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Kristen Painter
House of Comarre, book 3
Orbit (2011)
ISBN: 978-1-84149-971-0
Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack
Bad Blood is the third in the House of Comarre series; there are at least four books in the series. Book two, Flesh and Blood, is reviewed here. Like book two, book three is challenging to follow if you haven’t read earlier books in the series. Although there are strengths to the books individually, I would strongly recommend that intending readers start with book one.
In this volume a spate of violent serial murders are striking fear into Paradise City (a renamed Miami). All of the girls bear a resemblance to Chrysabelle; a real Commarre – a human bred to provide blood to vampires. As well as bearing a superficial resemblance to Chrysabelle herself, each victim was a fake Comarre, who sold their inferior blood to vampires who either didn’t know better or didn’t have access to a real Comarre.
The murders are only one sign of a breakdown in the centuries old covenant which has enabled humans to live in blissful ignorance of the supernatural world right under their noses. With the breakdown of the covenant, it’s getting harder to ignore. And with Halloween coming, it’s likely that human noses will be well and truly rubbed not only in the existence of the supernatural, but in how dangerous it is.
Kristen Painter
House of Comarre, book 2
Orbit (2011)
ISBN: 978-1-84149-970-3
Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack
Flesh and Blood is book two in the House of Comarre series; there are at least four books in the series. None appear to stand alone – they are written as instalments of a series and there isn’t a lot of recapping for people who haven’t read the earlier book (or books). They are well written and have considerable strengths, but it’s not really a series you can jump into part way through and fully enjoy.
I have not read book one, so was very much picking this up as I went along. It was reasonably easy to pick up the basic plot, but many of the motivations were a little murky to me, and there were past events that seemed critical to events in this novel but which were never fully explained here. In addition, there were some really important things about the relationships between characters that appeared to be very dependent on events in the first novel – referred to in passing here but again not clearly recapped.
Chrysabelle is a Comarre, one of a group of humans bred to provide blood to vampires. It’s not clearly spelt out, but I assume that this is part of the covenant which has allowed the supernatural world to exist side by side with humanity, with most humans entirely ignorant of it. It appears that Comarres and their relationships with vampires are governed by a complex set of traditions and rules. However, Chrysabelle appears to be somewhat isolated from the Comarre House in general, and it’s not particularly clear if she is, indeed, still technically a Comarre. (Not clear to me as a new reader, that is.) Read the rest of this entry »
Narrelle M Harris
Pulp Fiction Press (2007)
ISBN: 9780975112922
Reviewed by Tehani Wessely (this review was first published in December 2008)
There are a lot of supernatural dark fantasies about at the moment, so for Pulp Fiction Press to take a chance on a relatively unknown author in this genre, they must believe the story is something special. In this case, it’s a pleasant surprise to find they were not far off the mark. In The Opposite of Life, Harris has taken quite a different turn in the paranormal field
While there’s nothing terribly new here, the treatment of the protagonist and the vampires involved in the story is just a little unusual. This is especially evident in the description of Gary, the vampire that our hero, Lissa, gets to know best:
The brightly coloured tropical shirt was a dead giveaway. It was unbuttoned, revealing a faded green T-shirt which tightened slightly around the middle and flowed over the top of equally faded blue jeans. His mop of untidy, light brown hair topped a round, pale face. Beneath the fringe, a pair of hazel eyes blinked owlishly at us.
Later, he’s referred to as “… the tubby guy in the tropical shirt”. A far cry from the ridiculously gorgeous brooding vampires normally encountered in this type of book! It makes a nice change. Read the rest of this entry »
Trent Jamieson
Orbit (2011)
ISBN: 978-0-7336-2485-8
Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack
DISCLAIMER: Lorraine Cormack is a judge for the Aurealis Awards. This review is the personal opinion of the writer, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator or the Aurealis Awards management team.
The Business of Death is the title of an omnibus edition of the Death Works Trilogy. It includes the three books Death Most Definite, Managing Death, and The Business of Death. It is particularly useful to get all three books in one volume because they work best when read together. Read individually, they’re pretty good, but read together they have additional depth which makes for a much stronger story.
Steven de Selby has a massive hangover and wants to avoid going anywhere near his workplace. That shouldn’t be too hard, it’s his day off. But then in the space of just a few minutes, his day goes to hell. Someone starts shooting at him in the food court, and even worse, a dead girl warns him to run. A very attractive dead girl who definitely shouldn’t be hanging around. Steven knows this for sure because he works for Death; it’s his job to help usher souls on to the Underworld. He knows there shouldn’t be a dead girl there, and he doesn’t think anyone would want to kill him.
In a matter of hours, things get worse; all his workmates, which include essentially all his friends and family, are also targeted by whoever wants him dead. A lot of people are dying. The dead are rising – which isn’t a new thing, but is a bad thing – and it looks like Brisbane is on the way to a Regional Apocalypse. Steven realises that someone wants promotion to the top job – Death itself – and that kind of promotion only comes after a lot of blood is shed. So Steven needs to find the “applicant”, stop him or her from tipping the region into chaos, save his own life, and do something about the dead girl who hasn’t crossed over. And he needs to do it fast.
Laini Taylor
Hodder and Stoughton (2011)
ISBN: 978-1-444-72263-5
Reviewed by Tehani Wessely
From the opening page of the book – “Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.” – the tone of Daughter of Smoke and Bone is set. While at times dramatic and heart-wrenching, the storytelling always has an element of wry humour which is appealing and entirely readable, capturing the personality of the protagonist and engaging the reader completely.
Seventeen-year-old Karou lives an astonishing double life. A gifted artist, she attends art school by day, prowling the streets of Prague with her friends and enjoying the world at large. But there is so much more to Karou – raised by monsters, she owes everything to Brimstone and his dark underworld. As a human, she runs “errands” for him all over the world, collecting, of all things, teeth, for a use she doesn’t understand. It’s not always safe, but it is never dull. Eventually though, her dual worlds come unraveled, as Brimstone and her monster friends are torn violently from her. Karou does not understand why this terrible thing has happened, but she is determined to use all the resources she commands to find out.
Tracey O’Hara
Dark Brethren, book 2
Harper Voyager (2011)
ISBN: 9780061783142
Reviewed by Stephanie Gunn
Death’s Sweet Embrace is the second book in Tracey O’Hara’s Dark Brethren urban fantasy series. The first book was Night’s Cold Kiss.
In the Dark Brethren world, humans and parahumans live together in an uneasy truce. Parahumans in this world include the Aeternus (vampires) and Animalians (shapeshifters). The first book in this series focused on the Aeternus and the Venators, humans who hunt rogue Aeternus. Specifically, the book’s protagonist was the Venator Antoinette Petrescu, and the main story arc followed her relationship with the Aeternus Christian.
The second book shifts focus to the Animalians, the focal character also changing to a snow leopard shapeshifter, Kitt Jordan. Kitt was a minor character in the first novel, a lecturer in parahuman forensic pathology. She is called to be part of a task force investigating a serial killer targeting young shapeshifters; the task force also includes Antoinette. Her work also brings her back into contact with the werewolf Raven, her one-time lover, and her estranged twin daughters.
Sarah Rees Brennan
Demon’s Lexicon, book 3
Margaret K. McElderry (2011)
ISBN: 9781416963837
Reviewed by Tansy Rayner Roberts
On Saturday, I read a book. I read, and read. I begged my daughter to let me read instead of being Mission Control to her game of Super Sisters, I did the occasional household chore and then ran back to my book straight after. I ate lunch while reading. I left my family to their own devices, went and lay on my bed and read until I was done.
This, needless to say, is a rare event in our household. Once upon a time, reading all Saturday afternoon was a normal thing for me, but that was before I became a mother of two. My reading is usually snatched in ten minute intervals, between larger and more immediate demands on my time.
But this was The Demon’s Surrender.
When my honey lifted an eyebrow at my complete immersion in the book, I said firmly, “I have been waiting for this book for FOURTEEN MONTHS,” and he nodded gravely and left me to it. Wonderful man.
I review books all the time, and I was expecting to be able to review this one sensibly, but it turns out I have no ability to distance myself enough from my sheer crazy fan love of this series to be thoughtful and articulate. I’m more – “wheeee, all the right people in the tree, K – I – S – S – I – N -G!” because, baby, all my ships came home to roost, every single one of them.
Charlaine Harris
A Sookie Stackhouse novel (12)
Gollancz (2011)
ISBN: 978 0 575 09653 0
Reviewed by Tehani Wessely
Mindreading human (sort of) Sookie Stackhouse is a magnet for trouble of the supernatural kind. Not only is her boyfriend a vampire, but she has all sorts of shapeshifters, fairies and other magical creatures harassing her regularly. It’s not just the supes though, because Sookie’s made some human enemies along the way as well, which never helps. This time, the action gets started when Sookie’s workplace, the bar of shapeshifter Sam Merlotte, is firebombed. Sookie mostly escapes injury, although that doesn’t stop vampire Eric Northam from insisting she get looked at by a hairdresser – yes, you read that right – providing a convenient introduction to the main story, involving Eric and his ‘child’ Pam. The book then lurches from plot point to plot point, labouring along without any real engagement of character or story before ‘climaxing’ in the hurried and open-ended sort of way that has become the norm for this series.
If I sound a little cynical about the storyline of Dead Reckoning, that’s because I am. This series has undergone a revival in popularity thanks to the HBO television series adaption True Blood but unfortunately, it feels like Harris really should have wound it up by now. The books are quite long but very little forward momentum has been achieved in the past several novels. Sookie seems stagnant, and while Harris continues to throw new roadblocks in her path to happiness, there is little resolution of any kind, which makes the books seem kind of pointless.
Chloe Neill
Chicagoland Vampires
Gollancz
ISBN: 978-0-575-09937-1
Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack
Twice Bitten is the third in the Chicagoland vampire series – the second, Friday Night Bites is reviewed here. Twice Bitten is in very much the same mould as its’ predecessor, sharing its characteristics, and particularly its weaknesses.
Shapeshifters from across America are convening in Chicago to decide whether or not to retreat to their Alaskan stronghold. Their decision is of critical interest to vampires; if they choose to retreat they are essentially abandoning vampires to whatever humans decide to do – and the signs are ominous; bad times may be coming for vampires. If the shifters decide to stay, they may provide some protection and support for their supernatural colleagues. Given the intense interest of vampires in the outcome of the Convocation, Master Vampire Ethan Sullivan has offered Merit, the Sentinel of his House, as bodyguard to Gabriel Keene, the Alpha shapeshifter.
Chloe Neill
Chicagoland Vampires Book 2
Gollancz
ISBN: 978-0-575-09405-5
Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack
Friday Night Bites is an entrant in the emerging urban fantasy meets chick lit genre. There are quite a few books around right now that fit that genre, and they generally feature independent, sassy heroines who are looking for the right guy, and often a fair bit of humor along the way. Unfortunately, while Friday Night Bites definitely aspires to that, it offers a doormat heroine, little humor, a weak plot, and limp worldbuilding. It manages to be mildly entertaining while you’re reading it, but there’s no depth here and it’s not memorable.
The novel is the second in the Chicagoland Vampires series. I have not read the first in the series, but the basic set up seems to be that in the first novel, a series of murders committed by a vampire led to vampire society coming out of the closet, so to speak, and humans discovering not only that vampires exist but they have a fairly well regulated society.
Merit was made a vampire in the first novel, without her consent, which is apparently unusual. She was “made” by Ethan Sullivan, master of Cadogan House. Now a vampire, she has been appointed Sentinel for the House, despite the fact she was an English lit student, and has no fighting ability. As Friday Night Bites opens, she is leaving her flat to move into Cadogan House, one of the major power bases of vampires in Chicago. At her master’s request, she will quickly become caught up in an investigation to find out who, exactly, is trying to start a war between vampires and humans. And naturally this is complicated by Merit’s attraction to Ethan – not only is he a very old, experienced vampire, he’s also technically her boss.
