Review of Three Days to Dead by Kelly Meding (Dreg City #1)

Evangeline Stone wakes up in the morgue naked on a table with no idea of she got there.  If that were all that were wrong it would be terrifying, but Evangeline wakes up in the body of Chalice (could Meding have picked a worse name?) - a woman who recently committed suicide. What she does not know is that now that she has opened her eyes, the clock has started to tick and she has three hours to discover who killed her and why.

Her first barrier happens when she grabs a phone to contact Wyatt, her handler in the secret police organization that she belongs to and realises that she cannot remember his phone number.  In her former life, Evi was a hunter and her job was to issue warrants and police the dreg society in the society.  Dregs are essentially the supernatural elements of the city and include but are not limited to, fae, vampires full and half bloods, fae, elves, trolls, gremlins etc,.  Evi and her team keeps the humans safe from the supernatural element that they share the world with.  Evi manages to make her way to Chalice's home where she meets Alex - Chalice's best friend. Though this is her first meeting she cannot help but feel some of Chalice's residual emotions towards Alex.

When Evi does finally meet up with Wyatt, she learns that he gave up his free will to a powerful Elf in order to bring her back from the dead, firm in the belief that she has knowledge about an alliance which would shift the balance of power horribly. No matter how hard Evi tries, she cannot remember how she died.  Wyatt and Evi's investigtion is hampered by the fact that the triads believe that Wyatt has gone rogue and that Evi is directly responsible for the death of their team.  There are no friendly faces anywhere the pair turns.

Evi must also confront her feelings towards Wyatt.  Her new body desires him but at the same time she does not want to lead Wyatt on because he clearly loves her.  When she does finally learn that her death involved a brutal rape, she tries to push past it and make love to Wyatt but discovers that some scars just don't heal that easily.  I really liked this scene because too often this kind of brutality is swept aside.  I like that Wyatt stopped and did not blame Evi for the PTSD she was experiencing.

Warehouse 13: Season 4, Episode 4: There's Always a Downside

 Artie is sending Claudia and Pete on one mission and Jinks and Myka on another. Partly so that he can ask Pete to keep an eye on Claudia, since he keeps having that “Claudia stabbing him” vision thing because of the metronome that’s got him rather concerned.

Claudia and Pete are going to see the old computer expert, Hugo. He has Bobby Fischer’s marbles – each of which can give a person massive ambition and drive but prolonged exposure causes violence, insanity and strokes – typical artefact fodder. When he worked for the Warehouse, these were high priority acquisitions for him and he never found them – but someone anonymously fed-exed them to him. Worse, his nephew, Brady, is in a highly competitive school and used one to write a paper for an inter-school event and now the veins on his arm have gone all dark and throbbing, which is probably problematic.

Which is more problematic is that they can’t just goo the marbles because Brady’s a nice kid who shares his toys – and has leant out 4 of them.  And for added problem not only do the marbles cause violence but they’re doing so at a school that emphasises stress, tension and competition.

And yes, the students are well and truly losing it, attacking teachers who give them less than perfect grades, attacking students who have done better than them, attacking people to get on competitive teams. And with the black veins reaching his eyes, Brady collapses. They’re all entering close to the stroke zone

And the last marble is in the hands of the headmaster – who is now pursuing his goal. And his goal is to kill the budget cutting school board who he hates so much.

At this point all the marbled students try to stop Hugo and Claudia and need tesla-ing. Hugo also has a moment of doubt because he showed the marbles to his nephew in an attempt to begin recruiting him as a Warehouse agent and now blames himself for all the problems.

They hurry to the gym and discover the headmaster in the furnace room under it, preparing to unleash a toxic gas on the school board – and the entire student body. Pete gets knocked out, wakes up and knocks him out in return (concussions for everyone!)  Faced with the daunting task of turning off the furnace, Pete has to use the marble to focus and figure out how to turn it off (seriously? It’s a furnace. Not a nuclear power station).

Marbles are collected and gooed, problem solved!

Meanwhile, Jinks and Myka are looking for an artefact that miraculously cures people with severe mental illnesses. And yes this seems good but all artefacts have a downside. It is known (except for the dozen or so they use on a regular basis, including instead of guns, tasers and mobile phones and whatever else Artie pulls out of his bag of tricks as needed).

Grimm, Season 2, episode 1: Bad Teeth

 “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned…”

Grimm is back, and after the exciting events and revelations of last season finale, I have high hopes for what we’re going to see this season.

We begin with a ship full of containers – and one of those containers is making rather a lot of noise. Arriving in Portland, the harbour patrol check the container that is leaking blood. Going inside they find more blood, mangled body parts and writing on the wall in blood in French, some dead bodies – and a furry, savage, angry Wesen that promptly attacks them while roaring – some kind of sabre-toothed feline Wesen.

This all happened yesterday. Today we’re catching up with the events that happened last episode, with Nick fighting Akira Kimura and his mother making an appearance at Nick’s house. She pulls off Kimura’s shirt, saying he’ll come round soon, to check if he has been sent by the “Dragon’s Tongue”. She looks at his tattoos, confirms that he has grimm-o-vision, then when sirens sound outside she disappears. Cavalry arrives, including Police Captain Renard (who Akira tied up last season), giving Renard a chance to see the tattoos on his back.

No sooner have the police left than mummy Grimm (Kelly) reappears saying she has to get to Kimura – which is going to be fun with him in police custody. Kelly fills in the gaps of her death – his father did die, but the woman in the car was her friend Gina – she’d sent them both away in the hope they would escape the people trying to kill her. They misidentified Gina because they attackers took her head, thinking they’d killed a Grimm, and the bodies were badly mangled in the car crash. Kimura is the only link to who may have betrayed Kelly. She and Aunt Marie let Nick believe she was dead to protect him from her many enemies, something Nick is, unsurprisingly, not best thrilled about.

Juliette is still in a coma after being scratched by the cursed cat – and Eddie and Rosalie are researching the cat and a cure. Their results are disturbing enough that they rush to Nick to tell him the news since he’s not answering his phone. When they arrive they see they place is trashed and smell both Kimura and Kelly – both Rosalie and Eddie Woge to smell better and, of course, Kelly leaps on Eddie (though since when the Grimm fighting style against a Blutbad is “big bear hug” I don’t know). There follows a classic misunderstanding scene. Lots of frenzied recapping of who everyone is, time.

The infection Juliette has causes dementia-like symptoms, including memory loss and the first thing they have to do is stop the degradation as soon as possible by stopping the disease getting worse – which takes a potion that needs 16 hours to brew.

Kelly fills Nick in on what she’s been doing for 18 years –first trying to find the killers of his father and her friend, then discovering that the royal families of the Wesen and their servants (like the Verrat) were trying for a resurgence and causing all kinds of problems. She also wants him to give her the coins to have them destroyed.

Teen Wolf: Season 2, Episode 12: Master Plan

Last episode Stiles was kidnapped (not Stiles!) and we start this one with Melissa McCall going to the hospital with, presumably, Jackson in a body bag and Stiles being shoved into a basement with chained Erica and Boyd – the targets on the walls point to this being an Argent kidnapping.

And they’re joined by evil granddaddy Argent (I may drop the “evil” since it’s redundant now that all the Argents are evil) and starts beating Stiles because… because he’s an evil Argent and doesn’t need a reason.

Evil Argent Gerard is having some quality time with Evil Argent Allison when Evil Argent Chris decides to play his “I’m the good one card” and question Gerard about what happened at the game. He maintains his backbone for, oh, 3 seconds, before Gerard wanders off, all questions unanswered. We then find that Allison blames Jackson being dead and the weregecko on Derek, as she blames the death of the murderous Kate and the suicide of the murderous Victoria all on Derek. Totally none of her own evil family’s fault, oh no. She’s pouting because Chris isn’t all behind this new “kill anything that moves” Allison, which is a little unfair since she is just following in the family footsteps – including his.

At the school Sherriff Stilinski is investigating both what happened to Jackson and his missing son. Coach shows his slightly more human side (I can’t decide whether I love Coach or hate him, I think both).

Scott and Isaac rip into Stile’s locker to get clothes so they can follow his scent – and Derek arrives. With Peter. Scott and Derek have a debate about this and Scott’s feeding information to evil granddaddy Argent, Gerard (Peter adding the odd word for sarcasm’s sake. Damn I didn’t know he was sarcastic before they killed him, what a waste!) But Derek has good news, Peter can save Jackson – to which Scott and Isaac inform him that Jackson is dead. This isn’t greeted as good news since, if he’s dead, it must be because evil Argent Gerard wanted him dead – and anything an Argent wants is bad.

Stiles does return home to his dad – but rather beaten up. He blames his disappearance and beat up state on players from the opposing team. Personally I would have fed Chris and Gerard to the law. At very least the accusation should have Gerard suspended as headmaster.

Lydia comes to visit and she’s pretty devastated about Jackson, despite his treatment of her, and is shockily fixated on the fact she never had chance to return his key. She and Stiles have a cutsey, touching moment. Until Lydia gets a text message and decides she’s going to help Jackson – no matter how much Stiles wants to protect her. Stiles is left all depressed and sad – until Sheriff Stilinski drops in to assure him what a hero he is.

Chris Argent finally uses that conscious for something other than 2 seconds of backbone – and, reflecting about what side of the line he and his family are standing on – he turns off the current that’s holding Erica and Boyd captive.

Review: The Sword and the Prophet by Missy Larae

 Tyler and Lilly are free for the first time in their 15 year old lives. The twins have lived with their abusive mother who has controlled their every action, constantly beat them down and denied them any interaction with the outside world. Finally, they’ve had enough and are running away to the only relative they know of – their unknown father’s sister.

Everything seems to go to plan, their aunt is considerably kinder than their mother. But then the revelations start to pile up. Not least of which is that no-one they know is human – and they are caught between two powerful warring factions of aliens. Even that seems easier to grasp than the idea that their mother was the good one.

At this point the revelations tear in fast and furious as Tyler and Lilly must flee from the hunters, all the while dealing with massive transformations of their bodies and strange manifestations of new powers. They have no idea who to trust or what is real any more, but their true family is out there.

The world and story are both intriguing in many ways. Normal, human children not realising they’re not only special but not even human? They have to deal with transformations, their entire world being turned upside down. The world is rich and odd – with lots of unique, interesting elements even with its clichés. It has a lot of potential for excitement, emotional impact, epic battles and massive realisations as two abused children discover so much more.

But this book has some severe pacing issues. I’ve read books before where I’ve felt like I’ve been thrown in the deep end, because the book has been going so fast and throwing so much at me so quickly. This book doesn’t  just throw me in the deep end, it ties weights to my feet and then throws things at me. It was utterly overwhelming for the first 40%.

It starts fairly standardly, we follow Lilly and Tyler fleeing their abusive mother and heading to their unknown aunt’s home. Nice and simple.

Sinbad: Season 1, Episode 6: The Siren

 Their pleasant days sailing is interrupted by something hitting the ship and breaking a small hole in her. Everyone flails around a bit, but Sinbad ties a rope around his waist and jumps in the water to see what they hit and how bad the damage is. Cook is horrified at the idea of someone leaving eh boat while they’re at sea, but Sinbad jumps in. Soon after, they see a shape in the water – and the rope is severed.

Sinbad is revived, on shore, by a beautiful blond woman wearing gauze and sequins who gives him CPR and takes him to her little beach house full of medicine to treat his wounds. She claims it was coral, he says it was a shark or a sea beast, but she says there are none in these waters. He is on the island of Rocheen Moore (her) and she’s the only one there.

On the ship, Cook finds it was a sharp point that was forced through the ships planks. Nala and Gunnar go to shore, since the current carried their boat to the island and they assumed it could have done the same to Sinbad – though Nala is disturbed since she saw the scaled tail when the rope was cut. They find Sinbad – and Rocheen.

Gunnar is affable enough, but Nala is cold to Rocheen (is that a spike of jealousy I’m seeing? Oh dear, do we have to play this game?) Nala encourages Sinbad to leave and Rocheen even agrees – but Sinbad is determined to stay. Nala confronts him, telling him Akbari will be following them and they need to move, but Sinbad complains about running and his curse and just wants to stop. Sinbad begs for just one night where he doesn’t have to worry. Nala and Gunnar return to the ship, with Nala warning him to be back by sunrise.

Unsurprisingly, Sinbad and Rocheen end up in bed (while there are shadowy figures on the beach). Rocheen asks about his ship mates (Sinbad’s descriptions of Nala are more than a little romantic). The next day, as dawn begins, Rocheen reminds he has to return to the shop, to Gunnar and Nala. But he can’t remember them and returns to sleep. Then his curse kicks in and he staggers from the house, unable to breath as his necklace tightens. Rocheen urges him to tell her a happy memory about his grandmother. He recounts a memory of her telling stories to him, but then adds that he broke her heart, causing Rocheen to stagger, breathing black smoke, demanding he only tell good memories not bad. But the curse stops, Sinbad can breath – but he can no longer remember his grandmother.

Falling Skies: Season 2, Episode 9: The Price of Greatness

  The 2^nd Massachusetts has arrived in Charleston, land of milk and honey (and all being gathered in one place for a nice big attack – yes I still question the wisdom of this) and Colonel Porter congratulates them on how long they’ve lasted out there, his own unit having been largely wiped out.

The New Charleston is an underground mall, a construction that survived the destruction of the city. They walk down into a food court  where people are eating (meals that are far better than what the 2^nd Massachusetts has been eating) and they all stand to give them a standing ovation for what they did out in the field. Captain Weaver gets to reunite with his daughter. And Pope is already plotting with the berserkers to leave.

Matt is happy to be where there are other kids and even a school (and if you think a kid missing school is unbelievable, try to grasp that Ann and Tom, after weeks of rations and privations, are tucking into a salad. Yes, salad. Who, after weeks of unappetising rations, craves lettuce?)  and Tom gets to reunite with an old professor – Arthur Manchester. He’s the majority leader of the new congress and presumptive president

Weaver goes to see Charleston’s General. With the intelligence Weaver has from the field, he offers to use his people to scout. But the General doesn’t want to know and doesn’t need scouts - he dismisses Colonel Porter when he protests.

It turns out that Manchester, as the civilian leader, refuses to provoke the aliens. It’s believe that the aliens have no reason to hit Charleston again since they think it’s pacified, and it’s best to hide and “rebuild” rather than pick fights. It’s apparent that the General isn’t Manchester’s best friend.

But there’s a ruckus since the Charleston folks want to disarm the 2^nd Massachusetts and spread them out around the place. Tom and Ann aren’t happy but Colonel Porter talks Weaver around, having them disarm and spread to where they’re assigned.

The next day it’s all domestic with Ann and Tom going to their various assignments – with Tom reporting to Manchester who has statesmen dreams of putting together a new government for a post-invasion world (ink on paper after the aliens aren’t about, methinks). But there’s a confidence vote for his government coming up and he wants Tom to speak for him (how can he speak for him? He has no idea what the government is doing!) Tom takes the chance to tell him about Red Eye and the rebel Skitters – which Manchester greets by saying they can stand back and let them kill each other. He’s adamantly against any kind of alliance, or poking his head out of the hole, and won’t do anything to threaten the city – which he links to the vote.

Fangs for the Fantasy Episode 80

This week we discuss True Blood and the season getting past its wallowing, it’s soapiness, actually having some plot and moving forwards. Though we do complain about how easy it now is to kill vampires. But Russel was awesome.

We discuss Teen Wolf with how much we’re surprisingly loving this series – but also how awful both the Argents in general are and Allison in particular is. We also discuss how race is portrayed on Teen Wolf.

We also discuss Warehouse 13 – and how a slow paced episode was ideal at the place in the series. And we talk about Alphas and the eternally manipulative Dr. Rosen and how I’m Team Stanton Parish. We also discuss Sinbad.

Our book of the week is Biting Cold by Chloe Neill.

Our next books of the week:

13/8-20/8: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

20/8-27/8: Nightshifted by Cassie Alexander

27/8-3/9: Storm Dancer by Jay Kristoff
3/9-10/9: Constantine Affliction by T Aaron Payton
10/9-17/9: Tempest Rising: Tracy Deebs
17/9-24/9: Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman