Urban Fantasy - The Irresponsible Reader

Mostly Human 2

by D. I. Jolly
Series: Mostly Human, #2

Kindle Edition, 343 pg.
Tinpot Publishing, 2020

Read: September 28-October 25, 2020

What’s Mostly Human 2 About?

On the heels of the dramatic events at the end of Mostly Human, the werewolf rock star, Alex Harris has to leave town for a while. He needs to stay out of the limelight before people figure out how his nephew was rescued and start asking too many questions about the “dog” that freed him. He also needs to get his head on straight after it. So he takes off incognito, eventually winding up in a wolf sanctuary in Norway, where he finds work (and where he can take off every few weeks and fit in).

He settles in and establishes a home there, at some point, he strikes up a friendship/borderline romance with an intern, and things really come to life for him.

Eventually, circumstances force him to leave and he answers an inner call to go to Russia to find out more about his lycanthropy. From there, he’ll return home and try to re-establish his life with family and bandmates. If only the mysterious (magical?) voice in his head and a fellow werewolf with an agenda will let him.

To Re-cap or Not?

So, Mostly Human was the first book I read in 2017, I started this at the end of September of 2020. There’s a lot of months and a lot of books between those two (sure, most readers won’t have as many books between these two, but they might share the time gap), and I’ve gotta say, I had a lot of trouble remembering details/names/plot points from the first one. Jolly didn’t do a lot to help.

It’s a tricky thing (it seems) to decide how much of a recap to work into the early chapters of a follow-up book. Generally, I’m in favor of a minimalistic approach—unless it’s a situation of “remember that character who showed up for 3 chapters in Book 2? Well, they’ll be a major player here in Book 9.” But when there’s this much time between the publication of the two books,* you’ve got to toss readers a bone.

* December 2016-November 2020, officially.

Yes, eventually, he gave enough bread crumbs that I could piece together enough of what happened—especially once I read my original post—and, yes, between this release and the re-packaging of the first book, hopefully he picks up new readers that won’t have to reach back 35 months for their memories. It’s not a deal-breaker, by any means, but detracted from the experience.

A Very Talky Urban Fantasy

While there are some good scenes of werewolf action, some nefarious goings-on, and a respectable amount of violence. But man, there was a lot of talking. A lot of banter. A lot of emotional naval-gazing.

Which is a very pleasant change of pace compared to your typical Urban Fantasy. Jolly focuses on the relationship (in various stages) between Alex and Cassandra, Alex and his sister, his sister and her boyfriend, and so on. There’s more space devoted to developing and evolving the relationship between Alex and Cassandra than anything about Alex and his wolf nature.

The book is notionally about Alex, his curse/lycanthropy, and his growth in knowledge about other lycanthropes, but I’m not convinced that’s the case. It seems to be more about Alex understanding and accepting himself, how that will the relationships around him and his future. His lycanthropy plays a huge part in that, and its shadow looms over everything, but that doesn’t seem to be where the heart of the book is. He may have set out to write an Urban Fantasy, but I don’t think he fully succeeded and ended up writing a Lad Lit-kind of book with Urban Fantasy flavoring.

I’d pay money right now to see a straightforward Lad Lit novel from Jolly, I think he’d do great with it. Or something like Mike Chen does with SF, using that setting to tell family stories. Jolly purposefully doing that with UF (rather than accidentally as he seems to have done here), would be something to get excited about.

So, what did I think about Mostly Human 2?

I enjoyed this, I like the story he told and the story he set out to tell. The best part of a werewolf character is seeing how the wolf affects the human and the human’s life.

This is a great world, full of interesting characters. I don’t know if this is the end of Alex’s story or not. It could easily be that. Or it could be the launching to a new phase of Alex’s story with a greater understanding of his condition and a new path for life. I think it could go either way, and I’d be fine with either outcome.

It’s a fine tale, a solid (and different) take on lycanthropy, with a lot of things to grab a reader in addition to the protagonist growing extra hair on occasion. You should check it (and its predecessor) out.

3.5 Stars

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the author in exchange for my honest opinion and this post.

Last Stand in Lychford by Paul Cornell: A Tense, Taut Conclusion to this Series (that I really don’t want to see conclude)

By HCNewton

On December 1, 2020

In Fiction, Paul Cornell, Urban Fantasy

Last Stand in Lychford

by Paul Cornell
Series: Witches of Lychford, #5

Kindle Edition, 192 pg.
Tor, 2020

Read: November 24, 2020
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

What’s Last Stand in Lychford About?

When I talked about the last book, The Lights Go Out in Lychford, I said:

The conclusion was simply fantastic and heart-wrenching—with a last line that will drive you to the online bookstore of your choice to try to order the conclusion immediately.

And it picks up right from that point—Lychford has seen plenty of trouble and conflict the last few years, but this time, it’s for all the marbles.

It’s not supposed to be a final showdown between other-worldly forces and the defenders of the town. It’s supposed to be some of the other-worldly forces just rolling into town, wiping out humanity in Lychford before moving out to the rest of the planet. But the crafty, wily, and stubborn trio that we’ve been following for the past few years have a thing or two to say about that. They may not be fully ready for what’s coming their way, but that’s not going to stop them—and as usual, we see that they’re pretty good at adapting to whatever circumstances they find themselves in.

The New Characters

What better time than the last volume of a series to introduce three major characters? (well, maybe 2 major and one minor—no pun intended). We meet both a new fairy and a new mortal (and her daughter) who both play significant roles in the final confrontation.

The fairy’s quite possibly the most helpful representative of the species we’ve encountered, as far as Autumn and Lizzie are concerned. He’s pretty entertaining as far as the reader is concerned. So that’s a win all around.

The human, Zoya, is a newish resident of Lychford—struggling to keep her and her young daughter afloat. She’s fully aware that strange things happened in town a few weeks before we meet her, but she doesn’t understand it—and is in no rush to understand. All she cares about is finding rent money so she and Jas aren’t evicted. I can’t get into her role in things but Zoya’s background, her personality, and circumstances make her a pleasant and important addition to this world and I’m glad we got to see her.

I don’t have much to say about Jas, but I enjoyed her. She was a fun burst of innocence in grim circumstances.

Autumn and Lizzie

Naturally, the most important characters to the book are our returning protagonists. Lizzie’s always been my favorite character, the one I could relate to most in this series. But…there’s a lot of what she does in this installment that just annoyed me, it didn’t feel like the same character to me (it’s likely just my mood at the time). At the same time, I connected more with Autumn here than I’m used to.

Overall, though, I appreciated their character arcs (contained in this book and over the series, both). These two women—rebuilding a friendship, learning about a whole new (to them) world of magic and strangeness and fantastical beings—are not really de rigueur in Urban Fantasy. I enjoyed them for their novelty, but more than that, I thought they were solid, well-rounded, believable characters that were just a lot of fun to spend time with.

You Might Want to Read this Next to an Open Window

There’s a claustrophobic feel to a lot of this book as Lychford is cut off from the rest of the world, and it gets worse as the book goes on. But there’s one scene in particular where Autumn is micrometers (maybe nanometers) away from probable doom. Cornell nailed that scene in a visceral way.

So, what did I think about Last Stand in Lychford?

This was exactly the conclusion this series needed. Cornell nailed the landing—teaching us a lot about the world (much of which we’d guessed, but now we know) and surprising readers the way things wrap up, while making it all feel inevitable and right. All along, this has felt like the most real, the most possible Urban Fantasy series—and even as cataclysmic events unfold, Cornell somehow makes it feel a whole lot more believable than any UF I can think of.*

* I think I said something similar about Amber Benson’s Witches Echo Park series—and the two series have a similar feel, but I think Cornell does a slightly better job of it.

This series about a tiny English town standing between two worlds, as humanity’s (unwitting) defense against beings from other worlds, other realities has really been a blast. I heartily encourage you to go back to Witches of Lychford and dive into this series.

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.

Pub Day Repost: Kitty’s Mix-Tape by Carrie Vaughn: One More Trip to Kitty’s World in this Collection

By HCNewton

On October 16, 2020

In Carrie Vaughn, Fiction, Kitty Norville, Urban Fantasy

Kitty’s Mix-Tape

by Carrie Vaughn
Series: Kitty Norville

eARC, 288 pg.
Tachyon Publications, 2020

Read: September 12-14, 2020
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

What’s Kitty’s Mix-Tape?

That’s an easy question: this is the second collection of short stories (previously published) set in the world of Kitty Norville, the werewolf turned talk radio star. We get a lot of stories featuring Kitty and/or her friends and allies (and one foe), and we get some stories that just happen to take place in the same reality even if they really don’t have any cross-over with the series.

There’s an introduction by Emma Bull that by itself would make a great review of this book (and maybe the series). Really, writing anything else after reading Bull seems superfluous.

Kitty & the Gang

I’m going to have a hard time keeping myself from talking too much about the stories featuring Kitty and her friends—Kitty and Ben going to her 10-year high school reunion was the perfect way to start off this book. Quick, fun, and a great way back into this world.

“It’s Still the Same Old Story,” could’ve fit into The Immortal Conquistador that I talked about a few months back—except it didn’t fit into the story arc of that one. But for those who wonder what Rick was up to in the early part of the twentieth century, this will give you a good idea. This is possibly my favorite thing focusing on Rick to date.

On the eve of their wedding in Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand Ben disappears off on his own for a while, Vaughn finally lets us know what he was up to at the time. I’d forgotten all about that until I read this story, but I remember wondering then (as I was supposed to) what he’d been up to—it’s nice to have that answered.

There was a dynamite story about Detective Jessi Harden of Denver PD investigating a murder with a supernatural angle that doesn’t involve any of the series regulars. This would be the basis of a great follow-up series if Vaughn was in the mood for something. Hardin tackling “woo woo” crimes (I think that’s what the New Orleans PD calls them in the Yellowrock books) would be compelling as all get out.

One more that I want to mention is called “Kitty Learns the Ropes.” In this story, Kitty meets a professional athlete who happens to be a werewolf. Does that give him an unfair advantage? Should he disclose his situation to the world? Can’t this guy who never asked to be supernatural just live is life?

I’m going on too long, so I’ll summarize a few other standouts: there’s a fun little story with Odysseus Grant, and some cute bits with Kitty and her pack dealing with the Super Blood Moon and the like, and a showdown with some Federal Agents.

The Songs

Vaughn includes a list of songs that embody the various stories for her, which she did for the novels, too. I think if you consider this list as a track list for a mixtape, you’d end up with something that Rob Fleming (in any incarnation) would look upon with scorn. If you take them as pieces to go with the stories, it’s a lot of fun, and adds a nice little dimension to them.

I will admit that I didn’t listen to them as I read—I think it would work though. They’re also a good tool to use to ruminate on the stories a bit.

So, what did I think about Kitty’s Mix-Tape?

There wasn’t a dud in the bunch, which is rare for a short story compilation—sure, I liked the ones about Kitty and her friends best, because that’s what I came to the collection for. But I liked them all.

The back cover promises that this is “the final installment” of the series, but Vaugn talks about staying tuned because it’s great to have a pre-existing world to write stories in. If the blurb is right, I’m glad I got a little more time in this world, but I’m hoping that staying tuned will pay off.

This may not be a great introduction to the werewolf DJ named Kitty, but it might work as one just fine, it’s certainly a good tour of the world. But it’s definitely the kind of thing that Kitty’s readers should come for. It’s one of the best collections I’ve read this year—and maybe for a good chunk of last year, too. Give it a whirl.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Tachyon Publications via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this.

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.

Claw & Order: Coming Soon to Kickstarter

By HCNewton

On October 1, 2020

In Anton Strout, Miscellany, News/Misc., Urban Fantasy

After teasing fans for years with kickstarting a project, Anton Strout is coming to Kickstarter next week with Claw & Order, “a collection of stories that tie into the worlds of my Simon Canderous and Spellmason Chronicles book series.”

Am a big fan of both series–and I cannot wait. Click here (or on the graphic above) to be taken to the pre-launce page so you get notified when it goes live. Day one backers get an exclusive Dept of Extraordinary Affairs badge pin—and the feeling of satisfaction that comes from supporting a heckuva writer.

If you don’t know who Strout is, or what his series are about. Head on over to https://www.theonceandfuturepodcast.com to check out his podcast, The Once and Future Podcast, or either series—The Simon Canderous Novels or The Spellmason Chronicles. You’ll be glad you did.

Just kick the start first.

Murder by Other Means by John Scalzi, Zachary Quinto (Narrator): When You Can’t Kill Someone Anymore, Criminals Have to Get Creative

By HCNewton

On September 28, 2020

In Audiobook, Fiction, John Scalzi, Urban Fantasy

Murder by Other Means

by John Scalzi, Zachary Quinto (Narrator)
Series: The Dispatcher, #2

Unabridged Audiobook, 3 hrs., 33 min.
Audible Studios, 2020

Read: September 18-19, 2020

A Sequel to The Dispatcher?

I think the last thing on my mind as I finished The Dispatcher was that there’d be a sequel. It seemed fairly stand-alone (but, I guess, I can see that the door was open). But now that I’ve heard this? It seems only natural that there’d be a follow-up to The Dispatcher and the door is open for more.

What’s Murder by Other Means About?

So, in this world 99.9% of the time, if you’re murdered, you come back to life in your home/somewhere you feel safe. If you die of natural causes, in an accident, from suicide—you stay dead. But if someone intends you harm and you die, you’re most likely safe. This started a few years before this book is set, and no one knows why.

But that doesn’t stop people from taking advantage of it. There’s a new industry, our protagonist/narrator is part of it, Dispatching. Licensed killers who shoot people when death is all but certain to give them another chance at life. In the time since The Dispatcher, it seems that some new and creative uses for them have become common. Most of them straddle the line between legal/illegal or moral/immoral.

Tony Valdez starts this book hurting for money, and takes one of those not technically illegal jobs. Soon after, people around him—loosely connected, but not really friends or colleagues—start dying from unnatural causes. Not murders, obviously, because they stay dead. But as the bodies start to accumulate, the police have to look at the one common denominator—Tony. Tony starts investigating himself—if only because he figures it’s going to be long before he’s one of the dead that doesn’t come back.

How was the Narration?

Quinto makes Tony come to life, and is able to humanize this licensed executioner enough that you don’t think of him as a killer for hire, you think of him a beleaguered private contractor on hard times. Quinto’s great at the rest of the job, too—I’d absolutely listen to more audiobooks he narrates.

So, what did I think about Murder by Other Means?

I was less than enthusiastic about The Dispatcher back in 2016—which I didn’t remember until I just glanced at my post. I’m not over the moon about this, but I enjoyed it, and hope there’s more to come (I’m not sure I want to wait four more years, however). If there is? I’m jumping on it eagerly.

It was clever, it is honest about the human condition and the ways we find to hurt and destroy (and comes up with a few that are custom-made for this no-murder reality), yet remains a very human, very real thriller. It’s a good way to spend a couple of hours.

3.5 Stars

Kitty’s Mix-Tape by Carrie Vaughn: One More Trip to Kitty’s World in this Collection

By HCNewton

On September 22, 2020

In Carrie Vaughn, Fiction, Kitty Norville, Urban Fantasy

Kitty’s Mix-Tape

by Carrie Vaughn
Series: Kitty Norville

eARC, 288 pg.
Tachyon Publications, 2020

Read: September 12-14, 2020
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

What’s Kitty’s Mix-Tape?

That’s an easy question: this is the second collection of short stories (previously published) set in the world of Kitty Norville, the werewolf turned talk radio star. We get a lot of stories featuring Kitty and/or her friends and allies (and one foe), and we get some stories that just happen to take place in the same reality even if they really don’t have any cross-over with the series.

There’s an introduction by Emma Bull that by itself would make a great review of this book (and maybe the series). Really, writing anything else after reading Bull seems superfluous.

Kitty & the Gang

I’m going to have a hard time keeping myself from talking too much about the stories featuring Kitty and her friends—Kitty and Ben going to her 10-year high school reunion was the perfect way to start off this book. Quick, fun, and a great way back into this world.

“It’s Still the Same Old Story,” could’ve fit into The Immortal Conquistador that I talked about a few months back—except it didn’t fit into the story arc of that one. But for those who wonder what Rick was up to in the early part of the twentieth century, this will give you a good idea. This is possibly my favorite thing focusing on Rick to date.

On the eve of their wedding in Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand Ben disappears off on his own for a while, Vaughn finally lets us know what he was up to at the time. I’d forgotten all about that until I read this story, but I remember wondering then (as I was supposed to) what he’d been up to—it’s nice to have that answered.

There was a dynamite story about Detective Jessi Harden of Denver PD investigating a murder with a supernatural angle that doesn’t involve any of the series regulars. This would be the basis of a great follow-up series if Vaughn was in the mood for something. Hardin tackling “woo woo” crimes (I think that’s what the New Orleans PD calls them in the Yellowrock books) would be compelling as all get out.

One more that I want to mention is called “Kitty Learns the Ropes.” In this story, Kitty meets a professional athlete who happens to be a werewolf. Does that give him an unfair advantage? Should he disclose his situation to the world? Can’t this guy who never asked to be supernatural just live is life?

I’m going on too long, so I’ll summarize a few other standouts: there’s a fun little story with Odysseus Grant, and some cute bits with Kitty and her pack dealing with the Super Blood Moon and the like, and a showdown with some Federal Agents.

The Songs

Vaughn includes a list of songs that embody the various stories for her, which she did for the novels, too. I think if you consider this list as a track list for a mixtape, you’d end up with something that Rob Fleming (in any incarnation) would look upon with scorn. If you take them as pieces to go with the stories, it’s a lot of fun, and adds a nice little dimension to them.

I will admit that I didn’t listen to them as I read—I think it would work though. They’re also a good tool to use to ruminate on the stories a bit.

So, what did I think about Kitty’s Mix-Tape?

There wasn’t a dud in the bunch, which is rare for a short story compilation—sure, I liked the ones about Kitty and her friends best, because that’s what I came to the collection for. But I liked them all.

The back cover promises that this is “the final installment” of the series, but Vaugn talks about staying tuned because it’s great to have a pre-existing world to write stories in. If the blurb is right, I’m glad I got a little more time in this world, but I’m hoping that staying tuned will pay off.

This may not be a great introduction to the werewolf DJ named Kitty, but it might work as one just fine, it’s certainly a good tour of the world. But it’s definitely the kind of thing that Kitty’s readers should come for. It’s one of the best collections I’ve read this year—and maybe for a good chunk of last year, too. Give it a whirl.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Tachyon Publications via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this.

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.

May Day by Josie Jaffrey: Even Vampires Need Law Enforcement

By HCNewton

On September 21, 2020

In Fiction, Urban Fantasy

May Day

by Josie Jaffrey
Series: Seekers, Book 1

eARC, 388 pg.
Silver Sun Books, 2020

Read: September 14, 2020

What’s May Day About?

Our protagonist and narrator is a Silver, Jack Valentine. Silver’s the term that vampires in this reality use to describe themselves. But she’s no ordinary Silver, she’s a Seeker—essentially a vampire police detective. She and her colleagues in Oxford witness a Silver throwing a mortal to their death from a tower but are unable to immediately apprehend them.

Jack is forced to team up with a local baron—with whom she has a long-standing grudge–to gain the necessary social access to properly investigate the killing. Along the way, she finds a vampire who is molesting mortals (who, thankfully, won’t remember anything) and stumbles onto a conspiracy that may be too much for Jack and the other Seekers to adequately deal with.

A Great Idea

A group of vampires tasked with keeping the existence of vampires secret, erasing evidence of their existence whenever possible, and bringing reckless and criminal (by vampire, not mortal, standards) vampires to heel is a great idea. In retrospect, I’m surprised no one has thought of this before*.

* I realize I’m leaving myself open to correction on this point, if others have done this—let me know, I’d like to see other takes on this idea.

Jaffrey goes even a step further and gives us political intrigue and possible corruption in the upper echelons of both the Seekers and other bodies. The sort of thing that Harry Bosch would call “high jingo.” Establishing the Seekers and introducing some high jingo in a way that feels both realistic and mysterious is a nice accomplishment.

A Question of Emphasis

It’s entirely possible (perhaps probable) that word/page count would put the lie to this section. But I’m emphasizing on how it seemed to this reader—what my experience was. But I’d say that the crime/investigation story (the part that the Book Blurb talks about) is about 40% of the book. The other 60% focuses on Jack’s personal life (and a little about the personal lives of her colleagues).

Jack’s a relatively young vampire and is regarded as pretty immature. Which is fitting, because she is. She drinks to excess, regularly, and to an extent that threatens her job. She gets involved in a love triangle (or at least a lust triangle) that the text spends an awful lot of time on. The side of the triangle that Jaffrey spends the most time on—and gives the most details about—is the one that Jack tells everyone who asks (and the reader) repeatedly that she’s not interested in, and is dead-set against.

The idea of a cop (or cop-like character) who is a mess, both in their professional and personal life, is nothing new—and at times seems de rigueur. It’s just those sub-plots (however integral to the overall story they may prove) should serve as a support to the main plot—it’s right there in the “sub.” They should illustrate who the protagonist is, show them in a different light than the main plot (perhaps help explain who they seem to be). Here, it’s almost as if the May Day murder is the subplot.

So, what did I think about May Day?

I liked the concept of the Seekers, I thought the entire case was well-conceived and well-executed. The two (maybe three, it depends how you want to count them) other ongoing problems that Jack and the others uncover were both exactly the kinds of thing that “Vampire cops” should get into and both leave plenty of fodder for follow-up volumes. This part of the novel is strong, inventive, and is why I recommend May Day.

What tempers my enthusiasm is the balance of the book, Jack Valentine is an interesting character, but her love life and her personal dysfunctions and self-destructive tendencies are overemphasized. I’m very likely in the minority here, I realize, but spending as much time with the mess that is Jack’s personal life—especially when you throw in the triangle—it leaves me cold and sucks out some of my appreciation of the novel as a whole. I do recommend this original slant on Urban Fantasy, and think that UF reader will find a lot to enjoy in its pages.

3 Stars

My thanks to The Write Reads for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided.

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: May Day by Josie Jaffrey

By HCNewton

On September 21, 2020

In Book Tour, Fiction, Urban Fantasy

I’m very pleased today to welcome The Blog Tour for May Day by Josie Jaffrey. This Tour Stop consists in this little spotlight post and then my take on the novel coming along in a bit. Let’s start by learning a little about this novel, okay?

Book Details:

Book Title: May Day by Josie Jaffrey
Publisher: Silver Sun Books
Release date: July 9, 2020
Format: Ebook/Paperback
Length: 388 pages

Book Blurb:

If the murderer you’re tracking is a vampire, then you want a vampire detective. Just maybe not this one.

It’s not that Jack Valentine is bad at her job. The youngest member of Oxford’s Seekers has an impressive track record, but she also has an impressive grudge against the local baron, Killian Drake.

When a human turns up dead on May Morning, she’s determined to pin the murder on Drake. The problem is that none of the evidence points to him. Instead, it leads Jack into a web of conspiracy involving the most powerful people in the country, people to whom Jack has no access. But she knows someone who does.

To get to the truth, Jack will have to partner up with her worst enemy. As long as she can keep her cool, Drake will point her to the ringleaders, she’ll find the murderer and no one else will have to die.

Body bags on standby.

May Day is the first book in Josie Jaffrey’s Seekers series, an urban fantasy series set in Oxford, England.

Book Trailer:

Purchase Links:

Amazon UK ~ Amazon US

My thanks to The Write Reads for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided.

A Killing Frost by Seanan McGuire: McGuire’s Latest Will Satisfy—and Shock—All of Toby’s Fans.

By HCNewton

On September 14, 2020

In Fiction, Seanan McGuire, Toby Daye, Urban Fantasy

A Killing Frost

by Seanan McGuire
Series: Toby Daye, #14

Hardcover, 302 pg.
DAW, 2020

Read: September 9-11, 2020
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

…I was about to do something monumentally stupid for the sake of potentially saving Simon.

Simon Torquill. The man I’d once considered to be be my greatest enemy The man I was now willingly risking everything I had for the opportunity to save. Faerie isn’t fair and the world doesn’t make sense.

“You sound scared.” [Danny said]

“I am.”

“If this is somethin’ that scares you…”

What’s A Killing Frost About?

Simon Torquill. Is there any name that promises as much upheaval to Toby Daye’s life as much as his? I’m getting ahead of myself, though. Actually, I could just answer my first question with his name and move on to the next section of this post…

Anyway, Toby takes a break from working with May to find a wedding dress that she a. likes and b. doesn’t mind getting covered in blood—because who are we kidding here, if Toby’s wearing it, it’s going to be covered in blood before the end of the day. She and Tybalt are out on a date, having a perfectly enjoyable time when they’re interrupted by Patrick and Dianda Lorden. The Lordens are worried that Toby’s lack of diplomatic training has opened her up to a problem.

See, if she doesn’t invite Simon Torquill to her wedding—thanks to some silly Faerie custom—she’s liable to create an opportunity for Simon or someone claiming to act on his behalf to attack her in a pretty grievous way. Of course, to invite him, she’s going to have to find him—and after The Brightest Fell, we all know that’s not going to be easy.

So, May, Quentin, Toby and Spike(!) head out to do the nigh-impossible, find Simon and get him to the wedding.

Wither art Thou, Tybalt?

Thanks to a warning from Karen, for everyone to survive, Tybalt can’t accompany Toby on this little quest. This is just about the most Tybalt-free book I can think of (second only to The Brightest Fell). When he’s around, it’s important that he is and he makes a big impact.

It’s strange to have him gone so much, but I think it worked pretty well as a change of pace and heightened the reader’s appreciation for him when he was around.

At one point, [name withheld] describes the relationship between Tybalt and Toby,

It’s clear to anyone with eyes how much he loves you, and I’ve held your blood on my tongue. Your love for him flavors everything you are.

In any other series, that might be disgusting/strange. But in this context? That’s one of the sweetest sentences I can think of.

There’s Just So Much I Can’t Talk About

Because I keep a pretty strict no-spoiler policy to these posts, there’s just so much that I can’t talk about that I really want to. Even if I spoiled things, I couldn’t talk about them too much because we’re going to need a book or five to figure out how things work out. McGuire’s one of the best at planting seeds and then seemingly ignoring them for several books just to have them spring up and bear fruit when you least expect it.

One of those forgotten seeds bears series-altering fruit here while she’s planting seeds relating to Walther and Cassie—but more importantly to Stacy. There’s a shattering scene with Luna and Sylvester. There’s something afoot with Rayseline, too. August does something surprising. Amandine’s furious by the end of the novel (that can’t be good). And we learn something blood-curdling about Eira Rosynhwyr that might make an enraged Amandine seem trivial.

And then there’s…yeah, you know what? I just can’t even hint at the rest. Go read it and we can talk.

So, what did I think about A Killing Frost?

This is not a book designed to welcome new readers to the series. I’m sure there’s enough to draw in someone who’s said to themselves, “I keep hearing about this series, I wonder what it’s about?” But really, it’s not a great entry point. If you’re one of those readers, drop a comment and I’ll try to give you a better entry point.

But for readers of this series? They’re going to be in hog-heaven. Take out all of the spoiler stuff I alluded to/avoided above, and you’ve got yourself a great Toby adventure, full of thrills, twists, grievous wounds, nasty curses, and heroism of all sorts.

Include the stuff I didn’t talk about? You’ve got a jaw-dropping novel full of so many heart-warming and heart-wrenching moments that it’d be hard to enumerate them. This isn’t McGuire’s best novel in the series, but it’s great. And fans will be discussing, dissecting and reveling in it for years.

4 1/2 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.

The Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold: A Fantasy Novel that Defies My Pithy Headline Composing Abilities

By HCNewton

On September 7, 2020

In Fantasy, Fiction, Urban Fantasy

The Last Smile in Sunder City

by Luke Arnold
Series: The Fetch Phillips Archives, #1

Kindle Edition, 368 pg.
Orbit, 2020

Read: August 26-27, 2020
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

I think this could be my longest post ever, and I’d still leave things left unsaid, you wouldn’t believe the length of my notes for a book of this size. I’ll try to hit the most important points. To fill in whatever lacunae appears below, you should probably also read what was said over at Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub, The Tattooed Book Geek, Grimdark Magazine, and FanFi Addict—they’re what convinced me to buy the book.

“So, you’re a Man for Hire?”

“That’s right.”

“Why don’t you just call yourself a detective?”

“I was worried that might make me sound intelligent.”

The Principal wrinkled his nose. He didn’t know if I was trying to be funny; even less if I’d succeeded.

“What’s your relationship with the police department?”

“We have connections but they’re as thin as I can make them. When they come knocking I have to answer but my clients’ protection and privacy come first. There are lines I can’t cross but I push them back as far as I can.”

What’s The Last Smile in Sunder City About?

Fetch Phillips is hired to find a missing vampire, Edmund Albert Rye, an instructor at an exclusive private school for the children of magical creatures (lycanthropes, vampires, elves, dwarfs, etc.). It’s been a few days since he was seen, which is uncharacteristic enough that the principal’s getting nervous—he’s tough, but he’s been unwell. He, the students, and staff just need to know what happened to him.

I made my way east along Fourteenth Street without much hope for what I might be able to find. Professor Edmund Albert Rye; a man whose life expectancy was already several centuries overdue. I doubted I could bring back anything more than a sad story.

I wasn’t wrong. But things were sticking to the story that knew how to bite.

Fetch gets to work, enjoying the feeling of a good amount of cash in his pocket. The first step is the city library, Rye’s been living in the attic for that last several years, so he could enjoy some privacy and the sunlight. The librarian is just as worried as the principal had been.

It’s really not long before Fetch’s investigation brings him to an old private club for Vampires—and he find the remains of a couple of vampires. The lab concludes that it Rye wasn’t one of the fresh corpses. There’s another dead magical creature there, one that Fetch has never seen, and it takes a couple of days for the results identifying that to come in, too.

One thing that Fetch learns fairly soon is that Rye isn’t the only one missing, a girl vanished around the same time as he did. Now, Fetch has to track down a missing vampire and a teen-aged Siren. His work is definitely cut out for him.

Because he knows from the get-go that the story he’ll bring back to his employer won’t have a happy ending, he has a hard time pursuing it head-on. He keeps finding little things to distract himself, to slow the investigation. Even when the missing girl gets factored in, and he knows he needs to be fully committed just to have a chance to find her, to. He really can’t pull it off. The sad story just became so much sadder, and he doesn’t want to know the depth of that sadness.

Fetch Phillips

While the majority of the book traces this story, we also get several flashback chapters tracing Fetch’s tragic childhood, decent (but not great) adolescence and then troubled adulthood leading up to the point where he helped the Human Army destroy all the magic in the world. It’s an event called the Coda, and it occurred six years before Fetch was hired by the school. All magical creatures lost the abilities that distinguished their races, and the world was never the same. As an act of penance that no one but Fetch cares about, he’s since refused to work for humans, only for formerly-magic creatures. Which is what brought him to the search for Rye.

Fetch is a broken man—he wasn’t in great shape before the Coda, but he’s worse after it. An ex-soldier, convicted criminal, ex-prisoner, and now a drunk, with moments of sobriety (fewer than he should have while on a job, but all that money can buy many drinks).

There was a hangover on the horizon, along with something else. Something sort of stupid.

A devil was sitting on my shoulder whispering the kinds of things that stopped working on me years ago. I was only in my thirties but I was old. You don’t measure age in years, you measure it in lessons learned and repeated mistakes and how hard it is to force a little hope into your heart. Old just means jaded and cynical and tired. And boy, was I tired.

It’s the penance that drives him. He’d been an author of so much of what was wrong with the world, and he’s doing what he can to alleviate it just a little bit. It’s the only thing keeping him going. It’s not enough, but it’s all he has.

Fetch is such a rich character. It’s hard to like him, it’s hard to find anything redeemable in him*, any reason to be interested in what happens to him. But you can’t help pull for this broken, beaten, disillusioned, and cynical man.

* Which is, admittedly, the point of redemption.

What a Piece of Worldbuilding

This is such an incredibly conceived world. The Coda is so fresh that the citizens have started to move on, but aren’t used to dealing with the post-magical world. And so many of them are still hoping that it’ll all come back just as suddenly as it left.

The mixture of the fantasy elements and Human tech and science in this world, picking up the slack for the things that magic can’t do anymore is so rich, so well designed, so well-written that the reader has to stop every so often and try to take it in.

Even if I didn’t really like the book all that much, I’d still be recommending the book for the worldbuilding. It’s a master class in how to do it, how to describe it, and how to reveal it to the reader.

A Gripe

Just so, so, so many extended passages in italics. I won’t try to make a case against them, Benjamin Dryer does a better job than I possibly could. I just find them aggravating. It’d be so easy to indicate that something’s a flashback without them and spare readers the annoyance.

So, what did I think about The Last Smile in Sunder City?

Maybe nobody gets better. Maybe bad people just get worse. It’s not the bad things that make people bad, though. From what I’ve seen, we all work together in the face of adversity. Join up like brothers and work to overcome whatever big old evil wants to hold us down. The thing that kills us is the hope. Give a good man something to protect and you’ll turn him into a killer.

Fetch is a classic hard-boiled detective in a classically noir tale—the fact that it takes place in a Fantasy world (yet full of fairly modern technology) is just icing on a pretty tasty cake. The narrative voice is great, the writing leaps to life, and I can’t say enough about the way the world—and the novel—were designed and executed.

This probably deserves more than the 4 Stars I’m giving it, but I just didn’t connect with the story, with Fetch, with everything else going on as much as I wanted to. This regrettably ends up in the category of books that I admire more than I enjoy. But my admiration of this is so high that it almost doesn’t matter. This is a great Fantasy novel, and one unlike any you’ve read.

The sequel is out in a couple of weeks—I’m coming back to this world because now that Arnold doesn’t have to spend so much time explaining how the world works (or, more properly, how it no longer works) that he’ll be able to focus on telling a story or two, and I want to see what heights he’s capable of when the rules have already been established.

Do I recommend this book? Oh yeah. You’ll probably like it more than I did (I’m a little worried about hitting “publish” on this, as I know I’m one of the less enthusiastic readers of this). And even if you don’t, you’ll be just as impressed as I am with Arnold’s imagination and skill.

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.

Tag: Urban Fantasy Page 20 of 44

What’s Mostly Human 2 About?

To Re-cap or Not?

A Very Talky Urban Fantasy

So, what did I think about Mostly Human 2?

What’s Last Stand in Lychford About?

The New Characters

Autumn and Lizzie

You Might Want to Read this Next to an Open Window

So, what did I think about Last Stand in Lychford?

What’s Kitty’s Mix-Tape?

Kitty & the Gang

Other Stories

The Songs

So, what did I think about Kitty’s Mix-Tape?

A Sequel to The Dispatcher?

What’s Murder by Other Means About?

How was the Narration?

So, what did I think about Murder by Other Means?

What’s Kitty’s Mix-Tape?

Kitty & the Gang

Other Stories

The Songs

So, what did I think about Kitty’s Mix-Tape?

What’s May Day About?

A Great Idea

A Question of Emphasis

So, what did I think about May Day?

Book Details:

Book Blurb:

Book Trailer:

What’s A Killing Frost About?

Wither art Thou, Tybalt?

There’s Just So Much I Can’t Talk About

So, what did I think about A Killing Frost?

What’s The Last Smile in Sunder City About?

Fetch Phillips

What a Piece of Worldbuilding

A Gripe

So, what did I think about The Last Smile in Sunder City?