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Tiffany Trent

Auteur de The Unnaturalists

12+ oeuvres 799 utilisateurs 38 critiques 4 Favoris

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Séries

Œuvres de Tiffany Trent

The Unnaturalists (2012) 305 exemplaires
In the Serpent's Coils (2007) 149 exemplaires
By Venom's Sweet Sting (2007) 70 exemplaires
Between Golden Jaws (2008) 58 exemplaires
The Tinker King (2016) 56 exemplaires
Maiden of the Wolf (2008) 43 exemplaires
The Underwater Ballroom Society (2018) — Directeur de publication; Contributeur — 40 exemplaires
Queen of the Masquerade (2008) 39 exemplaires
Oracle of the Morrigan (2008) 33 exemplaires
A Stranger in the Garden (2014) 4 exemplaires
Seek-no-further 1 exemplaire

Oeuvres associées

Corsets and Clockwork: 13 Steampunk Romances (2011) — Contributeur — 290 exemplaires
The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2 (2009) — Contributeur — 192 exemplaires
Magic in the Mirrorstone: Tales of Fantasy (2008) — Contributeur — 113 exemplaires
Willful Impropriety: 13 Tales of Society, Scandal, and Romance (2012) — Contributeur — 82 exemplaires
The Mammoth Book of Southern Gothic Romance (2014) — Contributeur — 29 exemplaires
Clockwork Cairo: Steampunk Tales of Egypt (2017) — Contributeur — 28 exemplaires
Scheherazade's Facade (2012) — Contributeur — 25 exemplaires
Eclipse Phase: After the Fall (2016) — Contributeur — 14 exemplaires
The Mammoth Book of Gaslit Romance (2014) — Contributeur — 11 exemplaires
River (2011) — Contributeur — 11 exemplaires
Subterranean Magazine Summer 2011 — Contributeur — 2 exemplaires

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Sexe
female
Lieux de résidence
Virginia, USA
Professions
author

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Critiques

so here's the thing. i liked the premise of this book. i liked a lot of things about this book. in the end though i felt like it was too many storylines in one book. the separate plots in this book could have been parsed out into 2-3 books. it was a lot going on. her world building was great but it was a lot to take in all in the course of just one book. again, i felt like had this been the first couple of books in a series it would have been much better. i will give the second book a chance to see how it goes bc there are some really intriguing aspects here.… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
jewelledfrog | 19 autres critiques | Jul 26, 2023 |
Right on the heels of Year Zero, I have another book that got itself on my list based on the potential in its world building: The Unnaturalists. I mean, how can you not be intrigued by a world where London seems to have been yanked into another world, where Science[1] has grown into a religion.

You have things like people cursing with "by Saint Darwin and all his apes". A world where you hear someone say (with a straight face) "I turn my attention to another window, the one in which Saint Pasteur smites the Demon Byron for his licentious poetry."

Therein lies the problem with the world though. It never quite gelled for me. There is quite a lot of world there, just waiting to be tapped, but it seemed too busy. It seemed to be a steampunk London torn from our world some time in the past, sent into a world where magic still holds sway--which is particularly odd. How do you have Science grow to the point it has in this story in a world where there are literal living fairies and sphinxes hanging around?

Also, it was never entirely clear what the rules were in the world. I don't strictly speaking have to know what the worlds are for magic systems, but I do prefer that there are rules. I never get the impression that is the case here. We have the last Witch in the world; Architects which can do... something; Tinkers with the ability to commune with Elemantals (essentially animstic spirits); and all manner of magical beasties. Don't get me wrong, there were some particularly cool visuals, it just didn't quite get beyond that.

Beyond the world building, the writing style was odd. There were two story lines: a rich girl rebelling against Victorian gender roles and a Tinker boy from the outskirts with the only remaining Tinker magic among his people. The former was written in first person present tense[2], the latter in third person. I can see where the two characters tie together, but for the most part, there seem to almost be two stories going on in parallel.

Finally, the love story just felt strange. Pedant Lumin/Hal/Bayne/The Architect is referred to four different ways at different points in the book; it took me a while to figure out they were all the same person. As a result, I couldn't figure out who he was and what in the world Vespa saw in him. It felt like the author was trying to make him adequately interesting, but it felt forced.

Overall, it took me a while to get finish this book. It never quite got to the point where I just wanted to put it down, but at the same point, it didn't keep me turning pages. So it goes. I'm sure there are many people who would enjoy this style of book. I'm just not one of them. So it goes.

[1] This book realy likes proper nouns
[2] Which already has to fight an uphill battle in my mind
[3] Although I was at 7 before this book...
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
jpv0 | 19 autres critiques | Jul 21, 2021 |
A strong collection of short stories, all of which include an underwater ballroom. Other than that connection, each is pretty unique and they all feel different too. Some are obviously weaker than others, but I finished them all and never felt like that I was rushing through one just to get it done with.

My favorites of the lot were:
- "Twelve Sisters" by Y.S. Lee - a story based on the Twelve Dancing Princesses, only what happens after the story ends.
- "Spellswept" by Stephanie Burgis - it helped that I had read the rest of the Harwood Spellbook series, so I came into it already invested in the characters and the world here. It's Amy being terrifyingly competent and beginning to eke out the new paths that she and the rest of the Harwoods blaze onto.
- "Mermaids, Singing" by Tiffany Trent - I want this to be expanded into a full novel, stat. There's so much world building that we didn't see and is only implied, and I am greedy and want more.
- "A Spy in the Deep" by Patrick Samphire - This is the second in a series of Harriet George, spy on Mars during the Napoleonic Wars. There's apparently dinosaurs on Mars? But her simple assignment turns out to be anything but. It's utterly delightful. This reminds me a lot of Carrie Vaughn's Marlowe and Harry short stories. I'll definitely be checking out the first story.
… (plus d'informations)
½
 
Signalé
wisemetis | 4 autres critiques | Dec 6, 2020 |
I had a somewhat hard time remembering what was going on and who all the characters were, but it slowly came back to me as I read farther along. I really liked how everything all worked out and who did what. I especially liked how Olivia and Syrus changed and were able to use their abilities and heritage to save their people.
 
Signalé
Mirandalg14 | 1 autre critique | Oct 23, 2020 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
12
Aussi par
12
Membres
799
Popularité
#31,915
Évaluation
½ 3.6
Critiques
38
ISBN
26
Favoris
4

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