Category: Urban Fantasy Page 37 of 44

by Benedict Jacka
Series: Alex Verus, #6

Mass Market Paperback, 295 pg.

Ace, 2015

Read: August 11 – 13, 2015

This was not at all what I expected going in to this (granted, I only read the first couple of lines of the Publisher’s Description) — sure, I knew Alex’s mouth would get him in trouble, he’d have to outwit someone more powerful than him, Luna would be underused — despite Alex depending on his friends to pull him out of trouble.

What I didn’t expect was Alex Verus vs. Bureaucracy, not the catchiest of titles, but pretty accurate. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like the Star Wars prequels with all the bureaucracy, trade negotiations, etc. Jacka keeps things tense, keeps things interesting, even as what Alex is battling is really just Office Politics (along with other kinds of politics).

Alex tries to take one more step towards credibility, of shedding his Dark mage past (not that almost anyone will let him), to a position where he can do some good, and hopefully have allies when Richard steps out into the limelight. Long-term, strategic thinking — I like it when UF heroes act like that. It’s brains, not brawn, that carry the day here.

This isn’t to suggest, that this is a dry — or combat-free — book. Alex gets down and dirty, as usual — against some pretty tough characters. But, I’m not convinced that the worst people that Alex and his friends went up against were the ones wearing the Black Hats. Not that they were angels, but, man, there were some nasty people in these pages.

There are some really interesting developments with Luna’s training and development. Alex makes a couple of useful allies — including a combat mage who is quite possibly the most entertaining character in the series thus far. And because that’s never enough for him — Alex picks up one new enemy and deepens tensions with another.

And Richard? Well, something tells me that specter’s going to be looming for a bit longer. But then again, I thought we were going to get a few more Kitty Norville books and that we’d see Richard in action here — so what do I know?

I seem to be mostly rambling here, so I’m just going to say: Alex Verus is a character you should get to know, in a series that should be on your TBR list. I wouldn’t start with this one, I really think Fated is where you want to climb aboard.

—–

4 Stars

Indexing: Reflections, Episode 1: Forbidden Doors by Seanan McGuire

By HCNewton

On August 13, 2015

In Authors, Fiction, Indexing, K-O, Seanan McGuire, Urban Fantasy

Indexing: Reflections, Episode One: Forbidden Doors

by Seanan McGuire
Series: Indexing, #2.1

Kindle
47North, 2015
Read: August 12, 2015

Fairy tales are not for children, and they don’t care who dies. They never have.

Seanan McGuire’s Indexing is back, and it’s like we never left.

It’s been a few weeks since the team saved the world, but the ATV’s investigation into the matter isn’t quite finished. They’ve got one more hurdle to get through: a series of interviews with an HR Department shrink.

It’s a nice little narrative device — we’re reintroduced to the characters (or new readers are introduced), get the last series recapped (and interpreted from a couple of angles), we get to see how the team’s reacting to the rather dramatic turn of events they lived through, and get ready for what’s next. Since there are (an estimated) eleven more episodes to go through — you know going in that things are going to go pretty well for the majority of them. Sure, there’s a chance that one or two will be packed off somewhere for some “treatment” or “observation”, but the team, as a whole, will be fine.

It’s a lot like a lot of TV season premiers, actually.

There were a couple of highlights for me:

Sloane made me laugh, hard, at her apologetic for keeping Henry around (and I liked pretty much everything else she did here).
I probably enjoyed Demi more than I have before.
The more time we spend with Jeff, the more he threatens Sloane as the series’ most interesting and/or entertaining character.
I hope (and sorta fear) that we get to spend a little more time with Dr. Ciara Bloomfield –in her professional capacity, she’d be fun to have around; if it’s about her personal life, I can’t imagine that’d be pretty.

https://irresponsiblereader.com/2015/08/13/indexing-reflections-episode-1-by-seanan-mcguire.

—–

3 Stars

Review Catch-Up: Hidden by Benedict Jacka; The Winter Long by Seanan McGuire

By HCNewton

On August 10, 2015

In Alex Verus, Authors, Benedict Jacka, F-J, Fiction, K-O, Seanan McGuire, Toby Daye, Urban Fantasy

These have been nagging at me for eleven months now. No, I have no explanation for why it took me so long, but I’m glad I took a lot of notes on both. I’m going to get this posted before I start the next Jacka novel (which should be happening today). While I’m at it, the next Toby Day is a couple of weeks away.

Anyway, overdue mini-looks at a couple of the best Urban Fantasies I read in 2014:

Hidden

by Benedict Jacka
Series: Alex Verus, #5

Mass Market Paperback, 293 pg.
Ace, 2014
Read: September 26 – 30, 2014
. . . man, I have really missed Alex. Everyone’s favorite diviner has really come a long way, lately — shedding the near lone-wolf thing, and is now looking after a passel of magic rookies. Whether they want him to or not.

Anne Walker is definitely in the “or not” category. She’s done all she can to stay away from Alex — but she probably didn’t mean to include being kidnapped as one of those ways. Alex goes to some pretty dark places to help someone who doesn’t want it.

At the same time, Alex (via the Council) is feeling some pressure for the events of the last book. They’re also pressuring him to do some official work for them. Plus the rumors are getting more and more intense that his mentor, Richard, is back. If that’s true, no one is going to be happy. Naturally, everyone thinks that Alex knows what Richard is up to. And every time he says he doesn’t, he convinces them that he does.

So yeah, Alex has his hands full.

I think it was Chekhov who said that if a magic user grabs a focus in the opening chapters, that by the end of the book . . . Anyway, that was a nice use of it.

Not that Alex has had an easy life over the last couple books (or we wouldn’t be reading them) but the one big take away from Hidden is that it’s going to get a lot worse for our friend (I swear I hadn’t read that note when I wrote about Veiled over the weekend). There are other take aways, mostly happier, but I’ll leave that to you to find.

A wholly satisfying read. Get to know Alex Verus.

4 Stars

The Winter Long

by Seanan McGuire
Series: Toby Daye, #8

Mass Market Paperback, 358 pg.
DAW, 2014
Read: September 13 – 16, 2014

I don’t like parties. Someone always tries to assassinate someone I actually like, and there are never enough of those little stuffed mushroom caps.

A book starts off with a line like that? You’re going to have fun.

Thankfully, one’s appreciation of a book doesn’t depend on how the protagonist acts. When I was on page 46, I wrote , “Granted, this is early, but Toby’s being stupid, foolishly so. She’s not paying attention to anything said during the fight she just had — actually, technically didn’t really have. Instead, she’s reacting to something that happened to a friend, and acting out of fear, prejudice and alarm. That disappoints me. Her saying, ‘that smile, brief as it had been, was all I could have asked for. A smiling Tybalt was a Tybalt who was still capable of stepping back and looking at the situation rationally. I loved him, but even I could find him frightening when he was fixated on vengeance.’ Man, choke me on the irony, McGuire.”

There’s just go much about this novel that I can’t describe without spoiling it. Let me limit myself to a couple of more notes: Toby lost a lot of blood on this one — I mean like The Bride in the Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves kind of a lot. It’s a good thing she has a healing factor to make Logan jealous. While she’s bleeding she’s having her world rocked.

McGuire takes a lot of what Toby’s “known” since we met her (all of which is what we’ve “known,” too) and turns it upside down and shakes the truth out. Every other book in the series has been affected by these revelations — in one fell swoop, she re-wrote previous 7 books — which is just so cool. It’s not that we’ve (we= readers and Toby) been wrong, our understanding is just . . . askew. There’s also some nice warm fuzzies in this book, which isn’t that typical for the series. McGuire’s outdone herself.
5 Stars

Kitty Saves the World by Carrie Vaughn

By HCNewton

On July 21, 2015

In Authors, Carrie Vaughn, Fiction, Kitty Norville

Kitty Saves the World

by Carrie Vaughn
Series: Kitty Norville, #14

ARC, 325 pg.
Tor Books, 2015
Read: July 14 – 15, 2015
4 1/2 Stars
Easy title to live up to, no?

About the same time that I posted my review of the previous book, Low Midnight, where I talked about “future Kitty novels,” Carrie Vaughn announced that this one would be the end. So much for my predictive ability. Now, at the end, I see that Low Midnight was well-placed in the series, and I have a better understanding of the role it played in setting up this book. Which is not to say that I wouldn’t have preferred a few more books in this series, but if Vaughn had to end it now, I’m glad she did it like this.

This couldn’t be less obvious a last novel. Kitty name checks and/or visits everybody we’ve met along the way, it’s like the last few minutes of “The End of Time” before The Doctor regenerates into Matt Smith. But Vaughn does it so smoothly, it’s only when you stop and think about who’s shown up that you even notice what she’s done.

I don’t really have much to say about this — it’s the 14^th and final novel in a series. Don’t let this be the first one you read — do let this be the last. Start with one of the first few (if not the first, Kitty and the Midnight Hour).

This is different than the rest of the series, not just because it’s the end. There’s plenty of action to be found — not a lot of time for character development, growth, relationships, new characters (well, maybe a couple) — it’s all about Regina Luporum and her allies versus Dux Bellorum, anything else is a distraction (however pleasant a distraction). Which isn’t to say that the characters are unimportant — it’s Carrie Vaughn, characters are the core. But they’re very busy here, and don’t have a lot of time to chat, reflect, or anything like that — they have a world to save.

The final showdown with Roman didn’t go as expected, but better. The scenes following that were great, and the ending was everything a fan could hope for.

One criticism — and, now that I think about it, this applies to the series as a whole — Kitty tells us time after time that her pack is what’s important, it drives her restaurant/bar New Moon, it keeps her in Denver, it’s what motivates her, blah, blah, blah. But really, outside of the occasional chat while picking up an order with Shaun and references to the group hunting on the Full Moon, we don’t see them. The pack that Kitty cares about is the other one — Ben, Cormac, Amelia, Alette, Odysseus Grant, Tina, Rick, Matt, and the others that fill her life and align themselves with her against the Long Game. I’d be fine with it if Kitty were just a little bit more honest with herself/us about it.

I’m going to miss Kitty, Ben, Cormac and the rest, and the next year is going to feel a little strange not getting any new adventures from them. But this was a great way to say goodbye.

—–

4 1/2 Stars

Dusted Off: Kitty’s Big Trouble by Carrie Vaughn

By HCNewton

On July 15, 2015

In Carrie Vaughn, Fiction, Kitty Norville

While starting the post for Kitty Saves the World, I noticed I’d reviewed only two other books in this series here. Unthinkable. It was one of the first UF series I ever tried and it’s one of my favorites to this day. Turns out, that somehow I’ve only written one other post on the series. I’m still having trouble coming to grips with that. So, I figured I’d better throw this up before I forgot.
—

Kitty’s Big Trouble

by Carrie Vaughn
Series: Kitty Norville, #9

Mass Market Paperback, 307 pg.

Tor Books, 2011

Read: July 3 – 4, 2011
It’s been far too long since we’ve had a new Kitty Norville adventure, and Carrie Vaughn didn’t disappoint with this one.

We begin with Kitty’s most recent hobby–trying to out historical figures as weres or vampires or whatever. Which is a lot of fun, and is a well Vaughn hopefully returns to.

But the main action focuses on the Long Game between various vampire factions that we’ve seen a few peaks into lately. Kitty’s ally Anastasia is racing against Roman for possession of a magical artifact that could turn the tide in this competition forever.

Honestly, I don’t think this was the strongest entry in the series plotwise–this seems more about setting the stage for bigger things down the road. But while setting the stage, we get to spend some good quality time with some great characters, learn more about Cormac’s situation, and meet a few new characters (a couple of which I hope to see again, soon).

Should add that it took me far too long to get the title, and when I finally did I wondered where my head had been for a couple hundred pages.

Can’t wait to see what trouble Kitty gets into next.

—–

4 Stars

Attack the Geek by Michael R. Underwood

By HCNewton

On May 28, 2015

In Authors, Fiction, Michael R. Underwood, P-U, Urban Fantasy

Attack the Geek

by Michael R. Underwood
Series: , #2.5

eBook
Pocket Star, 2014

Read: May 22 – 23, 2015 Unlike the first two installments of this series, which I grabbed as soon as I could, I put off reading this — mostly it’s because it was a .5. On the whole, I’ve not really found much to get excited about in the point-whatevers. But I had an opening in my schedule and needed something I could read on my phone.

Man, I should’ve read this sooner.

It’s a typical Saturday night at Grognard’s Grog and Games — “V: TES tournament, half-priced Jaeger, and Grognard getting morose.” Ree’s got her hands full serving the crowd, which happens to include our friends Eastwood and Drake. This is pretty handy because while things are still going strong, the bar falls under a pretty serious attack. They’re able to hold it off for a bit, but before long, it becomes a night-long siege. It was only missing a few Uruk-Hai (or a reference to them) to be a veritable Helm’s Deep. There’s a bit more than just the siege, but I’ve gotta leave a little to you to find out for yourself.

On the one hand this is pretty much just one long-knockdown fight. But there’s more going on — and not just because it’s really a series of fights with strategic retreats to regroup, refresh, heal and strategize. But there’s more than that — Ree seems a lot more certain in her abilities, confident and capable (although she should really have learned to carry spare batteries for her phone by now). There is a little character development, a little push toward the next novel, but mostly this is action. Which does make the small character moments shine a bit brighter — you expect them in a full-fledged novel, and while Underwood usually does these moments right, here they stand out more. Most importantly, the voice is there — Underwood’s eye for action, Ree’s snark, and the 17 pop culture references per inch of text are fully present.

Because the action is limited to the events of one night, a lot of the things that would be minuses for me, actually work. For example, Ree hits the same note of lament over her romantic situation too often for a book that takes place over a couple of weeks — but over a night? Yeah, we’ve all been there. A couple of Grognard’s patrons don’t act in ways that would work/wouldn’t be suspicious over the long hall — but in the midst of a battle? Sure, absolutely.

Unlike a lot of .5 works, I don’t know if this one can be skipped in your voyage from Ree Reyes #2 to Ree Reyes #3. Even if it turns out that you can (won’t know until #3 releases — which I won’t wait to read), you shouldn’t. Grab something to drink and/or snack on and watch Ree and the gang open up a few cans of whoop-ass.

—–

The Younger Gods by Michael R. Underwood

By HCNewton

On May 12, 2015

In Authors, Fiction, Michael R. Underwood, P-U, Urban Fantasy

yyyyyeeeeesh, almost, but not quite 6 months late. What is wrong with me? Let’s see if I can remember enough to make this work:

The Younger Gods

by Michael R. Underwood
Series:The Younger Gods, #1

ebook, 280 pg.
Pocket Star, 2014
Read: November 20 – 22, 2014

Are you quite sure you don’t want to even try to seek cover?” I asked.
“Cover is what stands between me and stabbing things,” [Carter] said by way of response.
Let it not be said to my resident assistant that I constrained my roommate. He was his own man. Even if that man was insane at times.

One of Michael R. Underwood’s most impressive traits is his versatility. We’ve got the fun Urban Fantasy adventures of Ree Reyes, the strange superheroes of Audec-Hal, and now, this darker UF about a cult’s white sheep trying to stop the apocalypse.

Jacob Greene — of those Greenes (apparently) — has come to New York to attend university — and get away from his family and their demon-worshiping apocalyptic cultish practices that will usher in The End of the World as We Know It. He’s had enough of all of it, and is trying to get beyond their teachings, their practices, their . . . murderous ways. It’s more difficult than he expects, especially when his sister comes to town in order to usher in Doomsday.

Jacob finds himself surrounded with a motley crew of allies — mostly in the mold of the-enemy-of-my-enemy — trying to keep his sister from accomplishing her Ultimate To-Do list. Let me tell you, this particular UF version of NYC is full of quite the assortment of magical cultures/subcultures. The rules governing them, the way they interact with each other are one of the strengths of this novel — a nice little bit of world-building that was revealed, not dumped on the reader.

Jacob, understandably, spends a good deal of the book sorting out his identity in light of his family — as well as his feelings for/about them. There are no easy answers waiting for him. It’s here, not his running away from his family, not his attempts to stop his sister, that Jacob finds that bit of humanity that he’s been missing.

Was it still love if the people that loved you were monsters? Did their actions taint everything they did, or was there some humanity in the family? Had they ever really loved one another, or was it a mask, a role that each Greene has played to further the goals of the Bold and awaken the unborn? There was a film, some film, that matched this feeling. I’d heard someone talk about it in class.

Jacob’s ending gambit had me groaning, “Underwood’s not going to do that, is he?” Turns out 1. He did; and 2. It totally worked. I couldn’t believe it. I was expecting a cheesy car wreck, but he nailed it. Note to self: don’t doubt Michael R. Underwood again.

My biggest gripe was Jacob’s language. He starts off with the most formal, stilted dialogue this side of an Austen novel; slang was a foreign language he was trying to adopt. By the end of the novel, however, a lot of that was gone. Now, it’s possible, I just got used to his language — but I don’t think so. Mostly, it was his use of slang that improved dramatically. Now, if it had happened slower — over a book or two, I wouldn’t have noticed — or, more likely, I’d have given Underwood props for it. But . . .this book covers events of a few days, far too quickly for Jacob to pull that off. Still, as far as gripes go . . . that’s pretty small.

It’s not Underwood’s best — but it’s a good start, and I can eventually see me saying something different about the series as a whole. Great magic system, a situation I’ve never encountered in any of the UF I’ve read, a solid group of characters to build from — I can honestly say that I have almost no idea what’s up next for Jacob Greene et al. But I’m looking forward to finding out.

—–

3.5 Stars

Dark Heir by Faith Hunter

By HCNewton

On April 30, 2015

In Authors, F-J, Faith Hunter, Fiction, Jane Yellowrock/Soulwood, Urban Fantasy

Dark Heir

by Faith Hunter
Series: Jane Yellowrock, #9

Mass Market Paperback, 363 pg.
Roc, 2015
Read: April 22 – 24, 2015
So, how much trouble does Jane Yellowrock find herself in this time out? Almost all of it, I think.

Even as she left his desiccated near-corpse hanging on the wall in Leo’s sub-basement, we all knew that Jane was going to have to deal with The Son of Darkness sooner than later. So did she. Turns out it’s a lot sooner than anyone expected or wanted (well, maybe some readers wanted it now, so sooner than Jane et al. wanted it). Joses Bar-Judas is probably the nastiest, toughest, most despicable supernatural creature we’ve encountered in these books — and I don’t see him being topped any time soon (well, maybe his brother).

The body count in this one is high — and the ramifications for that are probably going to be felt for a book or two. Oddly, the police and people of New Orleans don’t take kindly to an out-of-control vampire. Relations between the general populace and the Mithrans are near the breaking point.

But that’s not the worst — whatever this original vamp^* is capable of doing — it’s far more than Jane’s ready for. Keeping fairly spoiler-free, let’s just say that whatever punishment our Skinwalker’s taken thus far is nothing compared to what she’s got coming.

Along the way, Jane learns some things — thanks to the vamps playing everything super, super close to their chests — that changes how she thinks about and understands almost everything that’s happened since she first came to New Orleans.

Which isn’t to say this is a perfect book — I’ve about had it with Molly, really. I’ll always be interested in her daughter (and the way Beast thinks of that little kit), but Hunter needs to do something interesting with Molly soon. I didn’t like the way that Jane’s church (particularly their baptismal waters) were depicted. I’ve always appreciated how in the middle of all this crazy supernatural stuff, there’s been a real drive in Jane for a connection to this church, which was fairly realistically depicted. Hunter sorta tossed that out of the window this time, and made it just as supernatural as everything else. I understand that impulse and how it fits into this world — I just like it less. Lastly, there were plenty of opportunities for Jane and Jodi (and the rest of the police) to work together here, or at least for Jane to do a better job explaining things to her pal with the badge. But for the most part, all that was shoved to the sidelines in a pretty poor way. Yes, there’s only so much Hunter can fit into 360 pages, but still.

Nevertheless, in the grand scheme of things, these are minor complaints when weighed against what Hunter did accomplish here. The chapters involving the final show-down were some of the best things I’ve read in this series, and were definitely filled with all the “what the — ?!” moments you could ask for and a couple “did I just read that?” paragraphs as well.

In the midst of things at their worst — we get some really nice moments with her not-boyfriend, Bruiser. Best of all, we’re treated to some great, heartfelt, “Awww” inducing developments with Eli and Alex. I’ve liked Alex from the get-go, but Eli is about to become my favorite character in the series (sorry, Jane).

For most of the time I’ve been reading this series, I’ve pretty much thought of it as a decent UF series to tide me over between installments of my favorites. But as of the last two or three, I think I’ve come to realize that this is one of my favorites and that I’m really, really looking forward to seeing what comes next.^** Dark Heir is probably the best so far, and it’ll take something big to top it.

—–

^* Not to be confused with the CW’s collection of teen heart-throb Originals.
^** Which I fear means that Hunter will wrap things up in a book or two.

—–

4 1/2 Stars

Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs

By HCNewton

On April 14, 2015

In Alpha & Omega, Authors, Fiction, Patricia Briggs, Urban Fantasy

Dead Heat

by Patricia Briggs
Series: Alpha and Omega, #4

Hardcover, 324 pg.
Ace Books, 2015
Read: March 6 – 7, 2015
One of the biggest difficulties I have here on this ol’ blog is coming up with something to say about later books in a series. What (barring a significant shift in quality) can I say that I haven’t already said? I’m honestly not sure here, but I’ll give it a try.

It’s been three years since the jaw-dropping conclusion of Fair Game, and we’re finally able to get back to Brigg’s Alpha and Omega series. Things seem to have been pretty quiet for these two. We’re not given a lot (or any, as far as I can recall) of information about what’s been going on in the lives of Charles and Anna since then, but we can guess — they’ve grown closer, Charles has done a little enforcing for his father, Anna’s. . . well, honestly, I don’t know, she’s been doing her own thing.

Hunting Game is a nice departure from the typical setup for these books. There’s no assignment, no renegade werewolf, no investigation — just Charles trying to get a gift for Anna and introducing her to an old friend. Sure — something supernatural comes up, there’s something/someone that needs to be stopped before people die. Thankfully, conveniently, fortuitously, Charles and Anna are in town and they (with the help of the local pack) can take charge to protect those who need it the most.

There’s not a lot here that will progress the story of either series, no dramatic character growth or supernatural threat that will shake things up. It’s about spending time with these people, understanding them a bit better — at least in a new light. Seeing Charles away from his family — but amidst friends that might as well be, sheds a good deal of light on his character — not just his past. It’s also interesting seeing the way this particular pack acts together (as opposed to Bran’s or Adams’s).

There’s a warmth to this book, even when things got hairy and tense — which fits a novel about an Omega — the same way that Mercy’s books have a very different feel. A welcome addition to the growing Brigg’s world.

—–

4 Stars

Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire

By HCNewton

On March 31, 2015

In Authors, Fiction, InCryptid, Seanan McGuire, Urban Fantasy

Pocket Apocalypse

by Seanan McGuire
Series: InCryptid, #4

Mass Market Paperback, 341 pg.
DAW, 2015
Read: March 14 – 17, 2015

Airplanes: essentially buses that fly, and hence have the potential to drop out of the sky at any moment, spreading your insides — which will no doubt become your outsides sometime during the collision — across whatever you happen to have been flying over. Since we were flying mainly over ocean, I was sure the sharks would appreciate our sacrifice.

So where, pray tell, are Alex and Shelby flying off to? Her home country of Australia, to help out her family and the cryptozoologist group/alliance/whatnot they’re part of deal with the continent’s first outbreak of the werewolf virus. Unlike everyone else there, Alex has dealt with werewolves before, and he’s a Price — that has some benefit (although how much is debatable, as he soon learns). He’s also going to meet Shelby’s family for the first time. It’s pretty unclear which of these two items are the most hazardous to his health.

We’ve had a lot of exposure to the idea that the Price family isn’t like the Covenant — in motives or means. Now we’re introduced to the Thirty-Six Society, who aren’t as nasty as the Covenant is to cryptids; but nowhere near as interested in understanding and cooperating with them as the Prices are. Also, they’re not so sure that the Price’s are all that different than the Covenant (which is really odd to think about from the point-of-view of the reader). So, all told — they’re not to interested in a know-it-all Price coming in from the U. S. to tell them how to take care of a problem. Particularly when that Price is sleeping with one of their own, and perhaps leading her away from them.

I did tire a bit — more than a bit, to be honest — with the way that Alex and various members of the Tanner family had the same conversation over and over about his allegiances, intentions toward Shelby, and methods. I realize in Real Life™ that you do repeat yourself, but so much of these conversations were essentially “second verse, same as the first,” and got pretty darn tiring. It would’ve been better if Alex wasn’t quite as right as he was all the time, too.

But that’s the backdrop, really. The very real likelihood that Australia is going to be overrun with werewolves in the coming weeks is the main concern (although I’m not convinced the word count would reflect that). With so much exposure to Patricia Briggs and Carrie Vaughn (not to mention Jim Butcher, Kim Harrison, Kevin Hearne, and so on) it’s easy to forget that werewolves used to be a horror movie staple. Leave it to McGuire to remind me that werewolves are generally thought of as monsters. These werewolves are pretty monstrous, and what they do to their victims isn’t pretty.

We don’t see as many of the native cryptids as we get hints of them — the couple that we do see are pretty interesting, but I could’ve used more. As with any inCryptid novel, you have to talk about the Aeslin mice. If for no other reason than they’re fun. This is probably their best showcase yet — they’re more than comic relief here, they help out — in a way that Alex could never have predicted. Some of the raw-est emotion (and not just joy and rapture over a new religious observance) comes from these little guys. I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever tire of these mice.

Occasionally, the humor feels forced — as if McGuire’s done a word-count since the last quip and shoves one in. This is typical for the series, and still occasionally works, oddly enough. But McGuire’s narrative flows better — and is funnier — when she allows the humor to flow naturally (as much as anything as crafted as one of her books is “natural”) and not imposed on the text.

This novel contains the word “denuded” more than I can recall ever seeing in a single work — there was one chapter, in fact, that nailed that record — but “denuded” showed up later, too. It doesn’t matter one way or the other, but it showed up so frequently (and so rarely anywhere else) that it couldn’t help but make an impression.

I don’t know why, but it took me forever to really “get into” this one. From page 1 it looked interesting and entertaining, but I kept putting it down after a half a chapter or so. When it did pick up, I didn’t take the time to jot it down because I didn’t want to stop reading, but I think it was a little after page 100. From that point on, I was into it the way I expected to from the get-go, and it kept my interest to the end. I think I like this more than the others (maybe Discount Armageddon was as good), and really look forward to the next one — it’ll be good to see Verity again.

—–

4 Stars