Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

I finished this one a while ago, during my March UF kick.

 

 It has taken me a while to actually get to the point of posting the review. This series had been recommended to me at least ten times, by ten different friends. Kate Daniels, the MC, was widely heralded as defining the kickass UF heroine. She did not disappoint.

Plot summary: This series is set in an Alternate Universe Atlanta, where magic and technology vie for, I guess, supremacy. Sometimes the tech is in control, and sometimes the magic knocks out all of the technology. Buildings fall. Phones fail. Electricity goes out. When magic prevails, the city runs on magic.

 Kate Daniels is a sort of an independent contractor, charged with a form of magical law enforcement. At the beginning of book 1, we know almost nothing about her. A close friend, father figure of sorts, is murdered, and she takes on the responsibility and burden of finding out who. Also in this book, there is an unidentified creature that is murdering members of the magical races throughout Atlanta. It is in this book that Kate meets Curran, the Lord of the Beasts, a were-lion creature.

 Review: As a first book, Magic Bites is good. The world building is solid and intriguing. Kate is as advertised. She is not a shrinking violet, she is definitely not one of those shrinking violet women that show up in PNR waiting to be claimed by their mates. The story was well-plotted, and the villain was genuinely evil.

There is plenty within the world to provide scope for additional books, and Kate herself is fascinating. The question of who, and what, she is remains unanswered, and will, no doubt unfold over the subsequent books.

 Easy 4 star read. I've already downloaded the second one.

Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire

I flippin' loved this book!




Spoiler-free plot summary of the awesomeness:

It is hard to do a plot summary of such awesomeness, because it will not do justice to McGuire's voice and cleverness. Essentially, the heroine, Verity Price, is a ballroom dancer slash cryptozoologist in modern New York City. The Price family is notorious amongst cryptozoologists (McGuire speak for monster hunter) because they abandoned The Covenant of St. George generations earlier, leaving behind their monster killing roots in favor of a more, shall we say, nuanced approach. The Price family doesn't kill on sight. They wait until the cryptid demonstrates that it is actively dangerous to humans before they exercise extreme prejudice in dealing with the threat.

Verity is living in New York City, under cover, in an effort to further her secret career in ballroom dancing. At the same time that a member of The Covenant, Dominic de Luca, appears in "her" city, and seems bent upon extinguishing as much sentient cryptid life as possible, female cryptids begin disappearing. And no one knows why. This central mystery requires Verity and Dominick to set aside their historic animosity to piece it all together.

Review:

I loved this book. I give very few five-star reviews -- the last one was The Fault in Our Stars by John Green -- but dang it, I loved this book. It is lighter than a lot of urban fantasy, and has certain qualities that feel almost manga-esque. When it comes out as a graphic novel, I will buy it. Please, Daw, release it as a graphic novel. Please.

The characters are great. Verity is smart, sassy and well-armed. She also has fantastic one liners, like:

"My name is Verity Price. I'm a cryptozoologist. And this is why I never get a goddamn date on a Saturday night."

and

"[m]y mother raised me never to contradict anyone who regularly carries grenades."

The voice is breezy, articulate and fun. There are lots of fun allusions to work out, and little pop culture references, like wikipedia and The Land of the Lost, that are a delight. It is well-written and well-edited. I laughed out loud reading this book, and cannot wait, absolutely cannot wait for the next book featuring Verity. This is the urban fantasy version of the Gilmore Girls. To me, that is high praise. I read a lot, and I am seldom this enthusiastic about a book. There was nothing I didn't love.

P.S.: I want to mack on Dominic. Seriously. He's hot.

Skinwalker (Jane Yellowrock) by Faith Hunter

I actually read this one before the beginning of March Magic & Mayhem, but I'm just now getting around to reviewing it.



Brief (No spoilers) Plot Summary:

Jane Yellowrock is a skinwalker who specializes in taking care of, permanently and with extreme prejudice, rogue vampires. This is a UF in which vampires have gone public, but other magical creatures remain under the radar. So far as Jane knows, she is the only skinwalker in existence. She is capable of shifting into various creatures, including creatures where she needs to drop mass or gain mass, but her natural shape when shifting is some form of big cat. Jane has been hired by the vampires of New Orleans to take down a rogue vampire who is on a rampage and has placed at risk their position in New Orleans. Her job is to take care of their problem.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

This is a pretty good, if somewhat uninspired, entry in the rather crowded UF genre. Faith Hunter is a competent writer. There are similarities to the Sookie Stackhouse series (less humor, but the requisite sexy vamps) as well as even more significant similarities to the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. I prefer Mercy Thompson to Jane Yellowrock.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed Skinwalker. I am a sucker for stories set in New Orleans -- there is something very atmospheric about New Orleans, with its voodoo history, and this prediliction of mine extends all the way back to Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire. If vampires exist anywhere outside of Transylvania, New Orleans is the place.

I really liked Jane Yellowrock. She is a badass tough girl, and is a fully capable heroine. There is almost no romance in this installment, although there are a couple of male characters introduced who will likely fill that role in later books.

This one isn't as unique as the Downside Ghosts series referenced below. Faith Hunter is treading ground that has been well-trod by other authors before her. Nonetheless, for fans of UF, this is a solid effort, and is well worth a read. 3 1/2 stars.

Review: Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane

So, I finished




by Stacia Kane. This one definitely qualifies as Urban Fantasy, not PNR.

Brief Plot Summary:

Chess (Cesaria) is a Debunker for the Church of Truth. This series is a bit of a twist on the post-apocalyptic/dystopian book that is very popular right now, and focuses on ghosts, not zombies. Zombie fiction has become fairly ubiquitous, and I am not really a zombie fan, so it was nice to read dark fantasy that didn't involve zombies. The apocalypse occurred in the form of Haunting Week -- when all of the ghosts escaped the bounds that had been placed upon them, churches and religion had failed, and approximately 66% of the population died. This caused the rise of the Church of Truth, which is not based upon any of the major religions, but is, rather, based upon magic and its ability to contain the ghosts. Not surprisingly, the ghosts don't particularly want to be contained, and, of course, there are other groups that want to overthrow the power of the Church of Truth.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

I thought that Stacia Kane's worldbuilding was excellent. It was interesting, and internally consistent. This is a dark world, and, in keeping with that darkness, the main character, Chess is a dark heroine. She is a moderately promiscuous drug addict, not to put too fine a point on it, but in spite of those failings, Chess has integrity. More integrity than a lot of the characters who don't have her moral failings.

I also enjoyed the writing. The dialogue is a little weird, with the characters occasionally breaking into a form of pidgin pirate -- lots of Ayes, and a few thous. Sort of weird, but not out of keeping with the general theme of the book. The character names are also extremely descriptive. Most characters have only one name -- Bump, Chess's drug dealer, Brain, a homeless child, Lex, enforcer for Bump's primary rival, Slobag, and then, of course, Terrible. And Terrible is a great character. Huge, violent, not nearly as dumb as he initially appears, and obviously attracted to our girl Chess.

This is dark fantasy, and I loved it. So, a great beginning to March Magic & Mayhem. Heavy on the Magic and on the Mayhem.

4 stars