Teen wizards Kit and Nita have been tasked with uncovering the buried secrets of Mars, but when Kit accidentally activates an ancient artifact, the planet comes to life in unexpectedly mysterious ways, challenging everything they ever believed about the red planet. With the fate of two planets at stake, our heroes and their allies will be stretched to their limits to find a suitable solution. Straddling the fence between science fiction and fantasy, beautifully-written and morally complex, featuring a rich cast of engaging characters and some thought-provoking twists, this installment proves that even after nine books, this series is still going strong.
Archive for category Wizards, Mages and Spellcasters
Got ghost problems? You’re in luck. The intrepid agents of the Carnacki Institute will investigate. They’ll do whatever’s necessary to take care of the problem, from convincing the ghost it’s time to move on, to kicking its sorry ectoplasmic ass. Their best team is a three-person operation, capable of handling any problem. There’s JC Chance, the leader, technogeek Melody Chambers, and drug-addled telepath Happy Jack Palmer. Between them, they have every eventuality covered.
Fresh off a job involving a haunted supermarket parking lot, the team is sent to deal with an extremely nasty incident originating in the Oxford Circus Underground station, an unprecedented event that’s just the start of their worst adventure yet. Something ancient, alien, and powerful is threatening to break through down where the sun never shines, and it’ll take everything the team has just to survive, much less succeed. And just to complicate matters, they have to deal with their evil counterparts from the Crowley Project, who believe the best opportunity is the one seized through force and blood. But when the chips are down and it’s everyone for themselves, can the two teams work together? And who’s going to tell JC Chance that falling in love with a ghost is a monumentally bad idea? (All of them, that’s who.)
The start of another new series from the ever-popular Simon R. Green, Ghost of a Chance is billed as his first real horror novel – which is a rather disturbing thought at first, given his propensity for injecting horrific elements into just about everything he does. Sadly, if anything, this just reads like more of the same. Surprisingly, there aren’t any overt connections to any of his other series, meaning this might just be a rare standalone series for an author who’s carefully laced together everything else he’s done.
The characters themselves are part archetype, part collection of neurotic quirks, and somehow lacking any real depth. There’s plenty of witty banter and snappy dialogue, but rarely do we see below the surface. They’d make great protagonists in an action movie, but I don’t feel like I know them nearly as well as I do some of Green’s earlier characters, like Rupert and Julia from Blue Moon Rising.
I can’t call this horror. It’s dark urban fantasy, with some horror trappings, but it doesn’t strike the right chords to be true horror, the sort that sparks nightmares and makes you turn on all the lights at night and jump at shadows. Maybe I’m just used to Green’s style, his ability to creep me out with a well-turned phrase or image, or maybe he goes for the gross-out a little too enthusiastically – a literal river of blood appears at one point – but it didn’t really bother me the way some horror does.
Hey, as an urban fantasy, it’s good. It’s fast-paced, filled with nifty concepts and memorable characters, and quite enjoyable. I’ve never disliked a Green book, and even his lackluster efforts still have the capacity to make me happy. Ghost of a Chance may not be as awesome as his other stuff, but it’s not awful by any stretch of the imagination. I’ll be looking forward to more of this series, if just to see what Green will do next.
Vancouver’s Occult Special Investigations unit always, by virtue of its very nature, gets the weird cases. This time, a prominent academic and necromancer has been murdered, while inexplicably wearing an antique suit of armor in the safety of his own home. Now Tess Corday and her team have to figure out who killed Luiz Ordeno and why. To do that, Tess will have to wrestle answers out of the notoriously tightlipped necromantic community, brave the local vampire dens, track down enigmatic demon information brokers, and risk her own life against those who don’t want her to succeed. Along the way, she’ll also have to reevaluate her clandestine relationship with her necromancer lover, keep not one but two supernaturally-imbued teenagers out of trouble, and make time for a long-overdue heart-to-heart with her mother. Just another week at the office.
Where do I start? I love this series with a passion, and Inhuman Resources is definitely my favorite thus far. On the surface, it’s the urban fantasy answer to CSI, with a full team of quirky, talented specialists working behind the scenes and in the office to help Tess and her partners in the field get the results. The camaraderie, snappy patter and easy back-and-forth dialogue helps maintain a steady flow as the information and technobabble comes and goes, and it’s obvious Battis has a real ear for this sort of thing.
I love that when characters talk to one another, it’s open, direct, and productive. There are too many series out there where a misunderstanding or moment of miscommunication could fuel entire books of angst and hurt feelings. Here, for instance, Tess and her boyfriend Lucien actually find time to have an adult discussion that means something, full of honest emotion and forward movement. Sure, they might argue, but they get over it in a manner which rings true and feels real. There’s a subtle maturity to the emotional component of this book that helps it stand out, whether it’s Tess and Lucien, or Tess’ partner/housemate Derrick and his boyfriend Miles, or part-demon teenager Mia (just hitting those moody teen years!) or any of the other fascinating characters who contribute to the plot. It’s an intangible quality; some books have it, some don’t, and this one has lots of it.
I love the juxtaposition of modern science (verging on the futuristic sometimes) and weird magic. Sure, it’s a staple of urban fantasy to blend the real and unreal, but Battis has injected his world with enough cutting-edge technology and forensic techniques as to give this series a slight science fiction edge as well. But then he turns around and introduces us to Trinovantum, the bizarre hidden city of the necromancers, which could exist in a fantasy setting completely separate of the so-called real world. And instead of clashing, these disparate elements work well together.
The main crux of the plot may be your standard murder whodunit, but its packaging is anything but standard; this is top-notch urban fantasy in every regard, and I’m looking forward to the further adventures of Tess Corday and her friends and family.
Sylvie Lightner is a private investigator who specializes in the supernatural, the weird, and the dangerous. Her last job was a real killer, and it’s taken her a month to recover and get her head back in the game. Unfortunately, that month is nowhere near enough, since she’s still haunted by the death of her occasional lover, Michael Demalion, and reluctant to tackle anything involving “life-and-death struggles.” However, she may not have a choice. First, she’s saddled with temporary supervision of her rebellious sister Zoe. Second, she takes a case involving some unusual robberies at a local mall. Third, she meets a Chicago cop who’s been possessed by a very familiar ghost, undoubtedly more fallout from the near-apocalyptic adventure Sylvie had the month before.
Now Sylvie’s up to her eyeballs in trouble, with necromancers and Hands of Glory popping up around every corner, a ghost putting the moves on her, a sister who’s been up to questionable hijinks with her friends, and an entire clan of local cops pressuring her for explanations and results. If Sylvie doesn’t put together the pieces of this puzzle, the dead will walk again, but at a terrible cost.
So far, two books in, this is proving to be a really fun, interesting series. Sylvie’s a tough, no-nonsense protagonist whose sense of responsibility and duty may occasionally lead her awry, but more often than not she’s out there kicking ass and doing her best to protect those she cares about. Her attitude is refreshingly direct, but not over-the-top enough to turn her into a cliched bad girl/action heroine. The world she lives in is, as might be expected, chock-full of the magical, mysterious, and menacing, but Lyn Benedict still finds new things to focus on. Ghosts & Echoes wraps itself around several plot threads, which come together in surprisingly subtle ways; it wasn’t until I was a third of the way in that I realized where the story was going, and then everything took on a new perspective. Honestly, I’ve never seen such an interesting, twisted take on the whole concept of the Hand of Glory (traditionally, the specially-preserved hand of a dead murderer, capable of opening locks and other nasty tricks.).
In a field that’s ever more crowded by private investigators dealing with the unknown, this series has found its corner and is doing quite well at maintaining its sense of uniqueness. Definitely one of the better series out there, and this book quite adeptly maintains the quality I saw in the first one.
Ever since she was sold as a child, Terelle has worked as a servant in a brothel, dreading the day she’ll come of age and have to start earning her keep in a manner she finds distasteful. Dreaming of escape, she seeks out alternatives, only to discover there’s very little opportunity for one of her low station. Ultimately, she runs away, finding refuge with an eccentric artist, who teaches her the secret of painting with water, and influencing the future. But the longer she stays, the more she learns, the more she questions her decisions, and her safety.
Shale’s village is among the poorest and most remote in the dry, hardscrabble Gibber Quarter, where water is beyond rare and survival is never easy. When his magical ability to sense and control water is discovered, he becomes a pawn in a deadly political game which seems destined to upset the status quo of the Scarpen once and for all.
In an area of the world where every drop of water is carefully rationed, where those who control water possess the greatest power of all, and where entire cities rest on the ability of the Stormlord to conjure up storms from the ocean and deliver them as needed, it doesn’t take much to upset the delicate balance. And when the Stormlord grows weak and close to death, the time is perfect for someone both ambitious and unscrupulous to make his move. And in the chaos, Shale and Terelle will come together, only to be caught in the middle of war and suffering. The Scarpen will never be the same again.
Epic, sprawling, taking place over a number of years, this isn’t a story to be summarized easily. Each individual story spans the better part of a decade, and to detail even a small portion would spoil more than I feel reasonable. So take it from me when I say there’s a lot going on here, and it’s a densely-plotted, multi-layered book that doesn’t make for easy or casual reading.
The setting itself is quite interesting, though with just about every page having some reference to water or its scarcity or the magical manipulation thereof, it gets repetitious after a while. I was intrigued by the tiered cities with their elaborate systems of gutters and aqueducts and social systems determining who gets water and who doesn’t, and I was certainly interested in the plight of the Gibbers, who get their water as leftover gulley washes. I followed the various characters with interest, and enjoyed seeing how their various threads finally came together as the story continued.
And yet, for all the pretty language and unusual setting, I found this book to be something of a slog, an effort to get through. I ultimately got through the close-to-700 pages out of sheer bloody-minded determination, wanting to see just what happened at the end, only to learn that the story’s nowhere near finished. While I certainly have nothing against big epic books, it’s possible that this one might have benefited from some trimming or splitting up. While I liked The Last Stormlord, and it’s a perfectly good epic fantasy as these things go, it didn’t resonate with me as much as I’d hoped. Even though the various plot threads should be resolved in the sequel, I’m still up in the air about whether or not I’ll be along for the ride. Good stuff, but not entirely my cup of tea.
The renegade djinn Pearl has been kidnapping and brainwashing children with the power to control the elements, in her mad crusade to destroy the rest of her kind and thus gain vengeance for a millennia-old grievance. Standing against her is the former djinn Cassiel, who’s been presented with a choice: remove Pearl’s power source by destroying humanity, or risk the utter annihilation of the entire Earth by letting Pearl succeed. Unfortunately, the now-human Cassiel refuses to let either of these scenarios play out, instead seeking a third alternative. With her partner Luis Rocha, she works to rescue the missing children, one of whom is Luis’ own niece. But Pearl has many pawns and resources to throw at Cassiel, and nearly unlimited power, so Cassiel and Luis will be faced with a constant struggle for survival along the way. Can one badass ex-djinn win against an army of corrupted children, a pack of renegade bikers, and a near-omnipotent enemy, with the fate of the world resting on her choices? You better hope so.
Picking up where Undone left off, itself a spin-off from the popular Weather Wardens series, Unknown is a fast-paced, hard-hitting, intense adventure. Cassiel’s a uniquely-fascinating protagonist, an outsider forced to adapt and adjust to the human world at breakneck pace, with often-surprising results. (Side note: I have a cat who was raised feral for the first few weeks of her life, and even after many years living indoors, she’s still a temperamental, paranoid, vindictive wretch who turns into a frenzy of many-pointed death when picked up against her will; I have the scars to prove it. Cassiel is much like that cat, direct and stubborn, prickly when poked, bowing to human customs only out of necessity, and deadly when provoked.) Her growth as a person with feelings, needs, and human ties is compelling and believable, and this story is very much about this evolution she experiences along the way.
It’s also about weather-manipulating magical battles, the constant threat of betrayal from within, the necessity of impossible choices, and a world on the cusp of change. Following events in the Weather Wardens series, the general public has become aware of the secret powers living among them, and this elemental struggle which affects everyone, humans, Wardens, and djinn. Thus, we get to see more of the complex consequences as people cope with the new status quo.
It’s certainly possible to read this series (Outcast Season) on its own, but you really need to read the Weather Warden series as well to get the full picture. Of course, what you’ll see then is an intricate, epic, exciting storyline that’s steadily building towards one heck of a climax. Unknown may be a small part of a larger story, but it’s still a wild ride in its own right. Cassiel’s fast become one of my favorite badass urban fantasy woman for her attitude, competence, and confused-yet-intrigued response to the human emotions growing within her. I hope her story has a happy ending, but I’m not willing to put money down on it quite yet, since Rachel Caine has a habit of surprising the reader. Still, this is a fun book, and I really enjoyed it.
Ever since Connor Grey kind of helped destroy the passageways between Earth and TirNaNog, dead Fey have been walking, unable to rest. But even the Dead can die, and when one of the Dead turns up without a head, it’s cause for concern. Decapitation = dead for good, for keeps, really, we mean it this time. As Connor helps his cop pal Murdock look into this mysterious murder, he finds himself poking into some very dark places. But at the same time, he gets ever-closer to discovering just what sort of magical oddity has taken up residence in his head and blocked the majority of his druidic powers. Hellhounds, politics, corpses that won’t stay dead, ex-girlfriends, current girlfriends, and much more all tie together, with a dangerous conspiracy providing the thread which connects them. And of course, it all comes down to Connor Gray to save the day.
As always, del Franco turns in a riveting mystery set against a fascinating setting, where the Fey have gone public in a big way and are divided into several diametrically opposed camps competing on a political and mythological level. The factional in-fighting and intrigue, and how it all trickles down to affect the average Fey on the street and the humans who share the same space helps to enhance the complexities of this series. Unperfect Souls picks up after Unfallen Dead, exploring some of the ramifications and twists we saw come into play there, while adding a whole new set of problems. We also see more explanations and progress into the mystery of Connor’s crippled magic, and he comes ever closer to putting together the pieces of an unfathomable puzzle.
Always entertaining is the nebulous relationship Connor has with the enigmatic, mercurial Meryl, who keeps him on his toes more often than not, and the close friendship he has with mortal cop Leo Murdock, who helps keep him grounded. It’s those moments of genuine interaction which help make the characters relatable and memorable in a sea of murder, magic, mayhem and politics. I’m really looking forward to the day when all is revealed and we can see the big picture at last; here’s hoping del Franco doesn’t string it out too long. I want nothing but the best for Connor and his friends. All in all, this is a perfectly entertaining urban fantasy, building on the first three books in the series while pushing towards some larger goal down the line. It may may be a little too wrapped up in its internal structure to act as an entry point for new readers, but existing fans will certainly enjoy it.
Shiarra Waynest is a private investigator who’s about to get way in over her head. Hired by a representative of the mage Circle to determine whether or not a local vampire is in possession of a certain magical artifact, she’s not at all sure she wants the job. Normally, she avoids the Others like the plague, but the money for this case is way too attractive to pass up. And that’s how she gets stuck smack-dab in the middle of a three-way struggle between mages, vampires, and the anti-Other vigilante group known as the White Hats. People will die, she’ll assemble a team of friends and allies, risk her life, and make a new name for herself as someone to be reckoned with.
You know? Hunted By The Others is a perfectly serviceable urban fantasy with the requisite hint of forbidden romance. It hits all the right beats as it turns its main character from someone who doesn’t want anything to do with the supernatural into someone who can kick ass with the best of them. By the end, she’s a walking, talking, bad girl cliché, decked out in her black leathers and armed with a magical stake-holding belt and dual laser-sight-equipped handguns and so forth. She has a werewolf ex-boyfriend, a vampire who might be her new love interest or her worst enemy, and somehow, it all seems kind of … well, generic. I read this book, I enjoyed it, and the details promptly slipped my mind. It’s not bad, but it’s not great, and there’s the problem: with so many urban fantasies out there already, you have to be great if you want to stand out. By far, the best thing about this book is the striking, attention-grabbing cover.
If you’re in the mood for something quick, easy, and relatively harmless, you could do far worse than to pick up this satisfactory series opener. I’ll most likely be back for the sequel, and hopefully it’ll make more of an impression on me than this one did.
What do you do when you’re fresh out of college, unable to get a job that doesn’t involve a hairnet and a spatula, and magically talented? Well, if you’re Bonnie Torres, you get recruited by an enigmatic pair of magicians to help start the world’s first forensic paranormal investigation agency. That’s right, Bonnie and four strangers have just been tapped to start PUPI – Private, Unaffiliated, Paranormal Investigations -, dedicated to investigating and handling crimes within the magical community. Unaffiliated with either the hidebound Council or the fractious lonejacks, answering to no one, neutral in a world where the tension between factions is increasing steadily.
It won’t be easy. Bonnie and the others have to learn to work with one another, trust each other, hone their specific strengths and blend their styles to work as a team. They have to create an entire system of magical forensics from the ground up, and earn the trust of a great many people unused to trusting anyone. They have to prove their worth and hold strong against those who’d shut them down before they ever get started. And when their first case comes, it’s a trial by fire for the unready, untested group, and it might just be their last.
If you’re familiar with Gilman’s Retriever series, you may already know where some of this is going; Bonnie and the PUPIs appear in the latter half of that series and become semi-regular secondary characters. Hard Magic serves as the background and origin story for PUPI, and gives us in-depth introductions to the various members of the team and their various specialties. It’s an interesting look at the world of the Casa Nostradamus from an all-new viewpoint, and it gives us some more understanding of a setting where Talents (magic-users) and fatae (non-human beings of all sorts) walk among us in secret. Gilman’s clearly having a lot of fun here as she walks her characters through the invention of a whole new (for them, anyway) system of magical investigation and analysis, something we haven’t seen much of in the urban fantasy genre. (The closest comparison I can make is to Jes Battis’ Tess Corday series, which is much more high-tech and organized in its execution.)
The mystery is solid, the characterization strong, the plot fast-paced, and the final product solid. This is a great start to a new series, a perfect jumping-on point for new readers and a satisfying expansion of the world first visited in the Retrievers series. I loved Wren and Sergei’s story, and I’m now hooked on Bonnie Torres and the PUPIs.
Some folks have a nice, boring, safe office job. Not Steven de Selby. He’s a Psychopomp working for the Brisbane office of Mortmax Industries, and he puts the dead to rest, lest things between the mortal world and afterlife get out of hand. Hey, it’s the family business, and he’s not too bad at what he does. And then, suddenly, it all goes horribly wrong.
Warned of an attempt on his life by a dead girl, Steven quickly discovers that someone is killing Australia’s Pomps, slaughtering them without mercy or reason. As friends and family alike fall before the relentless onslaught, Steven runs for his life, accompanied and guided by Lissa Jones, the dead girl he’s quickly falling for. As the Pomps die, the restless dead grow plentiful, unbalancing a system that’s been in place for untold centuries. Soon, angry spirits are reanimating the corpses of Simon’s loved ones, and they’re out to snuff him like a candle. Simon’s struggle to survive will take him beyond the veil of death, and into a confrontation that could change his life forever. All this, and he’s in love with a girl he can’t even touch, for fear of losing her forever. That office job sounds pretty good now, doesn’t it?
Death Most Definite, the start of a new urban fantasy series, is a recklessly exciting adventure. It starts with a gunshot and ends with an apocalypse, and tears through the streets of Australia and the depths of the afterlife with equal abandon. It’s a tragically romantic comedy, a metaphysical fantasy, and a whole lot of fun. Simon and Lissa make for an adorable couple, possessing excellent chemistry together despite their uniquely improbable circumstances. Jamieson’s put a lot of thought into the world presented here, where mortal agents help spirits pass on after death, fleshing it out with mythology and bureaucracy. This is definitely a case where I can’t wait to see what the author has planned next; the ending of Death Most Definite sets up a very interesting new status quo for all involved, and the promise of much more to come.