SOULLESS came into my life like many great books do: by referral. I knew from the cover it would be a quirky, fun read — kudos to the art director for that spot-on design. Author Gail Carriger said she knew she wanted to write urban fantasy and noticed that a lot of the genre is contemporary. But she figured these creatures — supernatural, werewolves, vampires — had to have been around for a long time, right?
So she set her story in the Victorian times in England, and gifts us with a wonderful protagonist in Alexia, who is a preternatural, meaning she has no soul. This doesn’t make her mean, but it does mean she can’t be harmed by vampires, and in fact, kills a vampire at the beginning of the book — all in self-defense, of course.
The novel has mystery (what’s happening to the vampires?), politics (the Bureau of Unnatural Registry, where all vampires and werewolves must be registered) and romance (Alexia falls for the area Alpha, Lord Maccon, a handsome werewolf). I loved SOULLESS not just for the adventure, but because Alexia is so easy to love — she’s tough, no-nonsense and must work harder for her position because she is a spinster — and a homely one, at that — and a preternatural, which she must hide from her family, as well as society.
Carriger knows how to world-build and suck us in to this delightful tale of a co-mingling proper society where things like the full moon and daylight matter, but only as much as serving delicious tarts at your party. If you haven’t tried urban fantasy, but enjoy historical romance, this would be an easy add. If you like urban fantasy, but are looking for something different, give SOULLESS a try.
While the spinsterhood, romance and Victorian angle seems ripe for women’s readership, I think men who enjoy historicals and urban fantasy would get a kick out of it, too. I’m looking forward to CHANGELESS, the second book in Carringer’s “The Parasol Protectorate” series, due in March. —Malena Lott
Related posts:
- Q&A with THE ALCHEMY OF STONE’s Ekaterina Sedia
- Dark Vengeance
- Serpent of Eternity
- The Meaning of Night
- Skinners: Book One — Blood Blade
