Hellforged by Nancy Holzner

Hellforged is the sequel to Deadtown, which I reviewed a few weeks ago. I liked the first book, but when the sequel came out I discovered I wasn't all that interested in reading it.

Hellforged started out fairly slow, or maybe it just seemed that way because my interest kept flagging. Vicky is a shapechanger and demon-hunter, but in the first book she ended up having to link herself to a demon called the Destroyer in order to banish it back to Hell. Now the Destroyer is showing up in Vicky's dreams, and she suspects it's connected to several grisly deaths of zombies she knows. Finally she gets worried enough to call her Aunt Mab in Wales for advice. Mab tells her to come to Wales immediately.

So she does. At the drop of a hat, Vicky leaves the country for several weeks. This is a symptom of the main problem I have with Vicky, which is that she doesn't seem to have any interests or activities outside of demon-hunting. Sure she has a boyfriend, but she's the first to admit that they don't actually see each other much. Essentially, Vicky spends her nights demon-hunting (note: not as interesting as it sounds) and her days asleep, and that's all. It makes her seem unrealistic and flat, and I never felt much of a connection with her.

Not only that, but she doesn't even seem to like demon-hunting or shape-changing. She never shows much enthusiasm for anything in her life. The woman desperately needs to take up watercolors or something.

The plot isn't bad once Vicky stops whining that she can't do what Mab's teaching her to do, and instead settles down to do it. I was glad that the ending was satisfying and ties up a lot of loose threads, because I doubt I'll bother to read the next book.

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Soul Hunt by Margaret Ronald

I reviewed the second book in this series, Wild Hunt, back in February and I've read the first book, Spiral Hunt, too. To catch us up briefly, Evie Scelan is a bike courier and "hound"--someone with the rare magical ability to trace people and things by following magical scents--in Boston (of course). At the end of the last book, she took control of the wild hunt, and made an unknown bargain with a water spirit to save her boyfriend's life. Both events come back to bite her in the butt in this book.

Soul Hunt feels like the last book in a trilogy, although it's possible there will be more books in the series. A lot of loose ends are tied up in this one.

I really liked Spiral Hunt, although I liked Wild Hunt less. While I was reading Soul Hunt, though, I stayed in a constant state of annoyed. Evie doesn't do a whole lot in this book, and the things she does do are almost all poor choices. She misses connections that are obvious, trusts people who are obviously untrustworthy, and seems to have a separate (and stricter) set of rules to live by than any of the other magic-users in the book. In other words, I found the plot more than a little contrived.

Evie herself started out in the first book as a strong character but has become more passive--not to a ridiculous degree, but definitely something that bothered me. At the beginning of the book she keeps having gray-outs when she's unable to scent or even see in color, but she doesn't do anything about it and doesn't even make the connection with her bargain in the last book. It was not exactly a big leap of logic, and she's surrounded by magic-users who could have given her a consultation at any time. That's just one example of the problems with this book. I was frustrated with Evie and with the plot, which meandered; I didn't find the ending very satisfying because Evie spends so many paragraphs explaining why she has to do what she has to do. It rang false to me.

The writing is excellent, though. I don't know if the writing in the previous books was this good and I just didn't notice, or if Ronald's getting better as she goes along. I'd like to see what she does next, although I'm kind of hoping it's not another Evie Scelan book.

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What's a Ghoul to Do? by Victoria Laurie

I hesitate to tag this 'mystery' because the plot is so weak that I guessed the murderer halfway through (seriously, just halfway through) and knew why that character had done it three-quarters of the way through (with the exception of one tiny plot twist that was set up properly with a clue I'd forgotten about--the only good part of the plot). The other half of the mystery is just as obvious.

I'm not even sure this was meant to be a mystery. It's a lot closer to paranormal romance, which would explain why the mystery is given so little attention. It would also explain why I hated the love interest so much, since I've never read a single paranormal romance (or just plain romance) where I didn't loathe one or both of the main characters.

It's too bad about the plot (and the clumsy writing), because the set-up is great. M.J. Holliday is a psychic medium who lives in Boston* and works as a professional ghost-buster along with her computer hacker partner, Gilley-the-gay-sidekick. When Dr. Steven Sable hires them to investigate his recently deceased grandfather's hunting lodge, where strange things have been happening, M.J. has no idea that she's walking into a house full of old secrets--and a few new ones.

There are a lot of problems with this book beyond the plot. I liked Gilley, but halfway through he's conveniently put out of action and hardly appears in the rest of the book except to do some "hacking," and even then M.J. and Steven Sable find out almost all the same information Gilley does (thanks to a lot of coincidences and some breaking and entering). They also withhold information from Gilley for no reason that I could see. M.J.'s and Gilley's friendship has no depth beyond cheering each other on when it comes to picking up men. And while M.J. starts out as a strong character, she has that annoying weakness of paranormal romance heroines: her strength evaporates when a big strong man shows up. Steven Sable is an asshole, but she thinks he's hot so she forgives him for being patronizing, demanding, controlling, and secretive. Oh, and Steven Sable's difficulty with English words and idioms is annoying rather than funny.

The ending was the worst ending in any mystery I've ever read. Seriously, it was so bad I couldn't believe the editor okayed it. It's doesn't even make sense. Up until the ending, I was willing to put up with everything else because the parts with the ghosts are kind of interesting, but now this book is going to the used book store.

*of course she lives in Boston. What the hell? Are all books now set in Boston by law?

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Deadtown by Nancy Holzner

Vicky Vaughn is a shapeshifter and a professional demon slayer, mostly of demons infesting people's dreams, although she's good at taking down harpies too. Like most urban fantasy heroines, she lives in Boston (I don't know what's wrong with Boston in real life, but it's sure a mess in fantasyland). A few years before, Boston was the focus of a short-lived but nasty virus that killed people instantly--and then reanimated them. The resulting zombies, along with other paranormals like werewolves, vampires, and Vicky herself, are forced to live in the restricted section of Boston now called Deadtown. Paranormals have few rights in Massachusetts and none elsewhere, but Vicky's (sorta-kinda) boyfriend, a lawyer and a werewolf, is working on that. Days before a key election, though, Vicky has her hands full dealing with a Hellion--a powerful demon that seems to be targeting her.

I enjoyed Deadtown thoroughly and I'm looking forward to the sequel, which will be released in a few weeks. It's not a perfect book, though. I liked Vicky, especially when she lost her temper and opened the whoopass can (not a moment too soon, either); on the other hand, she misses some pretty obvious hints about what's going on.

The worldbuilding is interesting, but I thought it was a little over-the-top when it came to paranormal rights. Seems like in a world where demons are a real threat and where humans can wield magic, paranormals would fit right in. Still, I do like the way Holzner explores human rights and racism in the coded way that fantasy novelists can.

The plot kept me riveted and I read the book straight through yesterday evening. Holzner has an easy, competent style that doesn't draw attention to itself and her characters feel realistic. I did find Tina the teenage zombie sidekick ridiculously annoying. Hopefully she won't end up in the sequel. The vampires and werewolves are pretty stock, but Vicky's own shapeshifting abilities are different and interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing how Holzner develops the world and characters in the next book.

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The Mall of Cthulhu by Seamus Cooper

I bought this book because of the title. Well, and I'd heard it was funny. And I liked the cover. I was a little hesitant, though, because the last Night Shade Books book I read was not only barely readable, it was barely edited. Fortunately, this one was both readable and edited. Not a single homophone error in it!

Ten years ago, Ted saved Laura from a band of vampires posing as a college sorority. Now Laura's an FBI agent dissatisfied with her job, while Ted--who wakes up screaming almost every night, remembering the horrors he experienced--works in a coffee shop and tries to forget the past. Unfortunately, Ted accidentally steals a CD containing eldritch knowledge, and the next thing he knows, he's on the run from both the law and white supremacist cultists who are trying to call up the Old Ones. He has no one to turn to except Laura.

It sounds like a romp, and to some extent it is. There's a lot of action, very funny dialogue, and situations that skirt along the edge of WTF-ness in a most satisfying way. But I was delighted that the characters are the real focus of the book.

For ten years, Ted and Laura have had a strange relationship. Laura's gay and Ted's straight, so their relationship is platonic; but their friendship is strained by Ted's neediness--no one else believes in vampires, and he needs someone who can understand his past--and by Laura's frustration with having Ted as her shadow. I enjoyed seeing them deal with their relationship at least as much as I enjoyed their attempts to thwart the cultists.

And yes, the book is very funny. It's also surprisingly touching and well-written. It is, in short, extremely good.

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Unshapely Things by Mark Del Franco

It's not that I didn't like Unshapely Things, it's just that I never connected with it very deeply. I finished reading the book last night, but when I sat down to write this post I had to think just to recall the main character's name.

Connor Gray is a druid, a former bigwig in the Boston chapter of the Guild, which investigates crimes done by fairies, elves, and other fey. After an accident that lost him most of his magical powers, though, he's down on his luck and helping the Boston police on a freelance basis. The current investigation is of a string of murders of fairy prostitutes, murders that seem to be building to some kind of ritual that may be related to the Guild itself.

I had trouble figuring out the worldbuilding in the book, which I think was compounded by a certain lack of description in general. I never got a good idea of what Connor looked like, and I certainly never figured out why druid in this world is a separate species, not a job description. The fairies and elves didn't seem that much different from humans, either. Although Connor lives in a part of Boston dubbed the Weird because of all the fey residents, I never got a feeling of otherworldliness or strangeness.

The plot was interesting, though. I didn't guess the murderer, although I knew perfectly well who the murderer wasn't. Connor never figures that out, though, until the very end. Connor is pretty dumb. He walks into traps, sometimes even after he realizes this is probably a trap. How dumb can you get? I got very frustrated with him every time he followed a line of thinking that was glaringly wrong, which was much of the time. I found it hard to believe that he was ever a Guild investigator of any repute, even with lots of powers to draw on.

Connor also isn't a very sympathetic character, or maybe I just couldn't connect with him. I found him standoffish with everyone, including me-the-reader. Many of the minor characters are more interesting than he is, including Stinkwort the flit--think pixie--and one of Connor's former coworkers who helps him with some research. I might have liked the book better if it was about those two.

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Wild Hunt by Margaret Ronald

One of the reasons I started Skunk Cat Book Reviews was to help myself keep track of all the urban fantasies I've been reading in the last year or so. They tend to blend together in my memory and they all have sequels. Margaret Ronald's Wild Hunt would have been a good candidate for me to go back and read my review of the first book in the series, Spiral Hunt--not that I reviewed it, of course, since that was pre-Skunk Cat. That's nothing against the quality of either of Ronald's books; in fact, so far the series is nicely different from the usual urban fantasy fare. I just have a terrible memory.

Anyway, Wild Hunt stands alone pretty well. It picks up a few months after the events of Spiral Hunt. Evie Scelan is still a bike courier in Boston and she's still trying to keep her head down despite her increasing notoriety in the city's undercurrent--the magical subculture. She's an unusual type of magician called a hound, able to trace people and things magically, a skill which she likens to scenting and hunting. In the last book, she used her skills to take down a group called the Fiana; now that they're gone, people seem to expect her to take their place running the undercurrent.

Evie's not interested in taking over--except that she actually is. She wants to keep Boston peaceful for non-mages and mages alike, and she particularly wants to help her friend Nick and his little sister. In fact, that's the main problem with Evie: she wants to help, even if it means putting herself into danger. When an old woman hires Evie to find something stolen by an ancestor, the danger level just goes up and up.

Evie is a likable character, cautious but stubborn. I got frustrated with her sometimes because (unlike many urban fantasy heroines), she's not one to solve problems with violence--no matter how much I wanted her to just hit one or two characters repeatedly with a rock. I also got frustrated with her for missing clues that seemed so obvious that they practically had "CLUE" stickers on them in neon colors.

Evie's relationship with Nick--which is complicated by something I can't tell you about without spoilering it horribly--progresses realistically, which is one of the book's great strengths. The plot twists and turns and the writing is good; I especially like the way Ronald describes scents. The only real disappointment I had was with the ending. The main mysteries of the plot are solved, but nothing is resolved. I didn't really feel satisfied when I finished the book, since it was so much of a setup for the sequel. (And yes, this is something I've brought up several times recently. I don't know if I've just started noticing it or if it's getting more prevalent.)

At least when the next book comes out, I'll have this review to get me up to speed.

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