Ilona Andrews is probably best known for her Kate Daniels series, but she is also (along with husband and co-author Gordon) the author of a paranormal romance series about life on “the Edge,” a borderland between a world full of magic (the Weird) and our mundane reality (the Broken). (It should be noted that while I’m classifying the books as paranormal romance, due to the structure of each novel — the books each feature the love story of a couple who end up in a happily ever after at the conclusion — other reviewers have considered them “rustic fantasy” or “unclassifiable.” Thus, your mileage may vary.)

Edgers are a unique bunch, full of enough magic that they can pass between parallel worlds — usually. Some have too much magic to survive crossing into the Broken. Others don’t have enough magic to survive crossing into the Weird. Thus, the Edge is full of exiles, con artists, criminals, and people who are generally down on their luck. Those misfits make for compelling heroes, and with book three, the series has just started to hit its stride into an overarching plot, giving it a great potential to draw readers from beyond the paranormal romance readership.

On the Edge

When Rose graduated from high school, she made a mistake: at the party for all the Edger seniors graduating from Broken high school, Rose showed off the full extent of her magical talent. She flashed white — which means that she showed her magic was just as strong and skilled as the “bluebloods,” the nobles of the Weird. This made her a prize not only in the Edge, but also for prospective suitors (read: breeders) in the neighboring Weird. After attempts to kidnap and coerce her, Rose has given up on trusting anyone, and is focused on providing a home for her two younger brothers, George and Jack, with what little money she makes in the Broken. When Declan, a blueblood from the Weird, shows up on her door step, she thinks he’s just another source of trouble.

In fact, Declan and trouble show up in the Edge at the same time, but the real danger isn’t a blueblood interested in winning Rose’s hand, it’s a pack of evil, magic-eating hounds raised by a powerful magical artifact that has fallen into the wrong hands. Keeping her friends and family safe will take all of Rose’s magical talent — and will require her to put a little bit of faith in the mysterious blueblood. Unlike most paranormal romances, On the Edge never reveals Declan’s perspective, so while it’s no surprise that he’s the hero, his motivation is kept delightfully secret. The characters are fun, and Rose’s brothers feel like real children plagued by magical problems. The novel is a fun entry into a cool new world.

Bayou Moon

The second book in the series stars William, a changeling who shape shifts into a wolf, who was a pivotal secondary character in On the Edge. Raised in an orphanage and then a military boarding school that trained him to be a killer, William doesn’t believe he’ll ever be the type of man to have a family. He certainly doesn’t expect to get involved in a romance while he’s on a secret mission for the Mirror, the spies who work for the Weird kingdom of Adrianglia. Having been burned by the Adrianglian government once before, William isn’t eager to get involved, but the Mirror gives him the opportunity to hunt down a changeling butcher from the Dukedom of Louisiana, a monster named Spider who has literally traded his humanity for monstrous abilities. While William was in the Adrianglian military, he fought Spider twice before, failing to kill him both times, but surviving their encounters — a feat no other soldier or agent has matched.

The mission leads him to Cerise Mar, whose parents have been kidnapped by Spider and the Hand, the Dukedom of Louisiana’s secret service. Cerise and her family are fighters, descendants of exiles from the Dukedom of Louisiana and native magic users of the Mire, a swamp region where only the toughest can survive. Cerise practices an old form of swordplay — bending her flash around her sword blade to make it sharp enough to cut through any man or monster — that makes her almost as deadly as William.

The narrative switches perspectives to include both hero and heroine as they try to figure each other out — the more traditional paranormal romance style — but remains adventure (and horror) heavy for the genre. Spider and his minions are all modified by magic — some of them have tentacles, others have gills, and all of them are twisted beyond humanity into nightmarish creatures. But with heroes who are deadly — and who don’t mind killing when it’s called for — it’s good to have villains that are so utterly in need of killing.

Fate’s Edge

Book three ties together the first two novels by bringing Jack and George — now twelve and fourteen — back as major characters, while continuing the plot where Bayou Moon left off. The Hand and the Mirror remain engaged in their cold war, and the theft of an artifact from a neighboring nation sends both organizations scurrying to recover it. Kaldar, Cerise’s cousin and a scoundrel, is the Mirror agent sent to make sure it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. When he finds the thief, Audrey, he discovers that not only is she amazingly gifted as a lockpick, but she’s completely uninterested in a life of crime and is determined to go straight with a job in the Broken. The theft of the artifact was her last job — one she did only to keep her father and brother out of trouble. Because she refused to take part in the hand off after the job was finished, Audrey had no idea of the object’s power, or that so many governments would want it back. If the Hand were to get the artifact, all of the Edge would be in danger, and Audrey’s guilt over her part in the theft makes her agree to join Kaldar in getting it back. Stowaways Jack and George also make their first attempts as agents for the Mirror, making the romance novel into a spy thriller and a coming of age story wrapped into one.

The stakes rise throughout the novel, pointing to coming war between Adrianglia and the Dukedom of Louisiana. With two years of time passing in the world between each book, it won’t take long until the two scene-stealing kids of On the Edge grow up enough for their own adventures. In the meantime, it will be a long wait for book four — especially since the release date has yet to be announced!

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. Flash Fire Mini-Reviews! (Second Attempt)

Available at Amazon.com

Gwen Frost is back at Mythos Academy, and she’s got a new attitude. In Touch of Frost (reviewed here), Gwen was a poor little Gypsy girl, stuck out of place at an academy full of warrior kids and wishing for her old life. While Gwen is still no warrior — and still wishes that her mother’s death had never happened — she’s got a new mission: get awesome, fast, so she can live up to the expectations of Nike, her patron goddess. At the end of the first book, Gwen was chosen to be Nike’s champion, and she has no intentions of failing.

Unfortunately, someone is trying to kill her.

Unwilling to run to the authorities for help, Gwen plans to solve the mystery of the person attacking her on her own. In order to keep herself relatively safe — and to keep tabs on her suspects — she has to go on the school winter holiday to a ski resort, which she’d previously been hoping to avoid at all costs. Valkyrie BFF Daphne is thrilled that Gwen is coming, and assures her that the trip will be just the thing she needs to get over the broody Spartan, Logan, who professed feelings for Gwen but insists on tongue wrestling with another girl. And, in fact, Gwen meets a cute guy on the trip, but he disappears any time he might be spotted with her. Something fishy is happening, and it’s up to Gwen to get to the bottom of it — and maybe find some new allies in the process.

In Touch of Frost, Jennifer Estep created a fun new world that mixes world mythologies in a delightful mashup, with Loki and his Reapers of Chaos as the ultimate villains. In Kiss of Frost, Estep raises the stakes: Gwen is more involved in the world now, and more willing to accept that this life-or-death situation is her new reality. For better or for worse, Gwen Frost is a part of something bigger than herself — and Estep does a great job of making that both a moral decision and a personal one. But although the main movement of the story is mythical, Gwen’s concerns are grounded in a teen reality: she feels like the third wheel when she hangs out with her friends; the boy she has a tremendous crush on doesn’t seem to want her that way; and her desire to put her nose into other people’s secrets always causes her more trouble than she wants. In Gwen’s case, that last normal problem is enhanced by her gift of psychometry — the ability to see memories held in an object — and it’s that gift that gets her off to a very dangerous start in Kiss of Frost.

One of the best parts of Kiss of Frost has less to do with Gwen’s personal tale and more to do with free will and fate. In one of Gwen’s classes, there is a discussion about how even monsters have free will — even the creatures twisted by the Reapers have the potential to choose their own fates. The idea of free will vs. fate is one that has strong mythic resonance; in Greek mythology, especially, a person is governed by the Fates and has no choice about his or her destiny. Estep’s work playing with this concept takes the books beyond a fun, lighthearted urban fantasy series for teens and moves it to the next level.

Kiss of Frost is a great sequel, and in many ways a stronger book than the first entry into the world. With four more books to look forward to in the series, it’ll be a fun ride — maybe with a topsy turvy version of Ragnarok to close things off!

FTC disclosure: I received the e-ARC of this novel from the author.

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. Exploring the Mythos Academy with Jennifer Estep
2. Touch of Frost Fiction Review
3. The Darkest Kiss Fiction Review

Back in 2009, when I was still able to keep up with the League of Reluctant Adults on a regular basis, I eagerly awaited the release of Tempest Rising, Nicole Peeler’s first novel.* Like other members of the League, Peeler is totally snarky, really smart, sexy verging on smutty, and a ton of fun to read in her online posts. So it was no great surprise when I loved Tempest Rising. The fourth book in the series, Eye of the Tempest, just came out last month, and I sifted through my TBR pile and caught up on books two through four this week. They’re fast reads, with qualities that verge on paranormal romance but plot and worldbuilding that, in my qualifications, keep them firmly in urban fantasy. Here’s the breakdown on each book, but the overarching verdict is: give them a chance! They’re funny, fast paced, and completely engaging. Jane’s a fantastic hero, who’s far stronger than she realizes – and not in the warrior woman way. Getting to know her, and her world, is a great ride, but beware: she’s a horrible influence. You might find yourself avoiding responsibilities to read more about her adventures.

Tempest Rising

The series kicks off when Jane True, a twenty-something bookseller who has no idea about the supernatural world around her, finds a murdered body. Things are instantly complicated: she discovers the murder while night swimming, something she shouldn’t be capable of doing in the dangerous waters of the Old Sow whirlpool off of coastal Maine. Figuring out how to report the crime is only the first hurdle, and Jane finds herself embroiled in a supernatural murder mystery – and discovers that she herself is half-selkie, with the potential to manipulate the magic of water. Guiding her into the brave new world is Ryu, a sexy baobhan sith – similar to a vampire – investigator who feels the same attraction to Jane she feels to him. But while Ryu seems interested in Jane for his own benefit (feeding and sex), barghest Anyan (a large man who takes the form of a huge dog most of the time) and gnome Nell are Jane’s real support – and, aside from Jane’s internal monologue, divided between her  constantly arguing libido and virtue, it’s Anyan who steals the show. It’s a strong debut, with the purpose of introducing readers, like Jane, to the crazy world Peeler has created while also taking them on a fun ride.

Tracking the Tempest

In Tracking the Tempest, Jane once again finds herself in a supernatural murder case – this time because of her relationship with Ryu. (“Ah ha!” my inner reader cheered. “I didn’t trust him to be good for her.”) It isn’t that things aren’t coming up roses between Jane and Ryu – the sex is still great, after all – but that someone is after Ryu: Conleth, a fiery, half-ifrit who was raised as a lab rat, has the baobhan sith’s number. Seeing Jane, another half-human, changes Conleth’s plans, however, and Jane finds herself becoming the object of Conleth’s obsession. To make matters worse, Ryu wants to take their relationship to the next level—which to him means that Jane should give up everything to be with him. While the plot of this novel is divided neatly between relationship crisis and solve-the-murder crisis, Peeler deftly weaves the two together, so that Jane’s brooding over her love life never takes precedence, and the murder mystery is never too far from Jane’s wry commentary. Better yet, Ryu, who I never wanted to like, turns out to have unexpected redeeming qualities – and Jane’s realizations about their relationship (and about her friendship with a certain barghest) help Jane to grow into a self-awareness she needs to face what comes next…

Tempest’s Legacy

As if Jane’s world hadn’t been through enough upheaval, she has to face loss head-on when her selkie mother is murdered before Jane’s longed-for reunion. Unwilling to be left out of this investigation, and despite being at odds with Ryu, Jane teams up with Ryu and Anyan to investigate a connected string of murders in the Borderlands – an area where half-humans are embraced, rather than scorned (as they are in the Territory, where Jane lives). Jane’s desire to become strong transforms into an unwillingness to feel – and she begins to risk becoming as cold as the people behind the murders to solve the crime. Jane is no great sleuth, here or in previous books, but her insight – usually having to do with being human, or loving books – often helps break the case. It’s also the way that she cares about protecting her friends that shows her true strength – not that her growing strength as a magic user can be dismissed. The book ends with another upheaval, this one political, as the structure of the supernatural world crashes around them, and a mysterious older power, who Jane calls Blondie, reveals herself as another player in the game.

Eye of the Tempest

Get ready for a cliffhanger. Eye of the Tempest opens the world of Jane True wide and deep as Jane gets her Cthulu on. The Lovecraftian references are just the beginning: Rockabill is at risk, and Jane has to team up with Blondie – who she’s still not sure if she trusts – in order to save the place she loves. When Anyan and Nell are taken out of the picture, Jane’s really on her own trying to save the world – and discovering that she’s actually far more capable of some world-saving than she’d ever have believed. Meanwhile, her supernatural identity has been outed to her father, and his heart problem has been cured with magic, changing their entire relationship. The book ends with a near climax (the double entendre is intentional) and a frustratingly urgent lead in to book five… which won’t be released until Spring 2012.

You heard it here, gang – I need more readers to join me in desperately waiting for more of Jane’s adventures. Pick ‘em up at the bookstore or on your e-reader, but be aware: putting them down might be a challenge.

* which, like the other books in the series, I purchased on my own.

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. Flash Fire Mini Reviews: Kate Daniels Series by Ilona Andrews
2. Flash Fire Mini-Reviews (Back from the Dead)
3. Flash Fire Mini-Reviews! (Zombies)

Available at Amazon.com

Midnight at the Spanish Gardens is not the kind of book I normally review for Flames Rising. It is certainly a fantasy novel, but the fantasy elements don’t actually end up being all that important: the book revolves around the choices that people make in their lives, and what they might do differently if they had it to do all over again — or if fate or chance had played out the events differently. But while it’s not truly a dark fantasy, I wanted to review it here after reading an ARC from the author because this is the type of book that held me and didn’t let me go. I actually stood in a doorway the first night I was reading it, intending to walk somewhere to put it down, expecting to head off to bed for the night, but I flipped page after page in my nook and kept reading, standing there, for probably twenty minutes. Then, realizing I clearly wasn’t going to stop, I gave up my rational decision to head to bed and sat down and read more instead. Not only that, but even when I wasn’t reading the book, I was thinking about it. That experience tells me that this is a book worth sharing.

In the opening of Midnight at the Spanish Gardens, Alma Alexander introduces Olivia, an unhappy woman who clearly wishes for a life that had gone differently. She’s going to a familiar old restaurant, the Spanish Gardens, to meet with friends she hasn’t seen for more than twenty years, to catch up on their lives. It makes her nervous, as she parted with some of them on bad terms: Simon, who was her lover, betrayed her by turning her brother’s war stories into a novel; Ellen, her best friend, was the woman Simon turned to for comfort after the fight, and a pregnancy (and marriage between the two of them) swiftly followed. In avoiding those two, she’s also avoided Quincey and John, people who might otherwise have been better friends. One by one, each member of the quintet is given the opportunity, unknown to the others, to see a different version of their own lives. The enigmatic bartender Ariel hands each one of them, in turn, instructions on how to see a different path, in the knowledge that, only for a moment, they will have the memories of both lives, and they will have to choose which one is theirs.

The decisions each of them makes at the end come down to different matters: for one it’s the chance to be a star or the role of a mentor; for another it’s true love or the children she’s brought into the world. Sometimes the choice is one of pride, other times of intellectual exercise. But the question beneath each of them — what have I done in this life that’s worth keeping? — has a resonance beyond the magic that gave them the choice.

Alexander’s language is lovely and poetic, but she never lets it get in the way of the story she’s telling. The imagery is beautiful, the setting is compelling, and the character of the mysterious and magical Ariel, a Messenger (for Fate? for God? we never find out), is compelling. But it’s the characters that drive this story, in all of their imperfection, in all of their passion or disconnection or feeling of failure. And the conceit is one that will linger — if you saw a different life, a different path you might have taken, would you trade the joys and failures of this one for the joys and failures of the other? What would you sacrifice for the things you truly care about in your own world? The magic of looking at your own life through the lens of the Spanish Gardens and take a little wisdom away may well be hidden within the novel’s pages, no tragic choice required.

Review by Alana Abbott

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If you follow Jim Hines’s blog, you know he’s been experimenting with electronically self-publishing short stories, many of which originally appeared in print publications. His first collection, Goblin Tales, did well enough that he’s releasing another group of six tales, Kitemaster and Other Stories, in mid-August. I caught Jim’s note for reviewers and volunteered, and I think this is another strong group of stories, mostly for the lighthearted fantasy crowd. Three of them I’d previously purchased via fictionwise, and have been favorites of mine since the first reading, but three were brand new to me, and I think all are solid stories — even the one that left me with something akin to the willies over a series of puppet deaths. But we’ll get there in a minute.

“Kitemaster” is the title story of the collection and also the opener, a tale in which a young, untrained peasant with a talent for kite magic is captured by rebels and forced, due to threats against her hostage brother, to work against the Imperial army. Nial is a sympathetic heroine, and the setting evokes ancient China without getting too specific — the use of manned kites to fly scouts has a historical basis, but much of the rest of the setting is invented, with only a slight Chinese flavor. The real star of the story is Osa, a spirit kite, who aids Nial in her plans to outwit the general who has captured her, and possibly help save the Emperor.

In “Untrained Melody,” another untrained magic user, Laura, is roped into the beginnings of learning how to be a bard when a dwarf drags her on a mission to undo the magic she’s inadvertently done. The setting this time is a modern one, and Laura is just trying to make ends meet. She also has, as her instrument of choice, an accordion. The plot may be serious on this one, but the trappings are all comedy, and the banter between Laura and the dwarf, Al, sparkles.

Three of my favorite Jim Hines stories follow: “Blade of the Bunny,” a sword and sorcery tale about two thieves outwitting a crooked wizard; “Over the Hill,” which features three granny warriors teaching a young, chainmailed lady guard the ropes of dealing with bandits (against the girl’s own better judgment); and “Spell of the Sparrow,” a sequel to “Blade” in which the daughter of the two thieves helps to undo a lovespell on her father. These stories worked for me on first read and they continue to feel like fantasy to come home to — while the settings are nonspecific, the trappings are easy to recognize. These characters could show up in your D&D game and you’d feel in good company (even if the grannies from “Over the Hill” did have to tug your ear to make sure you were following their lead). In some cases, that flavor detracts from the overall story, but in this case, it’s as though the story is speaking a language the readers already know, so Hines can get right to the meat of his tale. “Blade of the Bunny” has a love story at its heart — it’s about two people who haven’t really realized they’re in love until they’re in the thick of a quest together and have to outwit their employer to win. “Over the Hill” is, in some ways, about the powers that come with age — and a soldier uses every weapon she has available to her. The three elderly leads are fantastic; they’re reminiscent of the witches from Terry Pratchett’s “Discworld” books, with that same ability to see the truth of things, but with warrior skills in their backgrounds. “Spell of the Sparrow” offers up how stubbornness and a lack of nobility can sometimes be the strengths that make a relationship work — even in the face of evil magic — and how listening to your children really can come in handy.

Up until this point in the collection, all of the stories have similar trapping and similar themes — they’re definitely fantasy, and while there’s humor, they’re not necessarily joke stories. Even “Over the Hill” has characters with real depth and goals, even if they complain about their bodily functions and the effects of prunes. “The Creature in Your Neighborhood” is a departure from the tone of the rest of the collection, and it’s a direct parody of Sesame Street, but in a twisted, alternate reality where a werewolf has infected one of the puppets. The short becomes a horror story told in the structure of a children’s television show, and the result is… bizarre. It’s clear that Hines is a parent himself, and it feels like after watching Sesame Street one too many times, he was ready to get even, or at least subject the characters to horrible suffering. In some moments, it works, and I’d guess that for some readers, it’ll work all the way through. I may still be a bit too fond of the Sesame Street gang to gleefully watch as their counterparts spiral into murder and despair. Had it been in a collection with some of Hines’s other stories (“Nothing but Meat” or “Brainburgers and Bile Shakes: A Love Story,” for example, which feature cannibalism and zombies respectively), I think I’d have read it differently; in the context of the previous stories, it kind of made me want to sing, “Which of these things is not like the others?” (That may say more about me than about the story itself!)

As a bonus conclusion, Hines is offering a sneak peek into his new series, which starts with Libriomancer and is scheduled to release in 2012. If the excerpt is anything to judge by, this is going to be a series well worth following.

Overall, I felt the collection might have benefited from a short introduction about why these pieces were selected for the collection, or just offering a little bit about how the collection came to be, but the very short afterwords for each story filled a lot of that need. It’s a strong collection with several excellent pieces, and at the price Hines has mentioned ($3.99), it’s about 66 cents per story. This is a great entry point into Hines’s work for people who haven’t read his other series; fans of his earlier books won’t be disappointed.

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. Waking The Witch Fiction Review
2. Wolfsbane and Mistletoe Fiction Review
3. Mean Streets Fiction Review

Dave Gross is the former editor of gaming magazines including Polyhedron, Dungeon, Dragon, Star Wars Gamer, Star Wars Insider, and Amazing Stories. If that wasn’t enough, he’s also written fiction in a number of game worlds, including the Forgotten Realms and, most recently, Golarion, the home of the Pathfinder gaming system. His new novel, Master of Devils, releases later this month. Dave took time out of his busy schedule of writing and watching kung fu movies to chat with us about his upcoming release.

Flames Rising: You have an impressive history in editing for gaming magazines and anthologies, and a whole run of Forgotten Realms novels for Wizards of the Coast. What was the path that brought you to writing fiction for Pathfinder?

Dave Gross: In 2008 I visited the World Fantasy Convention in Calgary. It was mainly a social trip to catch up with some old friends. Two of them were also former colleagues from Paizo, Director of Sales Pierce Watters and Publisher Erik Mona. Erik mentioned his plans to start a Pathfinder Tales line and asked whether I’d be interested in contributing. Already I loved what I’d seen of Golarion. The world was vast and varied, like the Forgotten Realms, but unburdened by a long history with the occasional apocalypse. The prospect of acting as a, well, pathfinder in a relatively fresh setting was too sweet to pass up. Since it would be another year before they were ready to solicit novels, Fiction Editor James Sutter invited me to pitch a novella for the Council of Thieves Adventure Path. He liked the idea that eventually became “Hell’s Pawns,” the first Radovan & the Count story. When it was time to launch the novels, he asked me to pitch an idea with the same characters. That became Prince of Wolves, the first book in the Pathfinder Tales line.

FR: Your upcoming release, Master of Devils, is your second novel featuring Count Varian Jeggare and his bodyguard Radovan, but it’s several novels into the Pathfinder Tales series. What should readers pick up before reading Master of Devils?

DG: Not a thing. In August the novel, a short story at paizo.com, and a new six-part novella in the Jade Regent Adventure Path all come out simultaneously. You can read them in any order without suffering major spoilers.

For fans of chronological order, the sequence is: “A Lesson in Taxonomy,” “Hell’s Pawns,” “The Lost Pathfinder,” Prince of Wolves, the as-yet-untitled web story for August, “Husks,” and then Master of Devils. The earlier stories are available at paizo.com in various formats, several of them for free.

FR: When you’re writing in the Pathfinder universe, how much do you think about tying the story into the game, or vice versa?

DG: In the beginning, I think much more about the setting than about game mechanics. It’s uninteresting to me to place any fantasy story in Golarion; I want to write a story that belongs there. So I research the setting the way I would research Medieval France if I were writing a Carolingian romance.

For Prince of Wolves, the homework started out pretty easy. The Principality of Ustalav existed in only six pages of description, but it was evocative stuff. My favorite parts of those pages went into my brainstorming notes. I knew I wanted to include the worship of the prominent deities of the region, and there was much more material on them in other game books. When I read the description of the courtly intrigue in Caliphas, I knew I had to include several noble schemers as supporting players. Virtually every character and event in the novel comes from my imagining what would “feel true” in this corner of Golarion.

At some point I start thinking of ways the game mechanics can help tell the story. For instance, Pathfinder Harrowers are fortune-tellers, usually frauds but sometimes “True Harrowers.” Deciding that one of my characters is a phony who is as surprised as anyone else when her cards prove prophetic was a fun way to suggest the hand of fate while leaving doubt in the minds of characters and readers alike. I also like to bend the rules when it adds mystery without detracting from the logic of the setting. So my unexpected “True Harrower” turns up a card that doesn’t exist in the standard Harrow deck, and one of my protagonists discovers an unorthodox method of casting spells.

Master of Devils was a different situation. The novel had to be finished before the setting was complete. Fortunately, the Paizo creative team entrusted me with one of the Successor States of Imperial Lung Wa, and I ended up contributing three countries to the setting book.  While kung fu movies inspired the action scenes, I often paused to think of whether the extraordinary moves were things characters can do in the game—like snatching an arrow out of the air or fooling an opponent with a feint. When the action didn’t fit the rules, sometimes I altered the scene to make it more “believable” to a Pathfinder player. But sometimes I left it more true to the movies and trusted that a designer would sweep in behind me and, for example, add Burning Cloud Devil’s flying fireball to a later supplement.

FR: On your blog over at the Alliterates, you’ve reviewed several kung fu movies recently as a tie in to your new release, since Master of Devils takes place at a warrior monastery in Pathfinder’s Asian-flavored setting. Could you talk a little bit about your inspiration, and about any challenges you encountered tying your cinema inspirations into the Pathfinder world?

DG: After I finished Prince of Wolves, James Sutter and I chatted about what the boys might do next. At PaizoCon 2010 we spitballed various ideas, but none of them stuck. Then I remembered that the Tian Xia setting would come out about a year later, around the time I could finish another novel. I’m a huge dork for Asian cinema, so my hand shot up like Arnold Horshack’s, “Ooh, ooh, ooooh!” We caught Erik Mona outside the lounge, he gave us his blessing, and five minute later we had a plan.

Since the Adventure Path takes characters to Golarion’s version of Japan, James preferred that I set the novel elsewhere in Tian Xia. That was perfect for me, since I love Chinese wuxia movies (let’s call ‘em “kung fu movies”) even more than samurai films.

Taking inspiration from these films was the opposite of a challenge. More than anything from Hollywood, kung fu movies capture the essence of fantasy roleplaying. Also, it was no great hardship to revisit scores of my favorite films and discover a few dozen more as I did my research. For those who’d like to explore them, I’ll post more movie recommendations on my site and others over the next weeks.

Many kung fu films include the amazing fight scenes for which the Shaw Brothers became famous. Some are more romantic, like King Hu’s classics or Zhang Yimou’s marriage of wuxia and art-house. Others are full of over-the-top magic and supernatural creatures, like the fantasy films of Tsui Hark. I wanted to reflect all three of these sub-genres, but I didn’t want to jumble a plot with conflicting tones. Thus, Radovan’s journey takes him all over the countryside, where he faces deadly martial arts masters. Varian’s story, told mostly at Dragon Temple, contains more romance and intrigue. And for the really crazy supernatural stuff … well, I don’t want to give away the surprise to those who haven’t already heard the readings, but the third point-of-view character goes places and meets beings that the other two can’t. Near the end, these separate worlds gradually blend into each other before they finally converge. The fun of plotting Master of Devils was that there is ultimately only one story, just many different paths by which to reach it.

FR: For people who aren’t familiar with Paizo’s Adventure Path monthly resource, can you talk a little bit about how the novellas you’ve written to tie into the adventure paths have worked?

DG: The novellas appear in installments within the Adventure Paths, six chapters each. The one thing the fiction and the adventure have in common is the general setting. Thus, the events of “Hell’s Pawns” take place in Cheliax, but in the city of Egorian rather than Westcrown, where the events of Council of Thieves occur. Likewise, “Husks” occurs in Minkai, but in a different city from the final chapters of Jade Regent. I know practically nothing about the adventures when I pitch the story, so any connections of theme or other elements are entirely coincidental.

FR: If you had to pick your top five kung fu movies that everyone should watch, what would they be?

DG: I use the term “kung fu movie” pretty loosely, but the dangerous word here is “favorite.” I wouldn’t necessarily recommend my favorites films to everyone, and my top picks change frequently. I’ve recommended “essential kung fu movies for gamers” elsewhere, so here are five that I can watch over and over again, in no particular order: Hero, Mr. Vampire, Reign of Assassins, A Chinese Ghost Story, and The Bride with White Hair. I’ll keep recommending other films at my author blog at frabjousdave.blogspot.com with links on Facebook and Twitter.

FR: Given your work with role-playing games, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you’re probably in a game or two right now. What games are you playing?

DG: While I have a local gaming group who’ve played in the Pathfinder setting with both D&D and Pathfinder rules, we often go on hiatus when I’m on deadline. Lately we’ve begun the first installment of the Jade Regent Adventure Path. I’m also a fan of but rarely get to play Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars Saga edition, and World of Darkness, among other systems. Usually I get my gaming fix from board games, most of them equally geeky.

FR: As someone who loves reading e-books, can you guess when readers will be able to get Master of Devils in an e-book format? (I see that most of the rest are available in epub format on the Paizo site.)

DG: Judging from recent releases, Paizo should have a PDF and ePub version of Master of Devils available for purchase at their site around the time of the physical book’s release in late July or early August. While they don’t currently distribute via Kindle, free apps like Calibre can convert ePub files to Kindle format.

FR: Thanks so much for chatting with us, Dave! Flames Rising readers, be sure to check out Dave’s essay on dark fantasy and kung fu movies as well — the two may have more in common than you think! Keep an eye out for Master of Devils, appearing soon on bookstore shelves near you.

Related posts:

1. Dave Gross on Dark Fantasy in Kung Fu Movies
2. Behind Plague of Shadows, a Pathfinder Novel
3. 30 Haunts for Houses (Pathfinder) Review

After a post the other day on Google+, Monica poked me about letting Flames Rising readers know what I’ve been up to while I’m not writing for Flames Rising.

Most of my writing recently has been for Branford Patch, a local online news site, where I do a regular history column about the early days of Branford, Connecticut. It’s great fun, but not typically a cross-over into horror (although perhaps I’ll track down a ghost story one of these days!).

This past week, however, I had my very first Dragon magazine article published!

“Surely You Joust!” discusses ways to integrate jousting, and a medieval style chivalric competition, into your home D&D game. While it’s geared toward the players, there’s a lot in there for DMs, too. And while it’s definitely a 4e article, there are some fun historical tidbits that I think could be useful in any system. Or, so I hope!

If you’re a DDI subscriber, please pop by and check it out!

No related posts.

Available from Amazon.com

How do I start a review of the final book in a series that I love, which had me sobbing for about three chapters of the conclusion? As it turns out, by avoiding the issue:

I feel sorry for Prince Armand.

There, I said it. Three kick-butt heroines of the whole series and this review starts off with some compassion for the guy who is always first in line to get cursed, kidnapped, and just generally gets the short end of the deal. In a series about princesses who don’t need to be rescued, someone else has to be — and once again, nice-guy prince Armand (who seems reasonably capable) suffers some of the very first consequences to evil becoming a threat in the kingdom of Lorindar.

This time, the threat starts close to home, with Snow White, who has been set up for this kind of fall from the beginning of the series, overstretches her magical abilities and ends up releasing a demon from her mother’s magic mirror. Worse, the demon corrupts Snow herself, meaning that our three heroines are no longer on the same team.

Just like Willow in Season 5 Buffy, Snow makes a tremendous bad guy. She’s scary. She’s powerful. And she’s heartbreaking: we’ve loved her for three books, and just like Danielle and Talia, we want her to be rescued.

But before she gets possessed, Snow manages to put a little of herself into a new body: Gerta, the imaginary sister she’d created in her childhood becomes a real-life human, not quite as talented as Snow, but aware of how her sister thinks, and willing to help Danielle and Talia confront Snow. Even if that confrontation leads to Gerta’s — or Snow’s — death.

Hines tackles all of the unresolved story threads from previous books, including the fate of Danielle’s son Jakob, whose birth was influenced by fairy magic, and Talia’s unrequited love for Snow. I’m sure that readers will have differing opinions on the way the latter issue plays out, but I found the solution that Hines came to satisfying — and I love that, while the series is clearly over, he’s left room to explore more of the world he’s expanded over these four books. And while I love the girl-power element that’s been at the heart of this series, I’m tempted to say I’d like to see an expansion on that theme into a more diversely gendered set of heroes.

Because, after all, I really do feel bad for Armand.

The review copy of this book was provided to the reviewer by the publisher.

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. Shadow Fall Review
2. Touch of Frost Fiction Review
3. A Feast for Crows Fiction Review

Available at Amazon.com

Full disclosure: I was a huge fan of Jennifer Estep’s “Bigtime” series when it came out. Romance novels with superheroes? Totally my thing. So when I found out that she was releasing a YA series called “Mythos Academy,” which also sounded right up my alley, I contacted her and asked her to be a guest over at my blog. She agreed, and she also sent me an e-ARC of the first book in the series, Touch of Frost, to review. I let out a little fangirl squeal of joy and jumped right in. Jennifer is also the author of the “Elemental Assassin” urban fantasy series.

I’m pleased to tell you that I was right; I am definitely part of the target audience for the Mythos Academy books. Take the best warriors of legendary history: Vikings, Valkyries, Romans, and Amazons. Now, imagine that they’re all allied as heroes, called the Pantheon, against Loki and the Reapers of Chaos, who plan to free Loki and unleash a full-scale war on the world. The kids of these heroes have to get their training somewhere, and so many of them end up at Mythos Academy, a prep school for legendary warriors.

Gwen Frost, a gypsy, doesn’t know where she fits in, and she doesn’t really want to. She came to Mythos Academy after the death of her mother — for which she blames herself — and doesn’t understand what she’s doing there. She’s no warrior, and her gift of psychometry, the ability to read emotions and history off of objects, mainly helps her find lost things. She doesn’t really believe in the Pantheon or the Reapers, and she’s got no interest in fighting those battles even if they are real.

But then Queen Bee Jasmine gets brutally murdered in the library, where Gwen works, and everything changes. Unwilling to let Jasmine’s death go unmourned — when not even Jasmine’s friends seem to feel grief at her murder — Gwen is determined to discover the identity of Jasmine’s killer. And in the meantime, she ends up finding out a lot about what it is that brought her to Mythos Academy in the first place.

While the unpopular girl coming into her own at the posh academy theme has been done — and even been done with myths — before, the murder mystery angle and the relationships that Gwen develops with the other characters really set Touch of Frost at the head of the pack. Gwen starts off as an utter loner, but when she needs help to solve the mystery, she blackmails popular girl Daphne (a Valkyrie) into helping her. While the pair start off constantly at odds, the growth in their relationship is one of the strongest parts of the book. Gwen’s burgeoning crush on the mysterious Spartan Logan, who always seems to come to her rescue, is also strong. But even beyond the characters, Mythos Academy seems to take on a life of its own. It’s firmly rooted in both the real world and in the legendary one — students sneak off campus to visit the nearby city, while at the same time being totally comfortable carrying archaic weapons with them everywhere. The myth of Loki and Sigyn is a pivoting point of the story, but the Greek gods are equally present; the combining of pantheons works smoothly through the creation of a new mythology that follows the old tales.

Gwen does get a little maudlin at times — she dwells on the decision that she made that led to her mother’s death. She worries that her motives were curiosity about other people’s secrets rather than a desire to help. But if she revisits that past overmuch, it’s in keeping with her point of view — the death of her mother is probably the most tragic, and life changing, event of her life. And her desire to do the right thing shows how clearly her mother lives on in Gwen.

Touch of Frost also introduces several scary monsters and some hard-core magic that circles around blood sacrifice, so it’s not for the faint of heart. While it is YA, it’s also gritty, and despite the fact that it takes place at what feels like a preppy academy, the reality of war — that you lose people that you love, and that’s the nature of battle — is never far from the surface. All in all, it’s a great introduction to a new world that fans of dark fantasy should enjoy. Definitely pick this one up.

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. Kiss of Frost Review
2. Exploring the Mythos Academy with Jennifer Estep
3. The Snow Queen’s Shadow Fiction Review

Back in 2008, Tez Miller and I reviewed the first two novels in Ilona Andrews’s Kate Daniels series. We’re now three books later in the series, and it’s still going strong. Here’s what you may have missed:

Magic Strikes

One of the staples of role playing games and adventure video games is arena combat. What’s not to like? The tradition hails way back to the Romans — or earlier — and watching gladiators in the ring is still entertaining enough to modern viewers that there are reality TV shows based on the theme. It is not something I’ve seen tackled in Urban Fantasy very often, and here, Andrews does it with aplomb. Beast Lord Curran has banned his Pack from getting involved with the games. Derrek, Kate Daniels’s teen werewolf pal, has to get involved in order to save the object of his affections — and in order to keep him out of trouble, Kate gets involved as well. Add in Saiman, the high powered magic user who has been one of Kate’s most important resources (and also one of her biggest problems, given his pervy nature) and several other shifters, all trying to keep the activity secret from Curran, and it’s clear that the proverbial fan is going to be hit with something, and it won’t be pretty. Despite Curran having every right to be furious with Kate (and furious only begins to describe it), the romance between the two amps up (though the tension continues to run high — no acting on those emotions, or lusts, just yet!).

Magic Bleeds

One of Kate’s best assets up until this point has been her relationship with the Pack. But when she and the Beast Lord have a falling out (Curran stands her up on a date, and she, unknowingly, snubs him in the company of Saiman, who intentionally intended to take Curran down a few pegs), things get very hairy. Especially because the big bad that’s moving into town has a family relationship to Kate — one that she’s been trying to hide from everyone, including the people she calls her friends. Several elements in this installment pit Kate’s affection for Curran and her friends in the Pack against her job and her friends at the Order. The tension between Kate and her boss have been brewing, and when those issues are finally resolved, the series starts heading toward the confrontation that has been hinted at since the very first book.

Magic Slays

Released on May 31, 2011, Magic Slays is a fantastic new addition to the series. Finally, secrets are out in the open — at least, among our main characters — and Kate is back as the down-on-her-luck merc that we met in the first book. Only now, she’s got the backing of the Pack, as well as her best friend sharp-shooter Andrea — so loner Kate is now surrounded by people who she cares about, and who depend on her as much as she depends on them. This is a scary new world for Kate, made more frightening by the discovery that everything she thought she knew about her foster father’s motives in keeping her safe may have been a lie — and her ward, Julie, may be in deeper trouble than Kate ever thought she’d have to face. Add to that the idea of a powerful bomb that can kill magic — which is loose in the city in the hands of terrorists — and you’ve got an urban fantasy that combines inner turmoil with a hefty dose of action movie. This is my favorite installment in the series thus far, and I highly suspect that the friendships Kate was once taught to consider a liability will turn out to be the strength that allows her to confront the powerful being who is her father — an event that will, no doubt, end the series (at least two books in the future).

If you haven’t picked up any of the Kate Daniels novels yet, go grab the first one and start reading. You’ll find a world with great rules for magic vs. tech, characters who grow and develop and change in relation to each other, and plots that mix action, mythology, and horror — with a little romance in there just for kicks.

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. Flash Fire Mini Reviews: The Jane True series by Nicole Peeler
2. Flash Fire Mini-Reviews (Back from the Dead)
3. Flash Fire Mini-Reviews! (Hunters & Slayers)

Available at Amazon.com

It isn’t often that I pick up a book (this one purchased with my own cashy money) where it’s got so much going on, I’m not sure how to start a review. Stacia Kane’s Unholy Ghosts is like that. This isn’t just a ghost story — though it works admirably (and scarily) well in that area. It’s not just postapocalyptic, though again, the brave new (scary) world that Stacia imagines is an amazing one. And though it’s not really a private investigator story, it’s got a lot of similarities to that genre, as the main character goes about solving a mystery and, eventually, confronting a threat that could destroy the world as she knows it. So it’s got epic scope, but the characters aren’t your typical heroes — in fact, they’ve got more in common with your typical villains, and that’s one of the areas where Stacia really succeeds: making characters you don’t really want to trust, but can’t help but like. Or, at the very least, sympathize with.

While she’s crashing genres together, Stacia’s also taking on some pretty big themes: religion, faith, and addiction. In the world of Unholy Ghosts, the dead wreaked havoc on the living, slaying untold numbers of people before the Church of Truth got them in line and confined them to the City. The Church isn’t a religious organization — in fact, it’s the opposite. They can prove that magic is real. They can prove where you go when you die. As such, there’s no need for faith or belief in a higher power. Facts are Truth. That’s all there is to it.

But while the people know the Truth, it also means there’s no mystery, and no real reason for living except that it’s better than existence in the City. Or, at least, that seems to be the case for Chess Putnam, a Debunker for the Church. She’s had a rough life: orphaned and shuttled through foster homes where she was routinely beaten and sexually abused, the first place she ever felt safe was the Church, where she was taken in due to her talents for magic and controlling ghosts. So, she cares about her job, and she cares about doing the right thing. But it’s a toss up whether she cares about those things more than she cares about her own addictions: the pills and powders that make her life seem less empty — and keep her from remembering the pain in her past. And to get her high, she’s in debt to a dealer named Bump, who says he’ll clear what she owes if she’ll do just one little ghost banishing job for him. Of course, it’s not that simple, and between her job for the Church and this job for Bump, she stumbles into a conspiracy to free all the ghosts from the City. That would mean the death of hundreds of people, or more, and the collapse of the power of the Church.

To make sure that Chess does Bump’s job, Bump assigns one of his enforcers to assist (and keep an eye on) her: Terrible, who is a hulking, ugly man with a passion for violence. As the story progresses, however, it’s clear that Terrible, despite his dark side, is a dependable and loyal man. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he has a heart of gold — he doesn’t seem to have any pangs of remorse for beating the living daylights out of someone who’s crossed Bump, whether or not they deserve it — but he’s got far more depth than Chess, or the reader, might imagine at the outset. He’s certainly more likable than the man who might be better expected to be cast as the hero: Church Debunker Doyle, a former flame of Chess’s who wants to give their relationship a chance. He seems to be entirely on the right side of the law — and of the moral high ground — at his introduction. But, like the other characters, Doyle has more to him than just that surface image; it’s just that for Doyle, golden boy of the Church, the only thing those layers can reveal is tarnish. Terrible also seems more trustworthy than Lex, the good-looking enforcer for Bump’s competitor Slobag, who also comes to Chess’s aid — but whose motives seem at least shallow, if not questionable.

I’m not sure at this point in the series if Stacia’s making a commentary on the nature of faith and religion — of believing in what cannot be proved — or if she just had a great time developing a world in which belief is irrelevant. Either way, the result is a really solidly built setting — gritty where it should be, beautiful and terrible where it makes sense for it to be so. Chess’s world in particular is a world of seedy bars and drug houses, but her love for the place is palpable, and seeing “Downside” (as the lower class district is called) through her eyes reveals some appeal that even a suburbanite like myself can imagine. (I’ll admit, though, I wouldn’t want to visit in real life. Particularly not after dark.) The ghosts are, by turn, sympathetic (the brief appearance two air force pilots, in particular, seem to contradict the idea that every ghost is a threat) and keep-you-up-at-night terrifying. The real coup of world building, though, is the street cant, which sounds like it’s based on a Creole grammar. It works far better than slang to give a depth to the setting and provide a sense of place.

Unholy Ghosts is gritty, scary, and a brilliant entry into a well-developed and appealing (although seedy) new world. I’ve got the next two books of Chess’s adventures on my shelf, and I’m looking forward to exploring more of Downside.

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. The Darkest Kiss Fiction Review
2. Key to Conflict Fiction Review
3. Taste of Night Fiction Review

Available at DriveThruComics.com

A long while ago, Matt asked me if there was anything in the DriveThruComics.com store that I’d like to review, and I spotted a new (meaning new to me) superhero series called Freshmen. The first six issues were up and available, so I requested them and wanted to give them a go. (I found out after reading all six issues that the series is co-created by Seth Green of Robot Chicken and sundry other projects, which makes *perfect* sense.)

Here’s the short of it: due to dorm overflow, fifteen college freshmen are shipped over to live in the science building, which has been modified to create living space. When a lab experiment explodes, their cells evolve — granting them powers related to whatever they happened to be thinking at the moment. The one character who would have loved to be granted powers — the resident comic book geek — is the one character who stepped out for pizza, missing the explosion and remaining powerless. They face all sorts of evil, from robbers to a mad and evil genius to frat boys with super strength. The overall arc is as much about the students learning how to care about each other — rather than wallowing in their own worlds — as it is about the super powers or the main thrust of the plot.

Each of the six issues is narrated by one of the main characters, sometimes more obviously than others. The writers make really good use of that narration, particularly in the third issue, when you can guess who the narrator is, but the voice seems almost omniscient, so the reveal at the end is excellent. The science is appropriately comic booky — the machine that breaks is designed to make cells heal themselves; clearly it also impacts the cells on a different level — and the conceit is believable inside the scope of the story. Most of the characters are likable — and even the ones who aren’t are easy to enjoy disliking. The art suits the style of storytelling. It’s in the traditional superhero style, and the panel work is almost invisible — the art serves the story without ever drawing attention to itself.

It’s hard to imagine this series going too far — a quick internet search shows that there’s a second arc and a couple of tie-between issues — because it would be too easy for it to become just another superhero story once it got beyond figuring out the relationships. But being a college freshman is all about figuring out who you are once you’re away from all the people who have known you your whole life, and learning how to relate to other people on your own terms. Adding super powers heightens those basic issues, which brings the comic together as a coming of age story for a group of characters. It’s definitely worth the read.

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. Darkness II: Confession on Free Comic Book Day
2. Witchblade 135-136 Comic Review
3. Tracker 4 Comic Review

Available at Amazon.com

Kelly Meding, I have a bone to pick with you. After introducing a seriously awesome minor character in Three Days To Dead, you neglected to include even one scene with Smedge the Bridge Troll in the sequel. Sure, you gave us a seriously hot shape-shifting osprey who can go into angel mode with Phin. You introduced us to a sweet-yet-strong kestrel shifter, who alternates between protected and protector in Aurora. You brought in the mysterious shifter lawyer with a talent for vague clues with Michael Jenner. So, one could say that the new awesome outweighs the old awesome.

But I miss Smedge. I just want that out there.

In spite of the lack of Bridge Troll in As Lie the Dead, the novel is a strong sequel as Evy’s adjustments to Chalice’s body continue. Rather than giving Evy any time to get the hang of things off stage, the novel picks up immediately where Three Days To Dead left off. Evy just can’t get a break (or a nap — I don’t know how she runs on so little sleep, with the exception of getting knocked unconscious); as soon as she and Wyatt make it back to Chalice’s apartment, she’s approached by Phin, one of the last surviving Owlkin (or bird Therians), who wants her to protect the last remaining members of their race, one of whom (Aurora) is very pregnant. Evy agrees and arranges for them to be safe even when she can’t be immediately nearby, just before she gets a call to come to the hospital, where Rufus St. James is still recovering from an arson attack on his apartment in Three Days To Dead. There, Evy and Wyatt both discover that the Therians are out for blood to avenge the murders of the Owlkins, and since Rufus led the attack, he’s the one to take thefall. Since Rufus was one of the few people to help Evy when the Triads wanted her dead, she’s determined to keep him from being executed for following orders. The only way to do that is to uncover who gives those orders — and she bargains with Phin to get four days to do it.

Of course, during her investigation, she discovers that a human-led group of Therians and other Dregs are planning to take matters into their own hands, getting a more massive revenge on the Triads and the humans they protect. And the human in charge has a mysterious connection to the Triads — one that leads Evy to question all the morality the Triads drilled into her. As Lie the Dead keeps the pace of Three Days To Dead, and the countdown from one mission to the next makes it hard to put the book down. Evy’s growth as a character — particularly as she comes into a new self-awareness due to her new body — says good things for where the series will go from here. She’s taking the readers from a simple, black-and-white world into a deeper, fuller understanding of who really stands between humanity and the things that go bump in the night. And I can’t wait to follow wherever she goes next.

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. Three Days to Dead Review
2. A Touch Of Dead Review
3. Dead To Me Fiction Review

Available at DriveThruComics.com

Back in the mid-1990s, Top Cow launched a daring new series about an artifact that could be wielded only by women — and the man who tried to take possession of it. In Witchblade: Origin, the first eight issues of Witchblade are brought to an audience who missed them the first time around. It’s a great origin story: Sara Pezzini, the tough cop who becomes the bearer of the Wicthblade, is far more vulnerable here than we see her at the current point in the series. She’s largely alone in the world: she has an irresponsible sister, a neighbor whose murder leaves her with a teen girl seeking her advice, and a partner who dies in the first issue. Her parents have been dead for some time, but she still thinks of them, often, talking to them in the box text. While she knows she has her boss — who is much like a father to her — and coworkers who care about her, she hesitates to share herself with them, especially when she is feeling weak. Not to mention she isn’t sure how to explain the Witchblade — or the deaths she inadvertently causes when she first dons it — to anyone she trusts. She has to be strong, and in steeling herself against her emotions, she falls into the trap laid by the villain who wants the Witchblade for himself.

Ken Irons is the archetypal billionaire bad guy — he’s got an empire built, and he donates to all the right causes, keeping himself squeaky clean in the public eye while getting into all sorts of bad business through back doors. His right hand man is Ian Nottingham, an assassin of tremendous skill. Through a ritual, Nottingham and Irons intend to harness the power of the Witchblade, allowing Irons to become the bearer. To work, Irons has to undermine Sara’s confidence — making her unworthy of the Witchblade — and has to be prepared for the Witchblade to transfer over to him. But Nottingham is no tame dog, and the tensions between the pair, along with mysterious dreams Nottingham has that make him sympathetic to Sara, complicate Iron’s intricate plan.

There’s much that isn’t explained in this first arc: Sara’s sister Julie and teen neighbor Lisa get involved with a very bizarre modeling community that looks more like a kinky version of the Playboy mansion than any sort of legal business realm. Irons is revealed to be at least 90 years old — and we never learn his true nature or how he extended his lifespan. Sara is assigned to a case (before she is put on leave after the death of her partner) that features a microwave killer — a serial killer who burns his victims from the inside out, and then poses them as supplicants. Those threads aren’t tied up at the end, leaving the curious reader to wait for Top Cow to release other old issues of Witchblade in graphic novel form.

In comparison to the new volumes, the storytelling is simpler, the dialogue isn’t quite as natural, and the booty shots are more gratuitous. I suspect that somewhere along the line, realization that the audience included a lot of women led to some changes in the art work — though, as I’ve mentioned in reviews of more recent issues, gratuitous booty shots do continue to be a feature. That’s part of the character of the series, and all a reader like me can do is move along and get to the good bits of the story. Other elements remain the same, however: the world is a pretty bleak place in the Witchblade universe. There are corrupt cops, overdoses, murders both mob and otherwise. The New York of Witchblade is a truly gritty place, and the story never shies away from the creepy, the graphically violent, and the sleezy when such factors serve the story. To have a supernatural story told against such a bleak backdrop heightens the nature of the powers being dealt with. Evil isn’t just something supernatural to be fought — it’s part of the world in which the characters act on a daily basis. While the mythology of the Witchblade is still clearly in development at this stage, the feel of the world is set, and it remains a large part of how the series has evolved.

I’m not sure how I’d think this story arc would stand up on its own without knowing how Witchblade has grown from its origins. If this were all of Witchblade that existed, would I pick up more? I’m not sure. But knowing the depth the series has gained since these early years, it’s nice to see how it all began.

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. Magdalena Origins Volume 1 Review
2. Witchblade 135-136 Comic Review
3. Witchblade #134 Comic Review

Available at Amazon.com

Not long ago, I signed up for a very cool program with Simon & Schuster called “galley grab,” which allows participants to read e-book galleys in full for a limited amount of time. I’ve loaded up several titles on my nook and am trying to get through them before my time runs out!

One of my first priorities on the list was A Brush of Darkness by Allison Pang, which I’d seen previews for over at Pocket After Dark. There are all sorts of marketing sayings about how many times you have to see something before it sticks, or if you touch something some large number of times, you’ll buy it. A Brush of Darkness was one of those books for me — I kept seeing it and thinking, “Man, I’ve got to read that.” So, there it was, ready for me to grab. The premise: Abby Sinclair is the TouchStone for the Protectorate of the CrossRoads — which is a way of saying, in a lot of capital letters, that she’s the human who has makes it possible for the local fae administrator to travel between worlds with ease. Abby’s in a contract to fulfill certain duties for the Protectorate, Moira — she has to run a book shop, which is the mortal cover for the fae activity in their area; she helps keep things running smoothly when there are conflicts that Moira would be handling; and she runs a midnight magic shop, where angels, daemons, and fae go to purchase various and sundry enchanted items. In return, Abby doesn’t age — and at the end of her term as TouchStone, she’ll be granted a wish — as long as she doesn’t leave the boundaries of Moira’s city.

But the job isn’t all its cracked up to be — aside from the perk of an enchanted iPod and an everfilling fridge. Shortly after Abby arrives, Moira, who gives her very little instruction about how to manage her responsibilities and how to keep herself safe from the perils of dealing with OtherFolk, disappears. Since Abby doesn’t know much about the fae, she figures this is just normal behavior on Moira’s part — but, when a belligerent (yet sexy) incubus, Brystion, shows up with a story about missing succubi, and when Abby’s mortal friends find themselves in danger as well, Abby realizes that she is well and truly in over her head. With help from Brystion, and Abby’s pocket-sized unicorn companion, Phineas, Abby does her best not only to survive the heightened dangers, but to triumph over fae politics, jealous ex-lovers, and her own fears.

Abby’s world of CrossRoads and TouchStones is a fantastic one, with clear rules that bind mortals and the OtherFolk in their relationships. The depiction of the way the worlds of OtherFolk and mortals intersect is fantastic, and Pang’s description of the CrossRoads is brilliant — at once appealing and frightening, just as a good fairy realm should be. Abby’s an appealing narrator — she’s terribly broken, denied her dreams of becoming a dancer by a horrible car accident that also stole her mother’s life. To say that she has issues is an understatement, but her issues are completely understandable: it’s hard to get close to people when the person she  loved and trusted most died in her lap. It’s hard to extend trust to the OtherFolk when the first one she contracted with took advantage of her and caused her pain — and the second one didn’t ever offer her much in the way of help. And it’s hard for her to believe that she can succeed at anything when she’s been met with so much failure in her recent past. So if, occasionally, Abby  seems to intentionally misinterpret kindnesses as manipulation, it’s understandable. Frustrating, but understandable.

The supporting cast are also well drawn and appealing. Brystion takes the old west tart with a heart archetype, usually reserved for women, and twists it brilliantly. Oh, no doubt he’s dangerous — as all of the OtherFolk should be — but he’s also something of a fallen hero. He’s a daemon, but he has a protective streak a mile wide, and he’s clearly into Abby (whether or not she realizes it). Phineas the miniature unicorn who lives in Abby’s underwear drawer has a mischievous streak that’s countered by his pint-sized wisdom — it’s clear that, in later books, Phineas will be one of Abby’s best and most trustworthy allies. Abby’s friend Melanie, the one who introduced her to the world of OtherFolk, is a brilliant portrayal of a musician who can open Doors with her magic — a trope I’ve always loved, and here also a cool and reliable friend, making her one of the few who Abby has.

Overall, this is a great new world, an excellent, stand-alone debut that leaves readers wanting to see more. Abby comes into her own over the course of the novel, and while she’s got more room to grow, the broken character at the beginning is on her way to healing when we leave her at the end. And while there’s no happily ever after… that just leaves room for more fun (and very probably more steamy sex) in future volumes. This is a great selection for urban fantasy readers who like a heavy dose of romance, or for paranormal romance readers who like a mystery plot driving the action forward. Which, of course, made it a perfect fit for me. I’m glad I got the chance to read it early — and I’m excited to see what Allison Pang comes out with next!

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. Eve of Darkness Review
2. Embraced by Darkness Fiction Review

Available at Amazon.com

I had a couple of sneak peeks at this volume of Tracker as the issues were being released, and I have to say it’s really nice to see it all together in one volume. The Issue 0 preview and Issue 4 just whet my appetite for what looked like a great werewolf story. As it turns out, the story is exactly what those bits and pieces promised.

Alex O’Rourke is one of the best trackers in the FBI — he’s so good that his instincts are the only thing helping the FBI track down Herod, a serial killer whose vicious attacks look more animal than human. Alex gets into the middle of an attack, following a hunch that Herod will be there, and miraculously survives, recovering on the autopsy table. His girlfriend, Tory, is grateful that he survived — especially after having been called in to identify his body — but she still refuses to marry him until he gives up working in the field. Alex’s partner, Jezzie, however, is glad to see Alex back at work, well before he’s supposed to be. While most of the story is about Alex vs. Herod, the push and pull set up at the beginning of the story between Tory and Jezzie has a huge impact on Alex: does he choose the woman he loves? Or does he choose the job — and, thus, the woman who understands him.

As we know from the back cover of the graphic novel, Herod is a werewolf — and, due to surviving the attack, now Alex is, too. Our werewolf expert is the ambiguous Dr. Cyril Tucker, who works for the mysterious Handel Foundation. Dr. Tucker is willing to help Alex — but he also appears to be working behind the scenes with Herod. Tucker tells Alex that the only way for Alex to be cured of lycanthropy is by obtaining some of Herod’s living blood. Alex effectively tells Tucker to shove it… but as he comes to realize that Tucker isn’t making things up, and he starts to rely more and more on his new lupine sense, Alex turns to Tucker for help. This, of course, makes the end of the story — where it’s clear that the Handel Foundation is up to all sorts of no good — a great lead in to further stories in the world.

Without spoiling Alex’s struggle against both his inner beast and against Herod, I will say that the serial killer horror level amps up as the story goes on — and because Herod needs something from Alex, he targets Alex for his own personal terror. Alex has to decide how far he’ll go, and what he’ll sacrifice, to defeat Herod once and for all. There’s plenty of violence, and lots of blood in the art work, as well as detached limbs and a severed head for good measure. The artwork uses an almost sepia cast to the colors, giving it a gritty feel that works for the brutal nature of the story’s violence.

Overall, Tracker works as an origin story. Alex is an appealing hero with the true potential to become an anti-hero at any point when the scales tip in favor of his inner beast. The werewolves here aren’t very wolf-like: the beast draws on strong emotions to change them into a monster, not a forest dweller who’d rather avoid humans than battle them. With a lot of kinder, gentler werewolves in urban fantasy these days, it’s nice to see a hard-core monster style werewolf; even if several of the werewolves featured in the volume aren’t monsters in the human side, they all have the potential to become so if they lose control. That story is an old one — but it hasn’t lost its appeal, and it works particularly well when the hero of the story is a law enforcer, who has to choose whether or not to throw the rules out the window. Definitely check this one out.

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. Witchblade: Origins Volume One Review
2. Magdalena Origins Volume 1 Review
3. Tracker 4 Comic Review

Available at Amazon.com

When Evy Stone wakes up in a morgue in a different body than the one she remembers, with no memory of the few previous days, she knows she’s in for a hell of a time. What she does remember is this: her teammates from her bounty hunting career were murdered, the were-people with whom she took asylum were slaughtered by her former bosses, and the only person she thought she could trust was her handler. She has to make contact, convince him that she’s still Evy (despite the new body), and avoid being entangled in the life of the girl who used to live in this frame. Not to mention, as she discovers more about the reasons she ended up in a new body, saving the world. All in a three day time frame. But hey, she’s been through worse. Probably.

I’ve had this book on my shelves since it came out. I’d followed Kelly’s blog (I found her from the League of Reluctant Adults and felt an immediate kinship for her, since she’s a Whedon fan and lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where I was married). She’s a fantastic blogger, and I was super excited to read her book… which promptly got buried in my TBR pile. Finally, with the second book now on bookstore shelves, I decided it was the time, now or never. I didn’t give myself a three day time limit, but I did sit down and read — and gotreally frustrated when I couldn’t just keep reading until everything came together. Kelly crafted a really compelling story with a great — if prickly — narrator, and a really great, but only barely romantic, love story. (It’s more a deepening of friendship romantic love than a hot, loin-burning, kick off your clothes type romantic love. While I enjoy the latter, this particular version of the former was really well done.)

Kelly structured the story around a count-down. We, the reader, know from the beginning that Evy’s got a limited amount of time before she has to give up the body and get on with her afterlife. When Evy finds out — and starts to remember just why she died — it’s like she gets hit with a ton of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, right on her head. Almost all of the characters are suffering from some type of loss, and that theme gets integrated throughout, whether it means people looking for revenge, people mourning, or just people being bitchy because they’re grieving. In Evy’s line of work — hunting Dregs, or creatures of the night, like half-vampires and goblins — loss is inevitable, and the characters deal with it (or don’t, which is just as compelling) with just the right amount of suffering so that it doesn’t bog down the narration, but it does give the world depth, and meaning.

And aside from all that emotional draw, there are really awesome trolls. Really. I would read these books just for Smedge. But Kelly works in interesting takes on gargoyles, fae, elves, weres, and vampires as well — the major creatures are all there, but none of them quite line up to the usual expectations. And from the teaser in the back for the sequel, there’s even more complexity in the Dreg world than Three Days to Dead lets on.

On the one hand, I’m really bummed I waited this long to read this novel. On the other hand, I get to read book 2 immediately thereafter. Instant gratification for the win!

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. As Lie the Dead Review
2. Dead To Me Fiction Review
3. Dog Days Fiction Review

Available at Amazon.com

Anton Strout brings us more madcap mayhem in book two of the Jane chronicles (otherwise known as the Simon Canderous series, but his girlfriend, the ex-evil cultist Jane, totally steals the show). Now a member of the Department of Extraordinary Affairs after leaving her cultist ways behind, Jane is working in the Black Stacks (the scariest library in urban fantasy) and discovering that she has a talent for technomancy. In fact, she’s so good with magic and machines, she rescues her boyfriend Simon from an attempt on his life in his Oubliette test over his cell phone. Her new gig working for the ambiguously moralled Thaddeus Wesker, Director of Greater and Lesser Arcana at the DEA is going swimmingly — except for the tension it creates between her and Simon, who doesn’t like her boss.

And speaking of Simon… okay, the book’s really about him. His relationship drama with Jane (which can be as frustrating for the readers as for Jane and Simon themselves) is only a small part of the plot. As Dead to Me ended, Simon had just been entered into the Fraternal Order of Good, or F.O.G., a group that predates the DEA and occasionally greases some back doors to fight evil rather than doing all of the correct paperwork required by the government. While it’s a great opportunity for Simon, it puts him on strange footing with his mentor and partner Connor, who has always outranked him in the past. Now that they’re equals — and Simon has access to tools that Connor doesn’t — Connor seems withdrawn. The rank issues aren’t the only thing driving a wedge in their relationship, but Connor isn’t talking about the rest, and Simon is unable to uncover the real troubles, despite his best efforts.

So, Simon’s got relationship issues with the two most important people in his life — some of them that he creates in his own head — but at least work is going his way, right? Well, maybe and maybe not. It looks like he’s discovered a vampire attack, after 737 vampire free days for the department. If he’s wrong, though, his reputation could be on the line. If that weren’t enough to keep Simon busy, a woman from his past, the art thief Mina, wants to call in one last favor on a job… and if Simon doesn’t play along (or reveals the truth), Jane’s life could be at stake.

I loved Dead to Me, so Deader Still had a lot to live up to. Despite the whole save-the-world plot, the core of the novel is really Simon’s relationships and how he has to overcome his own insecurities to really connect with the people that he cares about, which really increases the personal stakes. I wanted to smack Mina around a lot of the time, and man, did I ever want Simon to just confide in Jane and tell her the truth, but I also wanted Peter Parker to just get over it and tell Mary Jane about his secret identity early on, too, so that could just be me. Deader Still doesn’t stand on its own the way Dead to Me does, but it’s a great second installment, and it leads right into what-happens-next at the end. And overall, it has that same fun, action-keeps-going feeling that Dead to Me introduced, and it’s the fun of this series that keeps me coming back. The adventures of Simon (and Jane!) are definitely worth checking out.

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. Horror Anthology Dark Faith is Apex Book Company’s Book of the Year
2. Feed (Newsflesh, Book 1) Fiction Review
3. Supernatural: Book of Monsters, Spirits, Demons Review

Available at Amazon.com

In a comics universe like the one in Top Cow’s Witchblade continuum, characters occasionally crop up who end up needing their own series. Those cross-series first appearances of the Magdalena, the church’s servant for wiping out evil using strength of arms and the ultimate guilt trip: the ability to make a person see all of the evil he’s ever done, are collected in Magdalena: Origins.

Near the beginning of the Darkness series, Jackie Estacado is dealing with plenty of issues (including, apparently, not being able to perform in bed), and he doesn’t really have time to deal with another hero-of-the-week trying to take him down. But, of course, that’s his lot in life now that he’s the incarnation of the Darkness. A Magdalena is dispatched by the church to challenge him and, ideally, destroy him. Sister Mariella, the current heir of the bloodline of Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ, has every intention of using the Spear of Destiny to take out Jackie’s heart.

Unfortunately, though, it’s Jackie’s series. And thus, the hero of the week doesn’t stand a chance. But that appearance of Sister Mariella, ill fated as it is for her, sparked something in the Top Cow universe, and soon the line of Magdalenas had their own comic. In the first three issues that spun off the Magdalena story, we see a story of a different Magdalena, hunting an apparent outbreak of vampires. But like Sister Mariella, Sister Rosalia has an ill fate in store. This time, it is not the vampires who kill her, but people who are supposed to be her allies. It seems that the Magdalena is forever being betrayed by the church: she is murdered outright for not toeing the line, or she is sent against odds too great for her to defeat. It’s a theme that’s continued into the new story arc of Magdalena (for which I’ve reviewed issue 1 and issue 3 [note to Matt: you'll have it tomorrow]). The line of Mary Magdelene just can’t trust the church of men to do right by God.

Cardinal Innocente is one of the main perpetrators of these sins. In Sister Mariella’s story, he knowingly sets her up against a too-difficult foe, and traps one of his students in a net of lies so that the student — not the cardinal — will take the fall. In Sister Rosalia’s story, he hides documentation that would tell the true history of the Magdalena, but would destroy the church. Interestingly, the mythology of the Magdalena changes in the two stories (and changes again in the new arc). Sometimes the Magdalena is just the heir of the beloved apostle Mary Magdalene, who has a child by a man other than Jesus Christ, and only passes down the gift of becoming the Magdalena to her first-born daughter. The line is, thus, unbroken. In the true history hidden by Innocente in Sister Rosalia’s story, Jesus was never the Christ, but his body was spirited away by his wife, Mary, who was one of the heirs of the line of David as well — making them a royal couple by lineage. It is the church that changes Mary Magdalene into a woman of ill repute, rather than a royal bride and beloved wife, just as it is the church that proclaims Jesus to be the son of God rather than just a man of the line of David. In the new arc, the Magdalena’s line is wider — it’s not a direct descent, in part because Sister Mariella was too young to have had children before her untimely death.

It’s too bad that the new Magdalena (Patience) didn’t have back story between her first appearance in the current Magdalena #1 and the stories covered here in Magdalena Origins. It’s clear that Patience has a past with the church — and that’s why she’s distanced from it. But that story — and the tale of how she came into the Magdalena powers after Mariella’s death — doesn’t come into play in Magdalena Origins. Instead, we get a great peek at the way the concept of the Magdalena was introduced into the Top Cow universe, compiled together so readers don’t have to go hunting for back issues of Darkness to figure it out. We also see the duplicitous history of the church’s misuse of the Magdalena’s power, and the treachery so closely associated with the role. The storytelling is appropriately dark and tragic for the subject matter, and though the life span of the Magdalena has the appearance of being shorter than a Slayer before Buffy came around in Joss Whedon’s Buffyverse, at least the deaths we see have meaning for the Magdalenas who perish. Sadly, they seem to die for little real cause, other than their own belief that they are following God’s will.

The art does some really great, interesting things, and there are some excellent spreads. Reading it in PDF is challenging, because some of the spreads are rotated so that the splash page is supposed to be viewed lengthwise instead of vertically. The publishers clearly didn’t have the e-book platform in mind when it was initially run as a comic! But despite that difficulty, and some gratuitous booty shots that seem incongruous with the pious nature of the character, the art suits the story. The flashback scenes from the 1940s are particularly good. Overall, the collection is nice for seeing the evolution of the character and the concept, but since the mythology changes, and there’s no clue in to Patience’s back story, it’s not a necessary read for fans of the current arc.

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. Witchblade: Origins Volume One Review
2. Tracker Volume One Review
3. Magdalena #1 Comic Review

You’re all familiar with zombie celebutante Amanda Feral from my reviews of Happy Hour of the Damned, Road Trip of the Living Dead, and Battle of the Network Zombies. Hopefully you’re also familiar with her from reading about her adventures themselves. But what you may not know is that Mark Henry, whose name is on the cover of these novels, is actually the ghost writer for the real Amanda Feral. The snarky socialite is also an author in her own right, and her first e-book, Stocking Full of Coal, just released on December 16th. I had the chance to chat with Amanda before her premiere to get the skinny on where she’s at now (but not who she’s eating).

Alana Joli Abbott: You’re a celebrity and a socialite, as well as the owner of your own advertising firm and a former reality television show star. What made you decide to strike it out as a writer?

Amanda Feral: Is there anything I can’t do? The answer is bowling. Inevitably, I’d pick a ball that was too heavy for me and I’d lose an arm down the alley. But to answer your question, I started amassing all these little stories from observations. People I’d meet and figured I could turn them into some tidbits of hotness. Erotica was a natural fit because my first language is smut.

AJA: For your memoirs, you worked with ghostwriter Mark Henry, whose name ended up on the book covers. Was giving him credit a ploy to avoid paying a percentage of the profits to the Reapers? Or were you just hoping to protect your supernatural identity?

AF: Back then, I just didn’t have the time to write, so I’d call in these snippits from my life and let him worry about how to piece them together. I’m not saying there’s anything fictional in those books, just that he might have exaggerated…particularly about my promiscuity.

AJA: Your relationship with Mark seems combative, based on tweets that pass between the two of you. Can you tell us a little bit about working with him?

AF: He’s miserable and thinks he’s funny. If it weren’t for me, he wouldn’t have a career at all.

AJA: The first book with your name on the cover, Stocking Full of Coal, launches this month. Congratulations! Can you tell your fans a little bit about the new story?

AF: It’s an erotic tale of bruisesluts and secret societies and what happens when you stop keeping secrets and open yourself up to possibilities. Superhot and disturbing, which I plan to be the tone of all my erotic work.

AJA: Any supernatural appearances in the book?

AF: This one is a contemporary erotic romance (but heavy on the erotic). So it’s not paranormal, but that doesn’t mean it’s not weird. I can’t get away from the “WEIRD”. I guarantee it’s not anything your readers have ever read before.

AJA: Spill. Was Mark involved at all in working on this title?

AF: You never can tell. He’s stalking me; that might have influenced the depravity in the pages.

AJA: I noticed on your new blog that you’re now living in Paris. What made you decide to leave Seattle?

AF: Seattle is a little soggy, as you can imagine. There’s nothing worse than bloating up simply from being outdoors. Normally a body has to be floating face down in a river for months to create the kind of damage a Pacific Northwest autumn and winter can do to a zombie. Paris isn’t a whole lot better, but damn if the flavor of meat and stuff (wink) isn’t enhanced by the French’s bitchy ways. I love ‘em.

AJA: There aren’t all that many zombie writers out there — as far as the general public is aware, anyway. What particular struggles have you faced that a non-zombie might not encounter?

AF: It’s not been easy. The vampire and werewolf authors steal the limelight and flood the marketplace with their anti-zombie propoganda. I’ve had it. So I’ve decided to take them out one at a time. First on my list is that snarky bitch Jaye Wells (Mage in Black). She is so dead.

AJA: Agents or editors: which taste better?

AF: I’ve sampled neither. I’ll tell you after the sales figures on this book come back.

AJA: Aside from following you on twitter, where can your fans get the latest updates on the life of Amanda Feral?

AF: I have a blog, which I update irregularly at feralsmut.blogspot.com. Also, I’m on Tumblr (amandaferal.tumblr.com).

Thanks to Amanda for joining us at Flames Rising. Check out her new book, Stocking Full of Coal, or go grab a copy of her memoirs, Happy Hour of the Damned,, Road Trip of the Living Dead, and Battle of the Network Zombies.

Related posts:

1. Interview with author Ray Wallace
2. Interview with Author Mark Allan Gunnells
3. Zombie Week: Interview With Author David Moody