So, I was sent a review copy of BirthMarked by Maria Violante and have now finished it. She wasn’t sure I was going to like it, but I did.
The main character is very different from De La Roca in Violante’s De La Roca Chronicles. They are almost like night and day. But both fit very well into the world Violante has created for them.
In BirthMarked we meet Charlie Kale as our protagonist. Poor Charlie. Abandoned by her father and left with an increasingly bitter and alcoholic mother to raise her. Charlie’s mother dies leaving Charlie alone in the world. Then her boyfriend dumps her. Thankfully she has her career as a truck-driver to comfort her. Except does she? You know things are just going to get worse, don’t you.
Violante brings Charlie lower and lower into the dumps. The already less than confident woman discovers it is possible to get to an even lower point. Violante is kind of mean to Charlie, poor kid. I think I must be identifying with Charlie or something.
Charlie’s truck gets over-turned because of a “drunk driver” and that accident ends up leaving Charlie with a choice between getting killed then and there or taking a chance with a gory death later. What you need to know right now is that these are the “good guys” Charlie gets the choice from. The Markers or as the rest of us know them: truck-drivers saving the world from monsters from another dimension.
What is there not to like about a set-up like that? Charlie is helpless, hopeless and strong at the same time. She is a blubbering idiot who tries her best to fit in with the cultish group of men she has ended up with. But this girl has a backbone. It just needs a bit of prodding at times by Diesel and various other characters that turn up.
Diesel the dog is cool. He is probably some kind of familiar whose powers have not yet been revealed. Already it seems he might have a bit of empathic abilities and a whole lot of gumption. Jeff Bruckner is a likeable character, Shawn an extremely conflicted one, Josh devious and Joseph a bit odd. All of the men are a bit odd considering the cultish quality of The Markers but Joseph might be a bit odder than the others.
I am prophesying a sort of love-triangle in future installments to this new series. I also prophesy tons of action and a really cool dog helping Charlie figure out her place in life. If the rest of the series ends up as fun (and silly at times) as this one then Maria Violante has a good series going for her.
Genre: Urban Fantasy with Romantic Elements
Tags: Monsters, gunmen, and secret societies should know not to mess with a female trucker who is pushing thirty!
Glory is book one of a five book series. I see that number two is now out on the market.
We enter the world of Glory at the beginning of the Apocalypse. Let me tell you, Jackson was a surprise. He is the first person we meet who seems to be affected by what is striking people.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
By now, the words meant nothing to Jackson. He could only hear sounds coming out of the old man’s mouth. He didn’t know what they meant. The concept of language had left him moments ago.
He didn’t respond.
“Are you all right?” the man asked again. Slower this time.
Jackson continued to look at the old man, but still didn’t say anything.
He looked down at the fingers touching him. He could make out the white hair on the knuckles. Grabbed him. Squeezed him. He didn’t know why this old man was touching him, but he did know that he didn’t like it. He felt anger well up inside of him.
He looked up again at the old man. The old man was smiling his skewed smile, trying to make light of the situation and find out what was wrong. To Jackson, his face caused his anger to turn to rage.
The old man. Smiling. Looking. Staring.
Jackson roared.
Then he took his knife, grasped it tightly and stabbed it into the old man’s throat. The old man’s eyes opened wide with surprise. He tried to grab at the knife as Jackson pulled it away. Blood spurted from the wound and covered the table.
It’s bizarre. People seem to turn in the space of a few minutes. All comprehension of the meaning of words or other people’s actions seems to evaporate. Anger is the prevailing emotion they are left with. Without thought of pain, hunger or consequence they just attack. In that sense they are like zombies. Otherwise they are totally different. Alien infection or some kind of engineered disease were my first thoughts.
The prologue is tense. The whole novel is intense. McMananon writes incredibly well drawing the reader into his world and keeping us there.
What we get after the prologue is easy to imagine. A total collapse of society as we know it occurs. Those who are left “normal” discover they have to stick with each other. But sticking with some of the survivors might not be such a good option. Some of them are almost worse than the diseased in that they have “all of their faculties intact”. Good people remain good and not so good people remain pretty awful.
There is some explicit violence in Glory. Sexual violence is part of that violence. Thankfully, we also encounter samaritans. All of these actions were believable. The shock, anger, helplessness, courage, violence, friendship. All of them were perfectly believable. This is probably what would happen in this world if something like McManamon’s version of Apocalypse happened.
Would I recommend Glory to young adults. NO. Glory is just too dark. On the other hand, kids these days see a lot of violence and sex that I never did back when the dinosaurs lived. Maybe it is good for them to encounter it. I know the feelings portrayed by the sexual abuse victims were pretty much the way real life abuse victims experience them.
We were left with a cliff-hanger or maybe we were already falling off it. Shame on McMananon for sending us to the edge. Glory 1 is an excellent first novel and I very much encourage you to read it.
Born of Fire is the story of the night Aiden was born. I have to admit that I have no idea who Aiden is aside from the main character of the Channeler novels. Born of Fire was also my introduction to him. Being present at a person’s birth isn’t the worst way to get to know a person. Talk about a dramatic entrance.
Me, I’m all for being in a hospital having people ready just in case something goes wrong. Aiden’s parents, on the other hand, tried to run away from a bunch of people called Hunters. I can’t imagine being about to pop when the bad guys catch up to you, because let me tell you, giving birth really hurts and you have no control over when the pain hits. Not a good time to be in the middle of a car chase.
McCorkle brought plenty of drama into her short story and writes that drama well. Good job!
Cover design: Flash in the Can ProductionsAccording to herself Elizabeth Hunter writes contemporary fantasy and paranormal romance. The Elemental Mysteries series is a four book paranormal romance/mystery series. The mystery part of A Hidden Fire is pretty good while I found the paranormal romance bit kind of “romance novellish”. Why the series is supposed to be for adults is beyond me. A Hidden Fire didn’t have any bits I would hesitate to let a young adult read. It wasn’t overly violent nor was it especially sexual. Perhaps it has to do with a more adult style of writing and because it is about adults.
In A Hidden Fire we meet a 500-year old vampire who happens to be a rare book dealer. Giovanni Vecchio is copying down a manuscript in the library where Beatrice de Novo works.
Gio’s one great failing in life is technology. Anything he touches with his bare hands gets zapped. This means that he and computers are not compatible which kind of makes modern life a pain. But Gio has a butler to help him with all of that – Caspar (not the ghost).
Caspar is human. It seems vampires in the Elemental Mysteries world need humans to deal with daylight affairs. Like a lot of vampires in literature these vampires tend to get severe sunburns during the day. They also have to sleep during the day and be active at night.
Vampires are strange creatures. Basically, they are semi-dead or wholly dead people who wander around usually looking pretty good. Giovanni looks good for any age. I wonder if this has something to do with a predator/prey sort of constellation. If a vampire looked its age, it is highly unlikely they would attract prey. At 500 he ought to be a walking skeleton. I still like vampires. They are sometimes really cool creatures. The ones in A Hidden Fire are fairly OK if a bit stereotypical.
Caspar, Giovanni’s human butler, is fun. He is fond of his boss and his family has been in Giovanni’s service for ages. I guess it would be kind of hard to advertise for a human caretaker on Craigslist. Caspar keeps Giovanni grounded. If he didn’t Giovanni would get too full of himself.
When Beatrice de Novo turns up as the librarian where Giovanni is copying down his manuscript Caspar has her checked out. There is something about her name that tickles Giovanni’s memory. When Gio learns that Beatrice’s father died in Italy ten years previously his warning lamps go off. But Beatrice is innocent of any wrongdoing having to do with vampires. In fact, she does not believe in them, something she and I share.
Beatrice seems to be dramatic looking, intelligent and of Mexican/Spanish heritage. Her grandmother, Isadora, is a hoot. Matriarch seems to be a fitting description of her. The two of them make a good pair for their daily lives looking out for the well-being of the other.
Draw One in the Dark made me think about what it must be like to be a foster-kid and a homeless kid in the US. I haven’t been a foster-kid anywhere. Nor have I worked with foster-children and am therefore unqualified to speak about its reality. But I have wondered what it must be like. That and being homeless. I’ve read books and articles about both but that doesn’t show me the way the minds of people who have been in the foster-system and living on the street work. How would this affect a person’s ability to deal with situations? Let’s say you throw in being a shape-shifter on top of that. And on top of that you aren’t really sure if you are a shape-shifter or if you are just having psychotic episodes that leave you covered in blood every once in a while.
This is the point that Kyrie Smith and Tom Ormson are both at when Draw One in the Dark begins. Some months after meeting each other they both receive revelations about their nature and are thrown together into one dangerous situation after the other. This means that life becomes even more chaotic for the two of them but they soldier on as best they can.
That tells me something about resilience. For regular people soldiering on can be difficult enough but for kids with an atypical background soldiering on must be even more of a struggle.
To my way of thinking Draw One in the Dark is partly about resilience and partly about bravery. It is also about messed up people making messed up decisions and living with the consequences of those. Trying to make amends as best we can is one of life’s major lessons. What has been done can never be fixed, but maybe/hopefully some of the pain we inflict can be lessened.
Draw One in the Dark is an easy to read young adult urban fantasy novel that is of pretty average quality. But it spoke to me and helped me clear up a couple of things in my head. Oh, and I really liked the cover art (roar, my name is dragon).
Greed is such a wonderful thing. It is as if some people think that if it sounds too good to be true, then it must be true. The Twelfth Tablet is the tale of a man who fell for such a scheme. As sometimes happens his falling led to murder and mayhem.
Upon closing the museum one evening Paul Mitchell meets a couple who make him an offer he cannot refuse. Ari and Valerie wish to see the museum’s Aphrodite statue in return for donating a large sum of money “to the museum”. Paul finds himself unable to say no to anything they ask. He tries but there is something strange about their touch that fills him with powerlessness and an eagerness to please.
Once he has said yes once, saying yes to their next request is less of a hurdle. Ari and Valerie want to know where they can find the Orphic Tablet and Paul leads them to it.
Paul is the perfect example of how we are all potentially able of deeds we thought impossible. I find Harper’s description of Mitchell’s self-destructive road believable. Tom has a tight pace and tension galore. We get plenty of action and fighting.
What is it that makes a great author? I feel certain all wanna-be authors have wanted to know the answer to that. To me a great author is one who manages to reach her audience in a manner that lets the reader remember her. S.M. Reine is one such author.
Another important quality that Reine handles well is keeping the flow going. Death’s Handshows Reine’s skill at drawing the reader into the world of Elise Kavanagh and James Faulkner almost immediately. Remaining in the world of Elise, the kopis, and James, the aspis, was no effort at all. I am always gratified when an author manages to do that to me.
Our introduction to Elise and James is when James finds Elise surrounded by 12 female corpses on a plain in Russia. She is barely alive and even unconscious. We then jump briefly to a time ten years before that when Elise is handed her first kill by her father. Yes, I agree – perhaps you ought to be more than seven years old before you kill your first demon. After that we jump to the present (11 years after James found Elise) and meet an Elise and James who are both in retirement from the killing business.
Business is the wrong word to use for what the pair did. Elise is a kopis or sword while James is an aspis or shield. Their job used to be to make certain angels and demons kept humans from knowing about the supernatural world. Sometimes they had to kill to make that happen and the pair were always on the run just to keep alive. So, retirement makes sense and Elise has to use a pseudonym so she will not tip her clients off as to her identity.
Throughout Death’s Hand we go back and forth in time and we get glimpses of how Elise and James have ended up where they have and why Elise feels such a need for a semi-normal life. But the past has a tendency of catching up with us one way or another. Elise and James are no exception to that rule.
Elise is the kind of heroine that I enjoy reading about. Her strength is amazing and based on the scars of her past. Her past has left her highly vulnerable and one way to deal with that is to skunk the people who come into her life. All except for her room-mate Betty. Betty is the one thing in Elise’s life that Elise loves unconditionally. For some reason Betty has been the armor-piercing bullet that needed to get past Elise’s defences and keep her somewhat grounded. We all need friends like that.
James, on the other hand, seems to dislike and fear Elise at the same time as he feels the need to protect her. Granted, Elise is a force to fear, but then so is James Faulkner, the witch. Indeed, a very powerful witch at that. Hmmm?
Cover photo illustration by Aleta Rafton Cover design by Kerri Resni
The Catholic church is a fascinating church. Within its realm we find people praying to both official and not quite so official saints to get these saints to function as mediators between themselves and God. Santa Muerte (the Skeleton Saint) is one such unofficial saint (a folk saint) – one that people pray to in spite of the priest’s condemnation of her.
For some strange reason the followers of The Godmother are persecuted in both Mexico and parts of the US. Human nature being what it is this has only led to an increase in the Saint Death‘s popularity – in some places eclipsed only by Virgin Mary worshipping. Santa Muerte is The Personification of Death itself and is considered very powerful. People pray to her on issues of health, money, love and so on.
Pale Horse Santa Muerte
In Shapeshiftedthe Lady of the Shadows seems to have disappeared. When Edie seeks help for her mother, the condition for getting help from the Shadows (from the sub-basement of County Hospital) is that she find Santa Muerte for them and inform them of the Skinny Lady‘s location.
Edie has no clue as to who/what the Holy Girl is. So she does what most of us do – goes on the internet. While looking for the Pretty Girl Edie finds a job in a poorer and criminally challenged part of town. The reason she applied for the job is because of a picture on the net of a huge mural of the Black Lady on the wall of the clinic. Unfortunately for Edie her lack of Spanish is a huge minus but due to how she deals with a crisis she gets hired.
Without knowing it, Edie is firmly back in the midst of the supernatural world and is once again going to have to fight for the lives of her friends and herself. Even though Edie felt she was getting a grip on what the supernatural world entailed, she finds her beliefs and values challenged. Not only must she find Santa Muerte, but Edie must also discover how much she believes in freedom of choice.
I love this German cover, but have no idea who the cover artist is.
Once again Ben Aaronovitch has wowed the market, this time with Whispers Underground. And once again he wowed me.
“Back in the summer I’d made the mistake of telling my mum what I did for a living. Not the police bit, which of course she already knew about having been at my graduation from Hendon, but the stuff about me working for the branch of the Met that dealt with the supernatural. My mum translated this in her head to ‘witchfinder’, which was good because my mum, like most West Africans, considered witchfinding a more respectable profession than policeman.”
By coincidence Ben Aaronovitch and Peter Grant happen to have gone to the same comprehensive: Achland Burghley School. It just so happens that another student at that school has heard of Peter’s witchyness and asks him to come look at a ghost she has found.
Young Abigail Kamara is a delightful 13-year-old. She has all the rebelliousness of a girl turned teenager and a desire to show herself as more adult than she is. But trying that out on Peter just won’t work because she needs Peter way more than he needs here. His growing up on the same estate as Abigail probably also makes him less susceptible to Abigail’s “tantrums”. But one thing is for sure. If Abigail continues on the route she is on today she is going to turn into a version of Peter’s mom when she grows up. She is one fierce kid.
Peter and Lesley go with Abigail and, what do you know, there they see the ghost – a young white kid getting ready to spray some graffiti on the wall of the tunnel. They watch him get hit by the train then start the whole thing over again.
Lesley is still in the Folly and learning how to live with the face that fell off. Both she and Peter get a lesson in seeing people for who they are rather than how they look by Zachary Palmer, a character that turns up in Whispers Underground. That would be a wonderful lesson for me to be able to learn.
At 0300 one morning DI Miriam Stephanopolous calls Peter because of a murder that seems a bit off at Baker Street Underground Station. (Yes, the same Baker Street that Sherlock Holmes lived on.)
Baker Street underground station Photograph by Alun Palmer
When Peter goes into the tunnel where the body was hit by the train he discovers a bit of magical pottery in the pool of blood. When it turns out the victim is James Gallagher, the son of an US Senator, the British police have an international incident on their hands.
As is only natural when a body is found on the tracks, the British Transport Police turn up and give us a look at their responsibilities through Kamar – one of their officers. In fact, as Whispers Underground moves along we see that Peter and Kamar find it in themselves to put all inter-departmental rivalries aside and work together toward a solution to James’ murder.
DCI Seawoll makes Peter a part of the Belgravia murder squad so he can keep an eye on him. You might remember both Seawoll and the reason why he is a bit wary of Peter from reading Moon Over Soho. One of DCI Seawoll’s quirks is that he does not want the word “Magic” used anywhere in his vicinity. He knows it is there but he prefers that Peter and Lesley use words like “oddities” instead. It is kind of funny how Seawoll is like the rest of us in denying what is right in front of our faces. In fact, I think this might be one of the great appeals of British literature. They tend to make their characters human rather than glossed up versions of ourselves.
The fascinating thing about large cities is the many “forgotten” parts of them that work as a breeding ground for an author’s fantasy and probably also for the alternate parts of society that need a place to stay. As Peter and Kamar dig into this forgotten world Kamar comes to realise that the BTP might have overlooked certain parts of the underground system.
In their hunt for The Faceless Man Lesley and Peter are sent to Shakespeare Tower at the Barbican to interview a person DCI Nightingale suspects was a member of the Little Crocodiles (a Cambridge dining club).
Barbican towers / Shakespeare Tower in centre Photographer: Riodamascus
Being part of The Faceless Man’s gang can be dangerous for a person’s health. But you do not necessarily have to be part of his crew to get hurt, and the methods Faceless uses to keep his identity a secret are generally quite brutal – demon-traps come to mind. I would certainly think twice before joining him in his games. Part of this is because The Faceless Man comes across as amoral rather than sociopathic. That makes him completely unpredictable in a rather frightening manner.
Previously I have stated that Peter is my favorite character. He still is, but in a close second comes the dog Toby. Toby and Molly’s relationship is hilarious. The things she is teaching him to do!!!! A nutty dog for a nutty place like the Folly.
In his usual manner, Aaronovitch managed to prod my sense of the absurd. His sense of humor is perfect. I love it when an author manages to tickle my funny-bone and please my desire for action. Maybe this is why my favorite authors tend to be British. They have a sense of timing that I have not found anywhere else. Ben Aaronovitch handles the dark side of humanity well, well enough that I was unavailable to my family while reading Whispers Underground. I sometimes pity my family for having a book addict for mother and wife.
I really like Aaronovitch’s writing. He keeps on taking the piss throughout the whole book, leaving me delighted with his sense of humor. Other readers seemed to agree with me as I found a gazillion reviews of Moon Over Soho. I have only a few of them below and tried to use reviewers that I have never previously come across.
Although each book in the Rivers of London series is a stand-alone, it only makes sense to read the first one before getting into this one. Or maybe not. They are stand-alone after all.
Moon Over Soho is a much darker novel than Rivers of London. One of the crime scenes is kind of disturbing in a fascinating manner and the ending is not Disney-happy-ever-after.
As with Rivers of London, Ben Aaranovitch connects a lot of people with actual places in London. The demi-goddesses/gods each control their own rivers with Mama Thames and Father Thames as the head honchos. One might even think of them as some sort of mafia bosses when one considers how they wield their power. Some of the smaller rivers/brooks have gone underground as London has continually been built over.
Then there are the jazz clubs. Perhaps one should bring Moon Over Soho as a guide to which clubs to visit while in London. Inasmuch as I listen to music, jazz is one of the styles I enjoy. Being a jazz musician, though, is an incredibly dangerous occupation lately in the world of Peter Grant. You might not have heard about jazz vampires before but now you have. I have no idea how many types of vampires are out there. A jazz vampire must surely be one of the more unusual ones. Instead of sucking the life out of people by drinking their blood, jazz vampires seem to drink talent or creativity from the musicians.
I like Peter. He comes from a rough background with an alcoholic/drug-addict dad who used to be an incredibly talented jazz musician. His mom is a frightening woman. Frightening and fun. She is the kind of matriarch that all the relatives listen to and who knows half of London (it seems). Listening to her talk to Peter is hilarious. Poor kid – which is exactly what he turns into when he visits his mom and dad.
DCI Nightingale is laid up at The Folly. He overtaxed himself in Rivers of London and needs to be taken care of by Molly. I realize I am not the only one, but burning is what my curiosity is when it comes to what Molly is. DCI Nightingale’s recovery period is spent trying to knock some magic into Peter. Peter is a natural when it comes to “smelling” vestigia (magic residue). Other than that he is going to have to plod the learning trail to magic. Like many beginners Peter wants to experiment, but as we saw in Rivers of London, magic is insanely dangerous. One might even wonder why any one would want to practice it.
For the Latin lovers out there you will already know what vagina dentata is. “Vagina dentata (Latin for toothed vagina) describes a folk tale in which a woman’s vagina is said to contain teeth, with the associated implication that sexual intercourse might result in injury or castration for the man.” I feel confident some of you blokes out there shuddered as you read this.
Guess what! Yes, you guessed it. A journalist is found with his nether parts bitten off by what appears to be vagina dentata. And where was he found? Well, in the downstairs toilet of the Groucho Club in London’s Soho district. Due to the nature of the journalist’s murder Peter is called in. All of this in addition to having to learn magic and keep the recovering Lesley and Nightingale from going insane is almost too much for one man to handle. Add to that the bureaucracy within the police and a love affair with beautiful Simone Wilberforce. I think I need to rest.
It was fun joining Ben Aaronovitch in his jaunt to the London of Peter Grant. Lots of action and action and action and I am happy. Mysteries are super-fun and fantasy made it all even better.
Cover artist: Carter Reid My favorite of the three
Requiemis by far the best of the Blood War trilogy. It seems as if Marquitz is finding his fantasy feet (although I doubt he ever lost them since feet are usually stuck on).
What I like about Tim is that we have little romance and lots of action. Tons of it in fact. The Blood War trilogy is after all about a war fought on all possible sides against overwhelming odds. Which is why I add my warning: Beware of blood and gore. War is ugly and so is this. There is no attempt at sugar-coating the brutality of warring parties in Requiem nor is there a glorification of the violence.
I retain my favorites from before: Arrin / Uthul and Zaree and this time I am adding Ellara (this is one resilient girl). Ellara is an orphan from Lathah who ends up helping orphan friends and the royal family in their escape attempts. She showed the kind of grit she had in Embers of an Age and has the same kind of gumption in Requiem. A girl to admire.
While Blood War is considered dark fantasy it is still full of hope. Maybe it is this hope that makes intelligent beings fight for their lives. My brain finds it mysterious to see the lengths of suffering people are willing to endure just so they will not die. But in Requiem we also see that for some people there comes a point when dying is an expression of hope.
Cover art by ? I wish I knew the name of this artist because this is a really great picture.
Spring Hill Lake is this bizarre town where mysterious things happen. People disappear, sinkholes appear and then disappear and people suddenly appear out of the blue. In Happy Slumbers we find out what is going on and why it happens.
When Alex Kirkham comes looking for his brother Argus, who seems to have disappeared, Alex meets this old lady (Etta) on a park-bench. She starts talking in riddles and Alex follows her around trying to figure out what she is talking about.
We get a short historical recap of Alex and Argus’ encounters with the “Thing” in Spring Hill Lake. Part of the recap comes through Alex’s interactions with the “Law”.
Of course, the government has to get involved. After the last oddities regarding the stadion they are all gung-ho about making Alex spill the beans. But Alex has no beans to spill, at least not yet.
I loved the ending of the Dragon City series. Another thing I really enjoyed was my inability to place the Dragon City series in any one category. Is it science fiction or is it fantasy or maybe a bit of both? That is the joy of being a reader, at least when an author writes as well as Tom Lichtenberg does.
I was not aware of this being a series so I jumped right in with Dragon Town (no. 3) and had no problem with that. While there obviously is a thread (the strange disappearances) to the story Dragon Town seemed to stand completely on its own legs.
Sapphire Karadjian has been ordered by the top honchos of the media concern she works for to return to Spring Hill Lake to report on a sinkhole that is supposed to have swallowed a football stadion. For a war journalist that seems both unlikely and rather tame and she cannot for the life of her understand why they want her specifically. Granted, she grew up there, but she feels completely overqualified for the job. Orders are orders and off she goes.
Her journalistic career has removed any rose-colored glasses Sapphire might have had before leaving Spring Hill Lake. To an extent I know my own rose tinted glasses have come off and that I see more of the world as it is and not as I want it to be. Sapphire’s case is even more extreme than my own. I imagine doing stories about one horrible deed after another tears down all illusions you have about people.
Sapphire is the main character of Dragon Town. Dragon Town is in the style of X-Files or the Twilight Zone – you know, sort of weird and sometimes creepy. Here we have “the burning girl”. Interesting to have a person on fire yet not get hurt. Then you have the back-story of the city. Add to that the suddenly appearing hole. And finally, for those who have read them, there are the two preceding novels.
I liked Dragon Town. It is only 84 pages long, so I guess that would make it a novella. Despite its shortness it packs quite a bit of story into it and manages to give me the creep-factor a couple of times. I like it when stories abstain from horror but embrace creepy.
I think a fair criticism of Embers of an Age comes from Sylvain Martel (below). Sylvain comments on the way the various nations must be squashed together as the time from one to the other takes such a short while. I had the same thought while reading but had forgotten that disturbance as I was paying more attention to the characters themselves. It is true. The pace at which these characters must travel is immense.
My favorite character continues to be Arrin. He is so obviously a tragic hero who happens to be part of a story that seems to have very few happy endings. With all of the blood and gore Marquitz places us in it is difficult to imagine any of the characters having a Disney ending to their story – Arrin least of all.
Next to Arrin come Zalee and Uthul (the Sha’ree). Zalee and Uthul are daughter and father. Both are subject to the strange illness that comes with using magic contained in the O’hra but still choose to do so. Coming out from their homeland has brought home to them exactly what the Sha’ree have missed by absenting themselves for so long. I sometimes see that in my own life. Because I am fortunate in so many aspects of my life it is sometimes tempting to stick my head in the sand and become blind to the lives of other people. Maybe that is why I like Uthul and Zalee so much. They have chosen to raise their heads and see.
Sultae is my final favorite. She is obviously out to get revenge for how she has been wronged and she has become insane with that need and her understandable hatred. I get that feeling as well. Sometimes I have felt it myself and sometimes I have had friends and acquaintances who have wanted to destroy those who have wronged them so badly. While she does not take up much space in Embers of an Age, Sultae is an essential part of the story. Without her it would not have happened.
There is tons of fighting of one type or another. People are running from place to place chased by various creatures. Action is present from beginning to end and Marquitz ends this story on a cliff-hanger. There are still hiccups but the Blood War trilogy is getting better.
Cover design by Mercy Loomis and Jon Connor Images by Morguefile.com
A Wild Hunt is an urban fantasy with paranormal creatures. According to Loomis most of the Aether Vitalis stories are dark. A Wild Hunt could be considered dark fantasy in my opinion.
In A Wild Hunt we deal with death magic and its apparently willing victims. That is what can happen when dark witches are in your neighborhood. Good job the neighborhood watchperson – well skinshifter – is close by.
At the beginning of our tale Ariane Conant seems to be your typical drooling college student. Her job is to protect humans from finding out too much about the faery community. That one of the humans she ends up protecting just happens to be her drool object just ups the ante for her. She goes from an empty-headed drooler to a dangerous woman to cross in a magical battle.
A Wild Hunt was a pretty good short story. There are limits to how much background and info you can cram into a story this size, but Loomis did manage to give us a little. Mainly we had action from the very beginning and the story did not slow down as it went along.
humanitysdarkerside 