Dark Currents: Agent of Hel by Jacqueline Carey The Nitty Gritty: Tail lashing agent of Hel, the Norse god of the dead, is a part time file clerk for the local police in the small Midwestern resort town of Pemkowet. Being Hel's agent means keeping the local eldritch community in line and the mundane humans safe. Daisy acts as the liason between the magical and the mundane. Mostly that involves taking her best friend Jen to Twilight Manor to plead with her sister to forsake her vampire boyfriend and come home or scaring off a milkweed fairy from kidnapping a changling child. Seems easy enough.
Till a college student bodies floats to the top of the river and it smacks of otherworldly involvement. Its left up to Daisy the the Down Low wolf is cop's clothing Cody Fairfax to solve the mystery before the Christian right raze the underworld and purge their community of the hell spawn.
Opening Line: "It was an idyllic summer evening in Pemkowet the night the Vanderhei kid died."
What's the 411: I must say the title is what pulled me in. though I readily understood that this was not a story about a actual agent of Hell. I was intrigued enough to pick it up. The story blurb further pulled me in. It took me longer than I planned to read this because I have the literary attention span of a ADD kid on crack. I can read nearly seven books at one time and I was trying to devour two George R. R. Martin books and a Mercedes Lackey book at the same time on top of struggling with a new job and Vacation Bible school planning going on. Suffice to say my brain was quite happy to get one thing off my plate.
Its a wonderful concept in this world of fan fiction turned sellable art and regurgitation of the classics. A hell spawn actually ok with what she is and actively trying to control her inner most demons, no pun intended I assure you is quite the plot. Nevermind the fact that the magical and the mundane live side by side without all the ugly backlash. The few instances of blowback are feeble and weak. Of course this couldn't be urban fantasy without werewolves and vampires. Glad to see the vampires played a ever so minor role in this book and I hope to not see any more of them in the coming books.
Since this is the fitst book in the series I don't know if I should be irritated at the hotter than allowed werewolf Cody. Honestly are all werewolves hot and sexy? Can't there be a over the hill wolf with a Budweiser belly and bad teeth? Just asking. We shall see if the hot werewolf gets on my nerves, but I have high hopes that Stephen the sexy ghoul will stay in rotation.
This book did have pacing issues. The spaces between the action and the filler chapters was a little too long. It felt like a long drive through Texas. When you high the brights lights of a big city its a fun ride and you drink it all in, but when there is nothing between you and that long stretch of burning asphalt it gets tedious and mind numbing.
On the whole with this book I expected I don't know a bit more action. A lot more magic. It seemed like the book s was struggling with itself on how much to revel and how much to hold back. Well it held back too much for my liking. Well we got to see naiads and fairies. Which is nice but also over done. We only for a few mentions of the ogre and Hel herself which was the main attraction for me. norse mythology save Thor and Loki is sadly lacking in urban fantasy if you ask me.
I know the first book is supposed to tease you enough to prompt you into buying the next book but I'm not a huge fan of tease. I like everything laid out on the table in plain sight. If I like the book I'm going to like. I don't need smoke and mirrors.
The Good: Well the fact that there wasn't any sex to distract from the actual plot of the story was a good thing in my book. I really hate to say it but a lot of female urban fantasy authors are churning out nothing but porn these days. Their characters have lost their edge. Blunted by the hard cock of whatever flavor of the month. Sorry to be so blunt but its true and I'm getting damn tired of it. I find it highly ironic that its the female authors that are guilty of this. Harry Dresden, the brain child of urban fantasy author Jim Butcher, is a man that hasn't suffered from a lack of willing ladies lining up to keep his bed warm in the 11 books about his life as Chicago's only outed wizard. No to be fair he did enjoy the company of a few of those willing participants, but you never had to read about his rolls in the hay. They were never used as plot devices to keep the book going. The actual plot did that! Since it hasn't happened I'm not going to get myself worked up over what might or might not come to pass.
I did like the introduction of Ghouls in this book, especially ghouls as the good guys. In the few books that I've read with ghouls they always got the short end of the stick. To be fair there are some pretty nasty ghouls out there and the fact that they survive on the emotions of humans is a little gross to be sure, but on the whole I do like that Carey painted Stephen in a positive light. How bright that light shines in the coming books remains to be seen, but for now I like him and her characterization of him.
The Bad: Like most urban fantasies with a female lead the female just has to have a long line of suitable and unsuitable bedmates. While this first book reined in its heroine's libido I fear that won't last long. Which is a shame I rather like Daisy. She does suffer from the repetitive word usage, namely the word Gah. Which I can't fathom would ever pass by anyone's actual lips. She isn't as whiny as most females in her shoes would be. After all she is literally Rosemary's Baby with a flicking tail, and believe you me all the flicking did grate on my nerves slightly. After all I doubt Cody would have commented on that fact that he didn't wear boxers because his tail would have gotten angry with him. I likened it to her commenting about flicking her hair out of her face so it got to be very annoying because it was mentioned nearly every page.
Carey needs to take a lesson in small town building for Charlaine Harris. Pemkowet just feels like she took a large city and squeezed it into a small town. Albeit with a few fairies and ogres sprinkled in. Don't get me wrong she had all the right ingredients Long family histories, the town drunk and occasional wife beater, the good ole boy police chief, even a cross dressing shop owner and thrown in for good measure a "magical negro". I do love it when white people become self aware. Its almost like they think minorities will give them a pass. We don't but its fun when they try.
Anyhoo, I'm not buying the small town vibe in this book. It might have worked if A) I hadn't went to high school in a small town and B) I hadn't read books with better small town building in them. Harris might have lost her creative edge with the passage of time but the woman can still paint a pretty convincing picture of small town America. Maybe I am trying to impose a southern small town vibe on a midwestern small town, but the two can't vary that greatly. Never been one for the midwest myself so maybe I am off base here.
I'm still a little iffy on the whole white female authors writing about interracial relationship with their white female leads and black males. Its starting to be an alarming trend without any of the social implications attached. Maybe I wouldn't be so touchy if they didn't feel like experiments to the female characters. Its almost like Daisy is saying "Well I'm attracted to a ghoul and a werewolf why not a black guy." Like there has to be a justification for her being attracted to a black guy. Without the ghoul and werewolf would the black guy still be as beautiful? Would he still feel like an experiment? I think that's what pisses me off the most. The relationships with black men is put into the same category with vampires, elves, werewolves or whatever supernatural creature is the hunk of the year. Are we animals? Are we exhibits to be experienced? A one in a lifetime attractions that can't be missed?
It reduces everything that is wonderful about black men into a cheap parlor trick used as a plot device.
Final Thoughts: For now I will keep reading about Daisy's adventures. My hope is that Carey leaves what goes on behind closed doors to the imagination. It was a fun ride.
