A review by jayshay
Poison Sleep by Tim Pratt, T.A. Pratt
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.)