Romance, mystery, adventure, airships, and werewolves… Changeless delivers all those things, and not in the trite way that you might think.
I started reading the first book in the series, Soulless, largely on a whim, and I liked it quite a lot. Fortunately the second book, Changeless, had just come out so I picked that up too. I think the author managed to balance light and fluffy pulp-steampunk with interesting characters and a neat self-consistent system of supernaturals.
The main story revolves around Alexia, a half English, half Italian, young lady without a soul. She lives in a world where having too much soul allows people to be turned into Vampires, Werewolves, and Ghosts. The fact that she lacks a soul means that she can temporarily negate the super-powers that come with immortality with just a touch. She’s also very smart and practical with an amusing no-nonsense attitude. Naturally she gets involuntarily sucked into all sorts of supernatural weirdness including mysteries, affairs of state, and some romance.
There is certainly a bit of Mary-Sue-ism going on in the overall premise and plot. Some of the concepts are so over the top they can only be seen as parody. However as my husband pointed out to me recently, just because there’s a Mary-Sue element doesn’t mean a work can’t be good.
The actual execution of this book is so good that I think it pulls the ideas off with flying colors. The author has built believably flawed characters who frequently have to fend for themselves and don’t always get what they want, a mystery that is often non-obvious, and a story with many intertwined character goals and a lot of twists and turns.
I have to say, I love the color in this book. Ms. Carriger obviously did quite a bit of historical research into Victorian daily life, social conventions, and fashion. This is all mashed up with the fact that society has strangely advanced steampunk-tech and immortals in the form of Vampires and Werewolves. The immortals provide a good deal of the politics, and the tech is worked into the story rather than being pure window-dressing. The result is a very compelling and visually rich world.
Since it is a sequel, reading Changeless will reveal quite a bit of the ending to the first book in the series, Soulless. I really enjoyed Soulless, so I would recommend reading the books in order.
The only caveat I have is that Changeless ends with a bit of a cliffhanger. The main story is wrapped up, but some issues that arise near the end of the book are left unresolved. I assume they’ll be handled in the third book, Blameless, which is due in September, 2010.
Changeless is a light book. At it’s heart it’s a pulp-adventure with a mystery, some romance, a bit of supernatural, and a dash of steampunk. It pulls all of those elements together into a very pleasing harmony. I thought it was well written and a lot of fun to read. I’ll definitely be looking at more of Ms. Carriger’s work in the future.