Shadow Fall by Erin Kellison

Buy It Now: on Amazon.com

Description:
Sacrifice

Custo Santovari accepted pain, blood, even death, to save his best friend. But a man with all his sins just isn’t cut out to be an angel.

Mystery

One moment he’s fleeing Heaven; the next, he’s waking up stark naked in Manhattan. In the middle of a war. Called there by a woman who’s desperately afraid of the dark.

Shadow

It gathers around Annabella as she performs, filled with fantastic images of another world, bringing both a golden hero and a nightmare lover.

Wolf

He pursues her relentlessly, twisting her desires even as she gives herself to the man she loves. Because each of us has a wild side, and Annabella is about to unleash the beast.

This review is based on a review copy received from the publisher.

TDF Pamela’s Review:

Warning! This review contains spoilers for Shadow Bound, the first book in Kellison’s series. It’s kind of unavoidable. :( If there was a way for me to talk about the events in book 2 without referencing the end of book 1, I’d do it, but alas! I kind of have to. So, if you haven’t read Shadow Bound, beware spoilers here!

I have to admit, I was a bit surprised when I cracked open Shadow Fall and discovered that it’s not about Adam and Talia, the couple at the center of Kellison’s first novel, Shadow Bound (read my review here). After that initial bit of disappointment, I found myself quickly sucked into the new couple’s storyline.

Custo Santovari, Adam Thorne’s right hand man, died at the end of Shadow Bound, and much to his surprise, he finds himself ferried through the Shadowlands to the gates of Heaven. Custo had always tried to do his best, but he knew he wasn’t a good person. When he discovers that he’s been promoted to angel, he’s sure someone screwed up. Instead of getting used to life in Heaven, he spends his time prowling the walls, and when Shadowman, still mourning his lost love, appears at the gate, Custo makes a shady deal. He’ll swap places with Shadowman, letting the Fae into Heaven while he escapes into the Shadowlands. While looking desperately for a way back to Earth, he sees a beautiful dancer being stalked by a wolf, and he can’t help but intervene.

Annabella is a ballet dancer, just promoted to the starring role, and she has an unusual talent. When she concentrates on her dance, she can breach the boundary between the mortal world and the Shadowlands, and unfortunately her talent has captured the attention of the wolf, a shadowy hunter who is bent on making Annabella his. When Custo bursts back into the mortal world, accidentally dragging the wolf with him, he finds himself attracted to Anna; he not only wants to protect her, but he wants her. Together, the pair must evade the wolf and find a way to send it back to the Shadowlands.

I found myself really drawn in by the characters in Shadow Fall. Custo is a complicated, conflicted sort of guy; as the reader, you know he’s a good guy, but he just can’t believe that. From his illegitimate beginnings to his rough-and-tumble upbringing to his job doing Adam’s dirty work, Custo isn’t easy to pin down, but you just know that he’s good inside. All of the bad things he does, he’s doing for the right reasons.

Annabella is likewise an interesting character, even if she’s not as complex as Custo. She’s finally realized her dream of being a star ballerina, only to have her sudden (and unfortunately unexplained) ability to tap into the Shadowlands surface and threaten to ruin everything. She’s smart and confident, and while she occasionally loses her cool–and with good reason–she always pulls herself together and holds her own. This is the kind of heroine I want to see more often in paranormal romances. The progression of her relationship with Custo felt completely natural, as something that starts as pure physical attraction and turns into something more as they go through harrowing experiences together.

The wolf is intensely creepy, particularly in his ability to change shape and possess others. I won’t go into detail, but I’ll just say that his snake-like attack on Anna left me shuddering. His motivations aren’t exactly clear, though, other than that he is a hunter and therefore he hunts Anna. I would have liked a bit more out of him, but he is an effective villain.

Shadow Fall fits into the world-on-the-edge established in Kellison’s first novel, where the supernatural is beginning to filter into the mortal world, and people are beginning to become aware of the wraith threat. I was very pleased to see the mythology expanded in this book. It’s a fascinating blend of different cultural mythologies, and I’m very hopeful that we’ll get to see more of this world very soon.

This is a very solid sequel that only falters in its lack of explanation of some key points, such as Annabella’s magical ability. However, the strong characters; believable, sexy romance; and strong worldbuilding overshadow that flaw by far. I enjoyed Shadow Fall very much, and I’m hoping I’ll hear about a sequel soon.

Related posts:

1. Review: Shadow Bound by Erin Kellison
2. Review – Beneath the Skin by Adrian Phoenix
3. Review: Succubus On Top by Richelle Mead

Realms of Fantasy by Mychael Black & Shayne Carmichael

Buy It Now: on Amazon

Description: Angels and demons. Two races of beings, alike and yet not the same. The battles between them have raged for time untold. Realms of Fantasy is the tale of ten such creatures. At the heart of their eternal struggle lies the blinding pain of the greatest Fallen One of all, Lucifer, and Michael, the missing half of his soul. As passions run high and balances of power shift, love is the only power that can save them all.

This review is based on a copy I bought myself.

Tarte Amandine’s Review:

I’ll admit that I went into this book with somewhat lowered expectations and was drawn in by the idea of angels and demons getting it on. Sadly, even those expectations weren’t met by the series of five stories inside these pages. The authors took what could have been made into a very interesting universe based on thousands of years worth of mythology and skipped over it in lieu of hot gay sex. It read more as one long Porn Without Plot cleverly disguised as a set of short stories.

Considering one of the draws to the book was the promise of some angel/demon action, the sex wasn’t all that sexy or exciting because it lacks the chemistry that I like to see between the characters before they get to the good stuff. At most, the authors describe the characters in each story as being inexplicably drawn to each other shortly before they do dirty, dirty things to each other. The descriptions are just this side of purple and contain more than their fair share of ridiculously sappy dialogue (“Yes!” Michael’s eyes flew open and he looked down. “Please. My love, my soul.” Groaning, he spread his legs farther wanting everything, wanting Lucifer everywhere). Their actions are also based on said attractions which aren’t properly explained until the very last story, “The True Fall of Lucifer” (this is probably the best of the five and should have been the first story in the book). Due to the lack of any interesting and substantial mythos for the characters, it feels more like Black and Carmichael just slapped some wings, forked tongues and talons on some fairly uninteresting, overly sappy guys and called them angels and demons. When I first read the description of this book, I had expected some serious angst and maybe even a few scenes of hate!sex because we are dealing with beings that have hated each other since the beginning of time. Instead, they come off as oddly possessive and needy.

The set up that is there made me feel like something was missing or that I was reading something that is a sequel to another, more in depth story. It was disorenting to be thrown into this universe without any sort of explanation as to what’s going on or who these characters are. There were times when I didn’t know if I was reading about an angel or demon until later in the paragraph. Likewise, the confusing settings took away from the stories. “Hunter and the Prey” and “Unholy Need” come off as having more of an urban, contemporary setting whereas “Angels of Blood” and “Order of the Highest” feel more like they are set in a fantasy world of marbeled halls and characters wearing tunics. Dialogue inconsistencies are another problem I had with the book. Sometimes you have an angel or demon speaking like characters from the Middle Ages and within a few more lines, they’re back to talking like someone you’d meet in a bar (or see in a porn movie once they got past those pesky plot points). Black and Carmichael mention the “Orders” of demons and angels which again, aren’t really explained until the final part of the book.

While the writing itself isn’t bad (no misspellings or grammatical errors that I could spot), the plot, settings and characters left a bad taste in my mouth. The authors should have taken “The True Fall of Lucifer” and turned it into a full length story with a little more research into angelic and demonic mythology instead of burying the lead like they did. It’s really unfortunate that my first review had to be so negative, but that’s just the way things go sometimes. Here’s hoping my next read is better!

Related posts:

1. 3 Urban Fantasy Reviews
2. Review: Tithe by Holly Black
3. Review: Fast Ships, Black Sails anthology

Middleworld – Book 1 in the Jaguar Stones series – by J & P Voelkel

Description: Max Murphy was a typical 14-year-old growing up in Boston. He liked video games and hated the way his parents spent so much time away. They’re famous archaeologists who were always taking off to explore Mayan ruins in the jungles of San Xavier. On their latest trip, Max’s parents disappeared while searching for the Jaguar Stones, mystic carvings sacred to the ancient Maya. Max is sent to San Xavier to remain in the care of his estranged uncle and takes it upon himself to search for his parents while becoming entangled in an adventure that includes a Mayan king inhabiting the body of a howler monkey and a trip to Xibalba, the Mayan underworld.

This review is based on a preview copy provided by the authors’ public relations firm.

WereGeek’s Review: (for the target audience of 8-12-year-olds) | (for anyone above age 12)

I wanted to like this book. I really did. And I think the plot shows a lot of promise, I just don’t think the execution matched the concept.  The main character, Max, annoyed me with his materialism, whining and sniveling, right up to the point of his sudden, inevitable conversion into a decent person. I know he’s a teenager and teenagers are generally moody and materialistic, but it was like the Voelkels used every possible teenage stereotype to accentuate his transformation later on. I really couldn’t get into the rest of the characters either as they mostly seemed like stock characters inserted to fulfill a plot function, like the foreign maid who speaks little English, the estranged uncle who may or may not be one of the good guys and the spunky native girl guide who teases Max mercilessly.

It’s clear that the authors did a lot of research on the ancient Maya because they put a lot of detail into the story. Really, an overwhelming amount of detail. I liked the dramatis personae at the beginning of the book and the glossary at the end, which help you remember the characters and absorb some of the denser information dumps in the text but with those included a lot of those info dumps aren’t really needed, unless the authors are trying to impress upon the reader just how much research they’ve done. It’s really great that they have researched the ancient Maya to such an extent, but not all of it needs to be in the book.

I know Middleworld is intended for kids between 8 and 12, not for adults.  I do think kids of that age will enjoy this book, but I think even they will see it’s not as good a book as it could be. It’s easy to say “it’s just a kids’ book,” but I think that’s a cop out. There are lots of very well written books for this age group that don’t resort to storytelling shorthand and an overuse of similes.

I thought about the review I would write on Middleworld as I was reading it, trying to keep in mind the audience the book is aimed at, thinking I might be too harsh since it is “just” a children’s book, so I compared it to one of my perennial favorites (that I reread on occasion, even as an adult) Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, which is also an 8-12 book and a Newberry Medal winner. It may sound like I’m comparing apples to oranges here, but they’re both adventure stories with lots of dialog and exposition, so I don’t really think they’re worlds apart. To say nothing of the talking animals! Mrs. Frisby explains concepts with enough detail for children to get the gist of them in the context of the story without being overbearing. Any ideas I didn’t fully understand and needed to know more about, I either asked my parents or looked them up in the library. I think the wealth of information in Middleworld‘s glossary would be better utilized if it were a supplemental source for the main text rather than restating what’s already in the book. Middleworld could also have benefited from tighter writing and editing. Children’s books don’t have to be sloppily constructed just because they’re for kids.

As I said in the beginning, I really wanted to like Middleworld. And I very nearly did. The basic plot shows real promise at being a spellbinding adventure story that would grip all ages. Sadly, the execution could have had a lot more trimming and polishing and the overall effect is a book with great potential that fell far short.

Related posts:

1. Review: Bitter Night by Diana Pharaoh Francis
2. Review: Naamah’s Kiss by Jacqueline Carey

Yay, I’m back at my own computer! I can use tabbed browsing and upload images and everything! I love my iPad, don’t get me wrong, but writing blog posts on it was a bit of a pain in the ass.

I’ve also got an obscene number of items in my Google Reader, so I figured I’d start a new regular feature here: the Link Roundup! In which I post all kinds of random things that are cool. Rock on.

Books/Writing

• Why editors are important when you write. –Amen!
• A Paranormal Editorial Roundtable at Tor.com –A great discussion of the ubiquitous kick-ass heroine in urban fantasy.
• Suvudu’s Free Library –Check out this month’s free ebooks before they’re gone!

TV/Movies

• I’m way late on this one, but io9 created a hilariously awesome 80s Firefly opening credits vid:
  
• And in case you were wondering, here’s why Simon Tam wasn’t in the Firefly intro:
  
• Blastr (formerly SciFi Wire) tells you what you shouldn’t miss at San Diego Comic Com
• New pics from the upcoming Thor and Green Lantern movies. –Oh, Ryan Reynolds. [happy sigh]
• And another new pic from Thor. –is it just me, or is Thor looking worryingly cheesy?
• Two pics from the upcoming Conan The Barbarian remake. –Why hello there, Jason Momoa’s muscular chest.

Science/History

• Flipping awesome pics of eclipses from space.
• Ancient Egyptian tombs with false doors.
• NPR looks at Project Starfish, with vid of an H-bomb detonated in space.

What cool stuff have you stumbled across today? Let me know in the comments. :D

Related posts:

1. Thursday Link Roundup
2. New space western from Fox… that’s not Firefly.
3. Running away with the circus, brb.

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

Buy It Now: on Amazon

Description: When Tyler Dupree was twelve years old, the stars went out. He and his friends, twins Jason and Diane, grow up in the Spin, a strange cloak around the Earth that has slowed down time, so that every second that passes for them means three years have passed outside of the Spin. Tyler, Jason, and Diane’s paths diverge and cross repeatedly as the world tries to understand what the Spin is and, more importantly, who put it there. (Summary written by me; the publisher’s summary not only sucked, it was also inaccurate.)

This review is based on a copy of the book purchased by the reviewer.

TDF Pamela’s Review:

While the SF aspects of Spin were pretty fascinating (the ongoing mystery of the Hypotheticals and why the Earth was shrouded in a time-bending cloak–the Spin–more than held my interest; it made me read the book all in one sitting), what impressed me the most was Wilson’s masterful blend of hard and “soft” SF elements. The science is equally important as the human relationships that make up the backbone of this excellent novel.

Tyler Dupree, the narrator, is very believable and human in his reactions to the world and the people around him, and even Diane, the character we don’t see much but who always occupies a place in Tyler’s mind and heart, is fleshed out and intriguingly complex. The characters are always at the heart of the story, and Wilson communicates most of the science through Jason, Tyler’s genius friend, another strong character who is willing to accept the role for which his father has molded him but who desires more; he wants to know, and doesn’t want to die ignorant of the reason behind the Spin. Even the minor characters, from Jason and Diane’s parents to Tyler’s mother and even Tyler’s brief love interests over the years, are much more than simply flat side characters. They all have complicated motivations and reactions.

Spin was a treat to read. I love SF that masterfully combines speculative science with the human element that sometimes goes missing in hard SF.

Related posts:

1. Review: Medicine Road by Charles de Lint
2. Review: The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction
3. Review: GRIMSPACE by Ann Aguirre

The Iron Hunt by Marjorie M. Liu

Buy It Now: on Amazon.com

Description: Demon hunter Maxine Kiss wears her armor as tattoos, which unwind from her body to take on forms of their own at night. They stand between her and her enemies, just as Maxine stands between humanity and the demons breaking out from behind the prison veils. It is a life lacking in love, reveling in death, until one moment—and one man— changes everything.

This review is based on a copy of the book I purchased myself.

TDF Pamela’s Review:

The Iron Hunt is a strange book. It took a while for me to get into it, but halfway through I was completely engrossed. However, by the time I got to the end, I was also completely confused.

I love good worldbuilding, and Liu has built an intriguing mythology with this series. I don’t like books with infodumps that introduce you to the world all in four paragraphs at the beginning, and luckily, The Iron Hunt isn’t one of those books. My problem, though, is that Liu never really gives a clear picture of the world through the showing (as opposed to the infodump telling). She tosses hints through riddles and visions, but I had trouble putting everything together and buildling a clear mental map of the different planes of existence.

The only consolation I take from this is that Maxine Kiss, the protagonist, seems just as confused as I am. I’m hoping this means that in future books in the series, as Maxine’s understanding of the world grows, the reader’s will as well. I see that as the sign of a great writer, and I know that I love Liu’s writing style and incredible imagination. I suppose I’ll have to read the second book to see if that’s where she’s heading.

Speaking of the writing style, I do have to admit that it took a while for me to get used to the very choppy first-person narration. Maxine seems to think in short sentences and fragments, and that’s hard for me to read. It’s not fluid, and my brain stumbles over it. After I got used to it, though, I realized that it works for Maxine. It suits her aloof personality, and when her narration shifts into longer, more descriptive sentences, I could really feel her character changing.

I’m left with kind of a conundrum here. I did enjoy the book, but at the same time, I feel like the book didn’t give me enough. I’m hoping that the rest of the series will shed more light on the incredibly intricate world and Maxine’s complicated place in it.

Related posts:

1. Review: SUCCUBUS DREAMS by Richelle Mead
2. Review: Shadow Fall by Erin Kellison
3. Ongoing Review Part 3: TMBOVR

I’ve recently become a contributor at SFRevu, and my first review has gone live with the July issue!

You can read my review of Ann Aguirre’s Hell Fire, the second book in the Corinne Solomon series, here at SFRevu. Let me know what you think!

Related posts:

1. Guest Post! Welcome Ann Aguirre!
2. Review: Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre
3. Upcoming Awesomeness With Ann Aguirre!

Buy It Now: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1848565283/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1JKZZ70D9EY18NN0KY36&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

Description: Way back in April 1862, Confederate Captain Jubal Beauchamp leads a charge across a Georgia battleground… Fast forward to 2009 and a Civil War re-enactment becomes all too real. When Sam and Dean head down South to investigate they find that history has got somewhat out of hand…

This review is based on a free review copy received from the publisher/author.

The Bibliomaniac ‘s Review:

Joe Schreiber is perhaps best known for the much-hyped Star Wars tie-in zombie novel Death Troopers, considered one of the more compelling books in that particular franchise.  I mention this to illustrate his smooth and nearly invisible writing style; free of extraneous fillips or an overexaggerated way with words, he uses that same neat, terse style in The Unholy Cause, effortlessly building a subliminal feeling of tension throughout the whole story.  There are numerous places in the story where a turn of phrase or bit of description made me grin in pleasure—a casual allusion to Star Wars, Dean’s mention of furries to the still-innocent Castiel—but as an example, take this beautiful line describing the markers in an old Southern cemetery:

“The names had disappeared completely off many of the stones, leaving only smooth amnesiac marble.”

The Unholy Cause takes place at some point during Season Five, since the second chapter opens with Sam having a none-too-pleasant dream about Lucifer coming for him.  Sam and Dean end up taking over a case in Georgia from fellow hunter Rufus, whose anonymous tip seems to have come straight from Lucifer himself.  What they find in Mission’s Ridge, Georgia is both compelling and suspicious: an unexplainable pair of deaths among a pair of Civil War re-enactors, and their companion Castiel continuing his search for God, trying to track down someone who was apparently a witness to the Last Supper.

There are a number of fascinating secondary characters in this novel— Castiel’s “Witness”, coroner Todd Winston, fellow hunter Tommy McClane and his young son Nate, Civil War re-enactor Sarah Rafferty—but none are more interesting than Sheriff Jack (Jacqueline) Daniels, whose occult tattoo and hostile stonewalling of the boys’ investigation set up one of the book’s biggest red herrings.  She sees through the brothers’ ‘Agent Townes and Van Zandt’ aliases without blinking and has no problem arresting them when she feels they’re interfering in her own investigation.

When the reveal comes about Castiel’s “Witness”, it isn’t much of a surprise—having been discussed much earlier in the book—but Schreiber uses that particular element of Christian mythology to better effect than many other previous movies and books have done.  The novel fits in seamlessly with Season Five’s mythology, and would make a fantastic episode of the series, save for the fact that the explosive finale would cost so much to make on a TV budget that it’d be better suited for a big-screen movie.

I don’t often read movie or TV show tie-in novels—not even for movies or TV series that I like—but both the previous Supernatural novel I reviewed here and The Unholy Cause are making me reconsider that choice.  Both fit in with the series’ canon so well that I couldn’t find anything to dislike about them, and I’m happy to recommend The Unholy Cause to fans of the show—and fans of genre novels in general—without a moment’s hesitation.

The Bibliomaniac

Ye olde author (emphasis on the OLD) likes the weird and the strange, which explains most of her friends. Married, with two daughters, she has earned a B.A. in Literature and a B.S. in Criminal Justice. Her interests include reading and writing (of course!), gardening, poetry, comic books, herbalism, chocolate, tea, mythology and fairy tales, comparative theology and alternative religions, Celtic and darkwave music, role-playing games and LARPing, horror movies, hiking and camping, SF conventions, and the martial arts. She lives with her husband, her younger daughter, five cats, a dog, and a houseful of gargoyles somewhere east of Chicago. She can be contacted at BrigidsBlest @ yahoo.com.

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Related posts:

1. Review: Supernatural: Heart of the Dragon
2. Advance Review: The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber

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