Blood in Her Veins (Jane Yellowrock short stories) by Faith Hunter

This is a book of short stories from the Jane Yellowrock world - and it is huge. It may be a collection of all the short stories that there’s ever been in this series.

And it is excellent. It’s excellent because Faith Hunter is very very good at her short stories - the majority of them add something compelling to the main series. They add a little something to Jane’s past, to her relationships, flash out some elements of various characters’ back stories

I’m not saying they’re all perfect by any means - but the general tone of this whole book is to add a lot of richness and value to the whole series, filling in blanks, adding colour, expanding, adding realness - filling in all those things that would bog down a main book or get in the way or be unnecessary but still have value. That is a perfect use for short stories and compiling them all in one book removes the whole treasure hunt feel you can get trying to find a series’ supporting work.

We Sa and the Lumberking previously appeared in Have Stakes Will Travel developing Jane’s history before the series begins and continuing to keep her Native American ethnicity and experiences centreal

Similarly The Early Years also touches on another of Jane’s early moments, we’ve heard repeatedly that Jane was brought up in a children’s home but we’ve never really seen - Jane’s history in the children’s home and the people she met there and her first awareness of Beast and what Beast was beyond the ignorant attempts to explain that she got from the foster home. At the same time we get some excellent expositions of the flaws of the foster system and, really, how little it actually did to set up Jane for a successful life; not just because she didn’t fit - and Bobby due to his disabilities.

This is continued in Snafu her apprenticeship in security and private investigation, how she gained the skillset she had now, how she grew as a person, as a skinwalker, as a professional and as an adult. These three stories make an excellent arc for Jane’s early years and putting a great foundation of them.

This idea of using short stories to tell us how Jane got to where she is now continues with Kits which lays the foundation for one of the most important relationships in this book: Jane and her best friend and witch Molly. Their friendship, loyalty rough times and high times define so much of this series which means this, their first introduction so important. Especially as it really does explain how two people who are, by necessity, so private, managed to open up and really trust one another. Really, it sets the foundation for how Molly and Jane became not just friends, but family, which adds a realness to their relationship throughout the main series. Haints continues this with more looking at the supernatural world, more looking at how Molly fits into it (and, yes, using her witch skills to try and earn some money, even if dangerously. I like this because while Jane charges huge sums for her work, Molly doesn’t and as a mother of two, the extra cash isn’t just a throwaway resource to her). This also appeared in Have Stakes will Travel along with Signature of Death further cementing this awesome relationship and making them almost required reading for the series. But, I have to say like I did in Have Stakes Will Travel that the sheer amount Jane has reached out to Molly makes me even more disappointed when Molly turns on Jane for a couple of books in the same series. Yes there’s good reason - but these short stories show immense life-saving help Jane has given Molly in the past; I feel Jane deserved better than this. Which, of course, makes me even more happy to see them reconciled in later books

Aftermath, Season One, Episode Five: A Clatter and a Chatter

I think I've finally come to an understanding with Aftermath. Yes, it's the end of times but it's also a situation where they throw whatever shit they can think of at their characters without any rhyme or reason.  We know that all of the mythologies of the world for some reason have decided to run amok, we simply have been offered no explanation as to why and offered up the Copeland family as a unit to identify with and root for.  This is a problem because the Copelands are all white, straight, cisgender and able bodied.  Inclusion has obviously been given a minimum of concern on Aftermath.

So, when last we left the Copelands, they were about to face down some fever heads who had escaped from the base. They make a run for it but quickly come across an ocean that has no business being there, thus blocking off the road. You'll note that we aren't offered even a plausible explanation as to why the ocean is suddenly there.  At any rate, they find themselves surrounded with no method of escape, when who should appear but a masked man on a horse with a grenade launcher no less. Devyn, being hyper religious, goes straight up book of revelations, "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him".  No need to worry for the Copelands because it turns out that the rider is none other than Lamar Boone, a friend of Karen's from the military.  Is it me, or does Karen seem to know every single military person they run into?

Boone and Karen have some history, evidenced by the fact that he calls her, "booty". He even has the nerve to do so in front of her husband and talk about how they used to have a thing.  I'm happy to see Aftermath introduce another person of colour and I hope that since Boon is played by none other than Wayne Brady, they don't plan to kill him off right away. It is however worth noting that the death of Doctor Rawlins preceded the introduction of Boone which very much gives this whole thing a T Dog chain feeling.  At any rate, it seems that Boon was one of those survivalist types and now that the weirdness has hit the fan, all of his pre planning has come in handy.  He's created a safe base and invites the Copelands to meet him there.  When giving directions, Boone actually tells the Copelands to turn right a the bodies strung up from the trees. It seems that Boon has no problem hanging people who cross the line which immediately jumps out as problematic to Joshua. I really hope that this is the center of tension between Boone and Joshua and not some love triangle between Boon, Joshua and Karen. 

Aftermath seems to be the kind of show that just doesn't like to keep it's characters together. Last week, Sally chose to stay behind with Cottrell to help manage the feverheads but with the base over run, the two have no option other than to flee.  They head into the woods and that is when Cottrell finally admits to being ill; however, he has some secret stash of meds in a cabin the woods and hopes to make it there on time to stop the progression of his illness. 

Back to the rest of the Copelands.  They head out to follow Boone's directions but come across a crater in the road blocking their path.  They hop out of the RV to investigate and this is when Karen hears the banshee scream for the first time.  She's the only one who can hear it.  Joshua decides that Karen and Brianna will stay behind with the RV while the others look for a path around the crater.  Matt and Devyn are together when Devyn spies a severed hand, freaks out and declares that he's not meant for this type of thing.  Joshua and Dana briefly separate and Dana is attacked by a Jubokko. Yep, Aftermath is once again mining culture of colour for woo woo.  Joshua and Matt manage to free Dana and they all rush back to the RV.  

They decide that they better get moving but unfortunately the RV won't start.  It turns out that the Jubokko has surrounded the RV and even entered the engine.  Fortunately for the Copelands, this is when Martin and Jane arrive/ Martin and Jane throw salt at the Jubokko, which drives it off.  It seems because of the delay arriving at Alamo (Boone's camp) Boone sent Martin and Jane to find out what was taking the Copelands so long.  Martin immediately gets his flirt on with Dana and she's quite receptive, despite the clear age difference between the two. I know the world is coming apart but neither Joshua or Karen is concerned about a grown as man making the moves on their daughter?

Cottrell and Sally make it to the cabin only to find it ransacked already and all of the medication gone. Cottrell gives Sally a gun and tells her that he is a danger to her now. Sally decides that they can make it out of this and heads outside to see if the feverheads dropped the meds on the ground while they were escaping.  

Aftermath, Season One, Episode Two: In Rats Alley

Holy shit batman dragons....where's khaleesi?  Yeah, I just couldn't resist.

I still don't have a clear understanding of this world.  It seems that solar flares are effecting the globe and this had lead to massive problems.  Society is crumbling because people are becoming infected and then being invaded by what Aftermath calls skinwalkers.  You'll have to correct me if I'm wrong on this but from my understanding, a skinwalker is a witch which has the ability to transform themselves into any animal.  This is far different from how Aftermath is using the term because skinwalkers in this universe are people whose bodies become invaded by demons.  This means that not only is Aftermath guilty of appropriation, they've decided to give a paranormal entity a brand new definition.  It's particularly problematic because thus far, there isn't an aboriginal person on the show, nor is there any other reoccurring character of colour.

One of the big themes this week was disability in a dystopian world.  People living with disabilities are almost uniformly erased in this genre. Sure, we occasionally see people living with PTSD (eg Rick talking to a dead Laurie on the phone on The Walking Dead) but more often than not, things move so quickly, said person never really deals with their PTSD.  Having not been able to meet up with Brianna, the Copeland family decides to join a convey headed towards Seattle.  Vince and Donald Chang are part of the convey.  Things go well at first, with Matt and Donald even bonding over the fact that they played football for opposing teams.  As time passes, Donald begins to act more and more weird but the only one who is concerned about this is Matt.  When Donald dislocates his shoulder, Sally, Karen's sister fixes it for him and the entire family is stunned when Donald doesn't even scream in pain.  Donny should be sending off warning flares to everyone given that they've already been told that the possession manifests as a sickness.

Matt is the only one to act and he ends up chasing Donny through the woods with Karen and Vince fast on his heels.  When Matt finally confronts Donny, a small scuffle breaks out between the two boys and Donny's voice suddenly changes.  With all of the strange behaviour, Donny's voice changing is enough for Matt to decide that Donny is infected and so he shoots him.  Donny simply slumps to the ground and dies. This shocks Matt because he was so sure that Donny was infected.  It's only when Vince reveals that Donny was schizophrenic and ran out of his medicine that all of Donny's strange behaviour makes sense.  Matt is ashamed to have killed someone for no reason and repeats that Vince should have told them.  Karen makes it better for her son by saying that he made a mistake and making him promise to take time to evaluate the situation next time.  Matt however is still worried that waiting might well mean that his family dies because he believes with the changes in the world what is needed is action.  Karen assures Matt that this isn't the case and  he agrees to investigate before acting the next time.

In the end, though Matt does take some blame; however, Aftermath clearly places the blame on Vince for his lack of disclosure regarding Donny's mental illness. There's very good reason for people with mental illness to hide from the general public.  Ableism is a terrible thing to negotiate and it has lead to things like forced sterilizaton, housing and employment discrimination and even death.  Revealing Donny's mental illness is something Vince would rightfully be afraid to do in a world in which the rule of law had broken down and people are desperate.  Even in the best of times, admitting to an invisible disability can mean problems.  Either way you look at this situation disclose or not disclose, it's a dangerous thing to be disabled in the real world, let alone a dystopian world.

All of this neatly ties in with the overarching theme this week: what kind of person are you?  Dystopians don't change people, they make them reveal exactly who they are.  We have Karen, who is arguably the muscle in the family go racing out into the field to stop an attack on a young woman. Then there's Dana, the family genius, doling out the science facts and explaining to both the family and the audience what it means that solar flares are going off.  Aunt Sally is a nurse whose priority is looking after people.  She's more than willing to sacrifice herself if she thinks that it will help someone. Joshua, the patriarch, is still very much an academic and he seems to spend his time suggesting that lore can explain what is going on. Brianna takes after her mother with her never say die attitude and her top priority is her family.  Finally, we come to Matt, who really doesn't have a secure place and is trying to figure out who he is.  On one hand, he greatly resents his sister's intelligence and wants very much to be a person of action like his mother but he is filled with self doubt. Of all the characters, the one I see with the most room to change and grow is Matt.

Aftermath, Season One, Episode One: RVL 6768

This episode opens with Joshua Copeland gathering research materials from the university where he works.  Everyone is in a rush because of a spate of natural disasters.  He grabs what he can and decides to hurry back to his family.  Along the way home, the radio reports disaster after disaster.  Joshua gets back home just in time to hunker down with his family because of an approaching tornado.

The next morning when the Copeland family awakes there are dozens of dead fish on their lawn. This is odd because the fish are supposedly deep swimmers. The local Sheriff makes an appearance to check on the family and to drop off a BOLA from some missing youths.  While there the Sheriff notifies the Copelands of a town that went violently insane causing the members to kill and eat each other.  The Copelands aren't really buying it, even when Brianna pipes up to say that her friend texted her about ghosts in NYC.

Sure enough one of the missing youths show up at the Copeland farm and are invited inside. Things go fine for a little bit until the kid starts getting violent and attacks Karen.  Joshua rushes in from the other room as Karen instructs Matt to go for the bible. You guessed, they have a gun, a loaded one at that hidden in a bible. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.

Matt takes his shot and shoots the kid who collapses as a demon flies out of him. You would think that Joshua would be freaked out that his family was attacked and that he saw a demon fly out of the kid but what he's really concerned about is the fact that they have a gun. 

Karen decides that the shots fired need to be reported and since they have no cell phone service she is going to drive into town and speak to the sheriff.  Karen and Joshua argue briefly about this but it's clear that what Karen says goes when Joshua quickly acquiesces. When Karen arrives at the station she finds it empty except for the jail cells which seemed to be filled with people infected by demons. Karen is grabbed but manages to get away and the process grabs a shot gun.

Have Stakes Will Travel (Jane Yellowrock Short Stories) by Faith Hunter

This is a collection of four short stories largely from the early days of Jane Yellowrock’s history – and it does a great job of filling in a lot of Jane’s history and relationships that were already established before the series began – particularly with Molly

The series pretty much began with Jane and Molly as great friends – especially with Molly providing a lot of magical expertise and support for Jane since Molly is a witch. Now the series has never treated Molly as a servant and help has gone both ways, but it’s still nice to see the foundation of this relationship and what made these two highly secretive, careful women who are very wary of revealing their supernatural nature to others came to share so much together.

Haints the second story in the book does a good job of showing some of the initial overtures – we hear how Jane and Molly first met (with Jane protecting Molly from witch haters) and we see Jane helping Molly deal with a ghostly problem – and getting Molly a good income stream, preventing people taking advantage of her. It also excellently showed off Molly’s power and skill as a witch which I really liked.

This is increased further with Signature of the Death with Jane riding to the rescue of Molly’s family facing down rogue vampires. This is also an event that is frequently referred to throughout the main series, Jane facing down a while nest of vicious rogue vampires and taking them down while being terribly injured in the process. Again we see the foundation of this excellent relationship between the two and the respective strengths of each of them. It’s also a nice expansion of an event

There is one problem with this – while I love reading this story of how Jane and Molly came together, how they fought together and how this put them in such a solid place together by the beginning of the series, it also boggles me that Evan, Molly’s husband, has been so hostile to Jane for so long. Ok there are events later in the series that explain the rift, but given the events in this book my gods the Everhart family owes Jane some more consideration. She has done a lot for that family and really, she has earned a damn site more respect and patience from them. Really really she has. It kind of has damaged the way I look at the Everhearts now because their expanded history really makes them look terrible. I’m saddened that my opinion of these characters has now been badly shattered.

Fire Touched (Mercy Thompson #9) by Patricia Briggs

The tensions between humanity and the fae continue to get more dangerous and tense, with the werewolves in the unenviable position of being in the middle. Until a troll runs amok in the city, with the werewolves feeling the need to rush to their defence, especially since some of Mercy’s friends are being targeted by the fae

Mercy steps in – and in doing so draws a line in the sand to protect her people and her city. But in doing so she isolates them from the rest of the werewolves, the Marrock is unwilling to follow them to political ruin and possibly war with the fae. Mercy and Adam and their pack are alone to try and navigate the dangerous complexities of the different fae factions or be dragged into a war with no support.

This book brings in some interesting world building and development – not with the monsters, not with the new creatures or new magic – but with a whole lot of politics. I am glad to see the different factions of the fae – it’s usually so easy to present supernatural groups as a monolith, without differemnt factions (certainly without several different factions) that we would find among humanity. So seeing the fae, seeing the Grey Lords, actually struggling among themselves with their own agendas, their own conflicts and their own positions as well as some fae among them who are officially done with it all and want no more to do with the system. I even like the complexity of immortal relationships that Zee represents – with his honoured enemies he hated but respected.

It works nicely with the werewolf political position as well – as they try to find a balance between not being outright at war with the fae while also not allowing them to just run riot in their territory. The interactions between Mercy and the Marrock and Adam are all decently nuanced without masses of hurt feelings over political necessities. I really like how the pack is becoming strong because it is modern and progressive compared to the often backward and bigoted opinions of other packs and like how including non-werewolves as pack members or close to the pack is also bringing them new strength and options. The pack is better for its moving to the future rather than clinging to old ways even as it causes them political issues

Hopcross Jilly by Patricia Briggs

Mercy and the werewolf pack are doing their full moon roaming as animals when they come across a body. Of a child – and it’s just one of several

Bodies have been hidden for decades – and the killing has now started again. The mysterious fae have stopped working with humanity and are no longer leashing their worst monsters.

This is a graphic novel that functions, in many ways, like an excellent short story connected to the main series – which is exactly what I hoped it would be.

In many ways, I feel graphic novels and short stories are not exactly non-canon, but should be optional extras to a main plot line. I can’t, in all honesty, justify why I feel that essential canon-story development should not appear in short stories or graphic novels, but I do tend to see them as extras, little bits of non-compulsory fluffy

From that standpoint, this works ideally.

In the recent books in the Mercy Thompson series one of the major turning points of the meta-plot was the retreat of the fae back into their reservations after the injustice of the human justice system convinced them there was no point trying to assimilate or work with humanity any further. Of course, this doesn’t really closely affect Mercy and Adam that much, though they were deeply involved in the events that led to the fae withdrawing

We have had previous books which made it clear the fae had a lot of monsters among them as well – and this is another excellent example of that. When we look at the greater lore of fairy tales, we have a lot of terrifying monsters that hunted down “naughty” children (problem because they were originally created as various ways to keep children from disobeying authority figures). They are terrifying and creepy and horrifying – and, in some ways, the fae’s nukes

Now the fae have stopped playing nice with the humans, that also means no longer keeping their more unpalatable members hidden and restrained. No longer playing by human laws monsters like Hopcross Jilly are free to roam again. It both shows how monstrous the fae can be but also how much the fae were trying to play nice by humanity – I like the development of that, how it’s not just a matter of the fae spitefully unleashing their monsters, but also of them simply not working so hard to appeal to humanity.

Broken Soul (Jane Yellowrock #8) by Faith Hunter

Jane is working to a deadline to improve Leo’s security before a delegation of likely hostile European Vampires arrive on an official visit – and possible invasion

She never expected it to be tested early – when the Satan’s Trio arrive in town, vampires that frighten even other vampires, every contingency she’s put in place is going to be sorely tested

And that’s without the near-invisible dragon rampaging through town. No-one saw that coming.

We do have a lot of world building in this book. We’re introduced to the European vampires visiting and why that’s a problem (this was partially introduced in the last book – the expansion includes some interesting concepts of vampire history but also raises the unlikely concept of European vampires coming to the US to avoid religious tensions… which seems somewhat out of touch with the state of religion and politics in western Europe and the US in general, especially a vampire territory in the deep south) and a whole lot of vampire history and why magical artefacts are so important and vital to them. It’s quite deep and meaty

At the same time we have introduced the Arenciel, what they are, where they come from and picked up the whole thread of liminal lines (which had been introduced very briefly in a past book), other realms and an expansion both on Soul (a minor character who has returned on repeated occasions) and Gee DiMercy, the Mercy Blade; both of these were extremely mysterious characters and the little extra building on them was very welcome.

On top of this we had an extension of Jane’s powers and how they changed with she and Beast integrating more closely and the effect of being messed with by an angel (this happened several books ago but hasn’t really been developed since then). This is very involved and some of the descriptions lost me in places since it involves time effects that weren’t always ideally described.

All of this could combine into a very confusing, overly full book and lose the reader – but it’s balanced by a relatively simple plot line. Bad guys are here, bad guys are coming, bad guys have to be defeated. Of course, defeating them is not exactly simple or easy because of the powers at their disposal and there’s a lot of conflict over exactly what the bad guys want and how best to stop them – there’s also a lot of extremely well written, fun and exciting fight scenes. And yes, I do love me a good fight scene – and it’s always a good sign in a book when an author can make you see the action and the excitement of the battle. I’m  not saying the plot was simplistic, because it wasn’t, but it wasn’t excessively elaborate to allow the rest of the information through more time to be absorbed without us having to juggle too many things at once. It was nicely done.

Night Broken (Mercy Thompson #8) by Patricia Briggs

Mercy has faced many threats over the years. Vampires, werewolves, river monsters – but now she faces a new problem: Adam’s ex-wife Christy.

She is being stalked and hunted by someone who is more than willing to kill and destroy and has already hurt her. She has fled to the only people she knows can help – her ex-husband, the werewolf, and his pack.

But her stalker is far more than just a human who won’t let go – and the whole pack may be in danger.

I really liked this story – it was nicely balanced in terms of revelations and questions. The side plots fit in well, continuing the overall story without getting in the way – but also without feeling extraneous or irrelevant. They gave a nice sense that just because the main plot is happening doesn’t mean everything else in Mercy’s life is on hold – or everything else in the world is on hold. The vampires and the fae are still present, still edging into Mercys’ life, along with the human government and its hostility to supernaturals: they’re all present but this isn’t the focus of the book. It’s a nice balance to hit.

The big bad was very big and bad indeed and really did give over a good sense of his power while not being insurmountable or being oddly weakened to make him combatable. Sure there were a few “he’s just playing with us” scenes, but the true nature of the threat they were facing and the powers they had to call on to stand toe to toe with it really came through.

And the world building is well done – no wikipedia-like info dumping we’ve seen in the past. It also drew on an area of mythology I’ve never come across before, integrated well and called on some real world history to make it work on top of that. Excellently well done, in fact

And now for something horribly horribly wrong. Adam’s ex-wife Christy needs help, she is visiting and she is evil. Of course she is. The rest of the book has a long battle between Mercy and Christie full of lots of passive aggressive digs.

Let’s remember that this is a woman who’s boyfriend has been killed, her home destroyed and she badly beaten black and blue escaping an abuser and murderer and is now desperately seeking some kind of help and protection. But no, in among all these trauma she has time to make a play for Adam and play nasty little power plays on Mercy; though even her neutral gestures are seen through the most spiteful of lenses.

Her bruises? Give her “an advantage” because she can play for sympathy. When she cooks it’s clearly so she can prove she’s a domestic goddess far superior to Mercy (not cooking to try and be grateful for the help of course. And why everyone rhapsodises over a plate of sandwiches I do not know. Seriously the cooking quality of the area must be pretty damn poor if everyone flocks for BLTs). When Christy cries, it’s manipulation. When she’s sorry she’s brought trouble to their pack, it’s more manipulation. If ANYONE shows any degree of sympathy to the woman who has been beaten and stalked by a murderer, Mercy assumes it’s more of Christy’s manipulation rather than actual sympathy.

Of course, some are just unambiguous spite from Christy as well – there’s a battle over a stained table cloth, there’s a battle over where Christy’s make up and toiletries go (she puts them in Adam and Mercy’s en suite bathroom), whenever Mercy calls Adam she answers and refuses to put Adam on the phone. She tells lies to make people think Mercy is being mean to her. 

I am actually in awe of how nasty Mercy is in this book.

All of this is watched by the three other women of the pack (because female werewolves are rare because REASONS! Female werewolves are ALWAYS rare, it’s a rule) who, naturally, pick sides and snipe and glare at each other, because women always fight and are “catty” right? Oh the men generally back Mercy (as right thinking folks) and repeatedly reassure Mercy while letting Christy have it (lots of “bitch” in there). And Mercy “jokes” about giving Christie to her abuser.

Iron Night (American Vampire #2) by M.L. Brennan

Having accepted the reality that he is part of the vampire world, Fortitude Scott has made some significant changes to his life.  He is now working out seriously several times a week with his older brother, feeding more frequently from his mother, has even found himself a new job and shocker of shockers, a roommate who actually pays his half of the rent on time.  Finally, Fortitude has achieved the stability he has longed for but unfortunately for Fort, it's short lived.  When he awakes one morning to find his roommate Gage drained of blood, missing body parts and dead, Fort is determined to get justice for him and not allow his powerful mother to sweep Gage's death under the carpet.  Fort's investigation brings him closer to crafty kitsune Suzume Hollis, as together they race against time to discover why bodies are starting to pile up.  If that were not enough, Matt, the one human Fort has loved since childhood is starting to get suspicious.  Can Fort get justice for Gage, while keeping Matt in the dark, in order to save his life?

In Iron Night, Brennan enlarges the world and we learn about the necessity of vampires as apex predators to police their territory.  We get a very strong sense of the hierarchy amongst the supernaturals and how delicate the balance of power is with humanity.  As Fort's vampire nature continues to mature, he begins to change.  Now Fort makes the necessary decisions to accomplish his ends no matter how difficult. He doesn't want to be like his sociopath sister Prudence but at the same time, he is highly aware that he cannot allow people to fun roughshod over him anymore.

American Vampire is one of the few series with a male protagonist but the women in Iron Night play exceptionally strong roles. Suzume continues to delight me with her trickster nature and I love that Fort is continually left off balance by her antics.  Though Fort is supposedly in charge of the mission, Suzume is not a side kick who follows blindly; she is an equal partner.  Suzume is not only highly intelligent, physically she is clearly more capable than Fortitude. This naturally subverts gender roles and Brennan manages this while allowing Suzume to remain feminine.  Madeline, Fort's mother though clearly on the decline, rules with an iron fist.  Prudence plays the role of Fort's enforcer and while there is no doubt she is a sociopath, her relationship with Fort is extremely complex.

Jane Yellowrock World Companion by Faith Hunter

I’m a big fan of Faith Hunter’s Jane Yellowrock series so when the companion came into my hands I was excited to delve into it.

Companions can be excellent additions to a series, especially a long book series, bringing together all the information of the series in one place, being a handy one stop guide to questions, elaborating on all those little elements of the series that just cannot be included in the main books but are still hinted about – they can be excellent additions. Any author writing a series as long as this is inevitably going to have scenes and ideas and world building that they just can’t fit into the main series. Oh, they could – but inevitably it would be irrelevant to the plot or involve some massively ridiculous info-dumping that would look convoluted and would drag down the pacing of the story

This is the ideal place to fit in all those notes, rambles, world building development etc that couldn’t fit into the main story.

That’s a companion at its best

At its worst, a companion will merely rehash and repeat most of what has been said in the main series, occasionally interspaced with extras that have been on the author’s website. There will be nothing new, original, useful or interesting in it and it will feel like a bit of a money grab.

Unfortunately this companion falls heavily into the second category. A large swathe of the book is taken up by a brief recap of all the other books. As a reviewer this could be useful to me if I ever want to refer back to something in an earlier book, but really is pretty pointless. If you’ve read the series, you don’t need the recaps. This takes up a pretty huge part of the book.

Add on to this there’s a section which is basically a lot of quotes copied and pasted from the books as well.

We have some brief world building notes – but they’re just lists: like Jane’s list of weapons, a list of characters in the series (no extra information on them, just a list) or a brief history of Clan Pellissier – which could have been interesting if it were more than a list.

Black Arts (Jane Yellowrock #7) by Faith Hunter

Jane has three jobs in this book – Katie, Leo’s unpredictable second-in-command vampire, wants her to find where two of her working girls have disappeared to; previous good friends of Jane. Leo himself is having a great big shindig and wants Jane to handle the security just in case they’re invaded by werewolves again – especially since the guest is a new addition to Leo’s vampires and he doesn’t trust the man one iota. As ever, Leo is engaged in a long game of lots of subtle plotting and has firmly cast Jane in the role of doing terrible things he can then deny he had any part in.

And Jane’s best friend, Molly, has disappeared. Her husband Evan arrives in town, distraught, knowing only that Molly was heading to see Jane when she disappeared – and that she doesn’t appear to want to be found.

Throw in some deadly vampire magic, some lethal magic artefacts, a whole lot of revelations and a side order of closure and Jane has a very full plate to handle.

We spent a lot of interesting time in Jane’s head this book. Firstly, this is the book where everyone knows she’s a Skinwalker – everyone she meets is told. Jane’s reaction to this is excellent and complex, with both a feeling of exposure after having kept her secret so long but also a vast feeling of relief. She can now talk about these things with people, she can talk about her history, she can be open about her abilities and it’s amazingly freeing. She’s happy to use her sense of smell or her strength (and make it clear to people “Not human, deal with it”, if it shocks them). This brought a lot of her history out in the open for everyone to know, her nature and her abilities which sets us off in a whole new direction and tone for the books.

Jane’s ongoing struggle to reconcile her job and the things she has to do with her strict moral upbringing and her own sense that she is not a good person. She also has the battle between her Christian faith and her returning memory bringing more and more of her Cherokee beliefs to the fore. It’s a wonderful crisis of identity and morality that has been at the margins of Jane’s character for a long time and it really comes to a head in this book.

There was a bad moment – Rick. I hate Rick. No, that’s not fair, I don’t hate Rick, Rick is not a bad character. What is bad is what happens to Jane whenever Rick is around – she becomes a lovestruck fool, her sense of professionalism goes out the window and her emotions get in the driving seat. Some of these are natural reactions, but Jane takes it to the next level – including having to run out of a function she is chief of security for, while the big bad is right there, so she can go be weepy in a corner. Sorry everyone, play nice for half an hour, our chief warrior is bawling her eyes out.

Blood Trade (Jane Yellowrock #6) by Faith Hunter

 

Jane Yellowrock is still reeling from the bond that Leo forced on her, depressed, lost and apathetic and afraid even to shift for fear that Beast would go running to Leo, she needs a distraction. So a call to Natchez to kill Naturaleza vampires sounds like the best thing.

There’s some politics to play what with Leo and the master of Natchez being officially annoyed with each other and lots of dancing from that, but Jane handles it with her normal blunt force approach.

Except these vampires are worse than your usual Naturaleza. They’re faster, tougher – and nearly immune to silver. And they’re changing into something else, something insectile. This is an entirely new threat and one more lethal and disturbing than most she has faced – something that goes back to the very core of the vampires’ creation.

That and the increasing body count – over 100 missing and dead humans – means having to call in the government agency, PsyLed, which means calling in Ricky which means, along with Bruiser, Leo’s second showing up, Jane also has to deal with her rocky emotions over her personal life.

This is one of those hard reviews to right because so much is done well that it creates an excellent book. But the things that were more shaky are things I can write much more about

Which means I end up reducing the excellently well written plot, with all the descriptions giving me just enough information to see the scene vividly without it being bogged down, the well paced fight scenes full of drama and excitement, the emotional quandaries that carry all of the feeling with none of the excessive angst – to a single sentence of “it was well paced”. Followed by several paragraphs of what I think the book did wrong giving the end impression of my not liking the book, which couldn’t’ be further from the truth.

The book is really well written. Everything is largely balanced well. Jane has personal, emotional conflicts, her depression over the actions in the last book are really well conveyed through her apathy and tiredness far more so than by her sitting in a corner and wailing. Her relationship with Eli and the Kid is shown really well, again without lots of excessive telling, just the way they bounce off each other shows this developing family.

Jane herself is a complicated character, her balancing of her spirituality and morality with her complex belief system, history and profession is deep and interesting. Even as she hardens after the events of the last few books, she still holds onto her morality and the guilt that clings to her. I love the  Her interactions with Beast are excellent and I love that Beast is more than just a raging hungry monster – Beast is maternal, Beast wants kits, Beast can be guaranteed to shred anyone and anything in defence of children.

Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson #7) By Patricia Briggs

Mercy is settling into life as Adam’s husband, back from her honeymoon, fully recovered and facing a dread foe – Black Friday midnight shopping with Jesse, her new step-daughter. To add to the fun, she gets in a car wreck as well and has to write off her Rabbit.

If only that was the least of her problems. Almost the entire pack has been kidnapped, she can’t reach anyone over the phone, not even werewolves outside the pack, the one person she can find is injured and drugged – and there are unpleasant people with guns looking for her and targeting her friends on the edge of the pack.

Her small team has to try and find Adam – while Adam must try and escape before he’s blackmailed into doing something that could have all werewolves destroyed. Additional help from the government she doesn’t trust and a werewolf that may lose it at any time doesn’t necessarily help things

Then there’s some fae assassins, mystical weapons and a whole load of vampire politics to add to the mix.

And she’s stolen the vampire queen’s car. And broken it. Oops.

Reading the synopsis and the first few pages I had a lot of hope. Here was Mercy going to charge into battle on her own, her own actions, her own decisions, free from Adam’s often stifling shadow. And she was reconnecting with characters we haven’t seen in a while, like Kyle, while at the same time advancing the political meta plot.

That hope is now dead, tried to rise from the coffin, was staked, beheaded, burned and had its ashes scattered across four different bodies of water.

We start the story – drama drama, action (ish), the pack has been kidnapped. Mercy starts doing stuff without consultation (ish) and generally doing her best (sort of) to save everyone (well, some of them). And then Adam wrangles his own plan (well, no, opportunity falls in his lap) and loo, all is solved.

Sure, there’s a few loose ends to tie up, we’d kind of like to know who is behind it, but with one set of bad guys running and the other dead, it’s not a pressing or especially pertinent concern. And that’s how the book is written. I kind of expected the book to be over – the story was after all – but rather than working in a conclusion I discovered I was only 40% in. Not even half way through but the story was over – so what was happening? We kind of wallowed in limbo. Sure, one of those loose ends ballooned out into a full plot eventually – at about 65%. 20% of this book in the middle was just waffle and empty flailing with no real plot at all. Right in the middle of the book. It was like 2 books pasted together and some kind of mushy glue stuffed between them. There wasn’t so much a speed bump interrupting the story so much as a vast sink hole, sucking in all plot and leaving us directionless, lost and a little confused.

Haven, Season 3, Episode 10: Burned

 

Audrey and Nathan have to investigate another burned body which looks like another of the Bolt Gun Killer’s victims. The pathologist thinks there’s no rush since Tommy is dead but Audrey isn’t willing to write him off as dead since they never found the body. She’s worried that Tommy is still alive but accepts Nathan’s assurance that Tommy had nothing to do with the guard.

Meanwhile and elsewhere, a van skids off the road, one man leaps out of it and runs, chased by another. Audrey and Nathan arrive finding a girl in the van, Ginger Danvers, who doesn’t understand why her father ran off. Nathan reveals that the van is used by the Guard to get Troubled people into Haven. They speculate that his Trouble was triggered in the van and caused him to run, abandoning his daughter. She doesn’t want to talk to anyone but Duke makes her open up at the police station (why is Duke at the police station? Because he’s always at the police station, of course)

And Nathan goes to flirt with Jordan – really, I thought we’d resolved this love triangle nonsense?  He tells her about Morton Davners, the Troubled guy, running away and his daughter. Jordan pretends ignorance but after he leaves there’s a man called Lance in the back room snarling at her for her police chief boyfriend and she snarls back at having to lie to him.

There’s another revelation at the police station. Checking the burned body they find he was a bolt gun killer victim, he had been dead for 5 weeks – and he was Detective Thomas Bowen. Claire says that’s impossible and the pathologist responds with the line of the week “are you from Haven?” The word impossible should never be used. Whoever they were working with wasn’t Tommy Bowen.

Duke does the very clever thing of taking Ginger out of the police station and promptly loses her – she’s taken by lance, the guy in Jordan’s safehouse. But the minute she can speak she demands to be let go and tells him she hates his guts. He drops her and when she runs, he pulls out of a knife says “I hate my guts” and stabs himself in the stomach, much to Jordan’s shock.

Audrey and Nathan arrive on scene and Audrey puts 1 and 1 together and gets 56 (as is Audrey’s wont) and realises that Ginger is the Troubled one with the power of hypnosis, able to control minds. She calls Duke, but Ginger has found him and tells Duke not to tell Audrey anything and come play with her – which he does. Pirates – which, at her urging, results in Duke getting into more and more dangerous positions (and he needs more Eyeliner to be a pirate, it is known, but he’s making a good start). Audrey and Nathan arrive just in time to see Duke fall from the upstairs balcony.

Audrey gives ginger a little heart to heart talk about her powers and her father – but they need to get her father back to help her not feel abandoned. Audrey asks Ginger about the people who brought her father to Haven to see if they can find him – and reveals that Jordan was among them.

Nathan goes to confront her and is most displeased with her lying to him. Jordan hates to break the usual secrecy of how the Guard operates, but reveals that Ginger has an uncle in town. While Nathan checks out that dead end – the uncle knows nothing. Jordan sneaks to see Ginger while Audrey is on the phone (getting a call from the pathologist telling her that Tommy’s burned body had rope fibre in its airways) and takes her away, telling Ginger that Audrey is lying and will lock her away somewhere all alone.

Jordan tries to escape but is surrounded by Audrey and Nathan with guns.  Jordan is arrested and Ginger recovered.  Jordan doesn’t want to talk, but Ginger points out she can make her. Audrey protests that it’s too dangerous (uh… why? Unethical, yes I can see that. Completely wrong, yes I can see that. But dangerous? How is it dangerous?) but Duke counters that Ginger continuing to believe her father abandoned her is even more dangerous (does anyone in Haven even know what “dangerous” means?).

Review: Death's Rival by Faith Hunter, Book 5 of the Jane Yellowrock Series

 Vampire Masters of the City across the US are being afflicted by a plague. Which should be impossible – vampires are immune to disease. Yet Sedona and Seattle have both been afflicted – and when in their weakened state, they were threatened with take over. Both cities now look to a new, unknown master. And to make it even more worrying, some of Leo’s own vampires are being afflicted with the disease.

Time for Jane Yellowrock to do some investigating, using her new team to track down how the disease came about, where it is from, how it is being transmitted – and, ultimately, who is behind it. But the mystery vampire has far more than the disease at his command and Jane quickly finds herself under attack – and Leo facing a fullscale war; all complicated by there being a spy in the ranks.

Through all this, Jane’s secret Skinwalker identity is yet further frayed, even as more of her forgotten past emerges and she has a painful reminder of how difficult and dangerous it is to get involved with vampires – even vampires she thought she could trust.

I loved this book, it seemed to get just about everything right with the balance.

The story is an excellent mix of action and investigation. The unknown enemy spreading disease isn’t a force they can just take down nor is it something they can just hunker down and defend against. It’s not a mystery since there are no clues we’re expected to follow, but nor is it a series of loosely connected fight scenes. There’s a plot to follow, a nice, tense tracking down of the clues while trying to protect themselves all of which has the added complication of there being a leak in Leo’s organisation. The pacing was excellent, there was no down time even when Jane was exhausted, the plot didn’t get distracted or deviated and at no point did it start to drag – which can be a problem with mysteries as the questions build up and there’s no concrete actions to take or answers given. Instead we had solutions and answers, appropriate red herrings and show down moments, clever plans, interesting plots and a chance to truly see the new characters introduced.

I also liked how much the emotional impact of what was happening wasn’t downplayed. Jane has been through several losses of friends and that still haunts her. Trauma leaves her shocked and stunned – even in shock. Killing people, torturing people bothers her and preys on her mind. They’re not just downplayed events that just happen and they move on, but nor do they require chapters of self-pitying angst as well. It’s a nice balance and really well executed.

I liked the character development and interaction- Jane realising how she sees things differently since working with the vampires, in particularly how money has affected her. Going from having to count the pennies to being able to casually lay out large sums of money – to Reach, for plane tickets, to fund her 2 new employees. In turn that reflects on her willingness to keep working for the vampires even when she has strong reason not to – because can anyone underestimate the value of such financial confidence?

The way the supernatural touches Jane has also developed – I love the way her secret being revealed is being handled. She is trying to hodl what secrets she can and not having a big reveal moment, but nor is she trying to pretend to be fully human when it’s blatantly obvious to everyone that she isn’t. She isn’t happy with her skinwalker status being more known, but she’s not whimpering and trying to put it back in the bag – she’s living with it and making it work for her.

Review: Raven Cursed by Faith Hunter, Book 4 of the Jane Yellowrock Series

Jane Yellowrock has a job from Leo Pelliser, Master of the city of New Orleans and, as it turns out, Master of the whole South-east of the United States, meaning he has far more oomph than Jane imagined.

He has sent her to escort Gregoire, one of his top vampires, to negotiate with the local vampire Shaddock who wishes to become Master of Asheville on account of his children becoming vampires super-quickly without decades of madness. It’s an important bodyguard job and Jane is focused on it and in charge despite the distraction of Rick, her sort-of-boyfriend turning into a wereleopard.

Unfortunately things are complicated by the remaining werewolves from the pack she destroyed in the last book seeking revenge – and by revenge that means slaughtering people in her area. Jane is forced to work with local police to find the wolves, balancing law enforcement with orders from Leo who wants them dead as soon as possible. Jane has her own reasons since Molly and her family (and coven witches) are in the area –Molly’s husband blames her for putting their children in danger, Jane cannot stand the idea that she has put them at risk again

But even Molly’s coven isn’t a source of peace – with it being betrayed from within with dark magic, old secrets and an ancient evil being summoned at the heart of it – an evil whose influence is making all Jane’s jobs that much harder and that much more complicated.

This book was overwhelming. There was a lot happening – with the parley talks, lethal werewolves running around killing people, the Grindylow apparently with its own agenda, Kenmebi both mentoring and threatening to kill Rick, the rogue vampire to hunt down and, of course, Evangeline playing her own game. At times I was almost lost, I kept wondering what plot line we were on and where we were going and why. Usually, such a book annoys me, I wish they’d remove a plot line so the story would flow better, there wouldn’t be so many distractions and I wouldn’t feel like I had to take notes to try and keep up with everything. But not in this case. Yes it was overwhelming but it was equally clear that it was meant to be. As Jane bounced from crisis to crisis, slipping sleep, desperately trying to fit everything in – this was one of the themes of the book; exhaustion, stress and constantly have to run to keep up with everything – and everything being too important to just cast aside or even realistically delay. It makes for a very strong part of the book, being very sustained and well balanced. I was overwhelmed, but I wasn’t lost.

I also like how the storylines come together – it adds the plausibility of not having everything just spontaneously happen at once and prevents everything in Jane’s life happening in complete isolation. It is very well done and doesn’t feel even remotely strained or convoluted – it flows naturally and it’s also completely and utterly unpredictable. I didn’t see the ending, I didn’t see what was happening and discovered everything as and when the characters did – the mystery was mysterious and the confusion was natural and shared with the protagonist.

The pacing was excellent, I was never bored and it never dropped and got lost. The action scenes were well laid out and described – nothing was too rushed or dragged. Everything was described appropriately – it was a very well balanced book, really well written and never once made me want to put it down.

Review: Tricked by Kevin Hearne, Book 4 of the Iron Druid Series

Atticus is back for another excellent adventure. Now having left his home after killing Thor and a goodly part of the Norse pantheon he has some problems to handle. Firstly there’s the fact that the Norse want him dead and so do several Thunder Gods… just because really (they’re thunder gods, they don’t need a lot of explanation).

There’s also a problem of killing a large portion of the Norse pantheon. Seems that those gods were largely the reason Ragnorak wasn’t happening – and now you have Hel and the denizens of Niffilheim running around unchecked. Add in that Leif’s incapacitation means that there’s a whole lot of vampires flocking to the area to fill the void.

And Atticus owes Coyote a favour. Which is never, ever, ever a good thing. It seems simple enough (in an almost impossible way), Coyote wants to rebuild the economy in an area for the Navajo (Diné) people. But the Trickster has far more in mind than that – as you would expect – and Atticus soon finds himself up to his eyebrows in far more than he expected.

When I finished this book I was sad. Because it was over and I now have to wait months, MONTHS, before Kevin Hearne releases another awesome book.

To assuage myself I turned back to page one and read it a second time – I didn’t even put it down between readings. Alas, I have finished it again and, again, I am sad that it is over.

In short, this book is most awesome.

What? You want more?

The characters are amazing. I love Atticus and Granuaille and their relationship. Atticus engages in a lot of deep and fascinating introspection, grows as a character as he accepts his own arrogance and pride have tripped him up once too often. And, of course, he is utterly and unbelievably funny and awesome with amazing wit, clever ideas without them being ridiculously over the top and a powerful sense of both the ridiculous and righteous wrath.

Oberon remains beyond hilarious. And he gets to be the hero as well, showing he’s not just a witty, sausage obsessed doggy with the best lines. And Snugglepumpkin has a very very very amusing and likely accurate hypothesis.  The whole book is full off wit and humour that lightens

The world is incredible – the pantheons of the different gods and belief systems with creatures and beings from each pantheon and culture all apparent. And the mob attack by the collected thunder gods was worth reading over and over again.

Dresden Files, Season 1, Episode 1: Birds of a Feather

The show is nicely introduced by a dream - seeing young Harry – with a father who doesn’t believe in monsters (either he’s lying or he was ignorant), the knowledge that his mother is dead and a nice shield bracelet provided by said deceased mother. It’s a pretty nice lead in to the character, concept and themes and an elegant bit of back story.

We see more flashbacks of his past – of him using his magic to help his father’s work as a travelling magician’s – and his father’s worry because people will use him and prey on him for his abilities. Including Uncle Justin Morningway. Justin wants to train Harry in his magical gifts but his father is worried about the plots Justin is involved in. Unfortunately Justin doesn’t take no for an answer and he is a powerful, amoral wizard.

Of course modern Harry is much less afraid of things that go bump in the night and wakes up next to a young lady with whom he has been creating many such noisy bumps last night. Speaking of, we also meet Bob, the magical knowledge spirit and possessor of much sarcasm and giving us some more backstory of Harry’s magical, evil uncle who he “self-defenced to death”.

In fact this episode is generally good at introduction – Harry is listed as a wizard in the yellow pages (as pointed out by a young boy wanting to hire him to save him from monsters) and he is friend with Karin Murphy, a police detective and her side kick Detective Kirmani. Who have a horrible, skinless body to deal with.

Bob is worried that Harry dismissed the boy too quickly – or, rather, worried that if the kid is eaten by monsters that he will have to endure Harry moping for several weeks – and convinces Harry to do some more investigating. And the kid sees ravens and pale people raven-ish people and runs screaming.

Harry does provide them with a protection spell (for the kid’s peace of mind) and that spell keeps the boy’s teacher out of the house. The symbol also ends up carved on the ceiling outside the boy’s room.

Murphy calls Harry in for an opinion for – he’s a paid expert for the police and she recognises the dead woman’s picture as the kid’s teacher – making her a skin-walker. A creature that steals skin and uses them as a disguise. Naturally it’s cavalry time but they arrive too late as the raven-man has taken the boy. Harry also learns that ever since the boy came home he has been stalked by ravens – which Bob identifies as raven-clan mercenaries.

The boy has the gift – the potential to be a wizard – and the Skinwalker catches up with harry to ask some painful questions and while they give up information they also learn that the Skinwalker is working for someone.

Using a raven feather, Harry casts a quick tracking spell to find the raven’s nest where the boy is having a banana split. The ravens plan to keep moving and running, taking the boy away to escape the Skinwalker – but Harry, after his transient childhood finds this less than ideal.

One of Bob’s bag of tricks takes care of the Skinwalker, develop during Bob’s days working for Justin. Now Harry is going to have to be ready to teach the boy when he grows older

Review: Mercy Blade by Faith Hunter, Book 3 of the Jane Yellowrock series

Jane Yellowrock is still serving Leo Pellissier, vampire leader of New Orleans – and she’s needed more than ever as a whole new revelation sweeps the world – werecreatures exist. Not only do they exist, but New Orleans is going to be ground zero of a whole new series of diplomatic meetings between the werecats of Africa and the Vampires – and these are 2 groups that don’t get on very well.

One thing that does untie them is their hatred of the werewolves – werewolves that are also coming back to New Orleans after Leo drove them out many years before. They want their territory back, they’re harbouring a grudge against the vampires and they’re willing to use any tool – violence or human law or human media – to get their territory back and drive Leo out.

Then here’s the vampires themselves s-living for centuries means vampires and blood servants can develop so many grudges and feuds between them. Someone’s definitely plotting among the vampire clans – and targeting Leo and Bruiser, his chief blood servant – in an elegant legal frame.

On top of that there’s Girrard DiMercy, the Mercy Blade who has come back to town – an old friend and servants of Leo’s and now a bitter enemy. He’s coming back and hanging around with powers Jane doesn’t understand and an agenda no-one knows and he’s not leaving.

And Katie chooses now, of all times, to rise from her crypt irrational and lost from her long healing from Skinwalker

Into this mix – one of the were-leopards dies and Jane’s boyfriend, Rick, disappears. Now to find who dunnit in this maze.

The plot, I have to admit, confused me at times. I got a bit lost not so much on who is who but on how everything was connected. We seemed to have several clues at once and I’m not entirely sure how we got onto each one. I don’t think it was poorly written, but I do think it’s a book that needs reading carefully or maybe reading twice to keep a track of the twists and turns. I’m not sure about some of the links and leaps Jane made, but that could be because I was flailing a little in the many threads.

Despite that – or perhaps, because of that – it was a good mystery. It’s complex but the clues – the many many many clues – are there. There’s a lot of information to piece together and some red herrings and distractions – but not many. All the information forms a part of the puzzle but the puzzle is so bemusing until all those pieces are together and you can see it as a whole. Again, it’s a book that would be worth a re-read just to see how the pieces are laid and fit the clues into the puzzle now I know what the full puzzle looks like.

We also had a huge amount of world building with the weres, with Gee, with the Curse of Artemis and more on vampire history and politics and how they worked. And all of it was integrated into the story without the clumsy info dumps or convoluted explanations we’ve come to know and loathe. Each of them adds a new dimension to the world and the story and kept me curious throughout.

I do hope we see more development with the weres because I feel we’ve only touched the surface and focused far more on the werewolves than the werecats. I also can’t wait to see more of the legal and political situation as vampires and weres continue to hold themselves outside of human laws, like a foreign country almost.