Book Babblings

Skin Game by Jim Butcher

The Nitty Gritty: After a self imposed vacation on his new home away from blown up home, Demonreach, Harry is called upon by the Queen of Ice and Bitchery to fulfill a debt. Harry knows all about fulfilling debts. His debts have been passed around more in the Nevernever than a $5 hooker in Las Vegas. This time Mab is pawning him off onto Nicodemus Archleone to pull of a heist of epic proportions. Yep, the Black Denarians are back up to their old tricks and Harry is going to send several sets of eyes to walk out of this one with all his body parts attached.

The job....Harry has to break into the personal vault of Hades.

Yep, that Hades.

And actually steal the actual Holy Grail. Yes, that Holy Grail. And he has to do that without a bullwhip and a fedora. Though I am pretty sure Harry could pull off the Indiana Jones look. And he has to do it with a crew handpicked by Nic himself. Like that won't be the tiniest bit dangerous.

Opening Line: "There was a ticking time bomb inside my head and the one person I trusted to go in and get it out hadn't show up or spoken to me in more than a year." 

The Good: 14 years ago Jim Butcher, introduced us to Harry Dresden in Storm Front. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't get hooked to Dresden till 2010 I believe, but when I finally did it was an epic Disney insta-love scenario for the ages. Harry was snarky, sassy, sarcastic, lived and worked by his own moral code that sometimes turned him into a misogynistic super save a damsel, he was loyal to stupidity, and above all his was bad ass enough to be listed in the phone book as Chicago's only professional wizard. Over the years he has made mistakes, gotten people killed, lost loved ones, killed and or thwarted some pretty bad monsters, found a brother, fathered a child, destroyed an entire race of vampires (they had it coming believe you me), and taken on the mantle of the Winter Knight. Never once did he stop being Harry. Since the beginning he has gotten more Harry, if that is at all possible.

I've started out with some very awesome book series. The Southern Vampire Mysteries, House of Night, Blackdagger Brotherhood, just to name a few. They all started out with great intentions and better writing. The characters had distinct voices that resonated deep with me. Who doesn't love a hulking vampire in tight leather pants and penchant for burning buildings down with a touch? And, yes I am talking about you Vishous. I fell in love, as indicated by my overflowing bookshelves, and my bulging Kindle account. However something happened within these series. I can't pinpoint in each instance the book where it happened. The author fell out of love with their characters. They stopped investing in their development, their story, their lives. They became products to be pushed onto addicts.

Don't get me wrong here, I am attempting to break into the published world myself, I understand writing for money. Its what I want to do with my life. I want to wake up everyone morning, brew a cup of hot chocolate, switch on my Netflix, sit down at my computer and bleed all over the page and hope its something another person will pay to read. I would never in a million years suggest that any artist give away their masterpieces for free. But when you invest years, YEARS into something or someone you have to love it. Anyone can be a one trick pony. Anyone can write one book and then walk away. But to take something, pour your heart and soul into day in and day out for years takes dedication. It takes love.

The same sort of love the people in the fandom have for the series.

So when I say these authors have fallen out of love with their characters I mean just that. Over the years they have stop spending time with their creations, investing in them. They are just churning our stories out of obligations to their publishers at this point. Oh sure they will say they still love them and they still care, but actions speak louder than words and the words on the page speak volumes. And they are talking in languages I don't understand. I've long since abandoned House of Night when it dissolved into soft porn for teens. I turned my back on Sookie when she went from a barmaid blazing her own trail in the supe world to a jealous dingbat with nothing going on between her ears than suntanning and why Eric doesn't love her anymore. I've just recently given up on The Blackdagger Brother. I must say I feel that lose more keenly than the other two.

Jim Butcher is a lily among the valley. He is still in love with Harry. He is still investing in Harry and giving us the best Harry he can. Which in this cloud of crap is rare a gem indeed. Harry Dresden just gets better with age. Not in the sense that he still doesn't destroy at least three lives and several building with every outing, but in the sense of a fine aged wine. The longer he sits the better time we have when the cork gets popped.

Can I just say that outside of the Percy Jackson lexicon Butcher's Hades is my favorite. The Lord of the Underworld, the master of death, the wielder of the Helm of Darkness has a three-headed dog names Spot. I snorted milkshake all over myself when I read that. Hades has a dog names Spot, a thing he found just as funny as I did.

Butcher is the best in the game with characterizations. The best. Even the red shirts in the Dresdenverse get nuanced. They get personalities, backstories, backgrounds, and reasons for being even if they were simply cannon fodder. Few authors bother to do that to a character they are going to kill three pages later. It might take a lot of work, but we as readers appreciate it.

The Bad: I didn't get my Thomas itch scratched. I fell in love with Thomas in Grave Peril. He is a sexy vampire that feeds on the sexual energy of others. How could I not fall in love with him. But over the years Thomas has proven himself to be, dare I say, the king of all vampires. I know that is a atomic bomb to drop in this bloodsucker laden society we live in, but there it is. He is fangs above Bill Compton, Eric Northman, Edward Cullen, Lestat, and even Louie, and all those creepers in the Anita Blake series. Thomas is all vampire all the time, but at the same time he has instances of humanity about him. He never hides who he is, nor makes excuses for being a vampire. He doesn't hate who he is, just what he is forced to do to the ones he loves. I've been missing him for nearly a year and I want more of him. I need more Thomas in my life I really do.

In Cold Days the mantle of the Winter Lady was thrust upon Molly after she put Maeve in her place. I say good riddance to star spangled crotch. She was a little over the top for me. After centuries beside her mother she didn't learn how to be subtle. You don't have to hit a fly with a sledgehammer to show the fly who's boss. I like Mab's style. She can chill your blood with a look, or a raised eyebrow. Maeve pounced like a polar bear. I wanted to see the transformation going on in Molly. We get a few glimpses of her in Skin Game, but I wanted her centrally located this go around. For me Molly is one of the few white female characters that doesn't make me grind my teeth. Her and Karrin Murphy that is, and I want to see the evolution from grasshopper to Winter Lady. Hopefully Butcher gives us more Molly in the next book. Oh and I want more Maggie. I have a feeling I'm going to the love the little mite. And we need more Mouse too. That dog has literally grown on me.

My Hope for the series: That Butcher keeps doing what he is doing. In the direction that he is going. We have fallen into the abyss with Harry and I for one am in it for the fall.

Many Bloody Returns

If you don't know already I am in love with vampires. Above all other mythical creatures in fact. Sure elves are sexy. Something about those pointy ears do turn me on, but vampires have my heart. I actually think I fell in love with them when I saw Dracula with Gary Oldman for the first time. Admittedly he was scary as hell in that film and I never, ever want to meet Dracula I did fall in love with vampire lore.

Here is a small list of my favorite vampires.

Black Dagger Brotherhood 

These warriors take the top spot because not only are they all drop dead gorgeous and incredible sexy they are the defenders of their race. The love hard and fight with fury. There is something about a male that knows what he is and accepts it that is admirably. Too often I run into vampire series with vamps who either hate who they are and mop left and right or they are total brutes trying to drain the human world dry. The fact that vampires can only drink from other vampires is nice. It takes the fear out vampires being among. Well just a little bit. The Brotherhood has no qualms about killing humans if they threaten or get in the way of the Brotherhood or the vampire race.

The story is told from the point of the view of the men. Well there are chapters that feature their shellans (wives) but the plots are about the evolution of the brothers. I like that.

Each male is a tortured soul. Damaged beyond all reason. Zdasist was kidnapped as a baby and made a blood slave. Raped till he had no soul Bella was able to bring him back from the brink of destruction. Vishous was turned over into the hands of the Bloodletter and his warrior camp. Rhage pissed off the Scribe Virgin and she cursed him. Wrath had to endure the slaughter of his family while he had been powerless to do anything. Butch watched his sister get into the car of her rapist and killers. Phury had to live without his twin for a hundred years only to find a hollowed out body where Zadaist used to be on top of fighting against his own raging drug addiction. Tohrment had to deal with the suicide of a woman he went through hell to rescue only to turn around and deal with the murder of his shellan and unborn young. John Matthews was born in the bathroom stall of a bus station without a voice only to be raped by a human in a dirty stairwell. Qhuinn born with one blue eye and one green eye in a world where a wrinkled shirt earns you a lifetime of scorn. Blaylock, the perfect male and the perfect son, except for the fact that he is gay.

Nothing nice and rosy for these males, and yet over the course of the series each of them finds the capacity to love and be loved. While kicking a lot of tail and taking names.

Blade Series 

Though Blade is a comic book hero I love him to death. First of all there aren't that many black superheroes to choose from so Blade holds a special place in my heart.

Blade is one sexy vampire. Well daywalker as they like to call him. I love his devotion to the cause. It is all consuming for him. His everything. His reason for living. There is not compromising with him. If you drink blood to live you have to die. And I love that the vampires in this series like being vampires. No one is crying about living forever.

Blade, born after a vampire attacked his mother was gifted with all the strengths of the vampires and none of their weaknesses. Well except for the thirst which he quenches with a serum. He is super strong, self healing, extremely fast, ages at a slower rate and he isn't allergic to silver and garlic and can walk in daylight. Which makes hunting vampires all the easier.

Southern Vampire Series

I love the fact that the vampires live out in the open. I think that it one of the biggest things that I love about the series. These vampires are a proper cultural and subculture. Its not just a gang of blood thirty animals running around. They have structure, rules, rituals and customs. I do think having kings and queens then sheriffs is a bit confusing, but not to the point where its distracting.

In the beginning I did like Sookie though she is only a human, but as the series has progress I've grown to really hate her. I think Harris really lost Sookie's voice somewhere between Dead in the Family and Dead Reckoning. Good thing this post isn't about her. Its about the vampires.

Each vampire is a very different creature. Sure they are all blood sucking predators. We know that, but they are still different from one another. Eric is one of the oldest in the series. He was turned before the known world was created. His surname is Northman for a reason. The vamp started life out as a Viking. Bill Compton was turned during the Civil War, Pam was an aristocrat during Victorian times. It gives each vampire a personality.

House of Night

I started off really liking this series. Anything that has women on top is good for me. I liked this series in spite of its protagonist. I just couldn't keep reading it. Its like the never ending story. There has been 11 books so far and the story arc is till going. I just can't keeping reading through Zoey's eyes anymore. She is one of the most annoying characters ever, and that is saying something since I read all four Twilight books.

The reason I like these vampires is one because its a matriarchal system. The women are on top. They run things and have all the power. The men do what they do best. Look good and beat up things.

In this series no one is born a vampire or turned. you either have the vampire gene or you don't. Even then there isn't a guarantee that you will survive the change over to become a vampire. And the goddess Nyx is the start of all vampires. I love the inclusion of the mythical in this series.

I tip my hat to the Casts for the inclusion of characters of color. We need more of that in the fantasy genre and I love that vampires are getting the color treatment.

The Dresden Files 

I love Harry Dresden. Absolutely love him. What's more I love the supernatural creatures in the Dresdenverse. Since this is a vampire post we will focus on the vampires in the Dresdenverse.

No two vampires are alike. There are several different courts of vampires each with their own powers and abilities. White court vampires suck on the emotions of their victims. Some white vampires suck on sexual tension, others suck on the fear. Little is know about Jade court vampires. They seemed to be highly secretive and cult like. Red court vampires wear skin suits to look more human, but when they are feeding their true selves are reveled and there is nothing sexy about it.

Butcher created this awesome world of magic, fae, demons, shifters and the like to delight and titillate his readers. I wholly appreciate his efforts and I look forward to many bloody returns from Harry Dresden.

The Vampire Chronicles

Who can say they love vampires without loving Louis de Pointe du Lac. The vampiric son of the infamous Lestat. Usually I hate vampires how hate being vampires. I mean you either like who you are or you end it all and save us listening to you whine, but I love Louie. I mean I think he was my first vampire crush to be sure.

Louie though looking to die was turned against his will. He wanted to die not live forever. Especially living on the blood of the living. What I liked most was his fatherly instincts toward Claudia. Though he was responsible for her death, its a better way to die than she would have gotten with the plague. He takes responsibility for her in a way that any father would have. Lestat was more concerned with turning her into the perfect killer. Louie just wants her to be happy. Her death scene tore at my heart.

With Rice we get back to the quintessential vampire. Tall, dark and deadly. These vampires aren't looking to mainstream or come out of the coffin. They like living in the night, pretending to be human while draining the world dry. They suave predators that I am sure many men and women would love to be lying under as they died. When I think of the classic vampire I think of Anne Rice. 

Book Babblings

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.