Timeless (The Parasol Protectorate #5)- Gail Carriger
Hachette Orbit, 2012
384 pages
RRP: AU$19.99
ISBN: 9781841499871

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

Gail Carriger’s previous Parasol Protectorate books are all witty, engaging, and really, just a lot of fun. Timeless is no exception, as Alexia and her erstwhile entourage travel to Egypt to investigate the God-Breaker Plague and to pay a pressing social call on the ancient Queen of the Alexandria vampire Hive. Those who have adored the series over the past three years will be saddened to know that this is the last we see of the Protectorate, but will certainly not be disappointed in the send-off Alexia has been given by Carriger.

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Heartless – Gail Carriger (Parasol Protectorate #4)
Hachette Orbit, 2011
336 pages
RRP:AU$19.99
ISBN: 9780356500096

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

The whole of the Parasol Protectorate series so far has been a delightful romp, and Heartless is no exception. Carrying on from the previous novel, Alexia must deal with her “inconvenience” whilst solving mysteries, averting dastardly plans and most importantly, drinking enough tea. Thankfully, Alexia is back in England where she can indulge in her favourite beverage to her heart’s content.

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Blameless – Gail Carriger (Parasol Protectorate #3)
Hachette Grand Central, 2010
400 pages
RRP: AU$15.99
ISBN: 9780316074155

Reviewed by Kate Smith

Too often it seems with series of books that authors are not able to sustain the vivid flash of inspiration that captivates the reader in initial works.  Happily with Blameless Carriger does not fall into that particular hole.  While I did not enjoy Blameless quite so much as her previous two novels, this was due to the path of the storyline rather than any inherent deficits in the writing.  Carriger does a lovely job of unfolding a more intricate world around her heroine, a world far more complex than the lady in question had been aware of, and she does this without unnecessary and lengthy detailed paragraphs that can slow down the reader and the bounce of the story.  In unfolding this larger world Carriger brings new characters to life and develops existing ones further.

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Changeless (Parasol Protectorate #2) – Gail Carriger
Hachette Grand Central, 2010
374 pages
RRP: $14.99
ISBN: 978-031-607414-8

Reviewed by Kate Smith

Changeless is the continuing story of Alexia Tarabotti, however Alexia’s role in life has changed.  From a wallflower resigned to a life outside mainstream society, Alexia is now wife of the Lord Maccon (and therefore of great interest to London society), female Alpha of the Woolsey Pack of werewolves, and Mujah on Queen Victoria’s Shadow Council.  Alexia stands up to all these challenges in her customary practical manner.  The shift of location to Scotland is something particularly new that Alexia has to cope with but she deals with her husband’s past and a lot of hairy men in skirts much better than her friend, Ivy, and the sister she finds herself encumbered by.

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Blameless (Parasol Protectorate #3) – Gail Carriger
Hachette Grand Central, 2010
400 pages
RRP: AU$15.99
ISBN: 9780316074155

Review by Liz Grzyb

As the third in the Parasol Protectorate series from Gail Carriger, Blameless carries on in witty, amusing style like the previous two instalments. In this novel, due to the exciting revelation at the end of Changeless and further developments, Alexia is forced to exit London stage left, pursued by various factions including homocidal ladybugs! To make matters worse, font of all knowledge Lord Akeldama has disappeared. The chase continues to Alexia’s ancestral roots in Italy, where she seeks refuge with the Templars after being hunted across the continent by vampires seeking to kill her.

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Changeless (Parasol Protectorate #2) – Gail Carriger
Hachette Grand Central, 2010
374 pages
RRP: $14.99
ISBN: 978-031-607414-8

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

Like the first instalment in The Parasol Protectorate, Changeless is a lot of fun from cover to cover. It follows the inimitable Alexia Tarabotti as she sashays through this steampunk Victorian society inhabited by vampires and werewolves.

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Soulless (Parasol Protectorate #1) – Gail Carriger
Grand Central Publishing Hachette, 2010
374 pages
RRP: AU$14.99
ISBN: 978-031-605663-2

Reviewed by Kate Smith

Soulless by Gail Carriger is simply too much fun!  With all the potential for disaster in the storyline, this novel of vampires and werewolves (and parasols) avoids all the stereotyping of current vampire novels and entertains in a most wonderful and amusing way.  Carriger employs a turn of phrase at just the correct moment, eliciting smiles and even giggles at times.  I so thoroughly enjoyed this story that I am currently hunting down the next, Changeless.

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Soulless – Gail Carriger
Orbit, 2009
384 pages
RRP: US$7.99
ISBN: 9780316056632

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

Soulless is the first in a series of steampunk whodunits, The Parasol Protectorate, set in an alternate Victorian era, where werewolves and vampires have their own niches in Society just like the rest, and where the rules of etiquette apply to them just as much as everyone else. The heroine of Soulless is Alexia Tarabotti, is a spinster of the advanced age of twenty-six, whose prize possession is her trusty brass (but silver-tipped) parasol.

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