Pride by Rachel Vincent

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ISBN: 978-0-7783-2649-6, $6.99

Pride is the third book in Rachel Vincent’s werecat series and like the ones before it, it begins in the middle of a mess and ends with the characters looking forward to the next challenge.

Faythe Saunders is on trial for accidentally infecting her ex-boyfriend and being forced to kill him in self defense. There are three judges and two of them have problems with her father’s liberal choices in running his pride–like his decision to let Faythe be the first female enforcer ever. The job that finally pulled Faythe into feeling like her pride valued her for more than the (potential) contents of her uterus is why she encountered her ex in the first place. As for the third judge in her trial, well, her uncle is technically on her side, but even he doesn’t believe she can partial shift, which means he’s not convinced that the infection was an accident at all.

However, the trial for Faythe’s life is put on pause when Elias Keller, a bruin (werebear) who cares for the neutral land that the prides have gathered in for Faythe’s trial, storms in angry at all the cats causing trouble on his land. The pride cats and Elias quickly put two and two together, realizing that not only are the mysterious noisy werecats not from any of the visiting prides, but they’re probably also responsible for the two missing hikers the humans in the area are searching for. Things continue to grow more tangled when Elias brings in a tabby cat he believes to be Faythe, but in fact is a thirteen year old girl no one’s ever heard of before.

Faythe has to prove herself useful, out maneuver one of the judges who is plotting not just against Faythe but also against her father and save the girl, from her past and the future the old fashioned alphas want to manipulate her into.

Even though this is part of a running series it would be easy enough for new readers to pick up the story, and the world, so far. Despite it’s size Pride is fast paced with lots of action, both emotional and fight scenes. And unlike a lot of other urban fantasies that feature kick ass heroines, in this one the drive Faythe feels to be recognized and respected as a real person, not just a breeder, is integrated to the plot, as is the gender skewed world view that fuels Faythe’s fight. Pride is definitely recommended, especially to women who are tired of princesses who need to be saved or women who’s sole purpose is to be swept off their feet, impregnated and plopped into a Donna Reed role.

VAMPS by Nancy A. Collins

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VAMPS is book one in a series about the vampire teens of Bathory Academy, a prestigious night school for the richest and most powerful members of the vampire race. The first book introduces the characters and sets up the overall plot arc but doesn’t have much of a resolution.

Lilith Todd is the “mean popular girl” at Bathory. Unfortunately, she’s also the primary point of view character in most of this book. Snobbish beyond belief, paranoid and utterly unlikeable, she has her whole life planned out, fairy princess style. She even already has her Prince Charming, betrothed to her in a vampiric contract

VAMPS really picked up when the point of view switched to Cally Monture, a half-blood from a much lower tax bracket, and a much more sympathetic character…

Full review at MonsterLibrarian.com

The Lesser of Two Evils by Zoe Whitten

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Paperback: 978-1-4092-4121-8, $11.95
E-Book: 978-0-9820427-1-7, $4.95 e-book

The Lesser of Two Evils is a perfect example of why readers shouldn’t dismiss every book with a self-published label.

Davis Briggs, sheriff of the small Texas town of Devine has a hell of a mess on his hands when children start showing up dead and a drifter and a thirteen year old psychic seem to be the only ones who can help. Jobe, not the typical hero, comes to Devine via possibly divine intervention (haha, get it?), not just because he’s laying low from his last botched bombing which killed more than just the cop it was intended for. Meanwhile, Wendy, thirteen and already having faced more reality than most people do in their lives, is trying to keep her brother alive, and be the parent while her actual parents are out of town on a job. She’s the first to sense a supernatural doom descend on the town and has to convince Davis to trust her instincts before more lives are lost. And when things start to get real bad she and Jobe must team up to take down the killer.

The Lesser of Two Evils is a well paced serial killer story with strong, unique characters. It combines science and fantasy in explaining the paranormal aspects of the plot. The antiheroes rule the show, sharing their own twisted pasts, morals and going through an emotional shift to become something else. While much of the book isn’t graphic there are spectacular murders and an unrelenting, unstoppable killer than keeps the readers swept away for all 363 pages.

An example of “the cream that rises to the top” of the self publishing world, The Lesser of Two Evils is definitely on the Buy list.

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher

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Book Three in the Dresden Files series
Hardback: 978-0451462343, $23.95
Paperback: 0-4514-5844-3, $7.99

Harry Dresden (wizard for hire) often refers to the Nevernever in the first books of the Dresden Files series, but in this book he pulls the reader straight into it. A realm of all sorts of spooks and even fairies, the Nevernever follows an esoteric sort of dream logic that might make some readers shy away. But this journey is one of hard, willful and fantastic magic, set in motion by a complicated twist of plotting that only immortal beings would have the patience for.

Readers are thrown right into the action, which at times can make them feel as if they are missing something (they are, as far as I can tell some of the events referred to aren’t experienced by the reader except for as flashbacks and Dresden’s nightmares.) Harry and his friend, a true Knight of the Cross, Michael, are in their fourth or fifth night of hunting down a series of powerful ghosts who are attacking the real world with a strength that seems unprecedented, even so close to Halloween. But fighting specters that are trying to punish people long dead, for deeds long lost to history, is only the beginning as Harry discovers a strange spell, woven into the very being of the ghosts, that appears to be manipulating them into their attacks.

What follows is an almost painful series of events with so many possible bad guys that one has to wonder how Harry has survived so long at all. An iron will and indomitable stubbornness are threaded into Harry as firmly as the barbed wire-shaped torture spells are threaded into the human and ghostly victims of this book’s Big Bad. A book that revels in loose ends, it leaves more than a few set ups for further books but it also brings the Nevernever solidly into the Dresden world, giving reader’s imaginations and Dresden more territory to play in.

The Rise and Falling Out of Saint Leslie of Security by Andrew Tisbert

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Paperback: ISBN-13: 9781897370391, $14.95

The Rise and Falling Out of Saint Leslie of Security is a dystopian science fiction story of a future spun off from many of the issues found in the headlines today. At times this can violate the cushion of separation found in most utopian/dystopian tales that allows the writer (and thus the reader) to explore ideas of What If from a safe distance. Some of the aspects in this book feel like modern extremist propaganda from current times, which might turn off some readers. However, to Tisbert’s credit the propaganda comes from both the right and left, and the book touches on extremism for the sake of world building then veers off to it’s own story without becoming a long rant on current events.

Leslie herself is a Security Agent who has been reprogrammed via an implanted neural shield. The same thing that lets the people she works for add all the training she needs to her brain with short updates, also strips her of her memory. Ghosts of her past exist, like certain things holding her attention or unexplained emotions and panic, but Leslie has no understanding of why these thing are important and with the consistent reprogramming her employers are able to try to correct her instinctual flash backs, but only after she’s shown them. This leads to Leslie having a very fractured feel, being emotional but not knowing why.

Despite Leslie’s inner conflict she still acts as trained when an Atheist from a sect in Vermont (which, like California, has seceded from America) tries to assassinate Father Washington, the President and religious leader of America. Splattering the would be assassin’s brains on live television earns her the adoration of the people and a Sainting (which makes her an honorary member of Congress, and too high class to continue her current job in Security) from Father Washington.

While Leslie is suffering for doing her job the people surrounding her who know where she comes from are busy panicking an trying to keep her a secret. If the upheaval of her life by instant fame wasn’t enough now Leslie finds herself pregnant, unmarried and unwilling to “donate” her growing fetus to science as the government demands. Seeking safety from the rebel groups is no safer, as Leslie, Saint defector, is about to find out.

While there are elements within this tale to dislike (such as a reincarnated Saddam Hussein) Tisbert shows great world building and plotting skills, as well as making his characters, for good or ill, read as genuine. The pacing is also excellent, scenes that feel like info dumps in the end serve to add tension to further chapters for readers.

While The Rise and Falling Out of Saint Leslie of Security isn’t going to revolutionize the SF genre, it is a solid addition to it.