books

Dana Cameron

Books: Fantasy

Fangborn: Seven Kinds of Hell (2013)

Anthologies

Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (2008), Crimes by Moonlight (2010), Weird Detectives: Recent Investigations (2013)

Fangborn

Seven Kinds of Hell (2013)

seven-kinds-of-hellZoe Miller's mother has died. And before she dies, she makes Zoe promise to keep running from her father's people. Since Zoe is running from herself as much as from her father's people, it's not a promise she has trouble keeping.

Unfortunately for her, her father's people seem to be searching for her–as is a man who wants an artifact he believes is in her possession.

First things first, I didn't know what I was in the mood to read, but after reading the first chapter I was sucked in, and mostly devoured the book in a giant gulp. So it's riveting.

On the other hand, there are problems.

First and foremost, there is not a clean ending–just a set up for the next book in the series. It wasn't a cliffhanger, but it also didn't end in a way that wasn't anything other than a hook for the next book.

Cheap shot.

Second, once I've pulled back from the story (which only happened once I finished), some of the logic of the story seemed… less logical. Nothing threw me out of the story while I was reading, but once I finished, my brain started going, "waitasecond… that's not… logical"

So as much as it was an interesting diversion, the non-clean ending combined with the leaps of not-so-logic and other plot issues, I'm not sure I'll look for the next book in the series. I'm not saying it was horrible, just that I don't think I want to get involved in what looks like it could be a very long, convoluted series.

Published by 47North

Rating: 5.5/10

Anthologies

Crimes by Moonlight (2010) edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner

I started this anthology more than a year ago, got bored with it and put it down, then finally decided I was just going to FINISH it. Needless to say, my memories of the stories at the start is rather faint.

Basically, this is an okay selection of stories, most of just weren't my thing.

Publisher: Berkley

Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (2008) edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner

Publisher: Ace

Weird Detectives: Recent Investigations (2013) edited by Paula Guran

weird-detectives-recent-investigationsThis is a collection of short stories previously published elsewhere, so I'd already read several of these stories. But there were several I had not, and several of the ones I'd read before were well worth reading again.

This book has been sitting around for awhile, waiting to be read, primarily because I got it in trade paperback, and it's huge and heavy–just the kind of book I hate reading. Too heavy and too bulky for comfortable reading. But the stories drew me in and didn't let me go. (Though the book itself was why I lacked patience for stories I'd recently read or didn't catch my interest immediately.)

Initially, I was just going to flip through and read stories by authors I love, but then I ended up just reading straight through. Having no patience, if I story didn't immediately grab hold, I didn't finish it, and if I hadn't thoroughly enjoyed it the first time (or had read the story very recently), I didn't give it a second read.

"Swing Shift” by Dana Cameron is the second thing I've read by Dana Cameron, and I guess I can now safely say that I simply don't like her writing. I really LOVE the idea of her vampires and werewolves, and I really want to like her stories, but I just don't.

As I said, this contained a lot of stories I'd read previously, but they are for the most part good stories, so if you don't have the original anthologies, this would be well worth getting.

Published by Prime Books

Rating: 8/10