Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The author, as in the individual behind the various names, chose to put this book out under the Grant name instead of the McGuire name. Which tells the reader certain things, at least if they know the names. Grant writes horror/disaster/zombie/intelligent parasites type of stories; McGuire writes fantasies. Both might include the same ‘monsters’ but from different angles (I do not specifically recall any zombies or intelligent parasites as characters in McGuire books, but there are sentient intelligent sea hominids in McGuire books).

The point in noting this issue: I knew this going in so I went in expecting a horror/disaster type story. Not a romance. And that’s what I got (plus a romance, but eh, whatever).

As I noted in, I think, one status update, my greatest problem with this specific book was how often the author dived into needless character backstory/characterization type stuff. Somewhere along the way I could tell . . . well, no this would be spoiler-y so let’s move on ((view spoiler)[if not a main character, I could tell which character was going to die because they suddenly had POV control and rich characterization and backstory then mid-sentence, they dead. Mmphs. Heh. I do not want to spend ten pages on backstory/characterization for a character I barely knew existed, just to make their death more, what’s that word, poignant? Something like that. (that didn’t always happen, by the way, that a minor character would suddenly get backstory then die; just most of the time; occasionally they’d get backstory and . . . continue to live.) (hide spoiler)]).

Right, so – Something like seven years before this book opens, an entertainment company sent a research vessel out to ‘look for mermaids’ to make a ‘mock documentary’. The company has made numerous shows like this one – looking for bigfoot, yeti, etc.etc. They send real scientists and the like along, film them, but never actually expect to find anything. Well, seven years ago they sent a ship out to look for mermaids. No bodies were recovered, nobody made it back alive; video shows ‘monsters’ climbing up out of the sea and tearing people apart. Most people saw those leaked videos and assumed they were fake, a hoax. The company knows better, knows the truth.

This book follows a second ship sent to the same waters, seven years after the first. The company was waiting on science to advance in certain areas before they sent the second expedition.

There are a ton of characters in this book – almost too many, but just barely not too many. Many point of views. Several involving people who ‘lost’ someone on the earlier ship.

Another thing I noted in my status updates: these might be some damned smart people in their fields of expertise but . . . without exception, everyone is depicted as being super dimwitted outside their own field. TSTL characters fill the pages. *shrugs*

Oh, and two of the main characters are female and sleep together. Hence my use of ‘lesbian’ though, now that I think about it, I should change that to bisexual (changes). I forget if Olivia is lesbian or bisexual, but Tory is definitely bisexual since her ex-boyfriend is on the voyage, and she sleeps with/develops a relationship with Olivia.

Rating: 3.68

July 26 2018




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All Things Rise (Return to Earth #1) by Missouri Vaun

All Things Rise by Missouri Vaun

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


There’s something about the book description, not that I could point at what I mean, that always both drew me to the book and kept me from actually starting it. I did previously read the prequel to the series, though, a good long while ago. It’s more of a vague memory at this point, though.

So – as the book description notes, this book is a two person point of view book that involves something of a clash of cultures, cultures that haven’t really interacted with each other in about a hundred years. The culture of the sky cities and the culture of the ‘groundlings’ (when oil began to reach critical low levels, the rich 1% blinked, realized they needed to do something, created an alternate energy source, used it to float cities up in the sky and abandoned the ground to the 99% rest of humanity and cut off connections to those people; naturally, then, the two culture’s languages diverged to the point wherein . . . okay, no, both can understand the other without any problem what-so-ever beyond finding the other’s ‘accent’ and ‘way of talking’ to be . . . ‘cute’; oh and I lied about the two person point of view thing).

Ava, sky-person – citizen of Easton, is a pilot. After almost fucking her best friend, she flees as she always does to avoid conflict and possible conflict. She ‘needs some time to think’. She hadn’t intended that time to involve being on the ground – because earth bound people are scary and everything down there can and will kill her (at least that’s what she’s been told since birth)), but she also probably was not in the correct state of mind to be flying. Or trying to fly. The book starts with her crashing . . . gently into the earth. Near where the . . . another point of view character was fishing.

Cole . . . well, fishes. Works on a farm, does earth based stuff like that. While finishing up fishing she notices a red glow in the sky. That’s the sun setting, though the way things were worded, I expected it to turn out to be Ava’s ship, but whatever. Eventually she notices ‘lights’ nearby and investigates. Whereupon she finds a downed cruiser. And someone inside. Glancing briefly at the thing, she instantly knows how to open the hatch, and does so.

Ava, naturally, flies out of the hatch and pummels Cole’s nose to the point of blood flowing. Eventually Ava realizes that, despite what she was taught, Cole doesn’t actually wish to eat her or do evil to her. After wiping her nose, Cole invites Ava back to her place to spend the night, since its dark and stuff and they need the light to fix the ship.

Ava and Cole give flirty kind of looks to each other. Me being me, I didn’t actually read the full book description (or any, I mean, I had already read the prequel and had an idea what the book should be about) so I overlooked the part where the book description openly and bluntly notes that it isn’t a romance about Ava and Cole. Oops?

I knew ‘something’ was up when Ava rushes a dying Cole (there’s a lot of that kind of thing going on in this book; I mean one or another character in extreme danger; and/or dying) back to the sky-city and . . . . well, was it before there that the third point of view suddenly started? Crap, I think it was before there. I didn’t need to mention dying Cole. Ah, whatever.

So yes there are actually three points of views in this book. Groundling Cole, sky-city citizen and pilot Ava (and native of Easton), and medical doctor Audrey (and citizen, I think, of Easton, though she’s from the sky city of London).

Despite my rough shod review, the book was actually quite interesting. There was a weird mix of chemistry – not-chemistry going on though (I don’t mean between Audrey and Cole, I mean between everyone and everyone; it’s like every character’s chemistry level with each other character – at least in terms of the main characters needed to be mentioned – like how Jess is probably ‘okay’ but she hangs out with Margaret, who Cole finds creepy, though Margaret keeps throwing herself at Cole anyway (that’s part of the chemistry etc. As in, Jess and Cole have a certain amount of chemistry but . . . not the right kind? Margaret fancies Cole but Cole doesn’t; everyone assumes Audrey and Ava will eventually hook up but . . .etcetc)).

I lost track of what I was attempting to say. *glances at clock, sees ‘8:37 pm’, grunts at not being to blame time*

Book was interesting. There’s a lot of sex in it. Somewhat more in the thinking about it way, though plenty of the action kind as well.

This is more of a romance book set in a future science-fictiony world, than a science fiction book with a thin romance plot.

Rating: 3.75

July 10 2018



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