Black City Saint by Richard A Knaak

Nick Medea is the Guardian of the Gate. It is his duty to protect the gateway to faerie, and has been ever since he slew the dragon.

He fights against fae incursions in prohibition era Chicago – but something far more powerful and sinister than mob bosses is manipulating the warring gangs. Not all old enemies are defeated – and he risks losing the woman he loves, again, and his soul to the very beast he once destroyed in his battle to protect the city – and the world.

The concept of this book is… pretty amazing

St. George, the dragon slayer, is possessed by the very dragon he slew. And haunted by Diocletin, the Roman Emperor who ordered him (hey that’s some cannon research there!) executed for not turning his back on his Christianity. And fighting to protect the gateway

All of this is against a backdrop of 1920s mob-torn film noir Chicago.

And the King of the Fairies is manipulating the mobs. Who is pretty much at war against the Queen of the Fairies – who also can’t be trusted. Both of whole are epicly creepy and powerful

You’re still reading this review? How can you not read that concept and not make grabby hands for the book right away? I know I did!

Shall I throw in faerie exiles including a werewolf trying out Chicagoan 20s slang?

I also really do like the plot – I love that these ancient, mighty, incredible fae lords who are 10,000 steps ahead of you at all times. I love the complexity of their plan. I love the craftiness of it.

I love Nick’s constant battle and worry about the beast inside him.

I love the concept of the very very creepy fae that inhabit this world. I love how they’re presented and Nick’s duty related to them – I even love lord of the fae’s end game and what it implies for the whole world. I love its twists.

12 Monkeys, Season Two, Episode Nine: Hyena

12 Monkeys continues to make less and less sense as far as I am concerned.  Does anyone really know who or what the threat to humanity is anymore? Is it the red forest? Is it the virus?  Does time travel bring about the end of civilization or is it the only thing that stops the destruction of humanity? I am just about getting to the point where I know longer care.

Let's start with Cassie and Ramse because they were the least interesting this week.  Now that Cassie has revealed to Ramse that she saw a place called Titan when connected to the Witness, they decide to search for it.  They are unable to find any reference to it on any map that they have, so Cassie laments the fact that databases no longer exist.  Cue the arrival of Hannah, who has just the ticket. Hannah suggests that they visit The Keeper, who just happens to trade in truths.  Ramse gets packed to head out and Cassie is quick to follow despite his objections.  It seems that Cassie has figured out that even though she is not immune to the virus, the fact that she hasn't left the message for Cole from the past about the virus means that she won't die in 2044. Did anyone else have to stop and think about what the hell Cassie was referring to for a moment? Yeah, that's because 12 Monkeys keeps switching threats.

Thanks to the fact that humanity had started digitizing documents, The Keeper managed to save many things when society fell apart. Take that all you purists who insist on reading paper instead of e reading like the rest of us.  So, anyway, The Keeper hooks up Cassie and Ramse to his uber lie detector test.  Given Ramse's obvious disdain for Cassie, he demands to know why they hate each other.  Cassie claims of course that the issue is that Ramse was willing to kill millions to save just one person.  Surprisingly, The Keeper's machine indicates that Cassie is lying. Wait, all those hours of giving Ramse grief for trying to save Sam is not her issue?  Yeah, it's a lot more shallow than that. It seems that Cassie hates Ramse because Cole supposedly chose him over her.  Similarly, Ramse's reason is exactly the same - JEALOUSY.  It's petty and ridiculous and had me rolling my eyes. So now that The Keeper has the dirt on Cassie and Ramse's relationship, though I cannot think for a moment why he would even give two fucks, he prints out a classified document which mentions Titan in Germany and offers a date.  Looks like there's going to be more road trips in the future.

While Ramse and Cassie are off on their road trip, Cole heads to see Jennifer about the fact that the red forest is growing because of a paradox.  Jennifer actually calls Cole out on his distraction and warns him to keep his eye on her hands.  She's trippy and fun and Cole realises that while this is all new for him, it's a part of Jennifer's history.

Back in 2016, Jennifer has freed a group of women who were in a mental institution and drawn a picture of a hyena on the wall because hyenas are the natural predator of the monkeys.  The big plan is using the women she has collected, (which she has named the Hyenas) is to take the fight to The Monkeys for a change.  Jennifer refers to it as her A Team but made up of a Murdocks.  Yeah, I love when she makes 80's references that fly right over Cole's head.

Cole splinters in and the Hyenas are not down with a man invading their sisterhood. They've all set a trap for the Pallid Man hoping to be able to take him out for good. That's right, The Pallid Man and Olivia are back in action.  Olivia is now a wheelchair user and is filled with doubt about The Witness.  I think any reasonable person would be given how much he has gotten wrong recently.  The Pallid Man however isn't down for any questioning of their lord and master and chokes Olivia for daring to speak her doubts.  It's a pretty violent scene that actually had me rooting for Olivia to find a way to end the Pallid Man.

Unsurprisingly, The Hyenas and Jennifer have way under estimated the Pallid Man and he scores against them big time.  The Pallid Man has all of the Hyenas save Jennifer killed, along with their source, who was going to reveal of his dirty little secrets.  To add a little more salt to the wounds, The Pallid Man informs Cole that the paradox has already happened and then taunts him about trying to stop it. The Pallid Man even takes the time to taunt Cole about killing his father. Sure, Cole gets to punch the Pallid Man a few times but I suppose for the Pallid Man, it's a small price to pay.

Penny Dreadful, Season 3, Episode 7: Ebb Tide

Let’s start with a really cringe worthy storyline. Ethan and his “dad” Kaetenay – who is desperate to get Ethan to join in this way through a series of really really really bad tropes.

He compares Kaetenay with his biological father both fighting the same war which really really badly handles the invading perpetuator of genocide and the people

And Kaetenay decides that he has predicted that an Apache will save the world from darkness. An Apache will save the world. An Apache is prophesised to save… oh that’s Ethan

Ethan? Yup, Ethan is an Apache because the Native American mentor character has declared Ethan an Apache. The White man who slaughtered Native Americans and then felt sad about it.

He also performs some woo-woo – of course he does – to see Vanessa and gasp that she’s half damned and going to cause the end of the world! To the ship!

We have a far better moment with Ethan and Malcolm with Malcolm pretty much embracing his own damnation and considering killing Ethan’s father an act of mercy because it’s a terrible thing to have to kill your own family. He also considers it a good sign that Ethan couldn’t kill his dad – it shows Ethan is still redeemabl and basically good.

Now to Vanessa. Beautiful, amazing, tragic Vanessa. Oh how I love Vanessa. How I love her acting, her amazing intensity. My sheer fragile glee when she manages a smile, that delicate beautiful smile and that joy for deciding to be happy (though the awesome Dr. Seward believes she is a split personality)

And she will be torn down again, of course. But first she meets with John Smith to try and discuss the past he no longer remembers. She encourages him to find happiness, she praises his gentleness and kindness and above all, both of them decide to dare to be happy.

John goes to his wife, Marjorie – and in a rejection of the tragedy that consumes this show, she embraces him as the husband she loves who has come back to her. She hears his story and doesn’t reject him and brings him to their son who accepts him. On any other show I would probably say something snarky about tweeness – but bring on the twee. We could use some happiness on this painful show.

Except there’s a downside – when Catarina Hartegan shows up to give some more information about Dracula she finally realises who he is. Yes, she confronts Dr. Sweet – when they were so happy the night before.

The confrontation is, of course, epic. With Vanessa furious, outraged, deeply grieving and Dracula making excellent points about night creatures, broken things, outcasts and the continued excellent image of the scorpion.

The Lives of Tao (Tao Series #1) by Wesley Chu

  

This book is probably more sci-fi than what we’ve seen before but it’s different from your average sci-fi as the alien possessors are so free from your many of your usual sci-fi markers

That’s my excuse. But I’ll be honest I just wanted to read this series as it was well recommended and I already liked Wesley Chu’s Time Salvager and since it’s generally frowned upon to hunt down authors that intrigue you and demand they write the genre you like on pain of am armadilloing, I decided to read this one. And save my armadillos for another day (also spellcheck, I disapprove of that lack of “e” on armadillos but after 10 minutes of struggle, I lost).

This book has aliens, the Quasing find human hosts which they then influence – but don’t take over. They have no super powers, they give no super powers – they just give knowledge. Thousands and thousand of years of experience – the experience of all human civilisation. Civilisation for which they were behind a lot of it, with a huge amount of the most famous and influential people of history were possessed by quasing.

In many other books I would comment on how this is appropriative and how it dismisses real human history. Especially since it does a very good job of not just focusing western history (so much of our fiction is western orientated): Tao, the Quasing we follow, has most prominently been in the head of Ghenghis Khan and Sun Yat-Sen among others. So this would suggest putting he achievements of great people in history – great POC in history – down to alien intervention (which is borderline “aliens built the pyramids” level of problematic)

It manages to avoid that by the simple amount of influence Tao has. Sure he can guide, but he can’t control. He can enhance but ultimately the quasing is not in the driver’s seat. On top of that Tao is as much – or more, willing to claim his failures as much as his successes. He not just blames himself for the failures of his past hosts but also Quasings in general. I found the brief reminisces of Tao’s previous lives, how Quasing history has developed, how world history has developed and how Prophus and Geijix factions came about. But thin it was excellently balanced by not including too much – we introduced the history and goals of the factions without completely overwhelming the whole book or turning it into an info-dump.

Preacher, Season 1, Episode 3: The Possibilities

Jesse decides he has to tell someone about his new shiny powers – and who better than his live in vampire (who is finding odd jobs awkward when he can’t go out in the sun). After a particularly ridiculous demonstration of his super powers, Cassidy declares this super awesome

He’s not the only one, people in town are already hearing of how he opened the comatose girl’s eyes (showing the limit to this power – she’s still comatose. Her eyes are open, but she’s comatose). But we also see the consequences – with annoying Mother-Issues’s guys funeral and the limits – with the paedophile school bus driver noticing the girl he’d been ordered to forget. This little bits are threaded into the rest of the plot quite neatly to show the scope of his shiny new abilities

Tulip has had a series of adventures in Houston with some strange people (and refusing the murder said strange woman’s husband) to finally get some information

That information is the last known address of a man called Carlos. Who is Carlos? I’m not sure but what we do know is he did some terrible things to Tulip and Jesse – so bad that vengeance against him is enough to stir Jesse from his path of goodness and rejoin Tulip in brutal murder

More interesting than this is Tulip’s emotional turmoil, shown partly with her rather funny and poignant traffic stop in which she emotionally talks about going all out to desperately try and save a friend who has gone down a bad road. It’s touching because we see how much Jesse means to Tulip and it’s funny because the whole bad road she’s desperately trying to save Jesse from is being a preacher and bring him back to the right path of mayhem and murder.

Of course it doesn’t last as we follow Donnie – the guy who Jesse brutally beat and left with a broken arm. Donnie has had the awkward conversation of trying to explain to his son that he doesn’t abuse his wife, they’re just in a BDSM relationship. Very very awkward. He also teaches his son the not very great life lesson by congratulating him for beating another boy until he cries. It’s no surprising then that this typical man is feeling all emasculated by Jesse

This is further shown by him working for his boss Odin Quincannon – he who drives around the place levelling farms and sits in his office listening to the sounds of live animal slaughter. A nice guy then. And like last week where Donnie had to struggle with a briefcase and pen with one arm, he again makes Donnie struggle with a task he can’t do one handed, noting he has a “right hands man with no right hand”

Yes, this guy’s pretty much an arsehole. Let’s hope Cassidy eats him.

Game of Thrones, Season 6, Episode 8: No-One

As is pretty clear by the title of this episode – a lot of this is Arya’s storyline

Actually there’s not a lot there – given the title I expected more. But Arya, after last week’s bizarre decision to let a stranger just come up to her despite knowing she’s being targeted by shape-shifting assassins seeks sanctuary with the actress she spared

That actress is indeed very skilled and, honestly, I can’t think of Arya having many other people to turn to. But at the same time she should have realised the contract on her head isn’t just going to disappear – and low the woman everyone is calling the Waif assassinates the target. And then targets Arya

We get a lot of running and falling through the streets with Arya getting steadily more beaten up and us all knowing that Game of Thrones will kill anyone… until Arya, her stitches ruptured, bleeding, bruised and overmatched, faces the Waif with a Needle. In a place lit by one candle only. Which she extinguishes

Arya, who spent weeks blinded, cuts off the Waif’s face and displays it for Jaquen. He assumes she’s finally “No-one”. Nope, she’s Arya Stark and she’s going home. Time for the Starks to strike back, hopefully with them all being mildly more intelligent than their deceased kin. Because oh gods, let us remember that this family is known for monumentally bad decisions.

On the note of the Starks striking back with Brienne and Pod making it to Riverrun to try and get the Blackfish to lead the Tully forces north to Winterfell. Except for that whole damn siege thing. This brings Brienne and Jaime together (and Pod and Bronn)

Jaime and Brienne continue to be excellent together. Their obvious, desperately unrequited chemistry is very very very clear. We also see a lot about both characters – who they want to be. Jaime wants to be a good man, an honourable man and… just fails desperately. He knows he’s never as good as he wants to be – though Brienne inspires him to try

Rocked by Love (Gargoyles #4) by Christine Warren

When Kylie Kramer gets a phone call to inform her that her best friend Bran has died due to a previously unknown heart condition, she's certain that something doesn't smell right about the story. After breaking into Bran's computer and doing some research, Kylie is even more convinced that there's more to the story than she has been told.  Her search for the truth of the death of her friend causes her to enter a battle for the survival of humanity that just might cost her heart.

As you can tell from the man titty on the cover, Rocked by Love, is paranormal romance.  This fourth novel of the series is almost identical to the previous three.  A woman unaware that she wields magical power is attacked close to a statue of a gargoyle which bursts to life to protect her, thus introducing her to a world of magic and danger.  Naturally, she turns out to be the gargoyle's mate. Kylie, like all of the other female love interests balks at the idea that she is destined to be the mate of a Guardian/Gargoyle but is of course convinced by the end of the novel. It's all rather formulaic.

I know, I know. There are those of you who feel that the paranormal romance genre should not get knocked down for being formulaic however, I don't agree.  In the case of Rocked by Love, while the romance itself comes down to paint by numbers, it does have an intriguing plot which continues to hold my interest in the series.  The gargoyles series is focused on stopping agents of darkness from ending humanity and in this entre, Warren even included a surprise ending quite separate from that of the predictable HEA. I want to know what is going to happen with Nocturnis and how our heroes are going to defeat this great amassing power.

In Rocked by Love, Warren used technology as a form of magic to power Kylie.  I found this interesting largely because tech is an industry largely run and ruled by men.  Kylie is an absolute tech mogul and genius, successful enough to never have to work again in her early 20's. Not only is she sure of who she is, she sure of her capabilities.  My biggest problem with her portrayal is that Warren made so much of Kylie being a geek but couldn't seem to follow through with the requisite references and no, tribble slippers alone don't count.

The most obvious thing about Kylie is her Jewishness or rather non Jewishness.  Kylie's father is Jewish; however, she doesn't attend synagogue. or keep Kosher and so does not self define as Jewish. However, Kylie's speech is constantly littered with Yiddish phrases.  Her Jewish heritage is clearly an important part of her identity and something that Warren continually reminds the reader of.  Let me start off by saying that I am far from an expert on Jewish culture, religion or mysticism but as I read Rocked by Love, something felt really wrong to me. I very much want to give Warren credit for not shying away from making her female love interest someone other than the prototype that has come to proliferate this genre but I am not the only reviewer to take issue with her stereotypical and empty characterisation.

Outcast: Season 1, Episode 2: (I Remember) when she loved me.

Kyle takes a painful trip down memory lane this episode – remembering a lot more of the abuse and horror but also the good times he had with his mother – which is especially poignant since last week we had Joshua fully restored to himself after his exorcism (if that’s what we’re going to call it –more on that later).

So he looks at his comatose mother and thinks that he could go back to his mother with whom he had a wonderful relationship with. He visits her in her care home and promptly takes her out when he disapproves of the way she’s been cared for. He takes her home to look after her himself, desperately trying to care for her.

All through this desperate and completely inept but very earnest attempts to care for his mother we get flashbacks to both the good memories and the abuse interachanged. We can truly see the huge morass of Kyle’s issues here.

To add to that morass of pain, Kyle also begs his sister Megan (who is taking her daughter to Kyle’s daughter’s birthday party) to take a present for his daughter. It’s, again, painful especially when we remember that at least part of the reason he is split from his family appears to be further possession.

Even now there’s still ongoing ructions against Kyle after last week – his brother in law particularly is furious that Kyle wasn’t arrested for child abuse last episode after the brutal exorcism of Joshua. Even the Nice Church Ladies who are such fans of Reverend Anderson are uncomfortable with his friendship with Kyle. It looks like the deeply conflicted and damaged Kyle is now facing every increasing ostracism  - I see a theme developing.