Changeless

By: Gail Carriger / Narrated By: Emily Gray

Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins

Book 2 Blues? Not on your life!!! SUCH FUN!

NATURALLY Changeless starts off in the bedroom. I mean, of COURSE it does!

Cuz you see, the “Parasol Protectorate” has The. BEST. Couple in the World! married and together…

…at least for a while…

Lord Maccon, Conall to our heroine, Alexia, is up, outta bed, and of COURSE, bellowing outrage and confusion for all his huuuuuge lung capacity is worth. Things, bad things, are afoot in the British Empire. Werewolves, Vampires, are NOT able to morph into their Creature-Selves. This “Humanization”: Is it a plague? Is it a new weapon? Just WHAT is it?

WhatEVER it is, Conall is off to figure things out, but Alexia is as well. You don’t get to be muhjah to Queen Victoria by being shy, by NOT being fearless and intrepid, after all.

So when Conall dashes off to Scotland, leaving behind a worried… and somewhat PEEVED… Alexia, Alexia is soooo there, arranging for a dirigible to get her to Scotland to see what’s up, and most likely to chastise her secretive husband… and maybe get in a shag or two, or threeee or foooour (Or five or six or seven! Author Gail Carriger manages to make her “Parasol Protectorate” series, sensual and just this side of steamy. Prudishness on my part be danged! M’ toes didn’t curl; m’ cheeks didn’t flush in mortification. QUITE the feat, so brava! Carriger, and my thanks with a gosh-almighty: PHEW!!!).

Along for this trip is Alexia’s flaky and flighty best friend, Ivy (She of the monstrously poor taste in hats), and? Whazzis? Has Alexia been strong-armed into playing host to her enervating half-sister, Felicity (She of the scathingly judgmental comments)? Naturally, much to Ivy’s delight, Conall’s Beta, Professor Lyall, has inSISted upon a male chaperone for their journey, so Conall’s Wannabe Werewolf valet, Tunstell is joining them (And will Ivy and Tunstell EVER be able to NOT paw at each other in smoochy love?). Also on the very same journey? Alexia’s French, from the Vampires, lady’s maid, -And- a maker of bespoke hats (The enigmatic yet quite hiLARious Genevieve Lefoux)… who just happens to know a LOT about mechanical whazzis so rampant in Steampunk tales.

…Oh… and an assassin.

So there’s that.

Once in Scotland, with Conall’s original Pack (Where he was once Alpha but left for reasons sloooooowly revealed) suffering the effects of Humanization, the story, whilst interspersing all with the frequent shag or two or three, starts picking up speed, and Action starts making an appearance as there’s the What’s Going On with Humanization? thing. And there’s the WHO Is Trying To Kill Whom? And: WHY On Earth?!

Yeh yeh yeh; the book opens in a leisurely manner, but what’s vaaaastly enjoyable is the blend of much-loved old characters mixing with fun and sharply-written new characters. We get to see more of them showing their smarts, and heck! If ya don’t ADORE Lord Akeldama and his fave Drone, Biffy, why, you simply aren’t paying attention. Carriger adds further flesh to Well-Written In Soulless bones, and gosh! one comes to love the characters even more as they get into dangerous scrapes, as they start sussing things out, as their emotions run the entire spectrum of human, and totally NOT human, experience.

Witty witty WITTY banter; it’s like listening to Pride and Prejudice but with an added shag or two or three in there. Plus, characters who are shallow are still sharp and can take a wicked jab at Alexia during all sorts of mishaps and mayhem.

All this? Perfectly acted out by narrator Emily Gray. Nope, no reading here. Nope, no performance either. Yessss, to listening to a topnotch voice-actor, nimbly delivering a wide variety of accents, brogues, characters of every type of temperament, and smoothly switching from glib quip to scathing observations. Gray makes a wonderfully-written story a true Experience, with the Listener left with nothing to do but sit back and watch it all unfold in the Mind’s Eye. She Is GIFTED, and oh soooo enjoyable!

And now? To wrap things up? Lemme go just thiiiiis shy of a Spoiler: Carriger gets oh so close in this here Changeless, to winning a Michael J. Sullivan Booo! Award with an ending that leaves the listener with a case of Emotional Whiplash. Cliffhanger? Oh sooooo close, but enough loose ends were tied up, enough new characters were introduced to flow into the next in the series, that there was a sense of continuity rather than being abandoned on the edge of a steeply dropping slope. So nooooo! she does NOT win a Booo! but she HAS left the need to get onto the third book as a MUST for a future date… uhm, some time QUITE soooon.

You see, MJS: THAT’S how to end a book. The ever-urgent: Oh My Good Golly GOSH! What On Earth Will The Writer Bring Us NEXT?!

Huzzah to Burning Curiosity!!!

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