Man in Black (Black Knight Chronicles #6) by John G Hartness

So after a lot of manipulations from Lillith and some very bad decisions on James’s part – he is now Master of the City

And there’s a lot of people, not least of which the global vampire council. And while James would probably be willing to step down, there is no abdicating – just death. Which means, just as all of his friends have stepped back away from him, James finds himself defending his life by defending a title he didn’t ask for.

So Jimmy is now master of the city. And some of this I really like

I like how he walks the moral tightrope. After all, the last book saw Sabrina leave him because she couldn’t tolerate his ruthlessness, she refused to accept his willingness to fight, hurt and even kill people. She thought he had gone to the dark side.

To a degree she’s correct – he is much more ruthless than he was. He does fight and hurt and kill. He leaves a swath of destruction in his wake and it does worry him. He does worry about what he’s become

At the same time he isn’t apologetic because he knows he didn’t kill when he could have and it’s a bit more complicated than just descent into darkness

Especially when we look at his proposed replacement as Master of the city who is very much in favour of killing everyone who challenges him, not acknowledge humans as people and generally willing to leave a pile of bodies in his wake. Jimmy gives second chances, Jimmy enforces his rules and is even a strict, iron fisted ruler – but without killing and, if he can, without violence. Jimmy is certainly not a good guy in this book, but he’s way better than the alternative. This moral quandary is one of the best parts of the book

In the Still of the Knight (Black Knight Chronicles #5) by John G Hartness

It seemed like another series of supernatural murders to investigate – young people aged and left for dead. Definitely a job for Greg, James and Sabrina.

But they stumble on to a major secret under the city – and James’s life is suddenly riven by dangerous, tragic and difficult conflicts. How far will he go for what is right? Who will he save, and what will he pay to save or avenge?

There’s no easy choices and maybe no good choices.

This book took the series to a decidedly dark place. This series has always had excellent action, a whole lot of zany fun and a very wide world setting – but it has generally been light, fun, jokey. Even when it did try to go dark, it never went that dark, at least not for long. Whackiness normally ensues and overwhelms

This book takes the whole series into a very new direction. I think of this book as the one where James has to grow up – where he faces a lot of conflicts that cannot be easily overcome – not just because there are bad guys to face, but because the conflicts are not just against bad guys you can stab or beat up until they give up. The conflicts are between James and his friends.

Between James and Abbie, James and Greg and even James and Sabrina we have a lot of heartbreaking conflict. Storywise, this drives James to the very edge and pushes him further than I ever expected him to go and puts him in a very different place at the end of the book. He’s harder, stronger and never more powerful – but also never more alone.

The conflicts with his friends and loved ones are especially good because they are difficult to unravel. In each case even when someone is wrong (such as Greg, who is very very wrong about wanting to turn someone into vampire against their will), their anger still comes from a very real place. Yes Greg is wrong, but his emotion, his rage is understandable and, in turn, that makes it all the harder for me to see how the relationship can be bridged

Paint it Black (Black Knight Chronicles #4) by John G Hartness

People are going missing and have been for some time – seemingly without a trace until some jawbones were found. But they’re too old – they definitely match the victims but are years older than they should be.

Woo-woo is afoot and between the changing age of the bones and troll involvement, all clues point to fairy land, and the dangerous and alien goblin market. Clearly careful, subtle investigation is needed.

Such a shame that James and Greg don’t do subtle or careful.

I liked this book. It was fun. It had some hilarious moments, it had some pretty exciting moments. It had action and adventure and weirdness writ large. The story was fun, it covered a huge swath of the world, it brought up some interesting points about the relationship between the worlds and gave the characters some room to grow. It had a lot of good there

And it had a lot of, well, basically a whacky romp through fairy land. The guys (backed up to a lesser extent by the supporting cast) rampage their way through “investigation” which involves breaking things and hitting things until answers fall on them or people given them answers just to make them go away and stop causing trouble. This is a form of “investigation” that annoys me so much in Urban Fantasy and I was getting a little irritated with it here – except it was blatantly lamp shaded. James openly admits that his plan is basically to hit things and hope he finds answers doing it and it is presented as exactly as silly as it sounds. And it doesn’t work. Oh they make some progress but at nearly every step of the way of their “let’s rampage and get answers” they run into something bigger, stronger or smarter than them that is less inclined to tolerate their nonsense. The greatest challenge of the book is fought through the mind and not with vampire might. Sabrina is there to provide sense and rescue and they rely heavily on the patronage of the fairy queen they earned in the past to dig themselves out of the foolish hole they’ve dug

They do get answers, some of those answers do come from their whacky and ill advised rampage. But that rampage is always very clear as being ill advised. Especially compared to the very efficient investigation they perform later (though I do think that Greg’s computer skills are morphing into a slightly ridiculous Deus Ex).

The problem is that a large part of the book is a rampage through fairy land (and I’m not a fan of fairy land in this series anyway, it feels like an excuse for the author to just throw every random thing into the story). It wasn’t a bad storyline, but it also didn’t add a whole lot of anything and didn’t exactly thrill me.

Black Magic Woman (Black Knight Chronicles #3.5) by John G Hartness

Sabrina, Gregg and James go to a comic convention – only Gregg is there by choice but they both lost bets. Damn cheating vampire.

But a vampire can’t even rustle up comics back issues without running into a supernatural nasty to take out. And that doesn’t include the guys follow Sabrina around in her short shorts.

In many ways I think this novella is a lot like Movie Knight. It has a good introduction to the characters, a sense of the weird and the wonderful things they face, a good idea of how everyone interacts, how they think, their tones and natures as well as a decent exploration of the world.

Like Movie Knight, it also presents an opening to some of the more weird and unusual things James and Greg face above and beyond the normal. A quick little adventure so that those who have already read the series still have something of interest to see and be interested in; while at the same time not being so different and new as to leave completely new readers floundering and unable to keep up

It strikes the right balance between having enough story there to be interesting to people who are already reading the series while still providing a nice introduction to people who are thinking about checking the series out. It would be, like Movie Knight, a great anthology novel, introducing new readers to the series who have never come across it before.

And yes, the world building and information continues to hit that balance between filling in all the gaps necessary for a new reader to keep up while, at the same time, not completely inundating an old reader with stuff we already know. That takes some real skill.

It’s also kind of gloriously fun to have vampires at a geeky comic convention.

Unfortunately, this book also show cases some of the problems that the series has as well. Like Gregg being a fat vampire – which is nicely rare and I love that he’s included, but I’m less thrilled with it being something constantly referenced – especially when he wears spandex. It’s a short book and there are an awful lot of cracks about his weight within it.

And then there’s Sabrina. I’ve said before how much I love Sabrina and James’s relationship, I like how its developed, I like how its flirted close to several tropes but never quite gone over the edge. There’s a lot to like here. What I don’t like is that James has a severe case of Dresden Goggles. It’s rare for him to meet a woman without assessing her sexual attractiveness and that then becoming a major element of his description and interaction with her.  In this novella we have both Sabrina cosplaying as Lara Croft with the inevitable mass appreciation of her skimpy outfit and we have a big bad of a super-seductive beautiful woman who enthrals men to make them do her bidding

Knight Moves (Black Knight Chronicles #3) by John G Hartness

James and Greg are called for a rather worrying murder – a body drained of blood and ready to wake up again as a vampire. Yes, they’re not the only vampires in town any more.

Far from it, they suddenly find themselves surrounded by vampires – a whole pack of bloodsuckers who have passed under their radar. Or, perhaps more accurately, James and Greg have passed under their radar.

They’ve been noticed now – and not only do they have a baby vampire to look after, but James’s creator is in town. Throw in a pack of college vampires preying indiscriminately and an old vampire who claims to be the boss of all vampires in the city and there’s a lot to handle and a lot to learn

Even before the werewolf vampire hunter shows up

Greg and James’ experience as vampires is interesting and grows complex in this book. I have previously said that I loved how we had 2 vampires who genuinely enjoyed being vampires. In this that changes a lot – while James still very much revels in being a vampire, he clearly still holds a severe grudge against the vampire that sired him. This is as much from the way he was sired as anything else. But Greg goes beyond that – he doesn’t like being a vampire, and part of that is linked to his weight, as a fat man who can now never lose weight, he resents being a vampire, but part of it is linked to the old cliché – he won’t be able to grow old and have kids. I have to say I don’t like the meme, it’s been done too often and there’s rarely enough justification for why people should hate being supernatural immortals so much. In this case we have more because of the way they were sired as well as watching their childhood friend grow old and develop cancer it probably brings it home much more powerfully. So, it’s a more reasoned depiction of the whole “woe is me I’m a vampire” and they certainly don’t spend pages whining about it, but I can’t help but be sad that they’ve reversed something in the series I loved so much.

But this also partially reflects their conflicting attitudes towards what it takes to be a vampire. Greg is ferociously dedicated to drinking blood only from blood bags and hates that James continues to bite people and teach the new vampire Abby how to hunt. They even have an outright argument about it when James finally snaps in the face of Greg’s judgement and reluctance because Sabrina is in trouble and it’s time for Greg to act like the apex predator he is. In some ways it’s reminiscent of the whole Musty Vampire vs Evil Fun Vampire trope we see a lot – but by making them friends and the differences not so extreme it adds a lot of new angles to an old idea.

I really quite like how Greg and James were introduced to the greater vampire community and authority. It’s interesting because, again, it’s so very different from what we’re used to. So often the local vampire authorities are extremely powerful and not to be messed with – they serve as a deus ex machinae, a limit on character actions. But Greg and James, because of their contact with Sabrina (and I also like that killing a human detective isn’t seen as something that can be done in a casual or offhand manner, even for a vampire) and the fae in previous books, they’re too much a wildcard to be so dismissed. It strikes an excellent balance between having a vastly older more powerful vampire to be respected, yet not having to grovel – it, again, flies in the face of many tropes and not just because the protagonist is cocky and spunky and refuses to grovel when they should. I like that the master of the city is clearly powerful through machinations and plotting not just age and power – and the plotting is rather nicely displayed.

I do like the dynamic and the relationship growing between Sabrina and James. They have finally taken the step into becoming an official couple. I love their declarations of affection for each other which are wonderfully well written, passionate and heartfelt without being soppy and ridiculous. I love their couple dynamic, I love how they interact. I love how James respects Sabrina’s strength and capability and values her and wants to save her without wanting to stuff her in a box to be kept safe.

I do not like that she needs to be rescued. Again. This is becoming an annoying habit that this supremely strong, confident, capable woman is repeatedly imperilled and needs rescuing by a man. It’s an old trope and it feels like some kind of requirement for strong female characters – they need to be kidnapped and rescued as some kind of reassertion of femininity. Like, yes she’s strong, yes she’s capable even yes she’s dangerous – but under it all she’s still a damsel. Especially since James’s “sister” Abby is also put in a situation where James rescues her. It’s a mixed bag – because Sabrina is powerful and dangerous and Abby can definitely kick arse. Sabrina openly challenges any sexism towards her and the brief jealousy between Sabrina and Abby over James is quickly shelved. But in some ways it seems even worse to set these two characters up as capable, powerful, strong, dangerous fighters and STILL have them kidnapped in need of rescue – which is hardly the first time, Sabrina’s getting her card stamped so many times she may get her 10^th rescue free voucher.

I did like that, though Lillith was a bit part, there was far more respect for her power – even acknowledging her as The power in the city. And I liked the summation of her history – albeit highly simplistic, it emphasised that she was damned because she demanded equality – that she expected to be treated as an equal.

We have some background POC but not much more as far as racial inclusion. One thing that is interesting is that this book is set in the south and James openly challenges some really racist attitudes in his own family. That isn’t to say that all southern USA-ians are racist, of course not – bu this is interesting for the genre. The southern US states – and confederate vampires both – are far from uncommon in the genre. And there’s a lot of romanticism going on and a whole lot of whitewashing goes with it – so it’s quite refreshing to have an unvarnished, not going to look away from it condemnation of the romantic, racist attitudes.

Movie Knight (Black Knight 2.5) by John G Hartness

 

 

This short story is really really short – and includes an excerpt from the first book as well. I admit, it was short enough that I almost had a little tantrum about it – but then I double checked how much I actually paid for it and put the tantrum aside – it’s also very very very very very very cheap. 

And it’s perfect for what it is – little introduction to the first book included. If you have not read the Black Knight Chronicles (and it is a series I recommend) then this story gives you a perfect taster. It would work really well in an anthology of other short stories to bring in readers – but as a cheap little introduction it’s also ideal for people to dip their toes in

Of course, the problem from that is that my review is also really really short. This is painful for someone as long winded as me.

It does everything an introduction should do. You get to meet the three main characters getting a basic sense of who they are, what they do and how they interact with each other. In a few short scenes we really get the feel of James’s voice, his hopes towards Sabrina and his deep friendship with Greg and his wryly amused, self-aware look at the world.

You also get some neat exploration of the world – the various creatures are hinted at, some of their contacts are touched on without taking up an undue amount of space or time. You can see how they generally move through the world, deal with whatever comes their way

It also gives a great sense of tone, humour and writing. It’s almost exactly like one of the full books in miniature giving you a great taster of what the main storyline is really like.

For people who have read the original books, I won’t say it adds anything in particular. It doesn’t advance any storylines, it doesn’t bring any new revelations. It does add, perhaps, a few more angles in some cases but, at the same time, it has a rather dodgy continuity error which was rather annoying (James was surprised by a revelation that he already knew about in a previous book).

But it is a fun little adventure, in a style I love and if you liked the other books in the series it’s a fun diversion.

Back in Black (Black Knight Chronicles #2) by John G Hartness

 James and Greg have been called in by Sabrina for another case – gay men across the city are being brutally beaten and left for dead. One of them Sabrina’s own cousin and something supernatural is implicated.

But as they investigate, the story opens up a whole new development – they’re not dealing with men being attacked. They’re dealing with fairies (yeah, I’ve tried re-writing that about a dozen times and there’s absolutely no way to say it without making the implications glaring) and it’s an investigation that takes them to the realm of faerie itself.

Where they learn just how little they know not only about fairyland (and the dragon, fae and other beings within) but also about what it truly means to be a vampire. They have a lot more to learn

And they have trolls to fight – with swords, illegal gambling rings to break up and an angry Lilith to placate.

This is rapidly shaping up to be one of those series I gleefully like even though I can’t 100% say why. It’s not complex or deep- or full of nuance, but it’s fun fun fun. Did I mention fun? Because it’s fun. It has a lot of humour and a lot of irreverence and no-one taqkes themselves too seriously even when handling very serious matters. The characters bounce off each other extremely well, have some very good friendships that feels believable and they live.

I think that’s part of what makes this series so fun for me is that James and Greg, in their geekiness, with their hobbies, with their often fumbling ineptitude and general flailing around as vampires  feel like real people. Flawed, natural people. And, like in the first book, they’re also a wonderful example of vampires that aren’t MUAHAHAHA evil or moping, angsting and hating themselves. They’re not even the borderline-evil-oh-so-dangerous-but-oh-so-sexy vampire on the path to redemption. They can be sad – and Greg even has realistic, difficult struggles with his hunger and a major set back on having to feed from a human is a really good, well done example of that. But that’s it, they’re sad and troubled – they’re not being epicly tortured or screaming poetry at the moon.

That realism also follows in their work as detectives and with Sabrina. We actually have a cop who DOESN’T carry a set of lock picks and considers breaking an entering to be an actual crime that law enforcement should avoid! This makes her almost unique in detective fiction. There’s a lot of nitty gritty and unpleasantness unglossed over – like the fact if you die your pet cat will probably eat your face.

The world building has greatly expanded in this book and here I think there is a problem – and this is a problem that bleeds over into the story. This is the second book in the series and so far we have been treated to demons, immortal succubi, fallen angels, vampires, witches, fae of various kinds, demons and now entire faerie realms. I’m left feeling this is too much – this series is too young and not established enough to not just HAVE all these different creatures, but have stories that integrally include them. I think we could have used a book or even 2 of more mundane topics and more gradual introduction.

The world building itself was well done – and it melded nicely with the pacing of the book and generally wasn’t a problem. But I do think the journey to fairy land was a bit non-sequiter-ish, even with the fae being a topic it felt jarring and rather alien to the story, possibly intentionally. And when we reached the fairy elements, the detective elements just fell apart, it completely changed the tone of the book and not only removed the detective elements, but rendered their detective investigation somewhat moot. Which is a shame, because it’s one of the strengths of this book –not going to the fairy queen, accepting  a quest so she will hand over the answers, but tracking down clues and leads and good old mundane (but vampire enhanced) detective work. It became less a detective book and more an action novel.

Hard Day's Knight (Black Knight Chronciles #1) by John G. Hartness

 James Knight is a private detective and, more, he and his friend Greg are vampires.

And they do not sparkle. Nor do they tragically lament their lack of humanity or woefully decry their fate as the undead. They’re not super hot either. But they do play X-box and read comics.

They’re also pretty good at this private detective thing, especially with their vampire skills. And they still have their conscience. So when a kid needs help to protect him from a powerful witch who is going to kill him and his whole family, they feel compelled to help, even though they don’t like him very much.

But they’re bite into something far larger – with a whole string of kids going missing, a suspicious police officer who wants to know why they’re involved, a Fallen Angel telling them to back off because they’re meddling with things they can’t control and a terrifying force possessing kids that can melt a silver crucifix.

With children in the firing line, they can hardly back down no matter how far above their heads it is.

I can’t entirely say why, but I love these characters. I love that they’re a little childish, even with 50 years under their belts. I love that they’re comic nerds, I love that we have vampires – actual vampires – playing X-boxes and keeping up actual mortal hobbies. Yes, we have vampires who don’t spend their free time staring morosely into space, they actually have lives and a job (albeit the usual “private detective” job) they have fun and they have friends. And even the job is done with a sense of it actually being a job. The research they do is described and makes sense, when disguising themselves in the hospital he chooses to go in as a janitor because disguising yourself as someone with medical knowledge is a bad idea. There’s a level of common sense and even realness there that you don’t often get, especially since “private detective” has too often become short hand for “loose cannon with a big gun”.

And I like that they actually like being vampires and consider this a norm al state for a vampire. They have no angst, they don’t kill people (though Greg guilts James about feeding on people). They don’t act like not being able to see the Sun again is a tragic agony on par to never being able to drink coffee again (a fate that would have me lamenting my undead status, I can assure you). I love that they’re not 150 years old of suaveness, I love that they still consider themselves pretty new at the whole vampire thing and checklist what powers they have and haven’t

And I love that they quietly mock these vampire tropes, that they point out they don’t sparkle and poke fun at the super sad tragic poetry they’re supposed to write.

Without upsetting many of the traditional legends (they’re weakened by silver, can’t go in uninvited, can’t abide sunlight), they still manage to subvert so much of what vampirism has become in popular fiction just by dumping the maudlin tragedy. They’re not sad, they’re not tortured and they’re not unbelievably-zomg-hawt, they’re not mysterious and they’re not constantly tortured by hunger. It makes it new, it makes it fresh and above all, it makes it fun.