bibliogramma | Daniel José Older: Half-Resurrection Blues (Reply)

I very much wanted to like Daniel José Older's first novel, the urban fantasy Half-Resurrection Blues, but while I did enjoy it after I finally "got into it," it never really gelled for me.

Part of this may be that I am very, very picky about urban fantasy. I've read at least the first book in a fair number of urban fantasy series, but the only ones I can really say I loved are the Blood Ties novels by Tanya Huff, the OSI Special Investigations novels by Jes Battis, and some of Mercedes Lackey's urban elves and guardians and suchlike fantasy series (my favourite being the Diana Tregarde Mysteries). I've liked a few other series very much - notably those by Tate Hallaway, Marjorie Liu, Kevin Hearne and Katharine Kerr - and the older, pre-formula urban fantasies by Gael Baudino (Gossamer Axe) and R. A. MacAvoy (Tea with the Black Dragon) are among my favourite fantasy books. But in a standard urban fantasy, there are certain buttons that it seems I need to have pushed, and Half-Resurrection Blues just doesn't push them.

Don't get me wrong. It's a well-written novel, the supernatural elements are interesting and well-thought-out, the characters are interesting, the plot is tight and moves along with a good building momentum. And the novel bubbles over with diversity, and that is a very, very good thing. But I think what made it hard for me to really get into was how much of a "boy's life" kind of story it was, and the way that Sasha, the one major female character - who could really have been amazing - is seen exclusively through the male gaze of the protagonist, Carlos. We see her mostly as an object of his curiosity - they are both "halfies" or Inbetweeners," people who were dead but have been partly resurrected, and she is one of the very few other halfies Carlos has ever heard of - then his sexual interest, then his mission objective, but we never learn why he falls in love with her, or indeed, much about her at all.

So... While a good read, it just missed the cut for being a great read by my criteria. Others may well enjoy the novel more than I did.