Liu, Marjorie M. - Soul Song

[oyceter]

Kitala Bell, famous violinist, has always been able to foresee deaths -- but only violent murders. Also, her music is magic. M'Cal is a Krackeni (merman) who has been enslaved to a witch; she forces him to use his music to sing out people's souls for her consumption. He's eventually sent out to steal Kit's soul, but they end up falling in love instead.

First, yay multiracial heroine and her black grandma! I don't know enough about Voodoo to know if the depictions are accurate or not, but for what it's worth, I didn't get the feeling of "Look at this primitive religion! They use bird parts!" or other such nonsense. Er, I don't think using bird parts equates primitive, but that tends to be the feeling I get from other people writing about it. I am still liking the number of powerful older women in this series, good, evil, and in between.

I was a little less into the romance this time around, which made me sad, because I'd been looking forward to Kit's story. I think Kit and M'Cal ended up falling in love too quickly for me to fully believe, particularly given Liu's set up of Kit's deliberate isolation and M'Cal's trust issues. I do like that they trust and like each other, but it just went too quickly for me.

On the other hand, the plot was immensely entertaining and insane!

Spoilers

M'Cal bites off the witch's nose! It bounces! Kit's gris-gris blasts Edith's hand off and leaves exposed bone!

This is excellent. I have high hopes that Liu will start hitting manga levels of body part loss.

I also ended up liking the witch a lot. She is creepy and evil but also fiercely protective of her family, and I found her interesting.

Possibly I am too easily entertained and/or amused, but hey, I need light fluffy reading right now.

Comments

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Okay, I've read through your last couple of Liu reviews and now I'm kinda intrigued, though I haven't had a chance to go back and read the earlier ones. Any chance that there are queer romances in these books, or are they all het?

[oyceter]

So far, I think they're all het. My completely unsubstantiated gut feeling is that Liu would write queer romances (from what I can tell from her books, her views seems pretty liberal), but I don't know how much influence her publisher and the market has. So... don't hold your breath =(.

[slrose.livejournal.com]

Your posts made me get the books from the library. I finished the first one and read the second one today. I have to wait for ILL for the other three.

I will be buying them. Maybe one of the dealers at Lunacon will have them.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Larry Smith often has paranormal & futuristic romance among his books. I haven't seen him carry Marjorie Liu before, but maybe this time.

[oyceter]

Oh awesome! I'm glad you've been enjoying!

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

i started reading that book and had to put it down by the time her granny starts explaining her voodoopowahs. but i know ladyjax has liked some of her stuff too. maybe i'll give it another shot, but the magical fiddle powahs made me nervous.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

If my memory isn't going fuzzy on this one (I read a bunch of Liu last year but didn't keep any of them), it eventually turns out that Granny's voodoopowahs aren't really voodoo -- she's just using rootwork and such to give her own magic some external structure and focus. There's a bunch of white witch characters, good and bad, who seem to have the same sort of innate powers, even though they pick different forms to ritualize it.

[oyceter]

Yeah, I can definitely see that. I ... am still wary on some bits with Liu on race and gender, but overall, I've been inclined to give her a lot of leeway for the multicultural-ness.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

How good are the music bits?

[oyceter]

I think they will drive you crazy -- they were annoying me a little, simply because I was thinking "But what exactly is she playing?" just for you ;). There wasn't a lot of technical detail that I could tell, but as we all know Yoon-Bob, my musical vocabulary is wretched.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

Okay, will stay away from this one. Thanks! ^_^

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

I've decided I'm going to read all these paranormal romances you keep talking about, but in return you must watch these female assassin-related dramas with me:

Nine-Tailed Fox (kdrama)
Shi-yeon is the reverse Buffy, a 'fox' (i.e. a vampire) who is an elite fighter for the organization which fights humans and who might have a special destiny. She has a star-crossed love with a cop from the special unit who hunts them, but that is not a typical kdrama love. The story of their grown-up selves starts, after all, when she is the one who saves him from being sliced up.

Romance of Red Dust (cdrama)
A fearsome assassin and concubine of evil governor, Hong Bi can outfight and outmaneuver basically anyone. She goes on the lam when she gets fed up with yet another order, this time assassination of an idealistic young scholar. They end up travelling together, falling in love, fighting off hordes of assassins. There is a bit of an awesome gender role reversal there: he is the naive one and she is the tough as nails experienced one, and a better fighter.

(descriptions by dangermousie)

[oyceter]

!!! So I've heard of the fox one, because I think it stars the actress from Fantasy Couple, and have been interested, but I had no idea about the cdrama! OMG! Assassin! Concubine! Why did I not know about this?

I am going to see if I can find it in Taiwan over the summer. (Sigh. The last few weeks have been so busy that I haven't had time to watch Dal Ja's Spring, which makes me sad.)

!!!

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

It's so beautiful! And it's only 45 minutes per episode! A cdrama that's less than an hour and a half long! My short attention span is inordinately pleased by this.

And Dal Ja's Spring is wonderful! It has a slump around ep 7 when there's too much focus on the jealous ex-wife, but aside from that it's pure gold.

Re: !!!

[oyceter]

You are so evil! I WANT it so much now!

I loooove DJS so far. I think I am on ep. 15 or 16 and have been holding out on it as a reward for finishing class. It makes me so happy!

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

It's available from amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Red-Dust-Complete-TV/dp/B000RF1QLA), although it's probably cheaper in Taiwan, and you don't really need subtitles.

And check out this entire post (http://dangermousie.livejournal.com/1118707.html#cutid1), especially the pretty picture of Hong Bi and her assassin squad.

[oyceter]

OMG! OMG! It looks like it's set in Tang Dynasty! COSTUME PORN!

OMG! That is the most awesome post ever! Girls with swords! Lots of them! Fighty!

Ohhhh free time, how I miss you!

(so tempted to drop by local Chinese video rental store to see if they have it. They probably do...)

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

And I have watched approximately half an episode of Hong Gil Dong (Drama adaptation of a Korean Robin Hood-type legend), and it's wonderful! I'll properly watch all of these when I have my Easter holiday, starting at the end of this week!

[oyceter]

That is also on my to-watch list! I've been looking at the Dramabeans releases and have been interested, but just haven't had the time.