The Red Heart of Jade (2006) Marjorie Liu Mirabelle Lee lost the love of her life as a teenager. Since then, she’s become the archeologist she had dreamed of becoming as a child, and is now in China helping uncover ancient mummies and artifacts. Dean Campbell lost the love of his life as a teenager–the […]
Shadow Touch (2006) Marjorie Liu Artur Loginov is an ex-Russian mobster with the gift (or curse) of psychometry–he gets impressions and information from touching objects. He works for Dirk & Steele, which fronts as a private investigation agency, but is far more than that. Elena Baxter works as a volunteer in hospitals, which gives her […]
Tiger Eye (2005) Marjorie Liu Dela Reese creates weapons–beautiful knives and swords–as well as other art, with her gift of metal working. While browsing a market in Beijing, a woman sells her a puzzle box–and almost immediately someone threatens her. Two thousand years ago Hari was made into a slave by the Magi–mostly used over […]
The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination: Original Short Fiction for the Modern Evil Genius (2013) John Joseph Adams “Professor Incognito Apologizes: an Itemized List” by Austin Grossman “Father of the Groom” by Harry Turtledove “Laughter at the Academy: by Seanan McGuire “Letter to the Editor” by David D. Levine “Instead of a Loving Heart” […]
My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon (2007) P.N. Elrod The follow up to My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding, at least in theme. This was a very mixed bag. Some of the stories were good, some I could barely stand to finish, and in fact, put this anthology down several times, for something (anything?) I liked a […]
X-23 Vol. 3: Don’t Look Back (2012) Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda, Phil Noto This is (apparently [at least for now]) the conclusion to Laura’s story arc. The first part of the story–pretty much ‘Adventures in Babysitting’ with X-23 I really could have one without. It felt like they needed to shoehorn some action adventure in, […]
X-23 Vol. 2: Chaos Theory (2012) Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda, Phil Noto What could this be? Why, it’s a new volume of X-23! This wasn’t bad, but it’s still nowhere near as good as Craig Kyle’s take on X-23 in Innocence Lost and Target X. The first half of this volume is very good–X-23/Laura continues […]
So, yeah. I went to put away my new X-23 comics, and instead ended up rereading all the X-23 and NYX books. Oops! The stories written by Craig Kyle were still–far and away–my favorites. X-23: Innocence Lost (2006) Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Billy Tan, Jon Sibal X-23: Target X (2007) Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Mike […]
The Killing Dream (2011) Marjorie Liu, Will Conrad It’s possible I should have paused a bit, between reading X-23: Target X and The Killing Dream, because Target X is really really good. That’s not to say The Killing Dream is bad–it’s just not as good as Target X. Apparently, Things Happened between Target X and […]
An Apple for the Creature (2012) edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner; stories by Jonathan Maberry, Donald Harstad, Marjorie M. Liu, Rhys Bowen, Amber Benson, Mike Carey, Faith Hunter, Ilona Andrews, Steve Hockensmith, Nancy Holder First, I hate this title. It grates on my nerves like nails down a chalkboard. Luckily, the […]
A Dream of Stone and Shadow (2006) Marjorie M. Liu Charlie is a gargoyle, being held captive by a witch who enjoys taking advantage of some of his more… unusual properties. Emma is an abused child who Charlie’s spirit stumbles upon in its wanderings. Aggie is a member of Dirk & Steele who can catch […]
Within the Flames (2011) Marjorie M. Liu For the most part I’ve enjoyed Marjorie M. Liu’s Dirke & Steele series, but there have been a couple times I just couldn’t get into the story. This was one of those times. I started this months and months ago, but would read a few pages and then […]
Shadow Touch (2006) Marjorie M. Liu Elena Baxter has powers she doesn’t understand. She can heal by touch, but has worked hard to keep her gifts hidden, lest she be studied in a lab and kept from her calling. Artur works for Dirk & Steele. He escaped from the Russian mafia to the United States, […]
The Red Heart of Jade (2006) Marjorie M. Liu Dirk & Steele have been very good to Dean Campbell. They allow him to use his powers to help others, but also to have adventures–going out in the world and rescuing the innocent from evildoers. He also continues to mourn the loss of his first love […]
Tiger Eye (2005) Marjorie M. Liu I picked up my first Dirk & Steele book at a grocery store, when I realized I had a wait in front of me and absolutely nothing to read. I knew when I bought it that it was a paranormal romance, so managed to enjoy it despite the boinking. […]