My life in books

Tate Hallaway, Precinct 13

A somewhat more serious foray into urban fantasy than Hallaway's previous series, but still sparkling with the wit that marked her Garnet Lacey novels. The protagonist, Alex Connor, a recently elected coroner living in Pierre, South Dakota, soon learns that one of the local precincts doesn't exactly handle your run-of-the-mill crimes, and its cops and their methods are definietly not mundane. It's quite a turn-around for Alex, who's spent most of her life being labelled an psychologically unstable by her stepmother and various doctors because she can see thing most people can't. Suddenly, her differences are an asset. Plus, dragons. Well, one dragon, anyway. Hallaway (nom de urban fantasy plume of Lyda Morehouse) is currently serialising the sequel, Unjust Cause, here: http://www.wattpad.com/story/14069466-unjust-cause - so once you've read Precinct 13 and found out how much fun it is, go and support the sequel there. Please.



Marie Brennan, A Natural History of Dragons

Sometimes the blurb says it all:

All the world, from Scirland to the farthest reaches of Eriga, know Isabella, Lady Trent, to be the world's preeminent dragon naturalist. She is the remarkable woman who brought the study of dragons out of the misty shadows of myth and misunderstanding into the clear light of modern science. But before she became the illustrious figure we know today, there was a bookish young woman whose passion for learning, natural history, and, yes, dragons defied the stifling conventions of her day.

Here at last, in her own words, is the true story of a pioneering spirit who risked her reputation, her prospects, and her fragile flesh and bone to satisfy her scientific curiosity; of how she sought true love and happiness despite her lamentable eccentricities; and of her thrilling expedition to the perilous mountains of Vystrana, where she made the first of many historic discoveries that would change the world forever.

Yes, it's the story of an intrepid young wonan in a world somewhat like our own, ca. 1880 or so (i.e., the height t of Victoriana) who defies gender expectations to become a natural scientist and who specialises in the study of dragons. And it's delightful. Brennan has captured the voice of the period, and presents us with a compelling heroine, an alternative Earth-like world with similarities and differences to our own history (much like Naomi Novik's Temeraire novels), and dragons. I am entranced.



Hazard Adams, The Truth About Dragons: An Anti-Romance

I've read that this is an 'underground classic' - if so, it's deservedly so.

It's the 1970s, and Firedrake the dragon lives in the hills near Santa Barabara, guarding some very important secrets, gathering treasures, and observing the progress of humankind. Finding a cassette recorder, Firedrake embarks on a project - part diary, part record of musings about many years of observing humans, and part attempt to tell the truth about dragons, from a draconic perspective. Wise and witty, and well worth reading.

The genre of fantasy is rapidly subdividing these days, and I'm not entirely certain what the distinctions are any more. I am sticking with urban fantasy as something that ha
a definition of urban fantasy as something that involves humans interacting with non-humans (vampires, demons, werewolves, elves, whatever) and the use of magic or psychic powers virtually indistinguishable from magic, in an urban setting that is directly based on real world settings (modern-day Toronto or Chicago or whatever). It may involve crimes or mysteries, or it may involve supernatural romance. Or both. I"m not all that fussy.


Jes Battis, Inhuman Resources

Battis' OSI series has held my interest through three volumes to date, and I have the fourth in my TBR pile. The premise is that there is an investigative force, CORE, complete with Occult Special Investigators, that is charged with the responsibility of dealing with all sorts of non-human and occult communities (vampires, necromancers, sorcerers, and so on) secretly co-existing with "normate" human society, investigating crimes involving members of these communities, and keeping the whole business quiet so those ordinary humans can never know. The stories focus on OSI Tess Corday, a woman of mixed heritage (and by that I mean human and demon) and her investigative partner (and roommate) Derrick Siegel. Together they solve crimes! - with the aid of an interesting collection of supporting characters, of course. But behind the episodic nature of the occult crime procedural is a sweeping arc that has to do with Tess' demon heritage.


Katharine Kerr, Licence to Ensorcell

With her lengthy Deverry Cycle epic fantasy series completed, Kerr has decided to explore the urban fantasy/paranormal romance genre, and in my opinion she quite nails it with this first volume in the new Nola O'Grady series. O'Grady is a an operative with a secret agenct whose mandate you can probably figure out right away, and her new case is to find a serial killer targeting werewolves. It's personal - O'Grady's brother was one of the victims. Her partner on the case is a hard-boiled Isreali operative, assigned to work with her because the serial killer has claimed victims in both Israel and the US. I like this new series, and the next volume is in my infamous TBR pile.


J. A. Pitts, Black Blade Blues

This is a first novel from author J. A. Pitts, and there is some roughness to it, but the premise - a lesbian blacksmith who moonlights as a props manager and is part of a medieval reenactment society - was not the sort of thing I could resist. And there are dragons! To continue the refrain, the next volume is in my TBR pile.


Kevin Hearne, Hounded

Another first novel, and a very fine one too. But how could I resist a novel about the last of the Druids, currently living in Arizona under the unlikely name of Atticus O’Sullivan. The rest of the cast of characters includes his Irish wolfhound, a werewolf and a vampire who happen to be his lawyers, several Celtic deities, the spirit of an ancient Hindu sorceress and a coven of witches. And it's funny too - Hearne has a pleasantly dry wit that is well integrated into the style and storytelling. The next volumes is... oh, you know where it is.


Tate Hallaway, Almost to Die For

You, constant reader, already know that I think very highly of Lyda Morehouse's work, and of course you are aware that Tate Hallaway is the name Morehouse uses for her contemporary supernatural urban romance fantasy work (did I cover all the bases there?). This is the first volume in a new YA series about a teenaged girl whose father happens to be the leader of the vampires in her city, and by vampire tradition, that makes her his heir. I liked it, and... you guessed it, the next volume is in my TBR pile.


Tate Hallaway, Honeymoon of the Dead

And, to balance all these new series, this is the last volume in Morehouse/Hallaway's Garnet Lacey series. Garnet and her vampire lover Sebastian von Traum are finally married - but Garnet's past gets in the way of their planned honeymoon in Transylvania. A good ending to an enjoyable series. No more volumes to put in my TBR file. Sniff.

Romancing the Dead, Tate Hallaway

Yep, Garnet Lacey is back, with another mystery to solve among the undead of otherwise fantastical denizens of Madison Wisconsin. Sebastian, Garnet's vampire fiancé, is missing, his ghouls (human he has a feeding relationship with) are jealous of her, his renegade half-human son Matyas has reappeared in town, there's something terribly off-centre in the new coven she's trying to form, and there's a very strange shape-shifter on the loose.

The first two books in the Garnet Lacey series, written by Lyda Morehouse under the penname of Tate Hallaway, were pleasant supernatural romance romps with solid metaphysical underpinnings, and the third volume continues in that vein - part of what I like about them is that while both Morehouse/Hallaway as the writer and her protagonist Garnet are serious and respectful toward the occult, Garnet as a character is a woman with a keen sense of the ironic, the comic and the ridiculous as well as the serious. The combination of the two perspectives in one character, and one book, creates as if by alchemy a result that seems both satisfyingly real, and patently fantastic all at once.

As supernatural romance mystery "chick-lit" goes, this is definitely some of my favourite stuff.

Tall, Dark and Dead, Tate Hallaway

It's pretty much an open secret that Lyda Morehouse, the author of a truly wonderful religious cyberpunk series of novels - Archangel Protocol, Fallen Host, Messiah Node and Apocalypse Array - is currently writing "supernatural romance" under the name Tate Hallaway. While I hope someday to see more Lyda Morehouse novels with the sf bite of the Archangel series, the first Tate Hallaway is a lot of fun to read, too, and I'm awaiting the publication of the second one with some impatience.

Tall, Dark and Dead is an adventure-romance about a witch on the run and a vampire who wasn't turned in the usual way. There's humour, and sex, and plot twists, and blood and magic and betrayals and a nicely crafted love story, plus some solid knowledge of occult matters (although as a former professional astrologer myself, I have a small nit to pick with her on the distinction between progressions and transits). There are also some welcome Morehouse touches - for instance, the Vatican has a secret squad of witch-hunting assassins. A good read.