Tag: Gail Carriger

The Parasol Protectorate: Series Recap

Mary Golding

The Parasol Protectorate

By Gail Carriger

Number of Books in Series: 5

Number of Books They Bang In: 4

Overall Bangs In Series: 15.5

Series Average of Bangs Per Book: 3.1

Do Supernatural Characters Bang In the Series?: Yes, werewolves, a lot. Like pretty constantly. Oddly enough while vampires exist in this series and do have relationships that are talked about, there is no explicit banging.

Are Different Sexualities Depicted In The Series?: Yes, the majority of secondary characters in these books are Queer.

If Present Do They Get To Bang?: YES! I’m so excited about this. While the majority of the series focuses on one heterosexual couple and their relationship we do get insights into the relationships of the queer characters and a couple of very sweet bangs

Number of Partners: 1. Main couple hooks up in book 1 and is monogamous. Secondary couple has mentions of previous partners but only bangs written about are with each other.

Final Thoughts and Recommendations: If you like like light and fluffy books with a side of spice this is a good series. It’s got enough science, action, and intrigue to keep you invested with enough focus on relationships and emotions to keep the characters relatable. It’s a smart steampunk fantasy mixed with a soap opera that writes within the heads of the characters so well that you might miss the alternate science and history the world is built on being dropped into the story because it’s so seamless. I wanted to hate this series when I first picked it up because I thought it was going to be just another badly written fanfic-ish romance disguised as a fantasy novel to make it marketable but I was completely wrong. It’s got wit and heart. I honestly like it and the characters even though by all means I shouldn’t. If my awkward descriptions of it seem like your thing pick it up and check it out. If you like it there are multiple series written within the same world with some of the characters making cameos.


Timeless

Mary Golding

Title: Timeless
Author: Gail Carrier
Book in the Series: Book 5 of the Parasol Protectorate
Page Number: pg 80, first bang for secondary characters in the entire series pg 177
Scale Of Realistic Detail: 4, Same as usual, high on descriptive foreplay but not much goods on the dirty deeds themselves. I will say that I’m really happy at the same detail and affection being given to the queer secondary characters in this series as the main straight couple.
Is Anyone Involved A Virgin?: Nope.
Is Anyone Involved A Magical Creature?: Werewolves again but this time there is a secondary werewolf on werewolf couple so that’s a first.
Is It Consensual: Yep
Is It A Plot Device: No. Back to the banging being used as relationship building and chances for exposition that is common in this series.
Kinks Involved: Werewolves (I think I’m counting those as a separate fetish now from how common it is), Gay Relationships, Biting
Bangs Per Book: 6
Did You Feel Dirty For Reading This?: No, I actually felt resigned to the fact that I enjoy this series. I am extremely happy and excited that the queer secondary characters were finally given a chance to shine in this book and have relationships with each other that aren’t just hinted at or mentioned in passing. Those two bangs made up for all of my misgivings about this series, they were sweet, well-written, and showed a good development between two characters that while having other lovers in the series we never got to know them as much or see how they feel. The speed of the hookup was a little rushed compared to how the straight main characters took an entire book and these guys had minimal interaction and then one big “I guess my respect has turned to something else” moment. I know I’m going to regret these praises later if I ever get the fortitude to tackle all the side series by this author especially since the couple I’ve been praising has their own book that is marked specifically as a romance (instead of steampunk fantasy like the rest of the series) called Romancing The Werewolf.

Blameless

Mary Golding

Title: Blameless
Author: Gail Carriger
Book in the Series: Book 3 of the Parasol Protectorate
Page Number: pg 355, very last page in the book, good job book, well played
Scale Of Realistic Detail: 4 not much detail but all pretty realistic. It’s a nice touch that almost all of the bangs in these books now involve at least a page of foreplay
Is Anyone Involved A Virgin?: No
Is Anyone Involved A Magical Creature?: Werewolf again, and always they’re married and very monogamous
Is It Consensual: Yes
Is It A Plot Device: No, although now their previous sex has become plot related through assassination attempts and plots in the series being directly related to the main character’s pregnancy.
Kinks Involved: Pregnancy
Bangs Per Book: 1
Did You Feel Dirty For Reading This?: Nope, actually I felt a lot more comfortable this time even though there’s a lot of stuff in this book that wouldn’t normally be my thing. The series seems to have finally found it’s stride with a bigger emphasis on plot and action. There is no banging at all in book 4 so I’ll see you for book 5 and the series recap stats.

Changeless

Mary Golding

Title: Changeless
Author: Gail Carriger
Book in the Series: Book 2 of the Parasol Protectorate
Page Number: 1st mention of banging pg 5, the good stuff pg 55. I will give this book props for leading off the banging with three pages of good foreplay.
Scale Of Realistic Detail: 4, Aside from one character being a werewolf and both characters being extremely sex obsessed, it’s pretty realistic albeit a bit heavy on the kink and fantasy.
Is Anyone Involved A Virgin?: Nope
Is Anyone Involved A Magical Creature?: Werewolf banging forever in this series
Is It Consensual: Very
Is It A Plot Device: Nope
Kinks Involved: For uptight victorian characters these guys sure love to get weird. Biting, scratching, and a lot of clothing fetishes. May I recommend a very nice fantasy involving riding boots on pg 280
Bangs Per Book: 5 confirmed 1 questionable but I’m pretty sure they banged
Did You Feel Dirty For Reading This?: Much like the last book I didn’t really feel dirty for reading it but more for people knowing I read this sort of stuff. A lot of the series isn’t my thing and I like the action and intrigue more than the romance but I will admit Gail Carriger knows how to write some juicy content that’s enjoyable for people who want it and not completely distracting for those who don’t.

Books in which they do not Bang

Mary Golding

I’m still debating on how to address the rare occurrences in which I manage to find a book in which no one bangs. Oddly enough the ones with the most salacious set ups or characters putting great importance on getting laid are the books that sadly do not put out. I’m torn between throwing and handful of confetti and shouting “Congratulations!” when I finish a book like this or just setting it to the side gratefully before getting back down to business.

As of now these books will be listed here mostly for stat keeping purposes (at the end of the year I’ll total up how many books I read and how many of them involved banging). If the book in question is part of a series in which banging in involved in other books I’ll mention it in the overall stats for the series.

Here we go:

Never After, by Rebecca Lickis
(Lots of importance placed on virginity, tons of flirting and coupling up but no actual deeds done)


The Princes Of The Golden Cage, by Nathalie Mallet
(Main character spends most of the book whining about not getting sex and then surprisingly does not get sex. This is one of the books I was expecting to be a bang fest but it’s painful to listen to this guy talking about how much he wishes it was a bangfest.)


Heartless (Book 4 of the Parasol Protectorate), By Gail Carriger (Main Character spends most of the book 8 months pregnant so no banging for her and the secondary characters aren’t banging either. Odd sidenote: I keep finding this book shelved in the Romance section in various bookstores even though I would say this is definitely not romantic)

The Shapechanger’s Wife, by Sharon Shinn
(No banging but it’s heavily implied that two men have banged a transmogrified tree)

Expecting Someone Taller, by Tom Holt
(Lots of emphasis on love and forswearing it, which is expected for a Ring Cycle modernization/continuation no banging though)

The Snow Queen’s Shadow (Book 4 of the Princess Series), by Jim C. Hines
(Lots of eyebrow waggling and implication in the epilogue but everything happens off page and is only heavily implied so I can’t count this book.)

The Automatic Detective, by A. Lee Martinez
(A wonderful retro-futurist noir that’s fast paced and fun without all that pesky femme fatal focus. No banging involved but there are moments of fun romantic tension between a robot and an implied technophile hinting at a possible romantic future but in a completely asexual way.)

Soulless

Mary Golding

Title: Soulless
Author: Gail Carriger
Book in the Series: Book 1 in The Parasol Protectorate
Page Number: Quick Handy on pg 288 but the Big Bang is put off until pg 355
Scale Of Realistic Detail: 4, the most unbelievable parts are how someone could get a proper victorian lady out of all of her clothes quickly in a moving carriage and how her partner stays clothed.
Is Anyone Involved A Virgin?: Yes
Is Anyone Involved A Magical Creature?: Yep, head of the werewolf pack.
Is It Consensual: Very
Is It A Plot Device: No? It’s not essential to the plot but the relationship between the two characters overrides the plot for most of the book to the point where they actually get distracted from trying to escape the bad guys by arguing about whether or not they’re going to have sex.
Kinks Involved: Endytophilia (CMNF)
Bangs Per Book: I’ll set the count at 2.5 since there’s definitely two full encounters and a rushed hand job.
Did You Feel Dirty For Reading This?: Slightly. It’s definitely steampunk smut and it does little to disguise that fact. It’s odd in that while it’s more chaste than a lot of other fantasy novels due to following strict guidelines about proper Victorian behavior and has a low bang count, when they get down to it it’s pretty “steamy”. I feel more dirty for people knowing I read this than for actually reading it.