{"id":9193,"date":"2009-11-30T15:00:53","date_gmt":"2009-11-30T22:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=9193"},"modified":"2009-11-30T15:00:53","modified_gmt":"2009-11-30T22:00:53","slug":"review-soulless-book-one-of-the-parasol-protectorate-by-gail-carriger-orbit-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=9193","title":{"rendered":"Review: Soulless, book one of the Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger (Orbit, 2009)"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I first laid hands on Gail Carriger\u2019s Soulless<\/a> (Orbit, 2009), I began to wonder if the book had been written specifically to irritate me.<\/p>\n

1. To start out, the novel is urban fantasy. Already we\u2019re on bad terms.<\/p>\n

2. Also, there are vampires.<\/p>\n

3. Too, werewolves.<\/p>\n

4. And romance!<\/p>\n

5. In case that\u2019s not enough, Carriger mixes in a Victorian setting and a hint of steampunk. Neither of these inherently annoy me, but combined with items 1-4:<\/p>\n

6. The novel is heavily weighted down by trendy genre elements.* In my experience, this usually leads to books that are poorly constructed, badly integrated, and the literary equivalent of a chess club stereotype wearing star-shaped sunglasses \u2013 trying much too hard to be cool.**<\/p>\n

Soulless should be like combining salmon and chocolate while I, in this metaphor, am an ichthyophobe with no sweet tooth. However, it appears that skilled chefs can pair salmon and chocolate<\/a>. And sometimes a novel that\u2019s full of everything wrong can go terribly, tragically right.<\/p>\n

Soulless is the first book of the Parasol Protectorate, with the next book, Changeless<\/a>, due from Orbit on March 30, 2010. The novel begins when a young Victorian woman, Alexia Tarabotti, finds herself alone in a library with a vampire. For any other unmarried miss, this situation would be frightening. However, Alexia has no soul which means that vampires can\u2019t eat her and, in fact, her touch temporarily turns supernatural creatures into humans.<\/p>\n

There are three types of supernatural creatures in Carriger\u2019s universe: werewolves, vampires and ghosts. Werewolves come in packs, and vampires come in hives, but somehow this vampire doesn\u2019t seem to come from anywhere. Alexia gets caught up with the Bureau of Unnatural Registry, or BUR, in helping to investigate this strange appearance as well as a number of strangely coincidental disappearances.<\/p>\n

In the interview at the back of the book, Carriger reports having asked herself, \u201cif immortals were mucking about, wouldn\u2019t they have been mucking about for a very long time?\u201d She considers the cultural implications of supernatural interference: \u201cThose absurd Victorian manners and ridiculous fashions were obviously dictated by vampires. And, without a doubt, the British army regimental system functioned on werewolf pack dynamics\u2026 [and then I] realized that if Victorians were studying vampires and werewolves (which they would do, if they knew about them)\u2026 technology would have evolved differently. Enter a sprinkling of steampunk\u2026\u201d (p. 364)<\/p>\n

In my opinion, most traditional urban fantasy fails because it doesn\u2019t consider the long-term, global ramifications of its conceits. This isn\u2019t helped by the fact that a great deal of urban fantasy poses a secret underworld filled with werewolves and vampires (or fairies and elves) who covertly affect the real world. Small-scale stories revolving around this conceit can be fine, but secrets are difficult to keep, and many stories pose so many supernatural events of such import that it strains credibility to believe that magic could remain a secret. Buffy \u2013 to take an at-hand example \u2013 made a joke of it. But non-humorous texts are out of luck if they want us to believe that people die every night from vampire bites and yet no one ever notices.<\/p>\n

Carriger\u2019s world is one in which vampires and werewolves are fully integrated. They interact with and affect politics and society, and in turn are affected by them. For instance, there\u2019s a post specifically designated for a werewolf to advise the Queen, but simultaneously the alpha werewolf is constrained by high society mores.<\/p>\n

Soulless also benefits from the fact that Carriger doesn\u2019t seem to have approached the elements of her book as disparate. As she says, Victorians investigating magic lends itself to steampunk; one genre element follows from another, creating the sense of a fully integrated world.<\/p>\n

The novel\u2019s action-oriented main plot takes place against a Jane-Austen-like background. Alexia, the product of her mother\u2019s first marriage to a \u2013 gasp \u2013 Italian, is a spinster with a number of unflattering traits, such as her blunt speech and tan complexion, all of which make it clear she\u2019ll never find a proper English husband. Nevertheless, she falls in love with one of the country\u2019s most eligible bachelors, the werewolf alpha Lord Maccon.<\/p>\n

No, wait. She doesn\u2019t fall in love with him. She can\u2019t stand him. No, I\u2019m sorry. I mean, he can\u2019t stand her. Wait. He\u2019s in love with her \u2013 that\u2019s it. It\u2019s just that he\u2019s strong and manly, but also messy and uncivilized. While she\u2019s proud and intractable, but also busty and tenacious. Wait, are we reading Pride and Prejudice with Werewolves?<\/a><\/p>\n

Soulless\u2019s treatment of romance in its early chapters is the novel\u2019s only major misstep. The text improves once Lord Maccon and Alexia acknowledge their romantic feelings \u2013 although there is one awkward, late-chapter sex scene that occurs in the middle of an action sequence, which could have been dramatically shortened while still serving its purpose as a release valve for romance and humor. But the early romantic sallies are winceably clich\u00e9. As soon as a male character gazes upon the heroine with a passage like–<\/p>\n

Miss Tarabotti might examine her face in the mirror each morning with a large degree of censure, but there was nothing at all wrong with her figure. He would have to have had far less soul and a good fewer urges not to notice that appetizing fact. Of course, she always went and spoiled the appeal by opening her mouth. In his humble experience, the world had yet to produce a more vexingly verbose female. (p. 8-9)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

–we readers know where we\u2019re headed. We don\u2019t need tingling near her abdomen<\/em> or stirring he can\u2019t explain<\/em>, interspersed with fury!<\/em> at his lack of manners and yet–!<\/em> to guide us along the way. Carriger so facilely avoids other clich\u00e9s that it\u2019s a shame this one mars the text.<\/p>\n

Overall, though, the Austen elements are charming. Carriger\u2019s Victorian voice is sharp and funny. Witty observations provide a plethora of humorous clashes between action sequences and rigid etiquette. The descriptions of Victorian fashion are very nice for those readers with a weakness for bustles and lace, and I suspect I\u2019m not the only one since the book is marketed with a Victorian dress-up doll flash game<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one weakness the Victorian voice lends itself to, it\u2019s the underdevelopment of Alexia\u2019s mother, step-father and sisters, who play the compliant foils for unconventional Alexia. Their insipidness is fine at the beginning of the book, but grows less convincing as their roles increase near the end. Still, this is a small complaint and easily remedied. Hopefully Carriger will toss them a few lines of character development in one of the sequels.<\/p>\n

Other characters are created quite well. Alexia, for instance, is a fun and well-portrayed heroine, full of vigor and flaws. She, her friend Ivy, and their friendship are memorably captured in a few sentences: \u201cIvy Hisselpenny was the unfortunate victim of circumstances that dictated she be only-just-pretty, only-just-wealthy, and possessed of a terrible propensity for wearing extremely silly hats. This last being the facet of Ivy\u2019s character that Alexia found most difficult to bear.\u201d (p. 33) Lord Maccon and his assistant, Professor Lydell, are good characters as well, although Lord Maccon is at times brushed in with slightly-too-broad romantic strokes and could use a little more development within his archetype. The best character is the vampire Lord Akeldama, an outrageous gossip-monger with a penchant for gaudy attire whose underlying intelligence and immortal weariness are deftly revealed as the novel progresses.<\/p>\n

In the end, Soulless is not a profound novel. It imparts no revelations about the human experience. I don\u2019t expect it will change anyone\u2019s life or that I\u2019ll remember the plot intricacies in ten years. But it was a fun, adventurous romp that diverted me for a few hours. I might even read it a second time. I will certainly pick up book two of the Parasol Protectorate and I look forward to meeting Alexia Tarabotti again in 2010.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

*It seems possible that Carriger began writing with the intent of forecasting what tropes would be popular a few years down the line. If this is the case, kudos to her for guessing correctly.<\/p>\n

**It should go without saying that any of these things can be done well. It\u2019s just that while 90% of everything is crap, I find these tropes to suffer from even worse odds. Nevertheless, here are some successful examples: Octavia Butler\u2019s Fledgling<\/a> (vampire), N. K. Jemisin\u2019s \u201cRed Riding Hood\u2019s Child<\/a>\u201d (werewolf), Benjamin Rosenbaum\u2019s \u201cThe Ant King: A California Fairy Tale<\/a>\u201d (urban fantasy), and Paula Guran\u2019s anthologies of romantic<\/a> fantasy<\/a> which contain Coates\u2019s \u201cMagic in a Certain Slant of Light<\/a>,\u201d Parks\u2019s \u201cMoon Viewing at Shijo Bridge<\/a>,\u201d and Copley-Woods\u2019s \u201cDesires of Houses<\/a>\u201d (romance). Michael Swanwick is famous for combining disparate genre elements with strength and grace, and I was recently impressed with new writer Tina Connolly\u2019s \u201cMoon at the Starry Diner<\/a>\u201d for successfully condensing an epic plotline and several incompatible tropes into a short story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I first laid hands on Gail Carriger\u2019s Soulless (Orbit, 2009), I began to wonder if the book had been written specifically to irritate me. 1. To start out, the novel is urban fantasy. Already we\u2019re on bad terms. 2. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature","category-recommended-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}