Just Finished Reading: The Last Vampire by Patricia Rosemoor and Marc Paoletti (FP: 2008) [345pp] 

Decades after uncovering 'something' in a cave which killed her father and brother, anthropologist Leah Maguire (and expert in the mystic rituals of the past) is hired as a civilian contract expert to a secret military unit known as Team Ultra. At the centre of the team's lab is a 500-year-old mummified body with an unusual DNA structure. Spliced into other creatures it gave them extraordinary abilities and Team Ultra is the final result of those tests. Gifted with superior speed, increased healing and other more outlandish abilities they are the cutting edge of Special Force black ops. But they are not alone in their interest in the mummified corpse. A local voodoo priestess has discovered its whereabouts and knows exactly what it is – a vampire, the last of its kind. Determined to use its power for her own ends she uses her magical abilities to revive it and enable its escape. Team Ultra has a new mission – find and recapture the vampire before it can bring its kind back! 

In my defence I bought this quite some time ago (probably around the time it was published) and had fixated on the word 'vampire' in the title. The only reason I finished it was that I had already DNF'd two books this year which is my limit. Fortunately, this did have one redeeming quality – it was a FAST read. As to the rest... 

The 'story', and I use the word advisably and in its very broadest sense, was at best questionable from the very beginning. I'm going to give 'SPOILERS' here for which I make zero apology. The 'vampire' was self-made (a new one on me) using alchemy to make himself semi-immortal (he's trying to go all the way but that takes something else which is an element in one of the subplots) so that he can fight and hopefully destroy the Catholic church who essentially allowed his mother to die on their watch 500 years previous to the novels present timeline. Because he's an alchemical vampire none of the standard kill methods work (except sunlight – so naturally they try to take him down at night because of 'reasons') and, weirdly, GOLD – supposedly because it's an 'ethereal' element. So, "liquid gold" bullets... I kid you not! 

I soon discovered that the characters in the book – ALL OF THEM – could readily be divided into two types: those who were passively stupid and those who were actively stupid. If that wasn't enough this travesty of a novel contained multiple instances of one of the things that I particularly hate in fiction – when a character has a vital piece of information and either deliberately withholds it for purely plot reasons (generally in order to get others into difficulty for an action sequence) or is told not to divulge that information to the very people who could solve a problem in order that the unresolved issue can move the plot 'forward' another inch. I COULD go on, but you no doubt get the drift. This was, without much in the way of competition by far the worst book of the year and quite possibly for several years before that. The inevitable love interest between the two main characters read like something written by a teenage girl who has yet to kiss a boy never mind sleep with him. Even if the book was AIMED at a teenage audience (which it might very well have been) they would still be laughing over the way the characters GUSHED over each other. [shudder] So, without a single redeeming feature I would have to classify this as terrible and advise anyone who comes across it to AVOID picking it up. If it's sitting on your shelf presently unread, I'd suggest giving it to charity or possibly lighting fires with it.  

Just Finished Reading: Urban Shaman by C E Murphy (FP: 2005)

One her way back from her mother’s funeral in Ireland (long story) Joanne Walker is looking out of the window as her plane descends into Seattle when she sees a woman being hunted by someone with a pack of dogs. When the authorities refuse to believe her claim she jumps into a taxi and heads out to the dead-end part of town and finds the woman – thankfully still alive. Recovering from the ordeal in a local coffee shop she has quite a tale to tell, of ancient gods, the wild hunt and the end of the world. Before Joanne and the taxi driver can even start to think about laughing all hell literally breaks loose and, to cut a long story short, Joanne is fatally wounded with a very large sword wielded by a very annoyed deity – and that’s when things start to get strange. It seems that the Celtic god Cernunnos is looking for someone and if he doesn’t find her or a decent substitute in 3 days his bonds to the other world will be severed forever which is something really, really bad as the rest of the world is concerned. But it would seem that Joanne is the right person in the right place to stop it happening. It’s no accident that she is coping with the upheavals in her life as if she was made for this kind of thing – because she was. Now all she needs to do is figure out exactly how to use the sudden power coursing through her body without killing herself, those around here or the whole city by accident.    

I was kinda burnt out with Urban Fantasy but thought I’d try not to get back into it in a big way but to ease myself back into things. This was a borderline reasonable way to do so. Despite its very silly premise and even sillier plot it did manage to entertain enough without too many eye-rolling moments or sighs of exasperation. OK, there were a few but at the low end of acceptability for this sort of thing. OK, it was also largely by the numbers with the usual wise-cracking, highly attractive but strangely single, female thrown into the middle of things and finding that she’s the chosen one with weird ‘super-powers’ she’s only just found out about but that’s to be expected these days given the origin of much of this stuff (I’m looking at you Buffy Summers). There’s also the solid side-kick sounding board/straight man in the guise of a very open minded and bizarrely well-read taxi driver that nothing, and I do mean nothing, seems to faze in the least. One of the things I did find rather odd, and highly unbelievable to be honest (yes, I know the book was about Celtic gods trying to destroy the world but bear with me here) was the fact that, rather than hide her abilities and fight the bad guys in secret (as is normally the case) a lot of the action took place in plain sight and involved ‘normal’ people. Whether that is followed up in future novels I don’t know but it would be a rather difficult path to follow – if ultimately a very interesting one.

All in all this was, at base level, fluff. Rather entertaining fluff with some sparkling dialogue but still not exactly high literature. Far from the worst Urban Fantasy I’ve ever read it did keep me interested enough for a little over 400 pages which must say something. Reasonable.

Just Finished Reading: A Girl’s Guide to Guns and Monsters edited by Martin H Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes

Female heroes or warriors have almost become a cliché these days. Especially in the urban fantasy genre where no story would be complete without a Buffy wanabe or look-alike. That’s not to say that reading about women taking charge, killing bad guys (or monsters) and not bothering to take names afterwards isn’t fun – it certainly is.

As with most books of short stories the quality is variable. Fortunately with 13 stories crammed into just under 300 pages I didn’t have long to wait before a mediocre story was replaced by a better one. I liked The Drifter by Jane Lindskold about a female gunslinger in the old west looking for the vampire that killed her family, Elizabeth & Anna’s Big Adventure by Jeanne Stein about a little girls babysitter who turned out to be anything but human but everything a babysitter should be, No Matter where you go by Tanya Huff about a Vampire ex-cop who goes the extra mile (and the extra dimension) to protect a bunch of teenagers dabbling in magic. Somewhat less likable where Murder She Workshopped by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (who I expected more from) about a writing workshop preyed on by evil forces, Signed in Blood by P R Frost about a magical pen and, the only SF story in the list, Invasive Species by Nina Kiriki Hoffman about a pest controller cleaning spaceships who stumbles on an alien invasion in progress. Generally entertaining but I’m sure there are better collections out there. Oh, and for a book referring to guns and monsters there seemed to be a distinct lack of gunplay – just saying.  

Just Finished Reading: Witchling by Yasmine Galenorn

Three sisters, all half-elf, one half-witch, one half-shapeshifter and one half-vampire are employed by the Otherworld Intelligence Agency (I kid you not) to keep an eye on things Earthside. Humanity is still getting used to having real, live supernatural creatures walk amongst them and things could get all too easily out of hand. Already several anti-otherworld organisations have sprung up and are causing trouble. But deep in the Under-realm things are stirring. There’s a new demon in town who is fast becoming top dog in that most deadly of environments. He’s out for ultimate power and intends to join all three realms together as his personal playground. To do this he needs nine keys to open the portals between the worlds letting the army he has amassed wreak havoc – unless the sisters can stop him.

So, is anyone else channelling ‘Charmed’ here? Apart from the author that is. For a while I was definitely cutting her some slack. It’s her first novel I thought (it wasn’t) or she’s writing it for a young teen audience (presumably not from the several fairly explicit sex scenes). By about the half way mark I’d pretty much given up hope that things would improve – and hopefully not get any worse. They didn’t – either way. This was cliché piled on cliché, poor characterisation, terrible dialogue and a barely rational plot. Just about the only reason I finished it at all was that it was so vacuous that it required almost no effort to read. Unfortunately I already have the next two books in the series (I think they were a birthday present from my Amazon Wish List – that’ll teach me!). I have doubts that I’ll get around to the next two but never say never and all that. If you want a fun, light and fast urban fantasy read I’d really pick something else. Avoid.    

Just Finished Reading: Magic Street by Orson Scott Card

When an abandoned infant is discovered in a plastic bag near a black neighbourhood in Los Angeles he is adopted by the whole community. But from the very start of his life people who come into contact with him realise that he is unusual. Some people feel an almost uncontrollable urge to do him harm whilst others go out of their way to protect and nurture him. As Mack Street, as he’s named, grows up he wonders who his parents are and why they abandoned him. He also starts having ‘cold’ dreams that seem to come true in twisted evil ways. As he approaches puberty Mack begins to notice things that pass most people by. But it’s only when he discovers a doorway into another realm that he begins to understand both who and what he is – and the danger he represents to everyone he knows.

This is a delightful book full of interesting characters only some of which are human (despite outward appearances). The dialogue between them is often snappy and has a realistic feel. The storyline, whilst rather far fetched – this is fantasy after all – has an nicely dark edge to it and in places is moderately scary (or at least creepy). Card has created a very believable ‘real’ world underpinned by a fantasy realm that is interestingly different and suitably strange. The main character Mack is fully formed, full of doubts and natural hero material. The supporting cast are far from disposable (except for some very minor characters) and their reactions to what is going on around them feel real enough. This is a solid adult oriented urban fantasy with a difference and with some bite to it. It is also a good way to end my batch of fantasy novels that I’ve been working through over the past few months. Now back to Science Fiction!

Just Finished Reading: Threshold by Caitlin R Kiernan

Chance Matthews is not having a good life. As a teenager her parents are killed in a car crash and she is brought up by her grandparents. Both being geologists they greatly influence her career choice and give her a fascination with anything ancient. For a time at least everything is right with the world. But when her grandmother hangs herself from a tree in the garden Chance realises that all is not well. When her grandfather dies of a heart attack in her twenties she is left all alone and determines to seek out the family secret that has been nagging at her since her childhood. For in the collect of fossils hidden away in a corner room is the impression of an impossible creature that living long before the dawn of man, a creature that still exists and will go to any length to stay out of the daylight.

This book was not at all what I was expecting. For one thing I was expecting a fairly interesting work of urban fantasy. What I was presented with was more gothic horror. Not the kind of horror where creatures jump out of the dark but a story with a overpowering sense of dread and foreboding. Despite the fact that it was well, indeed often beautifully written, this book really failed to engage me and was, because of that, a much heavier read than it should have been. The characters were interesting enough but none of them were exactly lovable – or even that likable. The plot – though often tense – moved at much too slow a pace. Any other book not as well written as this was would have been rejected long before the 300 pages had ended. Speaking of endings….. I still can’t get my head around how the author finished up. The book was moving (slowly) to a natural confrontation and then, very suddenly, it wasn’t. It’s almost as if either she’d realised that she’d painted herself into a corner (which I don’t think she had) or she had no real idea how the bring the whole thing to a conclusion. It was all very strange and very disconcerting. Needless to say I shall not be looking out for more works by Ms Kiernan.

Just Finished Reading: Broken by Kelly Armstrong

When Elena Michaels’ werewolf pack is offered the location of a human eating solitary in exchange for some breaking and entering it’s a hard to turn down. Even when told that the object of the theft is the infamous ‘From Hell’ letter supposedly penned by Jack the Ripper the alarm bells remain silent. If only things were that simple! When Elena accidently opens a dimensional portal hidden in the letter with a drop of her blood, the pack is faced with the task of cleaning up the mess. With seemingly unstoppable zombies, disease carrying super rats and a series of grisly murders they certainly have their hands full. Making things worse – if such a thing was possible – is that Elena is heavily pregnant with the first successfully produced werewolf babies in centuries.

After the rather poor previous novels in this series, Industrial Magic and Haunted, I was hoping that Armstrong would be back on form with her strongest character Elena Michaels. It was not to be. Practically from the outset this book was poorly plotted and very slow. The idea of a dimensional portal hidden in a famous letter was on the face of it an interesting one but even that was badly handled. The characterisation – if I can call it that – was lacklustre at best and, too often, almost insulting to readers with discernment. The ‘bad-guy’ was blatantly obvious from also the moment he appeared yet none of the main characters could see him for what he was. This particular blind spot was very annoying but not as annoying as the juvenile dialogue and meaningless ‘plot twists’ – and don’t even get me started on the lesbian vampire with the hots for Elena, just don’t OK!

I have one more book by Kelly Armstrong somewhere in ‘the Pile’ but on the evidence of the growing string of turkeys it’ll be staying in there for quite some time. Even if you’re a fan of Urban Fantasy I’d avoid this like a plague of Zombies.

Just Finished Reading: A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin

After an absence of two years, urban sorcerer Matthew Swift is back in London and back from the dead. His revenge against those who killed him will not be easy, however, as he quickly discovers the powerful forces ranged against him. His mentor and teacher has built a supernatural organisation known as The Tower and is using his dark talents to crush all opposition, amassing both wealth and magical artefacts in the process. Matthew was his greatest hope and greatest disappointment in the quest for immortality – for Matthew has a special relationship with the Blue Angels who live in the telephone lines in the gaps between conversations. Now Matthew and the Angels are one, melding into each other to produce a new type of being. A being who is at once a real danger to The Tower’s existence and an embodiment of its leaders hopes to transcend the mortal realm. Using and being used by the remnants of magical opposition to The Tower, Matthew Swift plans to bring down the organisation and finally face the man who taught him how to use his powers as a child.

This is a very different type of urban fantasy novel. Normally the city is used as a backdrop to the goings on of magical creatures – usually vampires and werewolves with the odd witch or demon thrown in for good measure. They are standard fantasy stories modernised for a more urban readership that have grown up on Buffy and her acolytes. Kate Griffin’s novel uses the idea of urban magic that places the city centre stage. In a very real sense the city is a magical environment for those who have eyes to see it – from the protective sigils in the graffiti to the handy magical directories deposited on the tops of bus shelters. The city in her book is a magical resource and technology, rather than being the antithesis of magic, actually generates a different type of magical power available to anyone who can see it and use it. Magic, as Swift says on more than one occasion, is simply a point of view.

This is a wonderfully rich and adult read. The author has obviously done her research to bring alive modern urban magic in a truly believable sense. With minimal effort suspension of belief is more than possible. The reader, after what I think is a deliberate disorientating introduction, cannot help but be drawn into Swift’s life and believe that magic is all around us, even in the most technologically advanced cities, for those with the eyes and the attitude to see it, to feel it. Life is, as Swift is fond of saying, magic and there is nowhere as alive as a city. Griffin has created a great character in the reincarnated Swift and we cannot help but empathise with him as he comes to terms with his new life and his now intimate relationship with the Blue Angels who cohabit in his body. Swift also finds himself surrounded by a whole host of magical, semi-magical and mundane characters each with their own agendas, strengths and all too human weaknesses. This was by far one of the best fantasy books I can remember reading as well as one of the best books I’ve read in years. I was delighted to discover, half way through this book, that the sequel had just been published. Needless to say I have already bought it! I shall saviour the idea of reading more about magical London before actually reading it – maybe over Christmas….. [muses]. As you can probably imagine I highly recommend this book to anyone jaded by the present poor state of modern urban fantasy or to anyone who wants a damned good off-the-wall read.

Just Finished Reading: Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs

Someone or something is killing the Fae. When Mercy Thompson’s ex-boss is arrested as the prime suspect she decides to do some investigating of her own and discovers some very strange goings-on at the Fae Reservation. As the first of the supernatural beings who have ‘come out’, followed recently by werewolves, the Fae are the most vulnerable to attacks prompted by public ignorance and growing hostility. If Mercy is the save her ex-bosses life she needs to uncover a powerful killer and stay alive long enough to get that information to the police. Meanwhile, if her life wasn’t complicated enough, two alpha werewolves are vying for her affection and may just kill each other to prove it.

Although certainly entertaining and readable enough this was a pretty much by-the-numbers urban fantasy novel not dissimilar to the 20 or so I’ve read before. Sassy main character – check. Complicated love life – check. Special powers or abilities she’s still trying to understand – check. Powerful friends (and enemies) in low places – check. It was, despite all that, rather well written with decent dialogue and some nice set-pieces. Briggs had some interesting things to say about the Fae (basically the original idea behind fairies but nothing like as nice) which made it rise above the ordinary but gripping it wasn’t. Fun but disposable stuff.

Just Finished Reading: Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead

Georgina Kincaid isn’t your average bookshop assistant. For one thing she’s effectively immortal. For another she is supernaturally alluring – which goes with the fact that she’s a Succubus, a sex-demon. As part of Seattle’s supernatural community her main job is to seduce humans on the orders of the cities arch-demon whilst taking their life energy to sustain herself. It’s a pretty good gig until a vampire who threatened her turns up dead and the authorities become suspicious of her activities. However, it’s not long before the true killer shows his colours as well as his love for Georgina.

Despite the many shortcomings of this hefty volume it was a very easy read – probably because the content was so light and fluffy. Inevitably it seems these days the central character is very pretty and very sassy, always ready with the come-back line. At least here Georgina isn’t a cheap Buffy knock-off (as so many of the new breed of urban fantasy heroines seem to be) but is actually virtually helpless against any kind of violence. No high-kicks for this demon! Swiftly making my way through a tad over 470 pages – at a romping 150 pages a day – because of the basic lack of any real content, I found this book just about readable. Fortunately I haven’t already bought any more of this series and I really don’t intend to. It’s hard to tell if this was written for teenagers – and whether or not that’s an insult to teenagers – as the ‘story’ (such as it was) revolved around Georgina’s love life or lack thereof – seeing that anyone who had regular sexual contact with her would have a very short (though presumably very pleasurable) lifespan. Surprisingly though, despite the main character needing sex to exist at all there was very little sexual content in this book and what sex there was, was very tame indeed. Basically this was a great big nothing of a book that can hardly be recommended even as the light read I found it to be.

Just Finished Reading: Black Magic Woman by Justin Gustainis

After dispatching a group of vampires terrorising a small mid-western town, supernatural investigator Quincey Morris (descendent of the Quincey Morris who aided in the dispatch of Dracula) is called in on a case of a suspected poltergeist haunting a New England family. Quincey soon discovers however that this is no poltergeist but is in fact a curse laid on the family as part of a generational feud between witch clans going back to the original Salem trials. Out of his depth, Quincey calls on the services of white witch Libby Chastain to aid him fighting off the machinations of a very powerful witch with death on her mind. In the background meanwhile another witch is procuring the means to destroy all human life on Earth and is leaving the bodies of young children in her wake.

This was the first in a new series of supernatural urban thrillers and wasn’t bad at all. Although pretty run-of-the-mill for the most part the characters were interesting enough and the plot nicely paced. There were few actual surprises and some parts that were either superfluous or just plain silly but it was entertaining enough to keep those pages turning and was interesting enough to keep my attention through almost 500 of them. It was a pretty fast read too which is normally a good sign. It also appeared that the author had actually done a modicum of research into magic and the occult so it had a good overall feel to it. Certainly a reasonable read and I’ll probably be picking up the sequel at some point. If this falls into your lap at some point take a weekend having a bit of fantasy in your life. Otherwise maybe you should try something a bit more meaty or original.

Just Finished Reading: Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs

Mercy Thompson is a hard working mechanic in modern day America. What most of her clients don’t know is that she’s also a supernatural creature. She’s what the Native Americans call a skin-walker, a shape-shifter who can change at will into a Coyote. This comes in handy when dealing with her nearest neighbour (and would be lover) who is also the Alpha of the local werewolf pack. Mercy lives in too worlds, the natural everyday and the supernatural. Times however are a changing. Some of the magical creatures that have always been with us are making themselves public. First the Fae, who hide behind their storybook image, and lately the werewolves who portray themselves to the public as heroes in war and the emergency services. But there is another group who have no intention of going public. Vampires have every reason to keep in hiding and even more reason to stop anyone from breaking their silence. Into this explosive mix comes a new vampire with insatiable needs to cause death and chaos. Although newly made he holds a secret of his life before he was turned. Before joining the ranks of the undead he was a sorcerer already inhabited by a demon. A demon who is determined to bring Hell to small town America unless the local vampires can stop him and continue hiding in the shadows – and to do this they need Mercy’s help, help that will reveal part of her kinds history and also reveal why the vampires are so afraid of her.

This was the second book in the Mercedes Thompson series and lived up to the expectations resulting from the first book. Good characterisation, a consistent plot and an interesting larger situation into which the action was placed produced a real page turner. Modern urban fantasy is a huge genre populated by a plethora of sassy females whose task it seems to be to save the world on a regular basis - Buffy Summers certainly has a lot to answer for. This is only the second Briggs books I’ve ever read and I am very impressed so far – I already own the third book in the series and the first book of another series by her so you’ll be hearing from Ms Briggs again I assure you. If you’re a fan of modern fantasy with strong female leads or just want to try out the genre for the first time I can certainly recommend this series as a good place to start. You won’t be disappointed.

Just Finished Reading: Haunted by Kelley Armstrong

Eve Levine is dead and has been for three years. This however hasn’t stopped her obsessing about the safety of her daughter or the relationship with her partner (also dead). Eve desperately needs purpose in her afterlife and is given it when the Fates task her with bringing an escaped demon spirit back to Hell. But this demon knows more tricks than Eve and has its sights on Eve’s daughter as its next victim. Eve must choose between the spirit world, her partner and possible angelhood in order to protect her child and each choice has its own deadly consequences.

After being very disappointed with Armstrong’s last book in this series Industrial Magic it’s taken me quite a while to pick up another of her books. Haunted certainly started out well with an interesting baddie (called The Nix) and some fairly interesting characters – most of which I’ve come across before in her previous 4 books. Unfortunately the book quickly lost coherence and began to ramble. Tightly plotted it was not, as the reader was led all over creation searching for The Nix as well as searching for a solution to capturing her. Haunted was at least 100 and possibly 200 pages too long and at times I did find myself skimming over pages just to get it over with. Fortunately at least it was a fast read as it lacked any real substance. I’m afraid that Armstrong has disappointed me again. Unfortunately I have already bought the next two books in the series though I suspect they won’t be read anytime soon!

So yet again I suffer though a disappointing book. This is not good. What I need, I think, is a change of tack. I’ve already (you may have noticed) instituted a scheme where every fourth fiction book was neither SF nor Fantasy which seems to be working out quite well. I’m also reading non-fiction exclusively on Sundays (which hasn’t worked it’s was into the reviews yet). But what I need to do is go further than this if I’m to improve my game. So, more non-fiction reading I think – especially in subjects I know comparatively little about. Also more non-SF/Fantasy I think as I seem to be enjoying them more that the other genres at the moment. Also more classics – both non-SF and non-fiction. Lastly I need to increase my reading of more substantial books and definitely cut back on the fluff! We’ll see what 2009 brings. Hopefully it’ll be a better year for literature.

Just Finished Reading: Dates from Hell by Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Kelly Armstrong & Lori Handeland

This was a small collection of four urban fantasy novellas around a common theme – that of dating. Although not exactly my normal reading – except for the urban fantasy part – I thought I’d give it a try. Unfortunately it really wasn’t really worth the effort. The first novella Undead in the Garden of Good and Evil by Kim Harrison revolved around the sexual politics of vampires – rather strangely split into the living, dead and undead varieties – with which they manipulated each other to get ahead in various organisations. It had its moments and the characterisation was OK but that’s about as far as it went. The next novella The Claire Switch Project by Lynsay Sands was just plain bad and I do mean bad. The story – such as it was – started in a lab where a group of scientists were working on a way to transmute living tissue. When a woman scientist – the eponymous Claire – is exposed to the changing rays she finds that she can assume the likeness of anyone she sees. Taking advantage of the fact her best friend proposes that Claire become her ‘date’ at her High school reunion – but as a world famous movie star. You can imagine the rest. Third was by far the best of the bunch Chaotic by Kelly Armstrong. Here a part demon reporter hunts down criminal supernaturals on behalf of the ruling Council. However, on her latest mission she discovers that she’s really working for an evil cabal and the man (actually a werewolf) she’s just caught isn’t as bad as she thinks he is. Finally we have Dead man Dating by Lori Handeland which was a post 9/11 tale of demons and the end of the world. Again a rather poorly told story with cut-out characters and little attention to plot.

Finally a warning for those amongst you who are a little faint hearted. This book does contain quite a lot of sexual content so beware – or enjoy! Other than that I recommend you avoid this particular book.

Just Finished Reading: Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

Kate Daniels is a mercenary in Atlanta, a city changed beyond all recognition by the return of magic. Magic and technology are forced to co-exist in a new age where waves of magic make most technology obsolete and where technology only works when magic periodically retreats. The great architectural edifices have collapsed and new Agencies have grown up to cope with the sudden shifts in power. In a reality where anyone with talent can conjure demons and where your next door neighbour could be a werewolf or worse, people like Kate are always in demand for protection or retribution – as long as it pays the bills. But when her friend and guardian is killed and both the vampire and werewolf communities are implicated, Kate must find the killer before all out war erupts on the streets.

Yet another urban fantasy novel I’m afraid. There are so many of these around at the moment that it’s pretty hard to avoid them – unless you’re not into fantasy novels of course! I picked this up on spec because it looked slightly different from the others. It certainly pushes all the buttons though, a modern city, a strong female central character with a troubled past and a dark secret, a life threatening quest that brings out her abilities and increases her confidence, strong male characters (though not always human) who she can lust after and wise-crack with and, of course oodles of magic. I liked the central character Kate but she’s my kind of woman – feisty. Though I’m confident that a woman that feisty in real life would both pass me by and totally intimidate me. As a first novel though this wasn’t half bad. It did wobble a bit in places to begin with but found its feet and its style fairly quickly. Andrews didn’t exactly hit it out of the ballpark on this one but showed enough talent that I haven’t regretted already buying her second novel even before I’d read this one. If she doesn’t lose her focus (unlike Laurell Hamilton) I can see Ilona Andrews going a long way. Certainly not a great book – even within its sub-genre – but this showed an interesting amount of potential.

Just Finished Reading: Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

Mercedes Thompson is a mechanic in the Tri-Cities. Her neighbour is an Alpha Werewolf, her ex-boss a Gremlin and her best client is a member of the Vampire Mafia. Mercy is hardly normal herself – she’s a skinwalker able to transform in seconds into a coyote. Hers’ is a strange world and it’s about to become stranger and much more dangerous. When a wandering, half starved werewolf shows up at her garage looking for work she takes pity on him. Unfortunately for all concerned he’s on the run from a mixed ‘pack’ of lone werewolves and humans bent on stopping their secret becoming public knowledge. They will stop at nothing to remain hidden from human sight including murder and kidnapping. Fur and silver bullets are about to fly and Mercy Thompson is in the middle of it all.

This was yet another example of the burgeoning sub-genre known as Urban Fantasy. Based in modern cities, rather than ancient castles and forests, these books concentrate on the supernatural creatures living amongst us – even our next door neighbours - including witches, werewolves, vampires and demons. Most of them are decent hard working folk who just happen to be different from the rest of us. Others have less regard for humanity. This is where the hero comes in – or more often the heroine. The central character is usually a strong, independent woman who just happens to be either a supernatural creature herself or a half-something. Often dragged kicking and screaming into the action she proves pivotal to its resolution and becomes a stronger more confident person when the dust settles which often entails kicking supernatural ass and taking names. I must admit (as you may have noticed) to being a big fan of this sub-genre. It’s fun and feisty. If you liked Buffy, who I think is largely responsible for this whole literature, than you should generally love this sort of thing. Obviously the quality of the writing varies but in this case there’s nothing to worry about. Pat Briggs writes well, her characters are fully formed and interesting. The action is believable (in context) and keeps you wanting to turn pages. I have the next two books in the series – recently picked up in Canada – and am looking forward to reading them, especially when the line “She doesn’t know what she is, and there’s no one left alive to teach her” jumped out from this book. I predict great things for Ms Thompson.

Just Finished Reading: On the Prowl by Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks, Karen Chance and Sunny

More tales of things that go bump in the night and bump in the bedroom. There seems to be a large and growing market for supernatural stories of often supernatural heroines fighting the good fight to keep the world demon free – or at least to keep them down to manageable levels.

The four novellas in this volume where of varying quality. Alpha and Omega by Pat Briggs was a tale of werewolf love and was pretty well written. It also introduced the new idea (at least to me) of the Omega wolf. Inhuman by Eileen Wilks was very good and took place in a near future world where magic has returned due to a shift in the Realms. Well written with lots of interesting ideas. I’ll be looking out for more of her work. Buying Trouble by Karen Chance was irritatingly tongue in cheek and was (I can only assume) supposed to be funny. It wasn’t really. I hope this isn’t a typical example of her work as I have two of her novels yet to read. Lastly Mona Lisa Betwining by Sunny was a rather run-of-the-mill variation of the werewolf tale with demons thrown in for good measure. A reasonable way to be introduced to the sub-genre but on the whole not very good.

Just Finished Reading: Nightlife by Rob Thurman

Cal & his brother Niko are on the run in New York. They’re not running from the authorities though. If only it was that simple. For four years the brothers have been running from the Auphe – creatures out of millennia of human nightmare. Their target is Cal, a human-Auphe hybrid bred specifically to open a doorway and bring humanity to its knees. It’s only a matter of time before the Auphe find them and then hell will literary break loose!

This was obviously Thurman’s first book. It had that feel to it. The author was both trying too hard by throwing in everything including the kitchen sink (presumably not knowing if he was ever going to get another book published) as well as producing some very unbelievable characters and situations.

It wasn’t all bad however. Some of the dialogue was snappy; some of the jokes were actually funny and he had a reasonable feel for the visualisation of various locations. It was readable but dragged a bit in places especially towards the end (which didn’t make a whole lot of sense). Over all this book was a very average affair. I do hope he gets better though – as I’ve already bought the sequel!

Just Finished Reading: Narcissus in Chains by Laurell K. Hamilton

Vampire hunter and Necromancer Anita Blake returns to St Louis after her adventures in New Mexico. But before she can get any rest – or sort out her complicated love life - she’s thrown into another crisis in the Supernatural Community. A new player is in town looking to dominate the world of shape-shifters. Anita must protect her own pack of were-leopards as well as save her werewolf boyfriend from internal enemies and from his own nature. If things aren’t complicated enough Anita’s powers are growing and may be uncontrollable and then there’s Micah, a were-leopard with his own agenda. Only one thing is certain, that in the next few days people are going to die; the only question is who.

This is the 10th book in the Anita Blake series which makes it my longest running set of books – previously held by Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe series. Unfortunately this book was rather poor. Actually if this was the first book in the series it’s likely that I wouldn’t have read any others.

One of the major problems with book 10 was that for at least the first 200 pages very little actually happens. The reasons for what actually does happen in the first third of the book are explained later but I could see no reason why LKH took so damned long to get around to the point. There was also far too much sex (both normal and sadomasochistic) and too many long conversations which inevitable stopped any storytelling dead.

When the action finally got off the ground though it was pretty good but failed to compensate for the long slow path getting there. As a main character Anita Blake is priceless and I put up with a lot in this book because of her. But LKH really needs to go with Anita’s strengths and drastically cut back on the sex, torture and pissing contests between the main characters. I think it will be a while before I read the next book in this series. Very disappointing.

Just Finished Reading: Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong

All Paige Winterbourne wants is an easy life – where she can run her web authoring business, bring up her young ward and enjoy life with her new love. Unfortunately things are never that easy for a witch and her half-demon lover. When it comes to her attention that a supernatural killer is targeting the children of the powerful Cabals she knows that she must act to save their lives. Things prove to be far from simple however as Cabal politics and a restless violent spirit combine to almost literally raise hell.

This was the second outing for Paige Winterbourne and Armstrong’s fourth book in the series Women of the Otherworld. Unfortunately it’s far from her best. The book is way too long at just over 500 pages and needed a much tighter plot. The characterisation was fairly good though far too ‘fluffy’ after reading Alan Furst a week or so previously. Armstrong’s magical world lives alongside this one but hardly interacts with what we would call ‘the real world’. This is generally OK for a fantasy novel but I think this book in particular was too detached from reality. Interesting in parts, particularly a short excursion into the Afterlife, it consistently failed to engage anything but a light involvement of my time and mental energy. Rather disappointing after her earlier works Bitten, Stolen and Dime Store Magic. One for die-hard Armstrong fans only I think.