Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (935)

Content

Annie Chanse (15 KP) rated Deadly Curiosities in Books

Dec 19, 2017

Deadly Curiosities

Gail Z. Martin | 2014 | Science Fiction/Fantasy

6.5

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

I received an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my open and honest opinion. This in no way has influenced my opinion of the book.

***may contain spoilers***

This book by Martin is the first in a new series that centers around Cassidy, the owner of an antique shop called Trifles and Folly. At least, that is what she does on the surface. Her true purpose is much less mundane. She, along with her "silent partner" Sorren -- an ancient vampire -- and her employee and friend Teag, work for a group called the Alliance.

The Alliance has been around for centuries, and they do many things. However, one of the most important things they do is to rid the world of powerful and dangerous paranormal artifacts. Cassidy, a powerful psychometric -- someone who "reads" an item's energy and history -- uses her antique shop to help the Alliance with their endeavor. When people bring items into her shop, she holds them and sees the history that happened around those objects. If something in the object's history gives off warning signals that Cassidy thinks might make the item dangerous and/or susceptible to hauntings, possessions, etc., she buys the item and presents it to Sorren to take to the Alliance, where they dispose of it safely. (At least that is what they are SUPPOSEDLY DOING... since this is the beginning of a series, I'm wondering if eventually Cassidy will find out that the Alliance's motives aren't as pure as they claim them to be... but that is simply my speculation and neither here nor there concerning this book. :-p)

The fun in THIS book really begins when a lady brings in a pair of antique opera glasses to sell to Cassidy. Shortly after, Cassidy receives a phone call from a buyer saying that items she purchased from Cassidy's shop are causing a lot of ghostly-type problems. Cassidy and Teag realize that several items which should not have been causing negative effects are, in fact, creating all kinds of havoc. They decide to investigate the phenomena, and this investigation leads to all kinds of craziness, including voudon practitioners, dark sorcerers who should have been dead centuries before, a nasty demon, and a man who surrounds himself with hundreds of clocks everywhere he goes... And this is just a taste of what a reader finds in the pages of Martin's new book.

The storyline is interesting and unique. The characters are very likeable. The setting is lovely and perfect. The writing style is solid. And the action is well-paced, after the first thirty or so pages, which are a bit slow.

The only complaint I have with this novel is that at times it is a bit repetitive. For instance, one line might mention something about the blood-caked clothes she's wearing, and the next line will say the same thing, only with differently arranged words.

I wish I had marked an actual specific example of what I was talking about, but I didn't, so I can't provide an example, but I will give my own made up example to illustrate my point.

*Note: This is NOT a line from the actual book. Just something I made up to, again, illustrate the point.*

"She stepped into the room and shivered as the feeling of something watching her from the darkness crept over her. It seemed as though there was something she couldn't see in the darkness, but it could see her, and it was watching her. The thought made her shiver as it crept down her spine."

This didn't happen VERY often in the book, but it did happen enough times that I mentally made a note of it, and it irritated me. I'm a smart girl. You only have to tell me once, and I usually get the picture. Ha.

But overall, I really did enjoy the book, and I look forward to reading the next one when it comes out.

Kudos

Idioms and Slang Dictionary - Word History & More

Reference and Education

(0 Ratings) Rate It

App

Idioms and Slang Dictionary by Farlex gives you definitions and examples from top sources like...

Rachel King (13 KP) rated A Short History of Myth in Books

Feb 11, 2019

For such a short book, I developed quite a strong opinion about the text while reading it. I have been curious about Armstrong's writings for a long time, but this is the first attempt I have made at actually reading anything by her. I have always been a fan of ancient mythology, such as Greek and Egyptian, so this seemed like an easy choice.
In seven chapters, Armstrong takes a simplified stroll through history, focusing on the concept of myth and its impact on civilization. All throughout the book, she attempts to support her claim that a person can believe in myths without believing that the myths are actually true, and that the failure of modern society is by not following her specific edict. While this notion strikes me as absurd, I keep reading because, hey, it's a short book.
While I know only bits and pieces about many of the world's religions, I do know both the history and the holy book of my religion, Christianity. It becomes apparent to me early in the text that she is masking her opinions and interpretations of this religion as actual fact, so I can only imagine how she misconstrues other religions.
Her citations were lacking to me, with many claims going unsupported, others only partially supported, such as citation #84 and #30, and some citations simply not even applying to the specified text, such as citation #87. In citation #55, she claims that the Bible contains a Creation myth in which God brings the world into being by killing a sea monster, but one of the four verses she cites make no reference to anything of the sort (Job 3:12), and the other three (Isaiah 27:1, Job 26:13, Psalm 74:14) that do mention a leviathan cannot be interpreted that way when read in context. Isaiah is describing the end of days, while Job merely says that God created the serpent, and the verse in Psalm is within the context of a song about God rescuing the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery -- no relevancy to Creation. She makes the claim that Paul "was not much interested in Jesus's teachings, which he rarely quotes, or in the events of his earthly life." This claim is easily disproved by examining how Paul's words line up with Jesus's in John 5:21 vs. 1 Corinthians 15:22, Matthew 6:25 vs. Philippians 4:6, and many other passages.
While going through the citations, I got the feeling that the author depended on secondary sources for her information without actually studying the original source of her information. The book struck me as highly opinionated, vague, and too general for the topic being addressed. I have no doubt that there are better and more thorough books available on the topic of myth. I do not believe that I will be reading any more of Armstrong's works in the future.