Changeless

A few days ago I finished reading Changeless by Gail Carriger. It has the dubious honor of being the first book I’ve got through library ebook loan. But since this time when I was browsing the catalog, I noticed that they have a bunch of gay books–like a contract with Dreamspinner Press–I doubt this will be the last ebook I borrow. Also, with it’s completion I have only one book left on my to-read list (with plenty of exceptions), so soon I can read anything I want.

But anyway, Changeless is the sequel to Soulless (which is an awesome pun, BTW). It’s good, I like the whole series so far, but Changeless is not as good as Soulless. There were several plot lines that the story was following, and while it seemed like they would all tie together in the end, they…didn’t quite. The resolution for the most important one happened way too far from the end of the novel, and then the others all tied off neatly and easily, leaving the biggest emotional impact to be something that was foreshadowed, but not truly addressed as part of the tale (and it was also the set-up for the sequel).

I feel like I should also address the main character, who is a strong-headed female, but there’s not much to say about her, except that she’s an actual strong female character. She’s the agency of her own rescue, she doesn’t end up imprisoned at any point, she can’t always quite rescue herself, but she doesn’t need to wait around for a man, either. She’s also comfortable with her sexuality (perhaps too comfortable, there was a lot of *ahem* curtains blowing in the wind, if you know what I mean), and doesn’t define herself as being the wife of her husband (although they are definitely married and together as a couple). The secondary women are harder to pin down, because a few of them are really quite useless (but in an intentional way, and in the perspective of the main character), while a few of them are not. But Alexia herself, she’s fantastic.

So it was a good read, and I like the world that we’re immersed in. One could argue the plot resolutions lack impact away under the guise of “realism” (because in real life nothing is really that climatic), but it’s still weak story-telling. I’m going to read the sequels (two more! on hold at the library, but in dead-tree format), I just can’t give it more than four stars because of the weakened ending.