Series loyalty or just insanity? June 28, 2011
Posted by kmcalear in Book Series, Critiquing, Musings, Rants, Urban Fantasy.add a comment
I noticed, recently, that a new Anita Blake book had come out. This one was entitled Hit List. Anita Blake was one of my first “urban fantasy” series and can be argued as one of the first that created the genre. Therefore, those of us who enjoy reading and writing in the genre are indebted to her. As well, the first 5 or 6 books were very good, the characterization was intriguing and the mysteries were engaging. Before the werewolf/woman/vampire triangle of Edward – Bella – Jacob there was the Anita – Jean Claude – Richard triangle, which spurred just as many vehement book-lover’s debates!
But then Hamilton decided to change her novel from paranormal fantasy to pointless pornography. I’m not a puritan when it comes to book content, but if it’s in the book have a danged point! You can write a pointless scene about baking a cake or a drawn out pointless sex scene and I’ll snarl equally, because I feel scenes in a novel should always advance either characterization or plot.
Which leads me to my point, why are people still reading Anita Blake? The reviews I see on amazon are negative and decry the lack of plot, novels of pure filler information, the dreadful characterization, the incomprehensible scenes and yet… they KEEP BUYING THEM? Why? Every author can have 1 or 2 duds in a series, but when you have 6 or 7 duds it’s time to give up the series and find something new.
There are so many aspiring, and GOOD, authors out there, after all. Use the money you would spend on a series you dislike and buy something you’ve never read before. You can always keep following the previously good, now bad, series at the library on the slim chance it gets better.
This does, of course, lead me to a final question. When is series loyalty just too far? Do books really manage to get better after a set of duds, like tv series can sometimes do? (Case and point –> Battlestar Season 3, Farscape season 3 and Star Trek: TNG, season’s 1 and 2, they got better later). But at least, for tv, it’s generally free. Not so with new “episodes” of books.
Book Review – Right Hand Magic by Nancy A Collins June 3, 2011
Posted by Realitybypass in Book Review, Book Series, Romance, Urban Fantasy.Tags: magic, Paranormal romance, review, Urban Fantasy
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I finished Right Hand Magic a couple of weeks ago, and I have to admit I found it charming. It it the best, most dramatic urban fantasy I’ve ever read? Nope. But it was engaging and really fun, and sometimes fun is exactly what I’m in the mood for.
In Right Hand Magic we meet Tate, who is a trust fund baby defying her socialite parents by choosing the path of an artist, in her case an artist who builds sculptures out of metal. When the book begins Tate has recently broken up with her boyfriend and is looking for someplace new to live, particularly if the rent price is right and she finds the right rent in the area of the city known as Golgatham. We’re not given a LOT of background about how magic came into the world, but it’s enough to know that the supernatural exists and that it is untrusted and generally confined within Golgatham. Usually humans aren’t welcome there, but Tate is desperate for change and at $750 a month she figures it’s worth trying something a little weird.
From this beginning Tate meets her witch born landlord, his obnoxious winged cat familiar, a cellar dwelling seer and a new housemate in the form of a were cougar escaped from the underground fighting pits. The plot is fairly predictable, but I didn’t mind going on the journey to see just how it’d be achieved. Tate is a really fun heroine with a spunky attitude, that never crossed over to being mean. She is not a ‘kick ass’ heroine in the traditional UF sense of killing everything that gets in her way. More she’s just confident in herself and works hard to achieve her goals and to take care of the people around her. At one point she’s captured by the protagonist and even though she can’t do much, she does take the opportunity to stomp his foot and kick him in the shins, which is pretty much what I think most people would do.
Likewise the romance is cute and sweet. You can tell it’s coming, but Tate and Hexe are cute together and it’s satisfying. I appreciate Hexe’s characterization and his strength of person as well. In fact the majority of the secondary characters are well done, which really rounds out the world and makes the bits that would be less believable something I’m willing to suspect disbelief for.
The magic system is fun consisting of natural abilities that come with race and then the witches, who practice Right Hand Magic, Left Hand Magic or some combination of the two. Right Hand Magic is gentle magic, usually used for healing and blessing and undoing dark magic, where Left Hand Magic would be the a fore mentioned dark magic. Most witches tend towards Left Hand Magic or the middle ground, but Hexe has chosen a path of only Right Hand Magic, no matter how hard it is to hold that road.
This book read fast and I’m looking forward to the next installment.
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Age: Late Teen/Adult
Content: Very mild Sexuality, violence, language
Overall: 4/5
Book Review: Of Saints and Shadows April 29, 2011
Posted by Realitybypass in Book Review, Urban Fantasy.Tags: DNF, Horror, review, Urban Fantasy
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Of Saints and Shadows by Christopher Golden caught my eye as it was an urban fantasy series with a male protagonist. These are often too rare and I loved the cover and the description of a series that combined a different take on the vampire mythos with secret societies and the underground life of the Vatican.
The set up intrigued me and the writing is good. It flows well with some interesting characters and ideas. However…after about 130 pages I’m putting this book down and it will be a do not finish for me.
You have to understand that I consider myself a fairly open reader and most content doesn’t bother me overly much, except I dislike gratuitous and explicit gore or sex. in some books if I can easily skip said content I’ll finish the book anyway and just note it here for other readers. In the case of Of Saints and Shadows the main antagonist gets off on killing other people and the more graphic and artistic it is the better. As well it, thus far, has all the horror themes of sex=death and never go anywhere alone ever. After seeing the death methods escalate really fast from guns to demons sucking off men’s genitals and crawling up to gore out eyeballs… I’ve had enough. I’ve done some forward skimming and the plot looks like it picks up from where I’m at, but I’m just not willing to wade through more blackly exploding bellies and doggie guts to get there. Particularily not when my TBR pile is deep with books I really want to read.
For some people it may be their cup of tea and I wouldn’t say the series is unreadable, but not for the faint of heart, or those that don’t like their UF served with a large helping of artistic death al la slasher films…I’d give this one a miss.
Genre: Horror/Urban Fantasy
Age: Adult
Content: Sexuality, violence, language, explicit killings and torture
Overall: DNF
Book Review: Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz February 9, 2011
Posted by Realitybypass in Book Review, Book Series, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult.Tags: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
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Hey folks,
It’s book review day again. I have quite a few books on my list of things to review, but this most recent read hopscotched to the front of the line. Unfortunately it didn’t jump forward for all good reasons.
Blue Bloods is a YA book detailing the lives of a group of elite New York teenagers as they come into their own as vampires and look to solve the mystery of the death of a classmate at a local hot spot. As a summary that doesn’t sound too bad and is part of why I picked the audio book up. I drive about 45 minutes each direction to work and I’m finding that I lurve listening to audio books during the trip – which reminds me that I need another one for tomorrow now…hrm.
Anyway…I’m digressing, back to the book. This book is a classic example of show versus tell done totally in the wrong way and drove me completely crazy. I kept waiting for a real rise in the action and it was just reveal after reveal mostly in the form of someone telling someone else what was going on. Our lead character Schyler never actually figures anything out by herself, she just has people tell her stuff. AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH.
As well these pampered rich kids make me want to kick them. this may come, I realize, from never having been one of the rich beautiful people in the way everyone in the book is. I was never driven around in a Silver Rolls Royce or towncar. I have never purchased $4000 jeans…that’s like THREE house payments! So this world of a gazillion fashion terms, day spas and power yoga is just so foreign without help that adding an urban fantasy twist to it just made me frustrated.
The urban fantasy twist, by the way, is the best part of the book. It’s a fairly unique take on the vampire mythos, painting them as fallen angels who live through a full life from baby to ancient and at the time of their death a drop of blood is gathered and put into the next incarnation. During the ‘sunset years’ of teens the angels come vampires learn about their heritage and begin to unlock the memories of all of their past lives. Much of this book ties back to Egypt and Plymouth rock and the settling of America. It’s interesting and generally well done, except very brief because they have to get back to parties in expensive dresses!
The other problem that comes with this mythos is a fairly high ick factor as people born twins are often an incarnation that is to be mated with the other. So you get a really heavy incest vibe even if it is explained away in that they have the memories of all these other lives and vampires can’t procreate by normal means, only the implant of the blood and such, but still…if incest bothers you you’ll want to steer clear. As well though it’s listed as YA and has teen aged protagonists there’s a lot of accepted behaviors that may be of concern to parents, namely under aged drinking, smoking and sexual activities that are just accepted as being part and parcel of the life of the glamorous and vampiric. For being beings searching for redemption they aren’t particularly angelic.
All in all I was disappointed in the book because I really wanted to like it. There are some questions I’d like answered and I have some interest as to how the mythos plays out it’s not enough to get me over the relatively weak writing and the show versus tell issues, which keeps me from wanting to read the other books in the series.
~J
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Chick Lit
Age: 16+
Content: Violence, sexual content, teen smoking and drinking
Overall: 2/5 stars
Book Review: Bayou Moon October 20, 2010
Posted by Realitybypass in Book Review, Urban Fantasy.add a comment
Heya there folks,
Fall break for my family was this last weekend and we took my boys to Disneyland for the first time. As I’ve chattered about before one of my favorite things about travel is the chance to read mostly uninterrupted. This weekend I finished 2.5 books so those are up for review in the next couple of weeks.
Book the first is Bayou Moon by the writing team of Ilona Andrews. It should come as no surprise that I’m a fan of the Kate Daniels series written by team Andrews, and On the Edge, the first in the Edge series was another favorite. In Bayou Moon we’re still in the Edge universe, but it’s the story of one of the secondary characters from On the Edge, William. I loved William in On the Edge, even though I knew it wasn’t his story and that he wasn’t going to get the chance to win the girl and be the hero, so I was glad to see him get his chance.
Bayou Moon is a fun romp and a very different kind of urban fantasy. It’s more of a rural fantasy if such is a genre, dealing so closely with family and with communities and how they get along. This universe combines the Broken, which is what most of us would see as the ‘real’ world, the Weird a world of high fantasy and magic and the Edge, which is somewhere between the two. In this case we go into a splinter of the Edge called the Mire, a magical swamp thick with personal struggles, political intrigue and used as a dumping ground for the unwanted.
At the heart Bayou Moon is the story of William Wolf, a changeling reviled in both the Edge and the Weird, and Cerise Mar, a young woman thrust into leading her family when an old feud and a new enemy come against it. This pair of leading characters shows what I think is one of Ilona Andrew’s strongest talents which is balancing the romantic leads. In the reading the control of the relationship and progression goes back and forth between the two in a way that keeps the reader going. I was invested in their story and wanted to see how they’d overcome the struggles presented.
On the non romantic angle I also enjoyed the political story and the hunt for an artifact that pulled the Mars into the conflict and allowed William to address a battle long in play.
I loved the world building in this book as it built on what I’d seen in On the Edge, but then took it in new directions. There were creatures and powers in Bayou Moon which we’d never seen before but which fit perfectly into the swamp setting and into the rules for the magic of both the Edge and the Weird which had been introduced previously.
All in all it was a charming read. There were a few places where the exposition was a bit rocky, but I chewed through the book with hardly a pause and look forward to another volume soon please!
Jana Brown
Bayou Moon
Genre: Urban/Rural Fantasy
Age: 16+
Content: violence, some sexual content
Overall: 5/5 paws
Meet the author Monday: Stacia Kane August 2, 2010
Posted by kmcalear in Author Interview, Urban Fantasy.add a comment
<<Snipped for out of date>>
Housekeeping done, I wish my RL housekeeping was as easy, let’s get down to the interviewing. Today’s delightful diva is Stacia Kane, author of Personal Demons, yes the one we featured on Wednesday, and The Demon Inside (2009). Oh, and Unholy Ghosts is coming in 2009 too!
Let’s dig right in.
Vital Stats
Lives: England! Woohoo.
Webpage: Stacia Kane
Books: Personal Demons, The Demon Inside (2009), Unholy Ghosts (2009). She has a bunch of others, but we’re only putting UF stuff here today.
From the mouth of the Author:
Do you have a day of the week that is your most creative day? Or do all the days just gang up and attack you all the time?
Man, those days are such jerks. They follow me around with knives and taunt me, all the time, regardless of what I’m actually doing at any given moment. I hate them.
What is your favorite supernatural critter and why?
Ohhh, I still love vampires. I mean, demons are fun, and I am very, very partial to ghosts, but I still think vampires are sexy and I love them. I’m rather bloodthirsty anyway (um, not in that way. Well, maybe in that way. Muahaha) but the whole immortality thing is just way too appealing.
We all know it’s easy to get distracted when a project is taking its own sweet time to bubble. What is your Achilles heel when it comes to getting distracted from writing?
I have two of them, actually; one is seven and the other is almost four, and they nag me constantly. Like it wasn’t enough for me to give them life and let them destroy my figure in the process. They actually expect me to feed them and give them juice and pay attention to them when they talk and stuff. Sheesh. Not to mention my husband.
Actually, my big one is baking. My family can always tell when I’m avoiding a project, because suddenly I’m baking layer cakes with fresh whipped cream, or meringue pies, or cookies, or whatever else. And I don’t really eat them, because I’m on a diet (I have lost 32 pounds in the last year and am now the same size I was when I met my husband, which makes me quite happy), but I love to make them, the more complex the better.
With the holidays coming up and October being a good kick off, what is your favorite Halloween activity?
Oooh. I love everything about Halloween! Everything. This year the hubs is taking the girls Trick-or-Treating while I stay home in my sexy zombie costume and hand out candy (it seems to be catching on in our area!). I celebrate Samhain, so I put out some offerings and do tarot readings for myself and some other stuff, so I’m really looking forward to those too. I just love all of it!
I’ve heard of inspirational eating, so when you’re settled in to get things done is there a particular food that you just have to have on hand?
No. I’m not an inspirational eater. I’m an inspirational smoker. I smoke Camel Lights, and I have to have one before I get to work.
What does it take to write a really good villain? Do you ever find yourself in a mental space that scares you or makes you wonder if that really came out of YOUR head?
No, I’ve always known I’m kind of a sick freak, so… I remember when the hubs and I were dating and we went to see the film “Apt Pupil”, which was an excellent movie, we thought. (RIP Brad Renfro.) And we were discussing it with the guy who worked at the local video store and I mentioned how I think the thing about movies like that is, everyone has a very, very dark side that is attracted to horrible things; it’s human nature, and it’s easy to be fascinated by serial killers or the holocaust or whatever horrible atrocities. But why I thought the film was so powerful was that it showed how dangerous it can be to really give yourself over to that dark side, and what it can do to you mentally. Which the hubs and I thought made perfect sense, but the guy at Suncoast seemed to think I was saying the Nazis were cool or something, which I totally was NOT (and I don’t think that, not at all, not one bit. Nazis=BAD). And he got all offended and walked away before I could explain, and told all the other employees what a terrible person I was. It was very upsetting, actually. (And incidentally, Malleus, Maleficarum and Spud had run-ins with the Nazis during WWII, and still have extremely strong feelings about the experience.)
A really good villain must be convinced that he or she is in the right. Yes, there is the sociopath-as-villain, or the ones who enjoy hurting people, but in general I like a vilaain who fools him or herself into believing they are doing the moral and good thing. Those villains are so easy to hate, but they’re also easy to understand. And I think it makes them scarier because we understand.
Which of your characters gave you the most trouble and was the hardest to write for?
Hmm. Probably Brian Stone. He’s very complex, but I didn’t really have time to get as deeply into his complexities as I would have liked.
What is your most favorite murdered darling from any of your books?
Oh, gosh. Um…Actually I usually figure out a way to work them in somewhere else if I like them that much. *blush*
What is your worst writing habit, the thing which you keep telling yourself you’re going to change and you do it anyway?
I’m a feedback whore. I shouldn’t be, but I am, and I get very hurt when people don’t read my stuff.
If you were going to interview another UF author, whose brain would you want to pick…or consume, we’re not picky.
Hmm. I guess Neil Gaiman isn’t technically UF, but him. I would say someone like Mark Henry but let’s face it, there’s nothing to pick there.
From the mouth Greyson:
Boxers or briefs? You know I had to ask.
Boxer briefs. If I wear them at all. I don’t always.
Since no one seems to be able to stay out of gore covered trouble how do you get the blood stains out?
Oh, I have servants for that sort of thing. I don’t know what they do; honestly, they probably throw the bloody things out and just buy new ones. F*** it. I’ve got the money.
It seems most UF characters get a wardrobe I’d kill for. So what is your favorite article of clothing?
I quite like my overcoat. It’s just a nice black wool, but it fits well and looks good with everything. I buy most of my clothes on Savile Row.
What did your author screwed up most about you?
She made me too sappy. I don’t enjoy being exposed like that; it’s like she thinks she deserves to know everything about me and to spread it around. She’s a dirty sneak, that one.
Is there true love on your horizon, or is true love only for those sappy romance books?
Oh, no. That would be telling. You’ll have to wait and see, I guess; I don’t dare tell the author, she’d just blab it everywhere. It’s impossible to have any privacy with her around.
And there you have it! Thank you Stacia and Greyson!
~J
Book Review: Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson July 7, 2010
Posted by Realitybypass in Book Review, Children Books, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult.add a comment
Hey folks! Hope everyone in the stats had a great 4th of July weekend. For our family it was a time of fireworks, memories and really good food. Beyond that we also finished the book we’ve been reading together, Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson, so I decided it would be a good review today.
We’ve been reading Alcatraz a chapter at a time for about the last 2-3 months. My husband is our reader and myself and our two boys, ages 9 and 13, are the erstwhile listeners. To give credit where it is due I think part of the joy of this reading is listening to my husband who is a very good reader and creator of various voices, but it certainly helps that the story he was reading was a delight in and of itself. Alcatraz is told from a first person point of view, but it’s from a future version of Alcatraz looking back to tell how his story got started. The narration is irreverent, humorous and filled with delightful forshadowing of upcoming events in completely unexpected ways. Sometimes a rutabaga is far more than just a rutabaga.
Alcatraz himself is a character walking the line of deciding what kind of person he is going to be. He addresses the bad things he does with the same honesty that he acknowledges bravery and love. He’s a boy who has been raised in the foster system and who has an unnatural ability to break everything he touches. Come to find out that the ability is a Talent and his whole family has them. His thirteenth birthday begins with a present in the mail, the arrival of his grandfather, who has the Talent to be late, and a gun toting librarian because…of course…the world is not what we think it is and Alcatraz is thrust into the middle of a war between the Hushlands and the Free Kingdoms all while learning more about himself, his talent and what it means to be a family.
The book was delightful. Some folks might get annoyed with the interjections by the narrator and moments when he’s purposefully poking fun at writing conventions, but I found them hysterical. The language of the book is very accessible for middle grade readers and young adults, but there are enough twists to how the language is used that adults can be delighted by a whole other level of what’s going on.
We’re buying book two and three now cause we have to know what happens next to the boy that breaks things and his family. And we’re still curious about the sacrifice on a stack of outdated encyclopedias!
Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians
Genre: Modern Fantasy
Age: 8+
Content: Minor violence
Overall: 5/5 paws
Book Review: A Local Habitation – Seanan McGuire June 30, 2010
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Hallo dear readers and welcome to another episode of Monsterpiece Theater… Wait, wrong brain. It’s a Wednesday, it’s hump day and time to talk about another book from the shelves of bookishness.
A while back I wrote about Rosemary and Rue which is the first book in the October Daye series. Today we’re talking A Local Habitation which is book two. Like book one this was a book that left me with seriously conflicted emotions.
On one hand I still love the world building going on here and I feel like there are some seriously cool things still to come. There’s a wealth of backstory and history. Each book gives me new character types and mythologies. I love these books.
On the other hand I find that Toby does things that make me want to shake her, especially when she’s supposed to be a PI/mystery heroine and not a horror heroine. There are some of the secondary characters which all kind of blurred together until I wasn’t sure which one was who without going back and reviewing when they were introduced. I find I expect UF to have more character driven umph and that may be part of why it strikes me as odd. I figured out who done it long before Toby had a clue. I don’t love these books.
So see? I’m all conflicted and stuff.
In the long run I know I want to read the next one and I’m really tempted by the zombie apocalypse series she’s written as well. So we’ll keep going and see what happens…
(And I have a need to snuggle Tybalt…just cause he’d squirm.)
A Local Habitation
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Age: 14+
Content: Violence, death, some minor sexuality – mostly kissies.
Overall 3.5/5 paws
Book Review: Dead Witch Walking January 21, 2010
Posted by kmcalear in Book Review, Book Series, Urban Fantasy.Tags: Dead witch walking, Kim Harrison, Rachel Morgan, the hollows
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Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison is my most recent read, and I wish I had picked it up off my bookshelf much sooner than I did. I really enjoyed the novel, particularly because it didn’t repeat one of my Primo Numero Uno complaints about heroines in Urban Fantasy, the Bitch Factor. I don’t understand why the female heroes have to be smart mouthed to be interesting, powerful or face Bad Guys. Sometimes I think they speak up and insult their enemies when being silent, or not provoking them would be far wiser. Rachel Morgan still has ample One Liners, and good retorts, but what I like about her is she’s NOT your typical smart mouth. She’s resourceful and clever, and does make mistakes. It’s a big pro of the book.
Other Pros: The Pixie characters , while starting to show up in a lot of Urban fantasy, are very interesting in Harrison’s series. She gives a very unique definition to the pixie culture and behavior. The plot is fast paced and interesting, ties up enough loose ends while leaving questions open for further books. Oh and there’s a sexy librarian as a love interest, who has just a touch of magical power.
Cons: Rachel really has way too many Freak Out moments over her vampire roommate, which don’t seem to really fit in the development. The vampire, Ivy, is a flat character and could use some more development. In fact many of the sub characters could use a bit of development.
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Adventure
Age: Teen/Adult
Content: Curses, Assasination attempts, references to prostitution, mild violence
Overall: 4 paws
Book Review – On the Edge – Ilona Andrews January 13, 2010
Posted by Realitybypass in Book Review, Book Series, Romance, Urban Fantasy.5 comments
Happy Wednesday, Folks.
Yeah, second week back to work is easier than the first. Well, at least back to the day job, some work never takes a vacation. 
Today’s review features On the Edge, by the lovely Ilona Andrews. We’ve reviewed some of her Kate Daniels books here before with much love, so feel free to go see what we thought of that. On the Edge is NOT a Kate novel but the first book in a new series which I’d classify as a paranormal romance. I’ve been following Ms Andrews blog for a long time and spent much of the lead up to this book eating up snippets, so I was excited to pick it up.
This leads to a CONTEST announcement! I actually picked up two copies back in October when it released but I ended up giving one away for a contest and the other to my best friend for her birthday and realized I was bookless. Now I have two copies again because I bought one for myself for Christmas and so did my husband. Soo…I’ve a copy that needs a good home. Contest will be open until Sunday night and one commenter will get my unread copy of On the Edge.
Now, back to review things. This was a fun read and a quick one. The flow of the writing is very easy to get into with a good balance of action, humor and romance. I really enjoyed the family dynamic as it’s so easy to get the hard bitten heroine, and here Rose is a loving sister and granddaughter who is trying to do everything and take care of everyone. As the oldest of six and mother of two I empathized immediately with much of her situation. Okay, not the magical aspect or being pursued by highly messed up hounds, but ripped shoes and getting kids to school and the toy aisle at WalMart were right up there.
Rose’s love interest, Declan, was amusing to me as well. There were moments where the high blood arrogance got on my nerves, but those were around the same moments when Rose would verbally poke him or something would happen to show that there was much more to the story than met the eye. The logistics of why he’s at Rose’s door and what he really wants both in the beginning and at the end had me giggling. It’s human nature to make assumptions and in this case they both jump to conclusions which get Declan and Rose in trouble with themselves and others. The younger brothers, George and Jack, were delightful as was Grandma. I appreciate very much the skill this author has with secondary characters. I’ve never read an Andrews book where the secondaries weren’t just as round as the primary characters, but were still secondaries. This also applies to William and his painful story and need to be accepted. Bayou Moon, the next book in the series, is William’s story and I’m hoping to see him end up in a happier place!
All in all this was delightful and fun. I guessed a lot of what was going to happen in the plot, but it didn’t matter because the method of getting there was interesting and fun.
“Grab the guns and get in the truck, we’re going to WalMart…” – On the Edge
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Age: 15+
Content: Some sexual content, mushing of badguys, violence, magic, family, lurve
Overall: 4.5 paws
Jana
