{"id":701,"date":"2008-10-12T20:28:36","date_gmt":"2008-10-13T00:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=701"},"modified":"2025-05-05T21:30:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T01:30:25","slug":"poison-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/701","title":{"rendered":"Poison Sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poison Sleep<\/a><\/em> (2008) T.A. Pratt<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Nathan<\/a> raved about the first Marla Mason book, Blood Engines<\/em>. I thought the book was good, but nothing really drew me into the story. But Michael liked Blood Engines<\/em> so I bought the second book, and decided to read it while I was on vacation.<\/p>\n

Marla is called out to an emergency at the Blackwing Institute–a home\/prison for insane sorcerers. One of the worst inmates there has attempted to escape, but by the time Marla arrives the threat has been contained, and the only concern is that Genevieve, a possible reweaver, has escaped from Blackwing. Genevieve, an empath and possibly a reweaver–was brutally attacked and has spent decades comatose. However something has awakened her, and no one is sure what she’ll do now she’s awake.<\/p>\n

Additionally, she hires a new–and dangerous in a completely unexpected way–member of the team, and picks up a personal assistant. <\/p>\n

I have to say that I enjoyed Poison Sleep<\/em> much more than Blood Engines<\/em>. I think the difference was that Marla was in here element here–Freeport is her home, and her actions made sense in light of the fact that she was protecting the city she was sworn to guard. She makes hard choices here, but instead of seeming sociopathic, those decisions make sense in light of her duty to guard the city.<\/p>\n

I also liked the Marla was able to make those hard choices–and that she was willing to admit when she was wrong. It definitely added a complexity to her character that I don’t remember from the first book.<\/p>\n

One thing bugged me however.<\/p>\n

SPOILER<\/strong>
\n(rot 13<\/a>)
\nV fgvyy qba’g haqrefgnaq jul Tertbe jbhyq unir uverq gjb nffnffvaf. Lrnu, ur fnj Zneyn nf n guerng, ohg nf unccrarq, gur gjb raqrq hc trggvat va rnpu bguref jnl.
\nEND SPOILER<\/strong><\/p>\n

Other than that, I thought the story was strong, the characters were good, the pacing was nice, and I appreciated the extra complexity. In other words, I definitely preferred Poison Sleep<\/em> to Blood Engines<\/em>.
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poison Sleep (2008) T.A. Pratt Nathan raved about the first Marla Mason book, Blood Engines. I thought the book was good, but nothing really drew me into the story. But Michael liked Blood Engines so I bought the second book, and decided to read it while I was on vacation. Marla is called out to […]<\/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":[867,866],"class_list":["post-701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-paper","category-supernatural","tag-marla-mason","tag-t-a-pratt"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-bj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2664,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2664","url_meta":{"origin":701,"position":0},"title":"Bone Shop","author":"Michelle","date":"November 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Bone Shop (2010) T.A. Pratt Bone Shop is Marla Mason's back story--from how she first discovered magic to how she ended up chief sorcerer of Freeport. This was originally published as a serial novel on Tim Pratt's website after a financial crisis, but is now available as an eBook or\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\/2011\/11\/Bone-Shop.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":590,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/590","url_meta":{"origin":701,"position":1},"title":"Blood Engines","author":"Michelle","date":"June 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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\/Blood-Engines.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1063,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1063","url_meta":{"origin":701,"position":2},"title":"Dead Reign","author":"Michelle","date":"March 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Dead Reign (2008) T.A. Pratt When Marla stops the (not very sane) necromancer Ayers from animating a corpse, she sets into action a chain of events that will have her once again defending Felport from an invader, and learning more about the underworld than she ever wants to know. Hmm...\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\/2009\/03\/Dead-Reign.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1121,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1121","url_meta":{"origin":701,"position":3},"title":"Spell Games","author":"Michelle","date":"May 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Spell Games (2009) T.A. Pratt I am annoyed. One of my least favorite things in the world is when a book ends with a major story arc unresolved, where you are left hanging to wait for the next book in the series. Guess what Tim Pratt did? Did I mention\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\/2009\/05\/Spell-Games.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4193,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4193","url_meta":{"origin":701,"position":4},"title":"Those Who Fight Monsters: Tales of Occult Detectives","author":"Michelle","date":"November 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Those Who Fight Monsters: Tales of Occult Detectives (2011) edited by Justin Gustainis As the title says, this is a collection of supernatural mysteries. \"Little Better than a Beast: A Marla Mason Story\" by T. A. Pratt \"Dusted: A Cosa Nostradamus Story\" by Laura Anne Gilman \"The Demon You Know\u2026\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"those-who-hunt-monsters","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/those-who-hunt-monsters-194x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3622,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3622","url_meta":{"origin":701,"position":5},"title":"The Way of the Wizard","author":"Michelle","date":"March 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Way of the Wizard (2010) John Joseph Adams I love anthologies. They give me an escape in bite size pieces that won't keep me up past my bed time on a work night, and they also often a wonderful introduction to authors I have not read previously. This anthology\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"way_of_the_wizard","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/way_of_the_wizard.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701","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=701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}