The Secret Circle, Season 1, Episode 10: Darkness

So after the long hiatus, The Secret Circle is back with us. Let me remind you where we left off. Cassie has powerful dark magic because of her ancestry, the witch hunters want to use her to help hunt witches (after all, Jake bought into the plan) and there are so many love triangles that plotting them all in pretty colours could be sold in the Tate Modern as art. Evil!Parents are trying to get back their powers that were stripped by the elder circle and they killed Henry, one of the Elder Cirle, stole Cassie’s grandmother’s memories (another member of the Elder Circle) and in doing so – causing her to exhibit early dementia-like symptoms. Faye is still a Mean Girl, Adam is a Wet Lettuce, Diane is still control freak Chief Scooby, Jake is Sexy Bad Boy and Melissa is Pointless Token Racial Inclusion. I think that pretty much covers everything

So, on with the show.

Cassie isn naturally somewhat perturbed about having dark magic in her blood and is having a disturbing dream about killing Jake, the Sexy Bad Boy. Frankly, I’m disturbed as well. She had Jake in her dreams and wastes this quality fantasy time with killing him. Very disappointing. I think the stage is being set for lots of Cassie!Angst about how terrible it is to have super powers.

And yes, that may sound cynical, but I am so so so so tired of this trope. Take teenager, give them PHENOMINAL COSMIC POWER (with no living space consequences) and inevitably they will turn round and start crying about how abnormal having super powers is.

Adam soggily arrives to puppy dog eyes all over Cassie and assure her that her special super powers may have nothing to do with her black magic and may just be because she’s a super special good person. Not particularly willing to put on Adam’s Care Bear glasses, Cassie wants him to keep it all a secret (because absolutely no-one else in the circle is questioning why Cassie can do magic?). Adam’s ability to keep a secret lasts all of 2 seconds before he spills to Chief Scooby. Cassie is understandably upset and magically strangles Adam – don’t feel bad Cassie, I’m sure we’ve all dreamed of strangling him at some time or other. Her secret out they have a Scooby meeting (well, without Melissa. She doesn’t count, again. Seriously, repeatedly involving FAYE of all people in your big plans but not Melissa is ludicrous) about her black magic which gets all awkward so Cassie does what Cassie always does in these situations – leaves. Honestly, this is getting ridiculous. No-one can have a serious conversation with Cassie because she’s constantly fleeing.

Meanwhile we get a new character – Kate, Chief Scooby Diane’s grandmother and Evil!Parent#2’ Charles’ mother. Also, presumably a member of the Elder Circle and user of super-magical Olay products. Olay Elder is also here to help Chief Scooby Diane with her broken heart after breaking up with Wet Lettuce Adam (though since she instigated the break up and kept trying to force Adam and Cassie together, I have to raise my eyebrows at this). Kate follows up by visiting Evil!Parent#1, Dawn and to talk about Henry’s death – and gives Dawn some quality stink-eye and make it clear she knows something’s going on and she is not happy about it.

Dawn demands a meeting with Charles – and wants rid of Kate. Actually, she wants to kill Olay Elder. Unsurprisingly, Charles isn’t overly thrilled at the idea of offing his mother (or going on a killing spree of the whole Elder Circle). This continued attempt at matricide puts a rift between Charles and Dawn while Dawn tries to find a way to say “let’s kill your mum” that actually sounds good. It’s a tough sell.

Meanwhile, Mean Girl Faye is being her usual respectful self towards Melissa’s pain and trying to manipulate her into getting their magic back. Stay classy Faye. Melissa manages to maintain her independence for all of 2 minutes before settling back in as Faye’s sidekick, using a page stolen from Cassie’s Book of Shadows to use Voodoo (oh dear) to get their un-circled magic back which leads them to a voodoo practitioner (a white voodoo practitioner no less) who, after much wrangling, is going to work with Faye to get her powers uncircled. I have a feeling this storyline is going to be tiresome. One good thing that comes out of this pointless little storyline is Melissa pausing in her following Faye around long enough to announce she won’t be Faye’s little servant any more. I’d praise this but I suspect it will lead to Melissa getting even less screen time than she already does

Q&A with Anna Fricke and Jeremy Carver, Executive Producers/Writers of Being Human (US)

This week we were extremely lucky to be part of  as part of a Q&A call with Being Human (US) Executive Producers/Writers Anna Fricke and Jeremy Carver where we got to get some of the inside scoop on  Season 2 of Being Human (US) starting 16th January (and naturally we will be reviewing and recapping as we did with Season 1).

The full call was wonderfully long and informative and, sadly, too long to reproduce entirely here (and we looove sitting on the secrets precious) but we have included some of the highlights, especially ones that appealed most to us and we think will to you. even cutting it down, there was so much good stuff here, that it's still very long, btu we think you'll appreciate it :)

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Renee Martin from Fangs for the Fantasy. Please go ahead with your question.

Renee Martin: Hi, thank you so much for talking with us today.

Anna Fricke: Thank you.

Renee Martin: Earlier last season we met Josh's sister and she was the only gay character on the show. So what I was wondering is, this season are we going to see more diversity in terms of race and sexuality?

Anna Fricke:  Yes actually. We are trying to make a point of that, and one thing and this is a small thing, but we wanted to sort of make a point that even in like in the vampire feeding world that men aren't always feeding off of women and women feeding off of men, we wanted to mix that up a little bit more and show that it's a free-for-all. There definitely is more diversity and trying to think of any...

Jeremy Carver: And we can look forward to Emily making a return.

Anna Fricke: Yes, Emily is also coming back.

Jeremy Carver: But in terms of additional gay or lesbian characters I - I'm blanking on if there's more or we just continue with - what do you think?

Anna Fricke: No I don't think there are.

Jeremy Carver: I don't think we specifically identify anyone as - anyone new as gay or lesbian this season, I don't think. I have to think about it another sec. Sorry we don't - we just (unintelligible) I mean we thought that...

Anna Fricke: Yes but I don't think so.

Jeremy Carver: Yes, I don't think we introduce anyone new, if that helps.

Renee Martin:            Okay thank you, that was my question.

Jeremy Carver: Sure.

Kyle Nolan: So last season many of the plots were similar to the U.K. show, can we expect that the U.S. show will branch off on its own this season?

Anna Fricke: Yes, all the story lines - we made a decision this year to do completely original story lines.

Jeremy Carver: That said, I think given that the show obviously has its roots in the British version, there's always going to be an inevitable crossover just by virtue of swimming in the same pond. But its - but going back to Anna's question, yes there was a great effort to make the series as original as possible this year given that its roots are still in the BBC version.

Jaime Ruby: All right. Well can you talk about the relationships we're going to see this year because I know there's a lot of different stuff coming up with that?

Jeremy Carver: Yes. I mean for Aidan, you're going to see Aidan - Aidan is basically confronted with the fallout from the death of Bishop, who he killed at the end of last year. And he - we are introduced to another sort of - another aspect of the vampire hierarchy in current day America, which involves sort of this overall leader known as Mother.

And Mother basically is going to sort of essentially trade Aidan his freedom - give Aidan - offer Aidan his freedom if he agrees to train her disgraced vampire daughter to be the leader of Boston.

So that opens up a whole can of worms in terms of Aidan having to deal with this pretty unpredictable daughter who he has known frankly, for the - for about close to 100 years.

Along with that we're going to be introduced to Aidan's vampire protégé, who is basically the last vampire Aidan ever turned, and that was back in the early 20th Century. He makes a return to Aidan's life.

So that's the character of Henry, it's played by Kyle Schmid, while the character the vampire daughter is played by Dichen Lachman from Dollhouse. And both of these people will greatly, greatly complicate Aidan's life and will play a major part in sort of leading him down this dark hole that he may end up going down this season.

We can also expect in Aidan to see the return in a way that we don't want to spoil, but we can expect to see our character of Bishop returning in a certain way this season as well.

For Josh, Josh of course is dealing with the fallout or at least is totally unaware that at the end last season, that he scratched Nora when he turned into a werewolf, and so as we come into the new season we find Josh and Nora both anxiously awaiting the rapidly approaching full moon, neither knowing what's going to happen.

The Vampire Diaries Season Three: Episode Ten: The New Deal

The hiatus just seemed to fly by didn't it?  When last we left Mystic Falls, Elena had finally decided to give up on The Ripper otherwise known as Stefan, after he fouled the plans of the scooby gang to kill Klaus.  For his part, Stefan finally got proactive and kidnapped Klaus' family, whom he had been carting around in coffins for centuries. Now that is a dysfunctional family.

 Once again Mystic Falls is a hotbed of action, because Klaus wants his family back, Elena wants to be safe and Stefan wants revenge.  In an effort to find Stefan, Klaus talks Tyler into hanging out with Jeremy.  This of course concerns Elena and she attempts to forbid them from spending time together.  Jeremy rightfully calls her a hypocrite and invites Tyler in.  I don't even know where Elena got off giving Jeremy that speech, when she spent the entire summer trying to save The Ripper - a man who kills so savagely that he tears their heads from their bodies and then writes down their names in order to have an accurate record of his kills.  I think Jeremy made a great point when he suggested that they should leave Mystic Falls.  When you think about it, there is no logical reason to stay. Bonnie is a witch and Caroline is a vampire, which means that they are more than capable of taking care of themselves. Elena is staying because she likes the excitement and wants to stay in the thick of things.

In other news, Elena decides to call Bonnie to talk to her about Stefan having the coffins.  Bonnie tells Elena that she should stay out of it, but two seconds later, she is ready to do Elena's bidding.  I would like to point out that this is twice in one episode at this point, that Elena has been given perfectly good advice that she has decided to ignore.  Once Elena gets to the house, she tries to reason with Stefan, and even goes as far as to say that Jeremy is in danger, but Stefan will not budge. Damon comes up with the plan of each taking the time to deal with their own sibling. 

We learn that Stefan ended their little plan to kill Klaus to save Damon.  When Damon wants in on the plan, Stefan rejects him.  This, believe it or not is actually a sensible decision.  The moment Damon got involved, he would only run to Elena, who would interject herself into whatever Stefan is trying accomplish, firm in the belief that she knows better than anyone else.  We all know that logical planning is not high on Elena's priority list.  It was only a few weeks ago she thought it was a good idea to approach a group of werewolves on the night of the full moon in an isolated location.

Tyler finally gets around to confronting his lord and master.  Would you believe that he actually expressed shock that Klaus would kill someone to get what he wants.  I get the whole blood bond thing, but his faith in Klaus at this point is ridiculous.  If he was so sure that Klaus wasn't really all that bad, then why did he knock out Caroline and have her physically removed from the party, at which they tried to kill Klaus?  I suppose consistency is too much to ask for on The Vampire Diaries. I don't understand what they are doing with Tyler's character at all?  They went from building so much empathy around him becoming a werewolf to turning him into an empty beast without the ability to think.

American Horror Story, Season 1, Episode 12: Afterbirth

So, it is probably no surprise to anyone here that we’re not the biggest fans of American Horror Story. We’re largely of the belief that it contains a lot of unchallenged isms that serve no story purpose. So when the season finale happened we cracked open the good booze… buuut we left it unfinished! We had not reviewed the last episode… one of us had to watch it and recap it.

*High Noon Music*

Yeah, it’s me. Doubtless I shall have to think of some dreadful revenge, but for now, let’s dive in.

We begin with a flashback! Back before Ben and Vivian first moved to LA - and Vivian doesn’t want to give Ben a second chance which he combats by mentioning real estate. Yeah.. it’s you she’s not all that happy with Ben, you she can’t reconnect with – a shiny house isn’t really going to fix that. He continues to psychobabble at her to make her remain. Yeah, when the psychiatrist uses psychobabble on his family to try and manipulate them? Screw the affair, Vivian, this guy’s just not that great a catch, even if he is astonishingly in shape for a 50 year old. Run Viv, run! Don’t let the abs fool you!

Back to the present day and the house is empty (with this many ghosts!) and of course, just about everyone is dead. But worry not Ben, Constance is here to babysit your newborn child – really Constance? I wouldn’t trust her to raise a dog. However, for once Constance is right – and it’s a really bad idea to take the baby into the murder house. Ben finally starts to clue in on who Constance and Tate is and starts to blame all the bad things that happened to his family on Constance. Constance isn’t having that and says he’s paying for his sins. Damn, twice I’m forced to agree with Constance? Damn it Ben, you’re such a complete fool you make me side with Constance?

Back in the House, Moira is giving Vivien a ghostly induction (apparently the ghosts can only be seen when they want to be). Oh and Vivien finds it hardest to watch Ben – seriously Viv? Get your poltergeist on! You owe him at least a few spectral kicks to the yin-yangs. But no, she’s speaking his praise to Moira, defending him. I’m with Moira – I have no idea why she is defending him.

I have to say Vivien is taking this very… calmly. Talk about fast adjustments. But she does have a plan – get Ben and their child away from the house. We do have a good moment where Moira makes it clear that all the ghosts are equal and she doesn’t take instructions from Vivian any more. I like to see that assertion from the servant.

Ben then does an extremely neat inventory, puts his affairs in order for when Vivien’s sister arrives – and prepares to shoot himself. Y’know, I’m trying to sympathise with his pain here, especially since his loss and grief is really well displayed. But I’m having extreme difficulty not thinking “shame you didn’t care so much when they were alive”. Unworthy, unfair perhaps – but still. Vivien steps in to stop him (I’m with you there Viv, the rest of eternity stuck with him? He could at least go into the street or something to do the deed). 

Violet appears and ben has some more eye-opening about what a poor father he’s been while Violet and Vivian tell him he’s a nice guy and they want him to raise the child. Yeah, sorry “too little, too late.” But they both want him to get the baby out – every second he remains puts them both in danger.

Of course, the other ghosties, especially Hayden, aren’t letting him get away with that and hang him from the chandeliers. Now, I actually quite like that chandelier and there’s a severe chance they could damage the light fixture here. Murderous ghosties, I disapprove of your murder choice – it’s not like Ben hasn’t got out and loaded a gun for you already. Now the inhabitants of the house are officially in hell – doomed for an eternity in Ben’s company 

Moving on, the Bigot Estate Agent (hereby known as BEA) is still trying to sell the house by using lots of racism. BEA, you might want to work on your sales pitch there. Anyway, the new Ramos family is attracted by the cheap price, explained by the oh-so-romantic deaths of Ben and Vivien (hey, at least they weren’t murdered. Oh I laugh, yes I laugh) while the ghost twins through caps at the Ramos’ son, Gabriel. And it’s sold – we have a new set of victims!

Review: A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire, Book 2 of the October Daye series

Sylvester, Duke of the Shadowed Halls has called October with a problem. His niece, the Countess of Tamed Lightning, isn’t answering his calls. He would check up on her, or send one of his top officials – but the neighbouring duchy of Dreamers Glass would take that as a move against them – and war would surely follow. Hamstrung by politics, he has to turn to October, a trained PI and his knight errant

Setting off with Quentin, a young Page from the court looking for some experience, things rapidly get out of hand. Not only are communications from Dreamers Glass being interrupted – but half of the inhabitants have fled after a string of murders.

A string of murders that continues while October Daye is there. With her PI experience and her Daoine Sidhe ability to read blood memories she’s perfectly placed to help solve the murders – as well as her duty to Sylvester. But the memories are absent and even the darkest forces in faerie won’t touch the bodies – more people keep dying. And, other than Quentin, anyone can be the killer, no-one can be trusted. And can they trust her? Especially with the dangerous politics of the County?

And, if murders weren’t enough, the people of Tamed Lightning have their own secrets, some of which could be just as dangerous as the murderer themselves.

The world here is amazingly rich with a huge variety of fae and faerie legends presented. It’s a very varied world, a very large world with, consequently, a lot of scope for different characters and abilities. I think these books are worth reading for their rich world alone and the potential of them.

October Daye is a nuanced character. She’s a Changeling in a fae society that ever treats her as less. She has her mother’s extreme reputation to live up to while at the same time she is limited to the power level of a Changeling. And this is after her last major quest for Sylvester resulted in her not only failing to rescue Luna and Rosalyn, but also being trapped as a fish for 14 years – the aftermath of which she is only just recovering from. She’s very ambivalent about being involved in faerie, but at the same time cares deeply for the people she regards as her family.

The plot itself has a lot of action – October is facing off against an unknown assailant, there’s a sense of danger around every corner, of constantly being stalked and just not knowing who or what is out there or why. The tension is very well maintained and there’s always a sense whenever a character leaves the frame that they may not be coming back. Other than October, there was a very good sense of “anyone can die” with lots of nail biting tension, head scratching mystery and occasional frenzied bolts of energy as the newest threat raises its head.

One thing that isn’t to my taste is the way October investigates – or, rather, the way the investigation is written. In fiction, I generally find there are 3 kinds of detective stories: 1) the investigator actively seeks the answer, follows a series of clues and brilliantly puts them together. 2) the investigator has a couple of clues then has a magical insight/stroke of genius/convoluted hunch that solves the puzzle. 3) The investigator does very little or her investigation turns up next to nothing, but the bad guy decides to try and kill her and eventually is caught.

October Day kind of fits into option 3. In fact, by the end of the book her suspect pool has dropped to 3 people and one of them highly unlikely. She could have flipped a coin. The problem is that it didn’t make her, a trained investigator, look very competent. Her investigation skills consisted of tasting the blood to use her Daoine Sidhe powers – and it not working. Ok, next body, taste the blood – didn’t work. Ok next body, taste the blood – didn’t work. And that was kind of the extent of her investigative skills; I think the only other investigating she does is call the Luidaeg for a ritual she repeats step by step. She also spends a lot of time being attacked and being injured - though not as bad as the last book. It’s sad because in the end October has a lot of second guessing of herself and her competence and I want to say “no, Toby, you did your best” but at the same time I’m faced with the fact she didn’t actually do a whole lot – and spent most of the book reacting rather than seeking the actual suspect.

Of course, she’s not helped by the other characters being even less competent. When January can’t get through to her uncle on the phone she just… leaves more phone messages? Really? She’s a fae leading a whole herd of other fae and one phone is all they can manage for communication? Add in that October repeatedly tells them to stay together but they continually split off. Why weren’t they all gathered in one room where they could all watch each other? Why did people keep wandering off alone? Why did October keep wandering off alone? It made no sense! They were in a desperate survival situation, they’ve been decimated, losing 3 quarters of their number and they’re still going for solo wanders?

Unfortunately, the book is pretty heavily erased with a very straight, white cast. There’s also so unpleasant hints towards the killer being mentally ill though it’s not entirely spelled out. I’m also unhappy with references to pureblood prejudice as “racism” though thankfully they’re not common

Those criticisms aside, it is a book I enjoyed. While there were actions of the characters I didn’t entirely agree with, but I didn’t find it sufficient to detract from the overall goodness that is this book, the depth of the world or the continuing interactions of the characters. It’s a series that continues to intrigue me and its potential only grows more with each new book.

Being Human U.K. Season Two Episode Eight: All God's Children

 

This episode opens at the institute with Kemp praying and the other priests getting up to join him in prayer.  Lucy wakes up to a vision of a young girl covered with blood who says, "it's coming."  The priest and Kemp leave the institute to preach on the streets about the agents of darkness being amongst humanity. When they return, George is getting a medical work up done. Annie tells George that the weird bible guys can't see her. Annie points out that they have found Mitchell's girlfriend, and George says "that it does not inspire confidence".  He goes on to say that he is not allowed dairy or meat because they are worried that they will strength the demon.  When Annie asks why he is doing this, he says that since he gave Nina the curse, she has asked him for nothing but this. Annie tells George that she is worried about Mitchell, and wonders what he has done.

In his office, Kemp is making a recording saying that anyone who over heard the conversation in the house would have believed that they were friends, and that their relationship was entirely human. Lucy knocks on the door and tells him that she saw Amy McBride this morning, and that she spoke to her.  Kemp says that Amy McBride came to them willingly and that she knew that her lover had died before her. Lucy points out that Amy changed her mind as they closed the door, but Kemp says that they are doing good work, and that the alternative is to allow the possession to continue.

Back in the room that Annie shares with Hennessey, Annie says that she is glad that she has him to talk to.  Hennessey asks if George knows why she is really there, and Annie says that he thinks that she is there to keep an eye on him, and that she wishes that they would hurry up, because she is sick of all this waiting. In the lab they have a collection of body bags for the type 3's and coffins.  The technician watches as Annie undresses and he begins to jerk off.  What no one realizes at this point, is that Mitchell is in the building because he doen't appear on camera.

In conversation with Lucy, George asks if they are in a bank, and Lucy says that she likes the symmetry because in the 20th century, banks became the religion, and now they are taking it back. "Faith was my dirty secret", Lucy said.  "I then outed myself by writing a book on intelligent design."  When George asks how this went down with the other scientists, Lucy tells him that they hid all of her stuff and drew a cock on the back of her lab coat.  George goes on to say that he knows about her and Mitchell.  Lucy responds, "the intention was to reach out to you. Now, given the exclusivity of your friendship, I thought that the best way to do that was through Mitchell. I fucked up, I lost sight of why I was there. It was unprofessional and adolescent".  George asks if she loved him, and Lucy shakes her head yes.  "Mitchell's gone now," George says. "You make me nervous, it's like all my senses are telling me that you're dangerous".  Lucy tells him that she is, because the creature is looking at her through George's eyes and that it knows what she's going to do. Lucy says that she wants to help and that she wants to do good work.

Back in his room, George says that he is nervous about Mitchell, but Nina points out that he is a mass murderer. Nina tells George that he has to commit to this, and when he says that he will be gone for a few days, she asks him why he even came here.  George says that he is frightened that it will work. "all that time I have been dreaming of life without this, and that might happen, and the thought of it is so exquisite, it's so terrifying."  Nina says "if this works that we will have nothing left to hide behind. It will just be you and me." George answers that she is worth a thousand of him, and that he will stay.  

George walks into the office to use the phone, but instead of dialing out, it seems to be ringing in the institute. George leaves a message on Mitchell's answering machine and says, "Where are you? What's happened to you Mitchell?  I keep dragging you from that world, and you keep sliding back.  I can't risk helping you anymore, there is Nina to think of and Annie, and I think that you should leave us alone."  George then listens to the messages on the machine and hears Annie's goodbye message, though she is still in the room that she shares with Hennessey.  "The man that came to the house to talk to George is helping me to complete my journey. For so long now, I've been tired and frightened. The prospect of this and this stream of time in front me is terrifying. Do you remember George, I was going to pass on and you asked me why if I didn't know what lay beyond? It's because this endless life, never aging, never kissing, never having a family, all of the things that make you human. Not having them is a worse hell than anything that they've got over there. Be good boys, I love you boys, because it was through you two that I've really truly lived."

Spunky Agency: Fake Empowerment and not-so-strong Female Protagonists

Spunky Agency is a term that we use quite often on this site.  We have included a cursory definition in the Fangs Lexicon, but because it is in such regular usage, we thought that it would be appropriate to create a post clearly defining what we mean by this term, with an example of some characters that represent Spunky Agency..

A character possessed of Spunky Agency, is one who makes extremely impulsive decisions that often are reckless and put her in ridiculous danger. This, of course, is meant to frame said protagonist as a person of action. Quite often you see the term "strong" used to describe this kind of action when in fact a better descriptor would probably be, “does not have the sense that God gave cabbage.“

These protagonists use their agency in such ridiculous ways that it actually undermines it. Their decisions are so poor we wish they wouldn’t make them at all - these characters aren’t strong because their “strength” is so misapplied. We have so many classic examples in the genre - Sookie Stackhouse has made some incredibly poor decisions, starting with deciding to investigate a serial killing in vampire bars and just getting worse from there. Clary from the Mortal Instruments virtually embodies this trope with her clueless portal jumping without knowing what’s on the other side. Claire from the Morganville Vampires constantly makes decisions that make my head ache (checking out the curious, locked, lightproof room in the library in a town filled with vampires? Really? What did you think was hiding in there? Mushrooms?)

Of course, bad plans are not the only element of Spunky Agency. How many times have we seen a group make a plan and then the Spunky Agent decides she’s going to sneak off and do her own thing instead? Yes, I`m looking at you Elena from the Otherworld series. How many times will she pretend to agree then go against everything decided? The Spunky Agent decides she knows better than her fellows and feels she can discard their input on a whim.

Similarly, the Spunky Agent will often refuse to accept any other input. She presents a fait accompli, a “my way or the highway”. Her agency is only realised by dictating to the others - even when they are often more experienced and knowledgeable than she is. Elena from Vampire Diaries frequently forces Stefan and Damon to accept her ridiculous plans. Jayne (oh thee of faux french names) from the Blacksun’s Daughter Series knows she should not be in command and yet still leads around the experts; making reckless plans that needlessly risking other people’s lives.

Another common element of Spunky Agency is poor impulse control - or outright random violence. Keillie Riviere from The Hoodoo Series so epitomises this that we’ve actually named the trope after her. To prove how strong and confident and determined she is, she punches people. She even punches Augustin, the leader of an international police and governing body. While she may be the most in need of anger-management therapy or some jail time, she’s hardly alone. How many times has Anita Blake got up in someone’s face at the slightest provocation?

Review: Heart of Steel by Meljean Brook, Book 2 of the Iron Seas series

Yasmeen Corsair is an airship captain, unfettered, unruled, she travels the world making profits off her cargos and occasionally chucking men overboard for being silly fools. Most recently she kicked off Archimedes Fox over zombie infested Venice –but, to be fair, she did make sure he fell in a canal to give him a sporting chance. If he lived she’d even give him  part of the profits from the sale of the Da Vinci sketch he found.

But then things got complicated – starting with the destruction of her airship and the slaughter of her crew. Captain Corsair is not one to take either insult easily, fiercely loyal, she is determined to avenge them. And since they also stole the sketch, Archimedes is determined to get that back too so he can pay his debts and avoid those pesky assassins.

Of course, he has an ulterior motive, and that is to work his way into the iron heart of Captain Corsair; she’s already impressed by his silver tongue and iron balls, but he does hope for more and is determined to woo her. While she’s quite happy to be wooed – and more if she can wrangle it.

On their quest for revenge they find themselves embroiled deeply in politics, as the Horde faces growing rebellions and forces from the New World seek to return back across the ocean, they find their revenge is not so simple, or so free from political machinations and much greater forces are afoot.

After the last book, I was somewhat concerned about the romance between Archimedes and Yasmeen – but never could 2 romances be more different. Yasmeen is sexual – eager and happily so. In fact, it is Archimedes that holds out for love. There is never any pushing past reluctance, no refusals that are ignored, no reluctant woman dragged virtually kicking and screaming into a relationship. In fact, the one man who does try to rape Yasmeen ends up with his neck broken.

Archimedes and Yasmeen bounce off each other extremely well, they’re funny, they’re witty and they’re pure fun as well. They take things as seriously as they require but are always ready to have a laugh about it as well – and rarely do I find two characters who are willing to so unabashedly enjoy themselves. They spar with each other beautifully but if there is ever a dominant partner in this relationship, it is ever and always Yasmeen. Yasmeen never needs rescuing, she never needs saving, she never needs protecting. In fact, it is Yasmeen who saves Archimedes on several occasions. There is never any doubt who is the stronger and more dangerous of the two and Yasmeen remains very firmly in charge.