Myths: Siren

According to www.askoxford.com, siren is defined as: noun (1) a device that makes a loud prolonged signal or warning sound. (2) Greek Mythology each of a number of women or winged creatures whose singing lured unwary sailors on to rocks. (3) a woman who is considered to be alluring but also dangerous.

ORIGIN: originally denoting an imaginary type of snake: from Greek Seiren.

I did not know before reading this that that word siren originally had something to do with snakes. Maybe dangerously seductive woman were considered snake-like?

In any case, Greek mythology would have as women who sang so beautifully they dazzled sailors into crashing into rocks and dying. Odysseus so longed to hear their song that he plugged his sailors ears so they could not hear the siren’s song, had himself tied to his ship, and sailed his ship past the sirens. These women are sometimes depicted as mermaids, sometimes half-woman, half-bird, or just a very sexy woman.

In the Anita Blake books by Laurell K Hamilton, the siren is a type of mermaid that is feared by other merfolk. Unlike other mermaids, sirens have the ardeur. The ardeur is a power that some vampires (and Anita Blake!!) have to inspire sexual passion in others, the ability to feed off sex and that can result in a nearly insatiably sexual appetite. Personally, I thought this was a nice use of the myth. They are mermaids and they can certainly lure men to their death with it. Her sirens don’t sing, but the result is the same.

The Arcane Society series of Jayne Ann Krentz/Jayne Castle/Amanda Quick also has a type of siren. In this case, sirens are human, musically gifted women who can hit the high “money notes” such as D’s, E, F’s and the occasional G. Notes so high and pure, the siren could lure and kill with them, just as in the siren of myth. No mermaids, of course, but the Arcane Society books doesn’t run to paranormal creatures.

Incidentally, a siren is also a type of eel that has external gills. Who knew sirens were real? Though it is probably not all that enchanting.

Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire

From the backcover:

The world of Faerie never disappeared: it merely went into hiding, continuing to exist parallel to our own. Secrecy is the key to Faerie's survival—but no secret can be kept forever, and when the fae and mortal worlds collide, changelings are born. Half-human, half-fae, outsiders from birth, these second-class children of Faerie spend their lives fighting for the respect of their immortal relations. Or, in the case of October "Toby" Daye, rejecting it completely. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the fae world, retreating into a "normal" life. Unfortunately for her, Faerie has other ideas.

The murder of Countess Evening Winterrose, one of the secret regents of the San Francisco Bay Area, pulls Toby back into the fae world. Unable to resist Evening's dying curse, which binds her to investigate, Toby is forced to resume her old position as knight errant to the Duke of Shadowed Hills and begin renewing old alliances that may prove her only hope of solving the mystery...before the curse catches up with her.

Rosemary and Rue is the first in the October Daye novels. October “Toby” Daye is the main character. It starts with the her reflecting on her job, and her husband and children. I was surprised, because I can’t remember the last time I read something where an urban fantasy protagonist had a husband or children to worry about. More, she had a normal child and husband, people with no magic or any worrisome powers of their; people she could not share the parts of her life that dealt with magic and the fae.

She lost them in first few pages. She loses quite a few years of her life as well. I thought this part of the story; how and why she lost it all and how she reacted to it heart wrenching. In the middle of that, a dying countess curses October with finding the murder or die trying.

Rosemary and Rue is fast paced and full of action, just what I like best. There is a hint of romance, but not much of it, and I suspect it will be many more books before the romance flowers into something tangible. October spends a lot of time being injured; her magic is weaker than a lot of the other characters and she has to be careful how she spends it.

I can’t decide what part I liked best, there are so many good parts. Probably the scene that stands out in my mind is when she came back to her lord, the Duke of the Shadowed Hills. She expected he would hate her and he doesn’t and her relief and homecoming are fantastic. So is the duke’s daughter; she is the only who reacted as October expected and I expected the girl will be more of a major character in future books. In fact, I anticipate in some future book October and the daughter will fight to the death. It won’t be the next one, I don’t think, but somewhere down the line.

Grade: A-

Writer’s Corner: John Gardner, The Art of Fiction, Preface

I have just started this book. It is supposed to be good and helpful. I hope it is! Anyway, as I finish each chapter (or section, depending on how far I get each week) I will post my thoughts on it.

In the preface, Gardner writes that this book is for the serious writer and not for writers of “nurse books or thrillers or porno or the cheaper sort of sci-fi”. I guess writers who write those types of books are not serious writers. I will admit, I have never heard of nurse books and I don’t know what they are. I also not quite sure what he means by the cheaper sort of science fiction and how to tell it apart from more expensive science fiction. I mean, I know what I like in science fiction, but who is to say that’s what he means? I am familiar with the other type of books – thrillers, porno.

In fact, those are the genres I know the best. Science fiction, fantasy and romance, not necessarily in that order. That’s what I like to read and that’s what I like to write as well. So I guess this book is not meant for me, huh? No matter! I will read it anyway. And if I am disappointed, I guess it will be my own fault for continuing to read after he states so clearly this book is not meant for me.

Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey

From the writer's website: Supernatural fantasy has a new antihero.Life sucks, and then you die. Or, if you’re James Stark, you spend eleven years in Hell as a hitman before finally escaping, only to land back in the hell-on-earth that is Los Angeles.

Now Stark’s back, and ready for revenge. And absolution, and maybe even love. But Stark discovers that the road to absolution and revenge is much longer than you’d expect, and both Heaven and Hell have their own ideas for his future. Resurrection sucks. Saving the world is worse.

Darkly twisted, irreverent, and completely hilarious, Sandman Slim is the breakthrough novel by an acclaimed author.

Richard Kadrey is a new writer for me, though he has other novels out. Sandman Slim is urban fantasy, but one involving demons and hell and heaven and angels instead of the near obligatory vampire and werewolves. Not that demons and angels don’t show up with some regularity in urban fantasy. ;)

Sandman Slim is a quick, enjoyable read. The main character’s voice is strong and consistent. He is an assassin, but a remarkably sympathetic one. He starts off wanting revenge because his old coven sacrificed him and sent him to hell. In the end, he saves the world. He does get his revenge along the way.

Despite all that, there are a few things I didn’t like about Sandman Slim. In the beginning (and a few other places), I found the dialog to be less than convincing. It wasn’t the high level of curse words, though some of that as well because sometimes I got the feeling the curses were there just to show how tough the characters were. But something was just off in a lot of the dialog. Not all of them, but a few here and there.

The other thing I didn’t like all that much was that towards the end the scenes felt disjointed. Like one scene ended, the other began and it felt like they were not connected even though I knew they were. If that makes sense.

The thing that stands out the most for me is the imagery he uses. A lot of the way he describes things is just hilarious.

Grade: C+