Tag Archives: #Werewolves

Evans, Erin: The Rhine Maiden (2010)

2013-01-22 humanitysdarkerside 4 Comments

Cover art by Katie White

You know how sailors were supposed to tie themselves to something so they would not be lured by the beautiful voices of the sirens, well, Piper Cavenaugh is one. A human siren. Not bad.

Making people do what she wants by using the “Voice” is terribly tempting to Piper. However, experience has taught her that she will eventually get into trouble by doing so. Its duration is only 10 minutes and that really puts limitations on what it can be used for.

One evening Piper gets into trouble. She was seen using her Voice by the supernatural community. A community Piper had never heard of, seen or wanted to know about. Now she is about to be tried for her crimes. The Voice is considered extremely dangerous and desirable by various species of the supernatural community and Piper is thrown into trouble like never before.

The Rhine Maiden is a fun read. It has a couple of preachy moments and not very subtle ones. But Erin Evans is a fun author with a fun protagonist in the rather stressed character of Piper Cavenaugh. Piper is not your laid-back kind of person. Oh, no! Definitely not! But she is fun.

You will find plenty of action and humor in The Rhine Maiden.

Fantasy, Mystery, Romance

Ellison, C.J.: The Hunt (2011)

2013-01-22 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

I love this cover. Something about the colors maybe.

The V.V. Inn series comes with a warning. “This is not a young adult series and is intended for readers over 18.”

I’ve wondered why there is always a warning when sexual content is explicit but hardly ever when the violence is?????? Makes no sense to me. That being said – there is sexual content, and it is explicit.

The Hunt is a mystery with lots of sex thrown in. Well written sex scenes. This 50-year old woman was turned on by it and that is saying a lot.

Another thing that C.J. manages to do quite well is to jump from one character to the other. Not perfectly, but better than quite a few other authors I’ve read. Each character contributes to solving the question of why Vivian’s old enemy is the representative of the vampire Tribune and what the hunt is really about. Everything is not as it seems.

The Hunt is Ellison’s second book. She certainly has a gift for writing, one that will give great pleasure to many readers.

Fantasy, Romance, Thriller

Alexander, Cassie: Nightshifted (Edie Spence) (2012)

2013-01-17 humanitysdarkerside 1 Comment

Cassie Alexander’s debut into the world of urban fantasy comes in the form of her Edie Spence trilogy. Her real-life job as a registered nurse serves as inspiration for her novels about registered nurse Edie Spence. I am pretty certain these books are targeted at an adult readership

Choosing Edie Spence as her protagonist is probably the best move Ms. Alexander could have done. Edie isn’t afraid of a little/or a lot of blood and gore and finds that her nursing skills come in handy in her new night job. She had previously worked as a regular nurse working with regular people. To protect her drug-addict brother, Edie made the choice to sign up for hush-hush work at a hush-hush facility at County General. Remember that the next time you go to your own County General. Somewhere below-ground there just might be a secret facility catering to the health needs of the super-natural/para-normal community.

Being on the nursing staff taking care of the rather unusual clientele of zombies, vampires, shape-shifters, weres, etc. can be a bit dangerous to your health. Ms. Spence discovers this when she is present at the death of Mr. November. Because of her nature, Edie ends up looking after a vampire, being chased by a vampire and falling for a zombie. One might just say that her life became a little more challenging after her introduction to the “Other” side of reality.

Nightshifted is a fun and dark novel. Edie is a wonderful character and someone I would have liked to have met. Sometimes authors manage to make their characters seem so real and believable, the way Cassie has managed with Edie. Good job.

Fantasy

Briggs, Patricia: Alpha and Omega series

2012-08-25 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Patricia Briggs books fall into the light-reading fantasy section. Her books are fun and easy to read. In the Alpha and Omega novels we meet werewolves and witches, vampires and fae, all capable of wickedness and heroic deeds. As usual in such tales the characters tend to survive the most amazing things. There is plenty of humor, some romance and lots of action in this series. The Alpha and Omega series has been set in the same world as the Mercy Thompson series.

Bran – the leader of the werewolves (Marrock) in the US lives in the hills of Montana. He has two sons, Samuel and Charles. We’ve met Samuel already in the Mercy Thompson books, although he does make a brief appearance in his function as a doctor. Charles is Bran’s other son. He has been born a werewolf, not something that should be possible. Charles is Bran’s assassin. If a werewolf steps out of order, it is his job to take care of the problem. His ability to remain cool and collected while killing is one of the main reasons for having such a job.

CRY WOLF (2008)

“Cover for omnibus” by Lindsey Look (Stunning cover)

Anna, Charles’ mate (to her surprise), has been living with a pack in Chicago. The other werewolves had been abusing her severely. When that came to the attention of Bran, Charles was sent to take care of the matter. That led to Charles and Anna’s wolves recognizing each other as mates. Anna is brought to Bran’s pack to live with them.

Walter Rice, a Vietnam veteran, lives up in the Cabinet Wilderness in Montana. One day he witnesses the attack on a young man and steps in to protect him. Rice ends up being mauled, but survives. When other mysterious deaths occur in the area a rogue werewolf is suspected and Charles is asked to look into it. He and Anna go.

HUNTING GROUND (2009) – Nominee for the Endeavour Award – for best book by a Pacific Northwest writer 2010

Cover by Dan Dos Santos

Charles is trying to convince his father to stay away from a convention of werewolves in Seattle. He feels his father will be in unnecessary danger from the European delegation. Charles’ intuition is acting up. Being an Omega, Anna is able to stand up to Bran without his Alpha influence taking over. After she has yelled at Bran, he is able to listen to what the two have to say.

Bran accepts Charles’ feelings and sends Charles and Anna instead as his representatives. Together they are to try to convince the other delegates of the need to go public. The other delegates aren’t exactly thrilled at the idea of going public. Here we see that the timeline is a bit back in time from the Mercy Thompson series. There the decision to go public has already been made and Adam is the werewolves’ outward face.

In Seattle people are being found dead and mauled. When Anna is attacked by vampires using werewolf tricks and magic, Charles has to figure out how to save the situation without getting killed by former lovers and new enemies.

FAIR GAME (2012)

Young Leslie has moved to California with her father. There she ends up in the capable hands of Mrs. Cullinan. When animals and children start disappearing (even Leslie’s new puppy) three people turn up at the neighbors and take her away. The neighbor and the three new people turn out to be fae. When one of them offers Mrs. Cullinan a favor as thanks for her warning, she says no thanks. Instead Leslie ends up being the one owed. But having learned that the fae were powerful and charming and that they ate children and puppies, Leslie was not eager to cash in her favor.

Fair Game is set a while after Hunting Ground but shortly after River Marked. Charles is struggling in his capacity as an assassin and Anna seems the only one capable of seeing it. She keeps on confronting Bran about it, and only Omeganess keeps her from shaking in her shoes. Because of the new rules, Charles no longer feels he is dispensing justice but rather murder and this is causing ghosts to haunt him.

When the FBI call the Marrock for help in solving a spree of murders, Bran chooses to send Charles and Anna to take a look. Anna gets to play good guy and Charles her bodyguard. In Boston Anna meets Leslie and they get to test each other’s intentions.

Alpha and Omega: Cry Wolf Graphic Novels published 2012 by Dynamite. Adapted by David Lawrence, illustrated by Todd Herman with additional art by Jenny Frison and a cover by Dan Dos Santos.

Adventure, Fantasy, Young Adult

Church, T.S.: RuneScape

2012-08-06 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Tom S. Church writes books based on the online game RuneScape. I have never played it, but my son is a great fan. He bought the books and I read them.

BETRAYAL AT FALADOR (2008)

I started reading Betrayal at Falador expecting it to be a quest-like book. It is. While not exclusively for RuneScape fans, Betrayal at Falador will probably suit fans more than it suited me.

Betrayal at Falador begins with the discovery of a young woman by Squire Theodore. Squire Theodore belongs to the order of the White Knights in Falador. The young woman is close to death but the order’s leader, Sir Amik Varze is able to save her. In her possession is a strange sword, a shattered ring and a mysterious flower.

While the Knights are trying to discover the young woman’s origins, a creature is killing and devouring people in the country side. When Theodore is sent to Taverley to the druids to discover where the flower is from. While at Taverley Theodore meets up with his friend Castimir (apprentice wizard), the alchemist Ebenezer and his young companion Gar’rth. All three will become vital to the story in Betrayal at Falador. As the story continues, we meet up with the dwarf Doric. He ends up back at Falador and becomes one of the companions around whom this series revolves.

The young woman turns out to be Kara-Meir, the daughter of a woods-man. She is pursued by the Kinsha knights led by Sulla. He and his men killed her parents and the people of the village she lived in. Now her only aim in life is to gain revenge.

I’ve read the three books written thus far in the series. This first novel was fairly average. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that it is TS Church’s first novel. His language was fairly simple and the text did not flow well.

RETURN TO CANIFIS (2011)

Werewolf by Paola Gonzalez

Return to Canifis sees an improvement in the writing of TS Church. The text flows easier. There aren’t as many rocks in the way this time.

The time is some months after the end of Betrayal at Falador. The companions have gone on separate quests, but have agreed to meet at the capitol, Varrock.

At Varrock people have been disappearing mysteriously. A monster is on the loose killing people. Others are being spirited away to Morytania, the land where vampires rule and people are cattle. People are afraid and the king ends up sending the companions off to Morytania, leaving Ebenezer behind. Their quest is to prevent a new King ruling Varrock, namely a vampire King.

As I said, the writing has improved in Return to Canifis. TS Church has tightened the plot, filled out his characters and added tension between the companions.

LEGACY OF BLOOD (2012)

The raging undead by Sam Hogg

Legacy of Blood is clearly the better of these three novels. TS Church has tightened his plot further and his characters, especially Gar’rth have had quite a development.

Now Kara-Meir and Gar’rt are seemingly on opposite sides in this struggle. Gar’rth is with his father in Morytania while Kara-Meir is back in Varrock with the rest of the companions.

All of them will face difficult choices. Not all of them will survive, but in the end the greatest question is whether Gar’rth will prevail or if he will have to be killed by his friends as he succumbs to the blood-lust.

Fantasy, LGBTQ+/GRSM

Briggs, Patricia: Moon Called (Mercy Thompson I) (2006)

2012-06-12 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

This is the image that I feels illustrates Moon Called best and it shows Mercy (Mercedes) as I had imagined her from the words Patricia Briggs has written about her in Moon Called.

I am a fan of Ms. Briggs’ writing. My adventure with her began with the Hurog saga. Then it sort of developed into a full-fledged love affair and here I am writing about yet another series of hers.

Poor little teen-ager Mac/Alan. Little had he thought about the possibility of werewolves being real. Then all of a sudden he was mauled and changed into one by nefarious people. The Marrok (Bran) calls this rape. To make matters worse, Mac was experimented on and kept in a cage. One day he manages to escape and turns up at Mercedes’ garage (auto-shop). She is a softie and takes him under her wings, eventually introducing him to the Alpha of the Tri-Cities area, Adam Hauptman.

Adam and Mercy will according to all the foreshadowing become a couple. Mercy and Adam are very alike, yet incredibly different. She is a shape-shifting coyote, he is the alpha werewolf of the Tri-Cities area. If the two of them decide to become mates, his pack will have to accept Mercy as his second. At least one of the members of the pack seems to have done so already, Warren.

Warren is a sweet-heart. He is a gay were-wolf with an open lifestyle. Meeting Mercy changed his life for the better. For once he met another predator who did not care what gender he loved. Then she introduced him to Adam and Adam accepted him as well. That did not mean that the rest of the pack managed to embrace him as one of their own, but that is the way of the world. We all have different prejudices. Some are more vocal and open about them than others. Sadly, getting to love the person you love is not something we all get to experience.

Just now it really struck me. What if I refused to accept a person because of who they loved? How would that change me and the person I met like that? It is a concept I find terribly confusing. It would be like me refusing to accept a person because of the color of their skin or hair or eyes. Being on the receiving end of such prejudice must hurt terribly.

Mercy is the kind of person that opens up her heart to a great variety of people. Vampire, werewolf, fae or human matters not. If the other person seems to be decent, then there is room for them in Mercy’s life. Her attitude does create problems when some of her friends meet others of her friends, but Mercy just expects them to be polite to each other no matter how much they might despise each other (vampires vs. werewolves comes to mind). And people often do what Mercy expects. For reasons they do not always understand themselves, Mercy is definitely a person they want to have in their lives. What a gift, and possibly, what a curse.

Her being a mechanic is a bonus for me. As a kid I wanted to be a lot of things and mechanic was one of them. There is something satisfying about being able to take things apart. Sadly, I stink at putting them back together again. Then there is the goo. Goo is the loveliest thing on earth. Mercy gets to fix cars and is a whole lot better at putting them back together again than I am. My “niece” is a mechanic. Even here in Norway it is still unusual for a girl to choose such a career. I absolutely love that my “niece” chose such a line of work. So the idea of a mechanic that happens to be a woman is an added attraction for me.

Just so you know. One of Patricia Briggs series also begins at the time of Moon Called. When Bran sends Charles off to deal with a problem in Chicago the series Alpha and Omega starts.

Amazon Kindle

Reviews:

Moon Called as cartoon:

SKU: C1606902032
Rating: Teen +
Cover: Amelia Woo
Writer: Patricia Briggs, David Lawrence
Penciller/Inker/Colorist: Amelia Woo (digitally painted)
Genre: URBAN FANTASY
Publication Date: March 2011
Format: Comic Book Collection
Page Count: 104+

ISBN-10: 1-60690-203-2
ISBN-13: 978-1-60690-203-5

Just because I like pointing out the obvious. Do the images below remind you of anything? Anything at all??

Fantasy, Mystery, Western

Monk, Devon: Dead Iron (2011)

2012-06-01 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

The Age of Steam is the new series started by Devon Monk. This time she writes steam-punk (I wonder where they got the word steam-punk?). I don’t really understand why so many fantasy buffs don’t like steam-punk. It’s great fun along with most other fantasy. As Monk is the author, the quality of the book is guaranteed (thankfully). It’s light entertainment (a little heavier than the lightest) and doesn’t strive for moralistic or philosophical preaching. However, Monk does treat her characters as complex beings with dark and light sides. I abhor literature where the goodies are sugar-good and the baddies are black as tar bad. Way to go Monk.

Dead Iron is the first installation in the series about the bounty hunter Cedar Hunt. Cedar has a “slight” health problem that becomes uncontrollable about once a month. To protect others, he lives a bit outside town.

When a small boy goes missing, and the parents go to Cedar for help. After a lot of hesitation he takes on the case. During his search Cedar meets other strange people and a lot of prejudice and fear. In Dead Iron, Monk combines fantasy and technology in a wild-west world where the impact of iron and technology threatens to destroy the presence of magic.