{"id":604,"date":"2008-06-22T20:42:41","date_gmt":"2008-06-23T00:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=604"},"modified":"2021-05-31T07:51:04","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T11:51:04","slug":"house-of-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/604","title":{"rendered":"House of Cards"},"content":{"rendered":"

House of Cards<\/a><\/em> (2008) C.E. Murphy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Book two in the Negotiator series, House of Cards<\/em>, continues the story of Margrit Knight, who has stumbled upon the existence of the Old Races: gargoyles, djinn, dragons, selkie, and vampires remain hidden in the world, although their numbers are diminished.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed this book as much as I did Heart of Stone<\/em>. It had it strengths and weaknesses, but for the most part was a fun read. <\/p>\n

The strengths continued to be the variety of characters, and their complex histories and backgrounds. The major weakness was that Margrit was the only major female character in the story, and at one point all the male characters seemed to be swooning over her. Although they weren’t precisely swooning, I was a little annoyed by her being to only female surrounded by males.<\/p>\n

Also? This bugged me:<\/p>\n

“I thought you said the gargoyles were the only Old Races to have ever been enslaved.” Her voice came from a far distance, as if disbelief or weariness had made an unbreachable wall around her.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t know. Alban slipped his arms around her, offering strength and support. Margrit groaned and urned against him, feeling distance melt away into comfort. “Perhaps it’s somewhere in the memories, buried in mountain roots. I’ve never studied the djinn that closely.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh please! Folklore is full of stories of djinn–and even selkie–being enslaved or taken captive by humans. Especially djinn. Those two paragraphs struck me as so unbelievably false I was thrown completely out of the story and had to fume for several minutes. <\/p>\n

But otherwise the story was solid and a nice fast read. There was boinking, which I wasn’t thrilled about. But at least things were clear with Margrit and who she was interested in and why. And I have to admit that although she is surrounded by men, it is clear who she is interested it, and although Janx flirts with her, he clearly isn’t interested in her. So it’s not like everyone is swooning over her. It just would have been nice to have other women to play off Margrit. (Yes, she did spent some time with her roomates and her mother. But it wasn’t the same.)<\/p>\n

So, fun. Nothing great, but I’ll be reading the next book.
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House of Cards (2008) C.E. Murphy Book two in the Negotiator series, House of Cards, continues the story of Margrit Knight, who has stumbled upon the existence of the Old Races: gargoyles, djinn, dragons, selkie, and vampires remain hidden in the world, although their numbers are diminished. I enjoyed this book as much as I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,291,16],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-paper","category-supernatural","tag-c-e-murphy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-9K","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":676,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/676","url_meta":{"origin":604,"position":0},"title":"Hands of Flame","author":"Michelle","date":"October 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Hands of Flame (2008) C.E. Murphy The third and (for now) final story in the Negotiator story arc finds Margrit dealing with a conflict between the Old Races that is turning into an out-and-out war. A war that Margrit inadvertently started. Although I was quickly sucked into the story, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/Hands-of-Flame.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":602,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/602","url_meta":{"origin":604,"position":1},"title":"Heart of Stone","author":"Michelle","date":"June 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Heart of Stone (2007) C.E. Murphy I inadvertently picked up the second book in this series, so being me, I had to go back and find the first book in the series, and by then I'd gotten sucked into the Repairman Jack series and the Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/Heart-of-Stone.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":301,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/301","url_meta":{"origin":604,"position":2},"title":"Winter Moon","author":"Michelle","date":"August 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Winter Moon (2005) Mercedes Lackey, Tanith Lee, and C.E. Murphy Winter Moon contains three novellas all centered around the moon: Moontide by Mercedes Lackey, The Heart of the Moon by Tanith Lee, and Banshee Cries by C.E. Murphy. Moontide and Heart of the Moon are traditional fantasies, while Banshee Cries\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/08\/Winter-Moon.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10079,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/10079","url_meta":{"origin":604,"position":3},"title":"Bewitching Benedict","author":"Michelle","date":"March 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Bewitching Benedict (2017) C.E. Murphy I really enjoyed CE Murphy's Magic and Manners, so when I saw she had a straight-up historical romance, I put it on my wish list, and then got a surprise when Tania got it for me. Set in the late 1700s (Many of the male\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Bewitching-Benedict.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4734,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4734","url_meta":{"origin":604,"position":4},"title":"Urban Shaman","author":"Michelle","date":"July 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Urban Shaman (2005) C.E. Murphy I read this several years ago, and never read any further in the series, though I remember finding the book and the premise interesting. But I'd forgotten the story completely, and decided I needed to re-read the start before I dove into any sequels. Joanne\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"Urban-Shaman","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Urban-Shaman.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6196,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6196","url_meta":{"origin":604,"position":5},"title":"Magic and Manners","author":"Michelle","date":"November 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Magic and Manners (2016) C.E. Murphy Set in alternate Regency England, with magic. First, I really liked the magic and world-building. Magic is stigmatized in England, worked only by the lower-classes who are useful to the crown in warfare. The new Mrs Dover marked no complaints about a home where\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Magic and Manners","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Magic-and-Manners-187x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}