Tag Archives: urban fantasy

Book Review: Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard

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Blurb from GoodReads:

Year One-Knife, Tenochtitlan the capital of the Aztecs. The end of the world is kept at bay only by the magic of human sacrifice. A Priestess disappears from an empty room drenched in blood. Acatl, High Priest, must find her, or break the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead.

This book is pretty damn good. A lot better than I expected. I have to admit, I read the blurb and decided it couldn’t be interesting. I mean, the whole Aztec blood magic thing. I wasn’t into it.

But it’s really good. I stayed up too late to read this and I really like it. The end is perfect. I did not see it coming, but at the same time, it makes perfect sense. Really. Just the kind of ending I like best.

I have to admit, I wasn’t too crazy about the book when I first heard about it. The idea of an Aztec priest and a murder mystery. I mean, the Aztecs are known for blood sacrifice, human and otherwise. I figured there would be both in the book and I wasn’t crazy about the idea.

But it’s not bad. Yes, they sacrifice animals and the temple keeps a collection of animals to sacrifice. And there are mentions of a new king having to go and gather prisoners for sacrifice to prove himself fit to be king. It’s a little disturbing, but that’s not the focus.

The writer gives all the characters Aztec names. There is a lot about the gods, what sacrifices each like, what offends them, the other temples, about the government. How the king becomes king and the politics surrounding both (both meaning the temple and the government). I don’t know how much of it is real and how much is made up out of whole cloth, but I loved it. World building is one of the things I love most and this was pretty fantastic.

The main character has personal issues – issues with his brother, his father, his choice to become a priest instead of a warrior. Despite a lifetime as a priest, he’s still struggling with all of those issues. Due to someone else’s political muddling, he became the High Priest of his order. It’s a role he still needs to grow into. He’s not exactly leading it at the beginning.

I thought he was a woman at the beginning, too. LOL Well, it’s written in 1st POV and it has the feel of a lot of urban fantasy novels so . . . yeah. I thought he was a girl. Most urban fantasies are written from the female POV so I think I might be forgiven.

Despite the Aztec world, the lack of sex, it feels a lot like urban fantasy to. But if you associate urban fantasy with a paranormal version of our world, instead of the other elements, this one might feel more like traditional fantasy to you. IMO, it’s a most wonderful mix of the two.

The most memorable part for me was when our hero discovers the first villain of the piece (a pawn, more like, who allowed herself to be used unto death) gives herself to another temple rather face immediate death. The temple will prepare her and drown her as a sacrifice to their goddess. Their goddess likes her sacrifices to be drowned and not killed in some other way.

I do recommend Servant of the Underworld.

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Book Review: Kiss the Dead by Laurell K. Hamilton

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Blurb from Goodreads: When a fifteen-year-old girl is abducted by vampires, it’s up to U.S. Marshal Anita Blake to find her. And when she does, she’s faced with something she’s never seen before: a terrifyingly ordinary group of people—kids, grandparents, soccer moms—all recently turned and willing to die to avoid serving a master. And where there’s one martyr, there will be more…

But even vampires have monsters that they’re afraid of. And Anita is one of them…

So  . . .  I am done with Kiss the Dead. It didn’t take long to finish. As always, it moves fast and quick. I talked about it here when I just started.

What I liked best: the beginning.

She gets her butt kicked by a new vampire in the opening pages. ;) It may be wrong of me, but I enjoyed it. It gave me hope for the rest of the book.

That hope was, by and large, fulfilled. Maybe because my expectations were low to begin with. LOL

Mostly, I just wanted a book that wasn’t driven by sex. That’s what I got. Oh, make no mistake, there was sex. But the first happened half way through the book and the second shortly after. I can’t tell you much about them; I am afraid I skipped past them. I don’t feel like I missed anything. As near as I can tell, there are no new guys.

I did pick up that by the end of Kiss the Dead, she has reached new levels of comfort with the youngest guy, the one she got as a kid in one of the previous books. (He’s eighteen now and about ready to graduate from high school. I cannot tell you much this relationship creeps me out.)

What I disliked: how Anita feels the need to point out she is small and tough every couple of paragraphs. Sometimes several times in the same paragraph.

The thing that surprised me the most is that they banished Asher for a few months. At the end, Anita has doubts about whether or not JC can really banish him. But I am hoping it happens. It’ll shake up their happy little life.

About the mystery: Anita does a lot of shooting. She does some things to scare the vampires into telling her what she want to know.

Some of the investigative part? I don’t know. Some of it feels iffy to me. Like it happens because the author needs to happen and there isn’t enough explanation.

I didn’t like the end. I didn’t dislike it, either. Oh, the mystery is solved; she goes deeper into her relationships. But it didn’t really satisfy. Something is missing, but hell if I can figure out what.

So . . . I am still going to read the next book.

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Book Review: Fair Game by Patricia Briggs

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From Amazon:

They say opposites attract. And in the case of werewolves Anna Latham and Charles Cornick, they mate. The son-and enforcer-of the leader of the North American werewolves, Charles is a dominant alpha. While Anna, an omega, has the rare ability to calm others of her kind.

Now that the werewolves have revealed themselves to humans, they can’t afford any bad publicity. Infractions that could have been overlooked in the past must now be punished, and the strain of doing his father’s dirty work is taking a toll on Charles.

Nevertheless, Charles and Anna are sent to Boston, when the FBI requests the pack’s help on a local serial killer case. They quickly realize that not only the last two victims were werewolves-all of them were. Someone is targeting their kind. And now Anna and Charles have put themselves right in the killer’s sights…

I loved loved loved Fair Game.

There is a murder investigation; Charles has serious issues with guilt over being his father’s henchman. Anna is worried about him and somehow ends up speaking with the humans about the murders, with Charles as her bodyguard.

The story is fast and tense and leaves you wanting to know what happens next.

What I liked best: the ending. It was spectacular. The legal court provides a silly (and predictable lol) ruling regarding the fae. A fae lord retaliates. His actions strike me as quite just. I think the schism is going to be permanent and provides for very interesting times ahead.

There are lots of other goods parts. Watching Anna confront the Marok? Fantastic. I mean, no one confronts him.

Charles has a lot of issues in this book. It’s been building and I suppose it’s only natural. One of the werewolves he killed kind of had it coming, but someone else made it sound like he didn’t. Charles fell for it, until yet another werewolf pointed that the punishment would have been the same even before the werewolves came out to the public. It was hard for Charles to see that.

What I don’t understand: Throughout the book, Anna kept telling everyone all the weakness of werewolves. Why? There was no need for her to reveal half as much as she did and I still don’t get why she did it. She told the agents how to behave around Charles and made him sound out of control, which he isn’t. Close to edge, yeah, but still in control.

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Book Review: Banshee Charmer by Tiffany Allee

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From Entangled Publishing:

When she’s sent to a crime scene and finds her second dead woman in as many weeks, half-banshee detective Kiera “Mac” McLoughlin is convinced a serial killer is on the loose. Incubi are extinct, her boss insists. But what else can kill a woman in the throes of pleasure? When her partner is murdered after using witchcraft to locate the killer and Mac is thrown off the case, her frustration turns to desperation.

Certain the killer is an incubus, Mac works behind her department’s back to chase down slim, sometimes perilous leads. While the killer eludes her, she does discover handsome Aidan Byrne, an investigative counterpart from the enigmatic Otherworlder Enforcement Agency. Mac typically runs her investigations fast and hard, but with Aidan at her side, she’s running this one “hot” as well. But Aidan knows more than he’s letting on—something that could shatter their blazing romance and add Mac to the killer’s growing body count…

I finished Banshee Charmer by Tiffany Allee this week. I asked for it because the main character is a banshee and really, how many times do you use a banshee MC? Or even a half-banshee.

Banshee Charmer is the first in a new Otherworlder Enforcement Agency series. I enjoyed it. It’s a short, quick read. It moves fast.

The part I liked best was when Mac uses her scream on the bad guy. ;) Too bad she isn’t a full banshee; that guy deserves to die.

Screaming isn’t that useful when it comes to detective work. She needs to do it the way non-magical cops do it: with her brains and guts. I enjoyed reading all that.

It is always clear that, Aidan, the male lead and romantic interest isn’t telling her everything. It turns out he was lying to her from the beginning. She forgives him for that, accepts him at the end and the book ends there. I don’t quite understand how she can do that.

Maybe that’s because Banshee Charmer is so short. I am not sure how many pages (I have a kindle ARC from net galley) but I think maybe half the size of a normal sized novel.

Also, lots of times it felt like she was telling us (me, the reader!) very interesting things about the other characters, but I wasn’t feeling it when the those characters showed up on page. Maybe this was also a result of the short length; not enough space to show everything I would like to be shown in the characters.

Other than that I would have to say this is a very interesting world (banshees and selkies and incubus and so much more). I like the main character and I think there is a lot potential for future stories.

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Book Review: Tricks of the Trade by Laura Anne Gilman

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Goodreads: WHEN MAGIC GOES WRONG, WHO ARE YOU GOING TO CALL?

The name’s Torres, Bonnie Torres, and I’m a paranormal scene investigator—rooting out the truth about crimes of magic. It’s dangerous and boring and scary and fascinating. Though not everyone in the Cosa Nostradamus is happy we’re around, which can make things…tricky.

Working two cases—looking into a murder for the NYPD, and a rich man’s break-in—should be well within our abilities. But when things start getting weird in the Electric Apple, Private Unaffiliated Paranormal Investigations is stretched to the limits, trying to keep one step ahead and out of trouble. Add in rumors of a powerful creature gunning for us and it’s not just our rep on the line this time—if we don’t solve this case, everyone will suffer.

Fortunately, around here, when the going gets weird, the weird hire us.…

I enjoyed Tricks of the Trade. It’s doesn’t move at a breakneck speed, but it’s not slow. It just kind of advances at a very steady, moderate kind of pace.

Tricks of the Trade is the third in Paranormal Scene Investigations. It’s like a magic CSI: NY. Sometime between the last book and this one, the team got a new player and I really think Ms. Gilman ought to do a short story or two detailing her interview and subsequent disaster in the field (referred to by the characters, but not in any detail.)

This time they have two cases and Bonnie gets to investigate each in turn. One involves a robbery, the other a murder. The robbery is pretty interesting. ;) It’s not quite what it seems.

Bonnie is more mature than in the last two books. She has seen so much, poor girl, it disturbs her. Her teammates have found out about her relationship with Ben, and yes, at the end of the book they even kissed! Nothing else, sadly. They have accepted their attraction to each other, and I think it had something to do with how the robbery case was resolved. ;)

An ending which, by the way, I didn’t see coming. (I didn’t see the ending in the last book coming, either). But it’s pretty much the only way it could have ended. You can’t really ask anything else of the perfect ending. ;)

There is no information on what this Merge thing between actually is. Bonnie hasn’t talked to her mentor/adopted father about it and I really think she should.

But the most hilarious thing in this book is that one of the bosses, Ian, apparently cannot parse evidence. He can’t keep his own magic from tainting the evidence. And really that is the whole premise of the book – to process evidence like magical CSI techs. I just found it funny he couldn’t do that. But his job is political schmoozing, so it works out.

Robin the Trickster also shows up in this story. My other favorite scene was when people are screaming because the train won’t come, the shuttle won’t come and people are screaming at the poor cops who telling them it will come, just be patient. The trickster is cackling to himself, and than some cabs show up to take the poor stranded strap-hangers to their destination. Robin the Trickster is baffled and decides to think up other ways to spread mischief in the city.

The weak point of this novel are the POV changes. It’s not that the happen a lot, they don’t, but sometimes the change in voice isn’t clear. Different POV characters sound the same. Especially when they don’t spend time talking to other people and the scene takes place mostly in their heads. I suspect that’s why some other people were confused by the POV changes.

Grade: B-

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Teaser Tuesday: Tricks of the Trade by Laura Anne Gilman, part 2

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read

* Open to a random page

* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! 

Still reading Tricks of the Trade. Haven’t finished yet because I got distracted by Scholar by L. E. Modesitt. (Scholar was excellent.)

My Teasers:

“I’m allll about the girl pants,” Nick said in a singsong falsetto, picking up the tail end of our conversation. I wasn’t looking at him, but from the solid whap-noise, I was guessing that someone – probably Sharon – had just slapped him upside the head to shut him up before my visitor to our table.

- Tricks of the Grade by Laura Anne Gilman

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Teaser Tuesday: Tricks of the Grade by Laura Anne Gilman

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read

* Open to a random page

* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! 

My Teasers:

“Ok. Okay.” She wasn’t happy about heading all the way out there, but apparently so long as it didn’t involve having to the leave the City, she could deal with it. Shar was our only born-and-bred New Yorker – I didn’t count, having spent of my teens in Boston – and sometimes that just shone through.

- Tricks of the Grade by Laura Anne Gilman

I have to say, I sympathize with Shar. Not that I am a born-and-bred New Yorker. ;)

But who wants to go anywhere without decent public transportation, huh?

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Teaser Tuesday: Darkness Rising, part 2

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read

* Open to a random page

* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Still reading the same book as last week! I haven’t made much progress, but the week’s been very busy.

My Teasers:

He nodded, glancing at me. “You sound relieved.”

“I am. I mean, vampires can be nasty, but I wouldn’t put them in the same league as something that’s crawled from the gates of hell.”

- Darkness Rising by Keri Arthur

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Teaser Tuesday: Death Magic

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read

* Open to a random page

* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teasers:

“Fear and bigotry don’t need explaining. They simply are, like traffic jams and taxes.”

- Death Magic by Eileen Wilks

My Creepy Meter is Off

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Yesterday for my teaser Tuesday, I posted the first couple of lines from Darkness Rising by Keri Arthur.  A lot of people said it was sad, which I agree with.

But a lot of people also said it was creepy, which I didn’t see until people pointed it out. I thought those lines were a little sad and lot interesting. It makes me wonder if my creepy meter is off.

It could be. I mean, some people think half the stuff I read is horror. I think it is urban fantasy. I mean, you find it on the SF shelves. But some people also think vampire=horror.

Beyond that, I submitted a story for a flash anthology and the editor accepted for a horror anthology (she’s the editor for both). I thought my story was urban fantasy. But, no, it is apparently horror. And horror is supposed to be creepy, right? It’s not just about gore and monsters. It’s the scary and creepy factor of a story that makes it horror (you don’t need gore for that).

I am thinking now I misjudge how creepy stories are in general, both the ones I write and the ones I read.

I mean, I loved ghost stories, monster stories and mystery stories as a child. A good chunk of my childhood reading came from the library’s horror section. The children’s horror section was pretty small and there were never enough ghost/demon/monster stories. The mystery section was much bigger, so I read a lot of mysteries, especially the ones about haunted houses.

I guess what I am saying since I’ve spent a good chunk of time reading stuff like that, I just don’t see it as creepy anymore. Maybe stuff that other people read and think “creepy”, I go “ohhh interesting.” Maybe stuff I think of as creepy, other people think of as scary.

It’s a little worrisome, because it means I can’t judge my own writing effectively.

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