Gwen’s review of Any Given Doomsday (The Phoenix Chronicles, Book 1) by Lori Handeland
Urban fantasy released by St.Martin’s 4 Nov 08

It’s never a good sign when I can’t remember the details of a book three days after I finish it.  And, even though this book wasn’t bad, I just didn’t retain enough of it to even recall why the heroine was the heroine.  I mean, it was a pretty typical urban fantasy (one of my fav genres) – it’s even told in first person (eye roll) – so what was I complaining about?  It’s taken me a couple of weeks to get my head wrapped around it.  One word, just one damning little word: typical. 

This new genre – urban fantasy – has already sprouted “typical” entries: told in first person, heroine has latent paranormal abilities, heroine kicks ass, there are some serious baddies who don’t hesitate to shed buckets of blood, it’s a series, etc.  I’m not saying any of this is bad.  All I’m saying is that it’s all just so “done.”  Done and dusted.  And the genre is barely potty-trained!

My only other complaint about AGD is the story took forever to develop.   I kept wondering when on earth we were going to get on with it and stop dithering around with the heroine’s inability to cope with everything.  The reluctant hero/heroine – that’s another “done” urban fantasy element.

Now to what was good.  The premise, for all it’s feeling of being a retread, was actually interesting (by the end of the book :-\ ).   This is a unique and very interesting world that Handeland is building.  I just hope she does more to differentiate it from the raft of other entries in the genre that sound almost identical.

Also, the chemistry between the heroine and her second love interest, Sawyer, is SMOKIN’.  I was so cheering on that story arc – didn’t care if she EVER hooked up with the guy she’s ostensibly in lurve with, Jimmy.  I wanted some Sawyer action and we get it – in spades. Here’s hoping there’s more of it in the next book.

This entry by Handeland was good if not stupendous, not awful, and slightly above average.  The next in the series – Doomsday Can Wait – releases 28 Apr 2009.  Will I read it?  Yes, but perhaps not as soon as it is released.  I recommend this book to urban fantasy fans and fans of Handeland’s writing in general. It’s an interesting enough book that it should be able to stand out in what is becoming a crowded field.

Grade: B-

Summary:

Darkness will summon her…

Elizabeth Phoenix once used her unique skills as a psychic to help in the Milwaukee Police Department’s fight against injustice. But when Liz’s foster mother is found viciously murdered-and Liz is discovered unconscious at the scene-her only memory of the crime comes in the form of terrifying dreams…of creatures more horrific than anything Liz has seen in real life. What do these visions mean? And what in the world do they have to do with her former lover, Jimmy Sanducci?

To places she’s never been before…

While the police question Jimmy in the murder, Jimmy opens Liz’s eyes to a supernatural war that has raged since the dawn of time in which innocent people are hunted by malevolent beings disguised as humans. Only a chosen few have the ability to fight their evil, and Jimmy believes Liz is among them. Now, with her senses heightened, new feelings are rising within Liz-ones that re-ignite her dangerous attraction to Jimmy. But Jimmy has a secret that will rock Liz to her core…and put the survival of the human race in peril….

Read an excerpt.

Other books in the series:

and Apocalypse Happens (Book 3), Fall 2009