qdony's review against another edition
4.0
M'ha agradat una mica menys que el primer, però en conjunt és mereix les 4 estrelles. Hi ha alguna trama que queda una mica penjada pel meu gust (la dels Slow Assassins, concretament) però en general està molt bé. M'agrada la Marla en el seu paper de defensora de Felport.
garretreece's review against another edition
3.0
Better than its predecessor, this book remains a fun romp. Easy brain candy and plenty of entertainment.
sraedi's review against another edition
5.0
I unfortunately misplaced this a short way from the end which bonked the momentum and probably skewed my star rating
djinn_n_juice's review against another edition
3.0
The second book in the Marla Mason series does exactly what a sequel should do: it builds upon the world, raises the stakes slightly, and maintains all of the elements the first volume had going for it.
In this volume, Marla Mason, chief sorcerer of Felport, is dealing with several simultaneous threats, all of which are developed into an interesting aspect of the story. She's being hunted by a slow assassin, trained to kill his targets slowly and horribly over a long period of time. The city Marla runs is also being threatened by a sorceress who has escaped from an asylum, and the sorceress's bizarre dreams are beginning to mesh with the reality of Felport. On top of these two problems, Marla has two new hirees, neither of who have much experience with the magical world.
Hilarity ensues.
There are lots of good things I can say about this series. It's fast-paced, but it's also witty and complex. It's very funny, and Pratt borrows from many different myths and spiritual systems in developing the magic of his world. According to Marla, "Everything works," from voodoo to necromancy to love potions to chaos magic, and everything in between. Poison Sleep is happy pagan fun time.
I'm very disappointed to learn Pratt's series was dropped by his publisher after the fourth volume. Well, at least Marla and I can have a couple more adventures. In the meantime, perhaps the series will be picked up by another publisher. I can't believe that, with all the crappy looking urban fantasy out there, this series wouldn't have enough of a following to keep it in print.
In this volume, Marla Mason, chief sorcerer of Felport, is dealing with several simultaneous threats, all of which are developed into an interesting aspect of the story. She's being hunted by a slow assassin, trained to kill his targets slowly and horribly over a long period of time. The city Marla runs is also being threatened by a sorceress who has escaped from an asylum, and the sorceress's bizarre dreams are beginning to mesh with the reality of Felport. On top of these two problems, Marla has two new hirees, neither of who have much experience with the magical world.
Hilarity ensues.
There are lots of good things I can say about this series. It's fast-paced, but it's also witty and complex. It's very funny, and Pratt borrows from many different myths and spiritual systems in developing the magic of his world. According to Marla, "Everything works," from voodoo to necromancy to love potions to chaos magic, and everything in between. Poison Sleep is happy pagan fun time.
I'm very disappointed to learn Pratt's series was dropped by his publisher after the fourth volume. Well, at least Marla and I can have a couple more adventures. In the meantime, perhaps the series will be picked up by another publisher. I can't believe that, with all the crappy looking urban fantasy out there, this series wouldn't have enough of a following to keep it in print.
madgirl's review
4.0
Great follow-up to the first book in the series. My major complaint would be that some of the "twists" revealed at the end seemed perhaps more obvious than they were meant to be, but I still enjoyed the ride. It was clever and original, and I'm really enjoying the characters in this series.
jayshay's review
2.0
Prepare yourselves, I will be complaining about the end of the book, that is why I've checked the spoiler box.
I felt pretty conflicted about Marla Mason as a main character all the way through Poison Sleep. It is not that I have to like her. There are times that I admired her cool ruthless manner. Here was a female character that didn't bend or compromise for the reader. Marla isn't gonna beg for you to like her. Yet at the same time I found it difficult to care about any of the characters, to take an interest in what happened to any of them - except maybe disgraced teacher, now personal assistant Ted. As the action picked up this sort of fell away and I got over my diffidence. Stuff was happening and it was pretty interesting: there is a god-like woman who can literally bend the shape of reality - who is crazy and is manifesting her nightmares on the streets of Felport.
But then I got to the end. I'd been having trouble with the lovetalker thing. Joshua is a fellow who makes everyone fall in love with him. Marla - smart Marla - knows this and knows if she fucks him she is completely under his spell. So what does she do? She hires him, spends lots of time with him and fucks him. Did I mention that Marla is supposed to be intelligent and someone who likes to be in control and not mind fucked by a pretty boy? (Yes, I guess this could be her character flaw. She was with a succubus last, but all through the novel I was just thinking of how much an idiot she was, one with no self-awareness. Yes, I guess this could be Mr. Pratt being all smart and deep, but this was were I could just not relate or sympathize with Marla.) I guess this is a switched gender femme fatale thing but it comes off as a creepy willing surrender. It bothered throughout the book but comes to a head at the end.
It seemed pretty obvious to me when the possibility of a spy in Marla's camp came up that *spoiler* Joshua was going to be the spy. And he was. So for the coda after the big baddie is defeated, Marla still loves Joshua like crazy, watches him stab poor plain helpful Ted to death and then snaps his neck *after* the stabbing cause lovetalker-boy threatened her beloved city. A resolution that is waaaaay too much like getting between Jim Kirk and his beloved Enterprise - it was dumb on the original Star Trek, is is dumb and lame in this book.
Up until this really disappointing ending I would have said the book was alright, but being able to resist Joshua's magic love powers because she loved her city even more knocked my respect for the book down many many many levels. I hated the lovetalker and hated Marla's bogus ability to resist the magic seduction even more. I sentence Tim to a thousand reruns of Kirk and his love affair with his Enterprise.
(That said I've loved a lot of his short stories and might even try further books in this series - since I did buy all of them together - second hand.)
I felt pretty conflicted about Marla Mason as a main character all the way through Poison Sleep. It is not that I have to like her. There are times that I admired her cool ruthless manner. Here was a female character that didn't bend or compromise for the reader. Marla isn't gonna beg for you to like her. Yet at the same time I found it difficult to care about any of the characters, to take an interest in what happened to any of them - except maybe disgraced teacher, now personal assistant Ted. As the action picked up this sort of fell away and I got over my diffidence. Stuff was happening and it was pretty interesting: there is a god-like woman who can literally bend the shape of reality - who is crazy and is manifesting her nightmares on the streets of Felport.
But then I got to the end. I'd been having trouble with the lovetalker thing. Joshua is a fellow who makes everyone fall in love with him. Marla - smart Marla - knows this and knows if she fucks him she is completely under his spell. So what does she do? She hires him, spends lots of time with him and fucks him. Did I mention that Marla is supposed to be intelligent and someone who likes to be in control and not mind fucked by a pretty boy? (Yes, I guess this could be her character flaw. She was with a succubus last, but all through the novel I was just thinking of how much an idiot she was, one with no self-awareness. Yes, I guess this could be Mr. Pratt being all smart and deep, but this was were I could just not relate or sympathize with Marla.) I guess this is a switched gender femme fatale thing but it comes off as a creepy willing surrender. It bothered throughout the book but comes to a head at the end.
It seemed pretty obvious to me when the possibility of a spy in Marla's camp came up that *spoiler* Joshua was going to be the spy. And he was. So for the coda after the big baddie is defeated, Marla still loves Joshua like crazy, watches him stab poor plain helpful Ted to death and then snaps his neck *after* the stabbing cause lovetalker-boy threatened her beloved city. A resolution that is waaaaay too much like getting between Jim Kirk and his beloved Enterprise - it was dumb on the original Star Trek, is is dumb and lame in this book.
Up until this really disappointing ending I would have said the book was alright, but being able to resist Joshua's magic love powers because she loved her city even more knocked my respect for the book down many many many levels. I hated the lovetalker and hated Marla's bogus ability to resist the magic seduction even more. I sentence Tim to a thousand reruns of Kirk and his love affair with his Enterprise.
(That said I've loved a lot of his short stories and might even try further books in this series - since I did buy all of them together - second hand.)
sraedi's review
5.0
I unfortunately misplaced this a short way from the end which bonked the momentum and probably skewed my star rating
wealhtheow's review
3.0
Marla Mason is the chief sorcerer of her city, sworn to protect it against all magical attacks. When a woman with reality-bending powers awakens from a catatonic state and starts unmeaningly wreaking havoc, Marla is on the job. She's not thrilled that her only option seems to be to kill Genevieve, who is unable to control herself but not evil, and even less happy when it becomes clear that Genevieve has brought her nightmares to life, and they will do far more damage.
For some reason I just adore Marla, who is a bruiser of a sorcerer and is forthright and pragmatic to a fault. I really like the variety of sorcerers that she deals with, from a pollution magician to someone who's basically doing magic with science. (Or science with magic? It's not clear.) And I liked how this resolved (
For some reason I just adore Marla, who is a bruiser of a sorcerer and is forthright and pragmatic to a fault. I really like the variety of sorcerers that she deals with, from a pollution magician to someone who's basically doing magic with science. (Or science with magic? It's not clear.) And I liked how this resolved (
Spoiler
I saw Joshua the lovetalker being the spy from pretty early on, like I think a lot of readers did, but I don't see that as a flaw. There are red flags from very early on that Marla is involving him too much and not being rational about him, so I totally understood why she didn't see what I did. I think I expected her to be able to defeat Joshua because she didn't really love him or something like that, but I liked that instead, she did love him, she's just capable of killing the things she loves. And although I felt like it took forever for Genevieve to get herself together and realize Reave could be defeated, that felt realistic too.), although a few too many characters I liked died along the way.gnomepartay's review
5.0
Amazing ending. Marla is always a great inspiration. In this book they go further into her weaknesses and the ways that she is flawed.
realbooks4ever's review
4.0
POISON SLEEP is the second book in the Marla Mason urban fantasy series, and it’s almost as good as the first. I would give it 4.5 stars out of 5.
The imaginative world that Marla lives in just gets more interesting with the addition of a dreamworld that people are falling in and out of. This dreamworld belongs to one woman, Genevieve, who is an escaped patient from the Blackwing Institute for criminally insane sorcerers. Marla must stop Genevieve before her dreamworld touches too many people, and brings the city of Felport to ruin.
The fantasy elements are superbly drawn, and the characters have actual character, although a longer book wouldn’t have hurt in order to examine them more thoroughly. Marla isn’t my favorite heroine, she swears too much among other things, but once I get past those unnecessary elements of the story I really enjoy the fast pace of the action.
If you liked BLOOD ENGINES, you will like POISON SLEEP. I’m looking forward to book #3 – DEAD REIGN!
~Stephanie
The imaginative world that Marla lives in just gets more interesting with the addition of a dreamworld that people are falling in and out of. This dreamworld belongs to one woman, Genevieve, who is an escaped patient from the Blackwing Institute for criminally insane sorcerers. Marla must stop Genevieve before her dreamworld touches too many people, and brings the city of Felport to ruin.
The fantasy elements are superbly drawn, and the characters have actual character, although a longer book wouldn’t have hurt in order to examine them more thoroughly. Marla isn’t my favorite heroine, she swears too much among other things, but once I get past those unnecessary elements of the story I really enjoy the fast pace of the action.
If you liked BLOOD ENGINES, you will like POISON SLEEP. I’m looking forward to book #3 – DEAD REIGN!
~Stephanie