Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire

Last year when I read and reviewed Discount Armageddon the first of Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series I said that it was urban fantasy in it's purest form, and it is. Midnight Blue-Light Special continues that. When I hear the words urban fantasy from now on I will think of InCryptid.

It's been three months since professional ball room dancer and cryptozoologist Verity Price hooked up with former Convenant of St George member Dominic DeLuca and saved New York's one and only dragon in residence (this is male dragon, there are many females). Life isn't too bad and Verity's nearing the end of her year long sabbatical and is facing the fact that she soon needs to make a life choice: dancing or cryptozoology. One is a life long dream, the other means that she makes a significant and life saving difference for others.

It's about then that Dominic tells her that the Covenant of St George are coming to town and to borrow from a well known Western movie: 'Hell is coming with them!'

Once the Covenant arrive, even though their team is only three strong, every cryptid in New York is in danger. Verity tells the dragons to bunker down and warns the Indian Madhura siblings to get out of town. She tells her cousin the 'cuckoo' (other dimensional race of telepaths, Sarah is adopted and it's really complicated) to lay low and prepares to move herself and her colony of talking mice to somewhere safer than her semi legal sublet apartment.

We get to see some of the other Price family allies, like Verity's Uncle Mike, who is revered by the Aeslin mice as the High Priest of Godammit Eat Something Already. Verity's co-worker the waheela Istas also comes along in the hope of there being some significant carnage.

This was the first real good look readers got at the Covenant of St George and they well and truly lived up to their reputation. They are capital N Nasty.

The book is tight and action packed. I give kudoes to Seanan McGuire for not shying away from the fact that when you're playing this game people will get hurt and killed. McGuire has shown in both the Toby Daye and Newsflesh books (written under the pen name Mira Grant) that she can do tension and make you fearful for the fates of her characters and that happens again here. She has a way of keeping one riveted to the page and I had to finish half of Midnight Blue-Light Special in one sitting, because I just had to find out what happened next! This is rare for me. I'm not one of those people who generally get so involved with a book that the outside world ceases to exist.

This one finishes off Verity's story arc for now and the third book (Half Off Ragnarok, seriously I adore the titles) will follow the misadventures of another member of the Price family and in a different setting.

I liked something that was done later in the book and that's the switching of perspective. Writing a book in first person can limit you a little to the narrators view of things. McGuire got around it in Newsflesh by having the second book narrated by a different character and here she takes the perspective of Sarah for a while. I love Sarah as a character, she's just so quirky, so I really enjoyed seeing things through her eyes. A couple of times the voice slipped and she became Verity, but mostly she was believable as Sarah. In terms of presentations, Tara O'Shea's little dingbats at the top of each new chapter altered slightly to reflect the narrator's passion. Verity is a dancer and Sarah is obsessed by mathematics.

One negative thing that carried over from Discount Armageddon was the relationship between Verity and Dominic. I can buy them as partners working together, but I just cannot buy them being in a romantic, hot sex kind of relationship. I don't know why, it just doesn't work for me.

Back to the positives I completely adore the Aeslin mice and want a colony of my own, they started to develop some more distinct personalities in this and while I can see the problems inherent in overusing them I will be most disappointed if Alex Price doesn't have a colony helping/hindering him in some way in Half Off Ragnarok.

Something else that McGuire has done very successfully and you don't often see it in urban fantasy is create an entire world, history and very believable back story, not just for the cryptids, but their human allies and enemies.

I also really like that while she does mention well known cryptids such as bogeymen and dragons, she also finds more obscure ones like madhuras and waheelas, and then there's the ones she's invented herself such as the cuckoos and the Aeslin mice, this all adds depth to the books and the series in general.

I'm on board with this for wherever it takes me.

A Fantasy Medley 2 edited by Yanni Kuznia

Over the past year or so I've been reading more short fiction than ever before, largely because of anthologies like A Fantasy Medley 2. It's a collection of short stories by four authors: Tanya Huff, Amanda Downum, Jasper Kent and Seanan McGuire. I suspect we got it because of the inclusion of Seanan McGuire's contribution.

Often anthologies have a theme, I'm not sure if there is one in this. It doesn't explicitly say so, but the 4 stories were rather dark and a little depressing. Not sure if that was entirely intentional when the collection was put together or if that's just the way it turned out.

Of the 4 authors I'd read 3 of them. Jasper Kent is the only one I was unfamiliar with, although I have wanted to read his Napoleonic War vampire series, just never got around to including him on the TBR pile.

I have read some Tanya Huff, but never her Quarters series, which is where her story Quartered was set. I was unfamiliar with the setting and talk of bardic magic and kighs eluded me, although I was able to pick up the gist of the story. As with all of the stories in the collection it had a bitter sweet ending and left me a little sad at the end.

I quite enjoyed Amanda Downum's The Drowning City and Bone Garden was set in the world she uncovered in the sequel to The Drowning City, The Bone Palace. It too was rather dark and depressing, although her setting of a Russian flavoured world was very well done and quite atmospheric. I'm going to have to see about getting hold of a copy of The Bone Palace shortly.

Jasper Kent's books have largely dealt with the influence vampires had on the struggle between Russia and France during Napoleon's attempted conquest, generally from the Russian side. In The Sergeant and the General the other side was focussed on. The General of the title is actually a horse. This one was harrowing to read and it stayed with me for some time after finishing it. I actually needed to take a break before reading the collection's last story.

That story was Rat-Catcher. It deals with the origins of Tybalt the King of the Cats from Seanan McGuire's Toby Daye series. Afficionadoes of that series will enjoy seeing this look at Tybalt's early life and how he gained his position and just exactly why he has such affection for the works of William Shakespeare, especially Romeo and Juliet the play from which he takes the name he currently goes by. I came away with more sympathy for Tybalt, a character I have not played well with in the Toby Daye books.

It's a small collection and a bit depressing I have to say, but it does have four very high quality stories from talented and respected authors.

Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots by Seanan McGuire

I first discovered Velma Martinez aka Velveteen about the same time as I discovered her creator Seanan McGuire.

Seanan, in addition to writing 3 book series (urban fantasies October Daye, InCryptid and the zombie apocalypse trilogy Newsflesh under the pseudonym Mira Grant), also decided to put her love of comic books (most specifically The X-Men) into print in the form of an homage and parody that she called Velveteen vs. Seanan made, and still does as far as I know, the stories free on her Livejournal and website for anyone to enjoy, and it's hard not to enjoy them.

From the time I read the first Velveteen story (Velveteen vs. The Isley Crawfish Festival) on the author's website I was convinced that it would make a great graphic novel or comic book. The first 9 Velveteen stories have been collected in book format with IsFic's limited edition (1,000 copies only were printed and signed individually by the author) Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots. Reading them in this format is a pleasure and more satisfying than in their original online format.

I've been a long time reader of comics, to a certain extent my love of fantasy was probably formed by the comics I read in my pre-teen and teen years. Comic books are a form of fantasy and more and more authors are recognising that. Superhero books are forming a subgenre of their own these days and even Myke Cole's debut Shadow Ops: Control Point owes as much to The X-Men as it does to the more traditional epic or urban fantasy works that helped to inspire it. Velveteen vs. was the sort of thing I always dreamed of reading in book form back in those days and I could never understand why no one did it. No one until now.

Velma 'Velveteen' Martinez had the ability to animate toys (usually teddy bears) for as long as she could remember, but it did not become public until she managed to animate the dinosaurs in the Natural History wing of her local museum during a school field trip. An incident that brought Velma to the attention of the Marketing Department who controlled most of the licensed super heroes in the U.S. They were looking to create a junior branch of their star team The Super Patriots and a twelve year old who could animate toys was an ideal candidate.

The only problem was that Velma didn't want to be owned and she didn't want her life controlled by the Marketing Department's robot like executives. So when she was legally old enough she took off. The Marketing Department don't like anyone to escape their clutches and they're going to make life hell for Velma until she either agrees to return or dies trying to get away...unless she can make it to Oregon where the Marketing Department have no power.

Through the adventures of Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots readers are introduced to Velma and her former team mates: David 'The Claw' Mickelstein; a boy fused with the body of a lobster by his mad scientist father, Action Dude, the all American dream with flight, super strength and invulnerability and Sparkle Bright with her flight, photon manipulation and photonic camouflage abilities. There's also Velma's other allies: Jackie Frost and The Princess, as well as prospective boyfriend Tag. Seanan really let her imagination go wild with Jackie and The Princess. They're not even really from this world, but they're great friends and powerful allies for Velveteen.

The 9 stories are all a true delight and any comic lover will adore them. Seanan is still writing  Velveteen vs. stories and making them available on her website, and IsFic plan the second installment of her adventures Velveteen vs. The Multiverse in August of 2013.

Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire

Ashes of Honor is the 6^th of Seanan McGuire’s October Daye urban fantasy series, starring changeling PI and knight errant; Toby Daye.

A year has passed since the tragic events of One Salt Sea and Toby is trying to live a fairly normal life, or as normal a life as a half faery woman with a fetch and a Tuatha De Danaan fosterling as a squire can expect to live. She’s also still mourning the death of her lover and childhood friend Connor.

After having a confrontation with a group of goblin fruit peddling changeling kids go badly wrong Toby is collected from the police station by her friend and love interest, Cait Sidhe and King of the Cats; Tybalt. At home, and the reason that her fetch; May, couldn’t come in Tybalt’s stead is Etienne. To say that Toby is surprised to see the stiff necked Tuatha De Danaan at her house, not on business for his, and her liege lord Sylverster Torquill, is understating it somewhat. His reason for coming to her is even more surprising. Etienne has a changeling child, she’s always lived with her mortal mother, and she’s just gone missing.

As Toby has had success with similar cases in the past, she was the first person Etienne thought of. Despite his differences of opinion with her he does respect her ability and he can’t argue with her strike rate. Etienne’s daughter Chelsea has inherited her father’s ability of teleportation, and unless Toby can find her quickly and negate the power her life is not the only one in danger, her abilities threaten to rip the fabric of faery itself apart.

I can’t help it, I always seem to compare the Toby Daye’s to the Dresden Files and I got another comparison with this one. Etienne coming to Toby for help is right up there with the Warden Morgan doing the same thing to Harry Dresden in Turn Coat. Once Etienne has explained to Toby what has happened and why he wants to hire her, everyone other than Toby, Quentin and Tybalt faded into the background.

This one was really the story of how Toby and Tybalt would get together. Something that many fans of the books have been waiting for (not me, I’m not a Tybalt fan. I think it’s because I’m not a cat person, and Tybalt really is a cat in the form of a person) since Tybalt’s first appearance in Rosemary and Rue. There was plenty of Quentin to keep me entertained. I love Quentin, he’s such a total teenager, but he has so many good qualities; loyal, compassionate, brave, I think he always had them, but prolonged exposure to Toby has enhanced them.

Most of the cast that Seanan McGuire has built up over the previous five books popped in and out of the narrative, but it was driven by Toby and Tybalt as they strove to find a scared girl and stop her from plunging their worlds into chaos.

It moved fast and the action didn’t let up from the opening page until almost the very end. The Toby Daye books with their meticulously set up worlds of faery are excellently written with well done action sequences and snappy dialog that sparks and crackles between the characters, the relationships between the principals come across as realistic and believable, and the supporting cast is among the best in urban fantasy today.

I have a couple of quibbles. Toby’s caffeine addiction is overdone. It’s been established over the books that Toby requires regular infusions of coffee to function. I think readers understand that, I know I do, it doesn’t need to be reiterated every couple of pages as it was in Ashes of Honor. The other is that Toby is becoming a little too superheroish. She can recover quickly from wounds, more quickly than any normal person and possibly even other fae, but I lost count of the times that she was almost disembowelled in Ashes of Honor, yet was up and kicking butt in a page or so. That could have been toned down a touch.

Although I know there are further books coming (Chimes at Midnight is due out September 2013 and the author has a contract up to and including book 9) there is a sense of this one having a definite ending. There’s plenty still to explore. Duchess Treasa Riordan (the villainess in Ashes of Honor) could conceivably still present a threat, and as long as she’s alive Rayseline Torquill will be a thorn in Toby’s side as will the Queen of Mist. There are still the questions of who Quentin’s parents are and exactly how old Tybalt is, but Ashes of Honor does give readers a sense of closure to at least one chapter of Toby’s life.

One Salt Sea remains my favourite of the series, but Ashes of Honor is a worthy entry in what is probably the finest urban fantasy series currently being published, and has me counting down the days until the release of Chimes at Midnight.

Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire

WOW! Capital W capital O capital W exclamation point. That’s my immediate reaction after reading Discount Armageddon. If I wanted to do a lazy review I’d tell you that this is a totally awesome book and you should run out and buy it right now, but that however wouldn’t be telling you why.

Discount Armageddon is the first book of Seanan McGuire's (October Daye series) new InCryptid urban fantasy series.

Most of us have heard about cryptids, they’re creatures who might exist or are rumoured to, but no genuine proof has actually been discovered. Two of the most famous examples are the Himalayan Yeti and Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster. Discount Armageddon works on the premise that cryptids are real, they’ve always been real, many of them co exist alongside the rest of the population, others walk amongst us without anyone being aware of it.

Verity Price comes from a long line of cyrptozoologists, who have worked for generations to find, study and protect the cryptids. If many of the cryptids are actually monsters, or as the back cover blurb puts it ‘Ghoulies. Ghosties. Long-legged beasties’ why do they need protecting and what from? That would be the Price families sworn enemy; the Covenant of St George, this centuries old, quasi military organisation exists to exterminate cryptids…ALL cryptids. Some of them are harmless and others are actually beneficial to human society. Verity’s ambition is to be a professional dancer, and she’s moved to New York to pursue that dream, but the only way her family would let her go was if she also promised to look after the family business on the East Coast.

On the way home from her job as a cocktail waitress at a cryptid owned and staffed strip club (Dave’s Fish and Strips) one night Verity runs into her exact opposite, a naïve, but cute Covenant operative by the name of Dominic De Luca. Once she gets out of his trap and gives him a right royal telling off, Verity and Dominic soon work out that while they’re coming at it from different angles they essentially have the same goal, and that’s to find and neutralize the sleeping dragon under Manhattan before it causes major damage to the human and cryptid population of the city.

Discount Armageddon is urban fantasy in its purest form. Although the October Daye series has been highly successful for Seanan McGuire, and both she and her growing army of fans are fond of the changeling detective and the cast of that series, the InCryptid series is the one Seanan has always wanted to write and in fact I believe she was born to do this one. At times it was like she had a direct line to my brain, I often found myself reading and thinking ‘I’ve always wondered how that would work if someone wanted to write about it.’

Verity has a strong voice, she’s a knowledgeable and easy to relate to narrator, she may be a bit too idealistic for her own good, and she is fiercely independent and protective of those close to her. Verity and Dominic make an excellent opposites attract couple, and they’re both very likeable. There’s also a great supporting cast, from Verity’s family; her cranky, studious, gun loving brother and her frankly dangerous younger sister; Antimony, to her telepathic adopted cousin Sarah Zellaby and Verity’s workmates; the gorgon Carol, with the dangerous, venomous hair, the waheela Istas, who seems to have a penchant for wearing her enemy’s bodily organs as hats and the dragon princess Candy, who doesn’t have much in the way of offensive capabilities aside from asbestos skin. I haven’t even mentioned the Aeslin mice, yet and no review of Discount Armageddon would be complete without some mention of the community of intensely religious talking rodents, who amongst other things, are addicted to cheese and cake.

It is early days, but Discount Armageddon is one of the most amusing urban fantasies I’ve ever read, packed with fresh ideas and plenty of scope to expand. Hopefully sales will be strong and we readers will get to see a lot more of Verity, the Price family and the cryptids. Cheese! And Cake!

Westward Weird edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes

Doing this blog actually makes me look closely at what I read and it’s exploding a few myths about my reading habits. It’s about 95% fantasy, which I freely admit and thought was the case before, but I say I don’t read portal fantasy, and if you go through what I’ve read and reviewed there’s a bit of that there. I also say I don’t really read anthologies because I’m not big on short fiction, but that’s probably not the case either. I read a few last year, I’m about to review an anthology and I can see another one peeking cheekily out of the TBR pile.

Westward Weird, published by Penguin and edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes is a concept anthology. Most of them seem to be on a theme these days. The much hyped, but disappointing Warriors collection was largely SFF stories about warriors and Westward Weird is a collection of SFF stories with a western theme. My motivation for reading the whole thing was really Seanan McGuire. I adore Seanan McGuire’s writing and ever since first encountering her at Worldcon in 2010 I have read and reviewed all of her novels, including the ones written under her pseudonym of Mira Grant. In March Seanan is releasing Discount Armageddon, the first book of her new InCryptid series. I’ve been lucky enough to read Discount Armageddon (I hope to have a review here sometime next week) and when I heard she had an InCryptid story in Westward Weird it was a must buy. I did also like some of the other names on the roster: Jody Lynn Nye and Kristine Katherine Rusch, I’d never read any Jay Lake, but I have wanted to try him and he’d put a story in Westward Weird.

Like most anthologies it’s a grab bag as far as content and quality goes. Some stories are excellent, some are so so and some didn’t appeal to me at all. The writers have certainly gone everywhere with the theme. Quite a number of the stories are very steampunkish in style, the wild west is starting to lend itself more and more to that sub genre, and others are best described as the coolest kid on the block in urban fantasy. We’ve got cyborg gunslingers, a deal with the devil, a sequel to War of the Worlds set in outer space, a clockwork cowboy, vampires and werewolves pop in, there are ghosts and sky cities, even a questing beast and talking mice. It’s eclectic, but it is fun. There’s really something to suit most tastes in here.

The standouts for me were Seanan’s story (I’m sure that’s a huge surprise), but I’m a sucker for anything that features the Aeslin Mice and The Flower of Arizona does that. I think Seanan was the only one who contributed something that is related to a current ongoing novel concept. It can actually be read without any knowledge of InCryptid and it will give you some useful information for when you do read Discount Armageddon (believe me EVERYONE is going to want to read Discount Armageddon, it is beyond cool), and if you’ve already read it, then you get to spend some more quality time with the Healy family and their community of talking mice. Kristine Katherine Rusch’s Renn and the Little Men was a whimsical little concept that was very silly, but also a lot of fun. I also really took to The Clockwork Cowboy by J. Steven York. They were my three favourites although I do have to give a special mention to Christopher McKitterick for Surveyor of Mars in attempting to write a sort of sequel to War of the Worlds. That takes guts and he pulls it off!

I’ve read much more hyped collections with better credentialed contributors, and come away disappointed. Not every story in Westward Weird hit the mark, but they did it more often than not. Highly recommended, especially if you like steampunk and Seanan McGuire.

One Salt Sea

The arrival of a new Seanan Mcguire book, specifically a Toby Daye book, has become a very big deal for me. Because Seanan McGuire has set the bar so high with the 4 previous Toby books, you expect a lot when a new instalment arrives. So far the author has delivered on that count and One Salt Sea does not spoil her perfect record.

For once things are going in Toby’s favour. She’s adjusting to being the Countess of Goldengreen, and providing a useful fae social service at the same time (her county is kind of like a drop in house for disaffected fae of all kinds), she’s started to date (no properly, and I was very approving of her choice of partner, and I know I’m in a minority with my like of the character) and she even takes on Quentin as a squire. This is of course all too good to last. Sure enough, before long the children of Dionda; a fae Duchess in service to the Queen of Mist (hiss!), have been kidnapped and unless they’re located alive and kicking quickly then the fae of the Undersea and the fae of the Land will go to war. This is a war that according to Toby’s uneasy ally; the Luideag, the fae of the Land, of which Toby is one, have no hope of winning. So it’s up to Toby to find the boys and avert war. To make matters worse it becomes personal when the kidnapper also takes Toby’s daughter; Gilly, hostage.

I don’t know how Seanan does it, but she keeps making these books better and better. To help her complete her task Toby is joined by her ‘posse’, this includes crowd favourites like her squire Quentin, the selkie Connor, Toby’s fetch May Daye, Tybalt the King of Cats (and leading the hit parade of exactly who Toby should date), Bridge Troll cum cab driver Danny, Tybalt’s protégé Raj, the Luidaeg, and there’s even a cameo from cyber dryad April O’Leary. Although there’s little doubt that Toby will successfully find the missing boys and rescue her daughter, thus averting a tragic war, this is a Seanan McGuire book, so there has to be tragedy and tragedy there is, heartbreaking deaths and separations…I cried.

There are so many great touches along the way. The exploration of the Undersea kingdom was awesome. I love the way folklorist McGuire has taken creatures of myth and legend, then tweaked them to fit in her world and delight her readers, her imagination was given full reign with Undersea. Considering that Toby spent 14 years of her life as a fish (see the prologue to Rosemary and Rue) I felt making her half fish (it’s on the cover, it can’t be a spoiler!) to allow her to explore Undersea was just a tad cruel, although at the same time it was rather cool. The revelation that Danny can speak to rocks was also highly amusing. The exploration of Rayseline Torquill’s room was devastating and made this reader feel sympathy for one of the series’ uber villains (what exactly was done to her during her captivity? No, on second thought don’t answer that. I don’t want to know!). Another highlight was the interaction between the two teenage boys Quentin and Raj. Toby’s exchange with them in the car ('I swear I will turn this car around!') was priceless and is a hallmark of Seanan McGuire’s easy to read and relate to style.

Although the driving force behind the book is the mystery at the heart of each of them, readers get other little nuggets about the characters and their histories. I’m quite taken with May Daye, she was relegated to the backseat for most of One Salt Sea (actually with her lack of driving skills the backseat may be the best place for her), but there was still a revelation about the character and her origins that left me gobsmacked.

I haven’t spoke much about the covers of the books, cover artist Chris McGrath always does a good job, but he outdid himself with One Salt Sea, it is a thing of beauty. You could frame this one and hang it proudly on your wall. I’m not recommending this, although it would be a good way for the author to make more money, you buy one copy to read and one copy to frame.

There are still some issues to be resolved at the end of One Salt Sea (I guess we need to give Toby something to do in Ashes of Honor, although I’d be quite happy reading about her hanging out with Tybalt, May and Quentin), and I’m really looking forward to seeing how the twin issues of Rayselline (she’s going to be a problem as long as she draws breath) and the Queen of Mist, who is only a few twists of the crazy meter away from the Torquill’s certifiable daughter, are dealt with. The second one is actually a bigger problem, because of her position, and could very well send all of faery straight to hell on a whim.

Seanan McGuire keeps upping the ante with each successive Toby adventure, and One Salt Sea is no exception. I’d say it’s the best yet, at least until Ashes of Honor comes along some time in 2012 and tops it. With One Salt Sea, Toby has climbed to the top of the heap and is seriously challenging Jim Butcher’s wise cracking wizard Harry Dresden for the title of best Urban Fantasy protagonist ever!

Late Eclipses

Late Eclipses is the 4th instalment of Seanan McGuire’s Toby Daye Urban Fantasy series, chronicling the adventures of the changeling PI cum knight errant of the Shadowed Hills fae duchy.

As has become common with the books it begins in this world with Toby enjoying the fruits of her most recent case and sharing them with her Fetch and roommate May (May Daye, get it?) and her friend taxi driver/bridge troll and barghest fancier Danny, but with Toby trouble in Shadowed Hills, and the other faery knowes around her home town of San Francisco are never far away, and before she knows what is happening she’s been made the Lady of Goldengreen and her friend Lily the Undine and ruler of the Tea Gardens knowe is deathly ill.

The local queen, the Queen of Mists doesn’t much like Toby, in fact she seems to feel threatened by the feisty changeling, so why would she give her a position like Lady of Goldengreen? Probably because once Toby has accepted it, and she can’t very well refuse, she becomes beholden to the Queen and can no longer be protected as she has been for most of her life by her friend Duke Sylvester Torquill of Shadowed Hills. That’s problem number one. A bigger problem and mystery is the sickness that has afflicted Lily. Full bloods don’t generally die and certainly not from sicknesses like Lily seems to have contracted, and undines are even longer lived than most full bloods. Toby smells a rat, or more specifically a flower, namely oleander. As well as being the name of a shrub; oleander is also the name of the vindictive part peri Oleander de Merelands, a creature who was one half of the attack that robbed Toby of 14 years of her life and cost her human husband and her daughter. While Toby desperately tries to find a way to heal Lily and make a contingency plan for her largely helpless subjects, Luna Torquill, Duchess of the Shadowed Hills, and the wife of Sylvester also sickens. Taking advantage of the power vacuum left by the grief stricken Sylvester, who is now by his wife’s bedside night and day, his crazy daughter Rayseline takes control and lays the blame for everything right at Toby’s feet, thus delivering her into the hands of the Queen of Mist to pronounce sentence. Toby is going to have to escape imprisonment, find a cure and a killer and prove at the same time she’s not mad, that Oleander de Merelands is behind the whole thing and somehow get out of it all alive.

Seanan McGuire has created a great heroine in Toby, she’s made the shadowy world of the fae that exists alongside our own, rich, varied and very real, the books are building up a great roster of characters that she can draw on as and when she needs them and readers are already picking their favourites amongst the cast. May and Danny tend to feature high on many lists, as does Toby’s on again off again love interest Tybalt King of Cats and her former ‘boyfriend’ selkie Connor, now inconveniently married to Rayseline. My own personal favourite is the young Daoine Sidhe page Quentin, and he too has a cameo in Late Eclipses. Late Eclipses was the first appearance of Walther; the Tylwyth Teg chemist, I suspect it will not be the last.

Seanan is proving to be somewhat of a literary chameleon with this series, so far she’s written them in a noirish Chandleresque style, something reminiscent of Agatha Christie and now Late Eclipses which has elements of a Grisham type legal thriller.

Another kudo I have to give to Seanan is character development. I know I’m in the minority of fans in that I don’t particularly like Tybalt. Everyone else seems to want he and Toby to get together. I still don’t want that to happen and while I’d like to see them become reluctant allies I don’t have any desire to see them become lovers, but I have to admit that parts of this story made me feel for Tybalt and I even started to respect and like the guy…uh cat. To make me revise my opinion this far in, well that takes talent, something Seanan McGuire is rapidly proving that she has in spades.

Late Eclipses is another welcome addition to Toby’s exploits and while it ties everything up at the end, there’s plenty of scope and there are still a plethora of enemies out there who have a score to settle with Toby, I’d also personally like to find out more about Toby’s mother Amandine. One Salt Sea; the fifth Toby book, is due out in September and I’ll be adding it to the collection.

And they wonder why people shop online

Borders and Angus & Robertson down here in Australia are going through the same problems that they are everywhere else. Here they’re blaming it on online sales. I’m going to bring up a case in point and that may explain exactly why they’re not getting the business they want, at least from the growing community of SFF readers.

It’s not easy being an SFF fan in Australia. It never has been. You mention that you read the genre and you get blank looks most of the time. Once you try to explain you have to use something that has broken out of the genre to most people (eg: Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter) and then they either think you’re a role player or someone who’s never really grown up. I contest that Harry Potter is more than just a kids series, but I digress.

If something sells well enough, and by that I mean it has to best sell, then it may find it’s way into the mainstream stores, otherwise you have to visit one of the few speciality SFF stores, like Minotaur books in Melbourne. The only other way is to go online. I know I can buy e-books, and I do have an e-reader, but the range of SFF books available for legal download in Australia is depressingly limited, I can also go online and I do when I want something hard to get, but I’m a relatively old fashioned character and I like to go into a shop, find the book I want, pick up a solid copy of it and take it home with me.

Onto my specific example. One of the rising stars of urban fantasy is the prolific Seanan McGuire. I first encountered Seanan at Aussiecon, and seeing her there was one of the highlights of the event for me. After the con I started following her LJ and found out that she had 4 books in print (3 October Daye’s under her name, the 3rd was released just after the convention, and the 1st of the Newsflesh trilogy released under her pseudonym of Mira Grant. On that please read Feed, it’s awesome), so I went to hunt them out. I was lucky enough to snag a signed copy of Feed at Minotaur, but the Toby Daye’s were nowhere to be seen. In desperation I tried a chain, and lo and behold Dymocks in the city had all 3. Dymocks is the ONLY chain in this country that carries a decent SFF range and it has it’s own dedicated urban fantasy/paranormal romance section, at least the city branch does.

Being a relatively new kid on the block and steadily making her way as a mid list author Seanan is great about letting her readers know what she’s up to, especially with things like release dates. Her 4th October Daye novel; Late Eclipses was due out on March 3rd (that’s the US March 3rd, so it was probably March 4th down here in Oz), now I’m not stupid enough to expect it down here on day of release, although it has happened in the past with some titles, but I think a week is a respectable wait, if I’d ordered it online I would have well and truly had it. I tried Dymocks, nada, I tried Minotaur, no luck. My final port of call was Science & Swords. Science & Swords is this tiny little store in an out of the way arcade that only the truly dedicated even know about.

They had one copy left, as he rang it up the salesman remarked on how popular the series was and that they had already put in an order for more copies which should be arriving the following week, so why isn’t it and many other titles available for purchase in major Australian book stores within a week of release? I don’t care if it’s a publisher thing (Seanan’s publisher for the Toby Daye’s; DAW, is unlikely to have an Australian distributor, but considering that DAW is a subsidiary of publishing giant Penguin, which does have an Australian arm, these days, it shouldn’t be that hard to do) or a bookstore thing, but I’m getting fed up with it and I don’t believe I’m alone. If those at Borders Australia and Angus & Robertson wonder why they’re losing business to their online competitors this is one very good reason, the dreadful overpricing they engage in and the staggering lack of knowledge displayed by staff are 2 other reasons.

I thank the God of booklovers for places like Science & Swords. Thanks for listening. Now I’m off to devour Late Eclipses.

TGIF

Been a little quieter this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, but the rest of the world has continued to spin and there are still a few things out there worth looking at.

It's been a big week for the incredibly busy novellist Seanan McGuire. You can see the cover for Deadline, sequel to zombie apocalypse funfest Feed here and get some news about hew newest creation; the Incryptid series being picked up for publications by DAW here

Mark Oshiro (he of Mark Reads Harry Potter notoriety) has moved away from Buzznet and set up his own site, he's just started reading YA smash hit series: Hunger Games. Join in the fun here

Respected blogger James Long has decided to wrap up his successful blog Speculative Horizons. James explains why here

Avagoodweekend and don't forget the Aerogard!

Feed

I don't get the current interest in the whole zombie apocalypse thing, although I did love Zombieland. So why would someone like that pick up a book called Feed, which was set in that very scenario? It's got a lot to do with the author. Mira Grant is the pseudonym of Seanan McGuire (author of the Toby Daye UF series). Seanan was in Australia for Aussiecon and while she was here she went into local SFF bookstore; Minotaur, and signed a number of copies of Feed. I managed to snag the last signed copy, she'd even drawn a little chainsaw in it!

Feed is set in 2040, 26 years after the Kellis-Amberlee virus has created a large population of zombies across North America (they may also be active elsewhere, but they seem to be most prominent in the US). A small band of zombie fighting bloggers accompany the Republican presidential candidate on his tour across the company. I know it sounds absolutely crazy, it did when I first heard it, but it really hangs together well. Two of Seanan's loves are zombies and deadly viruses, so Feed was a labour of love for her.

Since the zombie uprising, people tend to distrust the regular news agencies, and get most of their news from bloggers. Two of the best are adopted brother and sister Shawn and Georgia Mason and their associate Georgette 'Buffy' Meissonier. The three make a good team, Georgia, who tells the story from her point of view, is a Newsie, Shawn is an Irwin (in a nod to the Australian 'adventurer' and crocodile hunter Steve Irwin, Irwins are the crazies of the blogosphere and are most likely to go out and poke a zombie with a stick to get some good footage) and Buffy is a Fictional, as well as being a technical whiz.

As the story and the compaign unfold the coincidences pile up to often to be just bad luck and the group know that they and the candidate; Senator Peter Ryman, are in serious trouble and it's probably from within the Senator's own team.

I found myself getting wound up in the story and the lives of the participants. The dialogue is snappy and funny, the action well described and at times I found myself genuinely sad for what was happening in the story. Feed is a tight, well told tale full of zombie goodness and plenty of pop culture references. It's been given a number of accolades and totally deserves them all.

Feed is actually the first of the Newsflesh trilogy (Deadline is due out on May 2011), but it reads well as a standalone.

Feed. Buy it, read it and survive the Rising!

An Artificial Night

An Artificial Night is Seanan McGuire's 3rd October Daye novel, featuring the changeling detective October 'Toby' Daye.

Although Toby is a licensed PI, the cases the readers see her tackle in the books all involve her mother's people; the fae, to a large extent. This time a number of fae and mortal children, including Toby's 'niece' and 'nephew', have gone missing. The children have been taken by the powerful firstborn (a faery child born to Oberon and Titania or Maeve) Blind Michael to be part of his Wild Hunt. No one kidnaps those close to Toby and gets away with it. It's not easy getting the best of a creature as old and powerful as Blind Michael and there will a price for Toby and her motley band of friends to regain what is theirs from the master of the Wild Hunt.

As I've already read and reviewed the first 2 Toby books I decided to do something a little different with this one. I'm going to list my Good and my Not So Good points. Note: there won't be a lot of Not So Good, Seanan really brought her A game with this one.

Good:
The return of Toby's friend the bridge troll cum cabbie Danny.
We got more Quentin. Yay! I'm a fan of the young Daoine Sidhe fosterling and it was not made clear in the previous book; A Local Habitation whether or not he would play a large role in upcoming volumes.
Toby's rose goblin pet (think of a cat made out of rose thorns) Spike plays a big role in this.
Most of the action took place in a truly wondrous and well realised faery kingdom.
Readers got some more of the history behind Luna, the wife of Toby's liege lord Sylvester Torquill, the Duke of Shadowed Hills.
May Daye; Toby's Fetch, very cool character. She looks like Toby and acts like her a lot of the time, but she's really a part of Toby's personality, not the whole of it.
The Luidaeg, the more we find out about her, the more interesting she gets.
Getting to see Toby interacting with her own kind in the human world and having fun with it. I have to admit that I prefer the 'fun Toby' to the cynical, world weary Toby.

Not So Good:
When Toby needs saving from some bad members of the Hunt who should step in, but Tybalt King of Cats? Tybalt does this a lot and it's becoming a little tired. I would have preferred to see Danny show up unexpectedly with his pack of barghests.
Toby spent a lot of this book looking like a nine year old version of herself. Despite this nearly everyone seemed to know who she was. Sometimes it was explained how and other times it wasn't, I felt it was a minor inconsistency.
Initially Toby met resistance when trying to take charge, as the kids she was rescuing saw her as no older than they were. It was a cat princeling Raj who called her on it, but after that it wasn't mentioned again.
There was an entire chapter where Toby was enslaved by Blind Michael and while her thoughts and how she saw her 'master' during this period was very well written, it made me feel distinctly uncomfortable.

Seanan's got me on the hook well and truly and I'm locked in for Late Eclipses, Toby's 4th adventure, due out in March 2011.

A Local Habitation

A Local Habitation is the 2nd of Seanan McGuire's urban fantasy series featuring the changeling detective October 'Toby' Daye.

Following the events in the first book (Rosemary and Rue) Toby is in the process of putting her life back together. She's left the exciting world of checkout girl in a late night supermarket and has regained her PI licence. Following a drunken night with friends she receives a visit from her liege lord; Sylvester Torquill, the Duke of the Shadowed Hills.

Sylvester wants Toby to go to the County of Tamed Lightning, which is in Fremont, near Silicon Valley. He has fallen out of contact with the Countess of the County, his niece; January O'Leary and he is concerned that all may not be well. This is especially concerning as Tamed Lightning is a buffer between the Shadowed Hills and an aggressive rival duchy.

Cool, I thought, roadtrip. Better was yet to come, Toby would have a sidekick; the teenage Tuatha de Danaan fosterling Quentin. Readers had first met Quentin in Rosemary and Rue. I liked him as a character and looked forward to getting to know him better.

Things are not good in Tamed Lightning. Members of January's computer company are being picked off one by one and despite multiple attempts she has not been able to contact her uncle for assistance. This doesn't make sense to Toby as the very reason Sylvester sent her there in the first place was to check on January, because he hadn't been able to make contact with her.

Toby is soon fighting for her own life and that of her friends Quentin, the selkie Conor and the Cait Sith King of Cats Tybalt. Toby needs to find who the killer is before she becomes the next victim.

This was a change of pace from Rosemary and Rue. Whereas the first case readers saw Toby investigate was rather Raymond Chandleresque, A Local Habitation put me in mind of some of Agatha Christie's work, especially And Then There Were None, where the guests on an island are picked off one by one by an unknown killer.

I did like the Toby/Quentin dynamic and her big sisterish protection of the teenager, it was rather reminiscent of the relationship between Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden and his apprentice, Molly Carpenter. The ending of the book left it unclear as to whether Quentin will play a major part in further volumes or not. I'm not a particular fan of Tybalt, but I know other readers are and things will probably head down that road, I'd rather see Toby with Conor, but as he's married to a crazy lady that more than likely won't happen. Toby trashed her car again and this seems to be a running gag ala Janet Evanovich's bounty hunter Stephanie Plum.

Again Seanan explored some of the lesser known fae, such as bannicks, coblynau and Gean-Cannah. I always look for these now in the books, to see if I work out what they are before the author lets the readers know.

The 3rd Toby book; An Artificial Night is out and I know Seanan has plans for at least 3 after that. I'll be reading.

Rosemary and Rue

I first encountered Seanan McGuire at Aussiecon. She was on a couple of panels that I attended. I found her amusing and entertaining. After seeing her win the John W. Campbell award (and tiara) for best new speculative fiction writer I decided to check out some of her work. I started at the beginning, because I'm odd like that. For Seanan the beginning is Rosemary and Rue, the first of her October Daye Urban Fantasy mysteries.

Aside from Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books, I haven't read a lot of Urban Fantasy recently. Most of it seems to involve hot, tough, ass kicking female PI's, who spend more time having steamy relationships with vampires and werewolves than they do investigating mysteries.

Seanan's heroine; October 'Toby' Daye, is a changeling, the result of a union between a Daoine Sidhe female and a human male. As such Toby walks a fine line between two worlds; her very mundane human life in modern day San Francisco and that of a knight errant in the hidden and shadowy faery kingdoms.

The prologue to Rosemary and Rue introduces the readers to Toby and sets up the premise, the end of it was like a punch to the guts and left me gasping for breath, mouthing 'What the...?"

Toby has spent most of her life trying to deny her fae half and seems to have been relatively successful, when a cruel and brutal act draws her back in. Charged with finding out who murdered her friend the Countess Evening Winterrose, Toby suddenly finds herself fighting for her own life, renewing old acquaintances and reviving petty rivalries, playing a dangerous game and once again realising that her own actions have very real consequences for people other than herself.

Whilst reading the book I was reminded often of Jim Butcher's wise-cracking wizard Harry Dresden. Seanan McGuire has imbued her book with the same noirish feel as the Dresden Files. Toby moves between San Francisco and the faerylands, and Seanan's descriptions of San Francisco (the city where she lives) are very real and gritty, she displays intimate knowledge of the urban landscape of the southern Californian bay city. There are a couple of things that set Rosemary and Rue apart from most Urban Fantasies on the market today. One is the use of faery as the supernatural, it's refreshing to see nary a fang or claw of vampire or werewolf, not to say that they may not make an appearance in later books, but they were not present in the opening volume. Seanan was also not afraid to move away from the better known celtic faeries, occasionally using lesser known creatures such as Peris and Kitsunes. This was what I expected Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series to be when I first picked it up, but as with the same author's Anita Blake books, the sex became more important than the story. There is sex in the October Daye novels, but at least in Rosemary and Rue it wasn't the focus of the story and it was not explicitly described.

The mystery was solved at the end and the book is standalone, but there's plenty more of Toby's story to be told and Seanan McGuire has given herself a lot of scope for further novels. Two sequels: A Local Habitation and An Artificial NIght are already out, with two more Late Eclipses and The Brightest Fell due to be released in March and September 2011. I'll definitely be reading and hope that others also discover October Daye.

The Hugos

One of the most prestigious awards that any author of science fiction or fantasy can win is the Hugo. The Hugo is named after Hugo Gernsback, a pioneer of science fiction publishing with his magazine Amazing Stories.
The award is voted for by supporting or attending members of Worldcon and it is presented at Worldcon. The first award was presented in 1955, although there are retrospective winners going back to 1946. The winners list reads like a whos who of science fiction and fantasy. When people talk about the Hugo they generally mean the final award of the night, which is for Best Novel, but there are 15 Hugos awarded for achievement in science fiction and fantasy and they range from Best Fan Artist to the Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form (usually a feature film).

One of the great things about being a full attending member at Worldcon is that you get to see the Hugos being awarded. This is basically the Academy Awards of science fiction and fantasy. If you ever get the opportunity to attend I recommend you take it.

The 69th Hugo Awards, presented at Aussiecon IV looked like being a good one and would be hotly contested. The MC was Australian YA author Garth Nix. I felt he was an odd choice. I hadn't read any of Nix's work, but he wasn't known for his humour, and he did not look like the most entertaining of people. However most authors do seem to be speak very well in public and Nix was no exception. His work as MC sparkled, and he even got a dig in at George R.R Martin relating to the delay in the eagerly awaited 5th novel in his epic A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series.

The first few awards were fan awards and as such were awarded by other prominent fans, some of whom had won the award in the past. Best Fan Artist was won by Brad Foster, Best Fanzine was taken out by Tony Smith's Starship Sofa and the best Fan Writer was interestingly enough the highly respected author Frederick Pohl. That award was accepted on the veteran author's (he's 90) behalf by his long time friend and fellow author Robert Silverberg. He gave a very amusing acceptance speech.

They then moved onto the professional or semi professional awards. First was Semi Prozine, Clarkesworld was awarded that by Bruce Gillespie. Best Professional Artist was the home town favourite; Shaun Tan, he was also one of the Con's guests of honour and he received the award from fellow local artist Nick Stathopulos, who was also responsible for designing the award's uniquely Australian base.

Ellen Datlow took out Best Editor, Short Form, which was her second consecutive one.

Robert Silverberg was welcomed back to the stage to present the Hugo for Best Editor, Long Form and gave a very funny speech in which he compared editors to wombats and not at all favourably. Tor books' Patrick Nielsen Hayden got his 2nd rocket ship and disqualified himself from next year's contest so another editor could have a chance at it.

Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell (Father's Day, Human Nature, Family of Blood) presented the award for Best Dramatic Presentation - Short Form. As Doctor Who had been nominated 3 times there was little doubt that the long running British science fiction series would win another rocket ship. Waters of Mars won the award, and this was, I felt deserved. I'd seen the other nominations and Waters of Mars had it hands down even over the other 2 episodes of that show. Paul Cornell was pretty chuffed because he's been involved in the show and he's close friends with both Russell T Davies and Stephen Moffatt. This also gave Doctor Who the record for the award over any other TV show, including Star Trek in all it's various forms.

George R.R Martin awarded the Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form. He really, really wants another Hugo, he's still smarting from 2001 when Harry Potter and the Goblets of Fire beat Storm of Swords. Moon won and that was the one film that I hadn't actually seen. I would have given it to District 9, but the majority of voters preferred Moon. George was tickled that the note said: 'accept on our behalf'. He trotted off the stage with the Hugo tucked under his arm, smiling impishly. I hope they checked his luggage before he left.

Best Graphic Story, presented by Best Artist Shaun Tan, went to a comic I'd never heard of: Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm by Kaja and Phil Folio, who were on hand to accept it. I would have liked to see Fables Vol 12: The Dark Ages get it, but that's just because I love Fables, and they've got a bunch of awards anyway.

The veteran writer Jack Vance took out Best Related Work This Is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This Is "I") this award will be remembered for presenter Cheryl Morgan's quirky way of reading the titles complete with punctuation marks. It will also probably be Vance's last one.

Then we got into the actual fictional published work. Best Short Story, presented by Sean Williams and won by the interestingly titled Bridesicle by Will McIntosh. Terry Dowling presented the Best Novelette award (what exactly is the difference between a novelette and a novella?) to Peter Watts for The Island. Watts did not think he had any chance, so came dressed in a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers, it was rather funny. Aussie author and martial artist Sean McMullen gave out the Best Novella award. Charles Stross took this for Palimpsest, which Sean McMullen couldn't pronounce, and it was also confusing, as Catherynne M.Valente had been nominated for the Best Novel award with an indentically titled work.

The Guest of Honour Kim Stanley Robinson presented the evening's premier award. I actually hadn't read any of the nominated works, although I do have Robert Charles Wilson's Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd Century America, on my to be read pile. As I had seen Cat Valente numerous times throughout the event and quite liked her I was hoping she would win. It was a tie and unfortunately Cat wasn't one of the winners, that honour went to the high priest of New Weird; China Mievelle for The City & The City and Paolo Bacigalupi for The Windup Girl. Next year I'm going to have read all the nominated works so I can make a better educated vote.

There was one other award I must mention. The John W. Campbell award for Best New Writer. It was presented by the very casual Jay Lake (author of Green and former winner of the award). It went to Seanan McGuire. Seanan was another writer I became acquainted with at the Con, she's a very cool person. After the event I picked up a copy of Rosemary & Rue, her first Toby Daye book. Seanan is the first urban fantasist to win the award. She got the traditional tiara, she cried, she thanked the Great Pumpkin, and as she proudly proclaims on her blog she is now officially the Princess of the Land of Poison and Flame.

That was pretty much it for the 2010 Hugos in my experience. I get to vote next year, and I will and I hope to once again be in attendance, this time in Reno.