My Review of Dark Currents
So, although Jacqueline Carey's newest book, Dark Currents, the first in her Agent of Hel trilogy, came out in October, I only just got around to reading it. Partially, I was afraid that my expectations were just too high and that I would end up disappointed, as I was with much of the Naamah series and Saints Astray. And I'll be honest, I was dubious because paranormal romance/urban fantasy is not a genre I've ever really been into. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised and found Dark Currents very enjoyable. Daisy, the "reluctant hell-spawn," makes a fine heroine. She's half- All American girl, half-demon, and this gives her a grittiness and a sort of down-to-earthness that makes a nice change of pace from Carey's other protagonists (who I LOVE but, it's great to see an author that's got range) At the same time, Daisy has a lot in common with her predecessors. Like Loup and Phedre, she has strange genetic predisposition that she hasn't quite mastered. Like Imriel, she has a bloodline people fear. And like Moirin, she's the child of a single mom. Carey is fond of certain tropes- you could say she recycles them. But they just happen to be tropes I like, so I do kind get a kick out seeing how she mixes and matches them in her work.
The first book is essentially a paranormal police procedural. It's quite a contrast to the travelogue type books Carey usually writes, as the action takes place within the boundaries of Daisy's hometown. But again, I enjoyed the mixing of the fantasy and the mundane. And as a police-procedural type mystery, the plot moves steadily and it's entertaining. A lot world-building happens in this first book, so it can at times feel a bit like "these are the people in my really strange neighborhood." I expect we're being set-up for a more in-depth showdown over Daisy and her demonic birthright and the supernatural and mundane residents of Pemkowet in the next two books. I don't know why but the tone and the pacing and the presentation of many love interests for Daisy reminded me a lot of the Stephanie Plum books than any fantasy series that i'd read. Go fig.
Likes
-The Setting: Pemkowet, the setting of the story, is a fictionalized version of Carey's hometown of Saugatuck, a resort town on Lake Michigan. As a sometime Michigander (I lived there for 3 years while doing my PhD coursework and I still have a love of all things Pure Michigan) and someone who has visited Saugatuck, I personally got a kick out of this. Because, yes there really is a buried lumber town named Singapore and yes it's fun to think of it as a functioning underworld. And yes, Saugatuck/Pemkowet is this queer resort town full of fabulous midwestern LGBT people surrounded by super conservative Christian evangelicals who want to ruin everyone's fun. So, that aspect really just felt like a love letter to Michiganders and I ate it up with a spoon. I can't say it will have the same affect on everyone else, other than it might make you want to take a vacation to Saugatuck, which really is every bit as cute and picturesque as she describes. Carey has a real knack for description and it was just a fun change of pace to see her turn it on our world instead of TdA.
-Queer Elements: Correct me if I'm wrong, but paranormal romance has always seemed overwhelmingly straight to me. That is one of the reasons I was actually not all that thrilled to hear Carey was going to write in the genre. But as always, she brings a subversive twist to what you'd expect. For one, although Daisy is perhaps the straightest of all Carey's heroines, she does have some pretty strong bisexual leanings toward female members in the so-called "eldtrich" (paranormal) community. But I actually appreciated more how Carey appropriated language of queerness and gay rights to tell the story of the secret paranormal community in Pemkowet. Little things, like referring to Daisy's partner and love interest, a closeted werewolf, as "Office Down-Low" made me smile. I think urban fantasy is a great place to explore queerness in a metaphorical way. Carey does a better job of it than any other author I've read, probably because she is so comfortable writing about sexuality.
-Secondary Characters: Carey again is known for creating memorable scene stealing secondary characters and in this Dark Currents is no exception. Two that really stood out to me were Stefan, a biker-riding ghoul and potential love interest, and Lurine, a lamia (half-serpent, half woman) and b-movie starlet who is also Daisy's unofficial godmother. Stefan as a ghoul also provided some great world-building- ghouls are kind of like emotional vampires, they feed off the emotions of humans to survive. They are morally ambiguous; you become a ghoul by having both heaven and hell reject you. There's still a lot of mysteries around Stefan and he has a lot of Shahrizai-like qualities- he offers Daisy the opportunity to surrender control of her emotions in a safe environment, a proposition she finds both attractive and scary. I look forward to learning more about him (and I am secretly rooting for him to get the girl- not the vanilla guy, just once please?)
Stefan is great but Lurine is just fabulous. From the moment Daisy met her in her lamia form in her swimming pool, I was sold. Lurine is a self described "immortal monster" with the body of a Playboy centerfold. She has always kept a watchful eye over both Daisy and her mother. Lurine is also fabulously wealthy, having married an octogenarian millionaire for his money who died under mysterious circumstances- guess she got her Associates Degree online from the Melisande Shahrizai School for Black Widows. Lurine is assertive, sexy and fun- she is the character I never knew I wanted. And no one writes a hard femme like Jacqueline Carey. I want her and Daisy to hook up but it will probably not happen. Daisy finds her attractive but is all like "Hooking up with the blonde bombshell serpent lady who used to babysit me would be a bad idea." And I am like, "THAT IS THE BEST IDEA EVER." I mostly just hope she lives until the end of the series....Carey does like to kill off the awesome mentor figures. *worries*
Critiques
My only disappointments were some issues I had with Daisy's 1st person POV. I felt like there was some slippage between Daisy as original narrator and Jacqueline Carey telling me about her hometown. I think she's a more original narrator than Moirin (who I'm sorry...just felt bland to me) but nowhere in the same ballpark as Phedre and Imriel, who were both fully-formed narrators with their own voices. But that is my personal preference- I genuinely prefer really original strong 1st person POVs to more generic, "step in their shoes" ones. There were times I just felt (like I sometimes felt with Moirin) that maybe this book needed a little more time in order to really develop Daisy's narrative voice.
I also wished we had gotten more development around Daisy's relationship with her mother. Daisy tells us a lot about how amazing and brave her mother was to raise her demon-child as her own, but that's never actually shown to us. Maybe that will come up more in future books. There is however a scene at the very end about Daisy and her mom that brought me to tears.
It's a very minor quibble but i dislike the use of "eldritch" to refer to the paranormal community. I realize you gotta coin a term to separate the wizards from the muggles or the mortals from the fae, but it just felt clunky to me.
In short, if you like urban fantasy/paranormal romance along the lines of True Blood and Lost Girl or quirky female police procedurals like Stephanie Plum, I'd recommend this series to you. Kushiel fans- what can I say? If the Kushiel series is a long, elaborate feast of many exotic courses, Dark Currents is like a hamburger and a microbrew at your favorite pub. Which is not a knock against it- because who doesn't enjoy a good burger and beer? Preferably in this case a delicious Bell's Oberon or Two-Hearted for Michigan pride.
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