Category: Mercy Thompson

One of the worst taglines I’ve come up with lately—which is saying something. But it’ll do.

Winter Lost

DETAILS:
Series: Mercy Thompson, #14
Publisher: Ace Books
Publication Date: June 18, 2024
Format: Hardcover
Length: 406 pg.
Read Date: July 2-4, 2024

What’s Winter Lost About?

Mercy’s brother Gary shows up at their front door late one night in a royal mess—he’s almost unidentifiable. More than that, he’s having a hard time understanding what’s going on around him and is having a worse time communicating it. No one has any idea why he’s there, where he came from, or what happened.

A quick consultation with a couple of Fae sends Adam and Mercy to Montana—the type of magic that zapped Gary is characteristic of a particular Fae. Along the way, an epic winter storm engulfs Western Montana, Idaho, Eastern Washington—and perhaps more.

Adam and Mercy meet the one responsible for Gary’s state—to free him, they have to complete a task (the guy’s not being a jerk by this, it’s literally a condition of the spell). They have just a couple of days to find something, free Gary, save a wedding, and…I kid you not…save the world.

Everything Else

While the main story is plenty to talk about, there are a couple of other things to note. There’s some good development with Mary Jo, Honey is making some interesting choices, Tad and Jesse are up to something fun, Zee and Adam are involved in a project, and plenty of other things are afoot.

We continue the whole jockeying-for-dominance thing under Adam with Warren, Darryl, and Sherwood—but it seems to be going better than it was in the last book—but it feels like there’s some sort of slow-burn story going there and I’m not sure I’m going to enjoy where it ends up.

There’s more action on the building conflict with various witch groups and the conflict with Bonarata. I want to be super-vague about both of these, but want to mention them. They both took very little space in the novel as a whole and part of me wonders if we really needed them now—we could’ve come back to them in book 15 and spent more time on both (while assuming things were ongoing with both). But…I really liked the way that Briggs wrote both of them.

Bonarata is conducting some psychological warfare on Mercy, which seems to be pretty effective. As part of that, he’s hurting other people. The best example the readers get in this book is a certain kind of horrific. I don’t know if Briggs has shown something so depraved since Iron Kissed—but this time the victim is someone we don’t even know the name of. Part of me is really impressed with how Briggs wrote this, most of me wishes she hadn’t.

So, what did I think about Winter Lost?

There are a couple of things to say—first: I had a whole lot of fun with this one. Yeah, the stakes are higher than they sometimes are. But this felt more fun than the last couple of books, things have felt very weighty since Silence Fallen. This was closer to River Marked, it seems.

But more than that, Briggs was trying some new things narratively, both in the order and way she was telling the story—and in the way the cast of characters were spread out in this book. And everything she tried worked really well. At the moment, I can’t think of a way to talk about this with any level of detail and not spoil some big things—so let’s just leave it with Briggs trying some new things for the series and succeeding. I don’t know if she’ll want to try to tell another story like this anytime soon (and I’m not sure she should), but I like to see her experimenting—and hope she continues.

There’s not much more to say—there’s some great action, some solid character moments, a nice bit of new mythology, and Briggs has planted all sorts of seeds for a couple (or more) future installments in the series. This is just what Mercy fans needed, and I hope we get more of it soon.

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
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Soul Taken by Patricia Briggs: Mercy May Find Herself Up Against a Horror Movie Character

By HCNewton

On September 12, 2022

In Mercy Thompson, Patricia Briggs, Urban Fantasy

Soul Taken

by Patricia Briggs

DETAILS:
Series: Mercy Thompson, #13
Publisher: Ace
Publication Date: August 22, 2022
Format: Hardcover
Length: 388 pg.
Read Date: August 29-30, 2022

“The thing that we thought might end up with Adam dead looks like it will work out okay,” I told her dryly as her feet hit the ground again. “We have another situation to replace it that might end up with Adam dead. Or me dead. Or maybe the whole pack. But at least we solved one deadly situation before we picked up another one.”

“Business as usual,” said Tad.

What’s Soul Taken About?

Wulfe continues to act strangely—for him, that is—as he was last time. Then he goes missing. And Marsilia tasks Mercy with finding him, or she and the Pack will face the consequences (not life and death consequences, either—something worse).

But it’s not just Wulfe who’s missing—there are others, too. The paths seem to lead to a Fae artifact believed to have been destroyed and a local Urban Legend/subject of a new Horror movie.

Sure, this isn’t as strange as the miniature zombie goats, but it’s close. And slightly less cute.

Sherwood Post

“I’ll call Samuel and bug him.”

“Why not ask Sherwood?” Adam said.

“Did he sound like someone who was going to spill the beans to you?” I queried. “He talks more, but he doesn’t say more. He hasn’t changed that much.” I found that reassuring.

After a lot of speculation, we finally get to know Sherwood Post’s actual identity. And, um. Wow. As she clearly intended, the answer Briggs gave us only leads to more questions.

Several more questions.

For example: was this identity her plan when she first introduced the character? (likely, but I can see a scenario where it wasn’t) Given how this changes what we know about the world, when did she decide to shake things up to this extent? Lastly, when do we start seeing the ripple effects from this revelation? Okay, maybe one more: how many other things has she been lying to us about? (okay, that last one is a joke. Pretty much)

Unintended Consequences

Mercy (and therefore, we) are aware of a decent segment of the supernatural/paranatural population of the Tri-Cities area (although I think I remember her being surprised by some early on in the series)—she knows all the werewolves, many of the Fae, the goblins, vampires, etc.

But we learn along the way in this book that because of Mercy’s declaration a few books back that the area is under the Pack’s protection many “lower powered” supernatural beings have moved into the area for that protection. Mercy and the Pack were unaware of this until they met some in the midst of their investigation. Briggs didn’t spend much time on the idea, but it laid the groundwork for potentially several future storylines.

Even aside from that, I thought it was a great idea—and really seems likely to have happened given Mercy’s action.

So, what did I think about Soul Taken?

I’m never going to complain about getting to spend time with Mercy and the crowd. But I felt let down with this novel. The premise was promising, maybe even more than that; I thought the threats brought by Marsilia and how that played out were intriguing; I was glad to see who the Big Bad behind it all was; and the future ramifications for the seethe are promising. But the stuff in between the premise and the defeat of the Big Bad? Eh. Even the big fight scene wasn’t that good—nor am I that invested in the means by which they were defeated (dancing around a spoiler there).

Really the things that interested me the most about the book were the ongoing arcs and development—the stuff about Sherwood, the lesser powers, some internal Pack matters, and Zee (there was a lot of great material with Zee here). When the subplots and the things the novel isn’t about are what grab me, there’s a problem with the book. The solution was too rushed, it was all too easy, really. If Briggs had taken another hundred pages or so to really dig into the premise and the hunt for the Big Bad, maybe that would’ve worked (but that’d make the book super-sized by her standards).

I just wanted more, I guess. It was fun enough to justify the time and I’ll be back for more—but I expect more from Briggs. I do think long-time fans will enjoy Soul Taken—and despite what it might sound like, I did—but it will leave you wanting.

3.5 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs: Mercy Deals with Unexpected Threats from Every Direction

By HCNewton

On April 6, 2020

In Fiction, Mercy Thompson, Patricia Briggs, Urban Fantasy

Smoke Bitten

by Patricia Briggs
Series: Mercy Thompson, #12

Hardcover, 342 pg.
ACE, 2020

Read: March 24-28, 2020
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

There’s just so much going on in this novel, it’s hard to know where to start—this may be the busiest Mercy Thompson novel yet. Well, okay, we’ll start with the titular bit. Something/Someone has escaped from Underhill. This seems fairly impossible, but I guess even nigh-omnipotent sentient spaces make mistakes every now and then. Doubtlessly the Columbia Basin pack would’ve gotten involved at some point, but since Mercy recognized the threat before the Fae—or anyone else—did, they were on the front line for this. Whoever it bites, it controls. It can shape-shift to look like anyone, too. It’s deadly and doesn’t seem to have much of a plan beyond creating as much chaos and gathering as much power as it can.

While dealing with that, another threat to the pack presents itself. There are some new werewolves in the area, and their goal is simple: become the new pack in town. As Adam’s pack is now independent of The Marrok, these wolves have decided they’re ripe for a takeover. None of these are wolves to be taken lightly—some have recently left a pack run by very dominant Alpha, which took some strength. All of them have strong reputations amongst the wolves (generally positive), although one is known as the wolf who’d do things that Charles Cornick wouldn’t do for his father. These are not going to be easy to face off against.

The thing that’s the most distressing (and given what I’ve just talked about, that’s saying something) for Mercy is that there’s a problem between her and Adam. The roots of the issue go back to before we met Adam, but something happened in Storm Cursed to tip Adam over the brink. The latest meddling by Adam’s ex, Chrissy, made it all boil over and threatened the peace and stability of the pack—as well as their marriage. We see Mercy at her most vulnerable since…well, probably since the attack at the garage (or what The Monster tried to do in Bone Crossed), which stresses for the reader how bad the situation is. The two take some positive steps, but things aren’t resolved wholly here—and I hope Briggs doesn’t patch things up quickly between the two between novels. I think we need to see the pair continuing to work through things.

There’s a few more things going on, too, including some fun with Sherwood (who is quickly becoming a favorite character), some interesting developments with Jesse’s life, and some interesting character development in general with pretty much each of the pack members we usually get time with. Oh, and lest I forget, an old friend comes back.

One final thing to mention: last year, while talking about Storm Cursed, I said:

There’s something that happens in the climactic battle scene that I want to talk about more than I want to talk about anything else in this book—because in the long run it’s going to be bigger and more important than anything else that happens or I’ll eat my hat. It’s so small, so quick that it’d be easy to miss—2 sentences on one page, then twelve pages later 2 more sentences. And Briggs has at least one novel’s worth of plot seeded right there. I love when I see an author do something like that and make it look effortless. And I think I’m underselling it. But I’ll have to leave it there—maybe in book 12 (or 15) when it happens, I’ll remember to say, “Remember that thing I didn’t talk about in Storm Cursed? This is it.”

Well, Briggs gave that seed plenty of water and a little fertilizer in these pages. I still don’t feel comfortable talking about it in detail for reasons I can’t explain. But whoo-boy, I can’t wait to see what Briggs has in mind.

So, yeah, like I said—a lot of balls in the air. Or plates spinning. Pick a metaphor you like best. And I think Briggs did alright by them all—yeah, I’d have liked a bit more time with the new wolves, but we didn’t need it—and I’m not sure we’re done with them (maybe in the next Alpha and Omega book if not in an upcoming Mercy novel?). To deal well with all these elements and keep the novel moving quickly and resolving in a satisfactory manner (with a few more strings than usual left for the next installment) speaks highly of Briggs’ skill. Fans of Mercy Thompson shouldn’t wait to grab this, people who are curious about the series should be able to come on board now, too (although, you really ought to read them all). Briggs is at the top of her game now, and it’s just fun to watch.

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs: Goblin Royalty, Coyote, the Strangest Zombies you’ve Run Across Combine and an excess of “Next”s

By HCNewton

On May 16, 2019

In Fiction, Mercy Thompson, Patricia Briggs, Urban Fantasy

Storm Cursed

by Patricia Briggs
Series: Mercy Thompson, #11

Hardcover, 355 pg.
Ace, 2019
Read: May 8 -10, 2019

Adam grinned at me, “That which doesn’t destroy us . . .”

“Leaves us scratching our heads and saying, ‘What’s next?'” I said.

There’s always plenty of things that can answer that “What’s next?” question in the land of Mercy Thompson — but Storm Cursed seems to have extra nexts in it. Briggs is such an excellent series writer — there’s always a great mix of classic favorites (Zee, Uncle Mike, Mary Jo and Ben) and the new (Goblin King, the events of Silence Fallen, the baddies of this book) — like a favorite band touring in support of their new album that no one’s heard yet, she sprinkles in enough of the familiar with the new that you can enjoy the songs you can sing along with and appreciate the new for what they bring to the table.

We start off with the typical mini-adventure featuring Mary Jo, Ben and Mercy — with a little bit of Larry mixed in. There’s a goblin on the run from law enforcement after causing some mayhem in California who thought the Tri-Cities would be a safe place to lay low. Boy, was he wrong. This goblin accomplishes a lot of other things, though. He brings Mercy and the pack into a new part of the area and the law enforcement there, for starters.

This sets things up perfectly for Mercy and Mary Jo to come to the aid of said law enforcement when it comes to a very strange supernatural outbreak. Miniature zombie goats. ’nuff said.

Zombie goats — no matter their size (as important as it is to Mercy and Stefan) don’t just show up one day. They’re the product of witchcraft, and with Elizaveta still in Europe following Silence Fallen the Ti-Cities is ripe for new witches to move in and usurp her. I’m not going to tell you if they’re successful or not, but they sure make things interesting for the defenders of the area like Mercy and Adam. This also gives Sherwood Post, the mysterious wolf sent by the Marrock to be a part of this pack after something happened that he can’t talk about/remember involving witches. He apparently picked up a thing or two, and gets the chance to demonstrate that.

I’ve liked Sherwood since he showed up the first time, and now I’m super-intrigued by him.

There’s a big, summit-like meeting between representatives of the U.S. and the Fae leadership in the making — and the Pack has a lot to do with making sure it happens without a hitch. Naturally, for reasons that are unclear (at first), the new witches in town are working to disrupt it for their own ends. Because there’s not enough going on without that — an excess of nexts, really.

Speaking of excess — Coyote is lurking in the background of many of these events and he’s determined to keep Mercy in the middle of things, for his own reasons. If he’d just been up front with her, I think she’d have been on-board without hesitation (and certainly seems glad to have helped once she figures out his play). Instead, he manipulates her into doing what he wants — which is bad for the character, good for the reader, because he’s so much fun to read, especially when it comes at Mercy’s expense.

No matter what happens in a Mercy Thompson book — they’re filled with fun, and it’s easy to fool yourself into only remembering the fun parts and pushing the darkness and trauma aside in your memory until the next book comes along and reminds you just how messed up things can get for Mercy and the rest. This book is no exception — but in may ways the evil they confront this time is a special kind of Evil that requires at least one capital when you talk about it. What happens throughout this book, what’s uncovered here — especially the last few chapters — is probably the most inherently disturbing that Briggs has given us yet. I wondered at more than one point, if even Atticus O’Sullivan could hate witches as much as Mercy does (for good reason!). I decided the two would probably end up in a tie, but that Mercy has more recent evidence for her prejudice.

There’s something that happens in the climactic battle scene that I want to talk about more than I want to talk about anything else in this book — because in the long run it’s going to be bigger and more important than anything else that happens or I’ll eat my hat. It’s so small, so quick that it’d be easy to miss — 2 sentences on one page, then twelve pages later 2 more sentences. And Briggs has at least one novel’s worth of plot seeded right there. I love when I see an author do something like that and make it look effortless. And I think I’m underselling it. But I’ll have to leave it there — maybe in book 12 (or 15) when it happens, I’ll remember to say, “Remember that thing I didn’t talk about in Storm Cursed? This is it.”

Overall, this is another very solid entry in an incredibly reliable series, and I’m already excited to see what happens in book 12. Still, I get the feeling that Briggs is holding back a lot lately — here more than usual. Maybe it’s to keep the tone light, maybe it’s to keep the page count in check. Maybe it’s just me. But it seems to me that the last few books could’ve easily been deeper, darker, and more exciting, if Briggs would just allow that to happen — like she’s pulling her punches. As much as I love these characters, this world and Briggs’ writing, I just can’t get as excited about them as I want to. This is a great read — please don’t misunderstand me — but it could be better, it feels like it’d be easy for her to make it better. So I’ve got to stick with 4 stars — which feels like I’m pulling my punches, too.

—–

4 Stars

Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs

By HCNewton

On March 22, 2017

In Fiction, Mercy Thompson, Patricia Briggs, Urban Fantasy

Silence Fallen

by Patricia Briggs
Series: Mercy Thompson, #10

Hardcover, 364 pg.
Ace Books, 2017

Read: March 10 – 13, 2017

It was pretty clear from the pages of Fire Touched that Mercy’s little The Doctor to the Sycorax speech was a big deal. But I don’t think any of us really had a clue just how far-reaching the potential ramifications were until it’s spelled out for us by a few different characters here. Well, okay, that’s probably not true — a lot of people who read these books probably thought about it, but I didn’t — and I think that Mercy and her acquaintances do a better job of spelling things out than I could, so I’ll let them. But many in the supernatural communities aren’t happy that she did it and are looking for ways to insulate themselves from it, as well has looking for ways to take advantage of it for their benefit.

One such person is Bonarata — one of the oldest, and most feared vampires in the world — he has ties to the Tri-Cities vampires, as well. He’s the one who’s responsible for Marisila, Stefan and Wulfe leaving Europe and ending up in the Tri-Cities. He’s also a legend in Werewolf circles — many years ago, he killed an Alpha and turned his mate into a blood-slave. After the death of Chastel, Bonarata is the closest thing the non-Fae have to a Super-Villain (pretty sure any of the Grey Lords that wanted to could wipe the floor with him).

So shortly after Fire Touched, Bonarata arranges for Mercy to be kidnapped. Now, while Briggs’ vampires aren’t the political wheels-within-wheels schemers that Faith Hunter’s are, they’re still crafty and wily — so all his reasons for doing so aren’t immediately discernible (and probably not totally discernible by the end of the book — but we get closer).

Mercy is Mercy, however, and it doesn’t take too long before she escapes from Bonarata and finds herself running throughout Europe to escape from his henchmen. She finds herself in Prague (this detail feels like a spoiler, but it’s on the dust jacket, so . . . ) where her best bet for an ally is one of the few Alphas in the wold with a grudge against Bran Cornick. In addition to this she finds herself in the middle of a couple of vampire nests competing for control of Prague, and there’s a whole bunch of ghosts (and other things that go bump in the night) that are taking advantage of the presence of someone who can see them.

Meanwhile, Adam, Marisila, Stefan, Honey and a couple of others are on the way to Bonarata’s home to negotiate for Mercy’s release. Whoops. These chapters are told in Mercy’s voice from Adam’s point-of-view, as if she’s relating what he told her happened, which is a nice touch. It also suggests that she survives this mess — not-at-all-a-spoiler: the first person narrator lives. It’s here that we learn a lot more about Honey, Marisila and Stefan — we also learn about Adam’s Doctor Who fandom. It’s nice seeing things from Adam’s POV for a change.

Mostly the book consists of Adam and Mercy doing all they can to survive long enough to see each other again — which is sweet. We’ve seen them work together plenty of times in this series — we’ve also seen them apart for brief periods — this is the longest (that I can recall) that they’ve been separated, and the furthest apart they’ve been. They’re both independent by nature (however that nature is shaped into something else for the needs of the Pack), so they can adapt to this, but their primary goal is to get back together. Which I’m sure made many, many fans cheer and melt.

Will someone drawn in by the cover art, or wanting to see what the fuss over this Briggs-person enjoy the book? Yeah, I think so — but not as much as the established fan. This book works as well as it does because of the world, not just the story. We’ve been in Mercy’s world for 10 books now — for most of us you can add the short stories and Charles & Anna novels, too. We know it what it means for Honey to make that trip. We know what it means for people to exploit Mercy (or try to) to get to Bran or Adam. We know the pain that the loss of pack-link or mate-bond creates. This would be a lousy book 4, but with the cumulative weight of this series, Silence Fallen us a strong book 10.

It was a fun book — exciting, amusing, and fascinating to see how packs and nests work outside of the US. Most of all it was a good story, taking several competent and powerful characters out of their usual setting and circumstances, and throwing them into a milieu they’re not familiar with to watch them sink or swim. Excellent read for fans of the series — which isn’t a surprise to any, but just something I think I have to say.

Now begins the wait for #11.

—–

4 Stars

Mercy Thompson Audiobooks 1-3: Moon Called, Blood Bound, Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs, Lorelei King

By HCNewton

On March 6, 2017

In Audiobook, Fiction, Mercy Thompson, Patricia Briggs, Urban Fantasy

Rather than try to talk about these individually, I thought I’d save time and tackle them in one post. Let’s hope it works…
—

Moon Called

by Patricia Briggs, Lorelei King (Narrator)
Series: Mercy Thompson, #1
Unabridged Audiobook, 9 hrs., 14 min.
Penguin Audio, 2009
Read: December 23 – 38, 2016

Blood Bound

by Patricia Briggs, Lorelei King (Narrator)
Series: Mercy Thompson, #2
Unabridged Audiobook, 10 hrs., 2 min.
Penguin Audio, 2009
Read: December 28 – 30, 2016

Iron Kissed

by Patricia Briggs, Lorelei King (Narrator)
Series: Mercy Thompson, #3
Unabridged Audiobook, 9 hrs., 11 min.
Penguin Audio, 2009
Read: December 30, 2016 – January 4, 2017

I’ve only posted about a couple of the books in this series, since I read most of the series before starting this blog, it feels strange not to have old posts to go back and steal from. How do I do this concisely, now? I mean this should be one of the longest posts I’ve written, if I was going to do it right.

But I’m not going to do it right, I’m going to do it quick. Simply: Mercy Thompson is a skinwalker of sorts, who was raised by a pack of werewolves (a pack led by the Alpha of North America, it should be noted), who has an English degree and works as a VW mechanic. When we meet her in Moon Called, she’s living near the Alpha of the Tri-Cities of Oregon, is friends with a vampire, knows a couple of the Fae who live on the (Fae) reservation nearby. Almost no one knows about her ability to shift into a coyote (other than these supernatural folks), and she has no intention of changing that. However, she finds herself in the middle of a few goings-on in the supernatural community and becomes a prominent player in the area.

In Moon Called Mercy discovers a group experimenting on werewolves — even creating some for the sole purpose of being guinea pigs. In Blood Bound, Mercy is called upon by the local vampires to pay a debt by helping them track and destroy a rogue über-vampire/serial killer. Then in Iron Kissed Mercy begins helping local Fae investigate a series of murders on the reservation, using her special abilities — in the end, she has to dance around Fae politics while trying to prove that a dear friend wasn’t behind the killings. Throughout this, she has a love life, some friends, helps the local pack with some internal issues, and finds herself in mortal danger frequently. All while maintaining her shop, sense of humor, and independence.

I love these characters — all of them, I can’t think of a single one of them I wouldn’t want to spend more time with. Mercy has an attitude, perspective and humor that I enjoy, and good taste in friends/acquaintances, too. Briggs’ approach to werewolves, vampires, etc. is fantastic and I frequently judge other UF writers by how they match up to Briggs’ approach.

There is a richness to Briggs’ writing and to the world she’s created that’s truly impressive. It takes me less than a chapter to feel absolutely at home in the books (this happened when I first tried Moon Called and has happened with every successive volume — not just in my going through them again on audio). What blew me away going through these books is how much of this series (and the spin-off series, Alpha and Omega) is established in Moon Called — she’s what, 14 books or so in and 98% of those books can be traced to this first one. Whether that’s because she’s good at going back and picking up details to flesh out or because she plotted things out so well, it really doesn’t matter — the material was there and she’s using it well. The world she established is so well-formed that she can keep playing in it without having to invent new things, change the rules she established, or anything else. I can’t think of another UF universe that was so well-built from book one.

King gives a really strong performance here — her characters are spot-on, the narrative stays engaging. Really, a bang up job, with one big flaw: she can’t pronounce local geographic names. Granted, most people who don’t live in Washington/Idaho/Montana(ish) aren’t going to notice, but man, it’s hard to listen to. If I have to hear her butcher “Coeur d’Alene” one more time . . . On the other hand, there’s this scene in Iron Kissed between Adam (local Alpha) and Ben (British werewolf who joined the pack because he had to leave England under suspicious circumstances) where Ben has to explain to Adam the psychological trauma Mercy’s suffered and how she’s reacting. When I first read the book, I was in shock a. because of the traumatic scene (really well written) and b. Ben’s more than capable and empathetic understanding/explanation. This time through, King’s performance just stunned me — it was so good. She nailed the whole thing and almost had me in tears in my cubicle.

I loved the books, I think the audiobooks are among the best I’ve heard — the only reason that I haven’t gone further in this series of audiobooks is that the library system here doesn’t have #4 (they do have the rest of the series, oddly enough), and I haven’t justified the expense for myself yet. For old fans of the books, or people looking for something new to listen to — these are well worth your time. Great material presented in a pretty compelling way.

—–

4 Stars

Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs

By HCNewton

On May 19, 2016

In Authors, Fiction, Mercy Thompson, Patricia Briggs, Urban Fantasy

Fire Touched

by Patricia Briggs
Series: Mercy Thompson, #9

Hardcover, 342 pg.
Ace, 2016

Read: March 23 – 24, 2016

How is this only the 2nd Mercy Thompson book to appear on the blog?!?! Seriously, what is my problem? (other than reading all but the last two before I started this thing, I guess)

If Chapter 1 doesn’t include the funniest scene that Briggs has ever written, I’ll eat my hat. Naturally, after cracking me up, I figured she’d be taking us to a pretty dark place. And while there was a good deal of darkness — and potential for big, dark happenings down the road (but I’ve thought that before, like with Fair Game) — it didn’t get as bad as I feared.

There’s a scene fairly early on here that reminded me of the big ” …it is defended!” speech from Doctor Who‘s “The Christmas Invasion” — the moment that the new Doctor defined himself. Mercy does something a lot like that not realizing just how far her message will go (thanks to the Internet, smartphones, and 25-hour news cycles), and just how much trouble she’s created for Adam and the rest of their pack — as well as Bran and pretty much every werewolf in the U.S.

Part of the immediate fallout of this moment is that a human child who has been abducted by the Fae at some point that no one (including him) remembers comes to Mercy for help. He doesn’t quite fit in to this world any more, but he doesn’t want to be with the Fae, either. With a big emphasis on the latter. So, with she gives him sanctuary of a sort — at least temporarily. This brings attacks, threats, and destruction — with more to come if she doesn’t hand the boy over.

You can imagine how that goes over with everyone’s favorite shape-shifting mechanic.

There’s a lot more going on, but the fate of the boy is the centerpiece.

There’s a major loss in this novel that moved me more than I could’ve expected. On the one hand, I think it’ll be good for the long-term health of the series. But man, it’s going to be strange opening the next Mercy book without seeing ____.

I’ve seen some people disappointed with this book, but I’m not sure why. There was plenty of action — but it wasn’t as epic (for lack of a better word) as Night Broken or River Marked, maybe that’s it. You’ve got some really solid scenes — in the comedic and the action veins, Mercy makes a strange new friend, plenty of Fae politics, internal pack politics and Mercy as David Tennant. Not the best in the series (but they can’t all be), but a very satisfying installment in a really good series. That’s more than I can ask for.

Again, Mercy as David Tennant. Need I say more?

—–

4 Stars

Night Broken by Patricia Briggs

By HCNewton

On June 3, 2014

In Authors, Fiction, Mercy Thompson, Patricia Briggs, Urban Fantasy

Night Broken

by Patricia Briggs
Series: Mercy Thompson, #8

Hardcover, 341 pg.
Ace Hardcover, 2014
Read: March 19 – 20, 2014

Yay! Mercy’s back! She’s back and she’s facing off with her most potentially destructive foe . . . Adam’s ex. Oh, sure, there’s some sort of Gray Lord threatening her, a supernatural super-baddie that Mercy and her pals have never heard of, and an escaped felon who has powers a lot like Mercy . But the big danger comes from Christy.

This wasn’t a “big” novel in any real sense — seeds were planted/characters were introduced tha will be important, and I wouldn’t want to say that nothing significant happens. But, no epochal shifts, no game changers here — just straightforward case of bad guy comes to town, and Mercy et al. stop it. And along the way the final confrontation with the bad guy, we get to spend sometime with the Tri-Cities pack, as well as see some of the fallout from the last couple of books in this or the Alpha-Omega series. And that’s fine. Not every book needs to be an even, some just need to have a fun story, and maybe even move the chess pieces around a bit.

Initially, the villain of the piece looks fairly disappointing, just some stalker jerk making life difficult of Christy. But it soon becomes clear that there’s more to this guy, and it doesn’t take long to see that he’s one bad customer — creepy, dangerous, and powerful in a way I don’t think I’ve seen before. All in all, a worthy competitor for Mercy and the pack.

As always, the interplay between Mercy and the various members of the pack — or just between the pack without regard to Mercy — is fascinating. At once familial, yet competitive, not necessarily all that affectionate, yet more loyal than a troop of Marines.
The more the Jesse/Mercy relationship develops, the more I like to see it — particularly here, where much of the book can be seen as mother v. step-mother, watching Jesse maturely navigating those treacherous waters was quite satisfying.

My main (only?) quibble with the book was the way that Adam was depicted. He was continually utterly clueless about the way that Christy’s actions would/did affect Mercy. A lot of that, to be fair to the guy, can be attributed to how much he’s moved on from Christy and how devoted he is to Mercy — he doesn’t even see his ex as a potential threat. But, 1. Adam’s smarter than that and 2. given how territorial werewolves are in Briggs’ universe (and as seen in this book), it’s almost impossible to believe that he wouldn’t pick up on the territorial incursions Christy’s making.

Not the best thing that Briggs has written in this series, but not the worst. It had a good story, it was good to spend time with these characters, and I enjoyed the introduction of the new forces at play. A fun way to spend a few hours. Just about everything you could ask for.

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4 1/2 Stars