C. S. E. CooneyBesprekingen

I think this will be DNF for now, at least the audio book. I found the many of narrator's (author's?) voices grating. I may pick up the book another time.

As the author used every word in the dictionary to write her bloated fantasy epic, I'll keep my review brief. For what is basically a YA novel with occasional swearing, 692 pages was far too long; Jonathan Strange this ain't. The names also annoyed me, from 'Miscellaneous' Stones to all the key-smash monikers usually found in fantasy novels. I did like the worldbuilding, when I could keep track, but the contrast between ye olde setting and the modern American dialogue kept throwing me out of the story. To be fair, I'm not a fan of fantasy novels, which I didn't realise this was before I was too far in to DNF, but reading was more of a chore than a pleasure and did not help my current fiction slump. Stunning cover, though!

Originally posted on Just Geeking by.

Content warnings:
There are a lot of violent deaths, murder, blood and gore given in details, likewise, details about dead bodies (human and animals) and anatomy are discussed in detail throughout the book. This is not one for the squeamish in any way. Blood-letting as a means to create magic happens often. Deaths happen on and off page (characters of all ages). There is physical and emotional abuse, and there are scenes of torture of a child off page although details of what and when it is happening is known through magical means (explaining what I mean by this is a big spoiler).

Magical brainwashing, an ability called fascination, happens frequently throughout the book, and is used to force people into marriage and takeover their will completely. There is also an instant of forced captivity and a controlling, manipulative relationship. The abuser in both these instances is a woman. A character under the control of one of these abusers attempts to commit suicide by poison.

There are references and flashbacks to torture scenes using necromancy to revive victims, sibling abuse (emotional and physical), animal abuse, and animal death.

Saint Death’s daughter is a book that presents a conundrum for me. There is so much of the book that I loved, yet something about it just didn’t quite work for me. The first thing that got my attention was the way in which C.S.E. Cooney has chosen to write about necromancy. In this novel it’s something to be cherished, beautiful and delicate, not violent, or bloody, and definitely not to be feared. The way in which Lanie interacts with the undead she brings to life reminded me of the way I’ve felt about undead creatures and characters in video games; no revulsion, just seeing them as something unique.

Lanie is a very easy character to like, her past and her circumstances lend themselves easily to a sympathetic view, however, she’s not without flaws. Often caught up in her magic she can make mistakes, not recognise other people’s feelings or views on things, especially her abilities. All the characters are full of life (ironic considering there is so much death and undeath in this book, and yes this goes for those characters too!), colourful and brilliantly written. You have never met a family quite like the Stones. The Adams Family comes close, except the Stones have no “Family Values” so you can imagine what it was like growing up in that house for Lanie, especially considering her allergies.

Her allergies were of particular interest to me as someone with chronic illness. In the world the author has created necromancers have such a personal connection with death, with the goddess of death, that they feel an echo of violence physically. If they touch someone who has recently come into contact with violence, physically or even in their thoughts, echo wounds appear on their own body. Lanie refers to this as an allergy; an allergy to violence and death. In many ways her childhood experience is much like someone with chronic illness, especially in the way she has to deal with judgement from her family. I didn’t feel that C.S.E. Cooney had used disability as a plot device, rather I felt that she had found a way to represent disability in a fantasy setting in a way that did not reduce the disabled character to a stereotypical fantasy role, such as war veteran.

There is another disabled character in Saint Death’s Daughter, the charismatic Havoc who runs a public house, and she is described as favouring her right leg, using a cane to move around and missing a finger. Her disability has an obvious effect on her movement, yet it does not slow her down and Havoc lives her life as fully as she wishes. There’s no reason that it shouldn’t, and I appreciated that C.S.E. Cooney showed that side of Havoc as well as not ignoring her limitations. There is a scene when Lanie, Havoc and their friends are drinking, and they run out of wine. Havoc doesn’t hesitate in pointing out that it’s difficult for her to go get the wine, and rather than a big deal being made about her disability the scene focuses on the friends teasing each other about who is going to go get the wine. It’s a scene of banter, flirting and everything that would realistically happen in a setting with a disabled person and a group of friends. You may wonder why it was necessary for Havoc to even mention that she couldn’t go get the wine, well, it was in her public house and the friends were gathered next door. As simple as that.

As I read Saint Death’s Daughter I learned that C.S.E. Cooney is a master at building a unique world, one that she has written beautifully. She writes physical appearances like an artist, pulling colours from palettes and painting them into words. I felt like I was reading a true fantasy novel where everything was so different from ours, where people came in all the hues of the rainbow, and it was amazing. Just as people came in every appearance, so did their personalities and their relationships. It seems to me that C.S.E. Cooney made a point to avoid using terminology to define sexuality and gender in Saint Death’s Daughter, and the nearest similarity to what we’re familiar with is marriage. However, marriage can take place between anyone of any gender, and it is quite common for marriages between multiple people to happen. What we would call polygamy, although such a word is never uttered in the book.

For those interested in what specific LGBT representation is included in Saint Death’s daughter, it is difficult to give provide specific answers because as noted the author doesn’t literally spell out a character’s sexuality or gender. It would be unnecessary (possibly even unthinkable) to do so in the world she has created. What I can confirm is that there are same gender relationships and flirtations, polyamorous flirtations and many non-binary characters and known relationships with non-binary characters. It is uncertain whether the non-binary characters are transgender. When C.S.E. Cooney introduces most of her characters she focuses on their facial features, only including further details when they’re relevant. For example, she describes the location of wizard marks (colourful markings on the skin that wizards have) in great detail, or the physique of warriors, both of which are relevant. This may be a tactic to guide the reader to fill in the gaps themselves, or a quiet comment on our culture’s obsession with appearance. It could be as simple as words needed to be cut for the final draft.

What it does mean for the non-binary characters is that it’s up to us as the readers to interpret them as we wish. We are given their names and their pronouns, and I like that C.S.E. Cooney has left it at that. If only our own culture could leave things alone in such a way. Likewise, I appreciated the way that relationships flowed so easily from one to another. Characters flirted with ease, there was no embarrassment or uneasiness, it was just adults enjoying each other’s company. It felt very reminiscent of the land of Terre D’Ange in Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel Legacy and the precept “Love as thou wilt”.

There is also a fantastic tradition known as ‘floomping’ and ‘froofing’ on the holy fire feast day of Midsummer. Both traditions involve dressing up in a style that is completely different to one’s usual fare, either to become an extravagant opposite of themselves (floomping) or to reveal their fanciest, happiest inner self (froofing). To floomp is to dress as the opposite gender, while to froof is to dress in the brightest, decorative and fanciest clothes and makeup. It is also possible to do both at once. I imagine that this is what PRIDE is probably like (I have never been able to attend due to my chronic health conditions), but rather than a minority group of people celebrate it, the entire society does. It is a celebration of all the things that our culture shuns as being wrong, and it is glorious.

I am not usually a fan of poetry; I like my poetry in brief bites and to look at it from afar. So it surprised me that I enjoyed the rhyming language of one of the races that C.S.E. Cooney has created. The Quadiíb are fascinating, and I wish we could have seen more from their perspective. They speak in rhymes and couplets, and it was just lovely. As they only spoke in their native language part of the time it meant that their flowery medieval-style dialogue didn’t get too much for me. I think a whole book of their dialogue would have been too much to bear, whereas it was a nice break from normality here and there.

There are a few additional things I want to mention that I think people need to know about Saint Death’s Daughter. First, this is not a young adult book. For some reason seventeen users have this listed as young adult. I can assure you it is not (check the content warnings at the top). I can only assume someone learned that Lanie begins the book as a teenager and assumed that she stayed that age; she does not. The book jumps from when Lanie is fifteen to when she is twenty-two, and then again to when she is twenty-eight. Based on the age of the protagonist, the content, reading level and language, this is not a young adult book.

The language in Saint Death’s Daughter is quite dense, there is a fair use of jargon and as identified by Claudia in her review, C.S.E. Cooney is fond of using complicated sentence structures. Some of her writing works beautifully, in my opinion, however, the general density of it is one of the things that I think made this book not work that well for me. This coupled with a slow, drawn out journey from beginning to end and scattered plot progression just did not work for me.

There have been complaints about huge information dumping at the start of the book in the form of a list of calendar dates, list of gods and two family names. In hindsight, this probably would have been better suited at the back of the novel which is where lists like this are usually found in my experience. However, I’m going to be blunt here; if you’re put off by a list then this isn’t the book for you. If you’re wondering whether the information is relevant, the gods come up throughout the book, but their identities are explained. The calendar dates are given under each chapter and exist for an added bit of information; they’re not essential to your reading experience. The essential dates are listed clearly in countdown format as well as being spoken about in the book itself. If you wish you could always refer back to the list while reading by using a traditional bookmark to mark the page or the electronic bookmarking system if reading an e-book.

While everything came together in the end, it just felt as though it took the longest roads to get there. Yet at the same time I can’t say that is a negative as I would in other books because it felt like it worked? I don’t see how Saint Death’s Daughter could have been told in any other way. As I said at the start of the review, this book is a conundrum for me. Normally I read a book that I have some critical thoughts about and that’s it, however, with Saint Death’s Daughter they are less critical and more me recognising that they worked, just not in a way that works for me personally. I guess the best way I can explain it is that this is a book that feels more like a carefully constructed masterpiece that I can admire rather than a book that I can fall in love with. It is a beautiful, stunning work of literature, more art than words, and something that I recommend everyone reads. I just didn’t quite fall hopelessly in love with it and that’s what is needed for me to give a book a 4 or 5-star rating.


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this novella in the Dark Breakers universe is really just a confection, mashing up socialites with hallucinatory excursions, adopting the form of a quest, essaying romance and descending to hallucinatory faerie underworlds. i have some issues with her attempt to deal with late capitalism within this venue (seems to me she absent-mindedly drives her miners in the wrong direction) but the wonder of all her writing is the imagination that drives it, and her glorious detailed descriptions of these anarchic worlds she creates.

okay, it's a book about a budding necromancer, but what an intriguing heroine, and a detailed and diverse world. i was entranced. i had a lot of fun reading it, and i kinda hate that it's done.

Pros: fascinating magic and mythology, interesting characters, great world-building

Cons:

Miscellaneous ‘Lanie’ Stones is the first necromancer born in over 100 years in the city of Liriat. Her family has been the right hands of the ruling Brackenwild family since the founding, acting as royal executioners and assassins. Which makes Lanie’s allergy to violence a challenge to manage. So she’s raised by the family’s revenant, Goody Graves. After a series of events leaves her older, sadistic sister Nita in charge, Lanie’s life changes. As she grows both in wisdom and power, Lanie struggles to live up to the expectations of the past and forge her own future.

Lanie is a wonderful character, surprisingly kind and loving despite her limited human contact and dysfunctional home life. Necromancy is usually depicted as evil and gross, so seeing Lanie’s pure joy in her power and love of the creatures she reanimates is nice to see. I also loved this depiction of the goddess of death.

The larger cast is a mix of nice and terrible characters. Nita is simply horrifying, willing to use her power of fascination to force people to do her will. I had real sympathy for Mak and the abuses he suffers. Canon Lir was intriguing, and the friends Lanie makes later in the book were a lot of fun to hang out with.

The world-building was great, with several distinct cultures represented. I was impressed with the depth of detail given to each culture, making them feel very real.

The story is slow moving at times, giving you the chance to really get to know the characters and world.

The ending left me feeling melancholic. This is the first book in a trilogy so while a few story threads are tied up, there are some major threads left unresolved. It’s an ending that I had to sit with for a few hours to better understand and appreciate.

It’s a great book that does some unique things.

I received this arc from Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

⅗ stars
The concept sounded awesome and at first, it was enjoyable, however, I struggled to finish this book, there was some dull stuff. However, I did enjoy some of it. I did like some of the footnotes and it's a good read for October.

Absolutely an impulse advance order under the influence of book twitter. I'm still not sure what pushed me over the edge in my buying decision, as goblins and mysterious kingdoms aren't really my usual reading fare. It may just have been how charmed I am with Cooney's online persona -- which hasn't always been a great guide to finding books I enjoyed in the past.

But still, I ordered it, and eagerly scampered to the bookstore to pick it up when it came in. I confess, I had some concerns in the first chapter with all its opulent extravagant 1% splendor. But it isn't long before Desdemona's eyes are opened to the dark costs of all her riches. From there it is a bit of a rocket ride.

There is a LOT of world building and myth spinning to cram into this slim little book, and sometimes it felt a tad clunky or rushed -- but like I said, I don't read much fae/goblin fantasy and I may just be unfamiliar with the conventions and tropes. That said, Cooney weaves bright lines between the familiar and the novel -- the sharp glitter danger of the gentry, the earthy tricks of the goblins, and the river that reveals your true form.

But what I really loved was the language. It's been described everywhere as poetic, and that is true, but what struck me was its sensuality -- which I mean only a tiny bit as sexiness, but mostly the way the sights, the scents, the feels, the tastes, come across with intensity. Desdemona is dubbed tattercoats because she throws on every fur in the house before crossing the first world boundary (I have some feelings about this, but we'll skip it for now) and at times the furs are hot, sweaty, oppressive, but later they are a part of her -- swishy, expressive, and delightful. I may not have worn any furs in my lifetime, but it was like I could feel them brushing against my legs both ways.

But really, it was the resolution that sent me head over heels for this book. The way everything was wrapped up -- its love poem to freedom, collective and individual action, to rescuing who you can, when you can, to finding your true self. Every reservation, every little thing "I would have done differently" was won over and I put this book down with a perfectly enraptured sense of satisfaction.

LOVE.

(...)

Sadly, Cooney doesn’t really explore these issues – they are important for the general set up of the storyline, but it’s all a black and white affair, no grey at all. Who doesn’t oppose a rich mine boss sacrificing hundreds of lives to find a new oil field? Who doesn’t oppose working conditions leaving people severely maimed? Similarly, the transgender character’s feelings are hardly portrayed – on the contrary, it’s a shallow, flat character that behaves as no real people do: it falls in love instantly, rescinding a regular life for something completely unknown, all because of a character it knows for a couple of hours.

But of course, these are not real people – these are characters in a 2019 fairy tale. One could argue to cut the fairy tale – as a genre – some slack: it’s supposed to be black and white. It’s supposed to be that way because – from Grimm onward – published fairy tales were meant for children, and children need their moral lessons spelled out to them loud and clear. Pondering upon the difficult childhood of the witch or the carnivorous nature of the wolf would only confuse our toddlers. Yet while Desdemona And The Deep has a YA feel at times, its audience is not children – the language is to difficult for that.

(...)

Please read the full review on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It

Bone Swans is a collection of 5 stories/novellas in the fantasy/fairy tale genres. I enjoyed every one of these stories, which is unusual for a short story collection. I also liked that the stories felt complete, like a novel. I was left feeling satisfied after each story. The first story was "Life on the Sun," it is a fantasy story about people rebelling against a dictator that is also a god. the second story is the one the collection is named for, "The Bone Swans of Amandale." It is a retelling of a couple of fairy tales mashed together (Pied Piper, Swan Princess, Juniper Tree). Someone is murdering the Swan people and Maurice the Rat decides to help. The third was "Martyr's Gem." It is a fantasy novel about a man from a small village who is picked by the daughter of one of the world's prominent families to be her husband. The fourth story was "How the Milkmaid Struck a Bargain with the Crooked One." It was a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, with a twist. The final story was called "The Big Bah-Ha." It was a post-apocalyptic fantasy where a disease kills everyone once they reach a certain age (about 13). The only survivors are the children, but they too will become victims once they age. Meanwhile, supernatural beings wait for the end of humanity. I would definitely recommend this collection to anyone how enjoys fantasy and/or fairy tale retellings. All the stories, including the retellings, felt fresh and original.

Another imaginative fairy tale for the modern age. Cooney's writing is strong and her characters deftly delineated. In her intent to introduce sex into fairy tales she overdoes it a bit and it doesn't quite meld with the rest of the tale. Otherwise, very good.

Somehow the whole world became a fairyland. 65-turned-8 Emma struggled to survive.

Another great little book, Cooney continues to blend the darkness of the true fairy story with the outlook of the modern world in a unique new way. 10 September 2017½

Another fairy story for the modern age, Breaker Queen showcases Cooney's dark and vivid imagination as well as her feisty characterisation but, at 80 pages, it is frustratingly short. Let's hope the series builds on all the promising hints that aren't developed here.

A collection of five novellas, Bone Swans exceeded my expectations.

I'll admit to not being the right reader for "Life on the Sun" and "Martyr's Gem." And "The Big Bah-Ha" had clowns, need I say more?

But I absolutely lost my mind when I finished "How the Milkmaid Struck a Bargain with the Crooked One," a fairy-tale retelling based on Rumpelstiltskin tales. It was SO good, an instant favorite -- seriously, it's worth buying this book for that story alone.

The other retelling, "The Bone Swans of Amandale," a mash-up of "The Pied Piper" and "The Juniper Tree," was more sinister than yet equally fulfilling as "Milkmaid." That's saying a lot coming from me because I'm not usually too impressed with the Pied Piper. (See "Some Wait" by Stephen Graham Jones in The Starlit Wood for another exception to my usual meh response to the Piper.) Maurice cracked me up! He reminded me of Templeton from Charlotte's Web; although, Maurice does end up being more good than bad. Almost an anti-hero.

If you're looking for stories with a fresh voice, I highly recommend this collection.

4 stars

Excellent and very original stories. Grounded in a wide range of traditional fantasy stories, adopting and adapting tales from the brothers Grimm, but infusing the characters with a twenty first century outlook, Cooney pulls off a daring alchemy where everything works so well together that it feels like a wholly fresh creation. I got that wonderful feeling of having stumbled on something completely new and very exciting. 20 October 2016

A simply delightful fantasy. Or maybe not so simple... Loosely echoing various myths, such as Tam Lin, Pygmalion, etc., the end result here feels wholly original.

Gideon is a sculptor, a rich boy seemingly slumming by living in his artist's garret. Across the hallway is Analise, an author who's come to the big city to pursue her writing career. The two enjoy - or possibly don't enjoy at all - a fraught and intense relationship, sliding between viciousness, repressed attraction, and uneasy friendship. But what bothers Analise the most is Gideon's seemingly self-destructive urge to smash all of his beautiful sculpture - sculptures which seem magical in their beauty - and just plain magical. One day, she steals one, to save it... and from there, a deadly drama involving the otherworld of the fey will ensue....

I think this would appeal to fans of Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher, and of Sarah Monette's 'Doctrine of Labyrinths' series.

Most delightful of all - after finishing this I found out that it's actually second in a series(?) of three related novellas. More to read!

A simply delightful fantasy. Or maybe not so simple... Loosely echoing various myths, such as Tam Lin, Pygmalion, etc., the end result here feels wholly original.

Gideon is a sculptor, a rich boy seemingly slumming by living in his artist's garret. Across the hallway is Analise, an author who's come to the big city to pursue her writing career. The two enjoy - or possibly don't enjoy at all - a fraught and intense relationship, sliding between viciousness, repressed attraction, and uneasy friendship. But what bothers Analise the most is Gideon's seemingly self-destructive urge to smash all of his beautiful sculpture - sculptures which seem magical in their beauty - and just plain magical. One day, she steals one, to save it... and from there, a deadly drama involving the otherworld of the fey will ensue....

I think this would appeal to fans of Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher, and of Sarah Monette's 'Doctrine of Labyrinths' series.

Most delightful of all - after finishing this I found out that it's actually second in a series(?) of three related novellas. More to read!

A few months ago I wrote a couple of paragraphs on the splendidly fresh The Bone Swans Of Amandale, a 28.000 word novella by C.S.E. Cooney. I ended that review with the promise to pick up the entire collection, and I’ve done just that.

Bone Swans features 5 stories – most about 40 pages. All of the stories can by read for free online (check the links below), but I think it merits a physical purchase, very much so. Unique, bold authors as Claire Cooney need all the support they can get. It will also be a great collection to read to your 12 year old kids – and bedtime reading from a tablet simply doesn’t have the same charm. Not to mention screen light being bad for your loved ones’ sleep cycles.

Everything I wrote about The Bone Swans of Amandale is true for the other 4 stories: “poetic, humorous, original, daring, gruesome, outrageous, unsettling and even amoral.” Maybe that last adjective doesn’t go for every tale, but still: that’s quite a row of lauding words. I cannot praise the collection enough. I’m fairly sure it will end up in my favorite ten reads this year…

Below a few notes on each story. Whatever you do after the jump, please, do read those four, short quotes.

(...)

Please read the full review on Weighing A Pig...

C. S. E. Cooney is a writer with a very specific "voice". She makes it easy to fall back to the attention a child can give to a tale told for a first time, to immerse oneself in the narration from the first sentences. Who would have thought I could be moved by a rat's love for a swan?!
I'll be reading everything I can find from her.

Cooney is a new author for me - but I'll be keeping an eye out for her work! This beautiful story has the flow of a fairy tale, but with the feel of a vividly-realized fantasy world. When a bachelor fisherman is unexpectedly summoned for marriage by a wealthy woman who's far out of his league, he half-expects that there must be some catch. And indeed, she tells him that this marriage is merely part of her plan to avenge her sister's murder. The way events transpire is emotionally complex - but ultimately satisfying.

An excellent collection of five stories. the writing is rich and the characters fascinating. I'm not sure how or where I came across C.S.E. Cooney, but I'll definitely look out for her writing in future. Overall, highly recommended.

Life on the Sun: Incredible worldbuilding in just a few pages. The mix of cultures, desert landscape, rights wronged and wrongs righted, and a nearly perfect ending.

The Bone Swans of Amandale: Interesting fusion of faerie tales, brought down-to-earth by the wonderfully grounded narrator, Maurice the Incomparable. I especially adored the characterisation of the Pied Piper, fey and lost and eldritch when he needs to be.

Martyr's Gem: Again, excellent world-building in a very short space. About the only quibble I have with this story is the subplot and ending: I'd have preferred to wonder how Hyrryai would discover her way to herself from where they were rather than the lot of them sailing off over the horizon. New beginnings are just too easy for this story, somehow.

How the Milkmaid Struck a Bargain with the Crooked One: Excellent rumpelstiltskin. I really liked Gordie.

The Big Bah-Ha: This story let the collection down, somehow. While the ending came back up to par, the first half was... uninspiring, in comparison. In any other collection I probably wouldn't have noticed, but after the first four stories, it was glaringly clumsy in comparison.

(Review is from LJ, so if you've read it on LJ, my apologies!)

I adored this novella. How it twisted and turned--like an embryonic skinchanger in its egg. Speaking of, there's one in this story:
He saw inside the skinchanger's egg.

A shadow, a flame, a dark heart beating.

It shifted, it melted, it took a new shape.

A fish, a snake, a bird, a child.

A child. A human child. A girl child, sleeping in a pool of her own black hair, her skin of bright red gold ... One eye of ebony, one of fire. Black lips sucking on a flaming thumb, round limbs bundled to her belly, although a restless foot or fist sometimes jabbed out, distending the oval egg, making it jump and pulse.

Like holding a thunderstorm, thought Jack Yap. Like holding lightning before it is born.

This Jack Yap. He's been abused since he was little, and now he's the picture of a cheerful hoodlum. But he's much more likable (to my mind) than, say, movie!Alex from A Clockwork Orange (have to specify movie having never read the book). Jack Yap is devoted to and protective of his huge and dimwitted brother Pudding, and also of this skinchanger child, once she's born. Admittedly, there's mayhem and murder involved in being devoted to that pair, and, well, the skinchanger's nature, like the scorpion's, is one that might make your average person give her wide berth but--oh, I just loved this trio.

And the humor! The humor. How about the royal twins, wicked Princess Oubliette and her loathsome brother Prince Garotte? Princess Oubliette received fairy blessings at her birth:
"Princess Oubliette," Ginny Rum asserted, "You have been blessed today with Wit, Beauty, a Knack with Dumb Animals, the Voice of a Seraph, Healthy Bowels, Hair Thick as Honey, Self-Flossing Teeth, a Willowy Frame, the Grace of a Harem Dancer, a Laugh Like a Silver Bell, a Smile as Sweet as Crème Brûlée, Cunning Ways, Cosmic Sorceries, Upwards Ambition, and Dominance over the Males of Your Species. But all this will avail you naught. For here I stand to bless you with the hour of your death."

She's got a lot going for her, right?

Now, I haven't quoted you the bludgeoning or the cannibalism, and they are in the story too. But the really bad guys get theirs, and when it's your friends you tend to forgive minor bad habits like soul sucking and a taste for human flesh, no?

(Review is from LJ, so if you've read it on LJ, my apologies!)

I adored this novella. How it twisted and turned--like an embryonic skinchanger in its egg. Speaking of, there's one in this story:
He saw inside the skinchanger's egg.

A shadow, a flame, a dark heart beating.

It shifted, it melted, it took a new shape.

A fish, a snake, a bird, a child.

A child. A human child. A girl child, sleeping in a pool of her own black hair, her skin of bright red gold ... One eye of ebony, one of fire. Black lips sucking on a flaming thumb, round limbs bundled to her belly, although a restless foot or fist sometimes jabbed out, distending the oval egg, making it jump and pulse.

Like holding a thunderstorm, thought Jack Yap. Like holding lightning before it is born.

This Jack Yap. He's been abused since he was little, and now he's the picture of a cheerful hoodlum. But he's much more likable (to my mind) than, say, movie!Alex from A Clockwork Orange (have to specify movie having never read the book). Jack Yap is devoted to and protective of his huge and dimwitted brother Pudding, and also of this skinchanger child, once she's born. Admittedly, there's mayhem and murder involved in being devoted to that pair, and, well, the skinchanger's nature, like the scorpion's, is one that might make your average person give her wide berth but--oh, I just loved this trio.

And the humor! The humor. How about the royal twins, wicked Princess Oubliette and her loathsome brother Prince Garotte? Princess Oubliette received fairy blessings at her birth:
"Princess Oubliette," Ginny Rum asserted, "You have been blessed today with Wit, Beauty, a Knack with Dumb Animals, the Voice of a Seraph, Healthy Bowels, Hair Thick as Honey, Self-Flossing Teeth, a Willowy Frame, the Grace of a Harem Dancer, a Laugh Like a Silver Bell, a Smile as Sweet as Crème Brûlée, Cunning Ways, Cosmic Sorceries, Upwards Ambition, and Dominance over the Males of Your Species. But all this will avail you naught. For here I stand to bless you with the hour of your death."

She's got a lot going for her, right?

Now, I haven't quoted you the bludgeoning or the cannibalism, and they are in the story too. But the really bad guys get theirs, and when it's your friends you tend to forgive minor bad habits like soul sucking and a taste for human flesh, no?