Changeless

Alexia Tarabotti (now Maccon) is involved in another mystery and off on another adventure. The vampires and werewolves in London have found themselves afflicted with normalcy: they have become temporarily human and, therefore, mortal. They are understandably upset, but mistakenly assume that it's Alexia's doing. In the midst of this mystery, Lord Maccon, Alexia's hot tempered Alpha werewolf husband, has disappeared without any indication as to where he was going. In addition, he left his poor wife with a large regiment of werewolves on her front lawn. Now, Alexia needs to travel to Scotland to track down and warn her husband of the normalizing force coming his way with an entourage of random people including Ivy Hisselpenny, her sister show more Felicity, Madame Lefoux the milliner and inventor, her husband's valet, and her maid Angelique. On her voyage by dirigible, there are multiple attempts both to kill her and to steal things from her. Can Alexia figure out what is causing this normalizing condition before someone succeeds in killing her?

Alexia's narrative is a joy to read because of her wit and intelligence. She's a very sensible person with a clear, logical stream of thought. She is different from everyone else in the novel because she is soulless and lacks the creativity of those with souls. This isn't a hindrance to her, however. It's amazing the way she takes almost everything in stride, from attempts on her life to Ivy Hisselpenny's hideous hats. The only thing that I disagree with her on is matters of the heart. I think this is her great flaw because such things cannot be decided with purely logic. She also seems to doubt her love for Lord Maccon sometimes, perhaps because love isn't logical and she can't fully understand it. Her love for him is undeniable no matter how much she may try to use reason to try to find reason within it. The rest of the colorful supporting characters and their respective stories only added dimensions to the novel. My favorite of these people is still the incomparable Lord Akeldama with his cheerful nature and daring fashions.

This story is more character driven, so the story does move much slower than that of the first installment. I love being immersed in Alexia's world of the supernatural and science, so I didn't mind moving more leisurely through it. One aspect I really like was the blend of fact and fiction. Although there are vampires, ghosts, and werewolves, the social constructs and main influences on the Victorian era remain the same. The burgeoning technology of the era, although often fictional technology in the novel, is reflective of the dominance of science over religion and the heavy influence of the writings of Charles Darwin. Social constructs where also addressed with the forbidden romance between Ivy and Lord Maccon's valet, Tunstell (who is also an actor). A relationship between is highly looked down upon because of Tunstell's profession and his low standing within society. Ivy is also engaged to a man she doesn't love and must choose between love and convenience. Another aspect of social commentary is the fact that although Alexia is a strong willed and independent woman, she still cannot do certain things in society without a scandal, including trekking to Scotland by herself. In this look at Victorian society, it felt very much like the view offered in John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman. Changeless also offered a more in depth look at the alternative history of its world, such as the vampiric influences of England's fashion and acceptable activities.

The one aspect I did not like in the story was the "mummy unwrapping party" and the complete disregard for preserving Ancient Egyptian antiquities. I know that it seems silly, but I've always been interested in archaeology and Egyptology. And I do acknowledge that the attitude of those in the novel is indeed consistent with what was the mentality then, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. Archaeology then was simply grave robbing and was more destructive than helpful in the field. This one thing was only a momentary annoyance in a largely wonderful book.

I absolutely loved Changeless. This book had everything: political intrigue, romance, humor, dirigibles, and, of course, parasols. The book ended on a cliffhanger and totally infuriated me. I wanted to shake one character until they passed out. I can't wait for the next novel set to release in September! show less

Alexia Tarabotti has moved from the social wilderness her spinsterhood, unfortunately dark complexion (courtesy of her Italian father), her overly-endowed figure and her status as a preternatural (also know as curse-breaker or soul-sucker) had condemned her, to the centre of society by her transformation into Alexia Maccon, the Lady Woolsey, wife to the most powerful werewolf in England.

Gail Carriger uses this transformation to continue to twist steampunk Victorian tropes into something new and wryly amusing while still fundamentally human and engaging (even if the "humans" are, for the most part, werewolves and vampires).

There is rumbustious, satisfying and frequent marital sex, above and beyond the call of duty. There is an ancient show more curse that afflicts only the supernatural. There are big, hairy Scottish men in pretty tartan skirts. There is a hatshop that is more than it seems and a cross-dressing French milliner who makes Alexia's skin tingle in the most surprising way. There are parties to unwrap Egyptian mummies and long-standing werewolf feuds up the Highlands of Scotland. There are dirigibles, bizzar communication devices and weaponised parasols.

"Changeless" charges along like Alexia Maccon herself, powered by good-humoured confidence, buoyed by a loving, sexually satisfying marriage and focused on sorting out the whole curse thing with the minimum amount of fuss.

The whole thing is great fun, right up to the final chapters, when facts emerge, the reaction to which sweeps away the very foundation of Lady Maccon's world.

"Changeless" is a remarkable achievement in sustaining a humorous tone despite dealing with serious matters, while delivering a plot that continues to surprise and characters that grow more vivid by the page. show less

Alexia Maccon, née Tarrabotti, is awakened one morning by her husband bellowing out orders and questions. He doesn't take time to answer her questions, but of course she finds out what's going on later. Something or someone has found a way to completely negate whatever magic makes supernatural beings, well--supernatural. This has London in an uproar. When the phenomenon seems to be traveling north to Scotland, Lord Maccon sets out in that direction too. He wants to investigate further, plus he needs to check in with his old pack. Alexia just can't be left behind, so one dirigible ride later, she joins him up there to find the pack in disarray.

Another fun entry into The Parasol Protectorate! I swear I smiled and giggled the whole way show more through. Alexia is just as hardheaded and Lord Maccon is just as Alpha. Yum-mmmeeeee. *Waggling eyebrows lasciviously* Alexia is settling into her role as the Woolsey pack's Alpha female with ease. It's a role she was practically made for. There's one confrontation with a member of the pack who has just returned from India that left me laughing. She handled him as only Alexia can. She manages to get herself into even more trouble this time around, believe it or not.

A strange French inventor, Madame Lefoux, makes an appearance too. We're never quite sure what her role is in everything, but she had me hopelessly intrigued. She is to Alexia as Q is to Bond. Talk about a tricked-out parasol! She hooks Alexia up! MacGyver would be jealous of this thing! She's wonderfully eccentric and I couldn't help but love her even as I wondered about her loyalties.

Ivy Hisselpenny and Alexia's sister Felicity have a much-larger role in this book, and all I have to say about that is, "Poor Tunstell. He didn't stand a chance." Ivy's hats are even more garish, Felicity is even bitchier, but their catty spats with each other and Alexia are priceless.

I had an idea what was going on with the mystery and wondered why no one even thought to consider it until the end.

Speaking of the ending...

That's really what knocked this back a star. It's a cliffhanger, it came out of the blue, (Well, sort of. I knew part of what was going on), and it relied heavily on miscommunication. I know miscommunication happens but it irritates the heck out of me when a whole new plot turns on it.

Still, highly recommended for fans of this kind of funny, character-driven, supernatural mystery. I'm anxiously awaiting [b:Blameless|7719355|Blameless (The Parasol Protectorate, #3)|Gail Carriger|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1268084164s/7719355.jpg|10463674]. Darn cliffhangers. show less

In contrast to the first book, this was a total miss for me.
It doubled down on the 19th century "enlightened" culture silliness way too much and forgot to care about plotting at all.
It basically stultifies the unique quirky writing style as the main attraction and suffers from the same weaknesses the first book does but much worse.
For me, it misses that sweet spot the first one nailed by yards that stretched my willingness to suspend disbelief much further than usual.
And after all that mystery and mortal danger everyone just shrugs off, on the last 10 pages we get a staggering gut-punch of true emotion that doesn't fit whatsoever with the silly attitude the rest of the book displayed so grossly and what's worse is that all that hurt is show more ultimately just a cheap cliff hanger.
I am sad that the author didn't seem to realize what exactly made the first book such a huge success while writing this one. It somewhat seems like a bad imitation of the original. show less

Overall more fun and less annoying than the first one, possibly because the Maccons are more fun and less annoying as a married couple than a courting couple.

I'm glad Ivy ran off and ignored her oppressive and judgemental friend. Good on you Ivy. I would wish for at least one character actually likeable rather than some mix of amusing, interesting, furthering the plot. I don't suppose anyone hold out hope that Alexia will get to have hot monkey sex with the lady inventor? No? One of the good things about this book is the way many characters - and not just the evil characters - actively dislike Alexia. The everyone wants to fuck the heroine trope is not one of my favourites. No pining Victorian lesbians, thanks. To be fair, Madame show more Lefoux doesn't appear to be pining. But she better get some hot monkey sex with someone in the next book. I'm just sayin'. show less

I am going to be honest. I think that out of the Gail Carriger books that I have read yet, this was my least favorite. It felt as if there was too much superficial things happening around (I wanted to slap Ivy every time she spoke to be honest). But I am happy that Vieve is in this book! I also was ticked off by the ending of this book and found myself complaining to my coworker about it (not because of the writing, but because a character made me upset!).

Summary: Alexia Maccon, née Tarabotti, has had to get used to a lot of changes very quickly. She's learning how to be a wife, the female in charge of a pack of werewolves, and the preternatural advisor to Queen Victoria. Just as she thinks she's getting settled, though, a major crisis rears its head: there appears to be a plague of humanization in London. Within the affected area, werewolves are unable to shift, vampires lose their fangs, and ghosts are immediately exorcised. Since those are effects that are normally associated with a preternatural's touch, and since Alexia is the only preternatural in England, she's determined to get to the bottom of things... but to do so, she'll have to head to Scotland, where her husband has show more traveled to deal with "family business" of his former pack.

Review: This book was every bit as much fun as Soulless, and has left me dying to dive into Blameless. The tone has shifted a little bit from the first book, and while I missed some of the elements that were downplayed, I enjoyed the new parts just as much. Changeless had less romance - or at least fewer overtly romance-y bits, although I still find that watching Alexia and Lord Maccon flirt with each other is thoroughly charming - but I thought the increased focus on the mystery led to a more complex story than in Soulless. The mystery overall was handled really well: some things I figured out as the story progressed, some I didn't see coming but made sense once they were explained. The ending was similarly unexpected, but fit with the story and characters as established thus far, and is a hell of a cliffhanger; it took all my willpower to keep from tearing into the third book long enough to write this review.

The writing is just as good as in the first book, too; all Victorian and proper in feel while simultaneously being filled with absurdity and snark. (I laughed out loud more than once, and was quietly giggling to myself for most of it.) The only issue I had was that the steampunk-y-ness (steampunkitude?) of the story was really heavily dialed up in this book as compared to the first one. I like steampunk as a genre well enough, but I prefer it when it's used as a flavor rather than a focus. There are a few places in Changeless where I felt like Carriger got carried away describing the aetheromagnetic whatsits and it started to distract me from the story. Travel by dirigibles is sufficient for setting; I don't need every gear and lever described. But that's a pretty minor quibble; overall, this book is silly and fun and I enjoyed it to (small, cog-shaped) pieces. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: There's a lot of world-building in Soulless that's only lightly (or not at all) recapped in Changeless, so read them in order. But the series as a whole is hilarious, fast-paced, and good fun for anyone who likes historical fantasy and steampunk and needs a little brain candy. show less