Read Online Charming Pax Arcana Elliott James 9780316253390 Books
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Sharp, sarcastic, and efficiently lethal, John Charming would feel right at home having drinks with Dean Winchester and Harry Dresden. If you're looking for a new urban fantasy series to pick up, CHARMING is a guaranteed page-turner.
Read Online Charming Pax Arcana Elliott James 9780316253390 Books
"I wanted to like this book, and there were moments of it that I enjoyed, but the sixty or so pages in between these precious paragraphs were enough for me to not recommend this book to any serious urban fantasy readers.
The bones of a good story are there: a fairly congenial and funny protagonist, a supernatural world, a believable love interest, and a manageable cast of semi-interesting major characters. Where this book failed to capture my attention was in the protagonist’s narration and the plot itself.
John Charming is a werewolf hybrid on the run from a group of special-op supernatural police called “the Knights.†He’s laying low working as a bar tender in a Podunk Virginia town when he meets Sig, another supernatural human who runs her own team of vampire hunters.
Through a series of less than fortunate events, Sig and John end up working together. Along with an Episcopal priest, an exterminator, two psychics and a few gun-wielding extras, this group forms a not-so-happy band of misfits on a mission to rid Virginia of a highly dangerous vampire hive.
And there’s really nothing wrong with this plot, except that it feels like an afterthought the whole ride. John couldn’t really care less about ridding the world of these vampires….what he does care about is whether or not Sig likes him despite his werewolf issues, and their borderline teenage love-affair constantly takes front and center of the story.
While John’s narration can be witty and laugh-out-loud, it’s weighed down by large portions of info dumping with such detail that I had to go back and reread the dialog that came before it to remember where exactly I was in the plot. John does make a disclaimer at the end of the story for why he was giving so much information to the reader (he breaks the 4th wall constantly), but even with that knowledge, it often felt like the author was interested in the research he’d done for the story, and want to tell the reader ALL the things he found.
I spent most of the book scanning the info dumps to get to the precious paragraphs were Elliot proves he does know what writing’s all about. Regardless of this book’s 2 star rating, I think Elliot is a good writer. There are some scenes in this story that reach off the page, grab your emotions and twist them, and in those moments I LOVED this book. But the narrative drudgery and plodding plot was too much for me to actually like this book."
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Tags : Charming (Pax Arcana) [Elliott James] on . <div> Sharp, sarcastic, and efficiently lethal, John Charming would feel right at home having drinks with Dean Winchester and Harry Dresden. If you're looking for a new urban fantasy series to pick up,Elliott James,Charming (Pax Arcana),Orbit,0316253391,Fantasy - Paranormal,Fantasy - Urban,Fantasy fiction,Fantasy fiction.,Paranormal fiction,Princes,Vampires,Vampires;Fiction.,AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY,Fantasy,Fantasy - Contemporary,Fiction,Fiction - Fantasy,Fiction / Fantasy / Contemporary,Fiction / Fantasy / Paranormal,Fiction / Fantasy / Urban,Fiction / Romance / Fantasy,Fiction-Fantasy,Fiction/Fantasy - Paranormal,Fiction/Fantasy - Urban,Fiction/Romance - Fantasy,GENERAL,General Adult,Monograph Series, any,United States
Charming Pax Arcana Elliott James 9780316253390 Books Reviews :
Charming Pax Arcana Elliott James 9780316253390 Books Reviews
- I wanted to like this book, and there were moments of it that I enjoyed, but the sixty or so pages in between these precious paragraphs were enough for me to not recommend this book to any serious urban fantasy readers.
The bones of a good story are there a fairly congenial and funny protagonist, a supernatural world, a believable love interest, and a manageable cast of semi-interesting major characters. Where this book failed to capture my attention was in the protagonist’s narration and the plot itself.
John Charming is a werewolf hybrid on the run from a group of special-op supernatural police called “the Knights.†He’s laying low working as a bar tender in a Podunk Virginia town when he meets Sig, another supernatural human who runs her own team of vampire hunters.
Through a series of less than fortunate events, Sig and John end up working together. Along with an Episcopal priest, an exterminator, two psychics and a few gun-wielding extras, this group forms a not-so-happy band of misfits on a mission to rid Virginia of a highly dangerous vampire hive.
And there’s really nothing wrong with this plot, except that it feels like an afterthought the whole ride. John couldn’t really care less about ridding the world of these vampires….what he does care about is whether or not Sig likes him despite his werewolf issues, and their borderline teenage love-affair constantly takes front and center of the story.
While John’s narration can be witty and laugh-out-loud, it’s weighed down by large portions of info dumping with such detail that I had to go back and reread the dialog that came before it to remember where exactly I was in the plot. John does make a disclaimer at the end of the story for why he was giving so much information to the reader (he breaks the 4th wall constantly), but even with that knowledge, it often felt like the author was interested in the research he’d done for the story, and want to tell the reader ALL the things he found.
I spent most of the book scanning the info dumps to get to the precious paragraphs were Elliot proves he does know what writing’s all about. Regardless of this book’s 2 star rating, I think Elliot is a good writer. There are some scenes in this story that reach off the page, grab your emotions and twist them, and in those moments I LOVED this book. But the narrative drudgery and plodding plot was too much for me to actually like this book. - When you look at the reviews for Charming, they are pretty evenly distributed over the 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 star ratings. That is quite unusual in my experience. I think this is because the structure of the book is excellent; while the characters are like cardboard. If you read the dialog without reading who is saying it, you won't have any idea which character is speaking. So readers' reviews depend upon what they consider important in a book.
Lots of other reviewers have commented that Mr. James' supernatural world building is incredible and it is. So if that's important to you, you'll probably enjoy this book. If you want interesting characters, I would try a different book. - Werewolves, check. (Even if he's never actually turned into a wolf.) Vampires, check. Warriors, check. Skills in martial arts and assorted other survival skills check. Long lives, check. But Charming does something unique in my experience of urban fantasy. With all those mythical characters running around, it's pretty common for them to have life spans way beyond what us mortals can expect. Roland in the Kate Daniels series is thousands of years old, and Kate can expect to inherit his longevity. Adam in the Mercy Thompson series is a vet of a few past wars, and Bran, the Marrok is hundred of years old. Similarly, John Charming here grew up in the 1930s. But John, unlike any of those others, has actually learned something in his long life how not to be an jerk. There are a number of points in the story where he's going to snap back with the snap retort most of us would make in a charged conversation, and realizes that would be a jerk move, and wouldn't get him what he wants from this conversation ... and so he doesn't say it. Sure, he can be as snarky as anyone when the situation does call for it, but when it doesn't, he shuts up. And that makes him uniquely believable as someone who has been around for a while and learned from his experiences.
Also, he's perfectly willing to not only admit that Sig is stronger physically than he is, but to trust her at his back in a fight. - Wow! This is not my childhood's Prince Charming, but then I'm not a child anymore, either. We quickly find out that "The truth is that the world is under a spell called the Pax Arcana, a compulsion that makes people unable to see, believe, or even seriously consider any evidence of the supernatural that is not an immediate threat to their survival."
Our Prince John Charming's mother was bitten by a werewolf while she was pregnant with him. He is/was also a member of the Knights Templar who are supposed to hunt down the supernatural beings who threaten the Pax Arcana, mostly be being too obvious in their slaughter of humans. The one thing he isn't is a prince. Add in a Valkyrie named Sig who is quite capable in battle. This makes for a great story. John is telling the story, so he includes lots of tips for us normal people to use against some of the big baddie types encountered here.
I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. I think my favorite line out of the books was "Popular young adult novels notwithstanding, vampires only sparkle when they burn." I read it pretty quickly and wanted the next book immediately. (You are warned this is a four-book, soon to be five-book series as of the writing of this review.)
Who will like it? Fans of Harry Dresden, almost certainly. If you like urban fantasy, you'll probably enjoy this.
