Silver
Rhiannon Held
A+
As we’ve learned, I love new things. I am a frequent victim of “New! Shiny!” I’ll own it.
And when it comes to books, I adore anything that isn’t like the rest of
the mass produced crap I often, nevertheless, read. So why am I giving an A+ to a WEREWOLF
book? Because this is functionally a
reboot of the lore. Because it involves
a genuinely crazy person, with valid reasons for being crazy—and it never ever
not once, tries to magic her out of crazytown.
It embraces crazytown with the same spare elegance that it rewrites
werewolf tropes. The language is
effective, clear and kept me engaged. I
was not planning to pay 15$ for this slim little gem, but once I’d read the
first chapter, I literally couldn’t put it down. I walked up to a total stranger I saw reading
it in a café the next week and said “good choice,” it’s that fab. An enforcer w/ a shady past, a mysterious
threat, a damsel in distress—and yet somehow all of these things felt fresh and
immediate. Pick it up; it’s worth it.Kate Griffin
A
Oh Matthew Swift, how I have missed you. I have missed your full page descriptions of
London minutia, your fabulously wrongheaded assumptions, your magic system and certainly
your electric blue angels. Nothing else in Urban Fantasy is quite like this. If you haven’t
already fallen head over heels in love with these books about how the Tube is its own
form of magic and traffic wardens having the mystical power of the “Stop!” sign,
do yourself a big favour and buy the first one.
They are grrrr-reat. This time it’s
more drugs, weirder drugs whose concept is so much fun, a heaping serving of violence, and plenty of folks who’d like to
see our Midnight Mayor deposed or dead, though not necessarily in that order. Also, the new assistant is fun. Hell, it’s all fun. Get thee to a bookstore near you!A-
I really like this series. It’s twists unfold a little like the kind of origami
that I just can’t quit figure out how to do, the characters grow up, wise up,
and fuck up without being shamed for it, and events impact their emotional
lives as well as the plot in believable ways.
The minus is mostly due to the slow start and what feels like a couple
of random dead ends at the front. But
after the ½ way point it rapidly picks up pace and finishes in a muddy, morally
dubious finale that is absolutely fabulous.
Because the reason I champion these books is that from the very first,
the bad guys have never really been bad and the good guys have never been all
that good. Just people, trying to do the
best they can in face of very large events.
This go round, the events are the world ending kind of big, rather than just political disaster type big, and our heroes
are still reeling from the events of previous books—so start with the previous
books! :PSteve Rasnic Tem
B+
Oh, this book.
I wanted so much for this book to be a thing that it was not. What it is is creepy, and atmospheric, and quite
good. But. It was so self-consciously post-modern and
self aware and literary that I just wanted to smack the pretension out of
it. Look, we get it, little girls
growing up is scary for dads-look, a metaphor!
We get the importance of blood-look a metaphor! We have stood under the deluge of werewolf
imagery—look, a metaphor--for a while now.
It took me a long time to read this because I don’t love slogging
through that sort of obviousness, but honestly, I somehow still ended up liking
it. I wouldn’t pay full cover again for
it, though I’d say to buy it used. It’s
no Overlook, but the Deadfall does have some fun/creepy surprises and set pieces
up its sleeve.Kady Cross
B-
This is a fun concept. In steampunk England--are there any other
locales for steampunk to be set in?--a girl with a split personality has a tendency
to misbehave. In the course of this, she
runs into a motley group—are there any other kinds of groups?—who share many of
the same issues. Though, to be fair, the
explanation of “magic” made me giggle a little and think of midiclorians. I liked the characters, but I felt many
weren’t given enough screen time, and the plot felt a bit sloppy with the villains easy to spot. But my biggest
complaint was how the “dark” half of our split heroine was portrayed: strong; quick witted; able to hold her
own; funny; and someone the most enjoyable characters in the
book wanted to know better. Yet this was
the evil side she had to suppress/control?
Because the good side was everything I find irritating in girls: simpering.;
weak-willed; self-effacing, and
nervous. Yuck. I get not wanting to black out; I’m on boardl with
that. I just wish that the coolest part of our lead wasn’t portrayed as
naughty. But the ending was fun, and set
up the next in what seems like a series nicely. Will I pick up said sequel? Sure--used.Jordan Summers
F
Ah. And then
there is this one. In some
futuristic half-assed post-apocalypse American southwest, a sexy werewolf sheriff
and a cold army soldier track a serial killer while lusting after each other. The plot is bad. The prose is
bad. And yet, somehow, Tor published
this. A legitimate publishing house--and there are sequels. I got nothing, except the hope that anyone can get anything published. I tried--twice--to get through this. I made it maybe 50 pages into bad villain POV,
sloppy characterization, hackneyed plots and sketchy world building and then I
just gave up. Gave up. It was so, so bad, that I just said I have
better ways to waste my life and gave it back to the used bookstore from whence
it came. Which is how a book earns an
F. I don’t even finish. Yeesh.
Save yourself some time and irritation and just skip this.
A note on Grading: on my Scale
A=I might buy the hardback; B=pay trade cover price; C=get it used or from the
bargain bin; D=used if you’re in to self flagellation; F=what, are you stupid?
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