Android Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Ben H. Winters

I received an advance review copy for Android Karenina from the lovely people at Quirk Classics. As part of the blogger review explosion of Android Karenina Quirk Classics is offering a few prizes along the way today.
Readers have a chance to win over one of twenty-five Quirk Prize Packs. Each Prize Pack, with a retail value of nearly $100, will include:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith

How to Survive a Horror Movie by Seth Grahame-Smith

Dracula's Heir: An Interactive Mystery by Sam Stall

Extreme Encounters by Greg Emmanuel

How to Tell if Your Boyfriend is The Antichrist by Patricia Carlin

An Android Karenina Poster

And more!

So check out the links and mention my blog and I hope you win some good stuff!

Genre: classic mash-up, steampunk, sci-fi, Russian lit.
FTC Disclosure: Received ARC from Quirk Classics
Published: 2010
Pages: 538
Content: PG, for some robot and alien violence

Maybe it takes a lover of Tolstoy to really enjoy this work, I'm not sure since I've never read Tolstoy before. I had a really hard time getting into the characters. They never spoke to me.

Many times the events happened slowly and the next we have a paragraph describing a few years. I especially had a hard time with Anna Karenina. She's very complex, I'll give you that, but she was pretty messed up. She's willing to leave her son behind to run off with her lover and in the meantime she says she doesn't really love that son. She has a daughter with her lover and ends up trying to love that daughter. Just weird.

The steampunk version was fun. I enjoyed reading all the nuances of a groznium-filled world and robots. I also enjoyed how Winters ties in the title character Android Karenina with the character Anna. It's an interesting twist, for sure.

But overall, the book was just OK for me. I had a hard time following all the characters and all the events. Just because something is a classic doesn't necessarily mean I'll enjoy it. And Tolstoy may be one of those writers I won't be able to get into. Oh well. It looks like other authors who appreciate Tolstoy say they enjoy it and think Winters did a superb job of splicing this mash-up together.

But I think it opens up the classics to more people and I think that's important as well.

Rating: 3/5

At the Library....

Headed off to the library today and I'm really trying to hold off on too many books since I have stacks and stacks at home I'm still getting to! But I couldn't resist this one....

It was just sitting there in the New Fiction section just calling my name! After I'm done with Changeless I'm on to this one!

Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith and Quirk Books Giveaways!!!!!!

Genre: austen-inspired, zombies, paranormal
FTC Disclosure: ARC from Quirk Books
Published: 2010
Pages: 288
Content: PG-13 for zombie mayhem and violence


One Line Summary: More zombie mayhem with the lovely Bennets in tow.


Velvet at vvb32 reads let me know that Quirk Books was offering advanced review copies to all who wanted one! So I signed on up and received my own free copy of Dawn of the Dreadfuls. As part of the deal Quirk Classics is offering readers with a chance to win one of 50 Quirk Classics Prize Packs, each with a retail value of more than $100, which will also include:

• An advance copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls
• Audio Books of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
• A password redeemable online or sample audio chapters of Dawn of the Dreadfuls
• An awesome Dawn of the Dreadfuls poster
• A Pride and Prejudice and Zombies journal
• A box set of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies postcards

And since I'm participating in their Dawn of the Dreadfuls mayhem week I am including an unashamedly fast link to their site so that you can mention my blog on it! Dawn of the Dreadfuls Reviews.  OK, I've held my end of the bargain, so now onto the review!

I liked this book. It still had lots of zombie mayhem and violence, which I always find extra delightful! This book takes place four years before P&P&Z, when Lizzie is just about to hold her coming-out into society ball. But while at a funeral the deceased comes back to life as a zombie Lizzie's father Mr. Bennett knows the unmentionables are back. He rallies his daughters together to teach them to fight like warriors! While he's trying to round up the army to fight he sends for a new master to teach his daughters the warrior ways and in comes Master Hawksworth. Lizzie feels strangely attracted to this man...and along comes a scientist doctor Dr. Keckilpenny to throw more romance strife into her life too! And poor Jane must fight off the lecherous advances of the Lord of Netherfield Park!

I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies a little better, though. I'm it's because it already had the story I loved with some zombies thrown in. But this one can stand on its own. Lizzie is still witty, Jane is still beautiful and thinks everyone is wonderful, the rest of the Bennets are still as annoying as ever! The only thing that I didn't like was the plot inconsistencies from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (since it's supposed to be a prequel) and, of course, from Austen's beloved original. But those are minor and as a story by itself I really enjoyed it! Lots of zombie killings and beheadings and such. You just can't go wrong there!

Rating: 4/5

Don't forget to click on the links to plug my blog and enter to win some prizes! Thanks again to Tiffany at Quirk Books for this fun opportunity!

Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford

Genre: austen-inspired, romance, vampire
FTC Disclosure: bought from Walmart
Published: 2009
Pages: 299
Content: PG for adult vampire themes


One Line Summary: Bad form with Charlotte Bronte, grrrr!

Another book in the austen-inspired fiction world I absolutely wanted to love...but didn't. Don't get me wrong it was on the witty side, but I hated the way the author portrayed Austen. Yes, she's a vampire and has been for a couple hundred years, but in all that time she's done nothing with herself except pine away after Lord Byron and open a book shop and has learned nothing about herself or the world so she has to rely on Byron to teach her and thus abuse her and manipulate her and so on. She's much too timid and not the way I would ever imagine Jane Austen. But the thing that really clenched it for me was the author throwing in Charlotte Bronte into the mix! She's also a vampire and now is a crazy lunatic that hates Austen and wants to destroy her! I love my Charlotte as well as I love my Austen so to make them both to unlike what they really were is just abhorrent to me.

Rating: 2.5/5

Book Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Definitely a fun new take on the original "Pride and Prejudice." Throw some zombies into the mix and you've got a great story!


View all my reviews.