Title: Staying Dead
Author: Laura Anne Gilman
Rating: 5/5 stars
Favorite Quote: “‘A grazing mace, how sweet the sound, that killed a wrrrrreeetch like youuuuuuu…” Wren could sing when she wanted to, but the horrible faux-Scottish accent she put on made her sound more like a dying cat than a halfway decent alto. The worst of the damage from electrical storm Max cleared up, she was picking up the paperwork scattered all over her office while she waited for Sergei to come back with dinner. She had a faint hope that somehow an orderly room would result in an orderly brain.” Laura Anne Gilman, Staying Dead, Luna, 2006, p. 152.
Review: Full disclosure - it’s been a while since I read this book. Like years (although I hope to remedy that soon). But I absolutely love this book - this series - this world - and so I absolutely had to share it with you.
Gilman’s Retrievers series follows magical “retriever” Wren Valere and her human partner Sergei Dider as they find lost objects and solve magical mysteries. There’s magic, romance, and a whole lot of adventure.
Staying Dead, the first book in the series, does a lot for the series - the central story, Wren working a job to find a missing cornerstone for a building (that is more than it appears), is but one piece. It also lays the foundation for the central relationship to the series, and the central conflict that spans all six books.
About that Quote: Despite this being an urban fantasy novel, Gilman does a fantastic job creating realistic characters with great senses of humor and all-too-realistic relationship troubles - even when those troubles are tinged with just a little bit of magic. But this quote shows Wren at her most human - sarcastic, a bit scattered, and more often than not, not quite sure what she’s doing. Years since I’ve read this book, and I still remember chuckling the first time I read this line. I was invested in this book from the start, but Gilman’s humor, laced throughout the series, is one of the elements that kept me reading.
Comments