Benedict, Lyn: Gods & Monsters
Gods & Monsters (2011)
Written by: Lyn Benedict
Genre: Urban/Dark Fantasy
Pages: 311 (Mass Market Paperback)
Series: Book Three of Shadows Inquiries
Disclaimer: this book was received for review from Dreams & Speculation
Why I Read It: I've been craving urban fantasies that break from the norm, urban fantasies that aren't straying too close to the paranormal romance line and instead focus more heavily on the supernatural plots. I'm finding the darker, the better, and Lyn Benedict's Gods & Monsters certainly fits that bill. I was going to pick it up on my own sweet time, but when I saw Dreams & Speculation had it available for guest reviewers, I asked if I could take that slot, and she was happy to oblige. And since it's a relatively new release, I wanted to read it sooner rather than later.
The premise: ganked from the publisher's website: Sylvie Lightner is no ordinary P.I. She specializes in cases involving the unusual and unbelievable. When she finds the bodies of five women in the Florida Everglades, Sylvie believes them to be the work of a serial killer and passes the buck. But when the bodies wake and shift shape, killing the police, Sylvie finds herself at the head of a potentially lethal investigation.
Spoilers, yay or nay?: Nay. It's a new book and an on-going series, so I don't want to spoil anything in this latest release. However, that does not mean the previous two installments won't somehow get spoiled, so read at your own risk if you aren't caught up. If you're nervous about such spoilers, just skip to "My Rating" and you'll be fine.
It's funny, because I'd just read the second installment, Ghosts & Echoes, not too long ago, but I'd forgotten the tiny aside in that book regarding other cases Sylvie was considering, which was investigating the serial kidnappings of Hispanic women. In this third installment, those disappearances become the main focus, and this book essentially picks up where the second book left off, in terms of Sylvie going from one case to the other. Oh, there's a little bit of lag time: we don't see the actual transition of Suarez trusting her and considering her a partner rather than a menace, but we were getting the start of that transition in book two, so it obviously didn't take much. At any rate, I really like how these books flow one right into the other, even though each has their own stand-alone plot. Sure, if you're reading these books as they're released (about a year apart), that might be frustrating, especially if you forget little details), but I really appreciate, from a writer's perspective, how Benedict manages to blend the stand-alone drama and continuous mythology in such a way that you don't really feel lost and confused. Indeed, characters from book one, Sins & Shadows, make appearances here, characters I'd completely forgotten about until they were reintroduced, but it didn't throw me for a loop. Instead, I was like, "Oh yeah, I remember this person," and was able to carry on just fine.
For those readers looking for a continuation of Sylvie and Demalion's rather tortured romance (tortured being used in multiple ways here, because it's not like their romance is swoon-worthy or sweet), you're going to get less than 0.01% of it here, because their romance and how they're handling the fallout of book two's events really aren't the focus here. Oh, sometimes it's an odd motivator for the action that is case-related, but Benedict is taking her time, trying to build a relationship that would play out realistically, rather than constantly hooking up heroine and hero so they can have both escapades and sex-capades, which is rather refreshing. So rather than any sort of romance, Sylvie's focus is on finding and helping the missing women, a task that soon appears to be pretty impossible, because as the book's title suggests, Sylvie's dealing with no less than gods and monsters. Which makes for some nice, high-stakes tension.
But first, a random, funny quote:
"Y'know, Shadows, I thought Southern women were supposed to be sweet and courteous. You're pushier than a damn wheelbarrow." (page 32)
This made me laugh for a couple of reasons: 1) sometimes, the very nature of being a Southern woman means you're subtle as a sack of hammers and pushy as hell, and 2) if I'm remembering Sylvie's background right, she was born and raised in Flordia, which is geographically South, but not Southern, as anyone who lives in the South well knows. Florida's kind of it's own place. Retirement-land, or something like that. ;) At any rate, the quote above is from Wales, the Texan neuromancer we met back in book two, and since he's from Texas, I'll forgive that error: after all, Texas really isn't the South either, is it?
Speaking of Wales, it was a little odd to see him in this book, only because I'd been picturing him as a somewhat older, hunched-over man, and it turns out he's much closer to Sylvie and Alex's ages, which was jarring to my mental image. I fully except the blame for that bit of jarring, though, because I'm sure Benedict described him just fine in book two and I just ignored it for my own purposes. I do that, sometimes. I was shocked to learn from another reader that Cormac, from Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series, had a mustache. I sure as hell missed that detail!
I do love, though, how characters from previous books play a sizeable role in the plot of this one. One of my favorite characters from Sins & Shadows makes and appearance here, and I wish I could say who she is, because there's a delicious quote from her in the book, but that would spoil a nice surprise, so I don't want to say anything. But I will say this: the focus of gods and religion works far better this time around, especially when it comes to an individual's faith and what that means to the various gods who can and cannot lay claim to said individual. And I love what one particular character wants for Sylvie. It's delightful in a way I can't articulate, but if you've read this book, I'd love to share.
But this quote describes rather nicely how religion and gods work in the context of Benedict's world, so I'll share it here:
"But there's more to gods than power. That's a lot of it. That's the shiny part. The thing people always think about. Power. Omnipotence. Give or take a few degrees. But they're also about collecting souls. It's so important to them that all the pantheons have an agreement not to touch each other's people. To divide up the nonbelievers. We're more than property to them. We're assets of some kind. Gold bullion." (page 239)
The thing I like about Sylvie is that she's not an easy person to like. It rubbed me wrong in the first book, but in hindsight, my bigger problem with the first book was that it read like I was missing something. In other words, every book is related, which I've mentioned I love, but book one sounded like it was coming off a story I hadn't read and I don't have access to. Indeed, there's even moments in this book that refer to events that happened BEFORE book one and it drives me a little crazy. It's not that Sylvie's difficult to like: it's that I never got to see the person she was BEFORE this. I never got her origin, her "creation" story. The event that made her into the hardened person she is today. We never get the story, not in book time, of how she discovered the world of magic and how she knew she was different. It's referred to. It's always referred to. But we have to deal with what we have.
This is both a flaw and a strength. A flaw because as a reader invested in the series, I don't like feeling like I've missed something. A strength because Benedict expects her readers to be smart enough and to roll with what she gives you. So instead of seeing Sylvie spiral down into the black hole of un-likability, we meet her when she's already unlikable, and we get to watch as she tries to be the best person she can be under the circumstances she's given. And that makes her cool. You don't always know what she's going to do, other than the fact she's doing to do the right thing, even if accomplishing said right thing feels like an impossible task. The events in Gods and Monsters really reveal Sylvie in different ways, and we learn more about her as she learns more about her self. She's not a loner, no matter how much she wants to be, so it's cool to see her interact with her team/support group. She'll fight to the death to protect those she loves. She'll fight to the death to prove she's right. And that's what makes this book, and this series, work.
I'm definitely looking forward to book four. There's no official title yet, but when it happens, I'm there.
My Rating: Good Read: It took me a wee bit longer to get invested in this book than it did Ghosts & Echoes, but that's because Benedict always starts her books out in the middle of something, which means the reader has to run a bit to keep up, metaphorically speaking. But the case is an interesting one, and there's no easy answers to solving it either, which makes for a very engaging read. We don't know how this is going to end, and it seems that with every step she takes, Sylvie's job just gets harder and harder. The climax is a little overwhelming because so much is happening, but it's fascinating, especially seeing how Sylvie responds to what's thrown at her. The book resolves nicely, but there's enough going on in Sylvie's world that I can't wait to see what Benedict plans next. All of that being said, don't even think about reading Gods & Monsters, book three in the series, until you've got the first two under your belt. You'll be lost without them. Yet if you're an urban fantasy fan who simply wants something darker, something that isn't dominated by a romantic storyline of any sort (or maybe you want a teeny-tiny-barely-there romantic sub-sub-plot), this series is definitely one to check out.
Cover Commentary: Barring the first book, Benedict's cover artists are doing a great job straying from typical urban fantasy covers. Look at this: it's BRIGHT and COLORFUL, full of greens and yellows, not the usual dark, depressing purples and blues and blacks. Our heroine's fully clothed, and while she sports a leather jacket, the jacket is at least mentioned in the book, and how Sylvie comes by it is kind of funny. It's a cover that's eye-catching, and promises to give the discerning urban fantasy reader something a little different than the usual.
Next up: The Meowmorphosis by Kafka/Cook or Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson