I've recently realized a flaw in my plan to be a bookblogger. I'm excited to talk about books that are awful and disappointing, because I don't want anyone wasting their money without being informed. And I'm eager to share great finds, such as the Danilov Quintet by Jasper Kent (more on them soon). It's the books that are mediocre that kill my ambition. They aren't terrible, but even trying to write a review of them is unappealing.
But I'm going to grit my teeth and work through my stack of back reviews, starting with Greywalker.
Greywalker, by Kat Richardson
Quick synopsis: A female private investigator has a near death experience. Actually, she was dead for a minute or two but was brought back. Since then, she has been able to see "the grey" and kind of interact with it. She doesn't know what it is, nor do we really find out. The rest of the book is spent following her looking for a missing boy, interacting with vampires, searching for a missing artifact, and "learning" from a hedgewitch and her husband, who is a magical theorist.
I confess I didn't bond with the character. I think that's pretty clear, since I didn't even bother to look up the P.I.'s name. She is fairly forgettable. The only thing that I remember about her is her use of a pager instead of a cell phone. In a time when one of the characters we run into is a technology wiz, using his laptop and a few scavenged parts of who-knows-what, when EVERYONE ELSE uses a cell phone, I am expected to believe that a P.I. is going to run all over town tracking down leads and checking messages through a payphone or going back to her office. Not even after the incident that nearly killed her, did she get one for safety although she now carries a gun.
I've read articles discussing the level of technology withing books, how most authors will include a level of technology that they grew up with. That's why in the Twilight books Bella doesn't have a cell phone (bad reception) and is rarely on the internet (it's dial-up, which is synonymous with practically non-existand) and her mom doesn't use a cell phone either (I lost the charger, again, and I totally couldn't buy another, and even if I did I would forget to use it). This omission can be handled well, like in the Dresden Files or October Daye series. Both of these use magic as the reason their main characters do not use technology. In the Dresden Files, wizards and technology do not mix. Lights go out, fancy cars die, computers explode. With October Daye, even when her magic isn't so powerful as to render cell phones useless, she is constantly interacting with pure blood fae, fairy nobles, and working IN fairy. This understandably kills any technology, unless it has been specially altered with magic.
Throughout the first Greywalker book, there is no reason for the lack of use of technology. The P.I. never checks information online. She NEVER uses a CELL PHONE. And she's not the only one. There is no explanation for it except for the occasional aside when she picks up her messages at the office only to find that she's needed back across town to talk to this person or check this lead. I could not find her character believable and I couldn't take her seriously. The world Kat Richardson was able to build was interesting, but we really don't learn much about it in the first book. I understand that in a series you want some things to be discovered over a couple of books, but pretty much every question I had was left unanswered.
Some people might like this series, and I'm sure it will get better as it goes, but it doesn't have the hook that the October Daye series did, or the complex and interesting world from the Dresden Files.
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