Hellboy: Masks and Monsters (2010) Mike Mignola, James Robinson, Scott Benefiel, Jasen Rodriguez These are two tales outside of the Hellboy time line (ie this is not a sequel to The Wild Hunt) but are crossover with other characters including Batman and Starman. Batman doesn’t play a particularly large role (after all, he’s a busy […]
Sins & Shadows (2009) Lyn Benedict If this hadn’t been my carry around to read during lunch book, I probably wouldn’t have finished it. But having nothing else to read, I slogged through and finished. But I didn’t like it. Where to begin with what I didn’t like? First and foremost, although there don’t seem […]
Running with the Pack (2010) edited by Ekaterina Sedia When I saw there was a new werewolf anthology edited by Ekatrerina Sedia with a story by Carrie Vaughn I automatically ordered it. Then of course, once it arrived, it sat around like anthologies tend to do, waiting for the “right” time to read it. But […]
A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia (1994) Victor Pelevin translated by Andrew Bromfield I really really really like the title story to this collection, “A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia.” A young man wanders into a small central Russian village in search of a place he saw in a photograph. He arrives and discovers the […]
The Naming of the Beasts (2009) Mike Carey The last Felix Castor book, Thicker than Water, ended with the escape of Asmodeus. Not a very good point to end a story in my opinion, however, it was a logical conclusion to the way things were going, so I didn’t particularly mind. After all, the series […]
Masques (1993/2010) Patricia Briggs This is a revised version of Patricia Brigg’s first published book, and unlike some of her more recent works, is not urban/supernatural fantasy but straight up fantasy. Luckily for me, it’s not high fantasy that takes 30k pages to resolve the story, but a fun story told in 300 pages. Aralorn […]
Sandman Slim (2009) Richard Kadrey Stark has just gotten out of Hell. His former friends sent him there, but somehow he managed to survive, and now he has escaped and is looking for revenge. That simple summation tells you about the story, but it is so much more than that simple synopsis. If you read […]
Bayou Moon (2010) Ilona Andrews Yes, yes, I know. Two floating head books in a row. But not only was I on vacation, but this is an Ilona Andrews book, and I love those. The first book in The Edge series had Rose attempting to survive on the Edge and raise her two younger brothers, […]
The Last Twilight (2008) Marjorie M. Liu Rikki Kinn is a virus hunter for the CDC, and she’s in Africa looking at what may well be a new outbreak of Ebola. Unfortunately, a contagious and deadly disease turns out to be the least of her problems, when she discovers that she is being hunted–but no […]
Ghost of a Chance (2010) Simon R. Green I can’t help myself. I know it isn’t good for me, but I have this addiction to Simon R. Green’s Nightside. I’ve read the Eddie Drood novels, and they’re OK, but they just aren’t the same. But I keep ordering them, and when I saw he had […]
An Artificial Night (2010) Seanan McGuire How many miles to Babylon? Three-score and ten. Can I get there by candle-light? Yes, there and back again. If your heels are nimble and light, You will get there by candle-light. Things are not going well for Toby Daye. She sees an unpleasant harbinger, she’s getting calls from […]
Dark and Stormy Knights (2010) edited by P.N. Elrod I can’t help myself–I love anthologies. And fantasy anthologies with writers who write their fantasy with a healthy does of mystery? Sign me up! All anthologies have high and low points, but overall this was a fairly strong group of stories. The book starts off with […]
The Grimrose Path (2010) Rob Thurman I think I love Rob Thurman. Seriously. I’ve only read one book of hers I rated lower than an 8, and that one lost points for a cliff-hanger type ending. (Aside from the ending, it was an otherwise excellent book.) The Grimrose Path is the second book in her […]
A Wild Light (2010) Marjorie M. Liu Maxine’s birthday starts out well–killing a demon, birthday party with her loved ones, unfortunately it doesn’t stay that way, and she wakes up to blood, death, and no memory of what happened. Hmm… now that I look back over my past reviews, I find myself less surprised at […]
Blameless (2010) Gail Carriger I loved Soulless, the first book in this series. I thought Changeless was good with the exclusion of the ending, which I despised, so I had mixed feelings about starting Blameless. Alexia is pregnant, and Lord Maccon–who is a werewolf and an immortal–has thrown her out, believing that the child cannot […]
Eye of Heaven (2006) Marjorie M. Liu After picking up a random Dirk & Steele book when I had accidentally left the house without one, I’ve been picking up the available books in the series as I come across them. For the most part this is not a fantasy series per se, in that you […]
Thicker than Water (2009) Mike Carey Felix gets a call to come out to a crime scene–something that had not happened since he was accused of murder and became persona non grata with the police. Unsurprisingly, nothing good comes of the call, and Felix is embroiled in a mystery involving involving individuals from his past–way […]
Face Off (2010) Mark Del Franco Laura Blackstone is still living her multiple lives, and after the events in the last book, Skin Deep, relations between humans and fae, as well as between different fae groups, are making her job even harder, as she is forced to take on the persona of any already existing […]
Vanished (2009) Kat Richardson I finished Vanished last night with a sense of dissatisfaction, but it wasn’t until this morning that I was able to put my finger on what bothered me most. When I started reading the Greywalker series, I loved the fact they were mysteries with a paranormal element. Harper is a private […]
Dead Men’s Boots (2007) Mike Carey I’ve actually been waiting for this book for awhile. The American publishing and access to this series is… quirky. I was able to get the British copies of the two books that follow this, but I had to wait about a year for this to be put out by […]
Chimera (2010) Rob Thurman I love Rob Thurman. I really do. Which is why I pre-ordered this book without even having an idea what it was about. Imagine my disappointment when I read the back cover, “From Rob Thurman, national bestselling author of the Cal Leandros novels, comes a sci-fi thriller that questions what makes […]
Fables: Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love (2010) Chris Roberson, Shawn McManus Well. That was disappointing. Anyone who has read Fables knows that Cinderella has been acting as spy and assassin for Fabletown for years. Not that anyone in Fabletown aside from the sheriffs know this fact, but that’s good, because otherwise she’d be a lousy […]
Tracking the Tempest (2010) Nicole Peeler First off, there is a lot of boinking in this book. I’d forgotten about that in the time that had passed between this book and the first. Once I remembered that and was able to move myself into that frame of mind, I thoroughly enjoyed Tracking the Tempest. In […]
Kitty Goes to War (2010) Carrie Vaughn The title actually made me somewhat reluctant to read this book, despite the fact I have really enjoyed the other books in this series. Because despite being a werewolf, Kitty is still a radio host. Luckily, Kitty does not, in fact, actually go to war herself. She does, […]
Hellboy Vol 10: The Crooked Man and Others (2010) Mike Mignola, Richard Corben Frustratingly, Helloboy Vol 10 does not continue the story arc of Vol 9, but instead is another collection of stories, all set in Hellboy’s past. Mind you, I tend to prefer the “short story” Hellboy collections, but the story line was really […]
Hellboy Vol 9: The Wild Hunt (2010) Mike Mignola, Duncan Fegredo All those Hellboy stories–the ones in the story collections where there wasn’t necessarily a theme for the entire volume? Suddenly, everything is starting to come together. Hellboy has spent quite awhile hiding from his supposed destiny. He doesn’t want to rule the world. He […]
Ex Machina: Ring Out the Old (2010) Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, Jim Clark, John Paul Leon, JD Mettler Uhhh… What the hell was that? There were so many different things I didn’t like about this volume. First and foremost was the meta “artists in the story” bit. Sorry BKV, but that was just a […]
House of Mystery: The Beauty of Decay (2010) Matthew Sturges, Luca Rossi, Werther Dell’Edera, Jose Marzain Jr Fig and friends are now stuck in The City in the Space Between, and no one can come up with a way out. Stories are still told–stories told and histories remembered where we learn a little more about […]
The Book of Murder (2007) Guillermo Martinez translated by Sonia Soto As much as I enjoyed The Oxford Murders, I found The Book of Murder to be thoroughly disappointing. Rating: 5/10 Published by Penguin
The Wild Road (2008) Marjorie Liu Why yes, this is a floating head & torso romance. However, as I am on crutches and spending a lot of time waiting, I needed a diverting book to keep in my purse, and since I enjoyed The Fire King (another floaty head romance book set in the same […]
Clockwork Heart (2008) Dru Pagliassotti Two words for you: Steampunk Romance. Perfect right? I mean, isn’t the essence of Steampunk the romance of the Victorian era? OK, yes, the cool mechanical robots and stuff are a large part as well, but that’s also very much a romantic era of dress and manner social striation. So […]
The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker (2009) Leanna Renee Hieber Picked this up a few weeks ago after breaking my leg, but as I was on pain killers, I couldn’t focus and put it back down. Now that I’m still laid up but no longer spaced out, I’m tearing through books and came […]
Veil of Lies (2008) Jeri Westerson The complete title of the book is Veil of Lies: A Medieval Noir, which is part of what interested me in the book. I like historical fantasies, though I often take umbrage at the lengths to which authors will go to create an historical detective. but they’re fun, so […]
Magic Bleeds (2010) Ilona Andrews Things never go right for Kate Daniels. She makes dinner for Curran, and he never shows up, and when she calls looking for him, she’s blown off. Then heading back to work after a long day, she’s called to check out an emergency, and things go downhill from there. There […]
Butcher Bird (2007) Richard Kadrey Spyder lives just on the edge of being a deviant. He’s a tattoo artist and owns a shop with his childhood best friend, Lulu, who does piercings and body mods. He drinks and smokes and enjoys the company of women of questionable morals, but underneath that he’s actually not a […]
Fall of Light (2009) Nina Kiriki Hoffman The first Nina Kiriki Hoffman book I read was Fistful of Sky, which I read in a single sitting and absolutely loved. Fall of Light is set in the same world was Fistful of Sky, only the main character is Opal, Gyp’s sister, and these events take place […]
Dead and Gone (2009) Charlaine Harris When I first discovered the Sookie Stackhouse books the were like a revelation: Romance can be fun? Really? And they were fun! Mysteries, vampires and sex that wasn’t completely ridiculous! Then at some point, they started to get ridiculous. It seemed as if every supernatural creature adored and wanted […]
Jailbait Zombie (2009) Mario Acevedo Synopsis: Felix Gomez has zombie problems, specifically, the Araneum wants him to find the source of the current zombie infestation and put a stop to it. To add insult to injury, the don’t even seem to trust him and are sending Jolie to help him with the task. It’s probably […]
Where’s My Cow? (2005) Terry Pratchett Children’s Winner of the Ankh-Morpork Librarian’s Award: OOK! Needed something to cheer me up after a particularly depressing mystery. Where’s My Cow (click to read previous review) was the perfect palate cleanser. Except, of course, now I want to go read more Discworld books.
Changeless (2010) Gail Carriger Well, that was disappointing. As I have mentioned repeatedly before, I really dislike cliffhanger endings. When I read a book, I like the story arc to end at the end of the book. This doesn’t mean I dislike threads that carry from story to story–that’s fine. But what I do NOT […]
The Shadow Pavilion (2009) Liz Williams Detective Inspector Chen has multiple problems to deal with: his partner Zhu Irzh has disappeared, along with the badger, a Bollywood star/tiger demon is on the rampage, and someone wants to kill the Emperor of Heaven. Add to that the complexity of everyday life in Singapore Three, a new […]
The Solomon Effect (2009) C.S. Graham I picked up both The Archangel Project and The Solomon Effect after discovering they were written by the same couple who write the Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries as C.S. Harris. After reading the first book, The Archangel Project, I held off on reading The Solomon Effect, since there are […]
Doppelgangster (2010) Laura Resnick Considering that I disliked Disappearing Nightly, I hesitated to pick up Doppelgangster, however, the premise intrigued me so much I decided to give it a chance. (OK, the cover also helped. I really liked the cover.) Esther Diamond is working at Bella Stella as a singing waitress while waiting for her […]
A Local Habitation (2010) Seanan McGuire Toby has gotten her PI license back, and has started taking cases in the mortal world, however, the big case that comes to her is from her liege, Sylvester: Go into the county of Tamed Lightening, and check on Sylvester’s niece. She gets to take one person with her–the […]
Turn Coat (2009) Jim Butcher Harry’s idea that he might get some down time is (unsurprisingly) thrown awry when Morgan–yes, the Morgan who has spent his recent years waiting for Harry to screw up so he can kill him–shows up at Harry’s house in bad shape and asking Harry to hide him from the Wardens. […]
Road Kill (2010) Rob Thurman I love this series. I’d specifically not wondered where baby revenants came from when we’d gotten out of the Jeep. And here I was finding out anyway. Ain’t that life? Life and pained eyeballs I suddenly didn’t want anymore. Love it. Yes, Cal is an asshole. But considering that he’s […]
The Undead Kama Sutra (2008) Mario Acevedo Felix Gomez is again on the case–or rather cases as his luck would have it. First a dying alien asks Felix to find his killer, then orders come down from the Araneum too looking into a plane crash. Meanwhile, he’d come to Florida on his own to investigate […]
The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity (2010) Mike Carey, Peter Gross After the disappearance of his father, Tom Taylor has been surviving by going to convention and doing book signings for the series he father named after him. Because Walter Taylor disappeared–and there is no proof of his death–Tommy cannot touch any of […]
Madame Xanadu Vol 2: Exodus Noir (2010) Matt Wagner, Michael Wm. Kaluta Disenchanted gave us Madame Xanadu’s past–how her powers were curtailed by Merlin. Exodus Noir gives us a different look into her past through two time lines, one in 1493 during the Spanish Inquisition, the second in the 1940s, as she looks into the […]
Spider’s Bite (2010) Jennifer Estep Gin is an assassin called the Spider. She makes a good living, and her handler wants her to retire, but she’s not sure she’s ready–after all, she’s still young, what would she do? All of her family is dead, and the only people she’s close to are her handler (who […]