Ash’s review of Demon Song (Blood Singer Series, Book 3) by Cat Adams
Urban Fantasy published by Tor 01 Mar 11

It makes me sad that this series is getting less interesting as it goes on, I had really high hopes at the start of it.

It wasn’t until the last third of the book that I started getting into it. Before then it is kind of boring. There is no suspense, the build up to the final battle is slow and I don’t want to read about Celia’s normal day-to-day life. Sure, it might be full of drama, but there’s no real action. I feel like I am waiting the whole time for something big to happen. I want to know more about demons, more about magic, and more about sirens. I don’t feel like I know any more than I did at the end of Siren Song.

I think what kept me going is that I enjoy the characters. Celia makes it easy to be inside her head, and her friends and family are a great match to her. Of course, there is also the little bit of romance that sucks me in. Typically I hate love triangles. I will even not read a book if there is one, so I’m not too happy that one pops up in Demon Song. If it doesn’t last long, I can overlook it because it is written well, and the guys aren’t so bad. So even without action, I am sure I will keep reading this series, because I’m growing attached to everyone.

I’m not sure how or if Celia has grown as a person. Demon Song makes it seem like the next book (assuming there is one) will perhaps be a turning point for her. I hope it is, because I feel almost like I have read the same book three times. Something’s gotta give, and I hope it is for the better. I would hate to give up on this series.

Grade: C+

Summary:

Bodyguard Celia Graves plies her trade in a world where bloodthirsty vampires roam the night and street corner psychics have real powers. A vamp attack turned Celia into a unique creature who finds sunlight painful and must take all her food in liquid form—but who still possesses her human heart, mind, and soul.

The attack also awakened a hidden part of her heritage: Celia is part Siren, able to enthrall men . . . and enrage women . . . without half-trying.  Needless to say, her bodyguard business has taken off: who wouldn’t want to be protected by a sexy, extremely capable woman who is half-vampire, half-Siren princess?

An ancient rift between the demonic dimension and our own—sealed during the destruction of Atlantis—begins to open, threatening to loose all the demons of hell on humanity (including the one personally bent on destroying Celia).  Celia’s hellish recent experiences might have have given her the unique combination of abilities needed to close the rift.  But to overcome a death curse which nearly guarantees her failure, she’ll need to join forces with people she no longer trusts . . . and put people she has come to care about directly in harm’s way.

Read an excerpt here.

Other books in this series:

Ash’s review of Siren Song (Blood Singer Series, Book 2) by Cat Adams
Urban Fantasy released by Tor 28 SEP 10

I really enjoyed the first book, and for some reason I put off reading this one. I think I worried it wouldn’t be as good or things would happen to annoy me. Turns out I had nothing to worry about and I ended up forcing myself to put it down and go to bed.

Celia is a character I find it easy to like. She is yet another tough, kick-ass heroine, but there are things that keep her human, even though she isn’t really one anymore. She’s confident but not cocky. She has found out the reasons why some things happen to her, and she doesn’t let it give her an excuse. She keeps fighting and doing what’s right.

In Siren Song, Celia is dealing with a broken heart, a demon who wants to own her, and an unknown enemy who has been after her since she was a child. We get to meet the other sirens as well. I wasn’t sure I would like them, since it’s just kind of thrown into the mix at the end of Blood Song. I feel like it would be yet another obstacle for Celia, but it turns out to be a good thing for her. I also enjoy the new characters and I hope we get more of them in the next book.

Celia’s personal relationships are changing everywhere and some were good, others not so much. Celia is dealing with a broken heart, kind of. She doesn’t really have time to dwell on it, but that whole scene breaks my heart as well.  I’m not a fan of Bruno, so I’m not too sad to see him go, and honestly I hope he stays gone. Though I do like Creede and the relationship possibilities that are there, I know it is too soon for anything with anyone. I still think there is going to be something with Kevin, but me and Celia are both mad at him right now.

There are plenty of fight scenes, magic, and ghosts.  What makes this book stand out a little more to me is that there is as much focus on other things besides going after the big bad. It is a pretty good balance, and it made me care more about the characters. I am intrigued by the demon who wants Celia, and I assume the next book (Demon Song) will have more about him. I look forward to the next and I don’t plan to wait as long to read it.

Grade: B

Summary:

Nothing if not resilient, Celia Graves is slowly adjusting to being a half-human, half-vampire Abomination. But her troubles are far from over. Her best friend’s murder is still unsolved, the cops are convinced she should be in jail, and her old lover, the magician Bruno DeLuca, has resurfaced in her life, saying he has something important to tell her.

The vampire attack that transformed Celia kicked her latent Siren abilities into high gear, and now she’s been summoned to the Sirens’ island to justify her existence—and possibly fight for her life—in front of the Siren Queen. Celia isn’t sure she’ll survive to make the trip. The demon she defeated in Blood Song hasn’t exactly gone quietly—he’s left Celia suffering from a powerful curse.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Liviania’s review of Discord’s Apple by Carrie Vaughn
Fantasy released by Tor 6 July 10

I knew little about the plot of Discord’s Apple before I started; I simply wanted to read it since I like Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series.  So I was quite pleased to see several elements I like used together: Homer, Virgil, King Arthur, a story within a story, and just a touch of politics.

Evie Walker is a comic book author, using real world events to write about a team of commandos.  Now, with the world on the brink of nuclear war, she can barely tell who is good and bad to write the next chapter.  But she’s distracted from her work by the impending death of her father and her apparent assumption as his duties protecting various objects from myth, legend, and fairytales.

Hera wants the apple which started the Trojan War.  Others, including Alex – a former Greek warrior – want to keep it out of her hands in order to keep the chaos of the apple from disturbing the delicate world situation.  I liked Alex and enjoyed the passages detailing his backstory, but I felt like his relationship with Evie was underdeveloped.  It felt like they had to get together because they were the male and female lead.  His relationship with Apollo was more complex and intriguing because it didn’t fall into a standard relationship pattern.

I also felt like that the passages about Evie’s job pulled me out of the story.  She was supposedly scripting the comic, but the passages she wrote were all verse, nothing like a comic script.  (Also, I kept wondering who her letterer was.  I did assume the artist took care of both pencils and colors.)  Tracker’s story held some interest in itself and told about Evie’s character, but it just didn’t feel necessary.

Now that I’ve said what doesn’t work for me, I must admit I liked Discord’s Apple quite a bit.  Vaughn’s near-apocalyptic world of checkpoints and terrorist attacks felt lived-in by the characters and well-developed.  As someone familiar with the story sources she was drawing on, I felt she did a good job of updating the legends while adhering closely to the original material.  Those who haven’t read the Iliad, Odyssey, or Aeneid, might not get as big of a kick out of it.

(I don’t have a translation recommendation for the Aeneid, but I do recommend Fagles’s translations of Homer.  He’s got a direct style that captures the action well, especially in the Iliad.)

Discord’s Apple was a fun modern fantasy.  Those looking for something heavier on the romance might avoid Discord’s Apple, though there is a small love triangle.  Discord’s Apple is a standalone novel, but if Vaugn wrote more in this universe I would read it.

Grade: B-

Summary:

When Evie Walker goes home to spend time with her dying father, she discovers that his creaky old house in Hope’s Fort, Colorado, is not the only legacy she stands to inherit. Hidden behind the old basement door is a secret and magical storeroom, a place where wondrous treasures from myth and legend are kept safe until they are needed again. The magic of the storeroom prevents access to any who are not intended to use the items. But just because it has never been done does not mean it cannot be done.

And there are certainly those who will give anything to find a way in.

Evie must guard the storeroom against ancient and malicious forces, protecting the past and the future even as the present unravels around them. Old heroes and notorious villains alike will rise to fight on her side or to undermine her most desperate gambits. At stake is the fate of the world, and the prevention of nothing less than the apocalypse. In the same month, along with this all-new hardcover, Tor will publish a new novel in Carrie Vaughn’s popular, New York Times bestselling urban fantasy series featuring werewolf talk radio host, Kitty Norville. Kitty Goes to War will be the eighth book in this successful mass market series.

Read an excerpt here. (Follow site directions.)

Liviania’s review of Kitty Goes to War (Kitty Norville, Book Eight) by Carrie Vaughn
Urban fantasy published by Tor 29 Jun 10

The Kitty Norville series is both consistent and surprising.  Carrie Vaughn does a good job of giving the Kitty series a unique feeling among the sea of urban fantasies available.  For one, the series remains light-hearted despite the high body count.

Vaughn doesn’t handle the body count as well in Kitty Goes to War as she did in Kitty’s House of Horrors.  Instead of characters we’ve learned to love dying, the lives of entirely new characters are at risk.  Vaughn does what she can, but with two plots going on I didn’t learn to love the new guys.  The new guys are a group of soldiers who were discovered to be werewolves after their commanding officer died.  Now, Kitty has been enlisted to help get them under control and useful.

The other plot involves Harold Franklin, the CEO of Speedy Mart – a Walmart where supernatural events tend to happen.  It also involves Cormac, though he’s off screen for too much of the novel.  I’ve been waiting with bated breath to read more about him since he left prison.  Vaughn teases us throughout the novel with the knowledge that he somehow changed in prison, but has to keep Cormac off screen to pull the twist off.  However, it does provide for interesting situations in his future appearances.

Yet Cormac’s appearances do help to confirm that the Ben-Kitty relationship is going well.  There are also some funny bits with Ben and the military, who don’t realize that Ben is a closeted werewolf.  I was, like most, originally surprised that Ben and Kitty got together.  But with each book I like their marriage more.  They’re very stable.  They trust each other and work to protect each other’s backs.

It’s also engaging to watch Kitty assert herself as a leader of the soldiers.  She’s managed to climb to the top of the ladder from the bottom, and now she goes into confrontations with confidence.  Kitty’s emotional arc is one of the greatest strengths of the series.

Kitty Goes to War is an acceptable place to start the series.  Some events in the novel pertain to the series arc, but it stands alone well.  After all, Kitty is introducing the soldiers to normal werewolf life.  It’s rare that eight books in a series is still inviting to new readers.

Grade: B

Summary:
Kitty Norville, Alpha werewolf and host of The Midnight Hour, a radio call-in show, is contacted by a friend at the NIH’s Center for the Study of Paranatural Biology. Three Army soldiers recently returned from the war in Afghanistan are being held at Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs. They’re killer werewolves—and post traumatic stress has left them unable to control their shape-shifting and unable to interact with people. Kitty agrees to see them, hoping to help by bringing them into her pack.

Meanwhile, Kitty gets sued for libel by CEO Harold Franklin after featuring Speedy Mart–his nationwide chain of 24-hour convenience stores with a reputation for attracting supernatural unpleasantness–on her show.

Very bad weather is on the horizon.

Read an excerpt here. (Follow directions of site.)

Other books in this series:

Ash’s review of Blood Song (Blood Singer Series Book 1) by Cat Adams
Urban Fantasy released by Tor 08 Jun 10

It seems like lately to read a good urban fantasy, you need a guide to go along with it. It’s great to read one where the world is fresh and easy to understand, and Cat Adams has done that with Blood Song.

I get really tired of having to keep so many different worlds, beings, and rules straight in my head when I read urban fantasy. It can be frustrating and lately more times than not I will choose a different genre to just not deal with it. I was so happy once I started reading Blood Song to see that it’s pretty simple, at least so far.

By the end of the book you know there is more you don’t know, and I liked that it wasn’t all shoved down the reader’s throat at once. There are all the usual suspects, demons, vampires, magic users, and werewolves, but Cat Adams writes them in a way that makes them feel less used up.

Our heroine is Celia, a bodyguard who has the misfortune of being turned into an abomination. Not really a vampire and not really a human, she has to learn how to handle her new reality, and I thought her feelings and reactions were realistic for her. It looks like as the books go on we will be learning and growing with her, and while frustrating at times to not know everything, it left me wanting more as soon as I turned the last page.

While it’s not the most action-packed or exciting urban fantasy, I love most of it. I would have liked to have a few more things explained instead of hinted at, and I wanted to see more of a certain werewolf who seems to mean more to Celia than she knows.

I am definitely looking forward to the next one, which I expect to be just as good as this one.

Grade: A-

Summary:

Bodyguard Celia Graves has definitely accepted her share of weird assignments, both human and supernatural. But her newest job takes the cake. Guarding a Prince from terrorists and religious fundamentalists is hard enough, but it seems like the entire supernatural world is after this guy too. When she is betrayed by those she is employed to help, and everything goes horribly wrong, Celia wakes to find herself transformed.

Neither human nor vampire, Celia has become an Abomination—something that should not exist—and now both human and supernatural alike want her dead. With the help of a few loyal friends—a sexy mage, a powerful werewolf, and a psychic cop—Celia does her best to stay alive. On the run from her enemies, Celia must try to discover who is behind her transformation…before it’s too late.

Read an excerpt.

We have another terrific day scheduled here at Duck Chat. Thanks for stopping by!

Your treat for the day is S. J. Day!

Of course, most of you know S.J. as Sylvia Day, but she began her sojourn into urban fantasy under a different name. Her first trilogy, the Marked series, debuted this year. Eve of Darkness, Eve of Destruction, and Eve of Chaos have been a hit with fans.

S.J. has led an interesting life. In her early 20s she joined the U.S. Army Military Intelligence as a Russian Linguist/Interrogator. She has traveled extensively to places such as Japan, Holland, Germany, France, Mexico, Jamaica, and, of course, all over the United States. She is a native Californian and still lives in the state of her birth.

Be sure to leave that meaningful comment or question – S.J. has offered up a copy each of Eve of Darkness and In the Flesh, the first book in the Sapphire series she’s written as Livia Dare. Now let’s chat!

DUCK CHAT: S.J., your first series, Marked, is on the shelves and fans are devouring the books. Would you tell us how the series came about and give us an overview of the series as a whole?

S.J. DAY: I wish I had a fabulous answer for how the series came about, but the truth is the idea popped into my head while I was taking a shower. It was a full scene (the one in the first book where Cain and Abel fight in Evangeline’s living room). No idea where that idea came from, but I loved it.

The series in a nutshell: Formerly agnostic Evangeline Hollis is marked with the Mark of Cain and becomes one of thousands of sinners worldwide who act as bounty hunters for God. She’s mentored by Cain, working for Abel, and desired by both men. The series draws heavily from the Old Testament, but is very much an action-oriented, sexy, contemporary fantasy.

DC: If you could retire any question and never, ever have it asked again, what would it be? Feel free to answer it.

SJD: “Where did you get the idea for this story?” — I can never answer that one. My ideas aren’t sparked by anything in particular. There’s never an event or place that triggers them. They just come to me as they are. That’s why I write in so many different genres.

DC: I’ve heard writers often say their stories take them in surprising directions, or dialogue flows from some unknown place. Is it the same with you? Do your characters surprise you sometimes?

SJD: My characters tell the stories. I just write them down. I consider myself more of a narrator than a creator. I never know what’s going to happen until it happens.

DC: Now let’s talk about the books in the Marked series. Eve of Darkness released in April. Can you tell our readers what to expect in this story?

SJD: The Marked series is based upon the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. In present day, God is still using the mark as a punishment. With it, he drafts sinners into service. A system of “Marks” has been established here on earth, with the seven archangels heading seven “firms” on the seven recognized continents. The heroine, Evangeline Hollis, is drafted into service and placed into mentorship with Cain (who happens to be “the one that got away” from her past). She’s also under the direct control of his brother, Abel, which makes everything in Eve’s life impossibly complicated.

Book #1, Eve of Darkness, starts at the beginning of Eve’s journey and explains the history between her and Cain. This was important to me, even though the tone of Eve’s past life is different from the tone of her new life, because the Marked series is the story of Eve’s transition. It’s a character-arc series.

DC: Do you ever argue with your characters while you’re writing? Who usually wins?

SJD: I always let them have their way. They know their story better than I do.

DC: What is sure to distract you from sitting down and working/writing?

SJD: My kids. For being two little people, they make a lot of great big noise.

DC: Evangeline’s story continues in Eve of Destruction, which hit the shelves June 2. Can you give us a look inside?

SJD: In Book #2, Eve has finally started combat training for her new job as a celestial bounty hunter. Cain and Abel are on assignment, so she’s on her own. When her classmates start getting killed while on field training, Eve knows there’s a demon hidden among them and she has to figure out who it is before they kill again.

Eve isn’t a great Mark. She sucks at most weaponry skills and she’s definitely not fearless. Her greatest asset is her quick thinking and since she knows her limitations, she relies on that more than brawn. That becomes more evident in this book.

DC: Is there a genre you haven’t tackled but would like to try?

SJD: Horror.

DC: What advice would you give to your younger self?

SJD: Spend less time talking and more time listening.

DC: The last book in the series, Eve of Chaos was released on June 30, less than a month after EoD. Did that short time span present any particular problems for you? Would you tell us a little about this book?

SJD: The biggest issue time span-wise was in having the production of the first two books simultaneous to writing the third — edits, copy edits, and galleys x2, plus production of In the Flesh and The Stranger I Married going on at the same time. I’d planned for them to be spaced out over the length of the year, but as bad luck would have it, both Tor and Kensington started the production processes for the books later than I anticipated. Plus, there were two major in-house production errors with the first two Marked books that ate a lot of time on my end to fix. But that’s the breaks and I somehow survived the process, albeit with lots of tears and lots of new gray hairs. (Whoever said being a novelist is glamorous was nuts.)

Despite all the chaos and snafus, I gave everything I had to writing Chaos and I’m really proud of it. More time and less stress wouldn’t have made it better, because I didn’t allow the book to get shortchanged by the rest. The scope of the series expands quite a bit, with the introduction of Satan, Adam, and Eve. Plus some dangling threads from previous books were tied up in Chaos (which ends a three-book story arc and begins another). Eve also starts to settle into her new life and expands her understanding of her relationships with Cain and Abel.

Special treat, excerpt from Eve of Chaos:

Chapter 1

Evangeline Hollis watched with clenched jaw as a kappa demon served yakisoba—Japanese pan-fried noodles—to her mother with a broad smile. Eve guessed that the ratio of mortals to demons at the Orange County Buddhist Church’s annual Obon Festival was about fifty-fifty.

After three months of living with the Mark of Cain and her new “job” as celestial bounty hunter, Eve was resigned to the reality of Infernals mingling undetected among mortals. However, she was still surprised by the number of transplanted Japanese demons who had come out to play at the festival. There seemed to be an inordinate amount of them present.

“You want some?” her mother asked, holding out the plate. Miyoko had lived a mostly quintessential American life in the United States for thirty years. She was a naturalized citizen, a converted Baptist, and her husband, Darrel Hollis, was a good ol’ boy from Alabama. But she appreciated her roots and made an effort to share the Japanese culture with her two daughters.

Eve shook her head. “I want yakidango.”

“Me, too. It’s over there.” Miyoko set off, leading the way.

The festival was contained within the gated parking lot of the temple. To the right was a large gymnasium. To the left, the temple and school complex. The area was small, but still managed to hold a variety of food and game booths. A taiko drum was elevated in a yagura tower overlooking a space that would later showcase Bon Odori dancers. Children competed to win prizes ranging from live goldfish to stuffed animals. Adults hovered over displays of trinkets and homemade desserts.

The Southern California weather was perfect, as usual. A balmy seventy-eight degrees with plenty of sunshine and very few clouds. Adjusting her sunglasses, Eve relished the kiss of the sun on her skin and breathed in the scents of her favorite foods.

Then a foul stench wafted by on the afternoon breeze, assaulting her nose and ruining her rare moment of peace.

The putrid smell of rotting soul; it was unmistakable. It was a cross between decaying flesh and fresh shit, and it amazed Eve that the Unmarked—mortals lacking the Mark of Cain—couldn’t smell it. She turned her head, seeking out the source.

Her searching gaze halted on a lovely Asian woman standing across the aisle from her. A yuki-onna—a Japanese snow demon. Eve noted the Infernal’s white kimono with its delicate sukura embroidery and the detail on her cheekbone that resembled a tribal tattoo. In truth, the design was the demon’s rank and it was invisible to mortals. Like the Mark of Cain on Eve’s arm, it was similar to mortal military insignia. All Infernals had them. The details betrayed both which species of damned being they were and what their rank in Hell’s hierarchy was.

Contrary to what most theologians believed, the Mark of the Beast wasn’t something to be feared as the start of the Apocalypse; it was a caste system that had been in place for centuries.

Eve’s mark began to tingle, then burn. A call to arms.

Now? she asked with a mental query, exasperation clear in her dry tone. She was a Mark, one of thousands of “sinners” around the world who’d been drafted into service exterminating demons for God. She was expected to kill at the drop of a hat, but her mother was with her and they were at a house of worship.

Sorry, babe. Reed Abel sounded anything but. You’re in the wrong place at the right time. Her number’s up, and you’re closest.

You’ve been singing that tune all week, she retorted. I’m not buying it anymore.

She’d been vanquishing a demon a day—sometimes two—for the last several days. A girl needed more than just Sundays off when her job was killing demons. Why am I always closest?

Because you’re a disaster magnet?

And you’re a riot.

Reed—aka Abel of biblical fame—was a mal’akh, an angel. He was a handler, a position that meant he was responsible for assigning hunts to a small group of Marks. It was a lot like skip tracing. The seven earthbound archangels acted as bail bondsmen. Reed was a dispatcher. Eve was a bounty hunter. It was a well-oiled system for most Marks, but to say she was a squeaky wheel would be an understatement.

Dinner tonight? he asked.

After that wisecrack, cocky bastard?

I’ll cook.

She followed her mom, keeping an eye on her quarry. If I’m still alive, sure.

In the back of her mind, she heard and felt Alec Cain—Reed’s brother—growl his disapproval. Alec was her mentor. Once known as Cain of Infamy, he was now Cain the Archangel. She and Alec had a history together, starting ten years ago when she’d given him her virginity. Nowadays, his position as archangel had stripped him of the ability to have an emotional attachment to anything other than God, but Alec held on to her anyway.

What means more? he had asked her. When someone wants you because he can’t help it? Because of hormones or some chemical reaction in the brain? Or when he wants you because he chooses to want you? Because he makes the conscious decision to want you?

Eve didn’t know, so she was drifting along with him, trying to figure it out.

She was certifiably insane for stepping in the middle of the oldest case of sibling rivalry in history, especially since the three of them shared a unique bond that allowed a free flow of thought between them. Eve often asked herself why she played with fire. The only answer she came up with was that she just couldn’t help herself.
I’m calling dibs on breakfast tomorrow, Alec insisted gruffly.

One-Eyed Jacks? No one cooked them like Alec. Grilled pieces of bread with a hole in the middle to hold a fried egg. Buttery and crispy, and served with syrup. He also toasted the centers and sprinkled them with cinnamon-sugar to serve on the side. Delicious.

Whatever you want, angel.

It was a given that Reed wouldn’t be around for breakfast, since dating two men at once meant that all three of them were sleeping alone at night.

The yuki-onna excused herself from her handsome companion and moved toward the gymnasium, taking the tiny steps dictated by the tight fit of her kimono and the geta wooden clogs on her feet. Eve was at an advantage with her attire. Her stretchy capris and ribbed cotton tank top didn’t impede her range of movement at all. Her Army-issue “jungle boots” were breathable and functional. She was ready to rock. But that didn’t mean she wanted to.

“I have to wash my hands,” Eve said to her mother, knowing that as a retired registered nurse, Miyoko would appreciate the need for cleanliness.

“I have antibacterial gel in my purse.”

Eve wrinkled her nose. “Yuck. That stuff makes my hands sticky.”

“You’re too fussy. How many dangos you want?”

“Three sticks.” The rice cake dumplings were grilled on wooden skewers and coated with sweet syrup. They were a childhood favorite that Eve enjoyed too rarely, which aggravated her disgruntlement. If the demon ruined her appetite, there would be Hell to pay. Seriously.

Eve handed over a twenty-dollar bill, then set off in pursuit of her prey.

She overtook the demon and entered the gym where picnic tables had been arranged to provide seating for diners. Dozens of festival-goers filled the vast space with echoing revelry—laughing, conversing in both English and Japanese, and eating. Mortals mingled with Infernal beings in blissful ignorance, but Eve noted every one of Hell’s denizens. In return, they knew what she was and they eyed her with wary hatred. The mark on her deltoid betrayed her, as did her scent. As rotten as they stunk to her, she smelled sickly sweet to them. Ridiculous really, since there was no such thing as a sweet Mark. They were all bitter.

Tucking herself against the wall, she watched through the tinted glass doors as the yuki-onna approached. From the forward vantage, Eve could see the demon’s feet hovering just above the ground. Backing up slowly, Eve rounded the corner to stay out of sight. A glass case was mounted to the wall at her shoulder, displaying trophies and a lone katana within its lighted interior.

Eve glanced around quickly, noting the distraction of the rest of the gym’s occupants. With superhuman speed, she pinched off the round metal lock with thumb and forefinger, and withdrew the sheathed blade. She held it tucked between her thigh and the wall, hoping it was more than a decoration. If not, she could always summon the classic flame-covered sword. But she’d rather not. Buildings had a nasty habit of catching fire around her, and she had greater proficiency with the sleeker, moderately curved “samurai sword” than she did with the heavier glaive.

Her prey entered the gym and turned in the opposite direction, heading toward the restrooms just as Eve had guessed she would. Closing the women’s bathroom while food and drink were present in copious quantities was always a bad idea, but Eve didn’t have a choice. Her mother was waiting, and she couldn’t risk losing her target.

Her present dilemma was one of the many reasons why Marks weren’t supposed to have family ties. The sinners who were chosen were usually loners easily transplanted to foreign soil. Relatives were a liability. Eve was the sole exception to the rule. Alec had fought to keep her close to home because he knew how much her parents meant to her. He was also motivated by guilt, since their indiscretion ten years ago was the reason she was marked today.

The wheels of justice didn’t turn any faster in Heaven than they did on Earth.

When the bathroom door swung shut behind the demon, Eve followed. The mark throbbed hot and heavy within the skin covering her deltoid, pumping aggression and fury through her veins. Her muscles thickened and her stride altered. Her body’s reaction was base and animalistic, the surge of bloodlust brutal and addicting. She had come to crave it like a drug. Too much time between kills, and she became short-tempered and twitchy.

Despite the rush, her heartbeat and hands remained steady. Her body was a temple now, and it ran like a machine. As she entered the bathroom, Eve was calm and focused. When had she become so at ease with her murderous secondary life? She would have to ponder that later, when she had some privacy and time to cry.

All of the stall doors were slightly ajar, except for the handicapped one at the far end of the room. The stench of decaying soul permeated the space. Affixed to the wall near the door was a tube that held a collapsible Wet Floor sign. She tugged it free and set it outside in the hallway, then closed the door and turned the lock. It wasn’t quite as useful as an Out of Order cone, but it would have to do.

There was no way to stave off the sudden deluge of memories of another bathroom, one in which she had fought a dragon and paid with her life. She’d been resurrected to kill another day because of a deal Alec had made with someone, somewhere. She didn’t know the details, but she knew the cost had to be steep. If she hadn’t been in love with him already, his willingness to make that kind of sacrifice would have sealed the deal. She wasn’t ready to die just yet, despite demon killing and a crazy love life.

One day she hoped to marry and have children, enjoy a successful career and family vacations. But she would have to shed the mark first—either by manipulating someone in power or by collecting enough indulgences to work off her penance.

Of course, there were loopholes in the indulgence system. She’d killed the teenage son of the Black Diamond Pack Alpha werewolf twice, but had only been given credit for the second kill. Bullshit like that really got under her skin. What was a girl supposed to do when even God didn’t play fair?

A soft whimper arrested Eve midstride. The sound had a high, trembling note that sounded childlike. She rolled her shoulders back and waited. Hunting was less about the pounce than it was about positioning. She stood dead center in the most open space in the room. The exit was at her back. The Infernal had no way out but through her. Damned if she would move just to hurry things up a bit.

The mark continued to flood her with adrenaline and hostility. Her senses honed in on her prey, flooding her mind with information. Her stance widened.

“Come out, come out wherever you are . . .” she crooned.

The lock on the handicapped stall turned. The door pulled inward. A child’s face appeared, wan and tear streaked. A pretty girl of Asian heritage in a light summer dress with a watermelon design around the hem. Maybe six or seven years old. Shaking with fear. A moment later, the lovely visage of the yuki-onna appeared above the girl’s head.

Eve growled. “A hostage was a bad idea.”

When she had kids of her own, she wasn’t letting them out of her sight.

“I will walk out of here with the child,” the Infernal said in her lilting, accented voice. She stepped out of the stall with her hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Then I will release her.”

The child’s teeth began to chatter and her lips took on a blue tinge. Gooseflesh spread from the point where the demon clutched her.

“You’re going to die,” Eve said matter-of-factly. The yuki-onna had been targeted. Marks would hunt her until she was dead.

“So are you,” the demon retorted. “Do you really want to waste your last moments killing me?”

There’s a hostage, she told Reed, ignoring the standard demon intimidation and bargaining tactics. A little girl. I need you to get her out of here.

A warm breeze moved over her skin, tangible proof that her handler was always with her. He was forbidden to assist his charges in their hunts, but clearing mortals out of the way fell under his purview. On your cue, he murmured.

Eve had no idea where in the world he was, but as a mal’akh, he could shift—or teleport—in and out of a location faster than the blink of an eye.

“I was going to take you down fair and square,” she told the demon, holding the sheathed katana aloft. “I should have known you would want to fight dirty.”

“I have no weapon.” A lie. Demons all had certain gifts, like the yuki-onna’s ability to create extreme weather. Marks had only their own wits and strength. They were celestially enhanced physically—able to heal and react quickly—but lacked any supernatural “powers”.

“I’ll give you mine,” Eve offered grimly, “if you let the kid go.” She ripped the katana free of its sheath and hurled the lacquered wood at the demon’s head.

She reached out to Reed. Now!

The demon’s arms rose to ward off the projectile. The child was snatched by Reed before the yuki-onna caught it.

The Infernal’s cry of rage was accompanied by an icy gust that burst through the room like an explosion. Eve was thrust backward into a heated-air hand dryer with enough force to hammer it flush to the wall. She held onto the hilt of the katana by stubbornness alone. Her booted feet dropped to the floor with a dull thud, and she hit the ground running.

Arm raised and blade at the ready, Eve rushed forward with a battle cry that curdled her own blood. The child’s fear lingered in the air, the acrid scent mingling with the stench of decaying Infernal soul. The combination sent her mark into overdrive. She leaped, slashing down on the diagonal, but the demon spun away in a flurry of snow. The temperature dropped drastically. The mirrors fogged around the edges, and her breath puffed visibly in the chilled air.

Eve pursued her, feinting and parrying against the sharp icicles the demon threw at her. They shattered like glass against her flashing katana, sprinkling the tile with slippery shards.

Crunching across the hazardous floor, she advanced with precision. The beautiful kimono fluttered with the Infernal’s retreat, the thick silk shredded by Eve’s calculated attacks. Once the sorriest swordswoman in her class, Eve had practiced exhaustively until she stopped embarrassing herself. She still wasn’t much beyond passably proficient with the weapon, but she no longer felt hopelessly inept.

She began to hum a merry tune.

As she’d hoped, the demon floundered, caught off guard by the implied boredom. The yuki-onna’s next salvo lacked the speed of the previous ones. Eve caught it with her fist, hissing as the ice splintered its way across her palm. Blood flowed, its scent goading the demon into roaring in triumph, a sound audible only to those with enhanced hearing.

Eve lobbed the icicle back, followed immediately with the katana. The Infernal deflected the first projectile with an icy blast, but was left vulnerable to the second. The blade sliced along the demon’s right triceps, drawing blood before impaling the wall behind her. A crimson stain began to spread through the pristine white of the kimono.
“Checkmate,” Eve taunted. “Your blood for mine.”

The Infernal retaliated with an icicle that pierced straight through Eve’s right thigh. She cried out and dropped to one knee. Agonized, she sent up a silent request for a sword. She held her palm open to receive the gift . . .

. . . which didn’t come.

Shock froze Eve. She’d gambled with the loss of the katana and rolled snake eyes. She always feared this day would come. Formerly agnostic, she didn’t show the deference to the Almighty that others did. She wasn’t disrespectful per se, but she might be too forthright in voicing her inability to understand the way God handled things.

She asked again, throwing in a “please” for good measure. The result was the same. Nada. Eve growled, furious that she would be denied the tool required to complete the task she was forced to perform.

The yuki-onna quickly deduced what had failed to happen. She giggled, a lovely melodic sound. “Perhaps he realizes that saving you is hopeless and not worth the effort.”

“Fuck you.”

“It is rare that Sammael sets a bounty so high or allows everyone in Hell a chance to claim it.” The demon grinned. “But then, this is the first time someone has run over one of his pets.”

“What bounty?” Eve hoped she hid the sudden fear she felt. “Is Satan upset that I ran over his dog? That’s hysterical.”

I’m not laughing, Alec snapped.

I know. Eve sighed. My life sucks.

She struggled to her feet, favoring her impaled leg. Reaching down, she yanked the ice dagger free and tossed it aside. Blood spurted from the gaping wound, then gushed. She ignored it for now. She had bigger problems.

“What is funny,” the yuki-onna retorted, “is how you will be ripped apart by everyone in Hell.”

“Everyone, huh?” Eve shrugged. “He’ll have to do better than that, if he hopes to take me out.”

That’s my girl, Alec praised. Never let ‘em see you sweat.

But she heard the unease in his voice. She also felt him poised to leap to her rescue.

I’ve got this, she said, staying him. She wasn’t sure how, but she would figure it out on her own. Damned if some ice bitch in clogs would kick her ass.

“Sammael wants you,” the demon taunted. Her disheveled hair and wide eyes only made her more beautiful. “And I will be rewarded for bringing you in.”

Laughing through her growing panic, Eve made a third request—not quite a prayer—for a sword. Again, she was ignored.

She deflected the demon’s next icicle with her forearm, then darted to the left to catch another. She threw it back. It was knocked off course by a burst of frosty air. All the while, she closed the distance between herself and the wall that held the katana.

“You can take hostages,” Eve taunted, “but you can’t take me.”

Bravado. Sometimes it was all a Mark had.

“I am beginning to think otherwise,” the demon retorted with a malicious gleam in her dark eyes.

Pounding came to the locked door, followed by a string of anxious-sounding Japanese. Not for the first time, Eve wished her mother had taught her the language. All she knew was that someone wanted to come in, and the demon she was fighting was no longer eager to get out. In fact, the yuki-onna seemed energized by the intrusion.
Eve took another step closer. Her boot slipped on an ice shard and she skidded, her balance compromised by her injured leg. She was inspired by the near fall, her mind seizing on a possible means to the end.

Dependant upon God’s willingness to cooperate and give her a damn break, of course.

Kicking hard, she sent up a spray of water and ice. As the yuki-onna retaliated with a rapid volley of icicles, Eve shot forward, using the slush on the tile to drop to the floor in a careening, feet-first slide into home plate.

“I could really use that sword now,” she yelled skyward, as the white tile rushed past her in a blur. “Please!”

Nothing.

Time slowed to a trickle . . .

The demon leaped gracefully and was held aloft by icy air currents. Levitating into a prone position, the Infernal’s facade of beauty fell away, revealing the true evil beneath—eyes of blood red, a gaping maw of blackened teeth, and grayish skin with a network of inky veins that spread into her hairline. With arms splayed wide, spears of ice appeared in her hands like ski poles.

Alec and Reed roared in unison, their shouts reverberating in Eve’s skull with such volume they drowned out everything else. In slow motion, she watched the demon hovering like a ghostly apparition, her white robes in tatters, her hair a sinuously writhing mane. Eve raised her arms to ward off the coming attack, then jerked in surprise as a heavy weight forced her forearm to drop to her chest. . .

. . . weighted by the miraculous appearance of a glaive in her hand.

Her grip tightened on the hilt and her back arched up. Hurling the blade forward like a javelin, she struck the yuki-onna straight in the chest. The glaive pierced deep with a sickening thud.

The demon exploded in a burst of ash.

Eve continued to slide until she slammed into the wall. At impact, the katana dislodged from its mooring, twisting to fall point down toward her head. She jerked to the side, rolling to avoid the blade. It pierced the floor where she’d been an instant before. Behind her, the glaive—no longer embedded in the demon’s body—clattered to the tile.

“Holy shit,” she breathed.

A pair of steel-toed boots appeared next to her head, then a hand extended into her line of sight. Looking up, her gaze met eyes of rich chocolate brown. Once, Alec had looked at her with a heat so scorching it burned her skin. She missed that look. Then again, she got hot enough for the both of them just checking him out.

At a few inches over six feet, Alec was as ripped as one would expect a skilled predator to be. He was God’s most revered and trusted enforcer, and his body reflected that calling. His hair, as always, was slightly overlong, but she would fight off anyone who approached him with shears.

“Could God have waited any longer to bail me out of the mess he put me in?” she groused.

“Did you note the lack of fire?” His voice—dark and slightly raspy—was pure seduction, even when laced with the resonance unique to archangels. It didn’t sound that way when he spoke to her telepathically, which was sadly appropriate. Who he was in reality was far different from who he was in her mind.

She blinked up at him. “You bailed me out? What the hell? Was he just going to let me die? Again?”

“Obviously not, since you’re not dead. It was a lesson in faith.”

“More like a lesson in ‘I am God, see me fuck with you.’”

“Watch it,” he admonished.

Eve accepted his proffered hand. As he pulled her upright, his powerful chest and tautly ridged abdomen flexed noticeably beneath his fitted white T-shirt. She couldn’t help noticing stuff like that, even though she couldn’t touch what she was looking at.

“What is it with demons and bathrooms?” she asked. “Grimshaw started a trend when he sent that dragon to kill me. I swear I’ve vanquished at least half a dozen Infernals in bathrooms since then.”

The dragon had been a courtier in Asmodeus’s court, but he’d killed her for Charles Grimshaw—former Alpha of the Northern California Black Diamond Pack and father of the wolf she’d had to kill twice. Demon retaliation was a bitch.

Alec cursed at the sight of her thigh. Her toes were squishing in the blood soaking her sock and puddling along the sole. She would need a new pair of boots.

He bent to examine her wound more closely. “I would have gotten here sooner, but I had to scare off the crowd of Infernals in the hall first.”

“Crowd?”

“I don’t think the ice bitch was kidding about the bounty.”

“What do you know that I don’t? You wouldn’t believe an Infernal without some sort of proof.”

Alec had assumed control over the day-to-day operation of Gadara Enterprises—the secular front for the North American firm of Marks—since the archangel Raguel had been taken prisoner by Satan a couple of months back. That meant Alec was privy to almost every hellacious and celestial happening that occurred between the top of Alaska to the end of Mexico.

“The number of Infernals in Orange County has tripled in the last two weeks.”

Which was when she’d graduated from training. As she was often reminded, nothing was a coincidence. “No wonder it’s been so busy around here.”

He gave her a resigned look. “It will get busier, if Sammael’s set his sights on you.”

“With a free-for-all bounty open to all classes of demons? Jeez, you’d think I kicked his puppy or something. Oh wait . . . I did.” Eve put weight on her wounded leg and winced at the immediate throb of agony.

Alec tucked his shoulder under her arm to support her. “We need to bandage that leg, smart ass.”

“You like my ass, and not because of its IQ.”

“Love it.” He gave her butt an affectionate squeeze. Alec might be restricted from feeling emotional love for her, but lust wasn’t a problem. “But I love the rest of your hot body, too, and I’d like to keep it in one piece.”

The mark enabled her to heal super fast. In an hour or two, only a pink scar would remain, and by nightfall, the injury would be nothing but a memory. But she could help move things along in the recovery department by closing the hole with some butterfly bandages. She’d have to hurry; her mom was still waiting for her.

I’ll take care of Miyoko, he assured her.

“I’ll take Eve back to her place to change,” a deep voice intruded.

They turned their heads to find Reed by the door. The men’s features were similar enough to betray them as siblings, but they were otherwise polar opposites. Reed favored Armani suits and faultless haircuts. Today he wore black slacks and a lavender dress shirt open at the throat and rolled at the wrists. It was a testament to how completely, robustly male he was that he could look so damn fine in such a soft color.

Alec’s arm at her waist tightened. The two brothers were like oil and kerosene together. Dangerously flammable. They refused to tell her what started their lifelong feud, and they kept the memory so repressed in the darkest corners of their minds that she hadn’t yet been able to find it. Whatever the sore spot was, the murderous rage it incited was easily goaded. They’d been killing each other for years—Cain more so than Abel—but were always resurrected by God to fight some more.

Which was just nasty in her opinion. Why God enabled the two brothers to keep fighting was beyond her comprehension.

“What are we going to do about this mess?” She offered a soothing smile to Alec before stepping away from him. A trail of blood marked her recent kamikaze slide across the floor. The rapidly melting ice was spreading the crimson stain along the grout lines, creating an oddly compelling map.

Stepping into the water, Alec snapped his fingers and the liquid and blood filled the nearest sink, transferred so quickly she hadn’t caught the movement even with her enhanced senses. She would go home with Reed in similar fashion.

Thankfully, Marks had handlers to pick up after them. She was luckier than most in that she had Cain, too, although that created some friction with many of the other Marks who thought she had an advantage. They didn’t take into consideration how many demons wanted to use her to get to the deadliest Mark of them all. She might as well wear a bull’s-eye for cocky and rash Infernals to aim for.

Then again, it looked like Satan had taped the target on for her.

“Come on,” Reed said, extending a hand to her. “Before your mother calls in the cavalry.”

“Forget the cavalry.” Alec winked at Eve. “Miyoko would charge in herself.”

She was halted midlaugh by the stench of a sewer. Looking for the demon whose proximity had to be the cause, she found herself staring into an inexplicably lingering puddle at her feet . . . and familiar eyes of malevolent, crystalline blue. A face in the liquid. She stomped instinctively, destroying the visage of the water demon in an explosion of spraying droplets.

“What the hell?” Reed barked, catching her as her wounded thigh caused her to stumble.

In the literal blink of an eye, Eve found herself in the kitchen of her third-floor condo in Huntington Beach. “Did you see him?” she gasped, leaning heavily into his hard body.

Reed’s arms tightened around her. “Yeah, I saw him.”

He’s gone. Alec’s tone was grim. I’m heading out to hold off your mom, but we need to address this when we’re done here.

The demon was a Nix—a Germanic shape-shifting water spirit. He’d targeted her almost from the moment she had been marked, then made a nuisance of himself until she killed him. Correction: She’d thought she killed him.

She would kill him. This particular Nix had taken the life of her neighbor Mrs. Basso. Sweet, forthright, widowed Mrs. Basso who had been a beloved friend. Eve’s need for vengeance was what motivated her when the damned Infernal bounty hunting got tough. Eve of Chaos

Pulling away from Reed, she limped down the hallway to her master bedroom. The crash of the waves against the shore pulsed in through the living room balcony’s open sliding glass door. In her premarked life, she’d been an interior designer. Her condo had been one of her first projects, and the space remained one of her favorites. Even the mistakes she’d made in the layout were fond ones. She wouldn’t change a thing. She felt safe here, less like a demon killer and more like herself.

Eve absorbed the calm she found in her home with deep, even breaths.

Reed called after her, his tone both seductive and challenging. “Need help getting naked?”

She sighed inwardly. Outside these walls, the worst of Hell’s denizens were converging en masse. She would need to be ready when she ventured out again.

As if her love life wasn’t dangerous enough.

DC: What would be your “voice’s” tagline?

SJD: My voice… I guess I’d have to know what my voice is first. Maybe the TGTBTU readers can help me pinpoint that? For me, I just see the stories in my head like a movie on a theater screen. I just transcribe the events as fast as my fingers can type. It’s organic to me, so I’ve never really labeled any part of it.

DC: If you had never become an author, what do you think you would be doing right now?

SJD: I’d be in school, taking a gazillion classes trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I’ve wanted to be a career writer since I was twelve. I never really gave a lot of attention to doing anything else.

DC: What’s on the horizon for S. J. Day?

SJD: More books. More Eve. Possible non-Eve related stuff.

DC: As most readers know, you also write as Sylvia Day. You have two new releases coming up, a reissue of The Stranger I Married and Pride and Passion. Can you give us just a tiny sneak peek into those books?

SJD: First off, I’m very sorry to say that the release date of Pride and Passion has been postponed. It won’t be releasing this year. That said… it’s a stand-alone, Regency-era story about a reserved heiress who hires a dashing thief-taker. The title succinctly explains both the attraction and the conflict between them. It’s a very emotional story, which took me by surprise. (See? My characters keep me on my toes.)

The Stranger I Married was first released in January 2007 and it’s been my best selling historical title to date. I’m very happy that it’s being reissued in mass market, where it will find a new audience. It’s a stand-alone, Regency-era story about two libertines — Gerard and Isabel — who enter a marriage of convenience as friends. An unexpected tragedy forces Gerard to reevaluate the way he lives his life and he comes to realize that he wants to have a true marriage with Isabel. But Isabel’s first marriage was an unhappy one and she doesn’t want to ruin what she has with Gerard by making it more serious. TSIM is the story of how an estranged husband and wife peel back the various layers of each other’s armor and fall in love with what they find inside.

The mass market reissue also features a bonus epilogue that wasn’t in the trade paperback version. It was written in response to a large volume of reader mail asking to see how Isabel and Gerard were fairing a few years down the road. The epilogue will also be available on my website, for those who already own the trade paperback version.

DC: You sold your first book within a year of writing it. That’s not the norm for most authors. What do you attribute your quick success to?

SJD: Writing a lot and submitting a lot. I knew I wouldn’t sell anything if editors couldn’t see it, so I’d finish a story and send it off. Then finish another story and send that off. Everything I had out on submission sold within the span of a few weeks, but the first sale went to Kate Duffy via Lori Foster’s Brava Novella Contest. I’ll be forever grateful to Lori for her generosity.

DC: Any other news Sylvia has for us?

SJD: I have two more historicals coming from Brava after Pride and Passion.

DC: You also have a book titled In the Flesh under the name of Livia Dare that just came out on June 2. It’s the first book in your Sapphire series. First would you tell us about the series and then give us a look at the book itself?

SJD: In the Flesh was my sophomore book. (Ask For It was my first completed book) It’s a fantasy/futuristic/historical about a prince who falls in love with his enemy’s prized concubine. It’s part Romeo and Juliet, part sheik and desert hostage, part kick-ass heroine and old school romance. I wrote it as a stand-alone novel, but my editor wanted the series to be three books, so it became a trilogy. All three books follow the same couple–Wulfric and Sapphire–as they overcome the many obstacles between them to find their HEA. It’s a very erotic romance.

DC: What else is coming up for Livia Dare?

SJD: Livia will just write the Sapphire series. Once the trilogy is done, she’ll retire. At least that’s the plan for now. I don’t want to carry three pen names indefinitely.

DC: What was behind the decision to write under three separate pseudonyms? Has it been difficult to keep up with different deadlines and release schedules? Or to keep stories straight as you’re writing?

SJD: I took on the S. J. Day name because I didn’t want my existing readers to expect the Marked series to result in a HEA with every book. The name change also helped to ensure that the books would be shelved in the SF/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

The Livia Dare name was created at the insistence of my editor. She didn’t want the Sylvia name on a non-historical, Kensington-published series. Since I didn’t want the S. J. name on a romance (that would just confuse readers and defeat the purpose of the pseudonym), I was left with no choice but to take on a third name.

RE: deadlines and schedules, see above about Chaos. *g*

It hasn’t been difficult keeping them apart, no. Since the characters tell me their stories and their voices are very different, there’s rarely confusion. Occasionally one character will try and tell another character’s story from another book, but I catch on quick.

DC: What has been your favorite book cover from all of your releases and why?

SJD: Pride and Passion. It’s gorgeous and original. It was also created just for me. The models were selected based on my character descriptions. The photographer shot them in a pose very indicative of their dynamic in the book. Then the photo was painted to become the portrait image seen on the final cover. It was then embellished with gold foil (which is unusual for Brava trades). A lot of time and effort went into making that cover an accurate representation of my story (a rarity with covers, let me tell you). It also means a lot to me because of the support it represents from my publisher.

DC: How about your least favorite? Why?

SJD: Bad Boys Ahoy! The cartoon-y cover on a sensual historical was a bad fit. The book missed its target audience completely, because of that cover.

DC: How do you feel your male or female characters have evolved over your career? Do you think you write them differently now than you did when you started?

SJD: My heroines remain the driving force of my books. It started out that way and that continues to this day. I’m more likely to write a tortured heroine than I am a tortured hero. However, my heroes have become more complicated as I’ve grown as a writer, which has made each book take longer to write. But I love it, so I don’t mind.

Lightning Round:

- dark or milk chocolate?    – Dark
- smooth or chunky peanut butter?     – Chunky
- heels or flats?    – Heels (but short ones)
- coffee or tea?     – Coffee. I love, love, love coffee.
- summer or winter?    – Winter
- mountains or beach?     – Mountains
- mustard or mayonnaise?     – Mayonnaise
- flowers or candy?     – Flowers
- pockets or purse?    – Purse
- Pepsi or Coke?    – Coke
- ebook or print?    – Print

And because we still like to see the answers:

1. What is your favorite word?    – Promise.
2. What is your least favorite word?     – No.
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?    – Intelligence
4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?     – Narcissism
5. What sound or noise do you love?    – My kids laughing and rain falling
6. What sound or noise do you hate?    – My kids crying
7. What is your favorite curse word?    – Fuck
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?     – No idea. Honestly.
9. What profession would you not like to do?    – Anything you see on DIRTY JOBS.
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?    – “I gave you life and you lived it to the fullest.”

DC: S.J., thank you for all the fun and for being with us today!

Gwen’s review of Eve of Destruction (Marked, Book 2) by S.J. Day
Urban Fantasy released by Tor 2 Jun 09

As you know by now, Sylvia Day is one of my fav erotic romance authors, so this entry into the UF genre is something I read with avid interest. Few people can twist passion and emotion the way she can, wringing out every last erg of energy from the words and my feelings.  I just go along for the ride when I read her and I’m seldom disappointed. 

I reviewed the first book of this series, Eve of Darkness, a short while back. It was a good first book and introduced a new and different world of evil hunters, good guys, and villains.  The hapless humans caught in the middle are largely ignored, but that’s par for the course in most of these kick-ass-heroine urban fantasies.

The heroine in these novels is developing into quite the woman.  In this second entry, she’s trying to balance her personal life, her family, and her new profession.  All while being trained to kick ass and take names. Her love affair(s) take a back seat to the suspense plot, all while still being an important part of the storyline. Very fun tension is maintained and you never really know who to cheer for when she’s being wooed by one or the other hero.

The heroes are still scrumptious and wholly edible.  Some interesting things happen to the both and you’re left wondering what the hell is going to happen next when the book ends.  It’s all very tempting and satisfying at the same time.

Eve is still largely clueless to the larger machinations going on the Marked/Archangel ranks and her part in them, though she is starting to get an inkling that there’s something going on that’s deeper than what she’s seeing.  This all serves to ratchet up the intensity and tension in these books.  One day we’ll discover the purpose of all the moves the plot’s chess pieces are making.  Some resolve themselves in this entry, but there’s still some very tantalizing pieces looming on the horizon.

I’m not going to recap any of the plot in my review – too much can be given away and the blurb is spot-on with the description.  Just know that this is another terrific entry into Day’s UF world.  I enjoyed this Book 2 more, perhaps because I didn’t feel so behind the learning curve as I felt with Book 1. It’s full of good action and storytelling with great tension.  It has an excellent story arc that leaves us wanting more from the next book (coming soon, thankfully).

I highly recommend this book to fans of the author or fans of Urban Fantasy.  I recommend reading Book 1 before diving into this entry.

Grade: A-

Read more about this series by following its tag here.

Summary:
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When you’re learning to hunt demons, homework can be hell…
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Class is in, but Evangeline Hollis is far from being the star pupil. She’s struggling to get through the required training to be a full-fledged Mark — one of thousands of sinners forced to hunt demons for God. When her class goes on a week-long field trip to an abandoned military base, passing the course suddenly isn’t just a matter of pride… it’s a matter of life and death. There’s a demon hidden among them, killing off Eve’s classmates one by one.
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As the body count rises, a ragtag team of ghost hunters from a cable TV program unwittingly stumbles into the carnage. Now keeping the Mark system secret competes with the need to keep the “paranormal researchers” alive. With Cain on assignment and Abel investigating a new, terrifying class of demon, Eve must fly solo on her hunt to stop a killer before he strikes again.
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Read an excerpt (scroll down).

Other books in the series:

Gwen’s review of Eve of Darkness (Marked, Book 1) by S.J. Day
Urban Fantasy released by Tor 28 Apr 09

Let me just say that it’s nice to see some ethnic flavor in a heroine for once.  And this heroine kicks some serious butt.  Not to mention that the heroes (yes, more than one) are oh so yummy and kick butt right along with her.  Read on to see what else I thought about this new Urban Fantasy series from Sylvia Day – one of my favorite erotic romance writers on the planet. 

The Marked series is built on a present day world where angels, seraphim, and demons are a hidden, but very real power.  The soldiers of the “good” are the Marked, or Marks – humans who have the Mark of Cain as punishment for sin.  They have to serve, or fight for, Jehovah to work off the Mark and make it into Heaven.  To do this, Day uses the Catholic practice of “indulgences.” Yes, Martin Luther is laughing his protestant hienie off, but work with us here.

Archangels are the primary terrestrial power, running whole firms of Marks.  These firms are masquerading as large corporations that fund the Marks’ work.  Marks are jostling for seniority to be made archangels and to maybe run their own firm.  Archangels are jostling for power amongst each other for power and prestige, and the love of Jehovah, etc.  It’s all very “corporate politicky” at the terrestrial level, and could be a tad boring, but Day manages to keep it fresh and interesting.  Then, once you get past the archangels, it becomes very much about the seraphim and the absolute and consuming love of God.  A Christian God, but again, work with us here.

So that’s the basis of the series.  Then, for the Eve books, add into it the ages old struggle between the brothers Cain and Abel.  Both are attracted to the same woman, Evangeline (Eve for short – yeah, I know – nothing Oedipal about that ::smirk::).  She becomes one of the Marked because of her acting on this love/lust from the brothers.  Unbeknownst to her, her induction into the ranks of the Marked is linked to some bigger, deeper, older, more Machiavellian doings by one of the archangels.  This all unfolds slowly thru this book and into the next.  All pretty interesting and left me wondering what the heck was going to happen next as the pattern begins to emerge in EoD.

One of the criticisms I have of most new Urban Fantasy series is the amount of a novel’s real estate an author feels they must spend on world building.  And when you have a world as complex as this one, there is quite a bit.  It becomes worth it as you get further into this first book and as the variety of subtexts and subplots become apparent, but it’s a bit of a slog to get thru at first. Where the author is taking you is not quite clear, so there’s some reluctance to wade thru all that detail.  It’s worth it, though, for the surprises and tension it brings to the read.

As you can guess, the sexual and general tension between the three main characters – Cain, Abel, and Eve – is fun and is the real reason I finished the book.  While Eve seemed a little too accepting of this alternate reality, I realized the “fantasy” part of Urban Fantasy has to start somewhere.  Not to mention that Day excels at writing hot sex scenes and this book is no exception.  I love the passion she can imbue her characters with, while also making them doubt themselves – it’s a very humanizing thing to do for such mythic characters.

The villains in this first book are scary dudes.  You’re not sure how the heck Eve, et al, are going to protect themselves against them – particularly with their own side working against them to an extent.  It makes for a fun suspense thread and good action.

I recommend this book to any Urban Fantasy fans out there who like the plots a little twisted and the sexual tension high.  I recomend it to fans of Day’s historical romances – this is a different take from this wonderful author and one I didn’t regret reading.  The series promises to be a fun ride.

Grade: B+

Summary:
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Cursed by God, hunted by demons, desired by Cain and Abel… All in a day’s work.
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For Evangeline Hollis, a long-ago fling with a bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks just became a disaster of biblical proportions. One night with a leather-clad man of mystery has led to a divine punishment: the Mark of Cain.
.
Thrust into a world where sinners are drafted to kill demons, Eve knows her learning curve must be short. A longtime agnostic, she begrudgingly maneuvers through a celestial bureaucracy where she is a valuable but ill-treated pawn. She’s also become the latest point of contention in the oldest case of sibling rivalry in history…
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But she’ll worry about all that later. Right now she’s more concerned with learning to kill while staying alive. And saving the soul she’d never quite believed she had.
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Read an excerpt (scroll down).

Other books in the series:

Gwen’s review of Red (Dead World, Book 1) by Jordan Summers
Urban Fantasy Romance released by Tor Paranormal Romance 4 Nov 08

I read a lot of urban fantasy.  I read a lot of historicals, too.  Okay, okay.  I just plain read a lot.  But I still read a lot of urban fantasy and when I find a new UF series, I can normally tell within a few chapters if it’s a series I’ll want to follow.  I think this is one I’ll likely follow, if for no other reason than its interesting mix of genres. 

This series is placed in a believable alternate future.  The world is a post-apocalyptic, depleted ozone layer world where even human bodies are recycled for their base elements, etc.  The North American federal governments have broken down into individual republics (seems to be a popular premise these days) and violent crime is rare.  In Summers’s world we have the Others: a variety of beings who, because of government-sponsored genetic manipulation, are vampires, werewolves, etc.  A much rumored, never proven sub-species of humans.

Unbeknownst to her for much of the book (but patently obvious to the reader, so this is really no spoiler), our heroine is part Other.  She is also a member of a cross-republic law enforcement squad who roams the wastelands looking for crimes.  When the squad she’s assigned to finds a particularly grisly murder, they begin an investigation that thrusts our heroine into a world she had only heard rumors and innuendo about – a world that completely changes what she knows about herself and her family.  A world that brings her in touch with her mate.

This was a fun-to-read book with a very good murder mystery, good political sub-plots, and some fun world-building.  The romance is hot and well developed and most of the characterizations are very interesting.  The only problem I had with the book is the amount of real estate spent on the world-building, but I think that is an unavoidable side effect of a first book in a series that relies so heavily on sci-fi-like aspects.

I recommend this to anyone looking for a cross between contemporary paranormal romance, thriller, sci-fi romance, and urban fantasy.  This is a new author to me, so it’s tough to say whether it’s indicative of her writing in general, but I did find the story arc flowed well.  It’s an all around good story that should, based on what I read on the author’s site, develop in interesting directions.

Grade: B

Summary:
.
War is brewing in a near-future world where murder is all but unheard of and the existence of creatures known as the Others has yet to be proven. In the end, one woman will face her fears to stand and fight.
.
Gina Santiago is a member of an elite tactical team in charge of protecting the world. She’s devoted her life to apprehending the most heinous criminals that prey on society-and now she’s after the worst one yet.
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On her own, with no backup, the trail takes her to a dusty, tight-knit town on the fringes of society, where everyone’s a suspect. Even the sexy sheriff, Morgan Hunter, isn’t telling her everything.
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The closer Gina comes to finding out the secret of this sleepy little town and its big, bad sheriff, the more scared she gets-because she’s beginning to realize that she has a secret, too. A secret that will change her life…and make her the killer’s next prey.

Read an excerpt (scroll down).

Other books in the series:

and Crimson (Book 3), coming Nov 2009

Gwen’s review of Fallen (Fallen Angel Trilogy, Book 1) by Claire Delacroix
Urban fantasy romantic suspense released by Tor 30 Sep 08

The book takes place in a post-(multiple)apocalyptic United States, now called the Republic, in the year 2099.  It’s a dirty-nuke-ravaged, but functioning society that is literally powered by slave labor.  This labor is provided by “shades” – people born with radiation-caused deformities and mental deficiencies.  It isn’t even a crime to murder a shade, they’re considered that sub-human.  This is just the beginning of the oddities that Delacroix (a.k.a. Deborah Cooke) has populated this world with. 

Also prevalent in Delacroix’s world is a dress “code” and behavioral rules that are oddly Victorian, but very definitely 21st century enforced by bully-boys who are sanctioned by the government.  Then there’s the Society of Nuclear Darwinists who are responsible for rounding up the shades and putting them to work – for their own good, of course.  It’s all very complex and a tad bewildering at first.  The cast of characters is large, but we’re introduced to our key characters quickly.

The paranormal elements are a combination of spiritual – “fallen” angels (frequently mistaken for shades) who are here to help mankind – and physical – genetic mutations that have created “sensitive” humans who can see more of the world than perhaps the rest of mankind can, or should, see.  It’s all nicely woven into the story and adds the right amount of spice.  It was very easy to suspend my disbelief with this part of the story arc – nothing was overdone.

One of the complaints I have about the book is the amount of time spent on banalities.  It felt like not enough time is spent driving the plot forward.  For example, I didn’t need to know about the heroine showering, getting ready for bed, going to bed, waking up, calling her mom, etc., etc.  I would have rather had one or two sentences that told me all of that.  Not whole chapters.  I don’t know how many words this book was, but it probably could have been a couple of hundred fewer and I’d have been happy.

Fallen has an interesting suspense plot that kept me guessing for about two-thirds of the book – nicely done, Delacroix.  I was not very happy with the suspense plot’s resolution, but that’s just me.  I wanted more ass-kicking.  The “gray” left at the end may be the author’s point – perhaps to leave the “culprit” off the hook for more books.  I’d have still like to have seen more heads tumble for the unbelievably nefarious deeds done in the name of the “common good”.

I enjoyed the romance and the passion in Fallen.  I was a little disappointed that the hero and heroine took so much time to act on their feelings, but that’s my preference and shouldn’t be seen as a shortcoming.  I did find the hero to be very yummy and the description of his duality to be interesting and fun.  There’s some loose ends at the end of the book that I’m looking forward to resolving in the next book, Guardian, coming this October (you meet Guardian‘s hero in Fallen - his scenes are quirky and left me with a smile).

I’d recommend this book to anyone who likes their urban fantasy on the not-so-dark side, with a nice suspense element, and anyone who enjoys “fallen angel” stories.  If you’re a fan of Delacroix’s historicals, this may not be the book for you.  However, if Deborah Cooke’s paranormals are your cuppa tea, you’ll like this.

Grade: B-

Summary:
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The Eyes of the Republic are Everywhere.
.
When her estranged husband’s mysterious death is declared an accident, Lilia Desjardins knows that it is a lie. She leaves all she knows to risk the dark heart of the Republic – only to find that she herself has been targeted by forces unknown.
.
Adam Montgomery will do anything to complete his earthly mission, even if he had to tangle with the enigmatic Lilia Desjardins. But when his contact is murdered and he must rely on Lilia’s silence to save him from the slave dens, Montgomery knows that his wings were only the first sacrifice demanded of him.
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As danger and intrigue surround them, Lilia and Montgomery realize that they must work together – body, mind and soul – in order to save the world.
.
Read an excerpt.

Other books in the series:

Gwen’s review of In Twilight’s Shadow (Light Warriors, Book 2) by Patti O’Shea
Action paranormal romance released by Tor Books 3 Jun 08

Another page-turner from Patti O’Shea.  This one is full of interesting characters and some terrific action.  O’Shea has become my go-to author for action romance.  I can trust her to write interesting, believable characters who remain the same person, beginning to end.  This second entry in her paranormal romance series, Light Warriors, was no exception.  [Side Note:  I don't see the resemblance to Dita Von Teese in this cover image, do you? I mean - there's a resemblance, but it looks like different people to me.]

We meet the hero, Creed, and heroine, Maia, in the first book, In the Midnight Hour.  It’s now a few months later and Maia has not been the happiest of campers living without her magic.  She’s fallen into a bit of a rut and has been feeling sorry for herself.  Meanwhile, Creed has been falling into a deeper and deeper hole with the influence of black magic and his overly independent ways.

These two very flawed people are thrust together under some unusual circumstances and the attraction is NOT, I repeat NOT, immediate.  Oh, they each think the other is attractive enough, but they’re not falling into bed right off the bat.  In fact, the love story develops very organically (read, slowly and naturally).  I loved how these two find each other, and themselves, thru all the trials and tribulations.  The heroine finds her non-magic center and the hero discovers there’s more to life than the search for more power and the search for retribution.

This was a very fun paranormal, action romance.  Don’t read it if you’re looking for some hot lovin’ right from the get-go.  Creed and Maia have a couple of steamy kisses and a petting session, but don’t really come together physically until nearly all the way thru the book.  We get to watch them develop as people and watch the love story evolve.

I can recommend this book to fans of the author, anyone following the series, or fans of action or paranormal romance.   You may want to read Book 1 before you read this one, but I don’t think you’ll be too at sea if you don’t.

Now, if only we didn’t have to wait so long for Book 3…

Grade: B+

Read more information and reviews by clicking on the Light Warriors series tag.

Summary:

Something Wicked…
Maia Frasier thought she’d escaped the world of troubleshooters and demons when she’d ceded her magical powers years earlier. Now a wounded enforcer has turned up in her home, claiming Maia’s sister is in danger.
Creed Blackwood needs Maia’s help to hunt the demon he’s after, especially since he’s hiding the fact that his powers are becoming erratic. And then there are the blackouts…
Maia soon begins to fear Creed has fallen to the dark forces himself, and with his strong and increasingly unreliable magic, he is as dangerous to her and her sister as any demon could be.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in the series:

and Book 3, Edge of Dawn, Jul 2009

Shannon C.’s review of Widdershins by Charles de Lint
Urban fantasy released by Tor 16 May 06

Charles de Lint is a comfort read for me. I find his stories are fairly similar, with many of the same archetypes and descriptions, but I always feel a sense of homecoming whenever I return to the world he’s created, particularly in his wonderful Newford series. I have loved Jilly Coppercorn, the cheerful, optimistic artist who is one of the more infamous Newford residents, and Geordie Riddell, a fiddler who has been her best friend for years. I’ve been invested in their relationship, and I keep hoping they’d eventually realize they were meant to be. So when I learned that Widdershins was going to eventually bring Geordie and Jilly together, I had to wait impatiently to get my hands on a copy as soon as I possibly could. 

I’m not actually sure if people new to the Newford books would get as much out of this story. Certainly, it’s not one I’d recommend starting with, (For that I’d recommend the short story collection Dreams Underfoot, or even the novel Someplace to be Flying.). It certainly needs to be read after reading The Onion Girl, which introduces us to the horrors of Jilly’s past. But I have been a long time Newford reader, so for me, the book was like meeting back up with old friends.

The plot does follow what seems to be De Lint’s formula lately. This time, musician Lizzie runs into a group of boggans who have just killed a deer, which happened to be the daughter of one of the local clan of native deer spirits. This sets in motion a whole chain of events that eventually brings Lizzie and Jilly together and then traps them in the Otherworld, which is the spirit world that exists alongside of this one. Not only are they trapped in the Otherworld, but they are trapped with something ominous from Jilly’s past. Geordie, in an attempt to rescue Jilly, winds up in that world, too, and he and Jilly must finally face up to their feelings for each other.

De Lint does a lot of things well here. The Otherworld is a scary place, and there is a surprisingly dark undertone to the scenes found there. Which isn’t to say that De Lint doesn’t imbue Newford and the Otherworld with a certain magical quality that make it seem like you really could step into Dreamland if you wanted to, because he absolutely does, and it’s that sense of wonder that keeps me coming back. It’s that sense of wonder that I feel most other urban fantasy authors try to get at, but largely fail.

I liked the contrasting plots of Jilly’s very personal struggle with the demon she’s created for herself, and the very large-scale conflict between the native animal spirits and the fairy folk we’re used to. The plots are interwoven well, and both were resolved in what I thought was aa very satisfactory manner. I also liked the glimpses of popular Newford characters, including the Crow Girls, Mother Crone, and even Geordie’s brother, Christie.

On the other hand, sometimes it’s clear De Lint loves his characters beyond all reason. I have always disliked Joe Crazy Dog, mostly because he’s way more powerful than most of the rest of the people we meet, and De Lint tends to use a lot of superlatives when describing him. Still, he doesn’t actually get to *show* us what a bad ass he is. And sometimes the dropping in on old characters felt a bit unnecessary and drew the story out longer than it needed to. And since I am a lone voice crying in the wilderness about how much I dislike POV switches that go from first to third person, I won’t even mention how jarring that is for me.

All that being said, this is a good entry in the Newford series. I’m glad to see the question of Jilly/Geordie resolved in a satisfactory manner. I also loved watching Jilly vanquish her inner demons and truly begin to heal. I hope this means that De Lint will explore new characters and new aspects of this setting.
Grade: B

Summary:
Jilly Coppercorn and Geordie Riddell. Since they were introduced in the first Newford story, Timeskip, back in 1989, their friends and readers alike have been waiting for them to realize what everybody else already knows: that they belong together. But they’ve been more clueless about how they feel for each other than the characters in When Harry Met Sally. Now in Widdershins, a stand-alone novel of fairy courts set in shopping malls and the Bohemian street scene of Newford’s Crowsea area, Jilly and Geordie’s story is finally being told.

Before it’s over, we’ll find ourselves plunged into the rancorous and sometimes violent conflict between the magical North American “animal people” and the more newly-arrived fairy folk. We’ll watch as Jilly is held captive in a sinister world based on her own worst memories—and Geordie, attempting to help, is sent someplace even worse. And we’ll be captivated by the power of love and determination to redeem ancient hatreds and heal old magics gone sour.

To walk “widdershins” is to walk counterclockwise or backwards around something. It’s a classic pathway into the fairy realm. It’s also the way people often back slowly into the relationships that matter, the real ones that make for a life. In Widdershins Charles de Lint has delivered one of his most accessible and moving works of his career.
Source: Tor Books

Read an excerpt.

Shannon C.’s review of Callahan’s Legacy by Spider Robinson
Science fiction novel released by Tor 15 Sep 97

One of the reasons that I started reviewing correlates directly with something Spider Robinson said in the first of his Callahan’s books: “Shared joy is increased, shared pain is lessened.” I know there’s nothing that makes me feel better than knowing that someone loved a book as much as I did. And even if nobody else read a book I hated, I at least feel better after I’ve written my thoughts on the book.

This is why, when I finished the seventh book in the Callahan’s Series, I chose to talk about it here, even though it’s not a romance, and it’s in the middle of a series, so I don’t expect a huge overlap in readership. (Not that the non-romance thing has ever stopped me before.) The book left me feeling so angry that I figured I might as well talk about it here.

The Callahan’s books are basically about this out of the way bar in New York which seems to attract a diverse clientele, from talking dogs to cyborg aliens to benign vampires to, well, science fiction fanboys who are anviliscious self-inserts for the author. The first few books of the series are wonderful, especially the first one. Then it became obvious that Mr. Robinson was basically writing to his fans, and the books stopped being fun.

In this latest installment, well, it’s a typical evening down at the bar. Some interesting characters walk in, including a guy named Buck Rogers who has some serious money to burn (literally), a man who cannot feel pain, and a woman who is ugly enough to stop a clock. Then, of course, the bar denizens are required to save the world. Again. If you are sensing a somewhat weary, been-there-done-that tone from the writing of this paragraph, it’s because it’s intentional. All Callahan’s books start out this way. It’s usually charming, except when it’s not. And in this case it’s not more often than it is.

The major problem that I had with this installment in the Callihan universe aside from the fact that the formula’s getting a bit stale is that Spider Robinson’s politics and mine do not mesh. Normally, I can ignore that. I just hate being preached to, and this book was sooo freaking preachy. Not only that, but there was a whole section where the characters talk about how it’s really OK that a thirteen-year-old boy experimented sexually with his stepfather if the kid initiated it. Uh, no. No, it’s not. I could write an entire blog post about why I find this idea so incredibly repellent, but this is really not an appropriate forum.

I did enjoy Spider Robinson’s humor, and I liked seeing old characters, but, ugh, I simply couldn’t get past the OMGWTFBBQ factor of that whole child sexuality thing. As I said, the first three Callahan’s books are wonderful, and you can even read up to the fifth book and still get a good experience, but I won’t be finding out what else happens to the Callahan’s gang.

Grade: D+

Summary:
It’s more than twenty years since Spider Robinson revealed the existence of Callahan’s bar, and the original bar is gone. Mike Callahan is gone, too, but not forgotten. His spirit lives on in the new bar, called Mary’s Place, named for his daughter.

On this particular morning, Jake Stonebender, proprietor of Mary’s Place, wakes up and crawls out of bed, not realizing how big a mistake he’s made. It’s going to be one of those days. It’s not that his lovely wife, Zoey Berkowitz, is nine and a half months pregnant. Maybe it’s the early morning knock on the door and the incredibly ugly person who greets Jake and startles him so badly that he spills Zoey’s urine sample – all over the misshapen mistake of nature standing in front of him. That’s when he realizes that this is going to be a day of reckoning.

After this inauspicious start, the day takes a turn for the worse when a huge storm rips the roof off the bar – and moments later drops another, better roof on it. Then the guy with the suitcase full of hundred-dollar bills arrives and starts making them into paper airplanes that he cheerfully launches toward the fireplace.

That’s when Mary Callahan and her husband, Mickey Finn, show up, unconscious, appearing literally out of nowhere. And they have bad news. They’ve come to warn the barfolk that a three-eyed, three-toed, three-everythinged purple monster – the nastiest, most vile servant of the Beast – is going to descend on them within mere hours. The fate of life on Earth will depend on the collective karma of the bar when they confront this all-powerful monster.

Through laughter and tears, with puns powerful enough to melt Formica, the most famous bar in all of spacetime is going to rock this night… but will the Earth survive?

No excerpt was available.

Shannon C.’s review of Hominids: Neanderthal Parallax, Book 1 by Robert J. Sawyer
Science fiction published by Tor 1 May 02

I might never have gotten to this book if it weren’t for reading a relatively negative review of it recently. The reviewer seemed to say, at least to my mind, that Robert J. Sawyer is a bit of a weenie with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. And since I tend to like my science fiction on the weenie–the technical term is “soft”–side rather than the typical non-weenie “hard” SF, I thought that Hominids might actually be a book I could get into without having to read through millions of paragraphs worth of scientific infodumping I didn’t understand. Thankfully, my instincts were correct, and I found myself immediately drawn in by this fascinating story.

The premise here is that Ponter Boddit, a quantum physicist from a parallel universe in which Neanderthals, not our own Cro-Magnon men, evolved and became the dominant race, is doing some intense calculations via his supercomputer, when things go very, very wrong and he ends up going through a gateway into our universe. He baffles our own scientists, and ends up befriending middle-aged geneticist Mary Vaughan, the recent victim of a brutal rape, and alternately learning much about this new place he’s found and teaching his new friends about how things work on his home planet. Meanwhile, his partner, Adikor, is brought forth on charges of murder since Ponter disappeared and there is no way to contact him via the companion implant embedded in his wrist. Adikor could prove what really happened, if he could only get back into his lab, but he’s been prevented from doing so, and must struggle to prove his innocence.

Fish out of water stories are favorites of mine. This was no exception. I loved Ponter, and even though we don’t get much time in his head, I could appreciate his struggles with the fact that he is alone, that no other Neanderthals exist in our universe, and it’s unlikely he’ll get to come home. I also thought that the reactions by the rest of the world to Ponter were pretty much dead on.

I have to say that I really loved that Ponter’s society isn’t perfect either. Poor Adikor, Ponter’s colleague and partner, pretty much has a hopeless time trying to prove his innocence. See, everyone in this society has companion chips, which record what they’re doing every second of the day. People take it for granted, and Sawyer manages to make it seem like a completely normal, non-invasive thing. But the downside is that “innocent until proven guilty” is a concept that the Neanderthals simply don’t have.

Ponter’s story and Adikor’s flow together seamlessly, though it’s actually Adikor’s story that’s more interesting, plot-wise. After a while, it feels as if all Ponter, Mary, and Mary’s colleagues do is talk, and sometimes, yes, the talk does get weighed down with scientific explanations that, while they made sense, sometimes felt a little bit like Sawyer’s attempt to incorporate as much research as he could into the story.

I actually thought the romance between Ponter and Mary was cute, although their HEA at the end isn’t really guaranteed. I really loved watching them grow to respect and trust each other, and I certainly intend to read the sequel to see if that subplot ever gets resolved to my satisfaction.

The story has its flaws. It was originally serialized in Analog Magazine, and essentially just kind of copied and pasted into one novel, so periodically there will be passages that summarize everything that’s just come before. I also could have done with a bit less infodumping, and a bit more depth to some of the characters, but this is very much a readable book, and it won the Hugo Award, which is the most prominent award in science fiction. I can’t disagree with the judgment of the Hugo voters and I definitely intend to keep following Mr. Sawyer on this particular ride.
Grade: B+

Summary:

Hominids examines two unique species of people. We are one of those species; the other is the Neanderthals of a parallel world where they became the dominant intelligence. The Neanderthal civilization has reached heights of culture and science comparable to our own, but with radically different history, society and philosophy.

Ponter Boddit, a Neanderthal physicist, accidentally pierces the barrier between worlds and is transferred to our universe. Almost immediately recognized as a Neanderthal, but only much later as a scientist, he is quarantined and studied, alone and bewildered, a stranger in a strange land. But Ponter is also befriended—by a doctor and a physicist who share his questing intelligence, and especially by Canadian geneticist Mary Vaughan, a woman with whom he develops a special rapport.

Ponter’s partner, Adikor Huld, finds himself with a messy lab, a missing body, suspicious people all around and an explosive murder trial. How can he possibly prove his innocence when he has no idea what actually happened to Ponter?
You can read an excerpt here

Gwen’s review of In the Midnight Hour (Light Warriors, Book 1) by Patti O’Shea
Paranormal romance published 31 July 2007 by Tor

Yes yes.  I know I’m late with this.  What can I say – too many books, so little time.

Patti O’Shea is one of my favorite action romance writers.  Her book The Power of Two (2176 Series, Book 4) , is one of the best science fiction/action romance titles I’ve ever read.  So I was seriously stoked when this title came out.  I was not disappointed.

Doesn’t this cover go beautifully with Sybil’s blog? 

Patti O’Shea is able to create a full, complex world with incredible ease.  Her books never come across as overloaded with “brain dump” prose – where an author has to take the reader to school on the world they’ve built.  Details just flow naturally as part of the story, and the reader is never left behind.  Another of O’Shea’s talents is characters who stay true to themselves throughout a book’s trials and tribulations – no “cop outs.”  This book is another of those – a complex, rich world populated by interesting characters.

The book opens with some fun scenes where the hero and heroine are getting to know each other and the situation they’re in.  The immediate tension and attraction is tempered by their reality – they’re in a fix that might kill them both.  Ryne, the heroine, is the more powerful character for most of the book – I loved that.  The hero, Deke, is a funny, sexy man who knows how to love a strong woman – I loved that.

This was a tremendously fun book to read.  The premise was interesting and peppered with unique, believable details that really made for page-turning fun.  The romance between the characters was sweet and steamy by equal turns.  The story slowed a bit in the middle but picked right back up again.  It was an all around good read.  I’m looking forward to the next entry in this series.

Grade: B

Here’s the book blurb:

Anise is trouble
Ryne is a magical troubleshooter, sworn to protect the innocent from being harmed by magic–and she’s been chasing Anise, her former mentor, for six years.

Deke is a private investigator who knows something key to defeating Anise. But Anise cast a dark spell over him, and even though Ryne has managed to temporarily lift the curse, Deke can’t remember what it is that he knows.

Ryne has sworn to never get involved with a human, but Deke is sexy, charming, brave, and irresistible–and as Ryne and Deke are pulled further into Anise’s evil schemes, it’s harder and harder for Ryne to resist the attraction.

But dark magic has its own attraction, and in order to defeat Anise and lift Deke’s curse permanently, Ryne will have to risk following in Anise’s footsteps and succumbing to the lure of the darkness…

Read an excerpt.

What’s next for Patti O’Shea:

In Twilight’s Shadow (Light Warriors, Book 2), June 2008

P.S. I kept singing Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” while reading this book.