Blood Gamble (Disrupted Magic #2) by Melissa F. Olson

Scarlett does not want to go to Las Vegas. No, not even if there are two vampires putting on a show that may reveal the old world. No not even if Dashiel is paying her a huge sum of money. She’s not going

But Vampires don’t take no for an answer and with Dashiel manipulating her sister-in-law into going she has to try and protect them. But there she encounters something far more deadly than Dashiel expected… she could come home, but who but Scarlett will stop the death toll rising?

I would describe the world building of this book as solid and balanced and… disciplined. That seems like an odd word - but so many books have an anything-goes-magical-world and then decide ALL THE THINGS must be included so you can’t even go to the local shops without tripping over 2 leprechauns, bumping into a kitsune and dodging a Wendigo.

This book is excellently focused on the three major supernaturals - vampires, werewolves and witches, while clearly having a world with more out there but not allowing those swamp the book - instead we have nice additions without losing the focus

And I like how he implications of Scarlett, a null, fits into that - from alleviating the werewolf curse which is such a relief at times, to vampires being disturbed by actually feeling cold/hunger etc. I like the nuance of it.

What did surprise me about this book is the ending. There are elements I didn’t like - but I will say the whole thing completely surprised me - the twists and turns are completely beyond what I expected. Honestly, the ending and what happened with the characters was definitely not anything I expected as I read along. Throughout the book the plot goes in ways I never expected - the culprits were completely not what I expected. The way Scarlett finds the answers, balancing her friends, the threats and getting to the bottom of things is also a really original unexpected direction.

The plot does have moments where I think Scarlett seems to make some pretty huge leaps at times - like the whole Skinners storyline seemed to come from nowhere. Like we went from not even knowing Skinners existed and then suddenly decided they were a major threat without any real indication that they were present.but suddenly everyone focused on them

That aside the twists really make this plot. There’s action which is really well done, but not a lot mainly focusing on the investigation since Scarlett has a very unique power which isn’t necessarily a combat monster but definitely dangerous, following leads and balancing just how much Scarlett actually wants to be involved in this dangerous investigation.

I like Scarlett’s own development - she has that nice balance between her being duly concerned with her safety and the people she cares for alongside her compassion. I actually kind of like how Dashiel pretty much twists her arm to make her go - yes it’s coercive but we’re not talking a love interest here and, let’s be clear, the Cardinal Vampire of Los Angeles is going to be a ruthless user of people because, hey, master vampires, I don’t expect fluffy fluffy niceness. And Scarlett pretty much recognises this and doesn’t expect more. But I do like that she isn’t going to put herself at risk just because Dashiel says so. I like a compassionate protagonist but being a complete martyr is an overdone trope; especially female protagonists who are often not allowed to seek their own advancement.. Compassion moves her, as does threat and money - and it’s ok for a protagonist to be somewhat self interested. Of course that then falls apart because she’s only gathering a huge amount of money to help pay off her brother’s son’s massive medical bills

Preacher, Season 2, Episode 4: Viktor

Tulip has been taken by Viktor’s men. And by taken I mean they hang around menacingly and very very very carefully watch her comply. They clearly know Tulip because at no point do they treat her as less than a very very dangerous person

Of course, so is Viktor. He’s a rich man with an army of goons, a pet torturer with fighting skills and a lot of money. Tulip arrives and starts crying and begging forgiveness… hmmm… ok this better be a ruse, because a tearful scared Tulip is not what I’m signing up for.

Viktor isn’t buying. SHe tries to get the whole household who she knows - but all of them are giving her the silent treatment. Which is an odd form of torture. A girl even spits at her, hoping her father kills her - and Tulip doesn’t murder her. She seems quite upset, hurt even.

Eventually she grabs a gun from one goon and it takes 3 more goons to stop her killing Viktor - though he’s confident she won’t kill him.

Jessie and Cassidy, meanwhile are looking for God. Cassidy keeps trying to hint to Jessie that Tulip’s in trouble without breaking his promise to Tulip, but Jessie is completely self absorbed. Part of this is based on an awareness of Tulip - he thinks she’s mad at him over the broken marriage thing so has run off to be mad somewhere, apparently a Tulip’s habit. There’s also this awesome exchange:

Cassidy: if I had a woman like Tulip, I’d worry all the time

Jessie: then you’d be wasting your time. If you had a woman like Tulip you don’t need to worry. She can look after herself

All very true and very respectful of her power and knowing her - but there’s a difference between knowing someone can help themselves and also showing a level of concern rather than treating them as a distraction.

THeir quest for god leads them to an actor - the actor who played god in Heaven’s little display at the church. Yes he’s a human actor from New Orleans. Tracking down his agent and with some clever fast talking from Cassidy they managed to get a copy of his audition tape - but not the actor himself

Not the actor because the tape shows that when he passed the audition, his employer killed him. Jessie realises they needed to do that to get him to Heaven to playing the role.

Which is the point when Cassidy can’t take it any more and tells Jessie that Tulips in trouble

Time for a rescue - of Tulip? Yeah I can’t help but think if she really wanted out a whole lot of people would be dead by now.

White Hot (Hidden Legacy #2) by Ilona Andrews

Nevada knows better than to get involved in Prime politics - and doubly to keep her magic hidden from the powerful families

But when Cornelius pleads for her to find the murderer of his wife, she feels she has to get involved. When a paedophile kidnaps a young girl she feels she can’t not use her magic

And when she uncovers a magical conspiracy that may destabilise the entire city if not the whole country she is again pulled in. More and more Nevada is drawn into Prime society.

I love this world - which goes without saying. It’s Ilona Andrews: it goes without saying that the world is amazing. All their worlds are amazing. In every series. No-one beats Ilona Andrews when it comes to amazing worlds.

But I think more than the magic world building I love how the politics between the Prime families and how they interact, the rights they have, the privileges. The magic is there and underpins everything which shapes both history and politics which in turn shapes the characters and their experiences-  but it’s more the maneuvering than the shiny powers that drives their actions.

Though I love how the powers are depicted, especially the subtle and horrifying impact of Nevada’s own power. As well as the comic and scary effects of her sister. Or how the power to talk to animals can render humans socially awkward. These are all excellently put together

I like the thought that has gone into magical intervention as well - how if a powerful magic user intervenes in one disaster they’re then blamed or attacked if a similar disaster strikes and they don’t step forward.

And the romance. This is generally where I say how much the romance is a distraction and how I hates it and, well, if you’ve read my reviews you know the drill of my annoyance. However, here is the mold being broken -ok i do think we, perhaps, spend a little more time on the romance than is ideal considering there is so much plot and world to get through but I can recognise that as a personal preference thing. What I do like is the conflicts between them - because they’re reasonable and sensible and don’t require one or both parties to lose their ever loving minds in order to have a disagreement.

Rogan is ridiculously rich and powerful and he decides he wants to protect Nevada - but in trying to do that he is using his vast wealthy to control her and the land and people around her. He sees this as defending her while she, rightfully, rejects this as it gives her a ridiculous amount of power over her, completely removes any chance of having an equal relationship - it’s not just that he has so much more wealth and power and influence than her but he’s willing to use it without consulting her of helping her.

Fear the Walking Dead, Season 3, Episode 7&8: The Unveiling/Children of Wrath

Much of this week's midseason finale focused on the looming conflict between the Broke Jaw Ranch and Black Hat Reservation. We did however spend a little bit of time with Strand.  Part of my ongoing issue with Fear the Walking Dead is its absolute refusal to bring its characters together for any length of time. Because Strand is seperated from the Clarke family, the sections of the finale that did focus on him felt like a distraction from the real story.  It's further troubling that in the time that we did spend with him, we didn't learn anything earth shattering. Sure, Strand did find his boat The Abigail again and have a conversation with a cosmonaut, confirming that the apocalypse is worldwide but was any of that even necessary?  Strand is too important of a character to be reduced to filler and that is what he became in the mid season finale. 

The action begins with Jake's big plan to meet with Qaletqa Walker and form some kind of truce.  Walker of course is not necessarily amenable to coming to terms with people he believes stole his land and murdered members of his family to acquire it. At this point, it's hard to be on the side Broke Jaw Ranch, particularly when we know that Jeremiah is as racist as it gets. Driven to defend his family, Jake points out that those charges were investigated and the survivalists were cleared.  Cleared in whose court Jake? Whose justice system adjudicated this? A zombie apocalypse is a disaster to the survivalists whereas for Walkers tribe, it's a chance to cleanse the earth of invaders of who have oppressed the "first humans". 

Though Walker does not feel any resolution can be made, he agrees to having Alicia stay behind while Jake returns to the ranch with Ofelia as his hostage. Yes, at long last the writers have decided to have Ofelia leave the plot box. But how exactly did Ofelia end up with Walkers people?  Ofelia was making her way to San Diego when she had a run in with none other that Jeremiah, and though he could see that she was in a bad way, he refused to take her back to the ranch because he didn't deem the ranch a suitable place for her kind (read: brown people)  Jeremiah left Ofelia for dead but fortunately for Ofelia, she was found by Walker, who brought her to the reservation and in the process, saving her life. Of course, when Jeremiah finally does meet with Ofelia again, he's keen to pretend that leaving her to die wan't such a horrible sin and that he's glad that she's survived.

At the reservation, Alisha is getting a chance to learn about Walkers people for the first time without the filter of the Ottos distorting the truth. Alisha learns that the tribe is filled with hard workers, many of whom are former military, who spend their time rebuilding military equipment.  Alisha pauses when she sees the helicopter that Travis was killed in and Walker offers his condolences because he sees the Clarks as getting caught in the crossfire between the tribe and the survivalists. 

Madison is freaked right out that Alisha is at the reservation and though Jake tries to assure her that he wouldn't have left if he thought that Alisha was in danger, Madison decides to take matters into her own hands.  This involves manipulating Troy into doing her bidding by goading Troy about who is actually in charge and when that fails, reminding Troy that he owes her for not revealing that he's the one responsible for the death of the Trimbols. Sure enough, Madison organises a raid to retrieve a stunned Alisha, in the process killing several people on the reserve and leaving behind several dead survivalists. It looks like Madison's silent leadership is going to prove deadly for both sides. Jake is pissed but all he can do at this point is deliver the agreed upon water to the reservation and return Ofelia.  To say that Walker is pissed when Jake arrives is an understatement.  Were it not for Ofelia speaking up, Walker would have scalped Jake on the spot. 

Later, Ofelia arrives at the ranch battered and bruised. Ofelia claims that she was beaten by the tribe and cast out. Because of the underlying racism of the survivalists and Madison's failure to understand that Ofelia is not the same young woman that she promised Daniel that she would protect, Ofelia is welcomed in. This proves to be a costly mistake because Ofelia slips poison into the coffee, effectively killing quite a few of Troy's men, causing a panic when they begin to turn.  Ofelia tries to make her escape but she is captured by Madison before she can drive off in a truck. Madison then beats Ofelia to find out what happened. 

With Nick's life now in peril, Madison drives Ofelia back to the reservation at gun point. Madison is pissed because she feels betrayed by Ofelia points out that she was helping her people. This further incenses Madison and she actually questions why the Clarks aren't her people given how much the Clarks had helped Ofelia and her family. Clearly Madison doesn't see the inherent racism in her response, especially because when placed next to Otto, she comes off as liberal. Madison isn't for a moment thinking about the ways in which race have affected Ofelia's decisions about who to side with because she's actively chosen to ignore race and the history of colonialism in this conflict. 

Madison is immediately taken to see Walker and she claims not to care about the feud between the Broke Jaw Ranch and Black Hat Reservation, and only about the survival of her son. This admission earns Madison some grudging respect from Walker. It convinces Walker to reveal that the powder used to poison the survivalists is anthrax, for which there is no cure.  Walker however does say that if Nick is strong, he'll survive. Later, when Ofelia balks at being the one to deliver the anthrax, Walker is quick to remind her that she volunteered for this duty. 

Orphan Black, Season Five, Episode Five: Ease for Idle Millionaires

Ease of Idle Millionaires is absolutely a Cosima centric episode. It seems to me that as we prepare for the finale showdown, Orphan Black is going to center on each clone individually and remind us of their strengths and what makes them who they are. Cosima may have landed in a rough place, but does anyone actually doubt that she'll be able to to make her escape? 

Sarah 

We actually only spend a little bit of time this week with Kira, Sarah and Mrs. S. As we always expected Kira, the unexpected second generation, is the key to this all.  Unfortunately because Kira is only a little girl, there's much she cannot be told and much quite simply that she cannot understand. Like all children, Kira is highly inquisitive and resentful of adult conversations from which she has been excluded, even if it is for her own good.  Having acknowledged that the connection Kira has with all clones is real, Sarah really needs to tap into this and understand how and why this works. The only way for Sarah to get Kira to willingly give up the information is to start her early introduction to Clone Club, a move that Mrs. S most certainly does not agree with.  The introduction turns into mother and daughter bonding time, with Kira giving the clones code names. I'm not sure that elephant for Rachel works all that well though. 

While Sarah is busy bonding and prying information out of Kira, Mrs. S heads to the lab and instructs them to look into men who may have died in the 1950's - the time that neolution underwent a revival. Finally, someone is thinking about the obvious.  There's no damn way that Westmoreland is 170, they didn't have the science back then. 

Rachel

Rachel doesn't have much of a role to play this week, though she does manage to assert her dominance over Susan, like the power hungry asshole that she is. Actually, at this point, I don't like either Susan or Rachel, so it's hard to root for either one of them to end up ahead. The reunion between mother and daughter isn't at all pleasant, so I suppose it's a good thing that Ira hid the knives first. Susan knows all to well that as much as Rachel would like to be rid of her, her input is vital.  Rachel, who isn't one to be cowed, jabs Susan in her still healing wound and makes it clear that corporate, which she controls, will be in charge of the science. Really Rachel? How is that possible when you know so little about science?

As a reward for her good behaviour, Westmoreland gives Rachel the treatment that Cosima came up with to help deal with the genetic flaws in the Leda clones. 

Cosima

The real action happens on the island this week. The writers spent a lot of time on the science and at times it's to the detriment of the plot. Not being a science geek myself, despite many years watching science fiction, hearing “Lin28A” repeatedly didn't actually do lot for me, nor did hearing about the manipulation of Aiesha's tumor actually cause me to invest more in the plot. I'm also just a little bit confused by all the work to seemingly humanise Cosima this week, which is something that I don't think that was really needed, given that they've spent five years fleshing out who she is as a character and what she will and will not stand for. My only real frustration is the ongoing relationship with Delphine. Okay fine, do all the booing and hissing that you want. I will acknowledge that Delphine is working behind the scenes to keep her promise to Cosima to find answers but that doesn't make her any less manipulative.  I'm not one who is in denial about the fact that this relationship, no matter how much fans seem to love it, is based on lies. 

Just as she promised, Cosima is following the science. To that end, Cosima decides to get DNA from the tooth of Westmoreland's badly treated science experiment. Cosima however is interrupted by the people of Revival because it's been discovered that a resident has been killed. At this point, none of the residents of Revival are buying for a minute that the predator in the woods is a bear and they are determined to kill it, despite Mud's protests. Mud explains to Cosima that at one point, Wesmoreland's failed experiment had his own room at the house and wasn't always this vicious. Apparently, this is what happens to a person when a few experiments go wrong. While chatting with Mud, Cosima sees Delphine arrive.  Rather than heading to speak with Cosima, Delphine rushes to the big house.

Wynonna Earp, Season 2, Episode 5: Let's Pretend We're Strangers

We get some new players introduced - the Order. And they’re hot firemen who we frequently see exercise. Sadly we don’t see them do this shirtless. Or wet. Honestly why have hot firemen and not get them shirtless or wet? I object! I object!

Oh they also have axes and are killing people possessed by goo demons. They wear a robe while doing so so are still not half naked. Well damn.

They’ve got one more demon creature to hunt down.

That creature would be in Wynonna who is currently taunting Waverley, has tied her little sister up and is making the worst smoothie I’ve seen outside of youtube recipes Renee insists on sharing with me. Wynonna manages to fight off possession sufficiently to not kill Waverley

Doc arrives before she can torture Waverley and together they head into action with Demon Wynonna who has odd taste in pancakes and flirts constantly with Doc and tries to sabotage Waverley’s relationship with Nicole because demons have nothing better to do.. They get the plate from the briefcase to Jeremy who, through licking, realises the plate has a seal underneath so he heads off the Black Badge to show that around and figure out what it means while Wynonna and Doc head to the sadly-clothed-firefighters since their station has the same symbol on the door

There Euan, chief hot-fire-fighter-demon-hunter tells them the station is consecrated ground and people who walk in sin get the heebie jeebies. Wynonna is definitely feeling heebie-ish and threatens the guy with a knife

This pushes Doc over the edge, he knows Wynonna’s possessed because she takes her coffee black and she doesn’t bring a knife when she has peacemaker (and the acting’s kind of awesome since we can see who is in control just by facial expressions - kudos to that).

At least we don’t get a whole episode of everyone trying to figure out what is wrong with Wynonna

Meanwhile Juan-Carlo the guy who is totally an angel sees the still-fully-clothed-Euan and gently points out that Wynonna would make a great ally. Euan think killing demons is more important. He also talks about one of the broken seals - which is what Wynonna has been obsessed about

While Doc is busy bundling Wynonna into the boot of his car, Dolls finds Waverley tied up and they have an awesome scene of Dolls discovering whether this is the real Waverley or whether she’s possessed and Waverley disclosing her disgusting favourite food and apologising constantly. Before he can free her Lucado shows up and Dolls and Lucado wreck half the house fight - and does Lucado have super strength? Because if she can throw Dolls through walls or even match his strength equally I’m going to say yes

The fight is broken up when Waverley shoots a gun in the air and asks them to focus on the task at hand, damn it.

Doc brings Wynonna home to the police station and they lock her up and discuss next option. Well Lucado and Dolls discuss it after they get Doc and Waverley out of the way. They recognise this demon, it’s haunted them before and the goo-demon likes to multiply into “legion” and it takes lots of people down with it including entire Black Badge centres - it also seems to be following Dolls. Basically it’s bad news and Lucado would quite like to vivisect Wynonna to get her back in Black Badge good books since they’re not returning her calls. Since Dolls vetoes that option 2 is to deposess her but for that that needs some samples. Of blood, flesh and bone.

Dolls has to cut off Wynonna’s finger which is every bit as awful as it sounds even as Wynonna gains control enough to tell Dolls to do it despite the goo-demon’s distractions.

The goo demon does regenerate body parts at least.

Lucado tests the goo and it sings to her… so she touches it. And her head explodes. No, really. Dolls is left with one hell of a clean up job and another annoying character is removed.

Juan Carlo the not-angel appears to Doc and Waverley to get back in the action where they find Dolls mid cleanup.

They have a potion to exorcise Wynonna by convincing the demon that she’s actually dead. But after that they don’t actually have any real plan to kill the demon and stop it multiplying. For that they need Peacekeeper. And to use that they need an unpossessed Wynonna

Killjoys, Season 3, Episode 2: A Skinner Darkly

Last week Olli was injured so Johnny brings her to Havigan’s bar for treatment and to threaten whoever betrayed them - Havigan applies logic here, sure he asked after Clara but why would anyone actually betray them?

While Olli is treated Johnny gets a crash course on just how terribly Hackmods are treated and, when Olli wakes up, they manage to get some information about the Hollen gooed man who tried to kill them. Though Havigan is reluctant because everyone there has enough shit to deal with without adding to it with Johnny’s drama

There’s a group called the Skinners that can literally change your skin, entirely shapeshift someone to look like someone else (we see a scene where one of these shapeshifted people went off mission gets it all a little wrong when their skin shift doesn’t quite take and end up being killed by Niko - a hackmod with a bionic leg - head of the Skinner’s company to keep them covered up). Naturally Johnny wants to investigate this because Hollen-goo is scary

So time for his awesome undercover as guy seeking cosmetic surgery while being a super confident douchebag. I do like Johnny undercover. He’s fun and he’s willing to have fun more than the rest of the cast - in fact D’avin and Dutch need Johnny because they’re just way too intense and dour without him.

There they sneak Olli in for some investigating, discover a whole lot of skinned bodies and Yoko - Clara’s friend - who gets them out sharpish though almost gets Johnny caught in the process

But Olli does manage to get Johnny some hands from the bodies to examine. He is inappropriately gleeful about this. They also have a lead with Yoko - Olli decides her tried and true tactic of punching her in the face until answers come out may be in order.

Except Johnny’s experiments on the hands come with some disturbing truths - the hands are actually the bodies of hackmod owners: people NIko has targetted. And one of them owned Olli and Yoko. Olli has never been owned, she’s sure - but she also has a 6 year gap in her memories. Poking further it becomes clear that Olli isn’t running around with Clara’s arm - Olli is Clara but has been skinshifted.

The emotion of this moment is perfect with Olli horrified when Johnny calls her Clara and he has to stop her cutting off her face screaming “who is this face?! Get it off”. The gun arm lead Olli to Johnny because Clara programmed it to.

Back to Havigan to get some answers from Yoko - it turns out Clara did find the skinners and what they were doing and she was horrified. Niko ordered Yoko to make Clara disappear… which she did but without killing her and with a memory chip. Yoko explains that they’re using skin shifting to get enough money and legal clout to get people to a colony far away (involving cryo-transport), an actual home for hackmods without having to hide or be attacked. Johnny is duly cynical but Yoko absolutely accepts zero judgement from a Basic who has no understanding of their lives.

Which is when Niko comes, knocks everyone out and kidnaps Johnny

She wants a Killjoy skin - because she’s been tracking Hollen-goo all over the system (she doesn’t know what it is only that she needs it for the skinning) and a whole lot of them are guarded by KIlljoys. She also tells her story - how she got in debt, how she was stolen and how her leg and eye were taken by her new owner to be replaced with mods.

When Olli comes to rescue Johnny she also has an awesome speech about how she learned to love and accept herself - but that loving and accepting herself and not wanting to change her mods doesn’t mean she has to forgive those who abused her. I think this is a powerful point - it’s often held over the heads of victims that if they’re not forgiving then they’re somehow not “moving on” or allowing their attackers to “still control them”. You can love who and what you are and where you are and still be furious with the people who hurt you.

Preacher, Season 2, Episode 3: Damsels

The gang are heading to New Orleans, Tulip dragging her feet every step because Victor is there and she doesn’t want to meet him but she won’t tell Jessie about it - and Jessie, looking increasingly self-absorbed seems either oblivious or callously irritated by Tulip’s obvious trouble.

Of course, New Orleans isn’t a small city and you can’t just walk around saying you’re looking for god. Originally this gets them to a highly imaginative group of sex workers with a latex dog costume which is about the time that Tulip and Cassidy bail on Jessie to get accomodation

Cassidy insists on meeting up with his friend Dennis - who turns out to be an elderly man who only speaks French (while Cassidy speaks no French) and he seems pretty indifferent to their presence

He also tries to help Tulip but she keeps freezing him out - he objects that they’re treating him as incapable, as unable to help, as the “idiot Irish sidekick” which… ok is kind of how they’re treating him… but it’s also kind of how he acts? Pretty much nothing he does is handled in a vaguely competent fashion and he regularly makes things worse, especially since the few bursts of competence we have seen have been when they haven’t been there. It would actually be interesting for Cassidy to turn to Tulip and Jessie, object to their treatment, point out he’s old enough to be their grandfather and change and show his skills… but he’d have to have skills beyond “awesome partier” and “can take all the drugs”.

Tulip tries to call Jessie only to have us further see how obsessed Jessie has become and how cruelly he’s ignoring her. And, inevitably, Victor’s people find her.

While Jessie is dragging himself from bar to bar looking for god which generally doesn’t go well, lots of booze and a few bar fights later he finally gets a lead on a singer in a club turning down dates because patriots aren’t sufficiently sure that Tallahassee is the capital of Florida (but nice shutting him down lady).

She is unwilling to speak to Jesse but agrees to meet him outside the club - where she’s attacked by 5 men in white suits and masks. Jessie uses Genesis to stop the getaway van and then promptly beats all 5 of the men at once because he’s Jessie and he doesn’t need supernatural powers to take down 5 goons. He rescues her and they go back to her place where she has a baby and is planning to run. There she tells him he’s not the first looking for god and talks about a conspiracy religious world domination cult that was behind her attackers

She also tests Genesis to see if he can stop her kissing him - and he does. It’s a good test though, Jessie does look surprisingly good in the preacher garb

She leaves with her child and leaving Jessie without a lot of leads but he ends up in a club where and old man is listening enthralled by a band playing.