Kin (The Good Neighbors) by Holly Black, Illustrated by Ted Naifeh

Posted on October 5, 2008 by janicu

Holly Black

Once I found out that Holly Black was doing a graphic novel and it was similar to her Modern Faerie Tales series as in it centers on teens who get somehow involved with the faerie world, I wanted to read it. It's one of those books where I like the author but I wasn't paying attention. So when a new book comes out I am thrilled and also happy that I didn't have to go through the torture of anticipation for months! I thank the avidbookreader blog for pointing out that this book was available.

Anyway, this story is about Rue Silver, whose mother has been missing for weeks. Her father is depressed and does nothing all day, while Rue tries to keep doing her usual activities with her friends, like going to her boyfriend's concerts and breaking into vacant buildings to take pictures. One day the police surround her house and accuse her father of killing one of his students at the university – Sarasa Narayan. Sarasa's last known meeting was with her father, and now there are also suspicions he killed his wife. Rue begins to believe that Rue's dad broke a promise, and Rue's mom, had to leave because of it. Rue realizes her mother is a faerie and so she has faerie blood. Rue starts to see all kinds of strange things, while she tries to find her mother, in the meantime also running into her mother's family, who are dangerous beings with their own agenda.

Overall: I enjoyed this. Recommended to Holly Black fans. It was a quick read, with some things that make more sense the second time you flip back and reread them. The story is however not finished so after this book you'll want to read the next one. While we find out what happened to the dead university student, Rue still has to figure out a few other things. The artwork is good, but sometimes the faces were inconsistent which made me sometimes wonder who I was looking at for a second. The book is in black and white, I'd love to see this in color! The coverwork is gorgeous though, and I liked how the dustcover matches the cover of the book, but it also has a matte finish with some shiny parts. Very tactile. I find myself picking it up and rubbing my fingers against the raised shiney font a lot, it's lovely.

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Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland

Posted on October 5, 2008 by janicu

Any Given Doomsday (The Phoenix Chronicles)

Lori Handeland

There are a lot of ARCs of this book floating around, so if you still don't have a copy and are interested, there are a couple of contests going on that I know of.

1) Lady Vampire's Lair has this book among a trio of books she's giving away for a Halloween giveaway. Comments throughout October 6th-11th in answer to her questions count as entries. Here's the link.

2) Lori's Reading Corner has a contest until October 6th (tomorrow),comment to enter. Additional rules and the link is here.

According to Amazon, the book comes out November 4th.

This is a first book in a new series by Lori Handleland. I've read one other book by this author which I liked more than I expected because I wasn't really into a short story I read in the Dates from Hell anthology.

This series centers on Elizabeth Phoenix, a former foster child, and cop turned bartender with physic powers. She has the ability to touch things and tell where the owner is or has been. The story starts off with Liz feeling called by her foster mom Ruthie, and discovering her dying at her house. The prime suspect is Liz's ex Jimmy Sanducci, who she broke up with after discovering his infidelity through her gift (ouch!). This starts a series of events which open up a new world to Liz – she discovers that Ruthie was the head of a giant battle between good and evil, with supernatural creatures of all kinds and tales from the Book of Enoch being the basis of it all. The gist of it is that doomsday begins now, and Liz has to take Ruthie's place. Meanwhile she has to deal with her ex Jimmy, and her past teacher, Sawyer. Both men aren't completely human.

Overall: I thought the book was OK. There were fascinating world-building aspects like the Nephalim from the Book of Enoch, Liz's talent, and her dreams with Ruthie. There are also some hints of past history that I found interesting regarding Jimmy and Sawyer, but they were done in a way that I had just enough to understand it, rather than feeling like just enough was being held back to make me confused. The dialog is flippant at times, but flowed well, and it did seem to fit Liz's personality. The book does fit more under the urban fantasy genre than it does as a paranormal romance – there is no HEA, at least in this book, and the ending leaves a lot of room for further developments, but there are a few sex scenes and maybe more attention to relationships than I usually see in urban fantasy. Both relationships with Jimmy and Sawyer have a dark edge to them, mostly because everyone involved is pretty emotionally flawed. I am not sure who she will eventually end up with, but both of the men have not treated Liz well. I wasn't sure I liked either of them and sometimes I wasn't sure if I liked Liz either. Still, it does make the characters very interesting and I'd like to see how it develops. I'd like to see Liz more confident in her powers, which hopefully we will see in the next book. The author's letter to her readers in the back of the book mentions Laurell K Hamilton as an inspiration, and I could see maybe a hint of that regarding Liz's hidden power we learn about later. I have to say I sort of … mmm, I don't quite like it, because I think it has a potential to make the books take a turn into territory that many people complain about with Hamiliton's books, but this book is a far cry from that, so I'll just wait and see.

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The Sweet Scent of Blood by Suzanne McLeod

Posted on September 30, 2008 by janicu

The Sweet Scent of Blood (Spellcrackers)

Suzanne McLeod

I saw a post about this book on Urban Fantasy Land and I was very intruiged, but a bit frustrated because I didn't see it in a US book website at the time, only in Amazon UK. In the end I got it from thebookdepository.com but it looks like now you can see it on Amazon with a 2-4 week shipping time – probably because it's published in the UK right now, not in the US? The street date is September 4th, 2008.

"My name is Genny Taylor. I work for Spellcrackers.com. It’s a great job, pays the rent, lets me do the thing I’m good at – finding magic and cracking it – and the bonus is it’s run by witches, which stops the vamps from taking a bite out of me.

Not that vampires are the big bad any more, not since they launched a slick PR campaign – oh, and they brought the goblins on board. Now the vamps are sought-after celebrities, and Getting Fanged and taking the Gift are the new height of all things cool.

But only if you’re human.

And I’m not.

I’m Sidhe fae.

And I know firsthand just how deadly a vampire can be.’

When Mr October, a sexy calendar pin-up vamp, is accused of murdering his girlfriend, an old debt is called in and Genny is forced to help prove his innocence, risking her job and the protection it offers – and threatening to expose her own dark secrets. Searching for the killer plunges Genny deep into the hidden heart of vampire society. It’s not long before she realises that she and Mr October are both unwitting pawns in a centuries-old power struggle between London’s non-human communities . . . and it’s not just her own neck that’s at stake, but the lives of all London’s supernaturals."

This book seems to follow more of the urban fantasy tradition in the same vein as Kim Harrison, Karen Chance and C.E. Murphy. Basically you have a female protagonist with some special powers, who gets caught up in a mystery while trying to fend off the interest of big bads because of her unique assets. In this case Genny is the only Sidhe Fae in London – a particularly tasty snack for vampires, with a better constitution, so less likely to die for a long time, and she's already susceptible to craving vampire bites. Genny is reluctant to get involved with vampires but because of a debt, she has to help Mr. October prove his innocence. At first I thought that Mr. October might be a love interest, but he is a minor character, and the love interest seems to be someone she works with, although she also has a strange attraction to a certain vampire.

This book had a really interesting world – and I liked how vampires are treated like celebrities and tourists flock to look at them and have them drink their blood. It was interesting to have them use PR and advertising to project a certain image, while still being dangerous. I was a bit sceptical about how harmless they pretended to be while glorying in bloodplay, fear, rape and whatever else though, the difference seemed so extreme. A nit, I know. The other issue I had was how complicated this book started to feel – It started off really well. Chapter one in the cafe, was a great introduction into the world, but then later the information was doled out in crumbs, especially regarding Genny's past which get vaguely alluded to in either a small flashback or in a sentence or two in the middle of the investigation and in her strange actions (wait till you see her dual personality). It felt like there was a whole missing story that doesn't get told and we're inferring it from what's going on. Then the investigation itself – it seems that every vampire has his or her own agenda, no matter who they are affiliated with, and there are 5 or 6 vampires involved, plus we have witches, brownies, some humans, and the police, all muddying up the waters. When things finally go down and Genny discovers what's really going on, it got rather messy. I had this strange feeling like when you're in a dream and of course everything makes sense in the dream, but afterwards you realize it really doesn't. For example Genny finding herself tied up in the same room as someone else, then escaping and popping into a random person's bedroom? Who wants to help her? And then she gets caught up in a big… fight match thing? It sort of makes sense but not really. And in the end I still felt like there was a big plot hole explaining how Melissa's murder was carried out, but no one cares. I like it when an author lets you learn about the world by just putting you into it, but I felt in this case I'd have appreciated a more basic background details, and a little less trying to add as much as possible into the plot.

Overall: Recommended for urban fantasy fans. It does remind me of Kim Harrison's work, which is a good thing, and Genny is interesting – I want to learn more about her and to find out what happens next, but I wish that the plot flowed better. I say less surprise kinks and characters into the plot, more focus on building existing characters and the world, and I'd be happy. This is a debut author, so for a first book, it gets high points and is a promising series. There is a dark bent to this story so it is urban fantasy, and I'm not sure how many books there will be. The second book The Cold Kiss of Death comes out July 2009.

Excerpt of Chapter 1.

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Jinx by Jennifer Estep

Posted on September 6, 2008 by janicu

Jinx (Bigtime)

Jennifer Estep

Jinx is the third book in this series which is a tongue-in-cheek take on comic books. If you've read the previous books: Karma Girl and Hot Mama, you know that Bigtime is a city full of superheroes and ubervillians, secret identities are sort of obvious, and yards of spandex and sequins are required.

My reviews of the previous books:

Karma Girl – livejournal | vox

Hot Mama – livejournal | vox

Cover: They swtiched over from a more comic cover, where the characters are drawn, to real people against a sort of comic-looking background. Not sure the reason for this – maybe to make the books look less chick-lit and more like it's a romance/paranormal?

Story: As with the previous books, the story is written in the first person point of view. This time it's Bella Bulluci, who was introduced in Hot Mama as the sister of the male love interest, and a fashion designer with muted tastes. Bella's family has a superhero tradition, her grandfather, father and brother have taken turns being Johnny Angel, a character who rides a motorcycle and fights crime. Bella's dad was killed earlier in the year because of this activity, and Bella has a very hard time forgiving him for choosing to put himself in danger rather than staying safe for his family. She remembers wanting to be a superhero when she was young, but soon was jaded by the worry and fear about her father night after night.

Her past experiences have caused Bella to hate superheroes – she thinks they are ridiculous and can't understand why people choose to have a secret identity. Her rule is to never get involved with a superhero – despite being in a family of them, and despite being closely connected with the Fearless Five, Bigtime's most powerful superhero group. AND despite Bella having her own powers. She has a "supercharged telekinesis" which gives her luck – both bad and good, and which annoys her a lot. It increases with her emotions and discharges with often embarrassing results, but Bella is usually not harmed very much.

I found this contrariness despite who she has surrounding her very stubborn on Bella's part. Her anger at her father's death colors her decisions. I still I found her feelings believable at first. Her practical and worrywort nature explains a about how she reacts towards the danger of being a superhero. Then Bella gets caught in the crossfire between the Fearless Five and some ubervillians after a fund-raiser at the Bigtime Museum of Modern Art. Bella is taken away from danger by Debonair and soon becomes involved with him despite her rule. This is where I found her back and forth annoying – she would really firmly (and sometimes a little meanly) push him away, and then the next time she sees him, they're getting it on. Then she'd remember her rule and tell him to leave after a long evening together, or say it was nice but nothing can come out of it. Once or twice – fine, but this happened a few times. The only explanation of why Debonair is OK with her waffling is that he's been secretly in love with her for months, but how easily he forgives her for hurting him was surprising. Their relationship was really the focus of the book, with the action against ubervillians Hangman and Prism as a secondary story.

Overall – I read this book in practically one sitting. It was fun, and doesn't take itself seriously, so worth reading when you're in the mood for something light. I think I liked it as much as I liked Karma Girl, and I thought it was better than Hot Mama. Bella was a more interesting protagonist and had a less dramatic and flamboyant personality than Fiona, Hot Mama's protagonist. I also liked Debonair and his shy alter ego – he was very sweet towards Bella throughout the story. And as usual the over the top and silly background of the Bigtime world makes things lighthearted and an easy read. Most readers will pick up on the secret identities of some of the superheroes and ubervillians (first name and last name have the same letter, not nice people = ubervillian, nice people = superhero, real job sometimes related to superhero power…), and it's amusing how oblivious the main characters are about the clues.

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Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs

Posted on August 29, 2008 by janicu

Cry Wolf (Anna and Charles, Book 1)

Patricia Briggs

I've been meaning to review this book and just holding off for no particular reason for a while now. Here goes.

Cry Wolf is the first book in the start of a new urban fantasy series by Patricia Briggs, which is set in the same world as her Mercy Thompson series and runs in parallel with it. Although I say urban fantasy, this series does have a greater focus on romance than the Mercy series, which is something the author points out herself in interviews I've seen online. Fans of Mercy looking into reading this series should expect to see a lot about the relationship developing between Anna and Charles along with any action.

I strongly recommend reading "Alpha and Omega" in the On the Prowl anthology before reading Cry Wolf (reading the Mercy series isn't necessary though). In that short story we learn how our protagonists met – Anna called Bran for help with the Chicago pack, and he sent his enforcer and son, Charles. Charles realizes two things – one is that that Anna is a rare Omega wolf – someone sort of out of the pack structure – who can resist an Alpha's commands and who also soothes Alpha wolves. The other is that his wolf recognizes her as his mate. Cry Wolf takes up the story right after this. Things are still new with them so although they are sort of a pair now, it isn't set in stone. Both feel awkward and unsure of the other, and Cry Wolf tells the story from both their points of view (in the third person) so the reader can understand where each is coming from.

The story starts out with Charles still wounded after Chicago but after returning to Montana, another problem surfaces which needs his attention as his father's trusted right hand. There is evidence of a rogue wolf nearby, which is rare considering that this is the Pack headquarters. Bran has just killed a wolf and friend (his job if he sees madness taking over), and is wary of killing another so soon because of the possible backlash from his pack. So Charles, (and Anna with him) are sent to check it out.

I noticed more worldbuilding in terms of the pack and some of the backstory regarding it in this book. For instance the reader learns a bit more about what happens when two wolves decide to mate and what an Omega wolf can do. We also see some history for certain older wolves, including Bran and Samuel. I don't remember reading about this part of Bran's life from Mercy's series, so I thought that was very interesting and shed more light into why Bran is the Marrok.

My thoughts: I still love the Mercy series more, but it sure doesn't suck to get a book every six months from Briggs as she puts out Anna and Charles books between each Mercy offering. I enjoyed reading this book, and found myself slowly savoring it, not running through it in a day. Well, I was busy getting married too. I like Anna and I like Charles, but I'm not 100% sure about Anna yet. She doesn't seem as strong a character as Mercy. I'm kind of waiting to see about that – Anna seems so fragile and timid sometimes, although she does stand up for herself and does some things that put herself in danger, I am not seeing independence yet. Should be interesting to see how she develops. A good start to a series, looking forward to the rest!

P.S. There is an excerpt of Bone Crossed (book 4 of the Mercy Thompson series) at the end of this book. Ahhh.. salivating.

Other reviews (I see Bs and above pretty much):

The Good, The Bad, and the Unread: One Two

Urban Fantasy

Dear Author

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Short stories and the Journal of Mystic Arts

Posted on August 29, 2008 by janicu

Via things mean a lot – I found out that there is a free online short story in Holly Black's Tithe/ Valiant/ Ironside universe called "Going Ironside". It's very short and bittersweet, from the point of view of an exiled faerie, hitting hard times in the city. I didn't know about it so thought I would link to it here.

The website the short story is on is the Journal of Mystic Arts (aka JoMA) which is an online magazine having it's final issue after many years:

JoMA is sponsored by the Endicott Studio, a nonprofit organization dedicated to literary, visual, and performance arts inspired by myth, folklore, fairy tales, and the oral storytelling tradition.

Endicott & JoMA have been online since 1997. JoMA's last issue is the Summer '08 issue, but our extensive archives of 10+ years of mythic arts material will remain online as an on-going source of mythic arts information & resources.

Founded in 1987, the Endicott Studio is directed by Terri Windling & Midori Snyder.

Other stories by familiar (to me) authors I wanted to point out:

"Silver and Gold" by Emma Bull

“The Tale of the Mountain King and His Sky Bride” by O. R. Melling

Some Poems:

"Bone Mother" by Holly Black

"The Step-sister's Story" by Emma Bull

"Boys and Girls Together" by Neil Gaiman

"Instructions" by Neil Gaiman

Ok there is so much more by Neil Gaiman and Jane Yolen and Charles de Lint and Terri Windling and Delia Sherman and others. Worth spending some time there if you haven't been.

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Ironside by Holly Black

Posted on August 27, 2008 by janicu

Ironside: A Modern Faery's Tale

Holly Black

Ironside is the third (and final?) installment in the Faery Tale series by Holly Black.

The first one, Tithe follows Kaye who is "not human and doesn't know it" as she discovers the faerie world and gets caught up in their politics. The second one; Valiant follows Val as she is homeless in New York City. Val runs into problems with the faerie drug "Never" – used by the exiled fae to lessen the issues caused by the iron in the city, but addictive and bad for humans. Ironside returns the focus to Kaye and finishes up the story.

The protagonists in this series are teens in the New Jersey, New York area who are independent outcasts, with friends of a similar ilk. There is a familiarity and ease in their conversations that feels real and reminds me of teenagers, except these teenagers are a little bit less innocent than others. They do a lot of adult things like smoke, drink, have sex, take drugs, get themselves in trouble..its all part of the dark edge to these books. The faery side of things is not light and fluffy - they're beautiful but disturbingly dangerous creatures. Humans are of little value and often toyed with because fae have powers and like to have some fun, even if it means death to an innocent that stumbled onto their path. Despite the dark side to the books, there are some happy endings to be expected out of them – each has a bit of romance thrown in, usually between a human and someone they thought was out of their league. It's sweet if you aren't a cynic about that stuff. Underlying that all three books are tied together by the same thread – unrest between the Seelie and Unseelie courts - first there is the unraveling of a peace agreement, then there are changes to who rules the Unseelie court.

******* From this point on there are spoilers for the first books ***********

In Ironside, Kaye is still in love with Roiben, who is the newly crowned Unseelie king. Kaye lives with humans still, but visits the faerie world whenever she can. Unsure of her place in faerie society, Kaye gets tricked into declaring her love for him publicly, and Roiben responds by giving her an impossible task: find a faerie who can tell an untruth. Kaye can't see Roiben again until she fulfills this task, and if she can't see him, she questions if she belongs with the faerie – there is no one to belong to. This is mirrored with her life as a human girl – her mother doesn't know that Faye is a changeling that replaced her real daughter, and Kaye feels very guilty about this.

My thoughts: I liked this book and it does tie up the story very nicely, though I think I preferred the first two books over this one. The beginning dragged a little for me, but I was really into the story in the second half of the book – I wasn't sure how it was going to end and I liked that. A couple of minor things I guessed, but for the most part I was an on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen to everyone. There was also a couple of cameos from characters in Valiant here too (brief appearances from them with the exception of Luis, who plays a bigger part in Ironside). As usual I really liked the descriptions of the faerie world and how they continue to secretly survive amongst humans (who can't see them as they really are).

There are some minor moments of disbelief – like I have a problem with Kaye being a blond asian (I'm half chinese so I pay attention to mixed race characters, and this little detail bugged me). Being blond is pretty much an impossibility if she is half Japanese. I would believe brown, but not blond (recessive gene yo)! Anyway, this wasn't brought up much in Ironside as much as it was in Tithe.

This book also shifted focus a bit more onto other characters besides the main one (Kaye). We see some of the thoughts of Roiben, who is usually distant and hard to understand from Kaye's point of view, and we also see what's going on in Corny's head. Corny is an interesting character because he's become fragile and fearful after his experiences in Tithe. In Ironside, Corny goes very far to try to protect himself. Actually the theme of doing something that's not quite right because you want to protect something else is a reoccurring one in this book. Right and wrong gets murky, like life, and this is especially true in Roiben's case, who is responsible for his people and wants to protect those he loves, even when they think he doesn't care about them.

P.S. This is a book I waited to read because it wasn't in softcover. The paperback edition came out July 08, but the hardcover was out April 07. Sigh. Not sure why there was such a long wait there.

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Hotter than Hell by Keri Arthur, L.A. Banks, Susan Krinard, Marjorie M. Liu, Kim Harrison

Posted on August 15, 2008 by janicu

Hotter Than Hell

I really need to catch up on my reviews – I actually read this book last month but didn't have the time to review it with all the "real life" stuff going on.

The one thing that gets me with this book is how different it seems from the rest of the "In Hell" anthologies that came before it. It really strikes me that Hotter than Hell is more paranormal romance than it is urban fantasy, because the premise in all the stories is sex with a paranormal twist. Pretty much all of these stories have a relationship with sex included, which makes it more romance than not, which isn't the case as much in the other books (which makes them more "urban fantasy"). What do people think – do I make sense? Agree/disagree with this?

Other "In Hell" books I've reviewed:

Holidays are Hell (Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Marjorie M. Liu, Vicki Pettersson) – vox link | livejournal link

Dates from Hell (Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Kelley Armstrong, Lori Handeland) – vox link | livejournal link

Prom Nights From Hell (Kim Harrison, Meg Cabot, Michele Jaffe, Stephenie Meyer, Lauren Myracle) – the young adult version of these books – vox link | livejournal link

I am really critical of a book when I just do not believe the relationship – if it seems too contrived or the reason for the two loving each other seems unbelievable and the author just explains it with "love at first sight" and I can't see what one character sees in another, I can't buy into it. If you tell me how attractive either character is, it still does nothing for me. So? You know how many good looking people there are in the world? Attributing good characters to a person just because they are good looking, that's not common sense (I should hope). So tell me, why is this one so special to that one? Do they at least share something more substantial than a cheesy sexual attraction? Otherwise, it makes the story really boring. That is why I feel somewhat disappointed in a lot of the stories in this anthology. In most of them I found too much of the sexual attraction, not enough to make me believe in the relationship. I think that to some extent choosing to make the stories require sex and then making them short was shooting everyone in the foot – there simply is very little space to have a story, have crazy sex, and also make me see a believable relationship developing, a relationship where I can buy into a HEA. Not enough room for it all, and something lost out.

All the stories that managed to keep the three things balanced (plot, sex, believable relationship) – those where the stronger stories in the anthology. Those that relied on cliches which resulted in me not really believing the relationship, were the weaker stories. I'm sorry to say that for me, there were more weaker stories than strong ones. I think that most of the ones that had sex but didn't try to make the story have a fully formed romantic relationship occur within the short story were stronger – Tanya Huff's "Music Hath Charms", Lilith Saintcrow's "Brother's Keeper" (which still has a flaw – it threw the reader in without much information about the world. I recognized characters in her Dante Valentine series though), and "Dirty Magic" by Kim Harrison (also shares a world with her Hollows series, but this one didn't feel confusing). The best romantic one I think was "Moonlight Becomes You" by Linda Winstead Jones because the heroine was funny in a cute way, though I didn't see much from the hero's personality. "Minotaur In Stone" by Marjorie M. Liu was also good because of the lyrical writing, but there is something a bit off with the relationship there, I guess I found it hard to believe the heroine would go so far for someone she just met, but then she's isolated and so is he. That could be their bond, but I felt it could have been more cemented than it was.

deety at urbanfantasy.wordpress.com reviewed this book with a breakdown of the stories, and I found myself agreeing with most of what she had to say.

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Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake

Posted on July 6, 2008 by janicu

Nightwalker (Dark Days, Book 1)

Jocelynn Drake

I got this ARC of Nightwalker from EOS Books just last week and I already finished it. I love long weekends.

The book came in unbound manuscript format so I walked over to Kinko's to bind it after I finished reading it. This was a trial. It was $2.66 to bind (cheap), but I had to deal with some VERY grumpy Kinko employees! This skinny european dude with a french or russian accent was annoyed that the machine wasn't warmed up yet and kept telling me: 'You have to wait 10 minutes, OK'?! He repeated this 3 times, even though I was telling him that's fine, I can wait. Why was he so upset? I'll never know. I swear I did nothing to provoke this. Meanwhile another girl was bitching at a customer and he was laughing nervously and turning around to look at me, but I kept a completely blank face – not joining in on conversations with crazy people.

On to the review.

Nightwalker is a debut novel by Jocelynn Drake, and the first book of the Dark Days series. This urban fantasy has vampires, or nightwalkers as they call themselves, as the main supernatural creature. Our protagonist Mira is an over 600 year old nightwalker, not a newbie to the scene, the guardian of the city of Savannah, with the special ability with fire that no other nightwalker has. Although the descriptions of scenery sometimes tends towards dramatic metaphor, the book has a great, suck-the-reader-in beginning, and the action just keeps coming. I felt like the book shines during the action, and there is a lot of action here. At the start of the book Mira is following a vampire hunter who has been killing off some of the younger vampires in her domain, but that doesn't seem to be the whole story. After facing and fighting Danaus, the hunter, she learns about the possible return of the naturi, creatures the nightwalkers banished from the world about 500 years ago in a face off that still gives Mira nightmares. The naturi are a race of beings described as the root of myths about elves and pixies, but much darker and bent on exterminating both humans and nightwalkers. Danaus and Mira have an uneasy alliance as they work together towards fighting the naturi. Both are bent on killing the other once this task is done.

This is an urban fantasy and most of the focus is on action, so there is a lot of fighting and swordplay; but there is also an underlying something between the two main characters. This relationship seems to be the slowly-growing kind because they are natural enemies, with Danaus believing all nightwalkers are evil and kill humans despite what Mira says. There are also beyond just professional shades in the relationship between Mira and her two human bodyguards (who protect her during daylight hours). So some interesting interactions going on between all the fighting, but still I would say although there is sex, there is no romance. At least in book one.

The main focus is on the problem of the naturi, but there is some emphasis on the mystery of Mira's powers, on what Darius really is, and Mira's place amongst the older, more powerful vampires who oversee all their kind. Mira has an old child-like relationship with a couple of them, Jabari and Sadira, where Mira goes back and forth between being an estranged, rebeling daughter, to running to them for comfort and help. I wasn't sure what to make of it since she's supposed to be 600 years old and is Keeper of her own city, but the other vampires are older than that by hundreds more. Theirs is not a human viewpoint of time, and not a human relationship. I felt like the older nightwalkers had hundreds of year old mechanisms going on which involved Mira and I need to find out what that is about. I hope more is revealed.

I found the book quite a page turner and I expect it to do very well. There are a lot of interesting characters and factions involved with the story, plus some dark creatures to battle, so I think the author has plenty more to write about. The book was enjoyable and I'm looking forward to the rest.

This book comes out July 29th, 2008.

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Urban Shaman by C. E. Murphy

Posted on June 23, 2008 by janicu

Urban Shaman (The Walker Papers, Book 1)

C.E. Murphy

I started the second of C.E. Murphy's series (the Negotiator trilogy) earlier this year, but her first book, Urban Shaman was on my TBR as well. I just read it, and I think I may actually like this series even more.

Joanne Walker is a mechanic with with the police force with both a Cherokee and a Celtic background. She went through the police academy but never used her training as an officer, content to use just her mechanic skills. At the start of this book, she was on the plane coming back from her mother's funeral when she sees a woman in trouble. As soon as she's off the plane, she grabs a cab to help the woman and runs into the Wild Hunt. This sets off a series of events which reveal Joanne's shamanic powers and a whole supernatural world.

This was action packed – one thing follows another story and Joanne goes through a lot – battered from one side and another, and drawing on her new powers to heal herself. I liked how Joanne uses her mechanic background with her powers – imagining her body like a car and fixing things by using car analogies. It was engrossing to see what would happen next, but there was also some hints of Joanne's past and what Joanne is that was interesting as well. Another strong aspect was the secondary characters – they all had depth and interacted in believable ways with Joanne, from her sidekick cabbie, to her annoyed boss, to her coworkers. It will be nice to see how these relationships develop throughout the series. Looking forward to reading the next two books.

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