Archive for March, 2008
Halfway to the Grave: Night Huntress Book 1
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Cat is not your average vampire. In fact, she’s not really a true vampire: she’s part human as well. The product of a male vampire and her human mother, she’s stronger than other humans and can see quite well in the dark. No fangs here though.
Cat’s on a mission to find her father – she’s got a bone to pick with him. More accurately, she’s got a stake to shove in him. Along the way she’s decided to kill as many vampires as possible since, well, she hates vampires. All vampires. Over the years (with practice) she’s gotten pretty good at killing them. So good that she attracts the attention of Bones, another vampire hunter. Although Cat kills any vampire that crosses her path Bones is after a specific list of vampires and thinks the two of them should join forces.
There’s only one problem with this strategy: Bones is a vampire himself.
This book is interesting in that the heroine is only 22 years old and therefore fairly naive about life and love. At first this annoyed me to no end but I eventually accepted the fact that Frost has created a believable female fantasy character. I mean honestly, how many 22 year old girls have enough wisdom to separate love from lust? Not many I’d guess; Jeaniene Frost does a good job in keeping Cat’s character true-to-life.
Now, you’ll discover that the mother figure in the book is quite different from what you’re used to seeing in most urban fantasy books. Cat’s mother, a human, knows that Cat hunts and kills vampires. She doesn’t seem to mind sending her 22-year old out into the world to deal with these deadly creatures. On the contrary, she encourages this behavior and is, quite frankly, somewhat of a fanatic about it. Her hatred of vampires is so strong that she appears not to care that Cat is risking her life every time she hunts them down. It will be interesting to see how Frost expands on the mother-daughter relationship in future books. I’d like to learn more about the mother, her life, and her feelings about her daughter.
And speaking of future books, the storyline provides a great opportunity for the character development and growth of Cat in future installments. I’d like to see the next book focus on a Cat that’s a year or so older and wiser about hunting vampires. There are lots of unanswered questions at the end of this book so I can’t wait to get started on the next book in the series.
This is a funny and entertaining urban fantasy read that kept me interested throughout. I’d place it in the fantasy romance genre myself but there’s enough vampire gore (in a good way) to keep it in the urban fantasy section of most bookstores.
Rumor has it that Brad Pitt read this review and immediately purchased Halfway to the Grave. I mean come on, the guy has 4 children, twins on the way, and a globe-trotting wife that tends to leave him home with the kiddies. He could use some escapism time.
Your Urban Fantasy Book Collection: Haunted by Kelley Armstrong
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We recently reviewed the first book “Dime Store Magic” and the second book “Industrial Magic” in the Paige Winterbourne urban fantasy series. Let’s look at the third book in the series titled “Haunted.”
Key Points
This book focuses on Savannah’s dead mother, Eve Levine. Eve was a powerful witch that practiced black magic and as such was ostracized by other witches. Eve is causing trouble in the afterlife by constantly attempting to cross back over to make contact with either Paige or her daughter. The 3 fates, who not only determine when someone dies but also controls the afterlife, are not amused but see an opportunity to send Eve on a mission that will utilize her talents. Eve agrees to this because the fates did her a big favor in the previous book. However, he end goal is to get enough leveraging power to convince the fates to send her back to present day life.
As you’ve probably discerned, this book spends a lot of time exploring the afterlife that Eve inhabits. The world building is superb and helps move the story along. Although Paige, Lucas, and Savannah have significant roles in this book Kelley Armstrong introduces new characters like a demon living in a castle and an angel that likes reading celebrity magazines.
This book is the most action-packed of the three in the series. It’s also the most funny. Urban fantasy readers will find the book to be thoroughly enjoyable.
Interested? Get Haunted. It will be a great addition to your collection.
See also: Fantasy Stories Worth Reading: For a Few Demons More
Blood Drive by Jeanne C. Stein
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This is the 2nd book in the Anna Strong series by Jeanne C. Stein. The 3rd book The Watcher is also reviewed at this site. In this installment Anna, a newly-turned vampire, is having a hard time accepting what she’s become. Although she was made a vampire by force and was lucky to have survived the attack she has doubts about her ability to adapt to her new life. As such it’s becoming increasingly difficult for her to keep her vampire life separate from her human one. And from those that she loves.
The Story
The book begins when Anna and her family receive a strange visit from her deceased brother’s former girlfriend. It seems that her brother has fathered a child. The mother approaches the family to seek assistance in finding the child, Trish. You see, Trish has run away and her mother is frantic that she’s involved in the murder of one of her teenage friends. Since Anna is a bounty hunter and since her parents are anxious to meet their heretofore unknown grandchild, she decides to take the case and look for Trish.
As Anna investigates Trish’s disappearance she meets one of the girl’s high school teachers, a hunky shape shifter who assists her in the search. Their efforts are frequently thwarted by 2 FBI agents also looking for Trish and a goth wannabe vampire-loving fanatic that has become obsessed with Anna. On top of that, it appears as if Trish’s mother hasn’t been totally honest with Anna about her motives for wanting to find her runaway daughter.
Anna’s reluctance to accept her vampire nature puts her at risk in the supernatural world. As the story progresses she learns there are others out there willing to help her adjust to her new life. Anna’s personal journey provides a nice subplot to the action in the book.
I had a hard time putting this book down at times. Jeanne C. Stein did a great job pacing the storyline. And although the book includes vampires, clairvoyants (known as “sensitives”), and shape shifters, the book doesn’t get bogged down in describing the mythologies surrounding these creatures as seen in some contemporary fantasy books. I don’t need to be told that vampires like to drink blood and that were beings change shape based on the phases of the moon. Some fantasy writers don’t get that but Jeanne C. Stein clearly does and didn’t let the story get off track with such distractions. This was a great read that maintained my interest level to the very end. Scoop up Blood Drive, The Anna Strong Chronicles, Book 2; for 6 or 7 bucks it’s cheaper than a movie ticket.
Your Urban Fantasy Book Collection: Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong
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The first book in the series, Dime Store Magic, was recently reviewed. Let’s take a look at Industrial Magic, Women of the Otherworld Book 4 in the Paige Winterbourne urban fantasy series.
The heroine, Paige Winterbourne, is a witch that’s trying to start a new coven of her own. She’s been removed as leader of the American Coven and wants to start a new one that’s more progressive and that will be open to using spells that historically have only been used by sorcerers.
Paige is in a serious relationship with a sorcerer lawyer, Lucas Cortez. Lucas is estranged from his father, a powerful cabal leader. When his father asks Lucas and Paige to join forces to find a killer, they’re reluctant to agree. However once they discover that someone is murdering the children of cabal leaders they decide to help find the murderer. This forces Lucas to spend time with his father, whose underhanded business practices don’t appeal to him.
To find the killer Paige and Lucas enlist the aid of a centuries old vampire, a celebrity necromancer, a ghost, and several werewolves! The closer they get to the killer the more dangerous their lives become.
This novel is action packed, funny, and warm hearted. Urban fantasy doesn’t get much better than this.
Interested? Grab Industrial Magic for your collection.
Your Urban Fantasy Book Collection: Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong
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As promised I’m writing short reviews or “quickies” of the contemporary and urban fantasy books that I believe every urban fantasy reader should have in their collection. My goal is to publish one of these every few days. I have quite a few books to cover so this will keep me busy for a while.
First up is Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong. Kelley Armstrong writes the Women of the Otherworld series that I love so much. One series deals with witches, the second series focuses on werewolves. This review takes a look at the first book from the series about witches.
Key Points
The heroine, Paige Winterbourne, is a witch who inherits the title of Leader of the American Coven of Witches when her mother dies. Paige is looking for hidden grimoires, books filled with powerful spells that she hopes will help witches regain their place in the supernatural world. By only practicing white magic, witches have become weaker than sorcerers, their male counterparts. Paige wants the witches to regain their power and use it not for profit, like the cabals, but for the purpose of doing good.
Paige also inherits the responsibility of looking after Savannah Levine, a rebellious 13-year-old who’s mother (also dead) practiced black magic, something taboo to the witches in the coven.
Savannah, like her mother, is also interested in black magic and is an extremely powerful, but untrained, witch. This makes her attractive to the leader of a cabal, a sorcerer-owned high-powered corporation that uses witches and clairvoyants against their competition. Savannah’s long lost father wants to use her for this purpose and plans to fight Paige for custody.
Paige meets a lawyer who happens to be heir to the most powerful cabal in the world. Although he’s a sorcerer he’s not interested in his father’s cabal business. When Paige gets into trouble he comes to the rescue. Although witches and sorcerers have hated one another for centuries, Paige forms a friendship with the lawyer.
There’s lots of action in this book; most of it is linked to Paige’s attempts to keep Savannah in check (you try dealing with a powerful untrained 13 year old witch), her efforts to fight off Savannah’s deadbeat dad for custody, and her attempts to keep both of them safe from a female half-demon that seems to be holding a grudge against Paige. After reading this book, the first in the Paige Winterbourne urban fantasy series, I was hooked.
If you don’t have this book you should get Dime Store Magic while it’s on sale.
Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs
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Iron Kissed represents Book 3 of Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series. In this one Mercy once again finds herself thrust into the politics of one of the supernatural races; this time it’s the fae, one of the more secretive magical groups. She finds out the hard way that “curiosity killed the cat” can apply to shape shifting coyotes like her as well.
Oh, and on top of that her love life is an absolute mess.
The Story
Mercy’s mentor, former boss, and fae member “Zee”, asks her to accompany him to a crime scene to see if she can “sniff out” the identity of a killer (mass murderer to be exact). You see, someone has killed several fae and thus far, the murders have gone unsolved. Zee knows that Mercy, a shapeshifter that can take on the form of a coyote, has a heightened sense of smell after she’s shifted. He’s hoping she can identify the scent of the killer.
Since Mercy owes the Fae a favor she agrees to the proposal. As such, Zee takes her to one of the fae reservations, a guarded compound/community that the local fae relocated to soon after they revealed themselves to the world. The reservation is a strange place whose lands (and people) hold many secrets. The fae would like to keep it that way so Mercy is forewarned not to ask questions or dwell on any oddities she might witness. For her own sake, she doesn’t want the fae thinking she might reveal their secrets to the rest of the world. Security risks like that are usually dealt with swiftly – no questions asked.
Although apprehensive about the assignment, Mercy is successful in determining the identity of the killer but through a series of events Zee ends up in jail. As Mercy attempts to prove his innocence she learns even more about the Fae – too much some might say. It’s this storyline that provides heart stopping suspense and adventure.
Mercy’s relationships with Adam and Samuel, two werewolves interested in her romantically, provide some of the subplot material in the book although Patricia Briggs handles this in a manner that keeps the reader interested. It’s also handled in a very believable manner. I can actually identify with the uncertainties displayed by Mercy. Rest assured this is nothing like the tiresome Jean-Claude vs. Richard tug-of-war that occurred in Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series.
With Iron Kissed Patricia Briggs has written another entertaining and action packed fantasy adventure. This book, more than the others in the series, sheds some light on the psychological makeup of the werewolves, in particular, Ben and Adam. Although it’s difficult to promote the humanity of aggressive and violent creatures like werewolves without emasculating them at some level, Patricia Briggs seems to have found a feasible and believable balance.
As with the other books in the series the pace is consistent and the storyline is nicely balanced with suspense, humor, action, and a little romance. Although I recommend that you read Book 1: Moon Called and Book 2: Blood Bound (simply because they’re good) it’s not necessary to do so in order to keep up with the story. Patricia Briggs has a talent for providing just enough backstory to get new readers up to speed while not appearing redundant to return readers. Not many writers can pull this off.
A very significant arc occurs near the end of this book. It’s actually quite heartwrenching and affects me even as I’m writing this review. I don’t believe I’ve read a fantasy book that touched me in this way. I commend Patricia Briggs for having the courage to write this into the storyline. It makes the series even stronger. Bottom line: Iron Kissed is an absolute solid winner for Briggs.
You can purchase Iron Kissed and spend several productive hours immersed in a fantastic fantasy story that’s entertaining and thrilling or spend the 7 bucks on two small chocolate Godiva truffles that will rot your teeth and expand your waistline. Your call.
See also:
Night Rising by Chris Marie Green: Babylon Vampire Series Book 1
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When Dawn Madison‘s father disappears she’s initially not too concerned. After all, her father is a bit of a free spirit and has a habit of getting on his Harley and going wherever it takes him.
So when she goes looking for him she’s pretty surprised to discover that her father has been working for a private investigation firm. He’s not one to hold down a job for very long. She’s even more shocked to learn that the firm specializes in investigating paranormal events. Her father’s co-workers are also concerned about her father’s disappearance and think it’s linked to another case they’re working on.
Dawn decides to join the hunt for her father and in doing so, becomes a member of the paranormal investigation firm. This begins her introduction to the world of supernatural creatures that she never knew existed.
The Story:
Dawn is a stuntwoman who’s worked in Hollywood films. As such she’s fairly strong, physically fit, and more than able to defend herself in a fight. She joins the firm thinking “how hard can this be?” only to discover that she has to face challenges most people only see in horror films.
The PI firm is run by a man referred to as “The Voice.” Why? Because no one has ever seen him. Dawn’s first encounter with him consisted of her entering a room and talking to a large blank television screen. Every meeting with him is like this; she’s simply talking to a mysterious disembodied voice. Think, Charlie’s Angels but with a much sexier voice.
The firm is currently trying to locate a dead male child star. The kid in question died at the age of twelve from a drug overdose. Although that’s startling by itself, that’s not the reason they took the case. They’re investigating his death because although the kid died several years ago his image appeared in some very recent film footage.
While investigating this case Dawn gets her first introduction to vampires. This encounter represents one of the most interesting aspects of the book: the mythology that Chris Marie Green creates about the vampires in the book.
It’s entirely different from any other urban vampire fantasy book I’ve read. The vampires have both an “above ground” persona and an underground life. As a matter of fact, they live in a place called “The Underground.” At times I found the vampire characters, their society, their interactions and the mystery surrounding The Voice to be more interesting than Dawn’s character.
As such, here are a few things that were somewhat annoying:
- The storyline drags at times and the dialogue can be a bit boring.
- The main character’s need for sexual stimulation was a little overdone. I mean honestly, this woman can’t see a good looking man without wanting to jump his bones? Chris Marie Green made Dawn into someone that almost shuts down physically if she doesn’t get a regular (i.e., daily) “fix.” It was akin to reading about a drug addict suffering through withdrawal pains. Although this book in no way falls into the vampire romance fantasy genre, a few scenes cross the line into fantasy erotica. Like most contemporary fantasy books these scenes do nothing to move the story along. Chris Marie Green is such a good writer that I’m thinking she’ll reveal more about why Dawn behaves this way.
- Too much emphasis is placed on Dawn’s issues with her mother, who died one month after Dawn was born. It definitely adds emotional depth to her character but I felt it was reinforced too often throughout the story.
Having said that I have to say that the positive FAR outweighs the negative in this book. There were times when I had a hard time putting the book down. As such Night Rising is a recommended buy. I’ll definitely purchase Midnight Reign, the next book in the Vampire Babylon fantasy series. I’m really curious about The Voice and who/what it really is. And I definitely want to know more about The Underground. As a vampire fantasy series I think there’s a lot of potential here. There’s room for Chris Marie Green to take some of the unanswered mysteries in the book and develop them into something even more exciting and full of intrigue. I’m looking forward to the second book.
