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Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

Marked, Alex Verus #9, London Urban Fantasy

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Our friend Mage Alex Verus certainly has grown in stature since the first novel, Fated. Initially Alex was a bit naive, wanting only to have a peaceful, private life, running his magic store and providing a bit of support to Adepts like Luna. It is this commitment to his friends and his abilities as a top diviner mage that inevitably draw him deeper into the Light Council politics and mark him as an opponent for several of the senior leadership.

Marked is book number 9 and Alex has been busy. In prior novels the Light Council sucked him into operations that went bad and made him a top target for several Light council members. In order to protect his friends and save his life Alex agreed to be Dark mage Morden’s aide when Morden accepts a seat on the Light Council. Alex has tried to distance himself from the dark mages for years and didn’t want anything to do with Morden or other dark mages, but has thrown himself into his new responsibilities. Now, Marked opens with Morden imprisoned, Alex as his aide has Morden’s seat on the Junior Council.

Alex is decisive and skilled. The first scenes in Marked show him leading a team of Light mages and security forces to reclaim a nasty artifact and put the fear of defeat into one of his many enemies’ minions. Later the Light Council call upon Alex to work with Morden to entrap Richard Drakh. Alex realizes it’s a very bad idea but also that he is curious (an often fatal flaw for diviners) and eager to stay abreast of the situation.

Alex, his friends Luna, Variam and Anne want the Adepts, less skilled than mages and whom the Light Council refuses to protect, to have a voice and to be protected. When the plan to trap Richard goes horribly awry it traps a few hundred Adepts in between the fighting. Alex steps forward to lead the Light forces and give the Adepts a way out of the building. Later of course the council blames him for the fiasco and pushes him into further action that leads to Morden getting free, and of course, setting us up for a book 11.

One of the best things about Benedict Jacka’s Alex Verus series is how Alex grows and matures in his magic and leadership. He really would rather lay low and stay out of the power games between Light and Dark but he gets involved to protect Adepts and his friends. He particularly worries about Anne, life mage with tremendous power, whom several Dark mages would like to recruit.

Marked has several subplots. We’ve met Arachne, a giant spider, possibly THE Arachne of legend, before and she is Alex’s oldest friend. Arachne several cryptic things that sound as if she may be either killed or fading away. Alex hears this when he’s not able to follow up, leaving the possible situation to future novels.

Jacka creates realistic characters, one of the better people-builders in the fantasy genre. His characters, especially Alex, grow, mature, change, display foibles and flaws just like ordinary people. Some of the minor characters from prior novels have smaller roles in Marked, as the action and emotion center on Alex and Anne.

One point that puzzles me with the Verus series is the economics. We see the Light Council is rich as are most of the Light Mages. Yet what do these folks do for money? Most are not employed in the regular sense, nor own businesses, and the Light rules restrict using magic to compel people to give you money. Alex implies that the Council taxes mages to support itself, which means there is a lot of money sloshing around with no obvious source.

Overall Benedict Jacka continues to write excellent fantasy in an urban, modern setting. I enjoyed Marked and plan to read the 10th book Fallen.

Superhero Detective For Hire: Superhero Detective Series, Book One by Darius Brasher

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Superhero Detective For Hire is a fast, cute read with some pleasing character development and nifty backstory and plot.  Our hero detective Truman Lord appeared a few times in Darius Brasher’s other books Sentinels and Rogues, and I thought he was interesting enough to check out the full-length novel featuring his exploits.

Lord is a wise-cracking private detective who happens to be a superhero, able to do almost anything with water.  He hides behind his smart aleck ladies man persona while actually smart and persistent.   He makes fun of himself to himself, giving himself alliterative names such as Truman the Tenacious and asks random ladies whether they are dazzled by his good looks.

Truman Lord takes a case from a university president who is being blackmailed by her boy toy lover.  Oops.  The boy toy is a meta human too and can record anything from his perspective and put it to video.  This skill serves him well when it comes to getting ladies to pay up.  Lord takes the case and finds himself behind the eight ball with dead bodies piling up and a shortage of clues.  Needless to say he manages to solve the mystery.

Superhero Detective for Hire is a fast read, easy to follow as Brasher takes care to tell us where we are and why, who the other people are and why we should care.  For example, at the end we revisit a minor character we met earlier and Truman tells us just enough to jog our memory as to who this person is.

I liked Superhero Detective for Hire because it was funny and the super hero aspects were low key.  (I really do not want to slog through pages someone’s powers.)  Truman Lord doesn’t take himself or the whole superhero panoply seriously and the story is a lot of fun.

At the same time Brasher does a good job helping us get to know Truman.  He is far more than a jokesmith – albeit one with good taste in clothes – and I will enjoy his exploits in future stories in this series.

4 Stars

The Artifact Enigma: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure The Daniel Codex Book 1

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The Artifact Enigma: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure by Judith Berens, Martha Carr and Michael Anderle is the first book in a (so far) three book series, The Daniel Codex.  The back story and plot elements are mouth-watering:  Magic is swarming over the earth because our magical sister planet Oricera now aligns fully to us and magical people now walk and live in our midst.  At the same time our CIA is trying to understand a separate group of aliens, people from other planets outside our solar system.

Daniel Winters is a CIA agent because he wants to serve and protect at the same time he helps his grandfather with his combination magical oddity and antiques business.  Daniel stumbles into a deep plot to do something with the aliens.  In fact the CIA already erased one entire town after messing up with an alien meet and greet.  Or something.  Daniel really doesn’t know anything about this other CIA group’s motives or goals, but he decides to throw in with a rogue group dedicated to keeping us and the aliens and Oricera safe from trigger-happy CIA folks.

This sounds like it should be a great story, but The Artifact Enigma is flat.  I feel no connection to any of the characters and it doesn’t appear that the authors tried to involve readers into the story.  The plot moves fast with plenty of action, but even the action is subdued, distant, doesn’t feel real and left me just not caring.

The final sequence is particularly telling as Daniel becomes judge, jury and executioner for a gang trying to take over his neighborhood.  After pages of high-minded yakking about duty and service and not wanting to kill people, our hero just walks into the gang house and kills everyone.

I doubt I’ll read any more of this series, although the plots sure sound tempting.

3 Stars

Bullets and Blades – A Montague & Strong Detective Novel Orlando Sanchez Book 7

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Orlando Sanchez started his Montague and Strong supernatural detective series with a bang, rattling off four  enjoyable novels in a row, each building on the strength of the characters Simon Strong, a normal human, and Tristan Montague, a mage plus assorted demi-gods, a hellhound, vampires, were-creatures and more.  Lots of fun to read, lots of action, plenty of character development, humor and a sense of danger.  The fifth novel was far less well-written due to some irritating new characters and Simon’s sudden descent into passive stupidity.  Book six was only slightly better and I wondered whether Sanchez had lost his magic touch.

Book 7, Bullets and Blades, is not quite up to the standards of books one through three, but still far better than book five.  True we still have LD and TK Tush – thankfully with minor roles – and too much “a miracle occurs here” type magic, but on the plus side Simon has his brain back.

Overall this is a big improvement, although I still used my Kindle Unlimited to borrow instead of buy.  It will take a few more top quality novels from Sanchez before I plunk down cold hard cash.

4 Stars

Shadow Detective Supernatural Dark Urban Fantasy Series: Books 1-3 by William Massa

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Shadow Detective is a 3-book set starring Mike Raven, an occult expert who fights supernatural monsters.  This has become a popular sub genre in the last few years with books ranging from highly successful Dresden series to an assortment of schlock.  I’d put Shadow Detective slightly above the middle.

I read these books on vacation about a month ago and had to re-open to recall what they were about, not the mark of a compelling series.  The novels are reasonably well-written, with decent dialogue that advances the characters and the action, and the plots move fast.

Unfortunately the plot of the first novel in the set, Cursed City, is weak and ridiculous.  Celeste claims to be the victim of her father’s lust for power, that he bargained her soul to the devil when she was a baby.  In reality she is working with her father.  I have never understood how anyone, once they know beyond a shadow of doubt that hell exists, could possibly want anything to do with demons.

The second and third books are better, where Mike Raven fights a vampire who has gained demonic powers.

Author Massa does some modest character development on the three main heroes, Mike, his mentor Skulick and Jane Archer whom Mike loves.

Overall this is a readable series if you enjoy this type of monster/demon/vampire/magic conflict.  Personally I find the novels where the conflict is between us humans and supernatural monsters are less enjoyable and have weaker characters than those where the primary conflict is between people, with a few supernaturals thrown in.  It’s just harder to make the villains anything but blackest evil when they are demons and the most believable stories allow villains to have some redeeming qualities.

3 Stars

 

 

 

 

 

Your Name in Fire by Kara Emory – Psychopathic Vampire Stalker vs. Video Game Designer

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Who would win?  A nasty, vicious control freak who happens to be a vampire or a kind, rather normal video game designer?  Can the game designer save Wendy/Dawn from the vampire Francis who wants to control and own her, and who, in fact has turned her into a vampire?

Your Name in Fire is an unusual blend of traditional suspense/psychological thriller with paranormal romance.  Author Kara Emory develops her story by creating interesting people out of what could have been stock characters, then adds paranormal mystery to top it off.  Overall the novel is about people and how they solve what appear to be insolvable problems.

Connor meets Wendy/Dawn working for a video game company on the verge of launching its blockbuster game.  The video game launch offers a good backdrop for the action

The writing is quite good with the author using dialogue plus action and inner thoughts to tell us about the people.  Flashbacks of events from 18 years earlier help explain the current situation without belaboring the problems.

I enjoyed Your Name in Fire far more than I expected from a newbie author.  I typically don’t read books about vampires or video games but was enticed to try because of the great reviews.

4 Stars

Titan by Daniel Mignault and Jackson Dean Chase – Greek Mythology Turned Real

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Titan by Daniel Mignault and Jackson Dean Chase is subtitled “An Epic Novel of Urban Fantasy and Greek Mythology” and is the first book in new series The Gods War. Mignault and Chase have created an unusual blend of ancient Greek mythology with vicious high school and societal control.

Titan’s hero is young Andrus Eaves, adopted son of a rich couple, in his final year of school training to go into the warrior service of the New Greek Theocracy.  Titan’s world developed because the primeval Greek god Kronus defeated his children including Zeus and Thanatos (Hades or Death), and rules supreme over the tiny remnant of earth left after the devastating war.  Kronus “mercifully” let humans live, providing him with worshipers and service.  No one can die, not matter how injured, because Thanatos is imprisoned.

Andrus pretty much takes his life for granted, is satisfied with his future service until he begins to have segues that disorient and distract him.  He loses face when he loses a climbing test to his arch rival, and his teacher then assigns both young men to a final test, with a catch:  both must pair with one of the weakest people in their class and both must make it to the top before the other pair.  The evil arch priest takes note of the contest and this spawns the action.

Back Story and Setting

Mignault and Chase have built a horrific world, one where everyone is at the mercy of Kronus and his sadistic priests.  Everyone must attend temple weekly and kneel on stone floors for hours.  Any who fall over or settle back – even old and infirm – are turned into “worms”, without legs or arms, and thrown to Kronus to eat.  Anyone out after sunset curfew is fair game for centaurs who enjoy eating people, although rich folks may purchase tokens from the priesthood that allow them later hours.

The world has some odd side notes.  For instance, it is set on the US West Coast and Andrus’ parents are rich because he discovered oil on their former property.  Andrus’ father drives a new red Ferrari, although Europe and the Farrari factory are demolished.

Rich folks own slaves and the priests or the security force can condemn anyone to be a slave.  Poor people live in a ghetto area with few services and very little opportunity to escape unless they are able to pass an exam.  Andrus’ climbing partner is one of these poor folks and if he and Andrus lose then he will suffer greatly.

Characters

The characters were the weakest link in the story.  Andrus is fairly well developed but his new friend and climbing partner is less so.  Andrus meets and supposedly falls in love with his friend’s sister, but the romance feels more a literary convention than anything real.

The villains are stock characters:  the bloodthirsty and vicious priest, the nasty and vindictive centaur.  Andrus’ parents and their slave butler are reasonably well done, obviously with mysteries that are not revealed in this first novel.

Overall

Titan has some YA fantasy conventions, most obvious with the romance and the easy-read writing style.  The authors don’t challenge anyone’s brain with this book.

I enjoyed Titan for the most part, despite the tedious and unnecessary romance, and may possibly try the next book in the series.  You can get Titan and the rest of the series on Kindle Unlimited.

3 Stars

Bangkok Warlock: A Mark Vedis Supernatural Thriller Book 1 (Southeast Asia Paranormal Police Department)

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Bangkok Warlock by John P. Logsdon is book 1 in the Mark Vedis Supernatural Thriller series, also called Southeast Asia Paranormal Police Department.  Bangkok Warrior uses the theme of a supernatural police force protecting us humans and borrows the Paranormal Police Department Logsdon uses in other novels.

This is an OK novel, not bad and not great, a decent read while I was camping.  The main character, Mark Vedis, is an unassuming low-level mage in the Paranormal Police Department until he inadvertently bonds with a demon.  Not to worry, the demons in this series aren’t devils, more like powerful, obnoxious paranormal creatures it’s best to avoid.

Mark then must take on more challenging responsibilities and lead a new team in Bangkok.

The author gives us almost nothing about Bangkok as the focus is on the paranormal side, not the earth side.  The characters are OK, again not bad, reasonably interesting and somewhat fleshed out, but not compelling.

Overall Bangkok Warrior is a decent read for a lazy afternoon, best if you have a Kindle Unlimited account.

3 Stars

 

Heirs of Grace by Tim Pratt – Magic and Family

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Heirs of Grace by Tim Pratt came up on BookBub, came up on Amazon recommendations, came up on Goodreads.  I’m not sure just why it comes up so much as the novel is OK but nothing great.

The plot is pretty basic.  Youngish woman inherits an old house complete with ancient magic (source never explained) along with a good-looking lawyer bound to server her and some creepy half-siblings.  Two of the siblings want to kill her, but she manages.  So far so good, not terribly original or compelling, but this type of novel can be a fun read if the characters are good.

Heirs of Grace just misses.  Main character Bekah is OK, her romantic interest is blah, her eldest sister is hung up on pleasing their dead father and her brother is a homicidal power-mad nasty piece of work.  None of them feel real and the action and conflicts also slide right past me.

I read Heirs of Grace on vacation and it was engaging enough to finish, but not so good that I will look for more by this author.  Thankfully this is a Kindle Unlimited, not a purchase.

Note:  There is some cursing and bad language and Bekah is above the petty concerns of normal morality.

3 Stars

Homecoming: A Montague & Strong Detective Novel by Orlando Sanchez

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I liked Homecoming, just as I’ve liked almost all the Montague and Strong series, but it wasn’t quite up to the standards author Orlando Sanchez set with his first four novels in the series.

On the plus side we have the usual badness from Monty and Simon, we have Uncle Dex, we have Peaches, we have a super villain Oliver who wants to take over the mages first, then the world, we have Professor Ziller, he whom everyone refers to when they discuss the most  esoteric (and scary) magic and we have non-stop action.

So what’s wrong?  First, people just die for what seems like little reason, sacrificing themselves for little gain.  The bodies pile up, which is not uncommon in a M&S book, but usually it’s clear why they are dying.  In Homecoming why do the villainous side-kicks throw their lives away?  Their goal is for Oliver to rule; it is hard to see how that motivates minions and henchmen to throw themselves on Monty’s magic swords.  (I’m having a hard time imagining Oliver’s motivation speech.)

Second, I cannot abide new characters LD and TK Tush.  Who wants people who care only about how scary and how much magical power they have?

Third, the byplay between Simon and Monty is the centerpiece of the M&S novels, it is the reason the stories work.  Homecoming has the interaction but it doesn’t feel as immediate as other novels.  Simon seems to play catch up much of the novel.

Author Sanchez says he is letting us further into the M&S world with each novel, letting us peek behind the scenes and learn more about each character.  He gave us quite a bit on Monty in Homecoming and its predecessor Silver Clouds, Dirty Sky.  I enjoy getting to know the characters and the feeling we truly are getting acquainted.

I couldn’t put Homecoming down, just as with the prior novels in the series.  The super-fast pace has a downside, though, in that a couple of months after reading it I didn’t recall the events very well.  I had to go back and check a couple things when the sequel, Dragons and Demigods, came out (which of course I immediately purchased and read.)  Much as I enjoy speed-of-light plots, it might be wise to linger a bit over some of the Simon/Monty or Peaches scenes and let us readers savor the pleasure.

4 Stars