Pub Day Repost: American Demon by Kim Harrison: Harrison Comes Back to The Hollows Without Missing a Step

I want to start off thanks to Beth Tabler for some research help—she saved me a whole lot of time and effort.
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American Demon by Kim Harrison Series: The Hollows, #14 eARC, 496 pg. Ace, 2020 Read: June 1-4, 2020 Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

First off, I want to talk about two things that Harrison did that really have nothing to do with the plot. First, in the last chap of The Witch with No Name, we’re treated to a glimpse into Rachel’s future, twenty-five years after that novel. At the time, I said we could’ve lived without it, but it was a nice way to say goodbye to the series. Now, it seems all the more ingenious of her to do. Twenty-five years provides several opportunities for Harrison to spin new tales. I don’t know if it was purposeful or not at the time, but it sure worked out well.

I was a little intimidated about coming back to this series after such a long break—Harrison’s novels were typically stuffed (occasionally, overstuffed) with plot—multiple storylines tying the novels together. There was just no way I could remember them all—much less remember all the various characters. The preface to American Demon consists of a portion of Rachel Morgan’s Inderland Security file, sketching out her escapades as well as her associates. It’s a wonderful refresher course in all things Rachel Morgan and did enough jogging of my memory that I was ready to dive in.

Anyway, what about the novel itself? It’s been a few months since the events of The Witch with No Name and those events have caused ripples throughout society (both the supernatural and mundane) as well as the in the lives of the series’ characters. Trent’s struggling with his bank balance and his relationship to the rest of the elves (although Rachel seems to be having more difficulty with both than Trent is), Rachel and Jenks are struggling to put their church back together, Ivy’s dealing with her new reality (and the city is looking for a new Master vampire), Rachel’s trying (not too successfully) to cope with the changes to her abilities, and…that’s just a taste. As much as things seemed wrapped up, life (even fictional life) isn’t that clean. Unlike my usual M. O., I’m not going to get further into the plot—fans don’t need it, and new readers won’t appreciate it without Rachel explaining what it all means.

Harrison manages to bring back every major, and many minor characters—even working in mentions to the major dead characters from the past. It may just be fan-service to let all the cast make an appearance, but it was done so smoothly, so organically, that it really doesn’t matter.

At the same time, Harrison brings in some new faces (and most seem like they’ll around for a while)—there’s a new elf, a new vampire, a new demon, and a whole new supernatural species. Each of them moves the series in a new direction and add aspects to the ongoing storylines that are very satisfactory. I can see Harrison adding one of these characters per novel—but all of them at once. She’s more than shaking up the status quo, she’s making a bold move forward for the series.

If I’d fallen into a coma shortly after reading The Witch with No Name and had just woken up in time to read this, I wouldn’t have known that Harrison spent anytime away, much less that she’d start a new series that was entirely distinct from The Hollows. For example, in this age of TV continuations—fans of the originals can easily tell the difference between the series that went off years ago, and the new episodes that aired recently. I assumed the same would be true here—not that the book would be bad or anything, just a little different—and I couldn’t have been more wrong.

By the way, since I expect some will ask—sure, this is a decent jumping-on point. A lot won’t make sense, but you’ll be entertained enough to shrug that off and keep going both with this book and those that are waiting in the wings. You’ll be given enough reason to go back and read the previous volumes.

From wrapping up a series very nicely with one book to telling a complete story in the next while setting up 4+ (depending on how you count them) multi-book arcs in the next is a pretty nice trick. This could’ve just been a nice little reunion, but Harrison has done more than that—she’s breathed new life into this series as well providing some solid entertainment. Welcome back to the Hollows, folks.

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Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Berkley Publishing Group via NetGalley in exchange for this post — thanks to both for this.

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Crossing in Time (Audiobook) by D. L. Orton. Narrated by Noah Michael Levine, Erin deWard: This Romance/SF is a Wild Ride!

Crossing in Time by D. L. Orton, Noah Michael Levine (Narrator), Erin deWard (Narrator) Series: Between Two Evils, Book 1 Unabridged Audiobook, 10 hrs., 17 min. Rocky Mountain Press, 2015 Read: June 4-5, 2020 Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

Typically, when I post about an Audiobook, I close with a discussion about the narrator(s). But I’m going to start with it this time because Levine and deWard did such a great job, they’re the highlight of the experience for me.*

* This is not a slight against the novel. They were just that good.

In my experience, when there is a male narrator and a female narrator—the female will read all the narration and dialogue in the female character POV chapters, and the male will read all the narration and dialogue in the male character POV chapters. But here, deWard reads all the female dialogue, no matter the narrator (and vice versa). That’s a nice touch, and once I got used to it, I really appreciated it. Particularly, it helped the conversations between characters feel like conversations—there was a little bit of talking over each other, and so on. And when the two laughed together? That was either fantastic work by the narrators or by the editor (or both).

Levine, particularly when he was narrating the main male protagonist, sounded like a guy recounting a story from his past to a friend—and I could’ve listened to him all day. deWard was almost as good (the main female protagonist character was never as relaxed, so it would be out of character to sound that way—so it may be unfair to compare like that). They both made all the characters come alive (even the few I’d rather hadn’t)—and made the experience richer.

This is a Romance/Science Fiction story. It’s heavy on the romance (too heavy for my taste) and the SF is a wild, multi-dimensional/time travel story with the fate of the human race (throughout the multiverse) hanging in the balance. Orton typically balances the focused story on the central romance and the wider, all-humankind story really well—but she has a tendency to over-focus on the love story. That’s going to delight many readers/listeners, but it was a stumbling block for me. Both are told with heart and humor (not getting in the way of drama), that will suck you in and not let you go.

I don’t really know how to summarize the setup of the book in a paragraph or two—and the Book Blurb gives away a bit too much (but really is an entertaining blurb), so I’m not going to get into it more than I did in that last paragraph. Just trust me on this—if you like the feel of what I’m describing, give this a shot.*

* Or, fine, read the Spotlight where I’ve copied the Blurb.

The characters—from minor to major—are wonderfully drawn and fully-developed. There are a couple of characters that are technically allies to the protagonists (and humanity in general, but function largely as antagonists. And man, I really didn’t like them at all—just as I wasn’t supposed to. But those that you were supposed to like? I just wanted to spend more time with them all—the point-of-view characters in particular.

There are some wonderful dogs throughout the book, and I fully expect that they’ll be pretty important before the trilogy ends. For those of you who prefer felines, there’s one of them, too—and the inclusion of the inferior pet doesn’t hurt things at all.*

* Man, I hope that comes across as tongue-in-cheek.

As I said, this is the beginning of a trilogy and ends in a way that practically demands moving on to the next volume as soon as possible (which is easy as the entire trilogy is published)—while not really a cliff-hanger, it sure works like one.

This was a fun novel—even if it’s not really my cup of tea. I’d probably give it a 3-3 1/2 Stars, a fun read that I’d recommend…but that narration knocks it up to 4 (maybe I should give it a 4 1/2), a strong recommendation from me.

There’s a little too much romance in this Romance/Science Fiction for my taste—but it’s a compelling and entertaining read full of wonderfully drawn characters. I strongly recommend the audiobook, but if that’s not your thing, I expect the print edition will almost be as good.

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This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.
My thanks to The Write Reads for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided.

The Ghosts of Sherwood by Carrie Vaughn: Oo-de-lally, I had fun with this

The Ghosts of Sherwood by Carrie Vaughn Series: The Locksley Chronicles, #1 Kindle Edition, 112 pg. Tor.com, 2020 Read: June 9, 2020 Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

“Can you tell how the mood is from here? How the journey went?”

“I won’t know how it went until I see Father’s face,” she said. “And see if he smiles or frowns?”

“No. And see if his smile is glad or wicked.” Her father would be smiling in any case.

That right there? That’s the line that sold me, I love that take on Robin Hood—between screen and print, all you can find lately is earnest, serious, Robin Hood as populist rebel with almost all the fun sucked out of it. Vaughn’s Locksley contains those elements, sure—but he’s also the outlaw in search of adventure, who enjoyed what he was doing. Always smiling–it’s just a matter of what kind of smile he wore.

We rejoin the Earl after the signing of the Magna Carta (which he was instrumental in getting that rascal King John to sign). He’s had to do the unthinkable—bowing the knee to John after Richard’s death—in order to protect his lands, his friends, and his wife. With Marian’s help to contain his impulses*, he’s become a responsible member of the nobility, doting father, and law abiding citizen.

* To be fair, Marian misses the adventures, too. But she’s not at that stage in her life anymore.

All that other stuff? Well, he’s content to leave that to the bards and storytellers. So much so that his own children aren’t sure how much to believe, “Everything about Father is stories.”

At least, that’s what his eldest daughter, Mary, says. But after she and her siblings are kidnapped, they’ll all get a better idea just what their father is capable of.

That’s all I’m going to say about that. This is very much a “pilot episode” of a novella. We meet the kids—Mary, John, and Eleanor—catch up with a couple of the Merry Men, see where Robin and Marian are in their lives and so on. Vaughn balances that with the kidnapping story.

The kidnapping is a quick and almost-too-neat story solely because of the space she has to tell it. If Vaughn hadn’t had to establish so much in these 112 pages, you get the feeling that the kidnapping wouldn’t have been resolved quite as neatly.

My sole complaint—and it’s a big one—is that this is a novella, and not a collection of novellas/short stories. I just needed more of everything—the kids, Robin, Marian, the other members of Robin’s band. This is a great introduction to this world and these characters, with a little bit of drama. But having been introduced, I want to read the next one. Or, the next five or so.

But no. Tor is making me wait until August for the second one. Which is simply unfair.

While my tongue is firmly in my cheek above, there is a kernel of truth to my gripe—I’m 97% sure that this thing has legs and that I’m in for several more (even if it’s currently slated to be a duology, but I’m hoping that changes), but I’m going to have to wait to really commit until August when The Heirs of Locksley is scheduled to be released. But in the meantime? This was a quick and fun read, full of promise, and one I heartily recommend.

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This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

American Demon by Kim Harrison: Harrison Comes Back to The Hollows Without Missing a Step

I want to start off thanks to Beth Tabler for some research help—she saved me a whole lot of time and effort.
—

American Demon by Kim Harrison Series: The Hollows, #14 eARC, 496 pg. Ace, 2020 Read: June 1-4, 2020 Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

First off, I want to talk about two things that Harrison did that really have nothing to do with the plot. First, in the last chap of The Witch with No Name, we’re treated to a glimpse into Rachel’s future, twenty-five years after that novel. At the time, I said we could’ve lived without it, but it was a nice way to say goodbye to the series. Now, it seems all the more ingenious of her to do. Twenty-five years provides several opportunities for Harrison to spin new tales. I don’t know if it was purposeful or not at the time, but it sure worked out well.

I was a little intimidated about coming back to this series after such a long break—Harrison’s novels were typically stuffed (occasionally, overstuffed) with plot—multiple storylines tying the novels together. There was just no way I could remember them all—much less remember all the various characters. The preface to American Demon consists of a portion of Rachel Morgan’s Inderland Security file, sketching out her escapades as well as her associates. It’s a wonderful refresher course in all things Rachel Morgan and did enough jogging of my memory that I was ready to dive in.

Anyway, what about the novel itself? It’s been a few months since the events of The Witch with No Name and those events have caused ripples throughout society (both the supernatural and mundane) as well as the in the lives of the series’ characters. Trent’s struggling with his bank balance and his relationship to the rest of the elves (although Rachel seems to be having more difficulty with both than Trent is), Rachel and Jenks are struggling to put their church back together, Ivy’s dealing with her new reality (and the city is looking for a new Master vampire), Rachel’s trying (not too successfully) to cope with the changes to her abilities, and…that’s just a taste. As much as things seemed wrapped up, life (even fictional life) isn’t that clean. Unlike my usual M. O., I’m not going to get further into the plot—fans don’t need it, and new readers won’t appreciate it without Rachel explaining what it all means.

Harrison manages to bring back every major, and many minor characters—even working in mentions to the major dead characters from the past. It may just be fan-service to let all the cast make an appearance, but it was done so smoothly, so organically, that it really doesn’t matter.

At the same time, Harrison brings in some new faces (and most seem like they’ll around for a while)—there’s a new elf, a new vampire, a new demon, and a whole new supernatural species. Each of them moves the series in a new direction and add aspects to the ongoing storylines that are very satisfactory. I can see Harrison adding one of these characters per novel—but all of them at once. She’s more than shaking up the status quo, she’s making a bold move forward for the series.

If I’d fallen into a coma shortly after reading The Witch with No Name and had just woken up in time to read this, I wouldn’t have known that Harrison spent anytime away, much less that she’d start a new series that was entirely distinct from The Hollows. For example, in this age of TV continuations—fans of the originals can easily tell the difference between the series that went off years ago, and the new episodes that aired recently. I assumed the same would be true here—not that the book would be bad or anything, just a little different—and I couldn’t have been more wrong.

By the way, since I expect some will ask—sure, this is a decent jumping-on point. A lot won’t make sense, but you’ll be entertained enough to shrug that off and keep going both with this book and those that are waiting in the wings. You’ll be given enough reason to go back and read the previous volumes.

From wrapping up a series very nicely with one book to telling a complete story in the next while setting up 4+ (depending on how you count them) multi-book arcs in the next is a pretty nice trick. This could’ve just been a nice little reunion, but Harrison has done more than that—she’s breathed new life into this series as well providing some solid entertainment. Welcome back to the Hollows, folks.

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Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Berkley Publishing Group via NetGalley in exchange for this post — thanks to both for this.

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Venators: Promises Forged (Audiobook) by Devri Walls, Daniel Thomas May: Out of the Frying Pan and into the . . . Clutches of a Life Siphoning Fae?

Venators: Promises Forged by Devri Walls, Daniel Thomas May (Narrator) Series: Venators, #2 Unabridged Audiobook, 12 hrs., 14 min. Tantor Audio, 2020 Read: May 22-27, 2020 Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

Like the Ultimate Blog Tour for the first Venators novel, Venators: Magic Unleashed, back in March, I’m going to take what I posted last year when the novel was initially released and then add on some new thoughts, with a focus on the recently published audiobook.

So the ending of the previous book (Venators: Magic Unleashed) focused on a dragon being unleashed by the series’ (apparent) Big Bad, the sorceress Zio. Not surprisingly, the series central characters survived the encounter. This book starts with a quick recap of that survival from the point of view of Zio—which is a great way to get the reader back into the moment and build on their understanding of what happened and Zio.

We quickly return to our Earthlings, Grey and Rune and the aftermath of their unauthorized excursion to rescue humans from a werewolf pack, which culminated in the aforementioned dragon attack. Rune’s proving to be a quick study of Council politics and was able to turn things to their advantage and buy them some leniency from the Council. The ways the two humans respond to and interact with Council members is pretty interesting and I suspect will be one of the more interesting developments from this point forward in the series. I suspect the Venator abilities that make these two the warriors they are in this world are in play with Rune’s politicking—no one mentions mental acuity when talking about Venator abilities, but maybe they should. Watching Rune play the games (both successfully and less-so) that the various Council members throw her way is probably my favorite part of the character.

And she has to do a lot of politicking and game playing here because her co-Venator and friend Grey has found himself in quite the pickle. After their ordeal with the werewolves, the two Earthlings’ need for training was even more apparent. They get just a little of it (a good, promising start) before getting momentarily side-tracked. Before they get a chance to build on that, Grey is lured into the one place the two have been told they absolutely cannot go. Because forbidding people from going somewhere always works out (how many Hogwarts students stayed out of the forest? How long did Belle stay out of the West Wing? Even the Federation had to know that forbidding landing on Talos IV wouldn’t work for long).

Grey has found himself in the clutches of a powerful Fae, Feena. Feena will spend days/weeks/years sucking the life out of her prisoners to feed her own magics. Given that Grey is more powerful than your typical Eonian, you know she’ll drag it out as long as possible. It’s a torturous experience for Grey, but he does what he can to resist and fight back. On the one hand, watching him stupidly and blindly put himself in this situation was maddening. But after that, watching Grey endure what he has to and struggle in response is pretty cool. As much as I appreciate Rune’s playing politics, I enjoy watching Grey in action.

So the book boils down to this—can Rune get permission to run a rescue mission—or at the very least, find a window in which she can pull off another unauthorized mission? Can Grey survive long enough for the cavalry to arrive? Assuming they do, how can Grey be rescued and the Venators get back to their training without causing a diplomatic incident that will shake up everything?

The actions of the Venators’ guides, teachers, allies confuse me. They’ve got these two kids in a world they clearly don’t understand, with abilities they don’t understand and then expect them to react appropriately in new situations. Even worse, all of them are keeping things from Grey and Rune—telling them half-truths, deflecting legitimate questions, and delaying explanations. It’s maddening. It’s bad enough that the Council, who are clearly only using these two for their own ends do that, but the people who supposedly are looking to them to change the world? A little honesty, being a little forthcoming, helping them to avoid the minefields they keep running into rather than saying “oh, you shouldn’t have done that”—it would make it a lot easier for this reader to stomach them.

The Council? I need to see more of them. I have little patience for them as individuals or as an entity at the moment, but as individuals and as an entity there’s great potential for something interesting to happen. Feena’s a good villain—she’s not worth several books, but for one novel? She’s a good opponent. The Fae? It’s simple—any universe, any world, any author—when it comes to Fae politics, Fae dealings with other Fae, Fae dealings with non-Fae? It’s complicated, tricky, and messy. It’s good to know you can count on something.

So much is happening in a very short period of time, it’s hard to know what kind of impact the events are having on anyone—it’s been less than two weeks since these two jumped into this world, leaving St. Louis behind. It’s hard for them—or a reader—to really take it all in. We do know that already both Venators are changing because of their abilities (as well as the experiences in this new world)—both are self-aware enough to see how it’s happening (at least in part) and are both resisting and embracing the changes. Both are, naturally, deluded about how easy it will be to resist this kind of thing—denial’s not just a river on Earth.

I’m enjoying these books—I do hope that under the new publisher, they’re able to come out pretty regularly, it’ll help sustain my interest (and, I’m guessing, the reading public’s). I know that Walls has several more books planned, so it makes it okay that I’m still on the fence about the series as a whole—there’s a lot of potential to the series and these characters and she has time to help them reach their potential. There are aspects of the books (the prospective—and lingering—romantic entanglements, for example) that I’m withholding an opinion on until more happens. And I’m not sure if I should appreciate how little we’re getting with Zio and Rune’s brother, or if it should annoy me. Is Walls building suspense, or is she simply being obfuscatory? I’m hoping that after Book 3, I’ll be more settled with my expectations about these books—I know I’m enjoying them, I’m just not sure if I should wait on them getting better.

May’s narration is as strong as it was last time. He captures the emotion and characters and tone with both skill and art. He’s doing the narration for another series due to be released in a couple of weeks and I’m looking forward to seeing how he handles that.

This time through, two characters really stood out to me: Ryker and Tashara (a succubus who sits on the Council). I’m not sure if Walls is setting Ryker up for a major redemptive arc or if she’s going to cause an irreparable rift between the twins (or both). I guess this ties into what I said above about him and Zio. As far as Tashara, she’s a complex character—May does a great job of depicting that—and I’m intrigued by both her and her relationship to Grey (her incubus counterpart, on the other hand, just annoys me).

One last thing. This is just a personal hangup, I’m sure, but I hate Arwin’s name. Last year, when I got to ask Walls some questions, I talked about how much it reminded me of a certain Lady of Rivendell. This year, when I listened to the books, it kept making me think of Lloyd Alexander’s Arawn Death-Lord. He’s hands-down my favorite Council member (I’m waiting for Walls to pull the rug out from under me and reveal he’s a turncoat or more Machiavellian than the rest), but his name trips me up in print or audio.

Again, I find myself rating this a tad higher in audio than in print. I’m not sure where that comes from, also not sure if it matters. Walls and May are a great combination. An interesting world, great characters (even if they frustrate me), good action—and a fast-moving plot. This YA fantasy is a crowd-pleaser, I’m sure of that—you should join the crowd.

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This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Bullet Points about Burning Bright by Nick Petrie: There’s No Sophomore Slump in the Second Peter Ash Adventure

Burning Bright by Nick Petrie Series: Peter Ash, #2 Hardcover, 416 pg. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2017 Read: May 11-14, 2020 Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

He climbed down to the dry riverbed, hurting all over but more or less functional. His forehead felt warm and wet. He put his hand up, felt the slickness of blood, and wiped it away, reminding himself that head wounds always bleed like crazy.

He knew too much about damage to human bodies.

This post is overdue (as was reading this in the first place), and I can’t seem to find time to do it right. So, I won’t. Here’s a quick and dirty way to get it taken care of. I wish I had it in me to do a better job, but I don’t. Here’s the blurb taken from Petrie’s site:

War veteran Peter Ash sought peace and quiet among the towering redwoods of northern California, but the trip isn’t quite the balm he’d hoped for. The dense forest and close fog cause his claustrophobia to buzz and spark, and then he stumbles upon a grizzly, long thought to have vanished from this part of the country. In a fight of man against bear, Peter doesn’t favor his odds, so he makes a strategic retreat up a nearby sapling. There, he finds something strange: a climbing rope, affixed to a distant branch above. It leads to another, and another, up through the giant tree canopy, and ending at a hanging platform. On the platform is a woman on the run. From below them come the sounds of men and gunshots. Just days ago, investigative journalist June Cassidy escaped a kidnapping by the men who are still on her trail. She suspects they’re after something belonging to her mother, a prominent software designer who recently died in an accident. June needs time to figure out what’s going on, and help from someone with Peter’s particular set of skills. Only one step ahead of their pursuers, Peter and June must race to unravel this peculiar mystery. What they find leads them to an eccentric recluse, a shadowy pseudo-military organization, and an extraordinary tool that may change the modern world forever.

If I had the time to do this properly, here are the things I’d be talking about.

At multiple points both Peter and June note that Peter’s having fun when it’s dangerous, when things are violent, when the bullets are flying. As a reader, this is great—you don’t see Reacher, Charlie Fox, Evan Smoak, etc. enjoying things quite like this. But I’m a little worried about what it says about him as a person.

We get some good backstory on Peter—before he enlisted.

On a related note, Peter has a family! A well-adjusted, not violent, family.

Lewis is back from the first book—he’s essentially Hawk and Pike with flair. His growing family ties are a real strength of character.

June is tough, capable, smart. She’s complex in a way that most characters in this role usually aren’t, and really ought to be.

The villains in this novel are great. Their motives are complex, they don’t approach things the way you think they’re going to (up to the last couple of chapters).

While trying not to give too much away, I appreciate that Ash doesn’t have a scorched-earth approach to his opponents in either book.

Best of all, in the middle of the technothriller stuff, the action hero stuff, and all the rest, there’s a real attempt to portray what a vet with PTSD goes through. How it molds everything he does, but doesn’t define him.

The biggest compliment I can give is this: it kept me awake when I should have been. Since I got my new CPAP last summer, I haven’t been able to read more than 2-5 pages with it on before I’m out like a light. So imagine how shocked I was when I realized that I’d barreled through over 50 pages one night! That’s a feat.

This is a great thrill-ride, I’m not going to wait another year and a half before I get to the next one (it’s sitting on my shelf as we speak). I strongly recommend the Peter Ash books.

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This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

But For The Grace (Audiobook) by Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackson: DC Smith Investigates an(other) Unexpected Killing

But For The Grace by Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackson (Narrator) Series: A DC Smith Investigation, #2 Unabridged Audiobook, 9 hrs., 17 min Tantor Audio, 2016 Read: April 20-21, 2020 Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

When I talked about the first installment in this series last year, I said, “There’s something about this one that got under my skin more than a typical procedural does—it’s maybe DC Smith, it’s maybe Grainger’s style (there’s a lot of subtle humor in a dark text)—it’s a Gestalt thing, I think. I really dug it.” I’m tempted to leave this at that, too. But that’s giving this short shrift.

There are three main stories—the least interesting to me (at present, but it keeps coming up, so I expect that it’ll be of vital importance and interest at some point) is the “big case” that defined Smith’s career. There’s a True Crime writer who wants to revisit the case with DC’s help. There’s a couple of good moments revolving this, but I’m not (yet) seeing the appeal.

The more interesting thread centers on DC Smith’s future. Smith’s old partner, and father of the newly-minted detective Smith’s training, owns a private security firm and wants him to come aboard in a senior position. At the same time, there’s an opportunity that many are urging Smith to take in a regional criminal investigation task force. But Smith’s inclination is to stick with his current duty—but he’s tempted by both over the course of the novel.

But the focus for the book is a death in a retirement home that’s identified as suspicious. Smith and his team start investigating this pretty colorful home. The characters—staff and residents—are well-drawn, colorful and the kind of characters you want to spend time with. The case goes pretty much how you’d expect (motive, culprit, and resolution), but there are a couple of twists that keep the reader/listener on their toes. Watching Smith and his colleagues pursue the killer is the joy in this. The pleasure is in the journey, not just the destination here.

Once again, Jackson weaves a spell with his narration—he sucked me in once again. A perfect combination of narrator and text.

A solid follow-up novel, that also provides plenty of incentive to move on to the rest. This is a series you should jump into—in print or audio.

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

The Sword-Edged Blonde (Audiobook) by Alex Bledsoe, Stefan Rudnicki: This Hard-Boiled Fantasy Mixes the Best of Both Genres

The Sword-Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe, Stefan Rudnicki (Narrator) Series: Eddie LaCrosse, #1 Unabridged Audiobook, 8 hrs., 28 min. Blackstone Audio, 2012 Read: April 22-24, 2020 Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

I’ve read this novel at least twice (13 and 11 years ago), and apparently have forgotten almost all of it. In fact, what I did remember as the climactic scene must belong to the second novel in the series, Burn Me Deadly. I can do better with the rest of the series (and not just because I actually wrote something about them—but I’m looking forward to taking another look at them in the coming months.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, I should introduce you to Eddie LaCrosse and his world. It’s your basic Fantasy world—swords, rumors of sorcery, small kingdoms, and so on. Eddie’s an ex-soldier, ex-mercenary, now “sword jockey” (basically a private cop). He’s got a little more on his résumé, but you’ll learn more about that as you dive in yourself. He’s been hired by an old friend, the King of a neighboring country to clear his wife of the horrific murder of her son. She doesn’t remember him, but when he meets her, Eddie realizes that he knew the Queen long before the King did.

Eddie’s investigation takes him through multiple kingdoms, into the remains of a cult, and into a criminal network that rivals anything that Varys put together for efficacy or ruthlessness. At the same time he does this, Eddie takes a trip through his personal history, reliving the time he knew the Queen (and events leading up to that). The two storylines are interwoven to help Eddie solve what seems like a perfect crime.

Both in the narration, LaCrosse’s character and the kinds of people we meet along the way, Bledsoe channels Chandler. LaCrosse is casually violent in a way that Marlowe indulged in a bit too often for me, and the (for lack of a better word) grotesque (in physical appearance and morality) criminals Eddie deals with in the latter parts of the book felt particularly Chandler-esque to me.

There’s some things that happen at the end that point to Eddie coming to terms with parts of his past that he’s been unable/unwilling to acknowledge existed. The character won’t change as a result of this (at least not much), but I think it opens the door for some of his rougher edges to be rounded out. How well that actually happens, I’ll have to see (I don’t trust my memory enough right now)—but at the very least, Bledsoe made it possible for the character to grow and evolve here.

Rudnicki’s narration didn’t really work for me initially—there was a quality to his voice that just didn’t click with me. But, I kept going because I liked the novel. Before the halfway mark, however, he’d won me over. I can’t put my finger on it (either good or bad), but he sold the emotional moments, the humor, and Eddie’s general attitude. Which is good enough for me.

It’s hard for me to rate this one on its own terms—I remember liking it. I remember what Bledsoe does with the characters. And those things color my rating, leading me to probably giving this another half-to-whole star more than I would otherwise. But also, for the world. The merging of Fantasy and Hard-boiled genres in a way that’s seamless and well-executed. I recommend this one and will be back for more soon.

Bookstooge posted about this book yesterday. It’s probably worth a read (I’ll read it later today, I didn’t want his voice in my head as I wrote this).

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Apex Predator by M.R. Miller: Nothing goes According to These Plans

Apex Predator by M. T. Miller Series: The Culling, Book 2 Kindle Edition, 238 pg. 2020 Read: April 17-20, 2020 Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

“Nothing ever goes according to plan,” Shast said. That was why contingencies existed. Layers upon layers of them.

That’s from Chapter 4. By the time the book ends 11 chapters later, Shast is going to a whole new understanding of that.

But I’m getting ahead of myself there’s some sort of monster infestation in a city—forces have been sent to take care of it–two different waves, actually. But they didn’t work. So now, The Culling–the organization that handles these kinds of things, has sent a full Hand to clear it out. A Hand is a team of five hunters, each with a different specialty. With those combined talents, they should be able to handle anything.

Only Shast and the most senior member of the Hand have worked together before, the other three are experienced, but not that much. It’s a diverse group of people who usually work along and there’s a good deal of bickering and being at loggerheads on the way to the city. Once there, once the hunt gets underway, that gets compartmentalized and the Hand gets to work.

For a completely foreign world—that we still don’t really know that much about (but we’re learning)—it’s a testimony to Miller’s story-telling that the reader is able to plug into their activities, get an idea what’s at stake and why they’re doing what they’re doing.

It doesn’t take long for every theory they have to be proven wrong, everything they try to not have any success. And before long, it’s clear that what they’re facing is something most of them had never heard of—or if they had, they thought was a myth. It’s not a myth, and soon the hunters are the hunted.

Interspersed with that story are flashbacks to a hunt from early in Shast’s career, and enduring that was pivotal in his development into the hunter that he is. He gained the perspective, the cold-heartedness that he requires to survive the hunt that’s the focus of this novel. I don’t remember Miller doing anything like this before, he pulls it off pretty well. There are times when you get a story like this that you really wonder what the flashback storyline has to do with anything, but I gave Miller the benefit of the doubt and was rewarded for it.

Last time out, I praised Miller’s design of monsters. This time, I need to do the same. I don’t remember reading monsters like this before—while they were completely original, I had no trouble getting a clear idea how these things looked or acted. They were disturbing, powerful and you have little trouble understanding why the Hand wants to destroy them.

Even better is his character design—each member of the Hand is a fully realized character–and we learn their backstory, culture, specialties, and the rest without ever feeling like we endured an info drop. Through them, we get a better idea how this world works and how the Culling developed. I’m still trying to get a handle on this world, not that it bothers me much, I know what I need to know—but I’m intrigued, I’m curious. I appreciate getting a little more information about this place.

Now in the first book of the series, Shast and his companions face off with a large and unprecedented force of monsters, but it’s something they can get a handle on, something they can understand and adapt to. This time, the Hand is completely blindsided and maybe outclassed. How he moves on from this point to book 3, I have no idea—I assume Miller has a few tricks up his sleeve and I’m looking forward to seeing what they are. In the meantime, I’d encourage you all to go pick this one up.

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Note: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for this post and my honest opinion. I thank him for that.

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Auxiliary: London 2039 by Jon Richter: A Gripping Hardboiled Cyberpunk Read

Auxiliary: London 2039 by Jon Richter Kindle Edition, 224 pg. TCK Publishing, 2020 Read: May 1-4, 2020 Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

TIM stood for “The Imagination Machine.”It hadn’t seemed like a game-changer when it had been quietly released by the Imagination Corporation twelve years previous, at least not to Dremmler. It was simply a logical next step, a “one stop shop”that brought together office applications, email, social media, an enhanced personal organiser that was, as the company’s marketing eloquently put it, “like Alexa on steroids.”Video gaming, on-demand television, information searches, holiday bookings, shopping, dating, movies, music: TIM was a single interface for the entire online, AR/VR experience…

TIM had become ubiquitous; the go-to OS for almost everything. It flew the planes. It drove the cars. It answered your queries when you contacted customer services. It controlled the robotic surgeons that performed life-saving operations. It filed your tax returns. It delivered your food. It selected your music. It read your children bedtime stories.

And it ran the AltWorld. Whatever you wanted to see, or be, or do, or feel, or [expletive]. Real life had been made obsolete.

In the obsolete “real life,” Carl Dremmler is one of the remaining detectives in the London Police Force (which doesn’t seem to be much of a presence). His days are largely filled with cookie-cutter investigations verifying that people has wasted away while immersed in Augmented Reality to the point they couldn’t notice their physical health had deteriorated—although he gets to break it up occasionally by something like a civilian attacking a postbot.

What brings Dremmler to our focus is a very different kind of case—maybe an impossible case. A woman has been killed—horrifically, I should add. Her boyfriend, the prime suspect, has been caught (very literally) red-handed, but insists that he tried to stop it from happening, but his cybernetic arm acted independently from him.

The problem with this is that the software that controls the arm is unhackable. There is no way for this to have been anything but the accused. Unless the impossible is a lot more possible.

Dremmler finds himself fighting pressure from above to close this case and his increasing conviction that the boyfriend is innocent. He just can’t explain how. The London of 2039 is a cyberpunk future—but not one so advanced that people living in it can’t remember what life was life before TIM was ubiquitous. Dremmler has a strong preference for, well, now—which makes him the perfect person to want to believe there is a problem in a perfect OS.

I’ve always found that the best cyberpunk, seemingly paradoxically, shared a lot of characteristics with early 20th-century noir. This novel is a shining example of that—it’s actually been a long time since I’ve read a cyberpunk novel that’s embraced the noir-ness as much (or as well) as Auxiliary: London 2039 does. Dremmler is as hard-boiled a character as you could want (haunted by tragedy, alcoholic, driven) and I was reminded of Nathaniel West’s work several times by the secondary characters and mores throughout the book.

At the same time, there’s a Golden Age of Science Fiction feel to a lot of the work—especially as it relates to AIs, the place of technology in culture (and how it interacts with humans), the role of escaping from Standard Reality into Alternate Reality, and so on. As often as I was reminded of West or Chandler, I was reminded of Asimov or Clarke (Richter is more pleasant to read).

I had a blast with this. It’s just the kind of mix of genres that appeals to me and Richter executed it all perfectly. Great, twisty plot; compelling characters; a fantastic setting; and enough implications to ponder to satisfy any reader. I strongly recommend Auxiliary: London 2039 to you.

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My thanks to Overview Media for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including a copy of the novel) they provided.