Dancing With Werewolves (Among Other Things)

Just finished Dancing With Werewolves by Carole Nelson Douglas.  Keeping in mind that I’m a fan of the author’s earlier series that fleshed out Irene Adler from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story “A Scandal in Bohemia,” let’s look at the first Delilah Street novel.

In the world of Delilah Street, ex-investigative reporter, the new millenium brought with it the revelation that vampires, werewolves and everything else that goes bump in the night is real and wants to live in more or less plain sight among us.

Delilah Street has recently relocated from Witchita to Las Vegas in search of a look-alike actress featured as the latest murder victim on a crime show.  Along the way she meets Ric Montoya, ex-FBI corpse-dowser, and Hector Nightwine – the eccentric producer of the series in which Delilah’s double was seen.  She and Montoya discover murder victims from the 1940s, when Las Vegas was in the throws of a gang war between the vampires and the now-victorious werewolves.

While trying to solve the mystery of the murdered young couple, Delilah runs afoul of the werewolf kingpin and a number of other rather frightening people.

While I enjoy the world and the characters, I found the plot structure unusual, if intriguing.  In the tradition of today’s serial fiction, the author wraps up some mysteries and leaves others to be solved later in the series.  What I found so unusual was the author’s choice in which mysteries to solve (in part or in whole) and which to leave for later.  While I certainly enjoyed this book on its own, I find myself wondering if the next book in the series will hold the solution to one of our major mysteries or if I will be strung along throughout the whole series before finding a satisfactory solution.

That said, the book is worth picking up if you like urban fantasy and vintage clothing and culture.  The characters and the world will keep you enthralled.  However, I strongly recommend having the sequel, Brimstone Kiss, at hand before you begin Dancing With Werewolves. I personally can’t wait to get my hands on the sequel.

 

Happy reading,

Phantastic Student

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Comfort Books

The top shelf of one of the many bookcases in my bedroom back home is crammed to bursting with some of my all-time favorite novels.  Sometimes, when I’m mopey or just bored I’ll take one down to re-read part or all of it.  The following books are some of the most frequently re-read from that shelf.*  They all have some measure of fantasy (you may have noticed a trend in my media habits) and are also all rather dark.

 

Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow

A story about several werewolf packs/gangs in Los Angeles and the people caught in between.  Mostly it focuses on the people (including the werewolves) as their loyalties shift and their worlds collapse.  The take on werewolves is fairly fresh and well-considered.  Oh, and did I mention it’s written entirely in absolutely gorgeous free verse?  Yeah.

 

Maledicte by Lane Robins**

This is a tale of love and revenge.  There are also lost gods, nasty politics, lots of intrigue and gratuitous violence delivered with hauntingly beautiful prose.  The characters and their problems are frighteningly believable, despite the fantastic nature of the story.  Bonus points for an interesting pantheon and continuously sending chills down your spine.

 

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Possibly my first real introduction to urban fantasy as a genre, certainly the first time I read an urban fantasy that had something more than vampires in it.  Granted, there are vampires, but there’s plenty of other stuff, too.  It’s been a while since I read it, but I recommend it whole-heartedly.  I mean, it’s Robin McKinley, for crying out loud!

 

Tithe:  A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black (YA)

Like Sunshine in that it was a milestone in my consumption of urban fantasy.  The first book that had faeries in a modern setting.  Take some old-school scary faeries and drop them in the middle of New Jersey.  Now toss in an outcast teenage girl who’s far too clever for her own good.  There’s beautiful imagery, fascinating (and terrifying) faeries and a quest for self-discovery (with a detour toward romance).  I also heartily recommend the author’s graphic novel series The Good Neighbors.

 

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (YA)

Another book with teenage girls and really scary faeries.  I found this one when it first came out (working in a book store at the time) and I ate it up.  Awesome imagery, interesting use of relatively obscure folklore and throughout all the magic and politics you never lose sight of the characters.  I particularly appreciate that Melissa Marr’s characters have some fairly unique problems in the rapidly-expanding arena of faerie-related YA.

 

Happy reading!
Phantastic Student

*Not included, but also freqently re-read is Vivian Vande Velde’s The Book of Mordred which I adore.  However, being Arthurian in nature it didn’t seem to fit with dark urban fantasy cast of the rest of the list (Maledicte maybe be set in a period similar to the Regency/Victorian eras but you can’t tell me it’s not urban fantasy).  So I’ll talk about it another day.

** When I recommend a book from a series I am recommending the whole series unless I specifically say otherwise.

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Silver Borne

Just finished Silver Borne, the latest installment of the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs.  It’s yet another wonderful installment of the series, this particular book focusing on issues with the fae, and with Mercy’s new pack-b0nds.  I liked it better than the last book, Bone Crossed, for the simple fact that I barely remember the contents of BC, but Silver Borne is going to stick with me as well as the first three novels.

For the purposes of full disclosure, I feel that I should warn everyone that this is one of my all-time favorite urban fantasy series and the series that introduced me to UF as a genre.  I won’t claim that it’s particularly literary, because it isn’t, but I can say that it is an amazing series.  The world-building/updating is amazing, and the characters are easy to connect to, despite the fact that most of them are some supernatural Other.  They still have a lot of the same issues as the rest of us, and their problems with the Other are believable.  Also, this series isn’t half as racy as a lot of other UF series tend to be, which I view as a good thing.

One the reasons I adore this series is because the secondary characters keep coming back and the author never stops developing them (including my favorite character, who I won’t name for the sake of anyone who hasn’t read this series yet).

Another reason I like it is because this particular UF world, in addition to having the usual vampire and werewolf citizens, also has the fae and other, non-were, shapeshifters.  Plus it has the distinction of being one of relatively few series in which the everyday human is aware, at least partly, of the supernatural element of the world around them.

A spin-off series featuring the Marrock’s son, Charles, and his Omega mate Anna is also available (the first books is called Cry Wolf).  This series looks more closely at the structure of werewolf society and is still very good.  It has a different feel than the Mercy Thompson books, with romance taking center stage, rather than being a subplot, and therefore isn’t quite as high on my list as the Mercy Thompson series.

Briggs also has a graphic novel prequel to the Mercy Thompson series called Homecoming, which depicts the events of Mercy’s first visit to the Tri-Cities and her meeting with Adam Hauptman and his pack.   More graphic novels, based on both series,  are on the way.

I highly recommend the Mercy Thompson series to anyone who enjoys UF featuring werewolves and fae (the vampires aren’t in the forefront here), or UF with strong character.  Hell, I recommend this series to anyone who wants to give UF a shot but is wary of detective-centric UF and the racier stuff.

Happy reading,

Phantastic Student

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Being Human

In an effort to remain as human as possible, a vampire and a werewolf move into a house in Bristol, paying their rent with money earned as hospital porters (U.S. orderlies).   The house is already occupied by the ghost of the landlord’s fiancee who loves having people around who can see her.  The whole show revolves around death:  vampires are a source of death and not dead themselves, ghosts are dead but unseen by anyone who isn’t supernatural themselves, and werewolves should have died, but instead face a fate worse than death.

The show revolves around the three housemates attempting to be normal, trying and often failing to be what they no longer are.

Based on summaries of the show, I knew it would make an attempt to explain what it means to be human.  It would analyze people, society, and have a deeper message.  I didn’t expect it to be done so well.  Rather than attempting to make the message subtle, each episode’s variation on the overall theme is described by one of the main characters in the opening scene’s voice over.   the issues are very real, fully-formed concerns of the characters themselves, rather than some overarching theme they remain largely unaware of over the course of the show.

Some other interesting things I noticed were that, despite the fact that there are vampires, werewolves, ghosts and God only knows what else running around, much of the show comes off as slice-of-life.  You have three housemates with problems, some domestic and some personal, and you see how they react to those problems and to one another.

Another interesting choice was to start up the over-arching supernatural politic plots early in the show, rather than building up the characters entirely first.  I think this enhances the believability of the show by throwing life at the characters right off, rather than letting them get settled first.  After all, life isn’t usually kind enough to give you a break when you desperately need one.  Rather than overwhelming the viewer with too much, too soon, this serves to strengthen the bond between the viewer and the characters, making us want to see them succeed and knowing that they very well may not.

Over all, I’m delighted with the first season and can’t wait to get my hands on the second and then the third.

Enthusiastically,

Phantastic Student

 

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