Kelley Armstrong Talks The Future of Urban Fantasy
Kelley Armstrong Talks The Future of Urban Fantasy
From Discover on Google
Book Review for Kelley Armstrong’s Rituals (some Spoilers)
I have greatly enjoyed visiting Cainsville this past week. Watching Olivia, Gabriel and Ricky navigate discovering their pasts and the roles they were expected to play was fun and learning along the way with them the paranormal origins and the crazy treatment of those who did not fit into either of the main groups was a crazy ride. And I have looked forward to the conclusion of this story especially given the surprise at the ending of Betrayals when Ricky stepped aside to give Gabriel his shot with Olivia.
Watching the group fight their past incarnations and the meddling of both sides was frustrating. In many ways, the urge to just shake the main characters was high. And yet as each of the succeeding third party scheme and design traps and pitfalls there is a underlying layer of hope–that these three can somehow beat fate. Each of their previous incarnations are bitter and seem determined to make the same mistakes happen again while they advise Olivia, Gabriel and Ricky not to make the same mistakes. It’s frustrating.
All through the story, Gabriel’s continuing social dysfunction takes a large role in the story. And seeing him struggle to be what Olivia needs is painful at times. Having Gabriel’s mother return and Pamela escape from jail is not only unexpected it is shocking. And in this last book, finding that the powers who were so desperately awaiting their Matilda made deals that they didn’t consider the ramifications of was just plain disappointing
This end had the potential to be epic. No matter which decision was made, there could have been closure and healing with the story coming full circle. Instead of secret male pacts determining the future we could have had a reasoned and equal decision. Having a strong heroine with two strong males making well reasoned decisions seemed like what was coming.
Instead, Ricky backed off the field and Olivia was so glad to have the least crumb of attention from Gabriel that despite the fact he continued to misstep, Olivia chose Gabriel and then the three of them decided to do what they were told from the very beginning wasn’t an option. I did not see a happily ever after when this book ended. I saw continued heartbreak for Olivia as Gabriel continues to misstep. I see a friendship between Ricky and Olivia that will always have a sexual undertone and a feeling of lost opportunities. And the relationship between Gabriel and Ricky will always have a petty jealoussness under it.
As sad as the end made me because it took so much of Olivia’s strength and growth and threw it out the window as soon as Gabriel made the least bit of effort, it could have been worse. I am glad that they end up with neither the elders or the hunt winning. But instead it seems that everyone loses.
Fiction
Random House Canada
August 15, 2017
496
The fifth book and the exciting conclusion to bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's "impossible-to-put-down" Cainsville series, in which she mixes hard-hitting crime writing with phenomenal world-building to create a brand of fiction all her own. When Olivia Taylor-Jones found out she was not actually the adopted child of a privileged Chicago family but of a notorious pair of convicted serial killers, her life exploded. Running from the fall-out, she found a refuge in the secluded but oddly welcoming town of Cainsville, Illinois, but she couldn't resist trying to dig out the truth about her birth parents' crimes. She began working with Gabriel Walsh, a fiendishly successful criminal lawyer who also had links to the town; their investigation soon revealed Celtic mysteries at work in Cainsville, and also entangled Olivia in a tense love triangle with the calculating Gabriel and her charming biker boyfriend, Ricky. Worse, troubling visions revealed to Olivia that the three of them were reenacting an ancient drama pitting the elders of Cainsville against the mysterious Huntsmen with Olivia as the prize. In the series' fifth and final novel, not only does Gabriel's drug addict mother, who he thought was dead, make a surprise reappearance, but Kelley Armstrong delivers a final scary and surprising knock-out twist. It turns out a third supernatural force has been at work all along, a dark and malevolent entity that has had its eye on Olivia since she was a baby and wants to win at any cost.
a Quote along with some Other Things
“She’d called him a coward, running away whenever she pulled him toward something he didn’t like. It was not so much cowardice as ego, and not even so much protecting his ego as safeguarding the supports that kept it intact. Success bolstered his ego. Doing what he was good at and avoiding failure in every possible way. He’d first realized that in high school, when he’d dropped out of geometry, not because he disliked it but because he wasn’t good at it. Algebra came easily. Calculus was also fine. But there was something about geometry that he could not wrap his mind around. So he dropped the course. The moment he discovered he did not have the knack for something, he stopped trying to do it. Empathy, friendship, dating, relationships in general. He embraced a challenge only if he knew he could succeed. The hard truth of the matter was that Gabriel was spoiled. He got what he wanted, and did not want what he could not get. “ Kelley Armstrong Rituals
I am thoroughly enjoying my quest through Cainsville this time around. It never ceases to amaze me that every time I read one of my favorite authors my mind finds little parts of the story to delight over. The plot of each novel, for the most part remains the plot. There are a few slight deviations from that rule where knowing the plot in its entirety changes the substance of the story. This happens with Christine Feehan’s Carpathian series, when the overarching hatred between mages and the Carpathians leads to the discovery that their lack of fertility comes from an evil wizard’s working of a spell. It definitely happens in Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series. I think it is beginning to happen in the Anita Blake Series as we see more challenging foes as well as more powerful allies.
Sometimes, I find myself amazed though how much knowing one of the larger series in paranormal romance leads to the calm acceptance (to some extent) of fantastical creatures from myth and lore. One of the things I have greatly enjoyed in the Cainsville series is the interweaving of some pretty obscure Celtic imagery, characters and lore. Would the imagery of the Wild Hunt as a biker gang be so easily accepted had it not sort of appeared that way in the Dresden files? And now, Kelley Armstrong has introduced the slaugh which plays a large role in Laurell K Hamilton’s Meredith gentry Series. This Slaugh is a very different incarnation from the one in Merry Gentry’s world, but the idea itself is more easily accepted since it plays such a large role in Merry’s world.
I guess that the point of this general ramble is that everything is connected and , no I am not going into deep philosophical questions of identity or politics. I am just remarking upon the fact that so many have before–everything is possible and yet nothing can ever truly be new. And now I go back to Cainsville a little bit sad because I know the end is near but a little bit happy to as I never know quite what to expect until a story actually reaches its end.
Fiction
Random House Canada
August 15, 2017
496
The fifth book and the exciting conclusion to bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's "impossible-to-put-down" Cainsville series, in which she mixes hard-hitting crime writing with phenomenal world-building to create a brand of fiction all her own. When Olivia Taylor-Jones found out she was not actually the adopted child of a privileged Chicago family but of a notorious pair of convicted serial killers, her life exploded. Running from the fall-out, she found a refuge in the secluded but oddly welcoming town of Cainsville, Illinois, but she couldn't resist trying to dig out the truth about her birth parents' crimes. She began working with Gabriel Walsh, a fiendishly successful criminal lawyer who also had links to the town; their investigation soon revealed Celtic mysteries at work in Cainsville, and also entangled Olivia in a tense love triangle with the calculating Gabriel and her charming biker boyfriend, Ricky. Worse, troubling visions revealed to Olivia that the three of them were reenacting an ancient drama pitting the elders of Cainsville against the mysterious Huntsmen with Olivia as the prize. In the series' fifth and final novel, not only does Gabriel's drug addict mother, who he thought was dead, make a surprise reappearance, but Kelley Armstrong delivers a final scary and surprising knock-out twist. It turns out a third supernatural force has been at work all along, a dark and malevolent entity that has had its eye on Olivia since she was a baby and wants to win at any cost.
Kelley Armstrong Cainsville Order
The Screams of Dragons (Subterranean Press magazine, narrator: non-series character)
Devil May Care (in “Led Astray,” narrator: Patrick)
Cainsville Files (app-based story, narrator: non-series character)
Gabriel’s Gargoyles (in “Gifted,” narrator: Gabriel)
Bad Publicity (in Cainsville Tales, narrator: Patrick)
The Orange Cat (coming spring 2015, in “nEvermore” narrator: Gabriel)
Omens (novel, narrator: Olivia)
Visions (novel, narrator: Olivia)
Deceptions (novel, narrator: Olivia)
Lady of the Lake (Cainsville Tales, narrators: Olivia and Ricky)
Lost Souls (coming early 2017, novella, narrators: Gabriel & Patrick)
Betrayals (novel, narrator: Olivia)
Rituals (coming August 2017, narrator: Olivia)
[Top]An Unwavering Recommendation…
Usually, I post about the books I read, the friends I find within each story and reconnecting with them. And right now I am reconnecting with Olivia and Gabriel–and all the mystery and magic of Cainsville. But I wanted to tell you about something seemingly unconnected and in the process I will explain the thought train that led to this post.
I love reading, as you know all to well. And I dislike audiobooks because depending on narrator, the book can be enriched through the process of creating an audiobook or it can be ruined by the slightest thing-a name pronounced differently, an accent that is different than what was expected or any other of a million reasons. When we read a book, we imagine the characters, their accents, and a million other things. An audiobook can ruin that because it makes the elements written in stone and each of these things can skew the enjoyment of the book.
I have been a long time fan of the Elfquest comic book series. When I first found them they had been reprinted as a graphic novel and were in color. When they later rereleased the comics in Black and White, they used a similar explanation–that the coloration of the comics limited the possibilities and locked the characters descriptions in stone. Printing the comics in black and white allowed for infinite possibilities and for the enjoyment of the stories in a whole new way.
For years I was a physical book reader, and my daughter still is. For her a book has to have a physical presence in order to be a book. Ebooks do not work for her-without the pages to flip and the smell of the paper and weight of the book in her hands, they do not seem real to her. Now, I fully enjoy all the facets of having ebooks- the ability to carry hundreds or thousands of books in the palm of my hand, rather than having to carry an extra suitcase on trips. I enjoy having multiple copies of the books in multiple places and the ability to transfer from device to device. I was and am a firm supporter of amazon kindles and have been for a long time.
Anyone who reads ebooks should look into the freeware program Calibre. It allows you to organize your library by author or series or even by publication date. It allows you to convert your books from one format to another and that allows you to use multiple devices. It can also manage your devices. You can merge files together (using plugins) and a million other things.
So now I have found the best program for my needs to be google play books. First off, google offers 24-7 tech support on using the play books app for free. In addition to allowing books to be read on multiple devices, with your progress in each book being communicated no matter which device you read the books upon. Google Play has a read aloud feature-it uses a computer voice of your choice. Much like the black and white comics, it still allows me to add the details to the story. It also allows me to speed up the reading so I can keep pace with where I would be approximately without using the read aloud feature.
So, whats the point of this long rambling post? It’s actually quite simple. My smartphone has become my reading device of choice. And protecting that smartphone has become VERY important. While there are a million choices in the market for cases, tempered glass protectors or plastic film protectors I want to speak with you about my experience with a company called Skinomi. They produce plastic film phone protectors. You can buy one just for the front screen, one for coverage of the entire device (front, back and sides), or one for just the front and back. he plastic film is self healing and the have a lifetime warranty on their products. They now have lines that can be used to change the look of your phone from wood to tempered steel or even cool black carbonite looking skin.
They are the best phone protectors out there. I have used a lot of different ones, but theirs have stood the test of time with each of my phones. In addition, they have exceptional customer service and replace your screen protector if there is an error in installation or for some other reason you need a new one. And it is a lifetime replacement on their products and there is a bubble free guarantee. So protect your phone-get a skinomi protector, they are the best on the market and worth the price!
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What I am Reading Now…
So, given the release of Rituals yesterday, I am rereading the Cainsville series. I am thoroughly enjoying spending time reconnecting with Olivia, Gabriel and Ricky…and to be quite honest I am not sure who I am rooting for in this triangle. I love Olivia and Ricky as a couple, but Gabriel needs her so badly…
He is so broken and yet so fixable…
Sigh…I guess I will have to read through the end of Rituals to find out how it all works out!
But, Oh my–I am quite enthralled in the story which reminds me how much I love Kelley Armstrong!
This series starts as contemporary fiction and yet there is so much more to the story and Kelley Armstrong seems a little bit incapable of writing without some sort of paranormal twist in there…
Happy Book Birthday to Kelley Armstrong
So, I did my happy dance about two hours ago, when my copy of Rituals hit my google play library. I’ve been posting a lot recently about the giveaways leading up to this, the final installment in Cainsville. For those of you wondering what on g-ds green earth is she talking about, I will try to explain.
Kelley Armstrong gained fame and notoriety with her women of the otherworld series. It started with Bitten, the story of Elena Micheals the only female werewolf. The series was exceptionally different as each book followed different strong woman of the otherworld. The otherworld was the paranormal world that coexisted with our world, but in secret and containing all the supernatural creatures. Many of us were greatly saddened by the end of the series and we have enjoyed each and every one of the short stories that continued to follow the stories of all our favorite characters, bringing our friends stories back into our lives.
These stories success opened the door for her Nadia Stafford series, about an assassin who is partially retired but somehow keeps getting sucked back into all kinds of shenanigans. Kelley Armstrong had written some other stand alones as well as some young adult series.
After the main storyline of women of otherworld concluded, except for the small vignettes the short stories allowed for quick peeks at how our characters were faring, Kelley Armstrong started two new series for fans to get excited about. The Casey Duncan series follows the main character, a trained police officer as she struggles to help her best friend with an abusive ex husband who seems to always find them which means they are constantly on the run. This continues until they hear of a rumor, a town whispered about where you really can disappear because there is no technology and the town exists on no map. It means that everyone must do whatever jobs they can and they live an almost communal type life. But rather than being created around an ideal of free love it is the idea that everyone, sometimes, needs a do-over and a way to disappear. But now there are murders occurring where people go to disappear after extensive background checks and thus begins the Casey Duncan series.
The other story, Cainsville, that Kelley Armstrong started seemed to be a more traditional fiction book. It centered around the world of Olivia Taylor-Jones, a vapid socialite who discovers that her true parents were serial killers. But as the story progressed it became more and more paranormal, calling on ancient Celtic lore. This is the final book in the series and I cannot wait to dive in…
Fiction
Random House Canada
August 15, 2017
496
The fifth book and the exciting conclusion to bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's "impossible-to-put-down" Cainsville series, in which she mixes hard-hitting crime writing with phenomenal world-building to create a brand of fiction all her own. When Olivia Taylor-Jones found out she was not actually the adopted child of a privileged Chicago family but of a notorious pair of convicted serial killers, her life exploded. Running from the fall-out, she found a refuge in the secluded but oddly welcoming town of Cainsville, Illinois, but she couldn't resist trying to dig out the truth about her birth parents' crimes. She began working with Gabriel Walsh, a fiendishly successful criminal lawyer who also had links to the town; their investigation soon revealed Celtic mysteries at work in Cainsville, and also entangled Olivia in a tense love triangle with the calculating Gabriel and her charming biker boyfriend, Ricky. Worse, troubling visions revealed to Olivia that the three of them were reenacting an ancient drama pitting the elders of Cainsville against the mysterious Huntsmen with Olivia as the prize. In the series' fifth and final novel, not only does Gabriel's drug addict mother, who he thought was dead, make a surprise reappearance, but Kelley Armstrong delivers a final scary and surprising knock-out twist. It turns out a third supernatural force has been at work all along, a dark and malevolent entity that has had its eye on Olivia since she was a baby and wants to win at any cost.
Wanted to Recommend Some Series to Make the Wait Better
So, for all my fellow fans out there rereading series over and over while waiting for the next book in any of our series–here are some series you may or may not know about yet…
Lauren Dane- Goddess with a Blade series. This is an ongoing PNR with a female kickass protagonist who is a vessel for the goddess Brighid. It has all the usual suspects, but a unique take on it. Lauren Dane is working on the next book now. She has other Paranormal series that are good as well, but this is my favorite
Shiloh Walker-The Hunters Series and The Grimm Circle books. Both are unique takes on the original archetypes. She also writes a more urban series under the penname J.C. Daniels about a really cool heroine Kit Colbana who is a member of a unique species called the Aneira.
Seanan Mcguire-October Daye, Incryptid and Indexing series–This has sarcasm in spades and all 3 are incredible stories. She also writes under the penname Mira Grant.
Kelley Armstrong-Cainsville (unique story based on celtic archetypes) and Casey Duncan Series (murder mysteries, sort of)
Karen Chance- Cassandra Palmer and Dorina Basarab series…a unique take on the usual Paranormal types. Focuses on time travel and is non stop action with a humorous take
Jacqueline Carey-Kushiels series More traditional fantasy with a lot of religious imagery and a lot of sex and violence Very good, and was around before PNR was a thing
[Top]So, let’s talk about mythology
I can still remember the very first time I was exposed to the greek mythos. I was 7 and a teacher mentioned Athena springing to life fully formed. This was back in the days of actual encyclopedias in actual libraries. I went and looked her up in the World Book Encyclopedia and I was hooked. By the time I was 14, I bought the Big Book of Gods and Goddesses and learned all about all the different mythologies–Greek, Roman, Norse, Celtic,Hindu,etc-there was not a minor god or goddess you could stump me with, and I had lots of people try! So, I have been thrilled by the fact that paranormal romance has headed that way and that every author has their own mythos to learn and wow can they be complex! I will say that the cainsville series by Kelley Armstrong has stretched my celtic knowledge a little bit. But I just got sidetracked! I wanted to talk a little bit about Karen Chance’s integration of both the Greek and Norse mythos into the Cassie Palmer series. It’s an interesting proposition that the greek/Roman Gods were a race of fae that ruled the others. Its also an interesting stretch to bring Artemis into conflict with Apollo and actually integrate Artemis into the line of Apollo seer’s. Now the question I have, comes from a factoid that is just kind of put out there. Apparently Artemis’ faithful companion and hunting dog is Rag. When Cassie is learning about her father he is Roger Palmer, a Black Circle necromancer. Then, we learn that he was Ragnar Palmer and that was just an alias…So here is my question is Cassie Palmer the daughter of Artemis and her loyal companion Rag? If so does that make her a demigod, a shapeshifter or a god in her own right?
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