Lord of Misrule

Spoilers for all previous books. Also, continuing my discussion of the historical aspects of 'Feast of Fools' the term, Lord of Misrule, is also associated with the celebration, but after some priests got a bit too jolly in Paris back in the 12th century heavy restrictions were placed upon the title (ordinarily the leader of the church) to keep the person in check.

I'm reluctant to put to paper (so to speak) my thoughts of Lord of Misrule because I'm honestly torn up. I don't think I can put words that don't involve 'freaked out' and 'oh gods no' and 'OH NO NOT THAT'. Bishop is...horrifying. Not just the vampire himself, but his whole ideology is so twisted and warped and inhuman I felt chills. And you know how some evil vampires have show more moments of weakness? Not Bishop. Oh no. He's kind of like a Vampire version of those Chuck Norris facts--you know the ones. 'Chuck Norris is the only man alive to slam a revolving door' those facts (which can be hilarious).

And it just gets worse as the book goes on.

Somehow this book makes the other four combined seem like Claire and Co. were merely having tea parties. Between friends who aren't so friendly, enemies who have no choice, neutrals who should know better and one person in particular Monica its Monica getting a nice comeuppance (let's face it with Bishop moving to take charge who needs her dad? No one was being nice to Monica because she was sweet after all) the entire power structure is torn down.

I felt kind of bad for most of the inhabitants--for the ones born there the way of life that they had become resigned to and understood at least was gone. For the out-of-towners (those poor college saps) the world just got a whole lot more terrifying.

And the teaser for the next book, Carpe Corpus? Only made me want to cry more.

(just to note, none of what I said is meant to be a negative criticism--I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It just also broke my heart a thousand different times.) show less

Another suspenseful installment of the Morganville series. This book is obviously building to the climax of the current conflict, which was why I felt it had a lot of buildup without quite as much action. But character interaction and suspense made up for that pretty well.

The arrival and rise to power of the vicious vampire Bishop has forced all of Morganville to take sides. But this time the lines aren't drawn between human and vampire; the two groups mingle warily in order to either protect the town or conquer it. Claire's connection to the defending leader, Amelie, means she and her friends are key players in the deadly game being conducted. And of course, unpredictable variables keep throwing off any plans that can be laid; Shane's show more cruel father, the rebelling humans of the town, and the half-mad half-brilliant Myrnin, who is still one of the greatest characters of the series in my opinion.

And of course, Claire lands herself in yet more terrible predicaments that will require trust, sacrifice, and desperate measures to deal with. The characters are still consistant, the story still fresh, and the cliffhanger still maddening. I hope to get the next book soon to watch the steadily building conflict finally play out. show less

This book centered around a singular event, and the outcome of that event has the potential to change everything that the town of Morganville is about and how it is run. I found the plot of this book to be very unpredictable - which is a good thing - except for the fact that every book always centers around Claire and the choices she makes. The one-liners are as fantastic as always, and I love the introduction of a few new characters, such as Theo and his family, and the ex-Marine Hannah. I also found the introduction of a natural disaster as a major plot point to be refreshing - even though terrifying for the characters - since few books I read seem to work uncontrollable bad weather into the plot. For less than 300 pages, this book show more packs alot of sub-plots in, with the retribution against Monica, who I'm not convinced has learned from her mistakes yet, managing Mynin's bipolar behavior, and keeping track of what is happening with each of the four main characters/ Glass House residents. All of the possibilities in a town gone anarchic are explored to some degree, although I found that the lines that were used to control the college students to be less-than-believable. I am curious to see what happens to the human factions that were trying to exploit the mini-war by rebeling against the Powers That Be in the next book, Carpe Corpus (Morganville Vampires, Book 6), as well as how Mynin's disease plays out as it affects others en masse. The fact that Claire basically hardly ever goes to class and still manages to makes A's still bugs me, but I'm getting used to it. She has more exciting things to attend to! show less

All out war is now tearing through Morganville. Bishop and Amelie have gathered their forces and their factions and are feinting against each other in an underground conflict that could literally tear the town apart.

Parts of the town are burning, others in ruin. Refugees are flooding to the few safe spaces and among them many humans are finally seeing a chance to throw off vampire control and are lashing out and rioting in rage. But not all of their anger is directed against the vampires – humans who are seen as collaborators are also being targeted and all pretence of rule of law is threatened. In such chaos of course Shane's dad has to come back to town.

Even without the riots, humans have to wonder what the future holds – which show more vampire master or none at all?

And if that wasn't enough – the stress is accelerating the vampires' disease. The more they remain under pressure, the faster the disease spreads and the more confused, frightened and uncontrolled the vampires will become. A cure becomes more essential as the battle heats up.

And there's a storm coming, extreme weather rolling in to add more chaos and destruction to the already torn town



I actually had hope when this book started. The war was on and Claire was being taken into combat missions by Amelie (ok, not entirely sure why, but she was involved!) Then she was running around in the daylight checking in, keeping lines of communication open, securing supplies... She was involved in the story! She was part of the main plot! We were actually going to get a book of stuff actually happening!

Then she decided to go home and fret. Or go to university and fret. Or go to the coffee shop and fret. Or think about the medicine and fret.

And it was doing so well! But no, we quickly end up in the common pattern for Morganville Vampires – Claire sat around fretting and not doing anything relevant to the plot while stuff goes on around her. It's immensely frustrating. It's like reading a war story – from the point of view of people in the next country reading the news. Occasionally it will spill over into their back garden, but they'r ejust not involved in most of the plot at all. And it's annoying because there is something happening. There's an outright war tearing apart Morganville, two massive, powerful factions, humans rising up against vampires and vampire collaborators – aaand Claire is not really involved in any of it.

It makes it worse because when Claire does get involved it looks convoluted – inevitably because she's been targeted by the enemy (for no apparent reason) or because she has made a ridiculous decision to leap into the middle of events she barely understands. In this case she manages to do both – she's kidnapped (for no apparent reason) rescued, the super secret plans are given to her – including the fact that a building is going to be ground zero of a war zone and not safe – so of course that's where she goes.

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Review posted here: http://offbeatvagabond.blogspot.com/2011/06/book-review-lord-of-misrule-morganvi...

Lord of Misrule is book 5 into my new favorite series, The Morganville Vampires. This is yet another book from this series that I just can’t get enough of. This book did feel a tad bit different from the others. It was shorter and most of the action is in the end, but that doesn’t make this book any less enjoyable. Can’t stress it enough, if you haven’t started this series yet, get on it now.

Lord of Misrule picks up where Feast of Fools left off. The Glass House has become the safe house for the town’s vampires. They are all trying to figure out how to take down Bishop after he has made it clear; Morganville is his for the show more taking. All the housemates have been given tasks by Amelie. Claire, being that she belongs to Amelie, goes with her to rescue our favorite charismatic vampire, Myrnin. Michael, Oliver and Eve are to protect the school. But Shane has the worst job of all, he is basically bait; Amelie has given him the job of tending the bloodmobile and the book that all the vampires will kill for.

The people of Morganville are angry and are taking steps to rebel against the vampires. They are scared and know vampires like Amelie and Oliver are even scared of Mr. Bishop. But things come to a halt when there is a bad storm coming in that will tear the city apart. So everyone, vampires and humans, alike have to work together to fight another day against Bishop.

Another addition that makes me love this series even more. What I love is that this almost feels like a coming-of-age story. Claire is growing up before our very eyes. She was always brave I think, but in this book, she clearly has grown a pair. Her confrontations with Monica had me rooting. Monica really gets a taste of her own medicine in this book. This made me love Claire even more, no matter what because even though Claire had chance after chance to really rub shit in Monica’s face, she still helped her. I don’t know if that makes her crazy or not, but I love that she never stoops to Monica’s level even though I won’t blame her if she did.

We get more from our other characters as well. Shane and Claire are getting closer. Claire wants to rush things and Shane, surprisingly, wants to wait. I like that Caine has that in there. It makes it more likable and sweet to me. Shane and Michael are more on even ground since he is accepting Michael. Myrnin, my absolute favorite, is as crazy as ever. We see that once we get to the end. This made me put the audiobook on pause because I just couldn’t believe it; I needed a quick break to get my brain together.

Like I said this was another great addition. So much going on. The action does take a while to come to the light, but once it does, man it was good. This book probably had the best and worst cliffhanger ever. I don’t think I cursed that much out loud at the ending of a book since Dreamfever. Seriously Caine, you killed me with that. But luckily, got Carpe Corpus at the library just two days ago, so my anticipation was short lived. This will get your adrenaline pumping, trust me. show less

I try to express only my most honest opinion in a spoiler-free way. If you feel anything in my review is a spoiler and is not already hidden in spoiler brackets please let me know. Thank you.

This one was a bit hard for me to rate. I love this series so much, but this book took a while to get into, and even afterward, nothing really happened until the very end of the book, which ended on a cliffhanger as always. So despite my love of the series and intense emotions at the end of the book. I feel it only fair to give it a 4 star instead of a 5 this time.

Don't get me wrong though. Still a great book. The entire series has taken a different direction than I thought it would when I read the first book. Not in a bad way, just different. I show more love all of the characters, and not just the four main characters either. Also Oliver, Amelie, Sam, and Myrnin.

I don't know how Claire survives. She is almost always a target, and she trusts people way too easily, even those that have proven themselves untrustworthy. But she is brave and has a good heart, showing compassion for those that really don't deserve it in my opinion.

If you have read any of my other reviews on this series I have mentioned before how this book reads like a TV drama series, and I still think it would have made a great one. As it is I have down and 10 more to go, and I can't wait to see how the lives in Moranville progresses. show less

I wanted to read Feast of Fools because The Morganville Vampire series has become an addiction lately, and I had to know what was happening with Claire the main character, how she would be selfless and help her friends. I also wanted to see more of her romance with Shane, because I think they are a great compliment to one another.

The usual cast of characters are in this one and I love them just as much as always. They are taking big risks because of what is at stake and it was hard to watch because as much as I am attached to them I was afraid of what could happen to them.

Bishop is back and to make things more complicated than ever alliances are shifting. Some want Amelie, and others believe the lies of Bishop, or don't want the show more peace. Some humans want all the vamps dead, some vampires want the humans to be even lower than current-- just prey with no power in the town.

The twists in this one had me nervous. Some people seem to have too much power and it is hard trusting people who have crossed them in the past. And so much on Myrnin's shoulders with his shifting moods and the degenerative disease that effects memory, strength and his self control with humans. Claire always seems to be able to draw out the best in him, and have the words to bring him off of the edge.

The ending as usual made me want to have the next one right away, and in this case, I had time to go ahead and get the next one.

Bottom Line: Loving the series, new issues arise and I am on edge of seat for how they'll prevail. show less