Blood Engines

Blood Engines (2007) T.A. Pratt

Nathan raved about Blood Engines a couple months ago, so I decided to move it higher in the list, based on his recommendation.

Marla Mason is guardian of Felport, but is off the ranch in San Francisco, searching for a Cornerstone–a magical artifact that will give her the power to fight off the sorcerer trying to take over her territory. Unfortunately for Marla, and her assistant of sorts Rondeau, things are never as easy as one could hope, and often worse than one can imagine.

Blood Engines is a supernatural fantasy that takes place in the world as we know it, where magic exists, but is hidden from regular humans. Marla is a moderately amoral magician whose interests are first and foremost her own. If she happens to do a good deed or two along the way, it happens only because the right thing was easy to do.

This ended up being my problem with the story. I found Marla annoying.

I liked Rondeau, who in many ways acted as Marla’s conscience, and I liked B, but Marla? Not so much. She wasn’t bad, she simply didn’t care about anything other than herself, and this is a trait I have a difficult time comprehending, and so makes for a character I have a difficult time relating to.

Which is too bad, because the writing was strong, the dialog was good, and the story was very very good. All the characters were well-developed and could be easily told apart in dialog. Although I have to admit that Rondeau reminded me in many ways of Bob the Skull in the Dresden Files books, only with an actual body.

I could have done without the tour of the sex party. Sure, it makes sense that there are sorcerers that would gain their power from sex, and would throw the type of party described there, but I could have done without three chapters of it. I’m not saying it was badly done–it wasn’t (i.e. it didn’t make me cringe) but I just didn’t need three chapters of it.

What is it, anyway, about supernatural fantasy that compels people to fill whole chapters with lots of boinking?

I was also unsure about the limits upon magical power, and how one develops certain strengths and levels of power. Essentially, I was unsure what the limit of Marla’s power were. She said she had them, but they were never completely clear from the context of the story.

So Blood Engines was good, but it certainly isn’t the best supernatural fantasy I’ve ever read. The story, however, was very good and the writing was very strong, so it might be worth checking out the sequel, though I don’t think I’ll go out of my way to look for it.
Rating: 6/10

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