Soulless, by Gail Carriger
Jun. 26th, 2010 12:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Alexia Tarabotti is twenty-five years old, half-Italian, and unmarried in an alternate Victorian London in which vampires and werewolves are slightly more acceptable in polite society than she is. She also has no soul.
The soulless, who have the ability to return werewolves and vampires to their human state, once hunted them, though Alexia sees no reason to do so, provided they don't smash her cake at parties. Her state does not put off Lord Conall Maccon, a Scottish werewolf who has fallen in love with her - the main effect of soullessness on the personality appears to be sarcasm, which he finds attractive. Alexia, who finds Conall rude, chooses to stifle her own more carnal interest him.
Unfortunately, as this is a paranormal romance novel, their relationship is quickly interrupted by 1) a series of mysterious disappearances, 2) an evil secret society, and 3) a monster more monstrous than the ones already introduced, to assure us that the vampires and werewolves are just folks, after all.
It all plays out in ways that are easily recognizable to readers of the genre, but the intelligence and humor of the characters distinguish it. Carriger, like Cynthia Leitich Smith in Eternal, has an appreciation for the absurdity of vampires and werewolves as romantic heroes - her ancient, well-dressed vampires are stubbornly frozen in modes of fashion centuries out of date, and the issue of what happens to werewolves' clothing when they transform is addressed, frequently. Apparently cloakrooms developed as a courtesy to shapeshifting guests. Other parts of world history are also modified to explain what vampires and werewolves had to do with them.
A light read that doesn't take itself too seriously. Soulless is the first in a series, and I'm interested in seeing if the worldbuilding is extended in the next book.
Alexia Tarabotti is twenty-five years old, half-Italian, and unmarried in an alternate Victorian London in which vampires and werewolves are slightly more acceptable in polite society than she is. She also has no soul.
The soulless, who have the ability to return werewolves and vampires to their human state, once hunted them, though Alexia sees no reason to do so, provided they don't smash her cake at parties. Her state does not put off Lord Conall Maccon, a Scottish werewolf who has fallen in love with her - the main effect of soullessness on the personality appears to be sarcasm, which he finds attractive. Alexia, who finds Conall rude, chooses to stifle her own more carnal interest him.
Unfortunately, as this is a paranormal romance novel, their relationship is quickly interrupted by 1) a series of mysterious disappearances, 2) an evil secret society, and 3) a monster more monstrous than the ones already introduced, to assure us that the vampires and werewolves are just folks, after all.
It all plays out in ways that are easily recognizable to readers of the genre, but the intelligence and humor of the characters distinguish it. Carriger, like Cynthia Leitich Smith in Eternal, has an appreciation for the absurdity of vampires and werewolves as romantic heroes - her ancient, well-dressed vampires are stubbornly frozen in modes of fashion centuries out of date, and the issue of what happens to werewolves' clothing when they transform is addressed, frequently. Apparently cloakrooms developed as a courtesy to shapeshifting guests. Other parts of world history are also modified to explain what vampires and werewolves had to do with them.
A light read that doesn't take itself too seriously. Soulless is the first in a series, and I'm interested in seeing if the worldbuilding is extended in the next book.
