Tag Archives: urban fantasy

Cold Burn of Magic

Book Review of Cold Burn of Magic (Black Blade #1), by Jennifer Estep

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I bought a paperback copy of Jennifer Estep’s Cold Burn of Magic out in the real world.

Description from Goodreads:
It’s not as great as you’d think, living in a tourist town that’s known as “the most magical place in America.” Same boring high school, just twice as many monsters under the bridges and rival Families killing each other for power.

I try to keep out of it. I’ve got my mom’s bloodiron sword and my slightly illegal home in the basement of the municipal library. And a couple of Talents I try to keep quiet, including very light fingers and a way with a lock pick.

But then some nasty characters bring their Family feud into my friend’s pawn shop, and I have to make a call–get involved, or watch a cute guy die because I didn’t. I guess I made the wrong choice, because now I’m stuck putting everything on the line for Devon Sinclair. My mom was murdered because of the Families, and it looks like I’m going to end up just like her. . .

Review:
I didn’t love this. It’s told in first person, past tense and just felt very flatly told. Imagine a three-year-old who has a story to tell you and it’s full of “and then I” and “then the monster” and “I thought,” etc. I wasn’t hugely engaged in the story. I thought………[I’ve literally finished this book not 10 minutes ago and I can’t remember her name]….the main character was exceptionally shallow. I mean, she only seemed to have anger and sarcasm where her personality should have been. There’s some huge plot holes, not the least of which is that the town is full of monsters, that will literally eat you if you cross their bridge, for example, but somehow some people don’t believe in them. The villains (both sub-plots’ worth) are evil just for the sake of being evil. And they are all VERY OBVIOUS. I won’t be pursuing this series.

Strange Practice

Book Vivian ShawReview of Strange Practice (Dr. Greta Helsing, #1), by Vivian Shaw

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I borrowed a copy of Strange Practice, by Vivian Shaw, from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Greta Helsing inherited the family’s highly specialized, and highly peculiar, medical practice. In her consulting rooms, Dr. Helsing treats the undead for a host of ills – vocal strain in banshees, arthritis in barrow-wights, and entropy in mummies. Although barely making ends meet, this is just the quiet, supernatural-adjacent life Greta’s been groomed for since childhood.

Until a sect of murderous monks emerges, killing human and undead Londoners alike. As terror takes hold of the city, Greta must use her unusual skills to stop the cult if she hopes to save her practice, and her life.

Review:
This was one of those books I generally enjoyed, then say back and thought about and decided I had a problem with it. I’ll start with what I enjoyed. I thought the vampire mythos was interesting, as was the idea of a supernatural doctor (that’s a doctor to the supernatural, she’s not herself supernatural). There was quite a lot of humor and the writing is pretty good. All in all, enjoyable.

But…BUT it’s just so classically and problematically male. It’s a Greta Helsing novel, granted, but why is she essentially the only female? The gang was comprised of Greta, two vampires, a demon and a research fellow. There just isn’t any reason at least one of those couldn’t be a woman. But no, Greta is surrounded by, taken care of by and takes advice from only men. At least one of which (the one she’s attracted to) thinks it’s not really appropriate for a woman to be a doctor. She’s constantly wishing for her father and his advice, her mother wholly absent. (I can’t remember if it even said how she, presumably, died.) Even the villain’s henchmen are all male. Why do authors (especially female authors) keep leaving women out of their worlds? Here, I noticed it and as the book went on it just got more and more noticeable and more and more irritating. Because the series may be named after Greta, but it’s a book about the men around Greta. Bah! Forget that.

Food of the Gods

Book Review of Food of the Gods (Gods and Monsters: Rupert Wong #1-2), by Cassandra Khaw

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I borrowed a copy of Cassandra Khaw‘s Food of the Gods from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Paying off a debt to the gods is never easy.

It’s not unusual to work two jobs in this day and age, but sorcerer and former triad soldier Rupert Wong’s life is more complicated than most. By day, he makes human hors d’oeuvres for a dynasty of ghouls; by night, he pushes pencils for the Ten Chinese Hells. Of course, it never seems to be enough to buy him a new car—or his restless, flesh-eating-ghost girlfriend passage from the reincarnation cycle—until opportunity comes smashing through his window.

In Kuala Lumpur, where deities from a handful of major faiths tip-toe around each other and damned souls number in the millions, it’s important to tread carefully. Now the Dragon King of the South wants to throw Rupert right in it. The ocean god’s daughter and her once-mortal husband have been murdered, leaving a single clue: bloodied feathers from the Greek furies. It’s a clue that could start a war between pantheons, and Rupert’s stuck in the middle. Success promises wealth, power and freedom, and failure… doesn’t.

Review:
In deciding how I feel about this book, I kept going back and forwards with the good and the bad. The good is definitely some first class writing, a character with a good wit and sarcastic mouth, some great nods to feminism (which also seemed to highlight the bum deal EVERY wife in the book seemed to get) and an interesting world. The bad was far, far, far too much gore. I don’t say this because I’m grossed out by viscera, but because I just got mindnumpingly bored of reading yet ANOTHER scene of some hapless human being shredded. (On a side note, how did hundreds of people keep disappearing and no police ever investigate?) And I could have definitely done with a glossary. All in all, I’d happily read more of the series. But I think I’ll step away for a breather first.

As an additional note on this version of the book, the actual physical book, the font is very small. As are the margins and line spacing. (Definitely below average.) I admit I’m 40, but I don’t yet need reading glasses and I found this…maybe not difficult, but not easy to focus on and read.