Reviews for White Tyger

The average rating for White Tyger based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-03-19 00:00:00 Jacqui Owen Now for really cleaning up old business. Back in the autumn I had read the first two books of this series before realizing that it was a four book series that I had never gotten around to purchasing the second half of. Which would normally be a stumbling block except that I found the series itself a kind of a literary stumbling block, one that I wasn't easily able to get past for a variety of reasons, most of which could be distilled to "I didn't find the series very interesting." Still, I vowed to soldier on and acquire the last two volumes, although my job deciding around that time that cutting my hours about twenty percent was a great idea put a damper on buying books that I wasn't seriously chomping at the bit to read. Hey, a guy's got to prioritize in these times. But its not like I can wait until the books go public domain decades from now so while I should perhaps apologize to the author for not being willing to pay anywhere near full price for these, sometimes sacrifices have to be made. Besides, I was curious to see how it ends. And no, I didn't pirate them. Interestingly, something that struck me after diving back into the series five months after I started reading it was how relatively easy it was to get back up to speed. The basics of the story hadn't changed in the interim . . . Miranda, a high school student from Massachusetts, learns that she's actually from the alternate world of Roumania, and our world was just a convenient hidey hole while forces opposed to her deceased father sought to find her for their own purposes. Along for the ride are her two friends Andromeda and Peter Gross, who were supposedly also teenagers but as it turns out were aides to her father that vowed to keep her safe and upon returning to Roumania have been turning back into who they used to be, although the blend of old and new has led to some interesting results. Her main opponent throughout all this has been the Baroness Ceausescu, who has been playing her own high level political game with current occupiers Germany while doing all kinds of weird magical things and apparently inspiring a truly maniacal level of devotion despite her generally using and/or murdering almost everyone she comes into contact with. But she's a famous stage actress so I guess that forgives a lot of things. And while that's the basics, on some level its quite possible to skip the first two books and feel like you haven't missed much of anything that couldn't have been taken care of with an info dump into the early chapters. Beyond the premise most of what occurs in those books is a lot of running around and talking and sometimes mystical things but not a lot of forward momentum, which almost makes it seem like the series was conceived as one giant book that got split into four parts for one reason or another. Thus, lo and behold after hitting the halfway mark it turns out that things start happening. Miranda finally gets in the same room as the Baroness (and reunited with her mother in the process), while poor Peter faces a trial as a formality to the firing squad he's going to face while Andromeda becomes the wacky rom-com best friend this series needed and proceeds to swagger through the book with zero cares in the world beyond making everyone uncomfortable. Andromeda (or Sasha Prochenko, as she/he is supposed to be) winds up being a revelation and really comes into focus here, a soldier with a great sense of style and very little you-know-whats to give. Earlier in the series it was unclear what was happening with her but with Prochenko finally some sense of direction we're left with a fascinating character that thinks of herself as a man but was once a pretty convincing woman (and may be a werewolf too?) and appears to be afraid of nothing. Park handles the character's assertions of his gender, giving us someone who appears to both sure of himself and fluid (in a weird Calvin and Hobbesesque vibe, most everyone sees Prochenko as a man while Miranda still sees her as Andromeda) while mostly singlehandedly insisting on dragging the plot to some form of conclusion. Whether he's having affairs for political and personal reasons, messing with the Baroness in ways that no other character will dare or simply unnerving everyone with a complete lack of concern for proper manners Prochenko/Andromeda livens up every scene he's in. He's also the only reason the book feels like its going anywhere, mostly because he forces it. The Baroness' reasons for doing what she does aren't any clearer than in the first book but she seems to have more purpose than in the early stages, even if her impulses tend to undermine her own planning again and again (at least two murders she probably didn't need to do threaten to bring about her downfall in different ways) but as a focal point she remains the corrupted pulse at the heart of the book and as the instigator of all the problems that everyone has to deal with she remains a fascinatingly flawed characters. When her and Prochenko share scenes together the book crackles, as a woman who always gets what she wants meets someone who doesn't care what she wants. All this is great, I just wish there were more of it because throughout all of this Miranda remains singularly uninteresting, no matter how much the book wants to convince us that all of this is worth going through for her. As with the first two books she's mostly a nonentity her, sparring with the Baroness in minor ways and attempting to save Peter but rarely doing anything to help her own cause beyond trying to get as far away as possible from all this. She doesn't want to rule Roumania or be the White Tyger or even hang out with her real mother all that much . . . while not everyone needs to be sassy and take-charge you'd hope that the main character would at least seize the reins at some point instead of reacting constantly, which is what happens here. It makes her scenes possessed of a strange stasis, marking time until she has no choice but to act when events force her hand. Yet for all that I have to say this is the first book in the series that really engaged me. The politics, while still unclear, sharpen ever so slightly so you can start to see the outline of the stakes at play. Bringing all the players closer together helps clarify who is supposed to be responsible for what and with the subplot of "Let's all find Miranda" out of the way, the rampant political maneuvering can begin. While Miranda and Peter Gross aren't going to light the world on fire as characters, there's enough charge in Prochenko and the Baroness to make up for it and that tends to spill over into whoever is in their orbit. It also helps that the miasma that seems to seep over the first two books and make it feel like you were reading through a numbing fog has abated, with his subtleties shifting enough so that you don't feel as much like you're inside someone's dream of what the story should be. In fact, I have to give credit to his prose here, which is almost marvelously understated, often depending on you reading or rereading carefully to get certain details. It can work against him (the ending of this book didn't make sense until I started the next one) but overall it suits the atmosphere better than it had in the past, getting closer to the otherworldly vibe underlying all the political stuff that I think the book is shooting for. But even with the improvements I still have mixed feelings about this series. This is by far the most enjoyable book in the series so far but that still means you have to go through two so-so books to get here . . . and its not like goes from "so-so" to "mindblowing", more like "hey, pretty good". Getting actual action helps matters immensely, but can't make up for an overall sense that the series is just too low-key for its own good. The months long layoff let me come back to this with fresh eyes and I do have a better appreciation for its strengths but I think if I went back and reread the first two books now I don't think I'd find my opinions changed all that much.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-01-24 00:00:00 BARRY COURTNEY Superb third volume in this extraordinary series. Miranda and Peter are in the clutches of the increasingly depraved Baroness. Andromeda is free, but poisoned by radiation and drift in her trip;e identity, Political forces are in motion as German power in Roumania wanes, but what will take its place? Miranda, in captivity, but courted by the German ambassador, rejects her role as a Princess and struggles to understand the lessons and plans of her Aunt Aegypta. The Baroness plots murder and celebrates her twisted art which mirrors her profoundly perverse mentality. Peter is imprisoned in appalling conditions and the streets are filled with revolutionary fervour. This is a dark, strange book, with our heroes sidelined or forced into inactivity as danger grows around them and the Baroness is at her pinnacle of power. Terrible things are loose in the world of Greater Roumania, war is brewing in the East and a suspiciously fascist power is on the rise. The Princess of Roumania notably fails to ascend to her rightful place and set everything to rights in fairy-tale fashion. Straight into the final volume to see how all of this is resolved.