Read Recently -- June -- Urban Fantasy
Mean Streets: four novellas by Jim Butcher, Simon R. Green, Kat Richardson, Thomas E. Sniegoski
In Butcher's "The Warrior", Harry Dresden confronts human evil: someone is sending him photographs of his friend Michael Carpenter, the recently retired Paladin whose sword Harry now has in his keeping. The pictures are perfectly set up for a sniper. Harry wants Michael to take up his sword again, but Michael has faith in God. If he goes, it's his time. Can Harry save his friend?
In Green's "The Difference A Day Makes", John Taylor and his friend Dead Boy agree to help a woman find out what happened to her in the last 24 hours--24 hours she can no longer remember. That could mean anything in the Nightside.
Richardson's "The Third Death of the Little Clay Dog" sends her hero, Harper Blaine, a private investigator with mild supernatural powers (mostly revolving around the ability to talk to the dead) to Mexico, to find a grave and place the titular clay dog on it.
Finally, Sniegoski's "Noah's Orphans" sends his detective, Remy Chandler, to solve the murder of Noah. Yes, that Noah. Remy has unexpected depths, and keeps odd company, even as he's trying to recover from the death of his wife.
I kinda view this as an "urban fantasy sampler". Samplers can be good things, exposing you to things you never knew about but could come to like (I view the soundtrack to the Crow this way; it exposed me to a lot of good music). But by midway through the book I wasn't convinced that it was working for this volume. I mean, if I wasn't already reading the Dresden Files and the Nightside, I don't think I would have wanted to after reading these stories. And as I went through "the Third Death" I kept thinking that . . . but by the end of the story I was ready to pick up Greywalker, Richardson's first volume. So maybe I was wrong. Certainly, it's hard for me to judge since, as you've probably noticed, I am already a fan of Butcher and Green. Despite having read a whole Remy Chandler story, though, I'm not interested in reading any more.
Still, three out of four isn't bad. Mildly recommended.
Three Days to Never by Tim Powers
Half the fun of a Tim Powers book is figuring out what the hell is going on. This makes almost anything I could say about this a potential spoiler.
Well, if you're willing to trust me: Tim Powers is one of the best writers out there, not just in the nebulously defined "urban fantasy" sub-sub-genre. If you see this book, grab it.
Highly recommended.
A Local Habitation: an October Daye novel by Seanan McGuire
Sequel to Rosemary and Rue and much better (and I liked Rosemary and Rue). Toby's got her life more together, though she still misses her husband and daughter. She's even got her PI license back, and at the start of the book she's had an evening out drinking with her girlfriends, one of whom is a Hob while the other is 1/4 Barrow-Wight (I'm pretty sure that Barrow-Wights as such are not an actual fae (or otherwise folkloric) creature-- Wikipaedia says Tolkien based them on the Old Norse Draugr, which if the wikiarticle on them is to be believed is a kind of Norse vampire. Anyway, maybe McGuire meant that Toby's drinking buddy is one-quarter fictional). Her liege lord gives her a new assignment: he wants her to visit the territory (Fremont, CA) between his and the duchy next door. His niece lives in this small territory, running a computer company, and she hasn't called in weeks. He can't go visit himself without causing a diplomatic incident with the other duke, but he can send Toby. He can also send one of his pages as backup.
Everything seems normal at their destination, though the niece, says that she has been calling and leaving messages; the Duke just hasn't been calling her back. The computer company is nicely tucked underhill. There's even a nice bit with a dryad inhabiting a server tree. But the locals don't trust Toby and her squire, given the lack of communication.
And then someone turns up dead . . . and they're not the first one, either.
Yep, it's a murder mystery, and a good one, considering it's set amongst the fae. McGuire sets up her rules early and sticks to them, and brings everything together nicely in the end. Like I said above, this is an improvement over the first one and that sets a good precedent for this series. Recommended.
Roadkill: a Cal Leandros novel by Rob Thurman
Everything's going well for Cal at the start of the book. His worst enemies are off his back, his brother and friends are safe, he's actually getting laid regularly, and he has a job he enjoys. Only rarely does someone try to kill him, as happens at the start of the book.
Of course, "going well" for Cal cannot possibly mean things are perfect. His brother Niko is pissed that Cal is using his inborn teleportation ability, a legacy from his monstrous side. Cal doesn't see the problem: he never had a chance to try his abilities before, and it feels good. Niko is worried, though, and nobody likes to be reminded of Cal's other side by seeing him travel. And Cal's girlfriend is actually not supposed to be sleeping with him; she's a werewolf, a member of the Kin, the werewolf mafia, and is only supposed to sleep with other werewolves (it's a racial purity thing--yes, werewolves are often racist assholes in this world). Their relationship was okay as long as the Kin didn't know about it, but now they have found out and she may have been ordered to kill Cal (certainly other werewolves are trying to kill him).
So, Cal's at work when an ancient gypsy comes in. Cal and Niko know her: she ripped them off in one of the earler books. Now she wants to hire them to find something her clan has lost. A sealed coffin with an ancient healer inside it; he knows the cures for all diseases because he knows the causes of all diseases. The last time he was loose was the Black Death. The old woman's tribe was charged with keeping him confined, but now someone has stolen him. If they release him, the world will face a new nightmare.
Cal and Niko figure they'll need the help of an uncorrupted healer, but most of the ones they need are unavailable. They do manage to connect with their old friend Rafferty, who left town a while ago to take care of his cousin, Catcher. Both Rafferty and Catcher are werewolves (though not associated with the Kin), but Catcher has a problem: he is permanently a wolf. Rafferty is looking for a cure for him, but he cannot ignore this threat--or does he have an ulterior motive?
Anyway, roadtrip! This is as good as the other books in the series, and just as recommended.
The Mystery of Grace by Charles deLint
This one kinda begins in the middle. John and Grace have had a successful date thus far, but when she gets out of bed and goes to the washroom she literally disappears--to the extent that John starts to wonder if he dreamed her up. But no, Grace is real, his friends remember him meeting her (she's beautiful and memorably tattooed).
When we get into Grace's head, the very next chapter, we learn what happened. Grace is a mechanic, specialising in classic Fords, inspired by her late Grandfather. She lives in an apartment in the Alverson Arms building. And one day she went down to the local store to get some cigarettes, interrupted a robbery in progress, and was shot. To death.
Yeah, I freaked out a little at that point, too, and I've been reading deLint for 20-something years now. Grace wakes up in her apartment. But she's not alone: she was brought back to the apartment by a couple of people who also "live" there. Because she is dead, and so are they. It seems that everyone who dies within a certain distance of the Alverson Arms wakes up in a small world made up of that range of the city (the Alverson Arms and a certain number of blocks from it), fringed in a spooky mist. Entering the mist just warps you around to the other side of the area.
But, as deLint established in The Blue Girl, the dead can come back to the world of the living once a year (now twice), though given the unnexciting world these ghosts are stuck in most of the year it's not a good idea. But this is what Grace does, and that's how she meets John. Who, by the way, doesn't forget about her, but goes looking for her. And, yes, finds out what happened to her.
What happens after that is spoilerous.
deLint's last few books felt kinda tired, which makes sense in that he was writing in his fictional city of Newford, and was getting tired of it. With The Mystery of Grace he moves the action to the U.S. Southwest, and feels rejuvenated. Grace is a return to form by a great writer, and I highly recommend it.
In Butcher's "The Warrior", Harry Dresden confronts human evil: someone is sending him photographs of his friend Michael Carpenter, the recently retired Paladin whose sword Harry now has in his keeping. The pictures are perfectly set up for a sniper. Harry wants Michael to take up his sword again, but Michael has faith in God. If he goes, it's his time. Can Harry save his friend?
In Green's "The Difference A Day Makes", John Taylor and his friend Dead Boy agree to help a woman find out what happened to her in the last 24 hours--24 hours she can no longer remember. That could mean anything in the Nightside.
Richardson's "The Third Death of the Little Clay Dog" sends her hero, Harper Blaine, a private investigator with mild supernatural powers (mostly revolving around the ability to talk to the dead) to Mexico, to find a grave and place the titular clay dog on it.
Finally, Sniegoski's "Noah's Orphans" sends his detective, Remy Chandler, to solve the murder of Noah. Yes, that Noah. Remy has unexpected depths, and keeps odd company, even as he's trying to recover from the death of his wife.
I kinda view this as an "urban fantasy sampler". Samplers can be good things, exposing you to things you never knew about but could come to like (I view the soundtrack to the Crow this way; it exposed me to a lot of good music). But by midway through the book I wasn't convinced that it was working for this volume. I mean, if I wasn't already reading the Dresden Files and the Nightside, I don't think I would have wanted to after reading these stories. And as I went through "the Third Death" I kept thinking that . . . but by the end of the story I was ready to pick up Greywalker, Richardson's first volume. So maybe I was wrong. Certainly, it's hard for me to judge since, as you've probably noticed, I am already a fan of Butcher and Green. Despite having read a whole Remy Chandler story, though, I'm not interested in reading any more.
Still, three out of four isn't bad. Mildly recommended.
Three Days to Never by Tim Powers
Half the fun of a Tim Powers book is figuring out what the hell is going on. This makes almost anything I could say about this a potential spoiler.
Well, if you're willing to trust me: Tim Powers is one of the best writers out there, not just in the nebulously defined "urban fantasy" sub-sub-genre. If you see this book, grab it.
Highly recommended.
A Local Habitation: an October Daye novel by Seanan McGuire
Sequel to Rosemary and Rue and much better (and I liked Rosemary and Rue). Toby's got her life more together, though she still misses her husband and daughter. She's even got her PI license back, and at the start of the book she's had an evening out drinking with her girlfriends, one of whom is a Hob while the other is 1/4 Barrow-Wight (I'm pretty sure that Barrow-Wights as such are not an actual fae (or otherwise folkloric) creature-- Wikipaedia says Tolkien based them on the Old Norse Draugr, which if the wikiarticle on them is to be believed is a kind of Norse vampire. Anyway, maybe McGuire meant that Toby's drinking buddy is one-quarter fictional). Her liege lord gives her a new assignment: he wants her to visit the territory (Fremont, CA) between his and the duchy next door. His niece lives in this small territory, running a computer company, and she hasn't called in weeks. He can't go visit himself without causing a diplomatic incident with the other duke, but he can send Toby. He can also send one of his pages as backup.
Everything seems normal at their destination, though the niece, says that she has been calling and leaving messages; the Duke just hasn't been calling her back. The computer company is nicely tucked underhill. There's even a nice bit with a dryad inhabiting a server tree. But the locals don't trust Toby and her squire, given the lack of communication.
And then someone turns up dead . . . and they're not the first one, either.
Yep, it's a murder mystery, and a good one, considering it's set amongst the fae. McGuire sets up her rules early and sticks to them, and brings everything together nicely in the end. Like I said above, this is an improvement over the first one and that sets a good precedent for this series. Recommended.
Roadkill: a Cal Leandros novel by Rob Thurman
Everything's going well for Cal at the start of the book. His worst enemies are off his back, his brother and friends are safe, he's actually getting laid regularly, and he has a job he enjoys. Only rarely does someone try to kill him, as happens at the start of the book.
Of course, "going well" for Cal cannot possibly mean things are perfect. His brother Niko is pissed that Cal is using his inborn teleportation ability, a legacy from his monstrous side. Cal doesn't see the problem: he never had a chance to try his abilities before, and it feels good. Niko is worried, though, and nobody likes to be reminded of Cal's other side by seeing him travel. And Cal's girlfriend is actually not supposed to be sleeping with him; she's a werewolf, a member of the Kin, the werewolf mafia, and is only supposed to sleep with other werewolves (it's a racial purity thing--yes, werewolves are often racist assholes in this world). Their relationship was okay as long as the Kin didn't know about it, but now they have found out and she may have been ordered to kill Cal (certainly other werewolves are trying to kill him).
So, Cal's at work when an ancient gypsy comes in. Cal and Niko know her: she ripped them off in one of the earler books. Now she wants to hire them to find something her clan has lost. A sealed coffin with an ancient healer inside it; he knows the cures for all diseases because he knows the causes of all diseases. The last time he was loose was the Black Death. The old woman's tribe was charged with keeping him confined, but now someone has stolen him. If they release him, the world will face a new nightmare.
Cal and Niko figure they'll need the help of an uncorrupted healer, but most of the ones they need are unavailable. They do manage to connect with their old friend Rafferty, who left town a while ago to take care of his cousin, Catcher. Both Rafferty and Catcher are werewolves (though not associated with the Kin), but Catcher has a problem: he is permanently a wolf. Rafferty is looking for a cure for him, but he cannot ignore this threat--or does he have an ulterior motive?
Anyway, roadtrip! This is as good as the other books in the series, and just as recommended.
The Mystery of Grace by Charles deLint
This one kinda begins in the middle. John and Grace have had a successful date thus far, but when she gets out of bed and goes to the washroom she literally disappears--to the extent that John starts to wonder if he dreamed her up. But no, Grace is real, his friends remember him meeting her (she's beautiful and memorably tattooed).
When we get into Grace's head, the very next chapter, we learn what happened. Grace is a mechanic, specialising in classic Fords, inspired by her late Grandfather. She lives in an apartment in the Alverson Arms building. And one day she went down to the local store to get some cigarettes, interrupted a robbery in progress, and was shot. To death.
Yeah, I freaked out a little at that point, too, and I've been reading deLint for 20-something years now. Grace wakes up in her apartment. But she's not alone: she was brought back to the apartment by a couple of people who also "live" there. Because she is dead, and so are they. It seems that everyone who dies within a certain distance of the Alverson Arms wakes up in a small world made up of that range of the city (the Alverson Arms and a certain number of blocks from it), fringed in a spooky mist. Entering the mist just warps you around to the other side of the area.
But, as deLint established in The Blue Girl, the dead can come back to the world of the living once a year (now twice), though given the unnexciting world these ghosts are stuck in most of the year it's not a good idea. But this is what Grace does, and that's how she meets John. Who, by the way, doesn't forget about her, but goes looking for her. And, yes, finds out what happened to her.
What happens after that is spoilerous.
deLint's last few books felt kinda tired, which makes sense in that he was writing in his fictional city of Newford, and was getting tired of it. With The Mystery of Grace he moves the action to the U.S. Southwest, and feels rejuvenated. Grace is a return to form by a great writer, and I highly recommend it.