[Review] Zoo City by Lauren Beukes [Part 2]

Title: Zoo City
Author: Lauren Beukes
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Copy: 364
Publisher: Angry Robot Books, September 2010
Standalone/Series: Standalone
Copy: ARC from Angry Robot

Blurb:

Zinzi has a talent for finding lost things.

To save herself, she’s got to find the hardest thing of all: the truth.

Available from: Amazon - US - UK | B&N | BookDepository

Cover Comment: I don't particularly like the US cover. Sure the colors are great and the photo manipulation clever, but truth is that it doesn't do anything for me. It lacks the same WOW effect the UK cover has and that is that.

Review: In yesterday's review I briefly touched upon the plot of "Zoo City", since any coverage is spoiler-risky, and expanded on the world-building aspects of the book, Zinzi December as the driving force behind the novel and pacing. In this post I'll talk about Johannesburg as an active protagonist, the inclusion of animals as support cast, themes and bonus tidbits.

Urban Fantasy, as I understand it, is a genre, in which the city acquires an expanded role. From a setting the city becomes a protagonist, who influences the story. The series I have read in the genre use 'urban' as an indicator the story will take place in a modern setting. Beyond that the city remains a prop and nothing else. In "Zoo City" Johannesburg comes to life and shows its different faces such as Jozie and Joburg. It's a city of many names, of many moods, of many faces. Considering how "Zoo City" follows the noir tradition, it's important to establish how Johannesburg can be both generous and merciless:

The urban sprawl thins out as the road deteriorates; kitmodel cluster homes, malls and the fake Italian maestro-work that is the casino give way to B&Bs, stables, ironwork furniture factories and country restaurants. The hawkers selling giant plastic mallets and naïve Tanzanian banana-leaf paintings and the guys handing out flyers advertising new townhouse complexes get increasingly pushy as the spaces between traffic lights grow longer. A grizzled bush mechanic sits under a corrugated-iron leanto, rolling a cigarette and looking out for customers attracted by the badly hand-painted sign propped up outside advertising exhaust fittings.

At the same time, Johannesburg is Zoo City, home to the 'animalled'.

People take their animals out for fresh air or a friendly sniff of each other’s bums. The smell of cooking – mostly food, but also meth – temporarily drowns out the stench of rot, the urine in the stairwells. The crack whores emerge from their dingy apartments to chat and smoke cigarettes on the fire-escape, and catcall the commuters heading to the taxi rank on the street below.

While dangerous, it still offers protection:

On my way home, the dull crackle of automatic gunfire, like microwave popcorn, inspires me and a bunch of other sensible pedestrians to duck into the nearby Palisades shopping arcade for cover.

Another way "Zoo City" becomes alive is through the 'shavi'. I'm skeptical towards animal characters. It's easy for animals to become deux ex machina especially when they display outside the norm for their species behavior. A bird perched on the shoulder, faithful dog and highly amiable squirrel. Animals can fly, are faster than humans and smaller. Thus it's easy for them to save the human protagonists in the 'nick of time'. The 'shavi' are animals that grant their masters supernatural abilities and display their own distinct personalities.

Deus ex machina is written all over and yet you don't see animals saving humans in dumb or predictable ways. Animals have limitations and I think the reason Beukes gave Zinzi a sloth has more to do with sloths being passive and useless. It's why Zinzi's gift is also not of great use in combat. Zinzi has to rely on herself and not on something given to her. It's a similar situation with other characters and their 'shavi'. Beukes features a mongoose, a poodle, a handicap vulture, a scorpion, a bunny, a butterfly. Animals without fighting capabilities.

"Zoo City" isn't only a murder mystery, it's a book about Africa. You can sense that in the heavy use of African slang. On one hand, the slang creates authenticity and adds a pop to the story, separates it from the rest and gives "Zoo City" authenticity. Then again, I could barely grasp any of the African words, only what the contrast hinted. Thankfully, Beukes knew where to restrict herself so that the novel remains accessible to outsiders. Beukes discusses muti, the African traditional medicine as well as the ritualistic murders practice.

As a book about Africa, "Zoo City" handles themes typical for Africa. To me the social dynamics between the normals and the animalled recalls the apartheid system, which was the status quo until not that long ago. However, here the segregation is based not on race, but on whether the individual is an aposymbiot or not. The whole novel deals with Zoo City's forceful isolation from the rest of Johannesburg. There is obvious discrimination. Zoos are denied job positions, services and even entrance to certain establishments. It's as if there is a city within the city, which the majority pretends not to exist.

A truly spectacular novel.

Verdict: 'Zoo City' the novel for the adrenaline junkie. Gripping from page one, it rockets through a rollercoaster plot. Beukes never stops the action and delivers a page-turner seemingly without a fault. Substance, setting, characterization. It's all there. You can't go wrong with this one.

Reviews I've seen: [if there are reviews I have failed to mention link me up in the comments]

Speculative Book Review
Red Book Review
Kamvision
Dark Fiction Review

[Review] "Zoo City" by Lauren Beukes [Part 1]

Title: Zoo City
Author: Lauren Beukes
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Copy: 364
Publisher: Angry Robot Books, September 2010
Standalone/Series: Standalone
Copy: ARC from Angry Robot

Blurb:

Zinzi has a talent for finding lost things.

To save herself, she’s got to find the hardest thing of all: the truth.

Available from: Amazon - US - UK | B&N | BookDepository

Cover Comment: I'm having an illicit affair with Zoo City's UK cover. It's wild, it's more than dangerous. The cover represents the novel. It's black and white for the noir. The title is a collage of the city's landscape and the shavi of the characters. Very dynamic and alive considering how monochromatic the color scheme is.

Review: I can't start this review without nitpicking the worldbuilding, because it is the crux of the story. Without it, there would be no story. Beukes alters only one thing about reality, but it has a global effect. Every human to commit a grave sin becomes attached to animal and develops some sort of supernatural talent. As a result, the 'animalled' are regarded as sort of subhuman species, because their animals distinguish them as grave sinners, which have no place with the innocent and pure normal people. Notice my sarcasm, but I'll dig into the social dynamics in "Zoo City" later.

Most reviewers instantly go to Phillip Pullman, when discussing the concept of the 'shavi' [the animals]. It can't be helped since Beukes drops his name at some point. I don't think there are many touching points between the two worlds. For one, Pullman's daemons are the manifestation of a person's soul, the good and the bad. Beukes 'shavi' represent their master's sins and nothing else, a sort of divine Scarlet Letter that can't be hidden from the world and society.

Again, unlike Pullman, the 'shavi' grant their aposymbiots [another word for animalled] an ability [in Zinzi's case the ability to track lost items]. If these people are sinners, then who would empower them and why? Corrupted people abuse power as Beukes shows in her novel. Is it a divine balancing act? An attempt to diminish the sting of marked? Or is it a prompt to change through using this power for good? Perhaps it's all about survival.

There are no answers, but I also don't think readers need the answer. Rarely in life do we find anything explained to make sense to us. Why should we expect fiction to spoon feed us explanations.

What I do think deserved to be explained a lot earlier is the concept of the Undertow, a process of the utmost importance for all 'animalled'. The Undertow gets mentioned almost in the beginning of "Zoo City" and until page 181 I had to figure out what exactly it was. The following excerpt might spoil the fun for those, who have yet to read the novel, but the Undertow only adds to the mystery of this world:

Current scientific thought tends toward an understanding of the “Undertow” as a quantum manifestation of non-existence, a psychic equivalent of dark matter that indeed serves as a counterpoint to, and bedrock for, the principle of existence.

Zinzi December isn't one of the questioning types. The novel isn't focused on the world, but on survival. Now there Zinzi is proficient. She works with what she has and that's no smooth sailing when she has a Sloth attached to her back. In order to survive, she takes up small jobs finding lost items. She participates in 419 scams and her background isn't a pretty one too. Former druggie. Former journalist [never to have a decent reputation] and a current manipulator.

You get the picture. Zinzi isn't a wholesome person. Yet, I couldn't help but care for her or laugh with her, fear for her and applaud her for every new scheme she devised. Zinzi's the adhesive that holds all the elements together. Anything less of this character, stretched between her conscience and what she is willing to do for her survival, and "Zoo City" would have flopped.

Zinzi is the ultimate Bad Girl that is so Good, an archetype popularized in Urban Fantasy and turned into a cliche as soon as the genre boomed. Where other 'Bad Girls' fail with a wide assortment of weapons, martial arts skills and physical force, Zinzi succeed for she's a McGyver when it comes to manipulating others. Her strength comes from within, stems from her spirit's resilience, from her resistance to become her sins. At the same, Zinzi is as vulnerable as any human being living in these circumstances.

And this whole package is enhanced through Beukes' prose:

Yellow light slicing across my pillow like a knife would be the appropriate simile, but it feels more like a mole digging its way into my skull through my right eyeball. There is a boy in my bed, or at least I think it’s a boy. It’s hard to judge gender by the back of someone’s head. But I have my suspicions, based on the sandy curls and the snippetsof last night that my brain is starting to defrag.

Plot-wise, "Zoo City" is a merry-go-round, if merry-go-rounds had rocket engines strapped for maximum velocity that is. It blasts off as a simple task to find a missing ring, then gets upgraded to a missing person's case and at the last stretch involves a high body count. It's a very intricate whodunit noir with secretive clients, frame-ups and scandals ready to pop out in the open.

From this vague summary above, I take it you've figured out how fast-paced "Zoo City". Written in present tense and in first person point-of-view, the book can be described as extremely caffeinated. The present tense in general doesn't allow the narrator to skip any moment in the narrator, unlike the past tense. At the same time, Zinzi's exclusive first person account guarantee's an uncut director's version of what's happening. The combined effect is an adrenaline saturated story.

While Beukes knows what she's doing with the pacing and still delivers a multi-layered story, I'd say that at certain points I needed a break. A short pause to catch my breath. It never came. From one odd or dangerous situation Zinzi flies into another and I needed to sprint after her.

For some people this may not be an issue, but to me it felt unnatural. One scene that I thought was somehow completely without purpose [though I'm open to other opinions] was the sewer chase. I understand how it adds another aspect to Beukes' story in terms of setting, but it felt somehow random and disconnected from the general plot.

Next Part: Tomorrow I'll focus on Joburg and the 'shavi' as active characters, the themes and African culture [though the last in a very modest way].

[Review] Shade Fright by Sean Cummings

I have a new review up at the Book Smugglers for my monthly feature there: A Dude Reads PNR. I have to say that I cheated this time by reading Urban Fantasy [Shade Fright by Sean Cummings], but I could not resist it. Here is my explanation on why that is:

‘I fell into this job quite by accident, when I discovered that I possessed the ability to see the preternatural world. There are a handful of people with similar abilities, and part of my job is to locate them, since Government Central and Infrastructure Canada like to keep track of these things. Don’t ask me why’.

There’s a malevolent force in town, and it’s quite literally Valerie Steven’s job to determine who’s behind it and why they want to destroy the world, starting with Calgary. She’ll have help, in the form of her best friend (now more or less a zombie, unfortunately), a powerful dwarf troll, and the ghost of former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (but he goes by ‘Bill’ these days). But that’s not all – Valerie has some tricks up her sleeve and, she hopes, luck on her side. Oh, and her boyfriend, Dave. He drives a dump truck.

FROM THE REVIEW:

Shade Fright caught my attention with its cover. You know, Urban Fantasy has trademarked the leather-clad, semi-men’s-magazine chick with a weapon. It’s enough to see a different art decision to realize I’m dealing with a different book. I was right! Boy, ain’t I always. I dealt with a Canadian book. Say goodbye to the dark and gritty American cities and say hello to the great Canadian outdoors, though technically Valerie lives in one of the bigger Canadian cities. Out with the cynicism. In with good-natured humor and sarcasm that works. It’s one of the few Urban Fantasy novels to stray away from the UF formula: Violence, Forbidden Love [or at least frowned-upon love], Leather, Sex, Dark Everything, Dramatics [due to the Dark Everything].

For the rest, click on the link above.

REVIEW: The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R.Ward

The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R.Ward

1. Dark Lover [Wrath]
2. Lover Eternal [Rhage]
3. Lover Awakened [Zadist]
4. Lover Revealed [Butch O’Neal]
5. Lover Unbound [Vishous]
6. Lover Enshrined [Phury]
7. Lover Avenged [Revhenge]
8. Lover Mine [John and Xhex]

Full details of each book can be found at the end of the review.

Genre: Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance / Vampires
Reviewer: Cara
Copy: Bought myself


Synopsis:
In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, a deadly turf war rages between vampires and their slayers. There exists a secret band of brothers like no other – six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. [From the back of the box set, books 1 - 6]

If you like your vampires vegetarian and sparkly, look away now... the Black Dagger Brotherhood bears little similarity with the world of Twilight, thankfully! J.R. Ward has created a whole new world for her vampires, complete with history, culture, spirituality and politics. Humans do not feature much in this world; they are not prey and much of the battle between the vampires and their slayers is hidden from the modern-day urban setting of Caldwell in New York state.

Each book in the series focuses on one member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood (or, as in the later books, their close allies and kin) as he deals with his past experiences and finds his life partner. While romance is a significant element in this series, along with some steamy sex scenes, this plays alongside the war with the Lessening Society whose sole motivation is the extinction of the vampire race. Despite their kick-ass, hell-raising lifestyle, the Black Dagger Brotherhood are the good guys, sworn defenders of their race. But each has his own demons to face and ultimately it is through love that they find some inner peace and happiness in a hard, unforgiving world.

The world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood is dark and brutal. J.R. Ward does not shy away from dealing with such topics as sexual abuse, addiction, homosexuality, alienation and self-loathing. Her heroes are seriously flawed characters who live life literally on a knife edge. Each night they go out in search of Lessers to kill and to unwind they party hard. Sex, violence, drugs and alcohol are used by various members to numb themselves against their reality and their past experiences. These are hard, uncompromising men who put their lives on the line every night to protect the civilian vampire population. The books reflect the warriors’ reality in a surprisingly sympathetic and non-judgemental way but do not compromise on their darker natures nor the reasons why each member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood is who he is.

J.R. Ward has created a rich and detailed world for her vampires. Although set in a modern day New York state town, Caldwell, there is an unfolding history of the vampire race running through the series. There are many references to ‘the Old Country’ a European location (possibly Romania but never specified) where the vampire race originated. Many of their traditions and cultural mores can be traced back to before the move to North America, including the birth of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. We learn about the glymera, the aristocratic vampire elite, and their obsession with bloodlines and tradition. The vampires have their own spiritual tradition, as led by

the Scribe Virgin “Mystical force who is counsellor to the King as well as keeper of vampire archives and the dispenser of privileges. Exists in a nontemporal realm and has extensive powers. Capable of a single act of creation, which she expended to bring vampires into existence”

[taken from the Glossary that is provided at the front of each book].

The vampires themselves are roughly divided into 3 groups; warriors (male), the Chosen (female), and civilians (everyone else). All vampires must drink blood from the opposite sex to survive… human blood is to weak to sustain them. They have a very long lifespan, but can be killed. They are nocturnal and have the ability to ‘dematerialise’ i.e. travel almost instantaneously from one place to another, although steel will prevent this. J.R. Ward has created a whole culture around her vampires which is rich and rewarding to read about.

From the first book in the series Dark Lover, where Wrath, king of the vampires is the lead character, we find out that males become ‘bonded’ to their mates, a physical and emotional union that lasts for life. As the series progresses, and each of the brothers finds or loses their shellan (think soulmate), we see how love can temper the more negative aspects of the lead character’s psyche. This is especially true of Zadist in Lover Awakened who was brutally imprisoned as a blood slave and sexually exploited for a long period of time after his transition (sudden transformation into adulthood experienced by all vampires around the age of 25). J.R. Ward handles the descriptions of abuse in a sensitive manner, implying rather than describing in detail, the brutal experiences faced by Zadist, Vishous, John and others during their lives. While the sex scenes between the lead character and his partner were graphically detailed, though well written in my view, the author preferred to leave the brutality to the reader’s imagination thus avoiding any accusations of gratuitousness or voyeurism. I appreciated this approach myself as too many authors get carried away with these types of scenes (yes, Laurell K. Hamilton, I am thinking of you).

The enemy – the Lessening Society – is truly evil. Each member, a Lesser, is a de-souled human who must be stabbed through the chest in order to be killed; otherwise they are ageless. They do not eat or drink and are impotent. Over time, their hair, skin and irises lose pigmentation until they are blond, blushless and pale-eyed. They smell like baby powder. Inducted into the society by the Omega, they retain a ceramic jar thereafter into which their heart was placed after it was removed. Over the course of the books we learn more about the Omega, who is a truly malevolent and powerful entity. The fights between the Brotherhood and the Lessers are a regular and important aspect of the series, and while some were a bit gory in detail, they helped contextualise the world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood.

As the series progresses, we are introduced to another non-human species, the sympath. While closely related to vampires, they are characterised by the ability and desire to manipulate emotions in others for the purposes of energy exchange… and not usually in a good way. They are generally reviled (and feared) by vampires who have historically discriminated against sympaths and have banished them to an isolated colony. Pure sympaths are really creepy both in appearance and nature. Personally I thought they were great, with a tendency towards evil and ruthlessly selfish, the introduction of sympaths added a really interesting facet to the world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Both Lover Avenged and Lover Mine feature vampire / sympath half-breed characters in Rehvenge and Xhex.

I read all 8 books in the series over the course of 3 weeks and I must admit I enjoyed the experience. Although each book primarily focuses on one lead and his romance, all the characters appear throughout the series and we see them grow and develop beyond the confines of their relationship. Finding a life partner does not mean a happy ever after ending either, something which made the series less ‘romantic’ and more realistic in my view. And not all relationships are male/female either, something which added a different dimension to the series and showed us that life is not all black and white. There are lots of shades of grey. I felt that J.R. Ward handled this aspect very well, especially when it came to Vishous in Lover Unbound. I hope that Qhuinn, Blay and Saxton feature more prominently in future books as this is shaping up to be an intriguing love triangle.

I was initially disappointed in the female characters in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, as they were portrayed as weak and in need of a man to define them. However, this first impression was dispelled as the series progressed. Despite the protective nature of vampire males towards their females, they managed to make themselves heard and soon appeared as strong, feisty women with independent traits who worked within the confines of vampire society to support their men yet lead fulfilling lives of their own too. A significant exception is Xhex, who follows her own rules and is the fighting equal of all the Brothers. She kicks ass big time! Another character, who appears briefly in the last two books, is Payne, another highly aggressive female with a very interesting background story which begs to be developed further.

Overall, the Black Dagger Brotherhood series is worth reading if you like your romance surrounded by a solid over-arching plot, complex world-building and lots of high-octane action. Indeed, I would consider the romance aspect almost secondary to the story of the Black Dagger Brotherhood and their world, despite the books being clearly marketed as Paranormal Romance. Yes, the Brothers adhere to the rules of alpha male characters – big, strong, aggressive, single-minded, well-endowed etc. etc. – but they have significant weaknesses and flaws too. Traumatic past events have left both physical and mental scars on them which must be faced if they are to win the heart of their desired partner. J.R. Ward is not naïve, she does not magic away these shortcomings with ‘the love of a good woman’ but instead the characters retain their problems although acceptance by their partner and their peers plays a major part in helping them deal with their issues. I found this a very positive and realistic approach, particularly given some of the harrowing past events experienced by various characters throughout the series.

I hope that J.R. Ward continues to write more in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series as I will certainly buy any future novels as soon as they are released. Despite the occasional street-talk / gangsta rap type slang dialogue, they are well written books with a strong back story set amidst an ongoing war between vampires and Lessers. I admit I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the entire series in sequence, and while the romances are standalone, each book continues the war and the changes within vampire society thus making the Black Dagger Brotherhood books possibly one of the best vampire paranormal romance series around today. Dark Lover, the first book, is possibly one of the weakest but essential reading as it sets the scene for the rest. The series really hits it’s stride with Lover Awakened and by book number 8, Lover Mine, the reader is left clamouring for more. Highly recommended!

Full details of each book in the series, in sequence:
Title: The Black Dagger Brotherhood series, books 1 - 6
Author:  J.R. Ward
Paperback: Box set, 6 books
Publisher: Signet Book (29 Sep 2009)
ISBN-10: 0451947630
ISBN-13: 978-0451947635

Title: Dark Lover
Author: J.R. Ward
Paperback: 480 pages
Publisher: Piatkus Books (5 July 2007)
ISBN-10: 0749938188
ISBN-13: 978-0749938185

Title: Lover Eternal
Author: J.R. Ward
Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Piatkus Books (5 July 2007)
ISBN-10: 0749938196
ISBN-13: 978-0749938192

Title: Lover Awakened
Author: J.R. Ward
Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Piatkus Books (4 Oct 2007)
ISBN-10: 0749938234
ISBN-13: 978-0749938239

Title: Lover Revealed
Author: J.R. Ward
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Piatkus Books (3 May 2007)
ISBN-10: 0749938226
ISBN-13: 978-0749938222

Title: Lover Unbound
Author: J.R. Ward
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Piatkus Books (4 Oct 2007)
ISBN-10: 074993848X
ISBN-13: 978-0749938482

Title: Lover Enshrined
Author: J.R. Ward
Paperback: 560 pages
Publisher: Piatkus Books (12 Jun 2008)
ISBN-10: 0749939036
ISBN-13: 978-0749939038

Title: Lover Avenged
Author: J.R. Ward
Paperback: 736 pages
Publisher: Piatkus Books (26 Nov 2009)
ISBN-10: 0749941731
ISBN-13: 978-0749941734

Title: Lover Mine
Author: J.R. Ward
Paperback: 672 pages
Publisher: Piatkus Books (6 May 2010)
ISBN-10: 0749941782
ISBN-13: 978-0749941789

"Bitter Night" by Diana Pharaoh Francis

Title: "Bitter Night"
Author: Diana Pharaoh Francis
Pages: 400
Genre: Horror
Standalone/Series: Book 1 in the “Horngate Witches” series
Publisher: Pocket Books

“Bitter Night” came from Pocket Books in order for me to participate in the book’s promo tour, which started three days ago on November the 13th. Since it came a bit too late I have had limited time to read it and thus the delay, but the postal service is for a strange reason delivering closer to my needs.

What we have here is an urban fantasy series debut as well as genre debut for the traditional fantasy writer Diana Pharaoh Francis. As such it is introductory to the world and characters and as urban fantasy offers action, a new version of the hidden world lurking in our realm as well as diversified array of enemies and magic. Surprisingly we have no vampires, which for me is a great strength, but the prose didn’t quite capture me and the alpha-alpha romance felt contrived.

Once, Max dreamed of a career, a home, a loving family. Now all she wants is freedom…and revenge. A witch named Giselle transformed Max into a warrior with extraordinary strength, speed, and endurance. Bound by spellcraft, Max has no choice but to fight as Giselle’s personal magic weapon — a Shadowblade — and she’s lethally good at it. But her skills are about to be put to the test as they never have before….

The ancient Guardians of the earth are preparing to unleash widespread destruction on the mortal world, and they want the witches to help them. If the witches refuse, their covens will be destroyed, including Horngate, the place Max has grudgingly come to think of as home. Max thinks she can find a way to help Horngate stand against the Guardians, but doing so will mean forging dangerous alliances — including one with a rival witch’s Shadowblade, who is as drawn to Max as she is to him — and standing with the witch she despises. Max will have to choose between the old life she still dreams of and the warrior she has become, and take her place on the side of right — if she survives long enough to figure out which side that is….

I will start with the pluses and how Francis breaks from the typical urban fantasy mode. As I have already mentioned vampires and werewolves don’t resurface and even more unorthodox is the narration, which happens in third person point of view and is split between Max and Alexander, the former Prime Shadowblade for the rival witch Selange. The balance between action and romance has been shifted and a lot more focus has been given on collaboration rather than conflict, which has been at the centre of urban fantasy relationships. Max and Alex are partners and not mortal enemies and the friendship rings true. However the chemistry is what I had problems with. For starters Max and Alex felt to me better as partners rather than lovers and whatever intimacy they had didn’t felt all that natural.

Apart from that Francis has accomplished to craft the interconnecting web of relationships between the main protags and the secondary cast in order for “Bitter Night” to function as a fast-paced and exclusively character-driven story. Max stands on a crossroad that is not as easy to decide upon. On one end there is her freedom, which will wash away the violation she Giselle inflicted on her body and soul, but gaining freedom would mean losing her home and the people that made her care again. The Horngate coven conveys unity and a warrior family based on loyalty. It’s a vivid and electrified environment.

Outside the coven however is a grim and gritty world, which is a must-have in any urban fantasy series. The clashing territorial battles are lead by immortal witches, who range in their source to gather power and their personal bodyguards, the Shadowblades, warriors that fight and kill during the night and the Sunspears, warriors who fight during the day, but night is fatal to them. However the witches here are not the benevolent Wicca witches, but the rather wicked bed time story witches that although look like Desperate Housewives editions are quite handy with torture and back stabbing scheming plots. The magic system is broad and yet consistent and all of this offers multiple refreshing surprises for readers and the desired action.

However there are downers to this novel. For starters this is highly personal, so I don’t expect people to second that, but the prose didn’t do anything for me. It was ordinary leaning over to be bland at places, especially when the repetitions came. Max raising her mental shields for I don’t know which time annoyed me near the end. The concept helped me get through, but that didn’t last long as well. After the middle Francis disrupted all concern in me for her characters and I just didn’t get as excited as I should be when the big guns blasted off announcing the climax. Max and Alex had been on the brink of dying for far too many times and even at their lowest they still manage to avoid death, so after awhile you stop worrying and just know that their strong will and fortitude will help them pull through the day. Ultimately it made me lose the needed suspense to be blown away from the last fight and the master plan hatched or the crucial decision Max had to make.

I am conflicted about this one. On one side I have a new world that is vampire free and magic loaded, which fits perfectly with my tastes, but at the same time there are elements that don’t appeal to me. It certainly is worth the shot, because I cheer for diversity and given time maybe the problems I had would be resolved with the upcoming volumes.

"Horn" by Peter M. Ball

Title: "Horn"
Author: Peter M. Ball
Pages: 80
Format: Novella
Genre: Urban Fantasy/ Pulp-ish
Publisher: Twelfth Planet Press

Prelude: I decided to add a prelude to each review I write for the kicks of adding a personal angle to the whole reading experience. For one I do like talking too much, but it’s my recent observation that I am becoming a bit too dry in my reviews. “Horn” by Peter M. Ball popped up in my mail the standard for reviewers fashion; I was contacted by the publisher. It’s a good feeling. I wish I could enjoy this novella in one quiet afternoon, but I had to be content with 5 am during my night shift.

What you can expect: “Horn” is a fast and entertaining read, which I can categorize as urban fantasy rooted in the classic pulp fiction, not that I have read much of the latter, but certainly different from the urban fantasy popular now.

Pros: An interesting protagonist, who is older by a decade than most heroines in the genres as well as being a lesbian, which adds a whole new dimension to exploring the story. I enjoyed the world building choices a great deal and the narrative prose fell to my liking.

Cons: The notion that I probably should have read something before the events of “Horn” to immerse myself in the story completely was slightly irritating, but the story presented is understandable. I’d also mention the bestiality scene, although I personally wasn’t affected by it all, but I am jaded like this and perhaps this scene would be tasteless and disturbing to some readers.

Summary: A unicorn in heat can inspire a lot of trouble and doesn’t ex-cop turned private investigator Miriam Aster know the downside to a disturbing event such as Sally Crown’s murder. Called by her former colleague in the force Tim Kesey, and teaming with coroner Heath Morrow, who knows how whacked a case can be with Miriam, Aster submerges in the underground she least wants to communicate with, the magical sort. The beast has been slain, but the culprit behind the unicorn smuggling and the murder remains unpunished, which means only one thing: a painful trip to the past. Even more agonizing, when this past has a name, Anya Titan.

Characters: For me the show was definitely stolen by Miriam Aster, who is the first lesbian I have read about as a narrating character. “Horn” is written by a man, so I couldn’t validate on how accurately the author represented female homosexuality, but to me it was nevertheless a first experience with such a character.

What I find positive here is that her homosexuality is a given fact, which doesn’t take center stage and turn Miriam into a coming-out or struggling to find her place in society protagonist. Sex is only hinted vaguely in Miriam’s past, which leaves her homosexuality as an additional layer to the character. Reading about a woman narrating about a painful relationship with another woman adds a whole new dimension to the law enforcer archetype in urban fantasy pantheon.

Aster is the tough as nails chick, but unlike most urban fantasy heroines, who feel empowered via a mixture of status, a special talent and that irresistible doze of sex appeal, Miriam draws strength from surviving in a male dominated area and building a career in law enforcement, which comes at the expense of great sacrifice. She’s the old dog and gifted sleuth with a dry, raw voice that hides certain charisma a reader most likely would find in a classic 50’s pulp novel. This quality to Aster is what made me pulled me in and see whether she would ignore her better judgment or abide her years of somewhat bitter experience. The inner fight between nobility and self preservation from re-opening old wounds is effortlessly found in between the lines and delivered with skillful simplicity.

The remaining cast doesn’t create the impression of brilliant achievement in characterization, but each and every name popping up brings me to a small era, an accumulation of the 20s and the 50s. Tim Kesey knows how things should be done and he follows his methodology as the strict, but golden hearted officer figure, while heath Morrow is the likeable oddball. Anya Titan is the distressed femme fatale with her own personal tragedy, while Mister Drabble to me embodied that slick criminal mobster vibe.

Story: “Horn” is more or less about the small elements that build the bigger picture than the plot itself. The story is pretty straight forward, which I don’t mind. Following an investigation can be a treat under the right circumstances and such is the case here. Ball’s prose is brisk and reflective of Miriam’s temperament as well as it manages to transport me to an authentic pulp atmosphere, where a certain kind of class hung in the air and in between the lines.

I can’t say that “Horn” is novella that takes pride on its story line. The plot is pretty straight forward and the reader will stick closely to Miriam as she starts from the crime scene moves to suspects and then uncovers the truth, which here is bitter, sad, avoidable and a shame all together blended to create a successful suspension of belief. Favorable here is also the world building, which is subtle and shaded into our own world one magical piece after another. I like the deviation in the belief that pixies and unicorns are loveable creatures and instead here are portrayed as vile bastards. The innocence behind the magical realm full of elves, fairies and wondrous beasts has withered and replaced by the gritty, venomous air that is hovering in our dark alleys.

I did feel that I needed to have read more to truly understand the complexity and depth of Miriam’s pain connected with Anya Titan, but it’s a small subtle tease that doesn’t lead to anywhere. Another element of “Horn” I sense that would cause problems with readers apart from a gay protagonist would be the bestiality scene, though I personally do believe that being impaled on a unicorn’s literal horn is not a sexual act, even if in this novella it served as a reproductive act.

The scene itself is very brief and the details provided do not cause nausea, but they do disturb and this serves a purpose naturally. Thinking about why the author wrote this scene took me to the theme of loss of innocence. Miriam Aster has loved, lived life to fullest. The illusion that life is a wondrous place is shattered once she spirals downwards and life has shown its ugly side. Magic is as real as you and me, but it’s not that sweet escape from the trouble, but a nightmare waiting to feast on you. This scene as disturbing as it is, but hammers the final nail in innocence’s coffin, both in life, in love and in magic.

The Verdict: I would recommend this, because there are certainly themes incorporated here that are usually overlooked or presented in a more acceptable way. “Horn” lurks in the dark spectrums of speculative fiction, where you can expect everything and anything. I’d say this is an excellent read for the brave that wish to push their limits.

"Bleak History" by John Shirley

Title: "Bleak History"
Author: John Shirley
Pages: 384
Format: Novel
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Standalone/Series: Standalone as far as I can tell, but a hint towards a possible sequel
Publisher: Pocket Books

What you can expect: An urban fantasy novel that shows the genre in a positive light and not as stuck in a rut or too narrowly defined. It brings some fresh decisions in the mixture of the modern era surroundings with the mystical.

Pros: Innovative world, the lack of physical monsters like vampires, skinwalkers or zombies, fast paced magical action and entertaining prose.

Cons: The story momentum promised a fantastic climax, whereas in reality the novel finished in a way that disappointed me.

Summary:

CLASSIFIED: APPARENT SUPERNATURAL Subject: Gabriel Bleak. Status: Civilian. Paranormal skills: Powerful. Able to manipulate AS energies and communicate with UBEs (e.g. "ghosts" and other entities). Psychological profile: Extremely independent, potentially dangerous. Caution is urged....

As far as Gabriel Bleak is concerned, talking to the dead is just another way of making a living. It gives him the competitive edge to survive as a bounty hunter, or "skip tracer," in the psychic minefield known as New York City. Unfortunately, his gift also makes him a prime target. A top-secret division of Homeland Security has been monitoring the recent emergence of human supernaturals, with Gabriel Bleak being the strongest on record. If they control Gabriel, they'll gain access to the Hidden -- the entity-based energy field that connects all life on Earth. But Gabriel's got other ideas. With a growing underground movement called the Shadow Community -- and an uneasy alliance of spirits, elementals, and other beings -- Gabriel's about to face the greatest demonic uprising since the Dark Ages. But this time, history is not going to repeat itself. This time, the future is Bleak. Gabriel Bleak.

Characters: Apart from the amazing spiritual setting and paranormal abilities displayed in this novel, the backbone of this novel is its near-to-life characters. I found that I could relate and instantly clicked with main protagonist Gabriel Bleak, who apart from sharing a very unusual surname is one of the most believable and down to earth kind of people, despite his service in the military, his inborn connection with the Hidden and his current gig as a bounty hunter.

To begin with I rarely encounter a character with such rich history that feels whole, complete and three dimensional without dispelling the illusion that he is fictional. From the story and his recollections the reader knows that Gabriel is special, but the character never truly shows his full potential unless a life or death situation demands it. He has an innate sense of when it’s necessary to exercise power, while the rest of the time he successfully stays below radars and his military experience as well as quick wits have helped him escape more than one tight spot. This well-grounded and calculative attitude roots the story in the field of believable.

The supporting cast here is a bit of a meshed field for me, because I enjoyed immensely the character of Shoella, whereas Agent Loraine Sarikosca felt a bit stiff and either intentionally as an inadequate human being or just unsuccessful as a whole. Moloch, the arch nemesis here is cunning and intricate in his plans as all demonic entities ought to be, while his henchmen have their own special appeal.

Story: What starts as a simple ‘recruitment’ from Homeland Security’s CCA leads to a story that runs deep into history, through the ages and civilizations, from which the world hangs in the balance. The gradual buildup from CCA’s mouse trap attempts on Gabriel to the revelation of his importance in the bigger picture is delivered effortlessly aided by Shirley’s evocative prose, which paints vivid and vibrant pictures in the mind’s eye. Shirley has a very distinctive and pleasurable style, which melts away the time spent reading. This coupled with a rich environment, simple enough to let it breath and take a life on its own and stir the story into different directions, creates a world you would want to return to and dream to be a part of the ShadowCom, people with paranormal abilities, familiars and spirits that can aid them in their workings for instance to create a pocket dimension.

I am jaded, when it comes to end of the world stories, so I cooled a bit, when Gabriel was thrust into the position of the potential savior of Earth as we know and love it. The enemy has been revealed, his motives clear and now it was all up to the protagonist to be the hero, save the day, meet his true soul mate, but first needs to overcome seduction and mortal dangers along the way as well as come to terms with truth about his past. It’s this type of story after the reader gets into the last quarter or so into the novel, which didn’t strike me as extremely entertaining, because it ended exactly as I predicted. Never to mention that the wild card in the novel got disposed in a very unexpected and too easy to be true manner, which also took away some satisfaction from the experience.

Verdict: In a well-plotted, a well-written and well-designed urban fantasy novel, which stirs clear from typical scenarios in the genre, albeit it throws anchor in a well known story trope.

Rating: 4/5

"The Calling" by David Mack

Title: "The Calling"
Author: David Mack
Pages: 336
Format: Novel
Genre: Urban Fantasy [officially a supernatural thriller]
Publisher: Pocket Books

What you can expect: An urban fantasy with an unlikely protagonist by the genre’s standards and rules so far with a touch of Christian mythology and a CSI/Law & Order aftertaste.

Pros: A protagonist that exists outside the urban fantasy male mold for danger boys; a decent albeit loose spin on Christian beliefs.

Cons: Unmemorable and more often than not stale prose, which is a matter of taste really, but I can’t be dishonest with my dissatisfaction. Another kidnapping story without reinvention of the trope.

Summary:

HEAR THE CALLING.

No one would guess by looking at Tom Nash that he's extraordinary, and that's just fine with him. A tall, broad-shouldered jack-of-all-trades from Sawyer, Pennsylvania, Tom has a knack for fixing things. He also hides a secret talent: he hears people's prayers. Stranger still, he answers them. Maybe it's because he's a handyman, but Tom feels compelled to fix people's problems. Which is all well and good -- until the soul-shattering plea of a terrified girl sends him on the darkest journey of his life....

SEEK THE TRUTH.

Heeding the call and leaving his home for New York City, Tom discovers a secret world beyond the range of mortal perception -- a world of angels and demons and those who serve them. With the guidance of a knowing stranger named Erin, Tom learns that he himself is one of The Called, born with a divine purpose and a daunting task: to help the powers of Heaven in the war against the agents of Hell, an army of fallen angels known as the Scorned. Thrust into an epic battle of the sacred and the profane, Tom Nash must find the girl who prayed for his help -- because her fate will determine whether humanity deserves to be saved, or damned for all eternity....

Characters: As you might have guessed already, I am not going to be as flattering as I would have liked to be with “The Calling”, but what can you do when a book doesn’t work for you other than share why it didn’t. As usual I will start with characterization and then move down to the other components. Surprisingly I had no issues with characters at large.

There is no denying that David Mack is a veteran as his long list of accomplishments in tie-in fiction and scriptwriting speak for themselves. His experience shows through in the character department with protagonist Tom Nash, who as a choice for main character excited me. Not many UF titles have a middle aged handy man with a pregnant wife; a wife that actually earns more than him. At the same time Tom is devoted to following through with the tasks provided by his divine vocation to hear prayers without much fuss. There is no dangerous sex appeal or hormonal denial of one’s given stand in the paranormal world, which I find refreshing and as execution well-performed.

From the support cast I enjoyed main villain Frank Kolpack, a dirty cop with a calculative mind and general fondness of big figure sums, and Anna Doyle, the kidnapped Phaedra’s mother. Frank is one of those Machiavellian characters that you can only admire in how they manipulate the elements around them and juice a situation for their own gain, while Anna is a very strong character. Her grief didn’t move me one inch, but her snappy anger-fueled repartee with her daughter’s kidnappers certainly made her one of my favorite characters from the whole novel.

While I enjoyed the axe handle wielding Erin Sanchez, Mack’s attempt to embroider personal tragedy and emotional issues to her spunky and aggressively sunny personality failed and just stereotyped her along so many other urban fantasy heroines. A not-so-realistic character was twelve year old Phaedra and here the reasons are too many. For one it’s a pain-stacking task to create a psychologically believable twelve year old, since children at that age are still in the phase of maturing and caught between childhood and teenhood. Since the novel itself is not YA and the target audience consists of adults I felt challenged to think as a pre-teen and justify her actions and behavior.

Story: “The Calling” as I already mentioned is an out-of-the-box project for urban fantasy as a genre and I praise the uniqueness that Mack brought to a world, where Good and Evil are represented by the Called and the Scorned, fractions that are built similarly. Each fraction has Seekers, who hear prayers, Sentinels, who have offensive abilities, and Sages, who are the generals above the foot soldiers in the ancient conflict. Members of both fractions are kept hidden from being captured or discovered by divine powers that work in subtle ways. So far so good, but the world this time is not enough to arouse my interest, when prose and plot border on dull.

Yes, as far as my personal preferences go and experience with fiction and entertainment media, Mack produced a rather predictable and easily forgettable novel. His prose is what I would call Spartan and rather states than evokes imagery. Longer paragraphs listing the items in every new setting killed the mood so many times. I guess, it’s fair to mention that the kind of simplistic approach resonates with his protagonist’s personality, but it certainly acted off-putting to me.

The instant I cracked the book open I knew that it would end on a positive note. We have a generally good-natured and untroubled character with the best possible intentions and a case, which involves a kidnapped by the bad guys child that can shift the balance. There is no mystery or suspense here that indicates that the good guy will fail or that he was in any peril, even while running from the Russian mob and the Scorned. I guess I am jaded in that department.

The Verdict: Not bad a transition into a different genre. It could have gone way worse and I am glad Mack avoided the common combinations of tropes and devices in urban fantasy, but it’s not quite as much as I expected it to be and I expect it to fade altogether from my memory quite soon.

Rating: 2 out of 5 shiny stars.

Artist Corner: Chris McGrath

For this week’s Artist Corner I have someone real special, who has touched million of urban fantasy readers. I present to you Chris McGrath, the cover artist behind the instantly recognized Dresden Files covers as well as covers for authors like Vicki Pettersson and C.E. Murphy. With him I prod in a new direction aimed at the not-so-much-known niche of cover art and I hope you guys are satisfied with the end result.

Harry Markov: Hello and thank you for accepting my invitation. Having you here would be a major treat for my readers, since you provide UF readers with some of the best covers in the industry. So let’s start with the essentials. What was the first encounter with the visual arts to stir you in that particular direction?

CM: Actually I had no intention of doing that sort of cover art. Not that I didn’t like it, it’s just that I didn’t know much about the genre and it was still just starting to take off at the time I came in. I was doing a sci fi series for Roc at the time and the art director thought the “noir” style that I had would work well for the Dresden Files “Dead Beat” cover.
But I don’t think either one of us had a totally clear vision as to how it would look in the end.
When I had finished the cover I felt that it had been a turning point for me as an illustrator and really finding myself as an artist. The next cover I did was Night Life by Rob Thurman. After that I was pretty locked down as an Urban Fantasy guy.

HM: Another tradition with the “Artist Corner” is to share something a bit more personal, so that all nosy about the person behind the artist can be satisfied. Who is Chris McGrath in the daily routine?

CM: Nothing special really. I work at home so I can control my schedule a bit. I live in Manhattan so that's always fun (and helps with UF covers). I usually go to bed around 3am, wake up at around 10 or 11am. Go out for a cup of coffee, then sit down to work. I usually take a break before dinner and play my guitar for a couple of hours, then around 7pm I work a little more. I can’t really complain I guess

HM: Who are the artists and photographers that inspired and influenced you the most?

CM: My painting teacher Steve Assael was a huge influence on me as well as Dorian Vallejo.
But there is a huge list. I’m traditionally trained as a realist painter, so I like a lot of the 19th century painters. Odd Nerdrum is a modern favorite of mine.
Sci Fi guys, I really like Enki Bilal, Frazatta, Dorian Vallejo and so on..
I do like photography but I can’t really pick any one in paticular. Maybe Bresson.

HM: So the essence of your work involves a great mastery over Photoshop and other programs from that caliber. What I want also to know is, whether you shoot the picture material for the covers yourself as well?

CM: Yes. I shoot everything. Even when I was oil painting I still shot all of my own reference. It’s the way I was trained. I’m not really that good with photoshop in the traditional sense. I learned it by myself by just trying to get it to work the way I would do my oil paintings. The process is the same and so are the rules.

HM: Doing covers for fantasy books must mean that you are also a fan of the genre in some of its aspects the least. What attracts you to the out of the ordinary and fantasy? Different people find something entirely unique for themselves and I always like hearing a new answer on the subject.

CM: I’m actually more of a science fiction fan. My three favorite books are Dune, Hyperion, and Veniss Underground. As far as Fantasy books, I do love the Elric series.
I like this sort of stuff because visually it’s creative and in a lot of ways it’s more believable than regular action or supspense fiction. I can never buy into the mainstream action books because I live in this world and I know how things work and how rediculious those plots are.
But when you move it all into a far fetched world, it becomes much more believable because it’s an unfamilar setting.

HM: Do you have to read the manuscripts you receive to get an idea what the best possible cover might be, inclining that you have full creative freedom over the process or do you have to abide already set down standards and vision o the publishers?

CM: it’s a mix. A lot of the times I just get an outline. Sometimes a manuscript.
Some companies have more control over the cover than others.
Every publisher seems to have their own rituals as to how they work and get things out, but there definitely are a lot of people involved quite a bit.

HM: Another completely customary question would be about your work process. How much does it usually take to complete a piece from start to finish and what’s your way of doing things?

CM: Finish time really varies on the project. Sci Fi stuff generally takes longer.
The most difficult part is the sketch phase and planning. If I do that well, I have less trouble but quite often there is a bit of a struggle. Plus I’m really hard on myself and things always seem to be a disaster as I’m working on them. But Sketches can take a week sometimes.

HM: In the same line of thought, provided you are the photographer as well, how does a typical photo shoot go for you? Bringing in humans as an aspect of your work certainly contributes its unexpected bumps and turns to the whole process. Does it take long to achieve the image you require or is it strictly individual?

CM: It’s funny, everyone I know who does photoshoots and has been doing them for 10 years or more still has days where everything goes wrong. There is a lot to try and control and get right. And trying to get what you need from a model can be hard too. That's why you’ll see a lot of the same models on book covers in the stores. If you find one that is good and you know you’ll get what you want from them, they get used a lot. It’s tough getting a good model.

HM: Since your job requirement and description basically demands achieving maximum realism for a very otherworldly concept, how do you manage to layer the magical elements into your compositions? Do you get to shoot against Hollywood’s beloved green screen?

CM: A lot of stuff is made up or pieced together and repainted the way a lot of concept guys work. But it’s all painted in Photoshop.

HM: Speaking of compositions, where do you get your inspiration from? What brings out new ideas for compositions and covers?

CM: Sometimes the story dictates that sort of thing. When you begin to establish the main elements of the concept a rhythm begins to become apparent and sometimes you just follow through with that instinctively. Other times a movie or something like that will give me an idea.

HM: Also to rewind a bit, how did you get involved in the cover art making business in the first place? Your profession is extremely interesting and a small niche, so there has to be an interesting story behind your involvement with it.

CM: When I was around 12 years old I saw Frazetta’s work and that pretty much inspired me to go into doing book covers. It is a long story, but to sum it up: I finished college in 1995 and really didn’t have a portfolio finished. I was kind of into doing the fine art thing at the time and it distracted me a bit from the sci fi stuff. Plus there were a lot of other things going on in my life. Becoming an artist is not always a reality for family members to support. But I pushed on because I really couldn’t do anything else. While I worked on my portfolio I gave guitar lessons to make money. In 1999 the industry really seemed like it was headed for more digital stuff so a friend introduced me to photoshop. I didn’t want to get involved with it but soon I began to like it. In 2001 the art director at ACE books gave me my first job doing an oil painting of all things. I had showed her my digital portfolio and I had one traditional painting in the back,. I’m suspicious that my friend Dorian had called her and said to make sure that the job she gave me was done in oil not PS. At that time digital was still “evil” to painters. The cover is on my website still. Entitled “the King”. But that was my only traditional cover. The other weird thing about that cover is that I started it the morning of sept.11th. so it has a erie vibe to me.
From there work was slow. I started at 3 covers my first year. 6 my second. Maybe 10 or 12 my third. And in 2004 after I did Dead Beat I did around 16 covers. It started looking good but It wasn’t really full time until late 2005.

HM:As a final question, what are your future plans? Would you deviate from what you do right now and pursue different projects and if so, can you share?

CM: that's a question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately and I really don’t know yet.
The publishing world is changing and it’s not getting any bigger. I would love to continue to do covers full time but I don’t really see that happening. Unless book sales pick up or it shifts into something else. I don’t really want to do full time concept work and I’m not sure if I want to do traditional fine art either. I honestly don’t know where things are headed but you never know. I would be happy just doing sci fi stuff.

Supernatural: Season 4

For an inexplicable reason I receive impulses to pen down reviews for pretty much everything of any cultural and entertainment value. There is something quite satisfying to simply have a say on a subject that may have something to do with literature or not. This is being really hard to resist, since I enjoy numerous TV shows and series. However the latest season of “Supernatural” made me feel like a Twilight fan and I need to resolve this bundle of emotions.

As far as I know, the upcoming fifth season will be the closing one for the series, wrapping up all arcs and it’s natural since it marks the start of the apocalypse. I personally perceive this tidbit of news with mixed feelings. On one hand it’s a killjoy to see one of the few better TV shows right now in the paranormal subgenre go, but on the other it will go with style. It shows that producers and writers have taken into account the natural progression of the story rather than stretching the concept needlessly like it happened with Charmed, a series that after eight seasons of not going anywhere in a definitive direction had to be quickly wrapped up.

But back to the actual Season 4... Perhaps there is one word that best defines the season as a whole: build-up. The drift between the Winchester brothers becomes more evident as both siblings find themselves on the opposing camps. Sam is on his way to abandoning humanity in the name of the greater good. With his character the show’s writers take a great spin of the general concept that the way to hell is paved with good intentions. Sam Winchester really just annihilates the line between what is acceptable and the forbidden taboos. Being willing to sacrifice your human soul by drinking demon blood in order to assassinate Lilith is admirable, though nauseating, seeing his struggles with morale. Dean Winchester’s situation is as grim as his brother’s. For better or for worse he has been forced into an allegiance with the angels, who in this series are unlike most stereotypes with little nobility and more strategy in their heads. As a character he has been written to be a selfless protector of his little brother and being into a position, where he has to stand up against him, especially in the wake of the apocalypse, is a slow death for Dean.

The clock is ticking, seals are being brocken and Lilith has to be stopped. The angels don't act accordingly or timely at all, which will arouse suspicions towards their agenda and whether a greater and sinister scheme is in place. Once the strategy for the whole apocalypse is revealed the viewer will get a sense that the kingdom of heaven is full of winged warriors with the greater good in mind rather than humanity’s current need of salvation. Collateral damage is acceptable and millions dead is nothing to be concerned with. This paired with the amazing acting provided by Misha Collins as Castiel and then Kurt Fuller as Zachariah, both written to grab attention as reinvented images of high stature angels and performed at the needed level. My compliments go to Christopher Heyerdahl, who makes a chilling Alastair, and Genevieve Cortese, who does a good enough job filling in the shoes of Ruby’s character.

Compliments go to the writers of the show that fisrt of all made Biblical mythology as cool as vampires on their media pedestals and interpreting all the myths and figures as well as lacing them with popular folklore from around the globe and local urban legends. I really felt that the inclusion of an actual prophet to be quite entertaining as well as his unstandard portrayal. There hasn't been a TV series with a tighter story frame that progressed from single episodes that feature more or less monster or the week and then move on to episodes chaining in with backstory and plot arcs. Ending with a very big cliff hanger and a ton load of questions but satisfyingly organic and expected, Season 4 opened the doors to the arena and Season 5 will be the final massacre.

"Evil Ways" by Justin Gustainis

Title: "Evil Ways"
Author: Justin Gustainis
Series: Quincey Morris Investigation Series, Book2
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 336
Publisher: Solaris

Blurb:

Quincey Morris and Libby Chastain investigate a series of murders where white witches are being hunted down and killed—and Libby may be next on the list. Meanwhile, the FBI is stymied by a series of child murders around the country, in which the victims' organs are being removed for use in occult rituals. Quincey and Libby don't want to get involved, but they may have no choice. From Iraq to Idaho, the trail of clues leads straight to Walter Grobius, a crazed billionaire who plans the biggest black magic ritual of all time. If he isn't stopped, all Hell will break loose—for real.

Verdict: It took me quite awhile to get to this novel and considering how many positive reviews it gathered, I think I ended up reading the novel wrong, because at large “Evil Ways” didn’t exactly work for me. Perhaps I am on a different vibe right about now or perhaps my tastes have changed in the stretch of a year, but after reading and loving “Black Magic Woman” I waited for something bigger and better as the perfect scenario for a series should be.

Plot-wise I got everything I needed. Compared to the first book in the series “Evil Ways” excels in dynamics and stretches through the better part of the USA and even offers some scenes of heist action in Baghdad. The use of magic is extensive and ranges from summoning to blood sacrifices, wards and astral projection. The variety and degree of explanation behind each act is satisfying for me as a fan of the occult and creates a solid believability. Satan also makes a very gruesome cameo appearance, which always acts as a plus and sex just lounges in between the pages. Gustainis also gives the readers every man’s dream: a woman wielding big guns with the intention of using them.

So what was the problem, if everything so far is all I could ever dream of? Gustainis has wonderful ideas and has woven them into a believable enough plot, but what doesn’t work for me in this installment is the actual writing. Spreading the story through different points of view is great and we can see what happens on both sides of the whole apocalypse-in-the-making, but the stark in-your-face approach to representing the impending doom fails to build tension. In “Black Magic Woman” I loved, when the author didn’t beat around the bush and slapped the reader with the facts as they were with no poetic detours and you felt like a part of a much messed up episode of CSI. However now that the supernatural elements have been pumped up “Evil Ways” should have, at least to me, dripped dread and the book didn’t. The famous bat scene was awesome yes, but it didn’t make me fear that the characters wouldn’t get out. Same goes for the grand summoning of Satan. As the final ceremony transpired I didn’t feel any immediate danger for the character or for the world at that.

This being said, the second thing that didn’t work for me happened to be dialogue. I enjoy wise cracking as much as the next guy, but I couldn’t buy the idea that two people no matter how comfortable with each other would mock bicker, wise crack and throw punch lines and funny expressions, when Libby is being chased by enemies unknown and the apocalypse on the rise. Comic relief via dialogue is a powerful tool and the final use at the very end of the novel is just perfect, but in almost every conversation, it becomes tiring and destroys the reader’s belief in the credibility of the story.

Negative aspects aside, there are quite a few good things to complement Mister Gustainis upon, such as his bravery regarding sex. Few ever dared to throw in orgies that have demons in and incorporate bestiality moments, a scene that stunned me as a matter of fact and was one of the few moments that created a very sinister atmosphere of decadence and dread in the novel. Also the scene, where Colleen had to play it cheap hooker in order to get the info she needed for the case to move on underlines how dire the situation is, even though it’s very un-FBI thing to do.

I am also very pleased with the world building angle. Gustainis has done some very heavy research to get down the principles of magic right and authentic as much as the complex system allows such a task to be performed. You won’t notice any deviation from the previous installment in the series, just a sort of expanding what has already been established in rules and possibilities. As much as I am a fan of the Japanese “I have a nuclear power plant rivaling load of energy” I find it refreshing to see that magic through most of the novel is very hard to get going and produce immediate effects, which usually takes up a lot of work that once interrupted can result into a catastrophe of some degree.

As a whole, “Evil Ways” is a good concept with an execution that didn’t manage to stir much of a reaction out of me. I am not sure I am in the capacity to recommend or warn off people as the experience as a whole was bittersweet and confusing. I still can’t make up my kind about “Evil Ways”, but there are enough reviews to show you a different perspective.

Different Opinions:
Darque Reviews
SciFiGuy.ca
Graeme's Fantasy Reviews
Monsters and Critics
Fatally Yours
Love Vampires

“Inkheart” by Cornelia Funke

Title: “Inkheart”
Author: Cornelia Funke
Series: Inkworld Series, Book 1
Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 534
Publisher: The Chicken House

Summary:

This story is about the bookbinder Mo and his daughter Meggie, whose lives become an adventure one day. Mo is not an ordinary bookbinder. He has the magic talent to read aloud and call different objects or people from the books he reads. However this gift is too bitter since Mo has managed to read out the cruelest villain called Capricorn from a book called “Inkheart”, but also send Meggie’s mother to take Capricorn’s place in the story. The story picks up when Capricorn has adjusted himself to the new world and kidnaps Mo to use his talent for monstrous and criminal purposes.

Classification & Literary Class: “Inkheart” came as a rather generous present from my beloved friend Blogger Bellezza, who insisted I get my own copy. Thanks to her now I do and will cherish it. This is so to say my initiation in modern YA fantasy literature and I still can’t believe this is a rather new bestseller from the year 2003. It sounds like an already settled in classic to me like “Alice in Wonderland”. As everybody knows I really can’t continue a review unless I label the novel as a certain nuance of urban fantasy and in this case the right is fully mine, since pretty much we have extraordinary tales happen in an alternative and exact photo copy of Earth. But since this is a Young Adult title you can’t go without the typical Bildungsroman elements aka a coming of age story.

As far as age goes “Inkheart” is originally meant for the audience 10-15 year olds, but for the people, who regularly indulge their inner child it is like any other good read, exciting. There was a certain kind of joy reading this book that left you in that pure innocent state of being an excited small child. Skillful illustrations and excerpts from famous published works that act as summaries only strengthen the experience, while Funke enchants with her magnificent style and prose. 500 pages passed like nothing I have ever read.

Characters & Depth: Staying true to the age group, Funke approaches her characters in a more simplistic manner, though it is safe to say that characters don’t become two dimensional cardboard cutouts. It is also safe to assume that Meggie is the main protagonist and we see about two thirds of the story through her eyes. The curious thing with her character is that she experiences and learns about the world through the endless volumes of books she reads. Her inquisitive and curious nature has introduced her to the great woes and tribulations of heroes and introduced her to the dark side of the world, but books always sheltered her from really living the bad, so as the story progresses Meggie accepts the challenges throw at her and matures. This is an almost untraceable transition that feels so natural.

The rest of the characters are more like overall symptoms. Mo shows a bit less character growth, but is a positive constant father figure, whose devotion to his daughter is inspirational and endearing enough to stay a constant favorite to young readers alike. Dustfinger is the antihero so to say, who has dubious morals and betrays the protagonists for a chance to return to his own world. In the end though he has a change of heart and does the right thing. He is the embodiment of the idea “it’s never too late to do the right thing”. Meggie’s aunt Elinor is the archetype of all book addicts. Her devotion to books surpasses the need to be around people and she is numb towards the joys of life with people. As the story ends we see staggering 180 degree change as she begins to long to be amongst people like she never before had. Her character in my opinion is a reminder that it is too dangerous and lonesome to shut yourself only in the world of imagination.

Worldbuilding & Believability: Main worldbuilding here gravitates around the ability of Mortimer to read things and people out of and in books. This is like Newton’s third law of physics, perhaps the only one I know, that for every effect or force there is an equal counter effect or force. This equality in exchange from one plain to another is the key here. Whenever Mo has to read something out from a title, there is a price that has to be made and nobody knows what can disappear. This keeps the tension and the stakes high, plus the idea is quite cool. Many times I have had moments with novels, when I found myself wishing things out, but for better or for worse with no effect.

The second part of this gift is that it can be controlled. It works with any written word and as the book suggests a skillful writer can derail a current story and change its course or create a new one just as easily. The suggestion of ultimate power or creative freedom is mind boggling, but as shown quite risky and to be used with caution. “Inkheart” is a lesson in moderation and the ageless “With power comes great responsibility”, but done in a very entertaining and possibly most original manner.

The Verdict: To be honest I never expected that YA would be in my taste range. I still wouldn’t be comfortable with the genre as a whole, but the Inkworld series is one that must be read. For me experiencing something new every time is a way to keep out of the rut or fall into clichés, so if you are someone to enjoy a bit of diversity pick this one up. I will also be watching the movie soon enough.

Artist Corner: Timothy Lantz

This time I think I did it like one should do an interview. On the unluckiest day of all Friday the 13th I present you a man, who is not afraid of bad publicity, because of the accursed day and a man, who has been making readers scream of joy, whenever they pick up a book. I think it's pretty obvious that he is Timothy Lantz and that I have him here for your delight. Hear the answers of the guy that makes the coolest cover art ever.

Harry Markov: First of all, thank you for accepting my invitation. I am excited to have you here on my virtual chair and sharing your trade secrets. So let’s begin with the obvious questions. What inspired you to become an artist? For that matter why did you choose digital art for the better part of your portfolio?

Timothy Lantz: I was just one of those kids, the ones who are always drawing or creating things. I have a healthy imagination, which I fuel by reading comic books, watching television and going to the movies.

On some level, I suppose it is really a desire to be a storyteller and to share some of the great tales that are forever spinning around in the back of my mind which lead me to where I am now.

Over the years, I’ve always sought ways to share my creative vision, whether through traditional art, writing, or role-playing it’s just a part of who I am. Combine this with my love for technology and communication and going digital was a natural evolution for me. The digital tools (and photoshop in particular) have become a very natural medium for me. My familiarity and comfort with them affords a kind of relaxed state, where I have the freedom to just create and learn without frustration.

HM: Via your biography page I know that your major influence has been the Symbolism movement. Can you explain what the specific traits of this movement are that shaped your work?

TL: What I find most inspiring about the symbolists was their rebel attitude. At a time when the majority of artists’ work seemed to be centered around the themes of religion and Christianity, along comes this group of individuals who decided to strike out on their own path. They shared a love of mythology and storytelling and other non-traditional views and they defied what was generally accepted to just create works around their own passions.

HM: You have a degree in art education and are a professional illustrator. You work on the cover art for several publishers, DC comics and illustrate for fantasy magazines. How did you launch your career and managed to land such assignments?

TL: My career as a professional illustrator really started with the publication of the Archeon Tarot. Up until that time I had been a graphic designer and a web programmer, and my artwork was just something of a hobby. I was in the midst of a lot of life-changing events, prior to that… graduating college, moving, finding a new job, getting married… once that kind of settled down, I found myself in a place not unlike my childhood, where life had become kind of secure with the day to day concerns taken care of. This allowed me a great deal of freedom to just go back to the process of creating and experimenting. It was really here were I started exploring digital art, and that lead to the creation of the Archeon Tarot.

Once people saw my work on that, I began receiving other illustration offers and it has continued to pick up steam from there.

HM: The next question is probably obvious too. Since we are all fantasy or sci-fi fans on these blogs, we all had different reasons to love the genre. What in particular hooked you to do fantasy pieces?

TL: I think the fantasy genre allows for storytelling on a primal or basic level, one which the audience can come at from a shared experience. There are certain symbols or tropes which are universal and allow you to convey your meaning but at the same time, there’s this broad canvas where you are free to just dream and create and add details which can enrich the whole experience into something far greater than a simple allegory.

HM: It is clear that you use Photoshop for most of your work, but the base is always a photo of a female model. Do you do the photography yourself and if you do how do you find and interact with the models?

TL: I wouldn’t say the basis is always a female model, but that’s going to be what most people are familiar with simply because I’ve done so many book cover illustrations recently. I do love working in that genre though, and I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of amazing models who have really brought those images to life. As for the photography, since the publication of the Archeon Tarot, I’ve relied exclusively on my own model photography.

I recruit my models from among my friends and other artists that I have worked with and additionally from talent recruitment sites like www.modelmayhem.com.

HM: Is it easy to manipulate the pictures and how long does it take for a picture from start to finish? Consequently what are the tricky parts in digital art that may trouble beginner artists?

TL: I wouldn’t say that it’s easy. There is a tendency to see digital art as a kind of shortcut or automated process, but it simply isn’t true. The computer is a tool, no different than a paintbrush or ink pen, it’s what the artist does with the tool that makes the difference.

That being said, there is a lot of sub-standard work out there. People will run an image through a filter and declare it art. I think in the long run though, the audience knows when something is worthy of appreciation. This holds true for any creative endeavor. Ultimately, a work is judged on whether or not it speaks to the viewer in some way, not on how it was produced.

My advice for beginning digital artists is the same as it would be for any traditional media artist… practice, practice, practice. The more you work at it, the better you will become.

HM: Next I would like to ask you about your work in the comic book sphere. I bet that you use your illustration skills for DC comics, but what does that involve cover art or some additional tasks?

TL: My work for DC Comics has so far been limited to just the Vs. Collectible Card Game. I worked on three cards for the World’s Finest expansion set and another three for the Legends expansion set.

HM: Since we are all book lovers and one of the things we admire is the amazing cover art some of the novels have. Your work is also breathtaking. What’s the whole mechanism to making one? Does the publishing house specifically instruct you what to do or do they let you take the initiative first and consent or not?

TL: Each publisher is different. It really comes down to the art director for each project and their established work flow. My experiences have ranged from being told to “just make something cool”, to a very detailed step-by-step outline of what the image was supposed to contain. For my tastes, I prefer somewhere in the middle. I like to have a rough starting idea and maybe some details of what the image should contain and then just go from there. The best art directors will work with you and help you to achieve a better image.

HM: You are also responsible for a tarot deck already available on the market for quite some time. What triggered the idea to make one and how long did it took to complete it? Any additional comments will be appreciated.

TL: The tarot was something I discovered in middle school, as a result of my involvement with role-playing and reading comics and such. Immediately, I was drawn in by the images and the symbolism of it all.

My own deck was a result of my desire for a project and some fortunate internet surfing. Upon seeing the work of another artist whose take on the tarot didn’t fit with my vision, I decided to make one for myself. Honestly, I never expected it to grow beyond an afternoon’s indulgence; however the feedback I received from friends and family was so strong that I continued to pursue it.

Within a short time I had completed a number of cards and a good friend of mine convinced me I should try and get it published. She really did the legwork and basically dropped the submission materials in my lap. So, with nothing to lose, I took a chance and was fortunate enough to land a publisher interested in my deck.

It took me a full year to complete the deck once I was under contract.

HM: Looking by some of your series such as the muses, I see you draw inspiration from literature. Is the written word a constant well of inspiration and where do you seek ideas for your work usually?

TL: I have a lot of influences, literary and otherwise. I look at work from classical painters and modern masters all with equal eye. I listen to heavy metal and get lost in the lyrics. Movies and television shows fill my mind with their plots and characterizations. All of this and more somehow distills through my brain and ends up in my work.

HM: From all that you have done in your career so far, which is the piece you liked most or enjoyed most completing?

TL: I have a few favorites. My Silver Banshee illustration for World’s Finest is one of them. I was just really excited with how that turned out as she’s been a favorite character of mine for a long time.

HM:I understand that you also do commission work. Do you get a lot of requests and how do you decide whether or not to take up a job? What are your criteria?

TL: These days I rarely do personal commissions. Between my professional work and my own projects I have little time to devote to other works. That being said, occasionally I’ll get a request from a model who would like to work with me and if I can find the time, I’ll set up a shoot.

HM: Have you ever dealt with some sort of art theft? It is a common threat that accompanies artists these days and I would like to hear your experience with the problem.

TL: I haven’t really experienced a problem with this but I have friends who have been through some nightmares over it. It seems to me that a lot of the theft occurs when you’re working on licensed properties or popular characters and things of that nature.

The anonymous aspect of the internet kind of facilitates this to a degree, but it’s also quite adept at catching those who are doing something wrong. Unfortunately, I think it’s also easy for people to be caught up in a kind of witch hunt too. That’s life in the information age though.

HM:The year 2008 had a nice schedule of appearances for you and can you share how they went? Did you meet a lot of fans? Also will your fans in America have the chance to see you this year as well?

TL: I’ve been doing shows and appearances since the Fall of 2005 and I love it. The reception of my work has been great and I’ve met so many people and made so many friends while being out there at the cons and galleries.

I really love the travel aspect too. I’ve been to a lot of great cities the past four years and I’m looking forward to seeing more.

I’ll be finalizing my plans for this year soon, and they will be posted on the website.

HM: Last but not least what does the future hold for Timothy Lantz? Can you share some of your projects?

TL: I have a few commercial projects scheduled for the Spring and I’m working on a couple of projects of my own which I hope to announce in more detail later this year.

As for what’s upcoming, there will be two books out soon, Amazon Ink by Lori Devoti, published by Pocket Books/Juno and A Flash of Hex by Jes Battis, published by Ace.

Thank you Timothy. So you see things are looking up for the Artist Corner.

© All the artwork is copyrighted. Please do not use the images without the permission of the artist or owner. The artwork in this post has been used according to the rules listed by the artist or at least I think I have.