, before they catch her and blow what’s left of her life, and her companions, into space
From the mind of Gail Carriger, ArtisticWhispers Productions presents a young-adult adventure tale that brings golden age-style science fiction into the 21st century, stuffs it full of heart, and gives it a finely polished, gleaming edge.
How cool does that sound? It's very different from what we usually get from Carriger but I think it will be delightful. If you're not as sure, you can get a sneak peak at Chapter 1 by signing up for the newsletter. You'll be taken to a super sekrit page once you've signed up.
The Kickstarter campaign will be starting on October 1 and run until Halloween. I'll put up another post once the Kickstarter link is available. Get excited, y'all, for a very different (but hopefully just as awesome) Gail Carriger tale!
Book stats: Reading level: Young adult
Trade paperback: 320 pages
Genre: Steampunk
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release date: February 5, 2013
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. Temminnick 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 the 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's legions of fans have come to adore.
"No one said learning etiquette and espionage would be easy, my dear."
- Lady Linette (p. 128)
As the first book in Gail Carriger's new young adult Finishing School series, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I adore Carriger's adult Parasol Protectorate books with a most unladylike passion and so I had high hopes for ETIQUTTE & ESPIONAGE, even though I have a mixed relationship with YA books. Thankfully, just like one of my other favourite authors, Jennifer Estep, Carriger makes a seamless transition to young adult and ETIQUETTE & ESPIONAGE is just as delightful as any of the Parasol Protectorate books. In fact, in some ways, I was even more tickled by ETIQUETTE & ESPIONAGE because fans of the adult series get glimpses of some familiar characters and all readers, old and new, get to meet the irrepressible Sophronia Angelina Temminnick, our fearless fourteen-year-old protagonist. I loved Soprhonia from the moment she stepped onto the page (and into the dumbwaiter) and I'm really looking forward to following her through her Finishing School adventures.
As always in a Carriger novel, the writing is top-notch. The narration is witty, in keeping with the period, and utterly delightful. The story is tightly paced and plotted and will satisfy readers young and not-so-young, since it's smart but not so complex that it would scare off the target audience. My biggest complaint about YA books generally is that I find the plots too simplistic for an adult reader and I was pleased as punch to discover that ETIQUETTE & ESPIONAGE was just as satisfying as Carriger's other works.
As an aside, the marketing team for Little, Brown has created all sorts of neat images on the series website, including some with quotations from ETIQUETTE & ESPIONAGE, like the one above. I'd strongly urge you to check out the website since it will give you a really good feel for the book and the world of the Parasol Protectorate.
Getting back to things, however, we need to talk about Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. It's a finishing school like no other since it teaches all of the techniques necessary to be a successful intelligencer or assassin. Most of the students come from families that know about the true nature of Miss Geraldine's school but Sophronia is a covert recruit, so she doesn't realize how different this school is. Her first clues: the school floats thanks to some fancy technology and her ride to school was more than a little unorthodox. It's a great setting because there are lots of opportunities to showcase amazing steampunk gadgetry and because we get to meet a wonderful cast of characters. Carriger has assembled a motley crew for Sophronia, consisting of Dimity, a lovely young lady who faints at the sight of blood; Soap, a sootie from the bottom of the ship that befriends Sophronia; Sidheag Maccon, a familiar name for fans of the Parasol Protectorate; and, of course, dear Bumbersnoot, the mechanimal that Sophronia finds and adopts. All of the characters have their own voices and quirks and I can't wait to spend more time with them. There are some other familiar faces but I don't want to ruin the surprise so I'll let you discover which Parasol Protectorate characters make an appearance in the Finishing School series. I will say that it's great fun since we get to see them in their younger days, since the Finishing School books are set slightly earlier than the Parasol Protectorate.
ETIQUETTE & ESPIONAGE is a fantastic YA debut for Carriger and it more than meets the high standards I have, based on the wonder that is the Parasol Protectorate. I'm so happy that this is the beginning of a series because I'm sure there are bigger and better things ahead for Sophronia and her friends. I can't wait to see what happens next, in CURTSIES & CONSPIRACIES!
The fangirl in me is *dying* today because Gail Carriger is visiting the blog. She’s the author of one of my favourite series, The Parasol Protectorate, a series of books that are this fantastic blend of steampunk, supernatural, and comedy of manners. There’s nothing out there quite like it, which is why I’m so sad that the final book in the series, Timeless, is being released in two short days. (I’m also edge-of-my-seat excited because I need to know what will happen to Alexia and company.) Thankfully, Gail is working on a steampunk adventure Finishing School series for young adults, Etiquette & Espionage, and a new Parasol Protectorate Abroad series set to launch in 2013.
Keep reading to find out what Gail does when she’s not creating these beautiful books and enter the giveaway to win the first four books in The Parasol Protectorate series. They’re a must for anyone who loves the supernatural, steampunk, and hats.
I think many writers suffer from a plague. That plague is the great lengths we will often go to not to write. I fill up my day with hobbies, particularly at this stage of a book ~ about half way through, in an attempt to find something, anything, to do instead of write. Oh, I will get around to writing in the end but until then I . . .
Cook
I enjoy cooking not just for regular meals, but cooking events and historical recreations. A few years ago in my archaeology days, I translated some recipes from Latin and cooked a 7 course Roman meal. Since I'm on a deadline right now, I invited my best-girl cook buddy over and we prepared a 4 course Victorian supper for 10 out of a 1876 cookbook, just to see what the flavors were like. This is good research for my novels too, all of my protagonists are ladies fond of food. I spend an inordinate amount of time in my novels describing food, likening people to food, or hurling food about in an indiscriminate manner. I figure I better cook it once in a while to find out what it's really like.
Read
Like most writers I started out a reader. Unfortunately, these days, I only allow myself to read books related to my current project. As you can see, my current stack includes a Steampunk graphic novel, the Tricksters series by Tamora Pierce, and the nonfiction book Spy Cather by Peter Wright. This is because I'm working on the Finishing School series right now, which is four young adult books about a steampunk spy-training lady's seminary.
Mill hats
I love nothing more than getting out the hot glue gun and working on hat projects. I think it's the 3 dimensional creative art aspect of hats that I love so much. And when one is working on steampunk or Victorian hats, one can be quite outrageous with feathers and flowers and ribbons galore, a la Ivy Hisselpenny.
Tend houseplants
When I'm puzzling over a plot point or a fight sequence, I'll often wander about the house watering plants. I have an affection for orchids (they respond well to neglect) and a collection of fresh herbs which I use for cooking. They require watering and wedding and other attention, so provide a welcome distraction in my writing day.
Exercise
I have a standing desk but my profession is still a stationary one. I try to fit in some form of stretching and physical activity every day. Sometimes that is climbing on the bike with my laptop and heading off to the local cafe to write, sometimes it's bouncing about in front of the xbox to a dance game. I'm not good with gyms or standard activities like running, so I'm always hunting for a way to make sweating fun and goal oriented.
Undertake an art project
I like to use packing styrofoam to mount fabric and then paint on the fabric for large, lightweight art pieces to put up around the apartment. Earthquake country makes me uncomfortable with the idea of a heavy oil painting hanging over my bed! Plus, this way the painting matches my style and decor perfectly.
Sew
I wear tons of vintage and I like to modify thrifted clothing, which means I have to be able to repair and sew often. I almost always have a stack of clothing hanging behind my office door waiting on alterations or mending.
Plan outfits
Tied into this fashion obsession is the hours I spend fussing with creating and planning outfits for events and everyday activities. I'm obsessed. I haunt the fashion blogs and vintage photos for inspiration and the pick form my own closet to create a similar look.
Throw pots
I trained as an archaeologist and my expertise was in ceramic technology, but I also grew up a potter. As a result, I've done some experimental archaeology work with building and firing recreated kilns. The pots pictured above are the result of one of those firings. It was the firing where we proved an updraught kiln could get over 1100 degrees, a mile marker for the project. They remind me of where I came from and the life of an archeologist and teacher that I still miss, sometimes.
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Thank you for visiting the blog today, Gail! I don’t know how you find the time for all these cool hobbies and write as much as you do.
Learn more about The Parasol Protectorate (but only if you don’t mind spoilers since they’re sort of inevitable in the cover copy):
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.
Alexia Tarabotti, the Lady Woolsey, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears - leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria.
But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. Even when her investigations take her to Scotland, the backwater of ugly waistcoats, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only the soulless can.
She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.
Quitting her husband's house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season.
Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London's vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.
While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires -- and they're armed with pesto.
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?
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?
You can also pre-order the Manga version of Soulless:
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? Or 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?
Want to get your hands on the first four books in The Parasol Protectorate? Gail is offering one (1) set of Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, and Heartless to a lucky reader.
Do you guys have suggestions for who you’d like to see featured on the blog? If so, you can make your suggestions on this page. No guarantees that your favorite authors will be able to participate but we’ll try!
Authors, would you like to visit and share with us? Please email me at jennblogs (at) gmail (dot) com and we’ll set it up!
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?
There is little I love more than a new Parasol Protectorate novel. I fell in love with the series with Gail Carriger’s debut, Soulless, and each installment has improved on its predecessors. I was especially excited to read Heartless because I was expecting the “infant-inconvenience” would make his or her exit from the womb.
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