Carpe Corpus

These book just keep getting better and better. With book six, the series ventures into the world of steampunk with a special Morganville twist. With the very little I have actually read in the genre of Steampunk, I had a hard time visualizing what Ada looks like, but I am hoping these eventually become movies and someone creates this fascinating machine for the movies! Ada's quirkiness and creepiness fit right in with the rest of the Morganville residents, though, so I know that she/it will grow on me, too.
With this book, it is also a relief that Claire has finally turned seventeen. The build-up between her and Shane was driving me crazy. I also like how the author was much more realistic about her first time with Shane than many romance novelists, with much awkwardness and naivety. Her parents' response to the knowledge of this was quite humorous and charming and lent some much-needed humor to the extent of fear with which Morganville is saturated.
Even though these books have much fantasy, they still move along with a certain believability. The one major exception that I found in this book - that I simply had a hard time believing possible - was when Claire almost dies at the end. With the amount of blood loss she suffered from, there is simply no way she could stay conscious for the amount of that she did or stay alive as she did. When books are as entertaining as these are though, I don't mind a little "writer's license" to keep the main character alive and resolve the loose thread of who is responsible for the random murders of girls in the previous books. I am surprised, though, that Claire never made the connection to who Dean is, since I saw it coming quite easily.
Mynin gets more and more entertaining and fascinating from book to book - he is probably one of my favorite characters for his unpredictability. I am thrilled that the disease can no longer get the best of him - it means he could play a more central role in future books. Many of the characters are easy to like, even if their morals often verge into gray area, such as Amelie.
Even though the "book" has suffered its final demise, the bookworm in me still wonders what else was in that book, so I hope future books can tell me more about it.

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Definitely more gruesome and horrific than the other books but very capturing. The story sucks you in and doesn't let go. Ther are twist tuns and surprised everywhere! A great addition to the overall story line. ( )

Morganville is under the control of Bishop. All resistance is quashed and even Claire is forced to obey with the magical tattoo that compels her will. The whole town is under Bishop’s brutal regime, anyone walking around after dark can expected to be hunted and killed by vampires loyal to Bishop and the old system of tax and protection has faded. In short, things may have been bad under Amelie, but they’ve never been close to as bad as this.

Of course, there is a resistance. Amelie is still alive and leading her vampires in a shadowy campaign against Bishop in a clever and desperate ploy to release his grip. Other vampires are seeking to flee the city, and no small number of humans as well. But Claire finds herself forced into the margins, unable to be part of the battle as people fear her under Bishop’s control (and others revile her as a traitor) and further as she is forced to follow the mentally unstable Myrnin who appears to have thrown his lot in with Bishop.

Add in Claire’s worry for Shane who has been imprisoned for trying to kill vampires along with his father, Claire’s being forced to work with Bishop even as he uses her for his vile control and Claire’s worry for her parents and being ostracised from her friends, well altogether times are pretty dire in Morganville.

This book had a really great story. Bishop is ruling the town and the resistance must both find a cure to the pervasive illness that is continuing to afflict them while, at the same time, work away to bring bishop down and roust him for good. It’s especially hard because several vampires have been forced to convert, serving Bishop – as has Claire herself. There follows a lot of careful manipulations, crafty plans and covert movements around Morganville, helped by some very clever and brave undercover agents in Bishop’s regime – all cumulating in a truly genius plan to finally bring Bishop down in an amazing play of cross and double cross.

The problem is I’m kind of extrapolating here. Because we’re following Claire. And Claire is involved in NONE OF THIS. So we don’t see it. Instead she whines about Shane being imprison, then spends a lot of time with Shane (and I’m not against this because the relationship is touching and sweet and actually kind of well done which surprised me. But there’s a war going on, less teen romance, more war!). She then spends much of the rest of the book moving medicine from lab to lab and following people around while they do things for the resistance with occasional bursts of random activity that doesn’t do much. I’m particularly not impressed by having Claire go and explore places for no reason. We’ve seen her do this before, in this book she decides to explore the boarded up coffee shop of Common Grounds. Why? No idea, a vague feeling at best. It’s sloppy writing.

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The Shane & Claire thing made the book for me. That was amazing. ( )

This was fast paced as well, I do wonder if they'll ever catch a break, though :) ( )