White Trash Zombie Unchained (White Trash Zombie #6) by Diana Rowland

Last book Angel, literally, fell apart. It’s a zombie problem.

She’s back together now - but there’s another zombie problem: Shamblers. Mindless, hungry, aggressive… and contagious. Suddenly all of those fantastical images of a zombie apocalypse seem very real. And no matter what the outcome, it won’t end well for the zombies of the Tribe

The Tribe is willing to go to extreme levels to find a cure as soon as possible, even work with sworn enemies like Christy Charish. As more and more of their human loved ones are at risk, time is running out and Angel worries her own past choices may be responsible for the growing body count.

Angel struggles to find a cure, to be taken seriously, to protect the ones she loves even as she resolves their complicated relationship. And she has zombiegators. Which are awesome.

The plot here is a wonderful investigation of a new zombie plague which draws upon… everything

Y’know, while acknowledging that I am an utter fanpoodle here, I have to say how good Diana Rowland is doing this. She takes these wonderful long series, pulls together many themes and events - and then when getting to the later books in the series manages to bring together EVERYTHING - yet at the same time makes it work! She did the same thing with the equally awesome Kara Gillian series. We’re drawing on Angel’s relationship with her father, we have her ex boyfriend and his family and conflict, her relationship with the Tribe, how they survive, the moral quandaries they face, keeping their secret and not going into the dark side, Sabreton’s shenanigans, her job, her love life: all of it is here. And all of it works.

We continue the world building of the Tribe, the conflicts they face deciding how to keep surviving. We have some really excellent explorations of zombie history, the nature of Mature Zombies and their abilities and even a moment where a past assumption/theory is disproved. I really like this because how often is mystical world building presented as solid unquestionable fact? That isn’t how science works, it’s never how science works.

The world building remains solid. The investigation is fun, well paced, full of heavy emotion and with several wrong turns and red herrings capped off with some really excellent twists. The balance of all those world elements is excellently mixed with the plot so the pacing remains good - in fact it works even better because these red herrings and frustrated lack of leads never makes the book feel slow (which can be a problem in investigation books)

And seeing Angel spar with Christy, especially at the end, is excellent. Seeing Angel hold her own is generally always fun

Legacy of the Demon, (Kara Gillian #8) by Diana Rowland

Kara has had her power cut and is isolated away from the demon lords (except one). But she has no time to just sit back without power – her best friend is bereft, her baby is missing

And the world is under siege – there are rifts appearing everywhere, spewing out demons, some of them completely unlike anything Kara has seen before. The world knows about demons – because they’re under constant attack and have very few experts who can actually fight back.

While the demon lords are overwhelmed trying to stop the end of both their worlds.

I actually had trouble getting into this book. Because it’s all there! This book series is now eight books long and it’s all in this book. All of it. Things that happened in all the seven books before this, all that rich world building, all those dramatic events, all of those amazing storylines and characters and world building – it’s ALL THERE

Honestly, I wish, sincerely, that I had the time to start again on book one and appreciate every little part of this amazing story because I think this is really the only way to truly absorb the hugeness of this book. Especially since it has been a year since I last read this excellent series.

This reminds me of just how very rich this world is and how much has grown from the very beginning and is still growing. This book contains so many absolutely amazing developments, revelations which builds so much more on this word. I love that there is more to develop, I love that there is so much more to this world than we have seen and that when we finally thought we had so many answers it actually turns out…

Yes I was always going to use this gif

In any other book I would yell “too much!”. And I’m not even sure why I don’t on this one. There’s so much here. The world building grows exponentially with revelations about the demon world, the nature of potency, the nature of the Demon Lords, the rifts, the demon clans, the history of the demons – that’s all huge world building developments. It’s immense and makes the whole world look so much different and have so much potential for more stories. Then we have Kara’s relationships, Mzatal, her aunt, her own history, her power, her new friends, her old friends. There’s amazing complexity like how she deals with Rhyzkhal.

White Trash Zombie Gone Wild (White Trash Zombie #5) by Diana Rowland

Angel is having problems. She took the zombie drug V12 originally to help her in a mission for the Tribe. Then she kept taking it because it helped with her studies and her dyslexia – and then she kept taking it despite the side effects

It’s a major hurdle to overcome, but she can’t focus on it alone – there’s a threat to expose zombies and the Tribe has its hands full with Sabaton’s plotting.

And there’s murder on her doorstep – which may be related to zombie hunting. It’s a lot to handle and there’s only Angel free to step up.

Have I mentioned how much I love this series? Because I really love this series. More surprisingly, I love this series for different reasons to why I love Diana Rowland’s Kara Gillian series (though both series are in my top 10 list). I love Kara Gillian because I love the world, I love the setting, I love the awesome, epic plots – I’m not saying I don’t love Kara as well, but the world and plot is amazing. While the White Trash Zombie Series I love primarily because of Angel – again, not that the world or plots are lacking, far from it. But Angel is such an excellent character and this book just continues Angel’s story

I think the first thing to emphasise about Angel is that she isn’t super. She’s a zombie, but no more powerful than the average zombie. She’s not stupid, but hardly super intelligent either. She’s physically capable but doesn’t have super strength or move in a blur of speed. She can handle herself, but don’t expect her to pull our ninja moves or shoot with deadly accuracy over vast distances.

Yet, despite that (or because of that), she is one of the strongest characters I’ve come across who has accomplished more and overcome more than most I’ve read. The very lack of epicness about her underscores just how awesome our White Trash Zombie is.

At the end of the last book I predicted Angel was going to have some problems with the zombie pharmaceuticals the Tribe is now producing – more, that she should have problems with them. She managed to overcome drug addiction when she became a zombie simply because she became a zombie – and with that became immune to the drugs she used to take, forcing her to quit. Now there are zombie pharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals she uses, which are helpful and useful to her – and are addictive

Vengeance of the Demon (Kara Gillian #7) by Diana Rowland

The demon world is in chaos, too many lords out of action is causing more and more anomalies, more and more disasters to rent the world apart. Katashi, master summoner, perhaps even their leader is making things worse with his hasty manipulation of the nodes to create a permanent gateway from Earth to the Demon Realm. It isn’t going well

On top of that Kara is suspected for murder, Jill is pregnant and no-one knows what demon lord Szerein is up to…

I almost forgot how huge this world, series and plot lines are. It’s only after so long – so very very long – between books that I realise how much there is and how much I have to remember and re-immerse myself in

And it was so much fun doing so. The world is so intricate with the demons, the demon worlds and all the magical forces that the demons and Kara and her friends have to juggle and balance to try and stop it all falling apart. It’s all so extremely complex yet wonderfully original as well. It’s just all so different from everything else I’ve seen before which alone makes it worth reading over and over.

This book just adds further complexity and levels and interesting mystery to the wonderful depth we already have. The development of the demankh, these shadowy demon advisors to the demon lords is a wonderful mystery I can’t wait to delve into. What exactly is going on with Szerain now he is free from his disguise as Ryan is another one I am dying for more info from. And Jill’s child – the implications of it and what Kara thinks she now knows about the demankh and demon lords is another vast storyline to explore with all kinds of implications and possibilities with so many of the other characters.

Even though there’s less of Jill and Kara (who are awesome together and there always need to be more), there’s a lot of excellent character interactions in this book which does a great job of allowing the characters to be unreasonable, broken, irrational and even arseholes without any of it being annoying. Because they can bounce off each other they can be imperfect, emotional, hurting people struggling and acting out and it still works because there’s always someone there to talk to them, help them work it through and set them back or sit them down. Idris can lash out in rage and pain over his sister’s murder – but he will reach a point where Kara or Bryce or Pellini will turn round and draw a line. Kara will wallow in guilt or grief until one of the others shakes her out of it. They can be irrational emotional beings without it consuming their characters or derailing the plot because they’re also balanced by both themselves and by each other

How the White Trash Zombie Got Her Groove Back (White Trash Zombie #4) by Diana Rowland

Angel’s life seems to be heading in a good direction – she has her GED, she’s even considering college courses. She’s doing well at her job and is growing in confidence as she realises how much she now knows. She has some relationship issues to get through with Marcus, but things are working out

Until Pietro, the leader of the zombie “Tribe” is kidnapped. And there’s evidence of a traitor in the organisation. They have to get him back, but how much of the Tribe’s membership can they really rely on? Who can she actually trust?

She was just getting her normal life sorted out, covert operative wasn’t in the job description.

I like this plot – it certainly follows some concepts I’ve seen before: evil corporation kidnaps some good guys and some more goodguys swoop in to the rescue, with lots of travel, sleuthing and then some kick arse action. But, then, you take most plots down to their basic elements you come to an old structure. What counts is what you do with it – and this does it well

The pacing is great – there’s no big down time, there’s no massive floppiness from frustrated red herrings (there are false leads but they are handled well with enough action to keep the story moving). The world has its wonderful originality with the zombies, their organisation, characters who Angels doesn’t always get on with but she’s seeing them with more nuance. We have a really interesting world and concept with these zombies which continues to grow and develop with new information and background adding to some of the major characters and the very nature of zombiedom.

I also quite like the antagonists – not only do they bring a lot of complexity with Naomi, since they are her family (with some really wonderful scenes where she tries to connect and some harsh realities and all kinds of emotional conflict) but they’re also interestingly powerful; not overwhelmingly unstoppable, but still dangerous enough to be a very difficult challenge. It’s interesting to see the “evil corporation” route that doesn’t involve some vast, shadowy multinational conglomerate; instead an actual family run business. It adds more motives to the antagonists (emotional connection) and makes the maintained secrecy more conceivable.

I have to say, though it kills me to, that I had some trouble getting into this book. There were a lot of characters coming back, not all of them I recognised or remembered (clearly this is because these books aren’t released close enough together – I hint most subtly). So much has happened in the White Trash Zombieverse even if it is only four books in – there’s been a lot of events and characters. I was a little swamped as characters seemed to be coming out of the woodwork. But it quickly evened out, a lot of characters fell into the background and I could focus more – I was still a little lost with the importance of some of them (was I supposed to remember Brian? I didn’t remember Brian. Apparently Brian is a big deal. Sorry Brian.)

What really makes this book, though, are the characters

Fury of the Demon (Kara Gillian Series #6) by Diana Rowland

Kara and Mzatal are desperate to find Idris before the coalition of Lords holding him use him for whatever nefarious plans they have. After months of training in the demon world, she has to follow the trail to Earth, reconnecting with all her old friends – and dealing with the changes they’ve made in her absence

But retrieving Idris is far from simple, even with a demon lord as powerful as Mzatal – great power means little if there are innocents in the cross fire, and less when you don’t even know what sinister forces you’re opposing. Even more complicated, Ryan’s cover for the exiled demon lord Szerain is cracking and Zack, one of Kara’s greatest friends, is torn with his loyalty to Rhyzkahl, Kara’s greatest enemy; can she even trust him any more? And what about his relationship with her best friend, Jill?

And under it all, Rhyzkahl and his fellows are still determined to have Kara.

I could see the disaster racing towards me and, like all the best horror movies, I just couldn’t stop it. It seemed simple, just a little reading before going to bed.

At 2:00am I was still reading. I knew I should put it down and go to sleep, that would be sensible.

At 3:00am I was still reading. Things were getting dire, all common sense dictated I should put the book down… just one more chapter.

At 4:00am I had actually tried to go to sleep 3 times but each time I made some easy excuse to read just one more page

I was saved at 6:00am, when the book ended. Though I did have 10 minutes of shocked disappointment that it did end. Who said it could end?

There, it’s awesome – go buy it.

What you want more detail? Fine. Let’s start with a quasi, almost, sorta criticism. This book actually starts fairly slowly – so slowly that, for a brief, terrible moment, I suspected this may not be as toweringly awesome as the previous books in the series. But there is a reason for that slowness – there’s a lot of recapping and reminders, telling us who everyone is, the demons, the world, the various magics and the many events that have come together to get to this point. It’s a problem that can hit any book series once it gets past book 5 and especially for a series where we have moved and changed so much since the first book. Normally I’d say just to not bother, recapping 5 books worth of content in a few chapters never works – but in this case it isn’t even recapping for the sake of recapping – all of this vast amount of information was relevant to the plot in this book. Much as it made for a slow start, I can’t say the recapping was unnecessary.

White Trash Zombie Apocalypse (White Trash Zombie Series #3) by Diana Rowland

Angel continues to get her life together, aiming for her GED, continuing to work at a job she loves and even working on her shaky relationship with Marcus, setting new rules and aiming for a new beginning.

But the experiments on zombies are continuing – and her own creations come back to haunt her, whether she wants to be a zombie-mama or not. Whatever her misgivings about Pietro, she has little choice but to work with him, but in doing so she learns more about him and his organisation and reassesses how much she can trust him and how much she can forgive.

And then even mother nature conspires to make life more difficult and a real life zombie horde, just like in the movies (well, almost).

This is a story about Angel. There are a lot of other things going on, a lot of other things she’s involved in, but ultimately this isn’t a story about them. This is about Angel, her life, her friends, her family, her relationships. This is about how she fits into things, how she gets involved in things and how she lives. It’s an extremely character driven story.

That isn’t to say there isn’t a lot happening – a lot of really deep and fascinating things in this incredibly interesting world. Pietro continues to run his organisation that Angel dubs the “zombie mafia” and their competing experiments from a rival company and there’s all kinds of nuance and implications from that

But we don’t centre on all of this – we centre on Angel, how this affects her, how it puts demands on her and how she fits within these zombie organisations. After the events of the last book, Angel’s definitely very much involved even without her relationship with Marcus; but a disaster at her house is as important to her as Pietro’s plots and machinations because this is a book about Angel.

In terms of writing style, it’s perfect, it hits the sweet spot. We have enough description without being inundated by it, we have excellent pacing without being overwhelmed, all the elements in Angel’s life are covered in a well balanced fashion without her ignoring things you’d think she’d pay attention to. We get enough of Angel’s voice and thoughts to keep her centred and see her grow, without so much as to turn it into one long Angel monologue of angst and fee-fees. It’s balanced and paced well.

I love Angel as a character – she is so complex and she has grown so incredibly since the first book. But her growth itself has been so natural and has left its marks on her – because she has grown, she hasn’t just magically transformed. So she’s a character who is still assailed by doubts and low self-esteem – there are times when she looks around and can’t believe the company she keeps, that she’s too much of a nobody who can’t possibly be around these people. Or she thinks she can’t possibly do something – like pass her GED – because she has such a record and expectation of failure behind her. At the same time she’s a character who genuinely loves it and is almost surprised when anyone praises her skills, her intelligence and her competence because she appreciates the validation after a life with so little. And because she sees her own growth and likes to see it recognised in others. Angel has her insecurities but she recognises where and how she has grown. She knows she’s achieved a lot, she knows her growth is impressive and she is justly proud of that – and that’s so wonderful to see, a protagonist who is legitimately proud of who they are and what they’ve achieved and not for some grand, universe-saving act, but because she has turned her life around from where it was.

Fangs for the Fantasy Episode 99

Welcome back after the New Year! Hope it was a good one for everyone.

This week we have the return of Lost Girl and all of its many issues. We also look at the Walking Dead computer game. We also discuss Fringe.

Our book of the week is the extremely awesome Touch of the Demon by Diana Rowland that we love in all its glory

Our next few books of the week are:

7/1/-14/1/2013: The Awakening by LJ Smith

14/1-21/1/2013: Grave Memory by Kalayna Price

21/1-28/1: Ever After by Kim Harrison

28/1-4/2: Magnificent Devices by Shelly Adina

Review: Touch of the Demon by Diana Rowland, Book 5 of the Kara Gillian Series

 It was awesome, go buy it.

Why are you still here? Go go now! Go buy and read it?

Have you read it yet? Then what are you doing here? Get reading! Never mind sleep, read, people, read. What, you haven’t read the previous books? Go read them too!

Ok, now I’m assuming you’ve read it, you’re allowed a brief diversion before reading it a second time.

I can’t even begin to recap this – so much happens and to truly grasp it I’d have to spoil which would be a crime. Kara enters the demon world, finds out so much she knew was wrong, discovers a whole new reality, discovers so much more about her magic – and a lot more about the Lords, who she can trust and who she can’t.  There are many twists in that, some awesome world building, a great plot and some excellent characters.

There was so much to love here. Kara is plunged into the demon world where everything is so different yet so similar to Earth. The lands and settings are described beautifully, enough information to get a true sense of the place while at the same time not drowning us in unnecessary detail or pages and pages of over the top description. I just loved the setting here and how it, in turn helped describe the demons, the different forms, their lives, the way they behave (like the demon snowball fight – which was awesome) without needing to create Wikipedia articles about each kind. We got all the information about them and them much more filled out by these events and daily behaviour than ever we could through dry lectures.

And info dumping was always going to be a risk here. Kara arrives on this brand new world, she’s surrounded by every kind of demon and she discovers that a lot of what she (and other demon summoners) thought they knew about the demons and the demon world was laughably wrong (I loved that as well, how her old knowledge wasn’t infallible). Then we’ve got to learn about the 11 demon lords, what actually happened to Szerin, the past cataclysm that nearly destroyed the world, the blades, this alien force, the groves not to mention Kara studying bran new forms of summoning and using symbols.

There was a lot of information there and none of it was dumped. Of course some was lectured in a teaching situation but it was all really well balanced. The pacing was excellent, events prevented us having long screeds of info. When Kara is traumatised it is presented respectfully without Kara getting over it over night and without endlessly melodramatic pages of angst and navel gazing – and she has ongoing issues, especially about trust and her appearance, that stem from that. It’s a very natural, very real presentation of her as a survivor and, again, is balanced perfectly with the plot and the world building and the exploration to prevent us having pages and pages of repetition or dry exposition that just drags. Kara doesn’t trust people around her, for obvious reasons, but it never reaches a point of foolishness or the whole plot scuppering over Kara failing to see the obvious out of sheer mistrust – even though it takes a long time to ever gain her full trust. Again, an excellent and real balance.

Fangs for the Fantasy Episode 75

This week we discuss our usual TV programmes, True Blood, Continuum and Teen Wolf. We discuss the effects of marginalised writers on TV programmes as well as the limits and controls they work under and how a marginalised writer is not a panacea for a problematic series or portrayal. We also discuss the “matriarchy” on Teen Wolf and our problem with being on the sides of the enemies in so many of our programmes. And our book of the week: Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues by Diana Rowland

9/7-16/7: Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon Hunting Soccer Mom by Julie Kenner 16/7-23/7: Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor  
23/7-30/7: Grave Witch by Kalayna Price

23/7-30/7: God Save the Queen by Kate Locke

Review: Even White Trash Zombies Get The Blues, by Diana Rowland, Book 2 of the White Trash Zombie Series

Angel is settling into her life as a zombie now, working in the morgue, eating her brains and dating her fellow zombie, Marcus. They’re a little wary from the threat of zombie hunters after the deaths in the last book and she’s still working to get her dad sorted out, but on the whole things are looking good.

But then things get more complicated – a body appears that makes no sense at all to the police – and is connected not only to the zombies but also to the zombies that were murdered by Ed the zombie-hunter in the last book. Worse, the body is stolen at gunpoint from Angel and no-one believes her story – finding it easier to blame her, with her criminal record than to actually listen to her. Her job and her easy access to brains are under threat – and the clue trail points towards experiments and projects funded by zombies and possible conflict between them.

As if that weren’t enough, her parole officer reminds her that she needs to get her GED or she’ll violate her parole, which just highlights her lack of education and the massive class gulf between her and Marcus who is studying for his Masters. To make matters worse, his friends and his uncle, an old and powerful zombie, are all vastly more educated and more wealthy than she and they look down on her from the vantage point of their extravagant mansions.

And all of this is before they find they’ve stumbled into zombie politics and insidious conspiracies at the highest possible levels…

The plot and the mystery was complex and pretty well done. I did get close to lost a few times because of the weight of different people, different themes and different edges of the same platform. But part of that is because the mystery was held really well through most of the book and while I’m confused, so too is Angel. I honestly didn’t see the ending coming, not even close to it – there were multiple hints and, yes, in hindsight, clues that could have lead me there (I should have known to be alert for all the clever hints reading a Diana Rowland book! Where’s my flipchart?) but I was completely surprised when it all came together. There were plenty of twists, what I assumed was going to happened several times, didn’t – and the answers I was oh-so-sure I had were completely wrong.

I actually felt we were dealing with several subplots all running together and through that it was, perhaps, too much, but at the end they all came together into one, solid, interwoven story that also drew in the last book as well. Nothing was simple and nothing was what was assumed – and even when it draws on some very old tropes and very old story elements, it still surprised me because the journey to them was so unique.

Face Off: Which Book do you Want to See Turn to TV?

As anyone visiting our site knows, we have read a lot of Urban Fantasy. A lot of those books go on to be made into a films or, even better, TV series - which we always run to check out. And, we have to say, we’re often disappointed, upset and even bemused by the choices made. After watching an entire season of Secret Circle, the only good thing I can say about it is that at least it wasn’t repeated for another season. Having attempted to read the books, I can’t imagine anyone expecting better. Another CW creation is The Vampire Diaries. Now, we have spoken at length about the problems of The Vampire Diaries and we’re not exactly looking forward to it coming back, but, having read the books I have to applaud CW. Yes, I applaud them - because the series is monumentally better than those books.

Even True Blood, which we enjoy, was hardly based on our favourite series. Of course, maybe we should be grateful as some books I have enjoyed - the Dresden Files and Blood Ties have been turned into rather mediocre TV series

But now we’re looking at what series we’d really love to see reach the TV screen - if The Vampire Diaries and Twilight were worthy of TV and film adaptation, then surely some of our favourites deserve a chance!

So, which one of these do you think should make it to the screen? Or do you have your own suggestion?



Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles.

From the moment I picked up Hounded I was absolutely hooked on this series.   Atticus O’Sullivan is a 2000+ year old druid, who draws his power directly from the earth, and lives with his Irish wolfhound Oberon.  Atticus bound his mind to his wolfhound which allows Oberon to speak intelligently. I have to tell you right now, Oberon is one of the best charcters in Urban fantasy, and I would dearly love it if Hearne would write lines for my dog.  Atticus move from adventure to adventure battling various mythical pantheons.  With various Gods always wanting to kill him, the world’s last remaining Druid must be quick on his feet. The absolutely best exchange of the series happened Hammered the third book in the series, when Atticus meets Jesus Christ.

Jesus appears wearing a tie dyed T-shirt in predominantly reds, yellows, and greens, with a white peace sign screen-printed on the front of it.  He also wore a pair of relaxed fit blue jeans and classically black Chuck Taylors. Hearne even went as far as to suggest that "Jesus looked like the guy from the Old Spice bodywash commercials".  I dare you to tell me one single place that you can find Jesus described in this way?  What ensues is an irreverent exchange, with Jesus providing fish and chips to a crowded bar, explaining that "miracles are so much more fun when people are expecting them of you," while pounding back 60 year old whiskey. I laughed until my tears poured from my eyes.

Interview with Diana Rowland!

Today we have a very special podcast - an interview with Diana Rowland! One of the authors we love to fanpoodle and author of:

My life as a White Trash Zombie

And the Kara Gillian Series:
Mark of the Demon
Blood of the Demon
Secrets of the Demon
Sins of the Demon

All of which we've loved :) Let the fanpoodling commence