-
Click to Buy
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.
February 19, 2009
Pride by Rachel Vincent
February 7, 2009
HebrewPunk by Lavie Tidhar
Click to Buy
Paperback: 978-0-9788676-4-5, $13.95
“The Heist” is an excellent theme setter for this collection. This story has an urban fantasy flavor, only instead of the default setting of the world being based in nature worship-style paganism or Christianity the magic comes from a very distinct Jewish flavor.
Jimmy the Rat (a Jewish vampire), The Tzaddick (an immortal), The Rabbi (a powerful Jewish mystic) and his wickedly constructed golem Goldie come together to take down a mysterious and magical blood bank. Along the way they encounter peculiar versions of zombies and angels and a fortress that will boggle readers with its incredible level of security. It’s the motley crew’s job to break the fortress, to take down the blood bank and of course, collect their fee.
From there HebrewPunk moves to stories focusing on the trio individually.
“Transylvania Mission” pits The Rat against a band of Nazi werewolves searching for Dracula in the hopes of enlisting his help in their war. More could be said, but that, and awesome, sums up this tale.
“Uganda” mixes the Jewish flavor with distinct African ingredients. In this tale it’s the turn of the century and The Rabbi is asked to investigate a tract of land in Eastern Africa which some people hope will become a new Jewish Homeland. Recognized as a mystic by a local tribe, he walks with them, getting a glimpse into the truth of the land, and possibly even the future. While this is a solid, interesting and richly flavored tale it feels unfinished at the end, perhaps because it’s written as if compiled by a third party from multiple sources, a style that lends better to longer works.
Finally comes The Tzaddick in “The Dope Fiend”, a 1920s set tale of voodoo and ghosts and how they surface in the Jewish mythos. Unfortunately this one is the weakest of the four. There are many major secondary characters that move in and out of the story, playing fairly important roles, but there’s a feeling to them as if the reader should know who they are. It’s not, however, guaranteed that they will.
Also a point of discontent with this story is The Tzaddick himself, who often comes off as if being a drug addict is all that he is. While there is a level of realism to this portrayal, in this story it keeps the reader from connecting with The Tzaddick as anything but a drug addict. This, and the previously mentioned crew of secondary characters, overpower the plot itself, as if Tidhar had more fun writing the characters than the story.
Altogether HebrewPunk is a collection that reveals interesting possibilities, especially for the Urban Fantasy genre who should sit up and take notice at how much space there still is in the genre outside the realm of nature based magic systems and romance melodramas.
January 19, 2009
Sacred Book of the Werewolf by Victor Pelevin
Click to buy
Viking, 2008
ISBN: 078-0-670-01988-5
Available: New and used
A Hu-Li is a two thousand year old Chinese werefox in the body of a fifteen year old girl playing the role of a Russian prostitute. After
falling for an insatiable Russian werewolf she finds herself caught up in the epic quest for the super-werewolf, a fabled creature among were-beasts, who will someday appear and reveal the truth of all things…
Comments Off
January 16, 2009
Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher
Click to buy
Art by Ardian Syaf
*This is set before Storm Front, the first book in the series
Hardback: 0345507460, $19.95
“There’s a killer loose in the Lincoln Park Zoo, and I’m going after him. Though if you ask me, it seems a little unprofessional of him to come after me first. I’ve barely had time to stick my nose into anything.”
A trademark blend of magic, noir and sarcasm Welcome to the Jungle is a full color example of why Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden is so popular.
A special consultant to the Chicago police, Harry is called in when a man is found dead at the zoo under mysterious circumstances. The brass wants to blame Moe the gorilla, put him down and be done with it. Special Investigations lead Karrin Murphy knows the evidence isn’t adding up so she leaves the legwork that she can’t explain to her bosses to Harry. After all, the list of things that can choke a man bare handed has to be small, right?
But before Harry can put the monster who did this down, he has to dodge great cats under compulsion spells (to kill him, of course) and supernatural dog assassins, save the girl and save the gorilla.
Spiked with humor, fast paced and fabulously drawn, Welcome to the Jungle is a welcome addition to the Dresden mythos and a must-have for Dresden fans.
Comments Off
January 13, 2009
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
Click to buy
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.
Comments Off
