Handmaid's Tale Wins Emmy, A Twist of the Knife by Becky Masterman, Fireborn by Keri Arthur, Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi, and Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

It is no secret that I've been a fan of Margaret Atwood's chilling tale of a dystopian future run by old white Christian men, The Handmaid's Tale, since it debuted. This most recent adaptation is supposedly wonderful, but since I don't have access to Hulu, I've not been able to see it, yet. Still, I am thrilled that the show cleaned up at the Emmy Awards this past week. 

Primetime Emmy Winner, The Handmaid's Tale

 

Margaret Atwood with the cast of The Handmaid's Tale. photo: Inwood/AP

Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, based on Margaret Atwood's novel, and HBO's

Big Little Lies, adapted from the novel by Liane Moriarty, were big

winners at last night's Primetime Emmy Awards http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz34229569.

The book-to-TV adaptations dominated the festivities, garnering wins in

several major categories, including:

The Handmaid's Tale: outstanding drama series, Elisabeth Moss (lead

actress, drama series), Ann Dowd (supporting actress, drama series),

Alexis Bledel (guest actress, drama series), Reed Morano (director,

drama series), and Bruce Miller (writing, drama series for the pilot

episode "Offred"). In her acceptance speech, Moss expressed her

gratitude to Atwood: "Thank you for what you did in 1985 and thank you

for what you continue to do." A short time later, the author

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz34229570

received a standing ovation as she took the stage

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz34229571 after the

outstanding drama series Emmy was announced.

A Twist of the Knife by Becky Masterman is a taut mystery/thriller that I picked up because the protagonist is a 60 year old woman who, despite being middle aged and retired, still manages to unravel this mystery and find the perpetrators of a heinous crime. Few books (really we're rare in any medium, from books to TV to movies) have any women over 50 in them playing anything but a side role as someone's mother or grandmother. It's even rarer to find a fat/overweight female in books, TV or movies, and when they do, it's always about losing weight, because a woman can't possibly be happy with herself unless she looks like a barbie doll or a starving model (insert eye rolling here). Fortunately, this book's protagonist, Brigid, has it handled, and doesn't let anyone elses opinions about her keep her from doing what she does best--solving mysteries/cold cases. Brigid is part of a big Irish Catholic family, of course, and intertwined with the mystery is her need to be by her father's side as he dies from pneumonia and emphysema. Here's the blurb:

Ex-FBI agent Brigid Quinn, now happily settled in Tucson, doesn’t visit her family in Florida much. But her former partner on the force, Laura Coleman—a woman whose life she has saved and who has saved her life in turn—is living there now. So when Laura calls about a case that is not going well, Brigid doesn’t hesitate to get on a plane.
On leave from the Bureau, Laura has been volunteering for a legal group trying to prove the innocence of a man who is on death row for killing his family. Laura is firmly convinced that he didn’t do it, while Brigid isn’t so sure—but the date for his execution is coming up so quickly that they’ll have to act fast to find any evidence that may absolve him before it’s too late…Publisher's Weekly: Edgar-finalist Masterman presents a compassionate, clear-eyed depiction of the painful foibles of human nature in her chilling, twist-filled third thriller featuring retired FBI agent Brigid Quinn. Brigid flies from Phoenix to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to be with her mother after her 83-year-old father is hospitalized. While there, Brigid is contacted by former colleague Laura Coleman, an Innocence Project investigator, who asks Brigid to help her exonerate death row inmate Marcus Creighton. Fifteen years earlier, Creighton was convicted of killing his wife; his three children have been missing since the night of the murder. The execution date is set, and time is running out. The problem is that Brigid believes that Creighton is probably guilty. Still, Brigid wants to help Laura, and the distraction of an investigation is just the thing to take her mind off her complicated family relationships. A compelling, complex lead, Brigid has no problem skirting the straight and narrow in her quest for justice.

Though this book defines the 'dark and gritty' mystery genre that is supposedly more realistic than the cozy mysteries I usually enjoy reading, I found it to be a real page-turner, with prose that was zesty and highly readable. The plot was more straightforward than the title would have you think, though there was a bit of twist at the end, which I won't spoil for you. While I'd give it a B+, I don't think I will read anymore of these books, because this one was compelling but way too depressing for my tastes. 

I had somewhat the same problem, only in the other direction (too much erotic fantasy) with Fireborn by Keri Arthur. Emberly isn't your standard Phoenix; she can become a bird, a column of fire or be wrapped in a human-looking exterior. But don't let that fool you, she's a "creature of spirit" who can't be harmed by the same things that can harm vampires or werewolves. She also can't live without a Phoenix mate, one who will renew her fires and have sex with her, but who cannot love her according to some ancient curse of her people. What this means is that Emberly, who dies and is reborn every 100 years, can have love if she hooks up with someone outside of her relationship with Rory, her mate, but that person has to be okay with her having sex with (and renewing her fires with) Rory whenever the mood strikes either of them. She also seems to be polyamorous, in that she claims to have been in love with a cop turned special agent (who rejected her and her kind when he found out about Rory) but during this book she's always flirting with nearly every male she meets, and she ends up having sex and dates with a fire Fae, who is, of course, gorgeous and slightly dangerous. This basically gives Arthur a way for the protagonist to have explicit sex in every chapter. While I don't mind some romance and a bit of sex in my science fiction or fantasy novels, it has to be woven into the plot so that things don't slow to a crawl every time the main characters get hot for one another. Sadly, the plot all but stops in Fireborn every time Emberly has "sizzling" sex with someone. Here's the blurb:

Emberly Pearson—a phoenix capable of taking on human form and cursed with the ability to foresee death....
Emberly has spent a good number of her many lives trying to save humans. So when her prophetic dreams reveal the death of Sam, a man she once loved, she does everything in her power to prevent it from happening. But in saving his life, she gets more than she bargained for.

Sam is working undercover for the Paranormal Investigations Team, and those who are trying to murder him are actually humans infected by a plaguelike virus, the Crimson Death—a by-product of a failed government experiment intended to identify the enzymes that make vampires immortal. Now all those infected must be eliminated.
But when Emberly’s boss is murdered and his irreplaceable research stolen, she needs to find the guilty party before she goes down in flames....Publisher's Weekly:Arthur's riveting Souls of Fire series launch introduces Emberly Pearson, a phoenix reluctantly investigating her boss's murder and assigned to find his missing research for curing the red plague, a disease that creates the vampire-like Red Cloaks. Emberly, who dies and is reborn every 100 years, lives in Melbourne, Australia, with Rory, a phoenix she doesn't love but is physiologically required to have sex with. Her love in this particular life cycle is Sam, but he thinks she's unfaithful, misunderstanding her existential need for pyrotechnic physical intimacy with Rory. Sam works undercover for the Paranormal Investigations Team and fears that Emberly's investigation will interfere with his efforts to end the plague outbreak. Their conflicts heighten after Emberly joins forces with Jackson, a fire fae PI, and becomes a target for the sindicati, the vampire mafia.

The prose here was melodramatic and simplistic, while the plot had more stops and starts than a city bus. The characters were stereotypes and cliches,which made them silly instead of endearing. Emberly still carries a torch (ha, ha) for Sam, though he acts like a real douchebag throughout the book, and not only abuses her physically, but drugs her enough that she's left unable to defend herself. For someone hundreds of years old, Emberly seems fairly stupid and makes a number of childish mistakes that nearly cost her her life. I'm not really a fan of the "perfect petite blond" female protagonist who is irresistible to all men at all times, so I don't think I will be reading any more of this series. I'd give it a generous B, and only recommend it to someone looking for some soft porn with their fantasy story.

Agent to The Stars by John Scalzi is his nod to the pulp science fiction of the 1950s, 60s and early 70s. As with all of Scalzi's science fiction novels, there's plenty of humor and insightful satirizing of Hollywood and America, along with aliens who, as outsiders, often see things about humanity more clearly than humans do. Here's the blurb via Publisher's Weekly: In this slick, lightweight SF yarn from Scalzi (Old Man's War), Thomas Stein, a hot young Hollywood agent, has just negotiated a multimillion-dollar deal for his friend, starlet Michelle Beck, when his boss, Carl Lupo, foists a space alien called Joshua on him. Joshua and his people, the Yherajk, are intelligent, gelatinous, shape-shifting blobs that communicate telepathically and by sharing odors. They've been monitoring Earth's TV broadcasts and realize that before they can make first contact, they'll have to deal with their image problem. Tom takes on the job of making the friendly, odiferous creatures palatable to humanity, while keeping Michelle and the rest of his other acting clients happy. Several entertaining trips to the aliens' spaceship enliven the predictable plot.

The space-faring Yherajk have come to Earth to meet us and to begin humanity's first interstellar friendship. There's just one problem: They're hideously ugly and they smell like rotting fish.
So getting humanity's trust is a challenge. The Yherajk need someone who can help them close the deal.
Enter Thomas Stein, who knows something about closing deals. He's one of Hollywood's hottest young agents. But although Stein may have just concluded the biggest deal of his career, it's quite another thing to negotiate for an entire alien race. To earn his percentage this time, he's going to need all the smarts, skills, and wits he can muster.

Scalzi states in the foreword to this novel that he really didn't think it would ever be published, but that for some reason it has been published and republished several times, and it is often a fan favorite, which he finds mystifying. I know why, because it's laugh out loud funny, with moments of tenderness and insight into human nature, and it is also a ripping yarn told in Scalzi's pitch-perfect prose. You'd be hard pressed to find anything wrong with this page-turning romp. I didn't find the plot predictable at all, and I loved the HEA, which isn't a given in Scalzi's other works. A well deserved A, with a recommendation to anyone who loves stories of old Hollywood, classic science fiction and hilarious aliens. 

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence sounded like my kind of book. It had girls trained as assassins in an abbey, strong female teachers and character growth, and a fantasy/SF universe that was supposedly diverse and well written. I was expecting something similar to the Hunger Games, or Divergent, or the Mortal Instruments series or even Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth (also the Red Crown series). What I got, instead, was a horrific tale that was unrelentingly grim and depressing about a world in which children are sold like cattle (only they're not seen as valuable as feed animals) to either pit fighting rings, brothels or abbeys full of nuns who teach those with 'talents' or 'gifts' to fight and kill for survival. I can't believe I wasted money on buying a hardback copy at Powells City of Books this summer. Here's the blurb: 

At the Convent of Sweet Mercy, young girls are raised to be killers. In some few children the old bloods show, gifting rare talents that can be honed to deadly or mystic effect. But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls.
A bloodstained child of nine falsely accused of murder, guilty of worse, Nona is stolen from the shadow of the noose. It takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist, but under Abbess Glass’s care there is much more to learn than the arts of death. Among her class Nona finds a new family—and new enemies. Despite the security and isolation of the convent, Nona’s secret and violent past finds her out, drawing with it the tangled politics of a crumbling empire. Her arrival sparks old feuds to life, igniting vicious struggles within the church and even drawing the eye of the emperor himself.
Beneath a dying sun, Nona Grey must master her inner demons, then loose them on those who stand in her way. Library Journal: Nine-year-old Nona Grey, accused of murder, is headed for the gallows when she is purchased by the abbess of Sweet Mercy and taken into a convent that raises young women to become trained killers. For ten years, girls are taught the ways of sword and shadow, and for many, the old blood of the ancestors eventually rises to the surface in the form of magical gifts that enhance their fighting skills. When Nona arrives, she finds a new future, a new family, and some new enemies. But her brief previous history in the world attracts the attention of powerful families, dangerous foes, and even the emperor himself. As external politics and internal conflicts within the church seep into the convent's isolated world, Nona will be forced to confront and embrace the darkness inside her, and no one will ever be the same. VERDICT In this stunning, action-filled series launch, Lawrence ("Broken Empire" trilogy) establishes a fantastic world in which religion and politics are dark and sharp as swords, with magic and might held in the hands of wonderful and dangerous women. Impatient George R.R. Martin's fans will find this a pleasing alternative until the next installment in his "A Song of Ice and Fire" saga arrives.

Nona is a very bitter and determined student because her best friend, who was just a little girl, was hanged just before Nona was slated to be killed. Think about that. This is a world where children are hanged for no reason, other than their existence is inconvenient. Add to that disgusting scenario the redundant plot, where we are told Nona's background story over and over, but each time we're told that this is the true version, readers are surprised all over again to learn that the version they just heard is a lie, and the new version the real story, until the next time Nona tells her tale. This becomes tedious quickly, and it slows an already overburdened plot that stumbles like a drunkard to a deeply unsatisfying conclusion. SPOILER ALERT. Lawrence has his heroic female lead, after killing nearly everyone else who stands in her path, decline to kill the classmate who sold out the entire class, for money, not caring whether or not they all died by her treachery. Somehow, we're supposed to think this is in character, or okay? Really? Also, the pedophilic overtones that slither through the prose in this novel are nauseating. This is horror fantasy at its worst, and I can't give it any higher grade than a C. I don't know that GRRM fans would enjoy this gore-fest, full of sloppy prose that needs to be trimmed by at least 67 pages. I can't really recommend it, but if killing and killer children are your jam, there you go.  Don't say I didn't warn you.