Review: "Daughter of Smoke and Bone"

If you've never been to Prague, you need to put it on your to-do list, preferably right at the very top. It is a wonderful city. Beautiful in a gothic way that works best in autumn when the leaves turn yellow and orange and the air is crisp and sharp. It is great for Christmas markets as well and the people of Prague throw a great party for News Years... and I'm getting off track. So back to topic. 

Last night I finished "Daughter of Smoke and Bones" by Laini Taylor and it was a great paranormal adventure. One of the things that I absolutely loved about this book is how different it is to many of the other paranormal romances out there. It doesn't take place in small-town America and the protagonist is not an average-looking girl with average talents and skills. Oh now, not at all. 

Karou is fierce! Gorgeous looking with natural blue hair and she's intelligent and a talented artist on top of that. Oh yeah, one cool lady. She lives on her own in a small flat in Prague where she studies art and hangs out with her friend Zuzana. Sometimes she will disappear though, for hours or days, leaving her life in Prague behind as she sets out on mysterious errands for the man in the shop. Brimstone raised her in his shops where dodgy tradesmen and hunters trade in teeth for wishes. Sometimes, however, the tradesmen can't come to the shop and instead Karou must travel to them, walking out of the door and straight into exotic places - Marrocco, Paris, Russia. In return for her work, Brimstone grants her small wishes and being a cool chick, Karou doesn't wish for goody-two-shoes as if she was some pageant beauty, no no, Karou wishes for the eyebrows of her rivals to grow fat and dark or for her ex-boyfriend's behind to itch at unfortunate times. She rocks. 
Then one  day while she is out on one of her errands, she encounters a beautiful angel who tries to kill her and from that day, her fate is sealed. Soon she is drawn into a centuries old battle between angels and chimeara and her relatively normal life is becoming less than normal. 

If you like your paranormal romance gutsy, exotic, interesting and different, then this is for you. It is a tour-de-force through an intriguing paranormal universe where humans are just the extras. It's cool in a way that very little paranormal fiction is and which I absolutely adored. If this book was a piece of clothing, it would be a pair of skinny jeans with leather back pockets, rock'n'roll for the masses. 

Read it if: You have a love for Prague and other Eastern European cities. You like your paranormal heroines to be more of the rock star type than the beauty queen type. 

Review: "The City & The City" by China Miéville

China Miéville must be one of the coolest names ever! I came across his book "Kraken" in a book shop and the author's name alone was enough to have me curious: I had to read something by the author with the fascinating name. In the end I went for "The City & The City" as I have seen it reviewed, praised and mentioned all over the blogosphere. It is one of those books that was a little bit difficult to get into... Possibly because I was reading it in public transport and kept being interrupted but once I had read the first few pages, I was captured by the story.

Inspector Tyador Borlu is a classic cop. He works in the Extreme Crime Squad in Beszel, an Eastern European city located somewhere in the near region of Hungary. When a young, unknown woman is found murdered, Borlu is assigned to the case and he very quickly realizes that something is not what it seems like and that this case may transcends the borders of Beszel.
So an international crime fiction, you now think? Oh no my dear, it is much more than that. The nearest neighbor to Beszel is the city Ul Qoma. Actually, neighbors is note the correct term, the two city are arch-enemies and interwoven in the most intricate way imaginable. Once it was one city but it was divided, a bit, I imagine, like it happened to Berlin. However, the division did not happen by somebody drawing a clear line, instead each building, each square meter was assigned to either Beszel or Ul Qoma and now it is up to the good Ul Qoman and Besz citizens to unsee the parts of their daily lives that lies in another city. Difficult to fathom? A bit, at first, but also fascinating and incredibly addictive.

The story itself is a true crime story, with each page the reader is taken deeper and deeper into the realms of Ul Qoma and Beszel as Borlu uncovers the identity of the young woman and follows her trail across the border to the university in Ul Qoma. It turns out that the young woman, Mahalia Geary, was a student specializing in archeology but spending more time pursuing old folk tales about Orciny, a city in between the two cities and something that comes very close to being illegal.

"The City & The City" is an amazing piece of urban, weird fiction. It is something special in the best sense of the word. The way it explores the Eastern European legacies of division (Czech Republic and Slovakia), secret police (Eastern Germany) and bureucracy  is fascinating because it takes these things to a whole new level, introducing the scary secret service Breach that steps into action whenever the two cities inevitably clash and one becomes aware of the other.
The crime story is good, though the ending was a little bit disappointing because I had seen it coming. It  could have been more radical, more extreme and more fantastical - that would have worked better for me. But as a whole it is a stunning book. It could actually be quite a contender for my top ten books of 2012 and I hope that you will give it a try.

Read it if: You have a fascination with Eastern Europe and like weird, urban fiction that challenges your imagination. If you enjoyed "Purge" by Sofi Oksanen or "Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman.