DREADFUL COMPANY doesn’t learn from the missteps of the first novel. Too many side characters overwhelm whReview courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.
DREADFUL COMPANY doesn’t learn from the missteps of the first novel. Too many side characters overwhelm what could have been a simple plot: that Greta Helsing is missing and must be found. Although I’m never a fan of damsel in distress storylines, I was looking forward to seeing Greta separated from Ruthven, the charming joie de vivre vampire from the first novel. Greta didn’t get a chance to shine in Strange Practice and I was certain that pulling her away from the more developed vampire characters would allow the author to focus on what makes Greta tick.
But Greta never ticks. She never leaps from the page and into the reader’s heart. She’s sweet, kind, and always does the correct thing. While I love having a kind and generous main character, Greta selflessness is unbelievable. She’s kidnapped, tortured, but can’t help but empathize and try to help her captors. Giving Greta a moment of hesitation, a moment of cruelty that she later regrets would have added much needed depth to her character. The other characters seem so affected by Greta’s presence, I only wanted a modicum of that.
Throughout the novel I kept forgetting what time period it was supposed to be set it. Perhaps it was all the operas and gowns and caverns. For a modern novel the female characters always feel a little disposable. Even though the series bears her name, Dr. Greta Helsing is never the main character. Greta feels like a holdover from a concept that the author couldn’t leave behind in the first draft. She exists to give Ruthven a person to bounce jokes off and play dress-up or she’s there to give Varney a reason to care.
Even in the structure of the book, Greta isn’t considered the main character. Ruthven and Varney have their own POV, as do two ghosthunters who don’t become relevant to the plot until the book is almost complete. I ended up skipping or skimming most of the ghosthunter sections. I was there for Greta, not for a ‘Waiting for Godot’ stand-in. DREADFUL COMPANY never seizes the character growth that was hinted at in the first novel. If you’re looking for an easy read and have a special place in your heart for chummy vampires, you may be a more forgiving reader than I was.
THE SPACE BETWEEN THE STARS is a romance in dystopian disguise. Emotion and introspection drive the novel.Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.
THE SPACE BETWEEN THE STARS is a romance in dystopian disguise. Emotion and introspection drive the novel. After a flu wipes out 99.9% of the human race, the few survivors band together to find other survivors and a new place to call home. Humanity is spread out on different space stations, but that isolation turns out to be what saves so many of the characters.
The story focuses on Jamie’s desires and conflicted emotions as she goes from isolated to living on a small ship. She has her own goals and unwittingly invites the other passengers along. Before the flu, society had been divided into tiered, denoted by rings that the characters wear. Jamie is from the upper class, and although she was an activist, she is just beginning to understand how privileged her life was.
Since the novel is more romance than sci-fi, there wasn’t as much investigation into the other poorer colonies. Rather than focusing on the rebuilding of a small society in space, integrating the different class levels, and fighting the new bureaucracy, THE SPACE BETWEEN THE STARS pivots completely and heads down to hunker on earth.
If you’re looking for more plot and sci-fi elements, you may be disappointed by the novel’s quiet pace. The writing, the characterization, and the romance in THE SPACE BETWEEN THE STARS are all beautifully written and engaging. It’s a lovely novel that confronts anxiety, forgiveness, and death.
Sexual Content: Kissing, brief descriptions of sex ...more
The best thing about Murderbot is its thinly veiled disdain and annoyance at others. In ROGUE PROTOCOL, foReview courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.
The best thing about Murderbot is its thinly veiled disdain and annoyance at others. In ROGUE PROTOCOL, for someone that just wants to watch TV and get to the bottom of a corporate conspiracy, Murderbot sure does make a lot of allies.
WIth a brand new body and posing as a human, Murderbot has been stowing away on ships. It spends it’s time equally spent missing old companions and hating the stupid things that humans do. In ROGUE PROTOCOL, Murderbot spends most of her circuits interacting with Miki, a bot that feels more like a cherished pet than a robot. Miki is naive and trusted by her staff -- to the point that she refers to them as ‘friends’. Ever a loner, Murderbot never quite knows how to handle the amount of easy trust that Miki has to give.
As a downside, a lot of the plot felt like a repeat of the previous novellas. Murderbot pretends to be something else, hacks stuff, fights stuff, and gets a little too close to people. The conclusion that the first two novellas seemed to be ramping up to was postponed and pushed to the expected fourth novella. It really did feel like this should have been a short story before the next novella, or even a tie-in that featured Miki.
While I love watching Murderbot despair over making conversation and useless niceties, I kept waiting for more information in ROGUE PROTOCOL on the GrayCris conspiracy that never really came. I don’t know if Murderbot needs an overarching mystery to keep readers interested in its story. I can’t wait for the corporate conspiracy to (hopefully) wrap up in the next novella so Murderbot can do what Murderbot does best: watching tv and bonding with other robots....more
UMBERTOUCHED carries the consequences from the first novel. Both Zivah and Dineas have escaped the rosemarReview courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.
UMBERTOUCHED carries the consequences from the first novel. Both Zivah and Dineas have escaped the rosemarked village but their troubles haven’t ended. Zivah is still rosemarked and slowly dying. Dineas is troubled by eroding memories and wondering where his place is. Not to mention there’s a government conspiracy, a looming war, and readjustment into their old lives.
While the first novel was filled with character growth and plots, UMBERTOUCHED is much quieter. The half of the novel is preparation and loyalty testing. Neither Zivah nor Dineas fit in with their societies. In the rosemarked village, Zivah was able to be a healer and touch her patients. Now, back home, she back in an isolated existence. Dineas has become more isolated as well, since his tribesman no longer trust him after his undercover mission.
While the budding romance between Zivah and Dineas was sweet and strained during the first novel, it didn’t carry through in the second. First, Zivah only has Dineas to confide in. Where Zivah gained a few outside alliances in the first novel, she doesn’t have those anymore. Zivah only has Dineas to trust but she never expects his feelings to continue. Conversely, Dineas believes that Dineas was only interested in the amnesiac version of him. The two try to overcome their issues, but the romance is never as interesting as them trying to sort out the ideological differences between them. Zivah is a healer and leans toward mercy at all costs. Dineas is uneasy about his alliances but always chooses battle and war.
As the final book in a duology, the heroes are rewarded and the ending is earned but it’s clear that there’s no such thing as a happy or easy ending for Zivah or Dineas. UMBERTOUCHED mends all the loose plot threads of the first novel but allows rooms for the readers to interpret their own ending. Overall, UMBERTOUCHED and ROSEMARKED are a fantastic series for readers interested in ideologies and seeing how hard it is for characters to stick to their beliefs in times of war....more
In ARTIFICIAL CONDITION, it's hard out there for a Murderbot who just wants to catch up on tv shows and beReview courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.
In ARTIFICIAL CONDITION, it's hard out there for a Murderbot who just wants to catch up on tv shows and be left alone. Murderbot keeps making friends and allies no matter how much it tries to go solo. When we last left Murderbot, it ditched an opportunity to be contracted to the PreservationAux crew befriended in the previous novella. Murderbot wanted freedom and it's hard to be considered free if you're still legally owned by another person. Murderbot ends up working with a transport ship that's just as curious about television and humanity. The strange friendship that blossoms between Murderbot and the ship, ART (or 'Asshole Research Transport' if you're nasty), is absolutely endearing and carries ARTIFICIAL CONDITION. As much as Murderbot complains about the noisiness of the ship, it's clear that they rely on each other.
To get access to a mining facility and to determine whether it was responsible for a massacre there, Murderbot has to work as a security consultant for three scientists looking to reclaim stolen data from a corporation. Obviously, everything is a trap and humans have far too much disregard for their personal safety. As a security consultant, Murderbot slips a little more toward humanity. It names itself. It wears civilian clothing rather than the power armour. It has to talk out it's plans rather than staring someone into submission. The three researchers were fairly nondescript and forgettable, only one of them plays a vital role in the end of the novella. I would have been happier if the novella just ditched the human characters once Murderbot got to the mining facility.
ARTIFICIAL CONDITION wraps up storylines nicely but always seems to be missing the character work in its humans. The robots are so interesting and personable, while all the human characters feel like interchangeable scientists. I'm not sure it would have made any difference to the plot at all if the human sidekicks ended up being the same characters from the first novella. It also feels like Murderbot is just coasting through the whole novella, it doesn't need to try too hard to protect the scientists. The only time it gets into trouble is when the scientists completely ignore orders.
Murderbot seems to hold different levels of respect for different types of robots, especially for ComfortUnits (or Sexbots as Murderbot calls them). By the end of the novella Murderbot has a little more empathy for ComfortUnits, but it doesn't feel like enough. The novella would have benefited from turning the ComfortUnit into a full side character. There's a lot of drama that can be mined from robots dealing with whether to prioritize their human owners or other robots. ARTIFICIAL CONDITION is a fun follow up to All Systems Red. Like any fun tv show, it's easily consumable if you don't go looking for too much depth....more
As the final novel in the Ray Electromatic series, I ONLY KILLED HIM ONCE goes out with a bang. Our favourReview courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.
As the final novel in the Ray Electromatic series, I ONLY KILLED HIM ONCE goes out with a bang. Our favourite robot assassin is on the case and wouldn’t you know it, his memory is on the fritz. I ONLY KILLED HIM ONCE tackles the plot threads of Ray’s creation, his friendship with Ada, and his faulty memory. In the other novels, Ray is looking for his mark and searching for missing pieces of his day. In this novel, Ray spends most of the plot trying to orient himself. It keeps Ray reacting and investigating, but never truly puts him on the offensive.
In the previous novels, it was easy to mistrust Ada. When the reader knows more than the protagonist, it’s difficult to root for the person, or robot, in charge of Ray’s memory tapes. I really wished that the author had leaned into this deceit and power imbalance. The repeat customer, with an endless supply of black hats, was an interesting mystery but, when solved, never dealt with the implications. With all the resources and money that Ray’s enemies seem to possess, it’s startling that they hid so long in the shadows.
As always the memory loops are the real charm of the novel, as Ray restarts every day the same way. It’s a great joke that always pays off. I ONLY KILLED HIM ONCE was a fun end to the series but I couldn’t help wishing for more a more interesting end for Ray. Weird clients, bad memory, and half-truths are all part of the robot assassin's normal day, I would have loved to see this taken to the extreme....more
Political intrigue is heart of THE MEMORY OF FIRE. Jahan has spent his life concealing his magic and laughReview courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.
Political intrigue is heart of THE MEMORY OF FIRE. Jahan has spent his life concealing his magic and laughing off consequences. Once he returns home Jahan learns that his homeland, Ida, is prepping for its own revolution and his friends aren’t interested in his help. As he re-enters Ida’s politics, Jahan moves from the King’s Court, to the student underground, and finally to the Witch Hunter’s jails.
THE MEMORY OF FIRE does suffer from the same faults in the first book. The novel is overstuffed with characters and plot. Although many minor characters have some form of character development, it’s hard to become attached to them. Another issue is that, for all the warfare and revolutionary acts, the author has become trigger shy with her own characters. The death of Finn in the first novel was affecting and its consequences have reached into THE MEMORY OF FIRE. For all the violence in the novel, none of it felt permanent. I also would have loved more information about the Witch Hunters, since so much of the final plot relies on their history.
The relationship between Jahan and Elanna also carries into THE MEMORY OF FIRE. The relationship is long-distance but there’s never a hint that the love between the two waivers. In Eren, Elanna is the powerful steward of the land. Even just the mention of her, sets fear into the Idaen’s that fear magic. Jahan may want to protect Elanna, but he’s always willing to let her stand on her own.
THE MEMORY OF FIRE is an amazing follow-up to The Waking Land and proves that revolution cannot be localized. Just as magic awoke in the first novel, so has political change. It was interesting to have a novel from Jahan’s perspective, especially since Elanna’s story wrapped up so neatly in the first novel. I can’t wait to see how The Waking Land series will continue to address the spread of magic and how it disrupts the status quo.
Dead roommates, ex boyfriends, and draining bank accounts are just some of the annoyances plaguing KincaidReview courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.
Dead roommates, ex boyfriends, and draining bank accounts are just some of the annoyances plaguing Kincaid Strange in LIPSTICK VOODOO. Kincaid’s friendship with Nate is put to the test as she tries to convince him to, literally, give up the ghost and investigate the shady characters in his rockstar past. Consequences are the name of the game as everyone’s history comes back to haunt them.
The second book in a novel has to step up and excel the first. With Kincaid’s deal with the devil, Nate’s decomposing body, and voodoo practitioner’s no longer being able to work with the police, LIPSTICK VOODOO has not only stepped up, but taken a flight of stairs. The central plot and villian don’t take form until halfway through the novel, but, surprisingly, the book doesn't suffer for it. Backstory, motivation, cause and effect, are carefully layered until the Big Bad appears. Speaking of reactions, I love that Kincaid and Aaron’s relationship is strained and difficult after the events of the first novel. Kincaid doesn’t know how to feel and doesn't know what she wants. She’s confused, but never willing to let that distract from earning her paycheck.
The author excels at introducing character backstories and creating a lived-in world. It’s easy to imagine Kincaid before and after the novel. The characters all come to life. Otherworld magic could get a little confusing to newcomers to the series, but the history of spells are always explained. There’s always a nice world building and plot element to every deep dive into Otherworld magic. LIPSTICK VOODOO is more than slapping lipstick on a pig. With the character development and intricate plotting, LIPSTICK VOODOO is a full-on makeover. ...more
When TRAIL OF LIGHTNING strikes, it’s impossible not to feel the connection. The premise of a monster slayReview courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.
When TRAIL OF LIGHTNING strikes, it’s impossible not to feel the connection. The premise of a monster slayer on the case is familiar to most Urban Fantasy readers, but what sets TRAIL OF LIGHTNING apart is the unique setting inside a Navajo reservation. Maggie is isolated from her community, taking odd jobs to earn a meal and sate her bloodlust. She’s lost, angry, and unsure of what she wants to become.
TRAIL OF LIGHTNING had a bit of a bumpy start, it took about fifty pages to fully settle into the world. The initial job that Maggie is hired for, is dark and gruesome. The worldbuilding is over explained, giving descriptions of the rez and the hunting, but underdeveloped when explaining the supernatural elements. For those initial pages, it felt like TRAIL OF LIGHTNING was headed into grim fantasy rather than a typical urban fantasy. It’s only once we get more details about clan powers and Maggie’s past, that the plot really meets its potential.
The relationship between Maggie and Kai is the true highlight of the novel. Kai slowly draws warmth and empathy from Maggie, easily moving from antagonism, to friendship, to affection. Unfortunately, both Maggie and Kai are ciphers for too much of the book. Maggie hides her past from the reader and Kai’s background is only revealed in the last few chapters. It took awhile for me to fall in love with TRAIL OF LIGHTNING, but once I did I fell hard. I finished the book and immediately wanted the next in the series. ...more
Is it still a revolution if it’s too late? 84K is a dystopian novel where the UK is controlled by a unifieReview courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.
Is it still a revolution if it’s too late? 84K is a dystopian novel where the UK is controlled by a unified regime called the Company, who has remodelled society with a profits-first mentality. The novel pushes the idea that ‘some people are worth more than others’ to a cost-based extreme. Everyone has a price, a price paid or a price owed. Theo works for the Company, auditing crimes for criminals to pay in restitution. Some crimes are worth more than others based on the worth of the victim. For most of his life, Theo has kept his head down and carried on. When he learns about the possible existence of a daughter, Theo’s eyes are opened and he can no longer stomach the Company.
84K shifts between time periods and perspectives. The passages are almost written like memories, veering from one thought to another, often without completing the sentence. Although the writing is lovely and there are poetic elements to the style, I can’t help wishing for more structure to the book. The novel also feels like it’s about 100 pages too long, opting for over-description and settling into different character’s heads. It only ever resolves the past-plotline instead of the present.
The book switches between Theo as an old man, who is saved by Neila -- a female boat captain who dabbles in tarot cards and believes that there is a moral code that boaters should all follow -- and Theo as the middle-aged corporate shlub. In the present, Theo and Neila learn to trust each other and share their value systems as Theo describes his mission and path of vengeance. Neila could have been a greater focus in the novel; often it felt like she was just reacting to Theo or waiting for him to return. Her progress in the story is subtle, but I wanted to learn so much more about her.
There’s a lot to love about 84K. There's heists, imposters, ageing characters, and interesting side characters. However, the novel is also incredibly dark. There is a lot of death, starvation, and assault. The veering between time and characters also distracts from the main plot which is never ultimately solved. I love books with frank depictions of revolution but 84K never answers if it was worth it. I ended up reacting and caring far more about the one-liner side characters than I did for Theo or Neila. If you’re OK with a novel that focuses more on style, 84K is the grim but poetic dystopian novel for you.
Sexual Content: TW: mentions of rape and sexual assault...more
THE SPACE BETWEEN THE STARS is a romance in dystopian disguise. Emotion and introspection drive the novel.Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.
THE SPACE BETWEEN THE STARS is a romance in dystopian disguise. Emotion and introspection drive the novel. After a flu wipes out 99.9% of the human race, the few survivors band together to find other survivors and a new place to call home. Humanity is spread out on different space stations, but that isolation turns out to be what saves so many of the characters.
The story focuses on Jamie’s desires and conflicted emotions as she goes from isolated to living on a small ship. She has her own goals and unwittingly invites the other passengers along. Before the flu, society had been divided into tiered, denoted by rings that the characters wear. Jamie is from the upper class, and although she was an activist, she is just beginning to understand how privileged her life was.
Since the novel is more romance than sci-fi, there wasn’t as much investigation into the other poorer colonies. Rather than focusing on the rebuilding of a small society in space, integrating the different class levels, and fighting the new bureaucracy, THE SPACE BETWEEN THE STARS pivots completely and heads down to hunker on earth.
If you’re looking for more plot and sci-fi elements, you may be disappointed by the novel’s quiet pace. The writing, the characterization, and the romance in THE SPACE BETWEEN THE STARS are all beautifully written and engaging. It’s a lovely novel that confronts anxiety, forgiveness, and death.
Sexual Content: Kissing, brief descriptions of sex...more
SMOKE EATERS has dragons, wraiths, robots, government conspiracies, and possessed devices...and only some Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.
SMOKE EATERS has dragons, wraiths, robots, government conspiracies, and possessed devices...and only some of those plot points work. Cole Brannigan is days away from retirement and wouldn’t you know it, he gets pulled right back into service. After a dragon attack, Cole discovers that he is able to breathe dragon smoke and withstand high heat temperatures. He’s persuaded to join the Smoke Eaters, a dragon fighting force where Cole is the oldest member and newest recruit.
SMOKE EATERS is at it’s best when Cole actually fights fires. It’s clear that the author is comfortable writing high-heat, highly dangerous passages. Every other time the book slows down. There are endless class sessions where Cole, and the reader, are lectured about dragons; unfortunately it’s never actually explained how to fight and kill them or why they woke up. Smoke Eaters look at training with a ‘sink or swim’ attitude. Either the recruit dies fighting dragons or they don’t. Which is a strange view when it seems that Smoke Eaters are the only people able to fight the dragons. Cole’s team members are entirely composed of one-liners. Cutting half the characters and just developing a core crew would have added so much more interest to the plot.
Had the book just been Cole fighting fires set by supernaturals, that would have been entertaining enough. The wraiths are a distraction that never really seemed to fit into the plot. The robots just made Cole look like a Boomer annoyed by new-fangled technology. While I personally loved that Canada become a dragon-worshipping society, the reasoning was never fully explained. I wish there had been something that connected this besides the stereotypical “Canadians are nice and don’t kill”.
SMOKE EATERS is an adventurous novel that stumbles with too many ideas. Reading about Cole fighting fires, dealing with being a veteran firefighter with a new crew that doesn’t respect him, and making his marriage work while being distracted by younger women might have made a really interesting supernatural story. Unfortunately the addition of robots, wraiths, and miracle dragon blood that makes you hotter, all detract from Cole’s story . If you love reading about older protagonists and don’t mind an overstuffed plot then SMOKE EATERS might hold more interest for you then it did for me.
There’s nothing worse than being told how special and talented a character is, without ever seeing the proReview courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.
There’s nothing worse than being told how special and talented a character is, without ever seeing the proof for yourself. In CHANGING LOYALTIES, Dahlia has always been the dividing line between the werewolf and vampire factions. CHANGING LOYALTIES is part murder mystery, part paranormal romance. However, it’s almost immediately clear who the murderer is and who the end love interest is.
There’s a lot of potential in a polyamorous, goth main character, but the novel never makes Dahlia fun. Part of the problem is that there’s too much telling and next to no showing. The best writing is when Dahlia is grieving the father that abandoned her, but there’s not enough examination into the conflicting emotions of that relationship. Even Dahlia’s strained relationship with her mom, who she only ever calls Meredith, is smoothed over by the end of the book. Every complicated emotion is waterdowned down, from Dahlia’s mixed feelings about Elliott to her flirtation with her boss.
CHANGING LOYALTIES also has too many characters that are introduced to pad out a scene. These characters are only there to take up space. For example, Renee is Dahlia’s best friend, who knows nothing about the supernatural worlds, and exists only to drag Dahlia to clubs and offer a place to live. There’s also the introduction of the Sisterhood, an ominous third party that employs Dahlia. The Sisterhood know all about the supernatural world, something Dahlia never reports to either the werewolves or the vampires.
There’s a lot of table setting in CHANGING LOYALTIES, but there’s no emotional pay off. Also, although I usually ignore copyediting problems, there were several times descriptions and important information changed. In one paragraph a character has black hair, in the next she has purple. Or a killer is definitely non human, then a character confirms that ‘yes, the killer is definitely human’. Even if you’re interested in an urban fantasy with a poly or bisexual main character, there are better books to read.
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