Martin Millar

Elfish and Mo were in a band together but after their relationship crashed and burned then so did the band. Mo is putting a new band together and to spite Elfish is going to use the name Queen Mab for it as he knows she wants that too. Elfish in desperation agrees to a contest with the winner earning the right to the name. She has to learn a 43 line speech from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and recite it prior to the live debut of Mo’s new band. She has a week. Good job she has no scruples and will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

This is my least favourite of the author’s works I’ve read so far. The main character is a hedonistic narcissist who lies and cheats her way though life with the rest of the characters just being there for her to abuse. Despite this, the “story” is not as appalling as it sounds. It’s a slice-of-life tale about a struggling wannabe musician in ‘90’s Brixton. It’s fast-paced and told in short chapters as Elfish careens from one disaster to the next. I did kind of end up rooting for her in the end.… (mer)

An interesting entry in the series, with a more unsettled conclusion than most. Thraxas is at home as a detective in Turai, or as a soldier on the march, but being a detective in a marching army is a very different task. While the central mystery - or at least, the central *case* - seems explained by the end of the book, there's a broader wrongness at play. Thraxas is contemplative throughout, even philosophical as he muses on past events; and both he and other key players seem to have lost their edge. To my mind, Martin has done well in evoking some of that slightly foggy feeling in the narrative. In some ways it feels more Noir than much of the series set in the mean streets, which is quite an achievement.

It's not surprising that the atmosphere of the novels has shifted with Thraxas' (and Turai's) changing fortunes. Compared with getting a payout for a job in Turai, iesolving a murder while marching to a cataclysmic battle isn't going to leave the same closure and time-to-make-merry feeling in his or the reader's mind. The narrative ends with them heading into battle, leaving the tension of their fates unresolved, as well as the unanswered questions surrounding the case.

Despite the changing scenery and Thraxas' slow evolution, this is still the same old characters in the same old relationship - and I mean that in a positive way. While I could believe in war transforming Thraxas into a disciplined and professional warrior, this depiction of him unable to shake off lifelong habits seems more believable.… (mer)