Archive for fantasy book
Fantasy Book Review – Coyote Dreams by C.E. Murphy
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The main character, Joanne Walker, a.k.a. Siobbhan Walkingstick, is a shaman who does most of her work in the astral plane and most of her communications through dreams. A good bit of the story occurs in visions interacting with mystical guides such as the raven, the coyote, and other American Indian legends.
Joanne is a tough Seattle police woman who has reluctantly discovered that her healing powers are needed again when a good portion of the police department fails to show up for work. It appears that they have all gone to sleep and no one is able to wake them up. Using her powers as a shaman, Joanne realizes the sleepers are being slowly drained of their life forces by some parasitic type of magic. As her investigation progresses, she realizes she’s the source of the coma problem and she’s got to move fast to save her friends, her fellow officers–and eventually, the world.
The character of Joanne is well developed and it’s enjoyable getting to know her in the book. She’s tough and vulnerable at the same time and I like that combination in a female lead character. All of the male characters are described as good looking, except perhaps Gary, a friend of hers, who is a good bit older than the other characters. But even he is compared to Sean Connery by Joanne, and that makes him pretty good looking to me. The nice thing about the male characters in the book is that they are intriguing, they all have a ‘real’ personality, and they engage your interest as one tries to evaluate their romantic potential for ending up with Joanne.
If you’ve read previous entries in this fantasy book series you know that Joanne has a love/hate relationship with her boss. I’ll bet you’re wondering if anything comes to fruition in this book . . . let’s just say that anything can happen in dreams. And, like in dreams, when you wake up you wonder “did this really happen”? You’ll have to read this one to find out!
This fantasy book was a change of pace for me. The use of dreams as the communication path gives you a different approach to the urban fantasy novel. Joanne spends about half of the book in some kind of trance giving wonderful descriptions of her dream world which makes you want to be there as well. C. E. Murphy provides us with a unique setting that you are happy to jump into, postponing your own dream world as needed, in order to finish her novel. Check it out at online retailers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Note: this book is also suitable for young adult readers.
Undead and Uneasy by MaryJanice Davidson
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If you’re looking for a light summer read you might want to try Undead and Uneasy by MaryJanice Davidson. I’ll forewarn you that it has its moments of silliness, but if you approach it knowing that, you should might be okay. Maybe. Perhaps.
Most of the humor in the book occurs because of the heroine, Betsy. Or I should say, Queen Betsy. You see, Betsy is a 30-year old super master vampire with powers that other vampires would die for. Sorry about that.
Betsy can:
- walk outside on a sunny day;
- go for several weeks without needing to feed;
- survive being stabbed through the heart (it hurts a bit, but it’s not life threatening);
- drink holy water;
- attend church or other religious ceremonies.
However, Betsy is also:
- incredibly vain and egocentric;
- petty and shallow;
- dense as a thick fog.
These qualities can make her character a bit irritating.
Anyway, this installment in the Queen Betsy series finds Betsy finally preparing for her wedding to the incredibly handsome Sinclair, the “King” of the vampires. Sinclair makes it clear that he’s not interested in the marriage ceremony because according to vampire lore, he and Betsy are already married. He sees no reason for participating in a wedding, a human tradition. This results in an argument between he and Betsy and as a result, Sinclair leaves.
Betsy’s best friend Jessica is still battling cancer. This is a theme that you’d think wouldn’t fit in a lightweight book like this but it does. It gives Betsy someone to worry about besides deciding which shoes to wear and helps balance out the ridiculous machinations of the heroine. Jessica spends most of the book in the hospital and things are at times pretty grim.
Marc, the gay physician that lives in Jessica’s mansion with Betsy and Sinclair, suddenly disappears. Garrett and his werewolf girlfriend Antonia (who also live in the mansion) disappear as well. And Tina, another live-in vampire, is away in France attending a meeting. As a result Betsy ends up mysteriously alone and unable to reach anyone. Not even Sinclair, who has never left Betsy alone for an extended period of time. However since Betsy is such an airhead someone else has to connect the dots for her. Duh. Thus the central “plot” in the book focuses on Betsy’s attempts to find out who’s responsible for Sinclair’s disappearance.
Okay, you can probably tell that I wasn’t incredibly pleased with the book, even though I’ve read the other books in the series and knew what to expect from Betsy. The problem is that the “Betsy is a dumb blonde” theme can be a bit tiring. I’m not sure where MaryJanice Davidson is going to take this series because it’s starting to get repetitive. Let’s see: Betsy obsesses over some new designer shoes. A mystery occurs. Betsy has sex with Sinclair. She selects a new designer outfit. Betsy works on the mystery. She gets new shoes. Betsy stumbles upon the solution to the mystery. The End.
But then again perhaps the fans of this romantic paranormal fantasy series really like these qualities about Betsy. I wonder: is it just me?
So I went looking for other reviews of the book. Although what I found was a mixed bag the reviews were primarily positive. At Amazon.com, 79% of the 63 reviewers gave it 4 or 5 stars. Interesting. It doesn’t affect how I feel about the book though. I still think MaryJanice Davidson spends too much time trying to make us laugh about Betsy’s flaws which tends to overshadow and weaken the plot. Because so much time is spent on this effort the book, at 270 pages, feels more like an extended short story than a complete novel.
Unless you’re a big MaryJanice Davidson fan and are willing to overlook Betsy’s tiresome personality, I recommend that you borrow Undead and Uneasy from the library. I really wanted to like this book more but I just couldn’t get past the heroine’s tendency to plod along oblivious to the people and events around her.
For more about MaryJanice Davidson’s Betsy the Vampire Queen series see:
Demons Are Forever by Julie Kenner
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In this, the 3rd book in the Julie Kenner soccer mom urban fantasy series, our heroine, Kate Connor is back attempting to keep her town (San Diablo, California) safe from body swapping demons.
It appears as if the town is being overrun with newly made demons that are targeting Kate, her teenage daughter Allie, and Allie’s hunky teacher, David. If you read California Demon you know that in that book Allie was kidnapped by a demon who had endeared himself to the family. Because of that ordeal Allie now knows that her mother does a lot more than just bake cookies (badly) and care for the family.
Unfortunately, Allie has decided she wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a Hunter. This makes for some interesting exchanges between mother and daughter:
“No, you can’t go demon hunting with me. It’s a school night.”
“But Mom!”
“No, and that’s final.”
“Whatever!”
Okay, I totally made up that scene but you get the picture. My point is that Allie is a typical American teenager who sometimes does the exact opposite of what her parents tell her to do. This potentially puts her in harm’s way since it looks like the local demon population has her in its cross hairs. However, as we discover in the book, Allie’s a fairly smart and resourceful young lady.
Which brings me to the main mystery in the book: the demons are attacking Kate, Allie, and David, but they’re not going for the kill shot. Instead they’re attempting to extract information about a mysterious stone in which one of their fire-and-brimstone leaders has been imprisoned. Kenner does a nice job keeping us in the dark about the stone while the 3 main characters race against time to find it ahead of the bad guys.
Demons Are Forever further promotes Kate’s growth as a main character. In some of the earlier books we saw more of the domestic side of Kate, primarily because she was trying so hard to keep her hunter persona secret from her family and friends. In this book she’s forced to share her secret with a close friend and as such, I believe her character gets more fleshed out. In this book Kenner downplays the “soccer mom” aspect of Kate’s life and focuses more on the well-trained, smart and calculating kick-butt demon slayer persona. It’s a good move.
David, Allie’s high school teacher, is still somewhat of a mystery to Kate (and to us). In the previous book Kate began suspecting that David was hiding something – that he wasn’t exactly who/what he appeared to be. That mystery continues in this book and adds a level of suspense and uncertainty that keeps the storyline interesting.
As in previous books Kate’s husband Stuart is totally in the dark about her secret life. In the earlier books I was exasperated with his character because he seemed to be too preoccupied with building his political career and not plugged in to what his wife was going through. In this book he’s still clueless but we get to see a different side of him which makes him much more endearing. I still think he’s too easy to accept Kate’s explanations about her bruises and injuries but it’s clear that seeds of doubt are starting to take root. I used to wish he’d walk in on her while she was in slayer mode but to be quite honest it’s sometimes funny watching her rush to kill a demon before Stuart comes around a corner. However, I’m still eagerly awaiting the day when he discovers the truth – uh, he will eventually learn the truth right?
I really love the fact that these books don’t take place in an urban city. Likewise, there are no sophisticated weapons, the heroine doesn’t have magical powers, and leather bustiers/stiletto heels are never mentioned. These books are about a woman who uses her intuition, common sense and physical training to rid her little part of the world of evil.
If you’re looking for something different from your average Hunter/Slayer type urban fantasy book pick up one or all of the books in the series:
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| Book #1 | Book #2 | Book #3 | Book #4 |
Give the series a spin – I think you’ll like it.
