Book Review: "Pocket Apocalypse" by Seanan McGuire

[jpskewedthrone]

This is the fourth book in Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series and the second in the series to focus on Alexander Price. It was an interesting book because it took us out of the US and to Australia, although I still think Verity Price is the stronger character in this series.





The premise: Shelby Tanner, Alexander's girlfriend, comes to Alexander to tell him that werewolves have popped up in Australia and her family needs his help, since he's dealt with werewolves before. Alexander overcomes his fear of the creatures from his previous experience and agrees to travel to Australia to help eradicate the disease, which manifests like rabies and is passed on by fluid contact, usually through bites. But once he arrives in Australia, he's uncertain about what might take him out first--the werewolves . . . or Shelby's family.

As usual, the writing is fluid and easy to read and the plot fairly light and straightforward. This series relies more on the characters and the situation to draw the reader in and hold them. Alexander Price is a fine character, although not as unique as Verity in her previous books. But unlike the last book, I felt that Alexander was his own character here, rather than just a male version of Verity (as I felt in the last book). I enjoyed this book more than Alexander's previous one. More focus was on Shelby's family here, and they were unique in their own ways. The sisters were far more entertaining than either Alexander or Shelby.

I did have some issues. One is an issue I have in many of Seanan McGuire's books: characters running off and doing things for no solid reason. In this case, Alexander, Shelby, and one of the sisters goes tearing off after another sister . . . and I'm not convinced that it was so urgent that all of them should have gone at that precise moment. There were more important things going on and at least one of them (Shelby or Alexander) should have stayed behind to deal with that. Having them all go wasn't quite realistic. There were a couple of other decisions in the course of the book similar to this that also didn't quite ring true. This always pushes me out of the enjoyment of the novel.

Another issue here is the Aeslin mice. I love them, they're fun, but they weren't used effectively here. At one point, early-ish in the novel, the mice say that they can sniff out the werewolves lair . . . and no one ever uses this fact. If they're hunting for the werewolves, why wouldn't they send the mice out to find out where they're hiding? It makes no sense not to use them, when they throw themselves into danger without a thought and do desperate unthinking things all the time.

In any case, the book was still fun. I wish that more had been done with the Australian cryptids, once that we wouldn't see here in the US, to make the story more unique. There were a few Australian faces, but did the werewolves really need to be in Australia? It would have been cool to have an Australian menace as the focus of the book. But now that we have the connection to Australia established, maybe this will pop up in a later book. For now, we'll have to wait for the next novel, which I believe is supposed to focus on Verity again.

Comments

[miladygrey.livejournal.com]

Regarding the Aeslin mice, I think the reason they weren't sent out as (adorable!) little spies to find the werewolf lair is because there are only six of the mice with Alex, and only one clan's worth (between 30 and 40, maybe?) in the world. Alex points out a couple of times in the book that to his and his family's knowledge, the Price-Healey clan of Aeslins are the only Aeslin mice left. While I have no doubt that the Aeslins would have gone scampering off to seek werewolves if their god Alex had asked it of them, the odds that they would have been killed very quickly by any number of local predators are high, and Alex would never put the mice into danger if he could help it. Killing off approximately one-fifth of an already-endangered species isn't something a Price would willingly do.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I know they mentioned that . . . but considering how cavalier they are about many of the other plot points and dangers and the fact that they have the mice "missing" and running around on their own for most of the book, "at risk" from the locals, I don't think I quite buy it. It would have been easier to just say that the Aeslin mice can smell if someone is infected and leave it at that. Why mention they could sniff out the werewolf den at all?

[thebluerose.livejournal.com]

Its a plot thing with McGuire that really irritates me, when the characters go and do something without any thought or planning or anything. The first three books of her October Daye series were very prone to that, so much so I nearly didnt continu reading more, but I was assured it got better in later books, and it did, thankfully.

But its still a habit with her and I agree its annoying and a not particularly imaginative plot device.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this issue really bothered me with the October Daye novels as well. It's much more prevalent in those first few books in that series though, to the point where I almost threw one book across the room in frustration and stopped reading the series. But it did improve (although the tendency isn't completely gone in that series). I had hopes that the habit of having characters do such things had died out or that Seanan had realized what she was doing and stopped, but apparently that's not the case. I like my characters to have more solid motivations for their actions.

[thebluerose.livejournal.com]

I think it was the third one, when she was at the digital county with the Night creatures and she kept doing stupid things when she was tired or injured, and didnt take time to rest or eat or more importantly THINK first.

GRRRRR that REALLY annoyed me and yes I refused to read any more until about book 6 when someone convinced me it got a lot better, and it has certainly in the last book I read, cooperation and planning was a real theme.

I wonder about her editors view on this as a recurring and not really a very strong theme?