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Discount Armageddon (InCryptid, #1)
by Seanan McGuire (Goodreads Author)
by Seanan McGuire (Goodreads Author)
Felicia's review
bookshelves: vaginal-urban-fantasy, urban-paranormal
Mar 18, 12
bookshelves: vaginal-urban-fantasy, urban-paranormal
Read in March, 2012
I mean, I have not a TON of patience for Buffy-like cute blonde lead characters, but I can't deny that this book drew me in. The first 100 pages is a LOT of info dump, and it had my head reeling a bit, all the details in this magic-rich fantasy-character-alt universe, but something about the whimsey and the really grounded and amusing reality of the main character hooked me. I thought there were some potentially cliched relationships the author sidestepped quite well, and despite my confusion with some of the world-building, LOVED the little touches like the mice and the unicorn, super cute without being Twee. And I love dancing, so all that with the main character was really fun to read :)
All in all, a good addition to the urban fantasy world, will be reading the next (and catching up on this author's other series too, BEHIND!)
All in all, a good addition to the urban fantasy world, will be reading the next (and catching up on this author's other series too, BEHIND!)
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John
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Mar 18, 2012 10:09pm
Infodumping seems to be sort of trademark McGuire. I read her novel "Feed" ("Mira Grant" is a nom de plume) and, despite the highly intriguing premise (presidential campaign in post-zombie-apocalypse America) she interrupts herself every few pages to infodump, at length.
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Alice, Mira Grant is indeed a pseudonym! The Newsflesh Trilogy and all associated short stories/novellas were written by McGuire.
Oh, I'm glad you liked it! It's definitely a fun read, and it's rather different from the Toby Daye series, which is also great. (How behind are you? Because the most recent books have been really good, Late Eclipses especially.)One of Seanan's major strengths is her incredibly well-thought-out worldbuilding, hence the infodumping. I find it really interesting, myself.
Does this book move at a good pace? I gave up on the Toby Daye series because there was minimal payoff and I like Toby the least of all the characters minus Connor who is the love interest, Blech. Hesitant to attempt another of her series if I have to trudge through 4 books of a series to finally throw my hands up in the air and meh, meh, meh, meh.
I think Verity is more easily likable than Toby. She's much more personable, though she still has that sarcastic edge that all of Seanan's protagonists have. It's to be noted, though, that her plan is to switch POV characters every couple books. That could be good or bad, depending on what you look for in a series.
Her Toby Daye urban fantasy is solid but I absolutely love her work as Mira Grant. John is absolutely right about the info-dumping. What's rough is absorbing so much information. What's awesome is that she knows so much about her own world. She's not making this stuff as she goes along, she knows where she is going and is handing you what you need to know before it's time to buckle up and enjoy the ride. :)
My comment about infodumping wasn't necessarily meant to be critical. McGuire is exceptional (as several people have noted) at building detailed worlds. While reading Feed I marvelled at the amount of thought she'd put not only into her timeline of the imagined future (The Rising and everything that followed) but also into the sorts of political issues that would arise in a post-zombie-apocalypse America where the threat of infection was a fact of life. Indeed, it was McGuire's extended contemplations on these issues that led me to write my own book, Atticus for the Undead, which delves into the sorts of legal issues you might encounter if magic, vampires, etc. were real.I thought there were both good and bad things about Feed, but I have nothing but admiration for McGuire's rich world-building.
