Kate Griffin: A Madness of Angels, The Midnight Mayor, The Neon Court. (Matthew Swift 1-3)

Blurps: For Matthew Swift, today is not like any other day. It is the day on which he returns to life.
Two years after his untimely death, Matthew Swift finds himself breathing once again, lying in bed in his London home.
Except that it’s no longer his bed, or his home. And the last time this sorcerer was seen alive, an unknown assailant had gouged a hole so deep in his chest that his death was irrefutable…despite his body never being found.
He doesn’t have long to mull over his resurrection though, or the changes that have been wrought upon him. His only concern now is vengeance. Vengeance upon his monstrous killer and vengeance upon the one who brought him back.

One by one, the magical wards that guard the city are failing: the London Wall defiled with cryptic graffiti, the ravens found dead at the Tower, the London Stone destroyed. This is not good news. This array of supernatural defences – a mix of international tourist attractions and forgotten urban legends – formed a formidable magical shield. Protection for the City of London against . . . well, that’s the question, isn’t it? What could be so dangerous as to threaten an entire city?
Against his better judgement, resurrected sorcerer Matthew Swift is about to find out. And if he’s lucky, he might just live long enough to do something about it…

A daimyo of the Neon Court is dead. So are two warriors of the Tribe. And a freshly-prophesied ‘chosen one’ is missing. Each side blames the other and Matthew Swift is right in the middle of it, trying to keep the peace. Because when magicians go to war, everyone loses. But Swift has even bigger problems. A dead woman is trying to kill him and the city itself is under attack from a force of unimaginable power. As if trying to stay one step ahead of an assassin and juggling magical politics weren’t challenging enough, Swift must also find a way to defeat a primal threat from humanity’s darkest nightmares. Or there may not be a London left to fight over…

Likes: Protagonist: a major sorcerer (the most powerful magic users in Griffin’s mythos) killed 2 years ago, then resurrected and fused with “electric blue angels”. Part man, part god, completely insane, hell yeah!
The uncompromising attitude towards other minor and major good guys, I was quite surprised by the deaths of some characters.
The humour, besides the Swift/Angels third person jokes there is a lot of funny banter included among the total carnage that is going around.

Dislikes: These books must be sponsored by London Tourism office or something… I read to be entertained, not cultured. I have to confess that I actually skimmed over several pages in almost every other chapter when Swift went to unexplainable sightseeing walks. These might fare better with people familiar, or interested in, London. But for me the few pages of monotonous listings of roads, monuments, sites etc. were a pain to wade through.

Overall: Quite good reads, even getting better along the road, third part being my favourite this far. Strong two and a half  ½ out of five.

Sara Creasy: Song of Scarabaeus (Scarabaeus 1)

Likes: Not much, uh… one character was named Finn? The terraforming science could have been interesting if better written. Not that often written about. Main characters have some potential, too bad only Edie was more than a cardboard, and she was mainly just a whiner, but one can hope it gets better in latter book(s).

Dislikes: Debut sci-fi novel by biologist, which both show. The science is weakly portrayed, the technology is just weird make-up names that aren’t even explained. Example: through the book people were threatening each other with “Spurs“, I still don’t quite know what they were, they were attached to wrists and they apparently shot something, most likely very small projectiles, but because they were “safe” to use inside spaceship, can’t be so sure. And don’t get me started on infojacks, wettecks, drytecks, nodespace, BRATs, biocyph etc. Action was unconvincing. Finn was supposed to be this fearsome super-soldier and he gets beaten down by women, children and plants, I guess human, but weak nonetheless.

Overall: Barely readable, if I hadn’t bought the second book at the same time, I might drop this series now.
One out of five.

Duane Swierczynski: Fun and Games (Charlie Hardie 1)

Blurp: Charlie Hardie, an ex-cop still reeling from the revenge killing of his former partner’s entire family, fears one thing above all else: that the same thing will happen to him.
Languishing in self-imposed exile, Charlie has become a glorified house sitter. His latest gig comes replete with an illegally squatting B-movie actress who rants about hit men that specialize in making deaths look like accidents. Unfortunately, it’s the real deal. Hardie finds himself squared off against a small army of the most lethal men in the world.
It’s nothing personal–the girl just happens to be the next name on their list. For Hardie, though, it’s intensely personal. He’s not about to let more innocent people die. Not on his watch.

Likes: Breakneck pace from beginning to end, almost non-stop action. Pop-culture references.

Dislikes: Characters are cardboard cuts, the conspiracy was kinda hard to swallow.

Overall: My first foray on Swierczynski novels, first book of Charlie Hardie pulp trilogy. Author was known to me from comics, and it kinda showed (although he had few novels published already before his comics sidestep), which wasn’t necessarily bad thing. The book was massively entertaining, “Unkillable Chuck” was, if not likable, at least entertaining protagonist. Other characters were cardboard cuts that deserved what they got. Maybe due to the setting, F&G reminded me a lot of J.A. Konrath’s Fuzzy Navel, not quite as over the top but still. Overall I liked F&G quite a lot, main thing was achieved, I was wholly entertained. So much that I read it on one session. I am quite excited about the oncoming sequels, though it worries me a bit how Swierczynski will spin his whole Guild-conspiracy angle.

Three out of five.

Harry Connolly: Circle of Enemies (Twenty Palaces 3)

Blurp: Former car thief Ray Lilly is now the expendable grunt of a sorcerer responsible for destroying extradimensional predators summoned to our world by power-hungry magicians. Luckily, Ray has some magic of his own, and so far it’s kept him alive. But when a friend from his former gang calls him back to his old stomping grounds in Los Angeles, Ray may have to face a threat even he can’t handle. A mysterious spell is killing Ray’s former associates, and they blame him. Worse yet, the spell was cast by Wally King, the sorcerer who first dragged Ray into the brutal world of the Twenty Palace Society. Now Ray will have to choose between the ties of the past and the responsibilities of the present, as he and the Society face not only Wally King but a bizarre new predator.

Likes: The main characters are great. Plot is decent, and Ray isn’t a total tool like it so often is in Urban Fantasy. He actually doesn’t go off moping around three quarters of the book totally clueless of the clues that are obvious to reader, but instead takes a charge and responsibility of events happening around him. It was nice to learn more of Ray’s past, which could be called character developement

Dislikes: I usually dislike the trend of superbad, godlike antagonists in UF and am more in favor of more human bad guys, but Wally the Whale in this one was kinda disappointment. I just couldn’t picture the nerd caricature without snickering. Annalise, or more the lack of Annalise. Like in Game of Cages, she comes in halfway the book and is around too little time. There is also worrying trend regarding her: I get that she is supposed to be this powerful, uncompromising, amoral killingmachine with no regard for innocent bystanders who scares the shit out of her wooden man, Ray, and I like that. But like previous book, she comes in to play, kills a couple of minor bad guys, wastes an innocent civilian and then gets her ass handed out by the major bad guy and Ray has to save the day. I sure hope it won’t be like this in the next book.

Overall: I liked it, not quite as good as previous Twenty Palaces books, but way better than your average UF fare.

Three out of five.

Back to blogging a bit with Simon Morden’s Metrozone trilogy.

Equations of Life:

Samuil Petrovitch is a survivor. He survived the nuclear fallout in St. Petersburg and hid in the London Metrozone – the last city in England. He’s lived this long because he’s a man of rules and logic. For example: GETTING INVOLVED = A BAD IDEA.

But when he stumbles into a kidnapping in progress, he acts without even thinking. Before he can stop himself, he’s saved the daughter of the most dangerous man in London. And clearly: SAVING THE GIRL = GETTING INVOLVED.

Now, the equation of Petrovitch’s life is looking increasingly complex:

RUSSIAN MOBSTERS + YAKUZA + SOMETHING CALLED THE NEW MACHINE JIHAD = ONE DEAD PETROVITCH.

But Petrovitch has a plan – he always has a plan – he’s just not sure it’s a good one.

Theories of Flight:

THEOREM: Petrovitch has a lot of secrets.

PROOF: Secrets like how to make anti-gravity for one. For another, he’s keeping a sentient computer program on a secret server farm – the same program that nearly destroyed the Metrozone a few months back.

THEOREM: The city is broken.

PROOF: The people of the OutZone want what the citizens of the Metrozone have. And then to burn it to the ground. Now, with the heart of the city destroyed by the New Machine Jihad, the Outies finally see their chance.

THEOREM: These events are not unconnected.

PROOF: Someone is trying to kill Petrovitch and they’re willing to sink the whole city to do it.

Degrees of Freedom:

The Six Degrees of Samuel Petrovitch:

1. Michael is an AI of incalculable complexity trapped under the remains of Oshicora Tower. Petrovitch will free him one day; he just has to trust Michael will still be sane by the time he does.
2. Maddy and Petrovitch have trust issues. But Petrovitch is pretty sure she loves him.
3. Sonja Oshicora loves Petrovitch too. But she’s playing a complicated game and it’s not clear that she means to save him from what’s coming.
4. The CIA wants to save the world. Well, just America, but they’ll call it what they like.
5. The New Machine Jihad is calling. But Petrovitch killed it. Didn’t he?
6. And the Armageddonists tried to kill pretty much everyone by blowing the world up. Now, they want to do it again.

Once again, all roads lead back to Petrovitch. Everyone wants something from him, but all he wants is to be free …

I’m not going to tell anything about the plot beyond the blurps above. I’ll just say that Samuel Petrovich is one of the better protagonist characters I’ve read about in a while. The books aren’t that deep or hard SF but great entertainment, a lot of action and lots of educating Russian cursing. Definitely good read.

Simon R. Green: Nightside 7-9 (Hell to Pay, Unnatural Inquirer, Just Another Judgement Day)

Simon R. Green: Secret Histories 1-2 (The Man With the Golden Torc, Daemons are Forever)
Vernor Vinge: Rainbows End

House of Mystery Vol. 03: The Space Between (Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, Luca Rossi, Jose Marzan Jr.)
John Constantine, Hellblazer: Pandemonium (Jamie Delano, Jock)
Madame Xanadu Vol. 02: Exodus Noir (Matt Wagner, Michael Wm. Kaluta)

R. Scott Bakker: The Prince of Nothing Trilogy (The Darkness That Comes Before, The Warrior Prophet, The Thousandfold Thought)

David Louis Edelman: The Jump 225 Trilogy (Infoquake, MultiReal, Geosynchron)

David J. Williams: The Mirrored Heavens, The Burning Skies
Philip Palmer: Debatable Space

Fables Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover (Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, Mark Buckingham)
Young Liars Vol. 03: Rock Life (David Lapham)

Vacation is over and my reading speed falters as free time is reduced.

8th Honor Harrington novel. The books are thickening to frightening depths, this one being nearly 800 pages. That doesn’t seem to make books less good though, since this as good as any of the previous ones. After events in In Enemy Hands Honor is presumed dead and her loyal Graysonians and other allies are on warpath. Instead of being dead, Honor and her crew are stranded on Haven’s prison planet and planning to take over.

Loma ohi ja aikaa lukemiselle ei ole juurikaan…

Weberin kahdeksas Honor Harrington romaani. Sivumäärä Honoreissa kasvaaa kirja kirjalta ja tämä onkin jo lähes 800 sivuinen. Se ei kuitenkaan hidasta toimintaa vaan Echoes of Honor on ainakin yhtä hyvä kuin aiemmatkin osat. Tällä kertaa kuolleeksi oletettu Honor valloittaa Havenin vankilaplaneetan ja toisaalla Manticore jatkaa sotaansa Havenia vastaan. Honorin oma rooli tässä osassa on hieman normaalia pienempi ja toisaalta Havenin Peepsit ovat enemmän esillä. Tällä hetkellä Honorversestä olisi luettuna karkealla arviolla 5000 sivua, 8000 jäljellä, ja lisää on vieläkin tulossa.

C. E. Murphy: Urban Shaman, Thunderbird Falls, Coyote Dreams

I know I’m not really the target audience for these urban fantasy fares, but there’s still a thing that I don’t get: Why do female authors have to make their female protagonists so mind-numbingly stupid? It’s not just Murphy, it’s like in 90% of the genre the heroines are total idiots falling over their own feet. I guess it might be some gender related emotion vs. intellect thing, but one should be able to be emotional and not retarded at the same time. Anyway, I guess Murphy still does something right since I read the first three books in a row without grinding my teeth to smithereens…

En eittämättä ole näiden urbaani-fantasioiden kohdeyleisöä, mutta siltikään en tajua miksi naiskirjailijoiden on pakko kirjoittaa sankarittaristaan täysiä idiootteja. En tiedä onko kyseessä joku naisten sisäsyntyinen kateus toisia naisia kohtaan vai joku sukupuoliroolien tunne vs. äly-vastakkainasettelu, mutta olettaisin että tunteellinenkin ihminen kykenee edes alkeellisiin loogisiin päättelyihin… Mutta kyllä Murphy kirjoittaakin osaa, luinhan nämä ensimmäiset kolme The Walker Papers kirjaa putkeen parissa päivässä.

Simon Dark Vol. 01-03: What Simon Does, Ashes, The Game of Life

Winterworld
Gravel Vol. 02: The Major Seven
Punisher: Frank Castle – Welcome to the Bayou