The wonderful world of Gail Carriger

Once upon a few years ago I was living in a trendy little townhouse on the border of chic inner city and semi-emptied slum. One of the girls that I lived with worked in publishing. Her bookshelves were a smorgashelf of interesting and intricately distracting novels. As I was generally considered to be below the acceptable social class to be considered for polite conversation, any time that I wasn't writing was spent reading and I got into a few of her books.

This was probably the single best thing to come out of that entire sharehouse experience and it is a testament to this author that I am quite content for that to be the case.

I would like to introduce you all to the wonderful world of Gail Carriger.

Gail is the author of one of my favourite fantasy-sci fi series' The Parasol Protectorate Series

I read the first book Souless off said bookshelf and after raving about it my fabulous friends bought the rest of the series for me for christmas that year. Since then I think I've read it about 20 times (possibly more).

This series ticks all of my boxes. Female lead character who is strong, intelligent, opinionated, and loves tea. She balances the demands of London society, with a largely vapid family and the challenges of the supernatural set. It's steampunk at its best. I even seriously considered investing in a parasol before I decided that it probably wouldn't go with vans.

The series follows Alexia Tarrabotti. A London spinster who happens to be soulless. In an alternative Victorian England this means that she is somewhat of a special class in the supernaturally integrated social stratas where vampires and werewolves mingle with debutantes and dukes. The story mixes just the right amount of adventure, romance and subtle social commentary to make it witty and engaging without coming off as pandering to genre traditions. The character development is subtle and yet even the most flippant of characters, most of whom belong to Alexia's family, come across as true to form throughout the series. There is also a brilliant balance of unexplained back story which allows for more elaboration of the universe that Carriger has created.

I grew up on my mums sci fi and fantasy books, mostly David and Lee Eddings and Anne McCaffrey and while I still go back to those books from time to time, I love discovering new series and authors who can hold their own against the likes of these masters. The one downside of course is that I have to wait until all the books are out...

Thankfully all five books in The Parasol Protectorate are now out and Gail has started in on a fantastic YA series and a new series that follows on from The Parasol Protectorate with different characters at the centre.

Definitely worth the time.

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